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.
Best Answer
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:
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:
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:
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.