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STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 3

Chapter 3: Cultures and Rationalities
 Instinct and Culture

MODULE OVERVIEW

Human beings, unlike animals, are not heavily dependent on instinct. Human
societies are extraordinarily cooperative compared to those of most other animals. In the
vast majority of species, individuals live solitary lives, meeting to only to mate and,
sometimes, raise their young. In social species, cooperation is limited to relatives and
(maybe) small groups of reciprocators. After a brief period of maternal support, individuals
acquire virtually all of the food that they eat. There is little division of labor, no trade, and no
large scale conflict. Communication is limited to a small repertoire of self-verifying signals.
No one cares for the sick, or feeds the hungry or disabled. The strong take from the weak
without fear of sanctions by third parties. Amend Hobbes to account for nepotism, and his
picture of the state of nature is not so far off for most other animals. In contrast, people in
even the simplest human societies regularly cooperate with many unrelated individuals.
Human language allows low-cost honest communication of virtually unlimited complexity.
The sick are cared for, and sharing leads to substantial flows of food from the middle aged
to the young and old. Division of labor and trade are prominent features of every historically
known human society, and archaeology indicates that they have a long history. Violent
conflict among sizable groups is common. In every human society, social life is regulated
by commonly held moral systems that specify the rights and duties of individuals enforced,
albeit imperfectly, by third party sanctions.
More than these instinct- driven actions, human are distinct from other beings because
they possess systems of meanings that tell what is right or wrong, and good or evil. Most
of what people do is shaped or determined by these systems. For instance, procreation is
an instinct as there is drive in people toward procreation. However, this urge takes different
forms. These decisions all depend on the meaning people give to procreation. These
choices are shaped not by instinct but by a frame of understanding that determines a
person’s giving meaning to society.
This frame of understanding is what Clifford Geertz, calls culture. Culture is the
system of symbols that allows people to give meaning to experience. It bears all the
accumulated knowledge of people coded into symbols that will help them interpret what is
happening to or around them, and how they can give an appropriate response to the
experience. This system is necessary because when event or phenomenon takes place,
people need to respond to it in way that is rational to them. The meaning of a stimulus and
the kind of response appropriate to it depend on one’s systems of understanding. Every
person has internalized shortcuts for giving meaning and meaningful responses coded into
system, especially inherited culture.
Culture provides people with system of shortcuts for meaningful interpretation and
responses.

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MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Discuss how culture or rationality shapes people’s perception of reality

 State the effects of culture on a person’s perception of gender and sexuality
 Explain how rationalities shape sexism and discrimination.

LEARNING CONTENTS : INSTINCT AND CULTURE

Pre- work for the Chapter

Answer the following questions.
1. What for you defines maleness and femaleness?
2. What do you think is the difference between gender and sex? How is this difference
determined by your physical bodies? By your culture?
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Write down your responses. At the end of the course, look back and compare how you
understood these questions now and how you understand them after the course.

How do birds know to migrate south for the winter? How do Border Collies know
to herd sheep? How do sea turtles find their way back to the ocean when they hatch?
For hundreds of years, scientists and philosophers have struggled over
possible explanations. In time, one word came to dominate the discussion: instinct.
It became the catch-all explanation for those adaptive and complex abilities that
do not obviously result from learning or experience.
Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of living organism towards a
particular complex behavior.
All humans have three main survival instincts:
 Self-Preservation
 Sexual and
 Social
Our enneagram type is a strategy used to meet the needs of these three instinctual
drives. Our personality tends to have an imbalance with the three rather than use them
equally. Which one do you think you most identify with? Before understanding how our
particular type interacts with our particular instinct, it’s important to have a thorough
understanding of what each instinct is in its natural state.

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Self- Preservation
The self-preservation survival instinct is the instinct of physical self-protection. As
living species, our bodies are the catalyst for our lives. This is the most basic ubiquitous
survival instinct. If our bodies fail, we cannot live. This instinct is concerned primarily with
one’s own physical body and its health, stability, protection, and ultimately that it continues
to live.

Sexual
The sexual survival instinct is the instinct of attraction and seduction. Beyond the
physical drive to actually have sex, this instinct is the drive to attract sex. As a species,
mating is a means of keeping the human race alive. However it is often not easy to ensure
a mating partner. We have choice in which we mate with, and humans have developed
attraction strategies to ensure that they are consistently able to seduce the interest of a
mate. Sexual selection has ensured that our most attractive qualities be genetically passed
on through the ages. For example, the female peacock is attracted to large, colourful
plumage, and so it evolved to grow larger and more elaborate. In people, this instinct is an
over-identification with the attraction strategies and elements of mating (beyond the act of
copulation itself).

Social
The social survival instinct is the instinct of connection. Connection is a gigantic
domain and so this instinct is multi-faceted and adaptable, which is part of its innate skill.
The prehistoric human brain became larger and larger very quickly, which resulted in
offspring being born out of the womb less developed in growth than other species. Many
species’ offspring are born almost fully formed, and the period of infancy is much shorter.
However, because the human brain is so large, offspring were born early with a long period
of helplessness before adulthood. This meant that young sapiens needed a strong bond
with a caregiver that could protect them for several years, including the parents and other
tribe members. The red-alert response we get when we hear a baby crying is the social
protection drive in all of us. 

CULTURE
Consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the
members of a particular group or society.The word “culture” derives from a French term,
which in turn derives from the Latin “colere,” which means to tend to the earth and grow, or
cultivation and nurture. A culture is a way of life of a group of people—the behaviors,
beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them,
and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Characteristics of Culture

Culture has five basic characteristics: It is learned, shared, based on symbols,

integrated, and dynamic. All cultures share these basic features.

 Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not inherit it. Much of learning culture is

unconscious. We learn culture from families, peers, institutions, and media. The
process of learning culture is known as enculturation. While all humans have basic

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biological needs such as food, sleep, and sex, the way we fulfill those needs varies
cross-culturally.

 Culture is shared. Because we share culture with other members of our group, we
are able to act in socially appropriate ways as well as predict how others will act.
Despite the shared nature of culture, that doesn’t mean that culture is homogenous
(the same). The multiple cultural worlds that exist in any society are discussed in
detail below.

 Culture is based on symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else.
Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. They only have meaning when
people in a culture agree on their use. Language, money and art are all symbols.
Language is the most important symbolic component of culture.

 Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or the various parts of a culture being
interconnected. All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to truly
understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few.

 Culture is dynamic. This simply means that cultures interact and change. Because
most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they exchange ideas and symbols.
All cultures change, otherwise, they would have problems adapting to changing
environments. And because cultures are integrated, if one component in the system
changes, it is likely that the entire system must adjust.

Culture and Adaptation

Biological adaptation in humans is important but humans have increasingly come to

rely upon cultural adaptation. However, not all adaptation is good, and not all cultural
practices are adaptive. Some features of a culture may be maladaptive, such as fast food,
pollution, nuclear waste and climate change. However, because culture is adaptive and
dynamic, once we recognize problems, culture can adapt again, in a more positive way, to
find solutions.

Ethnocentrism and the Evaluation of Culture

The diversity of cultural practices and adaptations to the problems of human existence
often lead some to question which practices are the best. Ethnocentrism is when one
views their own culture as the best and only proper way to behave and adapt.

 Since most humans believe their culture is the best and only way to live, there are
small amounts of ethnocentrism everywhere in the world.

 Small doses help to create a sense of cultural pride and to build strong, cohesive
groups.

 But taken to extremes, and certainly when it includes an unwillingness to be tolerant,

it can be destructive. Ethnocentrism is at the heart of colonization and genocide.

 Cultural anthropologists have, however, pushed for cultural relativism, the principle

that all cultures must be understood in terms of their own values and beliefs, not by

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the standards of another. Under this principle, no culture is better than any other and
cultures can only be judged on whether they are meeting the needs of their own
people.

Multiple Cultural Worlds

Most individuals are members of multiple cultural worlds. Culture exists at several
levels. We typically refer to smaller cultures within a larger culture as subcultures. People
have some type of connection to that subculture but must also be able to operate effectively
within the larger culture. Some of the diversity we see across subcultures is based on class,
race, ethnicity, age, and gender. Social stratification is often the result of our recognition of
these worlds as different and a belief that they are somehow inferior to our own or to the
larger culture.

 Class is a social category based on people’s economic position in society. Not all
societies exhibit class differences; ones who do not are called egalitarian. Class
societies are hierarchical, with one class having more access to resources than
others. Class is a recent feature of culture, as all early humans lived in egalitarian
bands or tribes.

 Race (in a cultural sense) is the socially constructed meanings assigned to the

perceived differences between people based on physical traits (skin color, facial
features, hair types). What differences we recognize and the meanings we assign
those differences are all culturally determined and not biologically created. These
physical features do not determine a person’s actions or explain their behavior.

 Ethnic group refers to people who identify themselves as a distinct group based on

cultural features such as common origins, language, customs and beliefs. Ethnic
groups can be historically constituted (a group of people who shared a territory,
language or religion) or they can be more recently claimed (African Americans). Just
because people choose to see themselves as members of a specific ethnic group
doesn’t mean that all members of that group are the same or share beliefs and
values. Ethnicity, because it is a marker of group membership, can be used to
discriminate.

 Indigenous peoples, “are groups who have a long-standing connection with some

territory that predates colonial or outside societies prevailing in the territory.”
Indigenous peoples are groups that were in a territory before Europeans or colonists
arrived, thus Native Americans are an indigenous group. They are frequently called
First Peoples, and often suffer from discrimination.

 Gender refers to the cultural meanings assigned to the biological differences

between the sexes. Most societies only have masculine or feminine cultural roles,
but some have a third, or even a blended, gender. Gender roles vary widely cross-
culturally. Closely tied to gender roles are issues relating to homosexuality. In many
cultures around the world, there is discrimination based on gender and sexual
orientation.

 Age is both a biological fact as well as being culturally constructed. While we can
reckon how many years old an individual is (biological age), what that means in

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terms of rights and responsibilities is culturally constructed. Most societies have

obligations and responsibilities that are assigned based on individuals reaching
specific ages. Think of driving, drinking, and voting.

Cultures Can Change

All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate.  At the same time that new
cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful.  For
example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a
wilderness.  Most would very likely starve to death because they do not know how to
acquire wild foods and survive the extremes of weather outdoors.  What are more important
in modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a computer, and
understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant.

The regular addition and subtraction of cultural traits results in culture change.  All
cultures change over time--none is static.  However, the rate of change and the aspects
of culture that change vary from society to society.  For instance, people in Germany today
generally seem eager to adopt new words from other languages, especially from American
English, while many French people are resistant to it because of the threat of "corrupting"
their own language.  However, the French are just as eager as the Germans to adopt new
technology.

Change can occur as a result of both inventions within a society as well as

the diffusion  of cultural traits from one society to another.  Predicting whether a society will
adopt new cultural traits or abandon others is complicated by the fact that the various
aspects of a culture are closely interwoven into a complex pattern.  Changing one trait
will have an impact on other traits because they are functionally interconnected.  As a
result, there commonly is a resistance to major changes.  For example, many men in North
America and Europe resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for
women over the last century because of the far ranging consequences.  It inevitably
changed the nature of marriage, the family, and the lives of all men.  It also significantly
altered the workplace as well as the legal system and the decisions made by governments.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

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LEARNING CONTENTS: INSTINCT AND CULTURE

Sexism, prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against

women and girls. Although its origin is unclear, the term sexism emerged from the “second-
wave” feminism of the 1960s through the ’80s and was most likely modeled on the civil
rights movement’s term racism (prejudice or discrimination based on race). Sexism can be
a belief that one sex is superior to or more valuable than another sex. It imposes limits on
what men and boys can and should do and what women and girls can and should do. The
concept of sexism was originally formulated to raise consciousness about the oppression of
girls and women, although by the early 21st century it had sometimes been expanded to
include the oppression of any sex, including men and boys, intersexual people,
and transgender people.

Sexism in a society is most commonly applied against women and girls. It functions
to maintain patriarchy, or male domination, through ideological and material practices of
individuals, collectives, and institutions that oppress women and girls on the basis of sex
or gender. Such oppression usually takes the forms of economic exploitation and social
domination. Sexist behaviours, conditions, and attitudes perpetuate stereotypes of social
(gender) roles based on one’s biological sex. A common form of socialization that is based
in sexist concepts teaches particular narratives about traditional gender roles for males and
females. According to such a view, women and men are opposite, with widely different and
complementary roles: women are the weaker sex and less capable than men, especially in
the realm of logic and rational reasoning. Women are relegated to the domestic realm of
nurturance and emotions and, therefore, according to that reasoning, cannot be good
leaders in business, politics, and academia. Although women are seen as naturally fit for
domestic work and are superb at being caretakers, their roles are devalued or not valued at
all when compared with men’s work.

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The extreme form of sexist ideology is misogyny, the hatred of women. A society in

which misogyny is prevalent has high rates of brutality against women—for example, in the
forms of domestic violence, rape, and the commodification of women and their bodies.
Where they are seen as property or as second-class citizens, women are often mistreated
at the individual as well as the institutional level. For example, a woman who is a victim of
rape (the individual or personal level) might be told by a judge and jury (the institutional
level) that she was culpable because of the way she was dressed.

Sexism And Feminism

A feminist study of gender in society needs concepts to differentiate and analyze

social inequalities between girls and boys and between women and men that do not reduce
differences to the notion of biology as destiny. The concept of sexism explains
that prejudice and discrimination based on sex or gender, not biological inferiority, are the
social barriers to women’s and girls’ success in various arenas. To overcome patriarchy in
society is, then, to dismantle sexism in society. The study of sexism has suggested that the
solution to gender inequity is in changing sexist culture and institutions.

The disentanglement of gender (and thus gender roles and gender identities) from
biological sex was an accomplishment in large part of feminism, which claimed that one’s
sex does not predict anything about one’s ability, intelligence, or personality. Extracting
social behavior from biological determinism allowed greater freedom for women and girls
from stereotypical gender roles and expectations. Feminist scholarship was able to focus
study on ways in which the social world subordinated women by discriminating against and
limiting them on the basis of their biological sex or of sociocultural gender-role
expectations. The feminist movement fought for the abolishment of sexism and the
establishment of women’s rights as equal under the law. By the remediation of sexism in
institutions and culture, women would gain equality in political representation, employment,
education, domestic disputes, and reproductive rights.

Sexism and the Men’s Movement

As the term sexism gained vernacular popularity, its usage evolved to include men

as victims of discrimination and social gender expectations. In a cultural backlash, the
term reverse sexism emerged to refocus on men and boys, especially on any
disadvantages they might experience under affirmative action. Opponents
of affirmative action argued that men and boys had become the ones discriminated against
for jobs and school admission because of their sex. The appropriation of the
term sexism was frustrating to many feminists, who stressed the systemic nature of
women’s oppression through structural and historical inequalities. Proponents
of men’s rights conjured the notion of misandry, or hatred of men, as they warned against a
hypothesized approach of a female-dominated society.

As the academic discipline of women’s studies helped document women’s

oppression and resilience, the men’s movement reasoned that it was time to document
men’s oppression. Proponents called for research to address the limitations of gender roles
on both sexes. Critical work on men began to examine how gender-role expectations

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differentially affect men and women and has since begun to focus on the concepts of
hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity to address the oppressive aspect as well
as the agency aspect of gender conformity and resistance.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

For this part of the lesson, you will engage in an exercise that will make you more
aware of your rationalities.
Answer these following questions:
 What are the characteristics of an ideal woman in your community?
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 What are the characteristics of an ideal man in your community?

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 Give five examples of unacceptable behavior for men.
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 Give five examples of unacceptable behavior for women.

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 Compare the differences in your conceptions of acceptable and non- acceptable

behavior discuss why there are differences.
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 Do you feel that the acceptable behavior you identified violate fundamental
characteristics of human beings? It is bad based on what is being human really is? If
so, why are there differences among groups? If not, what could be the source of the
conceptions of acceptable and unacceptable behavior?
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SUMMARY

Interactions of gathering-hunting bands were largely guided by social instincts, but

sympathy, compassion and sense of fairness were essentially limited to people within small
groups. Cultures evolved; they helped people adapt to climate fluctuations and changing
environments when they migrated. Cultures also made people feel as if they became a
more evolved species and they saw others as subhuman. Evolving customary practices
exaggerated, suppressed and modified the expression of instincts and also of people’s
characteristics. Masculinity and femininity were sometimes exaggerated in grotesque and
cruel ways; leaders were often seen as god-like. Most instinct-based behaviors, such as
eating and courting, have been shaped and often enhanced by cultures. Storytelling, joking
and gossiping, dancing and other artistic expressions alleviated the hardships of life.
Religions, local myths and notions such as patriotism evolved and helped anonymous
large groups to have a sense of unity, belonging together as clans or states. While
previously the formation of families was the main source of meaning in life, cultures added
a broader range of activities and perceptions that gave people a sense of meaning.
Religions spread forms of morality; however they often incorporated inhumane practices,
even justifying wars, and they usually supported hierarchies with cruel class systems rather
than encouraging progress towards more humane institutions. By cultural morals adapted
instinctive expressions appear to unite people. However, failing to comply with cultural
morals leads to shame, guilt and, in victims, also disgust; perpetrators or victims were often
killed or exiled; if surviving, victimizations have often led to posttraumatic symptoms,
including inability to trust, anxiety and depression.
Because of the anonymity of societies and the lack of compassion for people who are
considered as “others,” even within the same society, the drive to rise in rank became
dangerous: there has no longer been a simple goal of becoming the group leader, multiple
steps and ways of increasing one’s power and property have become available and
consequently the pursuit of a higher rank has become addictive and has often led to
crimes. As people no longer lived a nomadic life style and grains and animals could be

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accumulated as property, materialism or greed and other addictions have become

widespread, partly because people had more difficulties establishing friendships and
personal goals and finding meaning in life. Progress appeared erratic, sometimes even
random and up to the present, influential people generally like to maintain the status quo
unless technological progress enriches them. In many countries, institutions have hardly
been efficient in accomplishing true progress towards humane conditions for all.
Obviously, human life changed much during our evolving. The development of cultures
had typically very mixed results, creating seemingly beneficial goods and adding ways for
people to find meaning in life but also creating new problems and causing much suffering.
In recent history, at least physical suffering has been greatly reduced: medicine made
extraordinary progress; slavery and colonialism ended; the beating of children and women
is no longer considered acceptable and a private matter; and particular cruelties in legal
systems and warfare have been widely outlawed. Grieving prematurely deceased close
family members and friends has become relatively rare. Still, many people question
whether overall happiness improved when comparing modern people of highly
industrialized countries with ‘primitive’ societies and our early ancestors.

REFERENCES

Gender and Society

 The Whys of Women, Their Oppressions, and Path to Liberation
 Authors: Agustin Martin G. Rodriguez and Ara Mariel Leal Rodriguez

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
238212623_Culture_and_the_Evolution_of_the_Human_Social_Instincts
https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/culture/culture_2.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism
https://humanecivilization.org/chapter-3-philosophical-scientific-basis-of-political-thoughts-
natural-ethics/3-3-human-instincts-and-culture-psychiatric-problems/

Prepared by:

Fatima A. Dela Cruz

Instructor I

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY 11