UCSP CHAPTER 2
CULTURE AND SOCIETY: THE PERSPECTIVES OF
ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
SOCIETY AND CULTURE: NICHE AND FUGITIVE
CONCEPTS
NICHE CONCEPTS: The niche represents the position or
function of an entity, such as an organization or
population of organizations, within a larger
community environment.
FUGITIVE CONCEPTS: their concepts are no longer
rooted and hence circumscribed by the
fundamental claims of either of their root discipline.
THREE (3) THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES:
1. Structural functionalism
- based largely on the works of Herbert Spencer,
Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert
Merton.
- society is a system of interconnected parts
that work together in harmony to maintain a
state of balance and social equilibrium for the
whole.
2. Critical Historicalism (Conflict Perspective):
- originated from Karl Mar
- believe people cooperate to effect social
order, conflict theorists challenge the status
quo, encourage social change (even when
this means social revolution), and believe
rich and powerful people force social order
on the poor and the weak.
3. Symbolic Interactionism (Macro Sociology):
- introduced by George H. Mead
- looks at the big picture of society and suggests
how social problems are affected at the
institutional level.
- consider the symbols and details of everyday
life, what these symbols mean, and how people
interact with each other.
- people attach meanings to symbols, and then
they act according to their subjective
interpretation of these symbols.
LESSON 3
ASPECTS OF CULTURE
CULTURE – people’s way of life.
- That complex whole which encompasses
beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge and everything
that a person learns and shares as a member of
society. (E.B. Taylor)
What of Culture:
- Contains the contains, artifacts, language and
behaviour that characteristics a given culture.
How of Culture:
- Identifies the processes that guarantee the
transmission and dissemination of the contents.
Why of Culture:
- Reasons why individuals comply and the
mechanisms that facilitate the performance of
expected behaviour.
ENCULTURATION:
- Refers to the gradual acquisition of the
characteristics and norms of culture or group by
a person, another culture, etc.
CULTURE SHOCK:
ASPECTS OF CULTURE:
- Unique possession of man
- Unique quality of man
- Includes all that man acquires in his social life
E. B. Taylor
- English Anthropologist
- first to coin the term “culture”
- 18th century
CULTURAL RELATIVISM:
- All norms, beliefs and values are dependent on
their cultural context
- Not all cultures are applicable to others
DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE:
1. B. MALINOWSKI – “the handiwork of man and
the medium through which he achieves his
ends.”
2. R. REDFIELD – an organized body of
conventional understanding manifest in art
which persisting through tradition,
characteristics a human group.
3. V. DE ROBERT – the body of thought and
knowledge, both theoretical and practical,
which only man can possess.
4. E.B. TAYLOR - That complex whole which
encompasses beliefs, practices, values,
attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols,
knowledge and everything that a person learns
and shares as a member of society.
TYPES OF CULTURE:
1. EXPLICIT CULTURE- refers to similarities in
words and action which can be directly
observed.
2. IMPLICIT CULTURE – abstract forms which are
not quite obvious.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE AS A SYSTEM.
1. SUPER-ORGANIC: something superior to nature
because nature serves as the ingredient of any
cultural productions.
 2. INTEGRATED:
3. PERVASIVE:

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE:
1. Social because it is the product of behaviour.
2. Varies from society to society.
3. Shared
4. Learned
5. Trans That complex whole which encompasses
beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge and everything
that a person learns and shares as a member of
society.