Urban reading skills are learned, not innate products of culture.

Evidence

In Chapter One, I suggested thatthe coding schemes and behavioral repertoires applied to self and other are largely provided by the culture in which the human participates. Allowing of course for individual innovation and rapid social change, this is largely true. But this does not gainsay the fact that such cultural know-how must be learned. We are concerned here, then, with some of the ways in which this learning occurs. We shall look first at the acquisition of meanings, at how the city dweller learns to code another’s appearance, location, and behavior. Then we shall consider the acquisition of skills, the acquisition of personal know-how regarding how to dress, where to go, and how to act. The two sections are, of course, massively interrelated and are separated only for analytic purposes. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 548

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cooking is a culturally learned skill, not an innate instinct — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 226