Humanssocieties have adapted mechanisms for dealing with large amounts of information, some of which has hitherto not been encountered by members of the societies. Theories of communication, which posit that the medium upon which a message is transmitted is itself an integral part of the communication process, clarify the analytical utility of the culture concept in ways that account for empirical data. Using ethnographic cases of role relations learned in onesocioculturalcontext that serve as a kind of cultural template for othersocioculturalcontexts, it is possible to identify the processes of information processing that lie at the level of culture, as well as individual, agency.