Joyce Ann R.

Castañas 12 STEM 309

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Week 2

B. Answer the following

1.
 Cultural Anthropology
 Edward Burnett Tylor
 Tylor maintained that all societies passed through three basic stages of development: from
savagery, through barbarism to civilization. Tylor is a founding figure of the science of social
anthropology, and his scholarly works helped to build the discipline of anthropology in the
nineteenth century.

 Linguistic Anthropology
 Franz Boas
 Boas began documenting tribal cultures among Canada's First Nations and moved to the U.S.
to also do work with Native American tribes. His primary contribution to anthropology was
his theory of cultural relativism. The prevailing idea in the West at the time was that Western
culture was superior to other cultures.

 Physical Anthropology
 Karl Ernst Von Baer
 Baer was the founder of ethnography, archaeology, and physical anthropology in Russia. He
published anthropological studies (in Russian) between 1846 and 1866 and wrote the article
on anthropology for the first Russian encyclopedia.

2.
a) Structural Functionalism
 Talcott Parsons

b) Conflict Perspective
 Karl Marx

c) Symbolic Interactionism
 Herbert Blumer

3.
a) Presidential System
b)
 Advantages
i. Quick and decisiveness in Decision-making
ii. Presidential discretion in Appointments
iii. A single countrywide constituency
 iv. Merits of Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances
v. Fixed Tenure of Office
vi. Individual Ministerial Responsibility
vii. Insulation from Party Politics

 Disadvantages
i. Prone to Dictatorship
ii. Friction among Government Organs
iii. Lack of flexibility in Tenure of Office
iv. Very Expensive to Operate
v. Absence of Party Discipline
vi. The process of Lobbying can encourage Corruption