Enculturation into secrecy among junior high school girls

Secrecy has long been recognized as an important, and at times problematic, aspect of social life. White much has been written about the functions tha t secrets play in society, how individuals learn to use secrets remains rel atively unexplored. Girls' accounts of their enculturation into secrecy rev eal how they treated secrets as social objects and often depersonalized sec rets when using them as social currency. Also, the absence of a well-develo ped concept of privacy contributed to the instrumental use of secrets. More over, using secrets to shape friendship and enhance social position was par t of the larger process whereby secrecy became a vehicle for developing sub jective reason and an exchange perspective among these girls. Thus, encultu ration into secrecy involved much more than learning whom to tall which sec rets under what circumstance. Girls were also learning fundamental, but lar gely tacit, aspects of mainstream American culture as they learned to use a nd interpret the meaning of secrets.