Module 6

Cultural, Social, and Political

Institutions

What I Need to Know

Kinship, marriage, and household are important key concepts in the study of
society and culture. Anthropologies and sociologies examined these concepts across
different cultures and society. In this lesson, you will learn about nature and different
forms of kinship. The nature and types of family and different marriage across
cultures will also be explained.
What expected from you to learn?
1. Explain the function of the family.
2. Differentiate kinship by blood, kinship by marriage and kinship by ritual.

What I Know? (Pretest)

A. True or False. Write True if the statement is correct and False if it is not. Write
your answer on the space provided.
______1. Exogamy is custom of marrying inside a community, clan, or tribe.
______2. Secondary groups are smaller and they are mostly impersonal and usually
short term.
______3. Group think is the psychological influence exerted over us by our
respective groups more so on matters that implicate moral, legal, scientific and
religious matters.
______4. A peer group is a group with members of approximately the same age,
social status, and interest.
______5. Polygamy refers to the practice of having more than one partner or sexual
mate.
______6. Bands and tribes are considered as the simplest political systems.
______7. A complex chiefdom is composed of one simple chiefdom ruled by a single
paramount chief residing in a single paramount center.
______8. A simple chiefdom is characterized by a central village or community ruled
by a single family.
______9. A extended family is a type of family that is made up of a group of people
who are united by social ties and is usually made up of two adults and their socially
recognized children.

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______10. An nuclear family, on the other hand, is a type of family whose members
go beyond the nuclear family made up of parents and their offspring.

B. Multiple Choice: Read the questions carefully and choose the letter of the correct
answer.
1. It is one of the market transaction that include direct barter or simultaneous
exchange of goods or gift exchange where the return goods given or labor is delayed
A. reciprocity B. Transfer C. Redistribution D. Transaction
2. It is one of the types of religion that is considered as the most recognized form of
religious organization
A. Denomination B. Church C. Sect D. cult
3. Christianity—Bible : Hinduism—Vedas : Islam- - _____________
A. Koran B. Pitaka C. Ducca D. Yehudim
4. This type of religion is considered as the world ‘s oldest living religion.
A. Christianity B. Islam C. Buddhism D. Hinduism
5. It refers to an illness that is caused by an evil eye or an evil wind
A. Usog B. Bughat C. Kulam D. Barang
6. It is based in the classroom and provided by trained teaching and non-teaching
personnel.
A. Formal education C. Non-formal education
B. Primary education D. Non-school based education
7. it is one of the non- state organizations that refers to a group of people that
engages in a lawful activity for public function
A. Cooperative B. Corporation C. Bank D. Trade Unions
8. It refers to an organization of workers whose main objective is to protect the
welfare of its members.
A. Corporation B. Bank C. Cooperative D. Trade Unions
9. It refers to the free flow of goods between and among private individuals and firms
with little involvement from the government
A. Non –state institution B. Non-market institution
C. Market system D. Market economy
10. it refers to small religious organization whose doctrines are outside mainstream
religious traditions
A. Church B. Sect C. Denomination D. Cult

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 Activity 1: What’s New?
Directions: What is your own idea about a family? Draw or sketch a picture that
matches your definition.

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 Lessons 1
Kinship, Marriage, and the
Household

Content Standard 1. Social stratification as the ranking of individuals

according to wealth, power, and prestige.
2. Social and political inequalities as features of
societies and the global community.
Performance 1. Recognize other forms of economic transaction such
Standard as sharing, gift exchange, and redistribution in
his/her own society.
Learning 1. Describe the organized nature of social life and
Competency rules governing behavior.
UCSP11/12HSO-IIi-21

What is It?
Kinship is one of the main organizing principles of society it is one of the basic
social institutions found in every society. This institution establishes relationship
between individuals and groups. People in all societies are bound together by very
use kinds of bonds.
Kinds of Kinship
I. Kinship by blood
1. Consanguineal or Kinship based on blood is considered as the most basic
and general form of relations. These relationships achieve by birth or blood
affinity.
2. Descent refers to biological relationship. Societies recognized the children
descend from parents and that there exist a biological relationship between
parents and offspring.
3. A lineage refers to the line for one lineage is trace.
Forms of Lineage
1. Unilineal descent is a system of determining descent in which one belongs to
one’s father or mothers lines.
2. Bilateral descent some societies trace their descent through the study of both
parent ancestor.

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II. Kinship by Marriage
Also referred to as Affinal Kinship wherein the type of relations when
marriage occur.

Types of Marriage:
1. Endogamy is the practice of marrying within specific ethnic group, class, or
social group.
2. Exogamy is custom of marrying outside a community, clan, or tribe.
3. Monogamy refers to the marriage of sexual partnering where the individual
as only one male or female partner.
4. Polygamy refers to the practice of having more than one partner or sexual
mate. It can be Polygyny (a man has multiple partners) or polyandry a woman
has multiple partners.

Kinship by Rituals
Ritual kinship is the form of God parenthood (compadrazgo) played an important
role in strengthening and extending the ties of kinship. Parents selected Godparents
for a child during baptism, conformation, and marriage. The Godparent were then
tied to the parent as co-parents. Other parents as a close, important relative to serve
as godparent. The tie between co-parent reinforces that of kinship. The same
godparents could serve for the couples successive children, a practice that further
strengthened the ties between the families involved.

Activity 2: What’s More?

Directions: Give the function of the family in the development of society.

Types of the family Function

Monogamy

Polygamy

Endogamy

Exogamy

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 Activity 3: Additional Activities
Directions: Using the Venn diagram identify the differences and similarities of
kinship by blood, and kinship by marriage

Kinship by Blood Similarities Kinship by

Marriage

What I Have Learned

In many societies, kinship is the most important social organizing principle
along with gender and age. It also means of transmitting status and property from
generation to generation. It is not a mere coincidence that inheritance rights usually
based on the closeness of kinship links. All societies use kinship as a basis for
forming social groups and for classifying people. In order to understand social
interaction, attitudes, and motivations in most societies, it is essential to know how
these kinship systems function.

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 Lesson 2
Family and the Household, Politics
of Kinship
Content Standard 1. Social and political inequalities as features of
societies and the global community.
Performance 1. Recognize other forms of economic transaction such
Standard as sharing, gift exchange, and redistribution in
his/her own society.
Learning 1. Compare different social forms of social
Competency organization according to their manifest and
latent functions.
UCSP11/12HSO-IIj-22

What I Need to Know?

The family is considered the basic unit of social organization. It is made
up of group of individuals who are linked together by marriage, blood relations, or
adoption. The best way to look for the definition of “family” is to look at the
government census definition. For example, the Census Bureau of Canada defines
the family: Census family refers to a marriage couple and the children, if any, of
either or both spouses; a couple living common law and the children, if any, of either
or both partners; or, a lone parent of any marital status with at least one child living in
the same dwelling and that child or those children. All members of a particular
census family live in the same dwelling. A couple may be of opposite or same sex.
Children may be children by birth, marriage or adoption regardless of their age or
marital status as long as they live in the dwelling and do not have their own spouse
or child living in the dwelling. Grandchildren living with their grandparents but with no
parents present also constitute a census family.

What expected from you to learn?

1. Define the concept of family
2. Enumerate and describe the different types of family.
3. Give the importance of Politics by Kinship.

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 What I Know?
Try to answer the following questions below:
1. What is the difference between Family and Household?
2. What are the different types of family?
3. What is the advantages and disadvantages of politics by kinship?

Activity 1: What’s New?

Directions: Explain in five (5) sentences the function of the family members below.

Answer: _____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________.

What is It?

What is Family?
The United Nation (UN) uses the term nucleus family: A family nucleus is of
one of the following types : a.) A married couple without children, b.) A married
couple with one or more unmarried children, c.) A father with one or more unmarried
children or d.) A mother with one or more unmarried children/s. Couples living in
consensual unions should be regarded as married couples.
The family as a basic unit of society performs several important functions or
roles for society: (1) for biological reproduction; (2) as the primary agent of

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socialization of children; (3) as the institution for economic cooperation through
division of labor; and (4) to care and nurture children to become responsible adults.

Family and Household

Families and households are two related concepts. The United Nations (2014)
defines a family within the households as “those members of the households who
are related, to a specified degree, through blood, adoption, or marriage.” A
household on the other hand, can either be a one-person household or a multi-
person household. A one-person household refers to “an arrangement in which one
person makes provision for his or her own food or other essentials for living without
combining with any other person to form part of a multi-person household.” While a
multi-person household refers to a “group of two or more persons living together
who make common provision for food or other essentials for living.”

Nuclear Family and Extended Family

A nuclear family is a type of family that is made up of a group of people who
are united by social ties and is usually made up of two adults and their socially
recognized children. Most of the time, it is made up of a married couple and their
biological or adopted child or children.
An extended family, on the other hand, is a type of family whose members
go beyond the nuclear family made up of parents and their offspring.

Blended or Reconstituted Families

A blended family is a type of family where the parents have a child or
children from pervious marital relationships but all the members stay and congregate
to form a new family unit. It is sometimes called a step family.
Reconstituted family/complex family. This type of family, the parents may
or may not have children with each other. Most often, parents of blended family
remarry after experiencing a painful divorce or the demise of a spouse, while some
modern blended families do not marry and would usually stay and in live in one
house without the sanctity of marriage.

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 Activity 2: What’s More?
Directions: Utilize the Venn diagram below, compare and contrast the Nuclear
family and the Extended family.

Nuclear family Similarity Extended family

(difference) (difference)

What I Have Learned

Our families are where we experience our biggest triumphs and our deepest
vulnerabilities-and they are where we have the greatest potential to do well. We
believe the family is divine in nature and that God designates it as the fundamental
building block of society, both on earth and through eternity. As such as, it becomes
the foundation for civilization and a sanctuary for the individual. It is where we learn
the social graces of loyalty, cooperation, and trust. It is where we learn to love
ourselves and each other, to bear one another’s burdens, to find meaning in our life
and to give purpose to other’s lives, and to feel the value of being part of something
greater than ourselves.

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 Lesson 2.1
Political and Leadership Structures

Content Standard 1. Social and political inequalities as features of

societies and the global community.
Performance 2. Recognize other forms of economic transaction such
Standard as sharing, gift exchange, and redistribution in
his/her own society.
Learning 1. Analyze social and political structures.
Competency
UCSP11/12HSO-IIj-23

What I Need to Know?

Human beings are considered social animals. Being such, they have a natural
tendency to join groups. However, considering that individuals have different interest,
the tendency towards conflict is a natural as the tendency to join social groups. Thus,
there is a need to establish a political system where power structures are defined to
ensure that conflicts are managed. It is in this regard that it is important to
understand how individuals have organized themselves into social and political
groups or communities.

What expected from you to learn?

1. Differentiate band, tribe, and chiefdom.
2. Discuss and differentiate nation and state.
3. Appreciate good leadership.

Activity 1:What’s New?

From the given terms in column A, give the corresponding definition in column B.
A. Term B. Definition
band
tribe
chiefdom
nation
state

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 What is It?

Band and Tribes

Bands and tribes are considered as the simplest political systems. They are
often perceived to be “acephalous” or without a well-defined system of leadership.
A band is typically formed by several families living together based on
marriage ties, common descendants, friendship affiliations, and members usually
have a common interest, or enemy. Thus, the main source of integration is kinship
either by blood or affinity. The powder structure within the band is less hierarchical
as member families are seen to be equal and there is no class differentiation based
on wealth. Status, if present is a functional of age or gender.
As bands increase the size, the tendency for conflict increases, which lead to
the band spitting along family lines. This process is known as “band fissioning”.
Eventually, this could lead to some leaving the band to form their own, which is
referred to as “social velocity”. Evidence suggests that eventual break-up is the
presence of social discord that the informal leadership system could no longer
contain. At present, there is practically no band that remains intact.
A band that survives fissioning and social velocity, even as it experiences
increasing population and a shift from a foraging and hunting community, to one
there is now a presence of multiple communities engaged in pastoral or horticultural
forms of livelihood, eventually becomes a tribe. A tribe is still considered an
acephalous political system; even it is more complex than a band. This complexity
results from the fact that the source of integration is no longer simply by informal
forms of leadership presiding to govern kinship ties or friendship, but by more
elaborate way of organizing to settle conflicts to prevent the society from breaking
apart.

Chiefdoms
Chiefdom, on the other hand, is defined as a political organization that more
defined. In chiefdom, formal leadership exist authority rests solely on the members of
a select family. It is composed of a number of communities that is ruled by a
permanent paramount chief coming from this elite family. Power is thus inherited in
chiefdoms.
The social structure in chiefdoms is hierarchical. Social classes exist and are
differentiated according to the level of their power in relation to the permanent ruler.
However, class mobility can exist. It usually happens when one performs an
extraordinary task or achievement. Furthermore, social status is affected by
marriage, age and sex.

Chiefdoms can either be simple or complex

A simple chiefdom is characterized by a central village or community ruled by
a single family. A number of smaller communities surround this smaller community,
with each being headed by a subsidiary leader subsidiary leader subservient to the
central ruler.

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 A complex chiefdom is composed of several simple chiefdom ruled by a single
paramount chief residing in a single paramount center. This is highly structured and
hierarchical political system characterized by a class system where the elites
demands tributes in the form of agricultural crops and produce from the commoners
to a system that is called a “tributary system”. Lesser chiefs are the obliged to give
tribute to the paramount chief. In return, the paramount chief’s carries out rituals and
performs functions over which he has sole authority, such as the conduct of symbolic
redistribution of material goods, and the awarding of titles and other symbolic
rewards.

Nation and States

The advent of modernity has made the process of consolidating different
individuals into one political community more difficult and complex. The expansion of
chiefdoms was punctuated, by their collapse. Out of the breakdown of political
organizations, what emerged was the presence of groups of people that shared a
common history, language, traditions, customs, habits and ethnicity. These groups
are conscious of their identity and of their potential to become autonomous and
unified. These groups are collectively referred to as nations.
Paul James considers a nation as abstract. He argues that a nation is
objectively impersonal even if each individual is able to identify with others. This
argument however may not be true for Filipinos, as Filipino identify strongly with
other Filipinos, especially when they are in other countries.
A nation, despite its being historically constituted and having a common sense
of identification among its members, as well as the consciousness of having a
potential to be autonomous, nevertheless do not possess political sovereignty. As
such, it remains a political entity that does not possess the status of being
recognized as an independent political entity.
A state, on the other hand, a political unit consisting of a government that has
sovereignty presiding over a group of people and a well-defined territory and is thus
the highest form of maintaining order within its territorial boundaries, and that it is
recognized by other states as an independent member of the community of states.
The people that comprise a state is referred to as its citizens. When the citizens of a
state belong to only one nation, such state is called a nation-state.

Political Legitimacy and Authority

The task of organizing a political community requires the existence of leaders.
Leaders, in order to be effective, need to possess authority that is considered
legitimate by the members of the community.

Authority vis-à-vis Legitimacy

Authority is the power to make binding decisions and issue commands. It is
necessary for a leader to possess authority. Legitimacy is a moral and ethical
concept that bestows one who possesses power the right to exercise such
automatically acquired just because one has authority. This occurs when the

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authority was obtained through improper means such as through violence or when
one commits cheating in an election, or when one is perceived to be underserving of
power due to lack of qualifications. Hence, for authority to be binding and stable, it
must be legitimate.

Weber and the Types of Legitimate Authority

Max Weber identifies three types of authority based on the source of their
legitimacy. There is traditional authority whose legitimacy is derived from well-
established customs, habits, and social structures. Monarchical rule or the rule of
elites in chiefdom is examples of leadership systems that have traditional authority.
Then there is charismatic authority whose legitimacy emanates from the charisma of
the individual, which for some can be seen as a “gift of grace”, or the possession of
“gravitas” or an authority derived from a “higher power,” such as those that are
associated with divine right of kings.

Activity 2: What’s More?

Directions: Use the chart to compare the tribe before and now.

Before Now

Activity 3: Additional Activities

A. Directions: Using the Venn diagram give the differences and similarities of
Nation and State.

State Similarities Nation

1. 1. 1.
2. 2. 2.

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 B. Directions: Using the wheel chart give the importance of good leadership.

Importance of
Good
Leadership

C. Directions: Define the following terms below.

1. Network 6. Family
2. Social group 7. Household
3. Primary group 8. Nuclear family
4. Secondary group 9. Extended family
5. Reference group 10. Reconstituted family
D. Directions: How does an individual form a social relationship or kinship with
another person or a group?

How does an individual form a social

relationship with another person or a
group?

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 What I Have Learned

Authority and Legitimacy are inseparable twins. There cannot be authority

without legitimacy i.e. recognition on the part of the people upon whom the authority
is exercised. The people recognize that the power being used, decisions or
commands being enforced by the authority-holder is just and beneficial for them.
Legitimacy transforms power into authority. Legitimacy without authority only
remains a wishful thinking. It only exists as the idea of rightfulness and justness or a
moral or rational principle.
It is only when it gets combined with authority that it leads to decisions,
commands and actions which are held to be rightful and just decisions capable of
securing the welfare and development of those upon whom these are implemented
and enforced.

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