CHAPTER 1

Lesson 1: Articulation of Social, Cultural, and Political Identities

Sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote the book entitled, The Sociological Imagination on 1959
Define and Differentiate Troubles and Issues. Or modified true or false
Answer: Troubles are private matters that can be explained in terms of personal characteristics,
motivation levels, mood, personality, or ability, as well as immediate relationships with family
members, acquintances, or co-workers.
Issues, on other hand, are public matters that can be explained by factors outside the
individuals control and immediate environment.

“Is it any wonder that ordinary people feel they cannot cope with larger worlds with which they
are so suddenly confronted” – C. Wright Mills

According to Mills, people need “a quality of mind that will help them to use the information”
in a way that they can think about “what is going on in the world and of what may be
happening within themselves.” Mills call this quality of mind the sociological mind.

Lesson 2: Dynamism of Culture Society and Politics

Joan Ferrante wrote the book entitled Sociology: A Global Perspective on 1995. Says that there
is a striking difference between people who are able to locate their lives in history and those
who are not.

Joel Charon in his book entitled Ten Questions: A Sociological Perspective on 2010. Said that
“you and I exist in a social context” Where we happen to live our lives and with whom we live
will influence who we are, what we do, and what we believe. This, in turn will make you and me
different from each other.”

Arrange in Chronological Order (Sequence)

There are three reasons that organizations differ from one another. That explains the
dynamism of culture, society and politics.
1. Interaction Isolates and Differentiates them
2. Their Histories are unique
3. The problems with which their social patterns must deal are different and this influences
what patterns are in turn developed

Childbearing in the Filipino Family is characterized by high nurturance, low independence

training, and low discipline.

The social environment of the Filipino is characterized by a feudal structure with great gaps
between rich minority and the poor majority.
Professor Julio Tehankee of the De La Salle University noted how influential political families
have been throughout our history to the effect that “political clans, and not political parties are
really the building blocks of Philippine politics.”

Lesson 3

Cultural, Social, and Political Change

Karl Marx, believed that conflict is the greatest agent of change throughout history.

Cultural change is the modification of a society through innovation, invention, discovery or

contact with other societies.

Social change is the alteration of mechanisms within the social structure, characterized by
changes in cultural symbols, rules of behavior, social organizations or value systems.

Political Change refers to a subject matter that is in constant flux. It deals not only with the
major processes of growth, decay, and breakdown but also with a ceaseless ferment of
adaptation.

Innovation is the invention of something new, an idea, a process, a practice, a device, or a tool.

Anthropologists Leslie White (1949) maintains that the rate of change is tied to the size of the
cultural base, the number of preexisting inventions.

Action of Leaders represents a trigger to social change.

Max Weber defined power as the probability that an individual can realize his or her will even
against the resistance of others.

Authority is a legitimate power in which people believe that the differences in power is just and
proper.

Charon says that “the influence of an individual on an organization is the element of social
power.”

Joseph Stalin represents one case of the extraordinary influence one person can wield over an
entire country when a leader is in a position that gives him or her complete power over
mechanisms of social control.

Conflict is defined as the struggle for agency or power in society.

Conflict can lead to change. It can be constructive and invigorating force that prevents a social
system from becoming stagnant, unresponsive, or inefficient.
Lesson 4: Intersections of Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science

Anthropology deals with the scientific study of humanity or those aspects that makes us human
and the imprints of human achievement and progress.

Sociology, according to Joel Charon, is the systematic study and scientific study of the human
social life.

Political Science, according to Harold D. Lasswell, is a science of politics and politics as a

governmental determination of who gets what, when and how.

There are three classified Branches of the Social Sciences:

1 Anthropology
2 Sociology
3 Political Science

Social Sciences are a division of science that deal with the functions and structure of human
society, as well as the interpersonal relationships of individuals as members of society.

Rational Proof and the recognition that the basis of truth must be found in reason, in a careful
appraisal of ideas.

Socrates the Greek Philosopher who invented the Socratic Method

Socratic Method is an investigation is a continuous set of questions posed to someone.

Socratic Irony, which is the playing dumb or fool in front of one who is self assured, often forces
the presumptuous to confront assumptions he made without careful thought

The emphasis on rational proof laid the foundation for modern science

Philosophical questioning and the idea that conclusions must be carefully arrived at through a
measuring stick of rational thinking developed into a proof known as empirical proof

A renowned Greek thinker and one of history’s first scientist, Archimedes

Empirical proof is used in the basis of all sciences ranging from Physics to Biology, from
Psychology and eventually to other Social Sciences

Joel M. Charon says that science is not merely observation. Science is careful observation.

Max Weber describes science as “value free” investigation.

F. Landa Jocano the Filipino Anthropologist who proposed an alternative to “H. Otley Beyer’s
Wave Migration Theory”, also known as Core Population Theory” of which prominent
anthropologists like Robert Fox, Alfredo Evalgelista, Zeus Salazar, among others, have agreed
with.

Total Objectivity is impossible to achieve

LESSON 5: Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science: Inquiry and Importance

Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin of humans, how we have changed over the
years, and how we relate to each other, both within our own culture and with people from
other cultures.

Sociology is the scientific study of society.

Georg Simmel, a German sociologist in his work entitled Individuality and Social Forms (1908)

Georg Simmel says that “society exists where a number of individuals enter into interaction
which arises on the basis of certain drives or for the sake of certain purposes.”

Sociology means “associate or companion”

Sociological analysis means that sociology seeks to provide an analysis of human society and
culture with a sociological perspective.

Sociology focuses on human interaction on the mutual and reciprocal influencing by two or
more people of each other’s feelings.

Political Science is the systematic study of the state and government.

Politics is derived from the Greek word “polis” which means “city state” or what today would
be equivalent to sovereign state.

Political Science is one important branch of social science, and is analyzed from four different
angles, and these are:
Politics as the art of government, politics as public affairs, politics as compromise and
consensus, politics as power and distribution of resources.

The primary aim of the study of political science is to inculcate knowledge of the State, its
origin, nature and structure and functions.

The administrators, political leaders and diplomats, who conduct the affairs of the state, also
require sound knowledge of political science in order to perform their functions with efficiency.
Each country has to maintain relations with other countries of the world. In order to know what
is happening in the world around us at least an elementary knowledge of political science is
necessary.

The study of political science makes people conscious of their rights and duties

The legislature, executive, and judicial branches of different countries are studied in political
science.

CHAPTER 2: Lesson 1: Defining Culture and Society

Raymond Williams noted that culture is one of the most complex words in the English
Language.

Culture denotes practices, beliefs and perceptions of a given society. Culture is additionally
often opposed with “savagery,” relating to something which is “cultured” as a product of a
certain evolvement from natural state.

Researchers Kroeber and Kluckholm (Culture: A Critical Review of Literature”, 1952) gathered
an array of various definitions of culture and have divided them into six prime categories.

There are two fundamental understanding regarding definitions of culture.

1.) First Culture is an ensemble of practices, values, and meanings common to a collective
entity.
2.) Secondly, culture is the totality of activities and objects through which meaning is
generated and circulated in a given collective entity.

All human groups possess culture to the same degree

Culture includes everything tangible and intangible that a people of a society create, acquire
from other societies and transmit to a subsequent generations.

Society is a group of people living in a given territory who share a culture and who interact with
people of that territory more than with people of other territories.

Culture is what people share with one another within a society.

Essential Principles or aspects of culture such

1.) as intangible and tangible components
2.) biological, environmental, and historical forces shape and change culture.
3.) Culture is a tool that people use to evaluate other societies and to adapt to problems of
living.
Language performs an important function such that it gives people a sense of unity and to link
them to one another so that cooperation will be possible.

Conflict theorists are concerned with how the groups that control the means of material
production impose their products, values, and norms on other groups.

Karl Marx who believes that those “who have” own the means of production are powerful
enough to force, control and manipulate those who “have not”.

Symbol may be defined as any kind of physical form, a material object, a color, a sound, a word,
an odor, a movement, a taste that receives its value or meaning from those who use it.

Three Major sociological perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction.

According to the functionalist perspective, societies can operate smoothly only if their members
are able to meet the demands and challenges of the environment in effective, coordinated
ways.

Symbols are essential to civilization because (1) culture emerge and are perpetuated as a result
of symbols (2) interaction between people cannot take place without symbols and (3) infants
are transformed into human beings when they acquire symbols.

LESSON 2: SOCIETY AND CULTURE AS A COMPLEX WHOLE

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a human as a member of society. – Edward
Taylor.

The dominant ideologies in 19th century are colonialism, racism, and social evolutionism.

Beliefs are conceptions that people accept as true about how the world operates and where
individuals fit in it.

Values are general and shared perception of what is good, right, and appropriate and
worthwhile, and important with regard to modes of conduct as in the case of self-reliance or
obedience, and that which concerns states of existence like freedom of choice or equal
opportunity.

Halaga- It is the evaluative aspect as to what Filipinos find most virtuous which constitute three
dimensions:
(1) pagkatao or self worth
(2) pakikipagkapwa tao or dignified relationship with others, and
(3) pagkamatao or compassion.
Asal – it is the expression of the evaluative aspect of Filipino value system which constitute
three standards
(1) kapwa or relational
(2) damdamin or emotional
(3) dangal or honor
(4) diwa refers to kalooban or inner self which in essence is intertwined reason and
emotion.

Norms are called the written and unwritten rules that specify the behaviors appropriate to
specific situations as norms.

William Graham Sumner, A classical liberal American social scientist distinguished between
folkways and mores

Folkways – are norms that apply to routine matters like eating, sleeping, appearance, posture,
use of appliances and relations to various people, animals and the environment.

Kamayan - The Filipino practice that is common in rural areas or when Filipinos eat outdoors
with traditional local cuisines that does not use utensils.

Symbol is any kind of physical phenomenon a word, an object, a color, a sound, a feeling, an
odor,a movement, a taste to which people assign a meaning or value.

Lesson 3: ASPECTS OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Society and culture is a complex whole.

4 important aspects of culture and society: (1) shared (2) socially learned (3) patterns of
behavior

People borrow ideas, materials, products, and other inventions from other societies. The
process by which an idea, an invention, or some other cultural item is borrowed from a foreign
source is called diffusion

Countries remain culturally “pure” today even if that country is ethnically homogenous.

Social Learning is the process by which individuals acquire knowledge from others in the groups
to which they belong, as a normal part of childhood.

The process by which an infants and children socially learn the culture of those around them is
called enculturation or socialization.