Word for a non-mainstream belief accepted as fact by a sub-culture?

Question

Let's say there is a sub-culture which is built on a foundational truth. But that truth is not accepted by the culture as a whole.

Is there a word for that? I was thinking "Core-Value"? But it's only really a core-value if you're in that sub-culture.

Is there a word that could be understood by those inside and outside the sub-culture? For example, if I referred to it as a core-value to someone outside that sub-culture, they wouldn't understand what I was talking about.

A common example would be a religious principle.

Answer 1

A more general term used for any component of a culture or a subculture is a folkway including both its beliefs and its practices. Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:

a mode of thinking, feeling, or acting common to a given group of people; especially: a traditional social custom

The sum total of all of the beliefs of a culture or a subculture is called a worldview. Tenet is a synonym for belief and probably closer to what you are looking for if "belief" is insufficiently technical and precise in its meaning. A worldview is:

a network of ultimate beliefs, assumptions, values, and ideas about the universe and our place in it that shapes how a person understands their life and experiences (and the lives and experiences of others) and how that person acts in response.

Ethos mentioned above, is really a synonym of "worldview" and not of a specific belief or tenet.

Some synonyms for tenet include: principle, belief, doctrine, precept, article of faith, axiom, canon, premise, conviction, view, opinion, position, and teaching.

The term dogma has a primarily religious connotation and is also mildly pejorative when not used in strictly technical sense by religious scholars and clergy.

A "core-value" is often call a norm and differs somewhat from a belief as it is a moral or ethical prescription or value, rather than a belief about what something is. A "norm" is defined as:

a standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected of a group. "the norms of good behavior in the civil service"

The plural of "norm" in this sense is "norms". It can also be called a convention (as in a social convention).

The term "norm" is a preferred term to describe a particular value of a culture or sub-culture in anthropology and sociology and cultural psychology.

Answer 2

Consider tenet.

ODO:

tenet NOUN

A principle or belief, especially one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy:
‘the tenets of classical liberalism’

‘No culture or religion can boast that its tenets are unique.’
‘He was no stranger to the tenets of humanist educational theory.’

Answer 3

I suspect you are thinking of dogma, defined in Merriam-Webster as:

a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted

So one could say that it is the dogma of Pastafarianism that the universe was created when a giant being sneezed it out. You can also use it for your own beliefs- for example as a programmer I accept the dogma that GOTO is evil.

Answer 4

An article of faith. Something someone believes in because of who they are or because of their membership in a particular group, particularly a religious or political group.

Answer 5

The word "ethos" is defined by Merriam-Webster as

the guiding beliefs of a person, group, or organization

Answer 6

How about creed or sectarian belief?

creed: a set of fundamental beliefs

sectarian: of, relating to, or characteristic of a sect or sectarian; limited in character or scope

Creed aptly characterizes a sub-culture built on a foundational truth, with that truth not being accepted by the culture as a whole. People have different creeds.

Creed also gets at your idea of "core values" in the sense that creeds express fundamental beliefs, and core values are beliefs that guide action.

Sectarian belief conveys explicitly the idea of sub-culture boundaries (an "inside" and an "outside").

Both creed and sectarian belief are easily understood by those inside and outside a given sub-culture.

Answer 7

shibboleth captures the sense of what you mean, defined by Merriam Webster as

a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning

Answer 8

Conviction.

The word says nothing about the validity of the belief, nor its provability or viability. It says nothing about the belief's worth, considered from within or from without the group. It is simply their... conviction.

Answer 9

I have increasingly seen totem used, not in the traditional sense of 'symbol' (M-W definition), but in the newer sense of 'tenet' or 'belief', where subscribing to that belief is a signal of their credentials as member of the sub-group.

Example: "X is a totem of the far-left"

I suspect the dictionary is lagging real usage by decades.

Answer 10

Ideology

Definition:

1.1: The set of beliefs characteristic of a social group or individual

Sample use:

a critique of bourgeois ideology

Source: OxfordDictionaries.com