This paper introduces the idea of enculturation to sociology as a compliment to socialisation in the context of Bourdieu's "collective enterprise of inculcation" and social theory. Enculturation is positioned as a concept that can be used to address formal education as a factor in social reproduction. Following a discussion of socialisation and enculturation and their interrelation, they are further examined in the context of medical education. In particular, I focus on the moral and ethical aspects of medical education and the social or professional reproduction of medical students. I differentiate between "medical morality" or "ethos" and "medical ethics" or "eidos", arguing that the reproduction of the former is predominantly a matter of socialisation whilst the reproduction of the latter is a primarily a function of enculturation. Nevertheless I make clear that any eidos is not independent of the ethos in which is exists and that, therefore, any medical ethics is dependent on the socio-cultural institution of medicine and its moral ethos. Utilising the concepts of eidos and enculturation in Bourdieuan social theory facilitates a focus on the neglected cognitive aspects of social life, including explicitly pedagogic activities, and provides for a degree of indeterminacy or "freedom" in a theoretical perspective that has been criticised for its deterministic implications.