Introduction to culture, society, & politics

IDENTITY
- distinctive characteristic that defines an individual and is shaped by one’s membership to a group.
- continously shaped and reshaped through the passage of time.
- it shapes both individual and group behavior as well as people’s views about the people and society.
CULTURE
- society’s way of life.
- it allows people to understand themselves in relation to others.

3 DISCIPLINES OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

SOCIAL SCIENCES
- comprised of a wide array of academic disciplines that study the overall functions of society as well as
the interactions of people.
 ANTHROPOLOGY
- study of the biological, cultural, and social aspects of man.
- derived from anthropos which means “man”, and logos which means “study”.
- includes the study of the past practices and social patterns of human species.

FIELDS OF STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

 Social Anthropology - studies how social patterns, practices, and cultural variation develop.
 Cultural Anthropology - studies cultural variation and examines the need to understand each culture.
 Linguistic Anthropology - studies language and discourse and how they reflect and shape different aspects
of society and culture.
 Biological Anthropology - studies the origin of human.
 Archaeology - deals with prehistoric socieities by studying their tools and environment.

 SOCIOLOGY
- study of human social life, groups, and society.
- attempts to provide a deeper assessment of individual and group behavior and
 interplay between economic, political, and social factors.
 POLITICAL SCIENCE
- a systematic study of politics.
- which Andrew Heywood describes as “the activity through which people make,
preserve, and amend the rules under which they live”.
- focuses on the values of equality, freedom, and justice and processes.

AREAS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

 Public administration - examines how the government functions and how decisions and policies are made.
 Political economy - evaluates the interplay between economics, politics, law, and implications within the
society.
 Comparative politics - compares the domestic politics and governance systems across different states.

Understanding Culture & Society

SOCIETY
ELEMENTS OF SOCIETY
- group of individuals sharing a common
 Social solidarity
culture, geographical location, and
 Shared identity and culture
government.
 Common language
 Large population and the ability to
MAJOR TYPES OF SOCIETIES sustain suceeding generation of
members.
 HUNTING & GATHERING
 Definite geographical area
- were considered as the first societies.
 Political, economic, and social
- the basic social and economic units organization.
were the family and the clan which
organized hunting and gathering.
 HORTICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETIES
- sedentary lifestyle, and agriculture as a stable food production.
 - Horticultural societies relied on plants.
- Pastoral societies relied on animals.
 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES
- new methods of farming, more advanced tools, and permanent settlements.
 INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
- invention of machines, and the rise of urban centers or cities.
 POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
- knowledge is a commodity and technological innovation is the key to growth and development.

CULTURE
- one of the important bases that define and influence a society.
- a complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols,
knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares.

2 PRIMARY CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

 MATERIAL CULTURE - physical or tangible objects produced, shared, and utilized within society.
 NON-MATERIAL CULTURE - intagible properties and elements of society that influence the patterns of
action and behavior of its members.
VITAL COMPONENTS OF SOCIETY
 SYMBOLS
CATEGORIES OF NORMS
- things that convey meaning or represent
 Folkways - norms that may be
an idea. violated w/o consequences.
 LANGUAGE  Mores - norms w/ moral
- set of symbols that enables members of connotations.

society to communicate verbally and  Laws - norms that are legally enacted
and enforced.
nonverbally.
 VALUES
- shared ideas, norms, and principles that
provide members of society the standards.
 NORMS
- shared rules of conduct that determine specific behavior among society members.
SOCIALIZATION
- lifelong process of forging identity through social interaction.
- language, social agents that teach aspects of culture contributes to the
Socialization of an individual.
ENCULTURATION
- process of which an individual gradually learns the important aspects of the society’s culture.
CONTEXT
- circumstances of a culture and is defined by location, weather, time, & others.
- when we are aware of the context of our culture, we are able to understand that some are shared,
contested, indigenous, and influenced by other societies.
- a contextual and relational approach enables us to understand the multitude of societies that have their
own cultures.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE ACCORDING TO THE 3 DISCIPLINES

ANTHROPOLOGY
- considers culture as the central focus.
- studies different cultures of different societies.
- provides explanations for the existence of different patterns and similarities and differences of different
cultures.
 RELATIVISTIC APPROACH
- considers culture as equal.
- there are no superior and inferior cultures.
- each culture is unique.
 ETHNOCENTRIC APPROACH
- one’s native culture is superior to other cultures.
- have a negative view of other countries and people.
 ETHNOCENTRISM
- make other ways of life.
- creates a disorted view of one’s own.
- it can led to wars or colonization.
 XENOCENTRISM
- consider their culture as inferior to others.
 - prefered the products, style, culture, people, and food of others.
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
- where majority of modern societies are.
- recognizes and accepts the cultural differences between societies.
- every culture can be understood within the context.
- no culture can claim superiority over other cultures.
- it need keen assessment of other cultures to gain understanding.

SOCIOLOGY
- relates culture with the overall context of social order.
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
- operates on the assumption that society is a stable and orderly system.
- considers culture as a glue that binds the society together.
 CONFLICT THEORY
- assumes that there is constant power struggle among the social groups.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
- views individual and group behavior and interactions as features of society.
- culture provides shared meanings to the members of society.