UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE, SOCIETY &

POLITICS (UCSP)

MODULE 1

Nature, Goals and Perspectives in/of

Anthropology, Sociology and Political
Science
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Introduction

Welcome to the study of culture, society, and politics. As you move forward in the

discussions, you will begin to understand that your daily experiences relate to the realities and

phenomena that define our society.

The events that have defined your lives up to the present are a product of the processes

and interactions within our society. Social, cultural, and political issues go beyond the new and

classroom discussions.

As you learn the concepts, theories, and view that shaped and defined how we view and

examine the various aspects of Philippine culture, society, and politics, you will realize that

these topics have been closely intertwined with our experiences.

To study them is to take a closer and more meaningful look into our own lives and the

larger forces that shape our community and nation.

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I. Nature, Goals & Perspectives of Anthropology,

Sociology & Political Science

This module will help you understand the Nature and Goals of Anthropology, Sociology and
Political Science. Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions.
Sociology’s subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the
state. While anthropology is a branch of sociology, it always describes human, human behavior
and human societies around the world. Political science, by nature, is a social science that
deals with humans and their interactions.

Learning Competency: UCSP11/12SPUIa-1, Ia-2 & Ib-3

Discuss the nature, goals and perspectives in/of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science.
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
1. define Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science in the context of Social Science;
2. analyze how Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science affect the lives of Senior High
school students;
3. differentiate Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science; and
4. reflect on the significance of Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science in in respective
areas of specialization.

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Discover

The nature, goals and perspectives of anthropology, sociology, and political

science

1. Anthropology is the study of humanity through the application of biology, cultural

studies, archaeology, linguistics, and other social sciences.

It is also the systematic study of the biological, cultural, and social aspects of man. It is
derived from two Greek words, Anthropos, which means ― man, and logos, which means ―
study or ― inquiry. It is a significant branch of knowledge because it integrates elements from
the biological sciences and humanities to fully comprehend the complex human species, including
their past practices and social patterns across diverse cultures.

The main purpose of anthropology is for us to understand human biological and cultural
diversity, and the origins of humans. So, the humans that anthropologists study can be
modern or ancient and can span across the globe. Anthropologists are unique in that they
study the entirety of human existence over time and space. The goal of studying
anthropology is to understand the origin human evolution and the diverse forms of its
existence throughout time.

SUBFIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY

✓ Cultural anthropology studies human societies, and elements of cultural life. An

example of cultural anthropology is the linguistic anthropology which focuses on
language in a certain society.

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Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology that is focused on the study of

cultural variation among humans. Cultural anthropology has a rich methodology,
including participant observation (often called fieldwork because it requires the
anthropologist spending an extended period of time at the research location),
interviews, and surveys.

✓ Physical anthropology, also known as biological anthropology, is concerned with the

biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their related non-human
primates, and their extinct hominin ancestors. It is a subfield of anthropology that
provides a biological perspective to the systematic study of human beings.

✓ Archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of
material culture specifically artifacts, architecture, biofacts or eco facts and cultural
landscapes.

✓ Linguistics is the scientific study of language and involves analyzing language form,
language meaning, and language in context. Linguists traditionally analyze human
language by observing interplay between sound and meaning.

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2. Sociology is the scientific study of human activity in society. More specifically, it is the
study of the social forces that affect human behavior and thought, including the things people
do with and to one another.

Social forces are anything human or otherwise created that influence, pressure, or
push people to interact, behave, or think in specified ways. People can embrace social
forces, be swept along, be bypassed by them, or challenge them.

Examples of the many social forces sociologists study include globalization, racial
classification, technology, symbolic meanings, and institutions.

Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Sociology’s subject
matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the
divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from social
stability to radical change in whole societies. The purpose of sociology is to understand how
human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and
social structures.

Sociology is a social science; it belongs to the family of social sciences. As a social

science, focuses its aspects on man, his social manners, social activities and social life. The
goal of sociology is to help you understand how human action and consciousness both
shape and are shaped by the surrounding cultural and social structures.

3. Political Science is a social science which deals with systems of governance, and the
analysis of political activities, political thoughts, and political behavior.

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It is also the systematic study of politics, which described as ―the activity through which
people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live. Political science
focuses on the fundamental values of equality, freedom, and justice and its processes are linked
to the dynamics of conflict, resolution, and cooperation. Political scientists help us understand
the nature and characteristics of authority and power distribution and how it shapes the way the
society is organized. They also analyze a wide array of topics including systems of governance,
political theories, the law-making processes, political behavior and ethics, policies and their
implications, political organizations, and the electoral process.

It is a discipline that deals with several aspects such as the study of state and
government. It deals with the nature and formation of the state and attempts to understand
its forms and functions. The goal of Political Science is to constantly deepen the
knowledge, discover progress and protect the quality of life within a group, community,
country, and the world. Thus, it is the study of power relationships and competing interests
among states around the world.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

The key anthropological perspectives are holism, relativism, comparison, and fieldwork.
There are also both scientific and humanistic tendencies within the discipline that, at times,
conflict with one another. An example for this is the analysis and solutions of the different
aspects of the society such as the environment issues of pollution, the issues on health and
medicine and other issues related to the human activities.

HOLISM
Anthropologists are interested in the whole of humanity, in how various aspects of life interact.
One cannot fully appreciate what it means to be human by studying a single aspect of our

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complex histories, languages, bodies, or societies. By using a holistic approach, anthropologists

ask how different aspects of human life influence one another. For example, a cultural
anthropologist studying the meaning of marriage in a small village in India might consider local
gender norms, existing family networks, laws regarding marriage, religious rules, and economic
factors. A biological anthropologist studying monkeys in South America might consider the
species’ physical adaptations, foraging patterns, ecological conditions, and interactions with
humans to answer questions about their social behaviors. By understanding how nonhuman
primates behave, we discover more about ourselves (after all, humans are primates!) By using
a holistic approach, anthropologists reveal the complexity of biological, social, or cultural
phenomena.

CULTURAL RELATIVISM

The guiding philosophy of modern anthropology is cultural relativism — the idea that we
should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their
culture rather than our own. Anthropologists do not judge other cultures based on their values
nor do they view other ways of doing things as inferior. Instead, anthropologists seek to
understand people’s beliefs within the system they have for explaining things.

COMPARISON

Anthropologists of all the subfields use comparison to learn what humans have in common, how
we differ, and how we change. Anthropologists ask questions like: How do chimpanzees differ
from humans? How do different languages adapt to new technologies? How do countries
respond differently to immigration?

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In cultural anthropology, we compare ideas, morals, practices, and systems within or between
cultures. We might compare the roles of men and women in different societies, or contrast
how different religious groups conflict within a given society. Like other disciplines that use
comparative approaches, such as sociology or psychology, anthropologists make comparisons
between people in each society. Unlike these other disciplines, anthropologists also compare
across societies, and between humans and other primates. In essence, anthropological
comparisons span societies, cultures, time, place, and species. It is through comparison that
we learn more about the range of possible responses to varying contexts and problems.

FIELDWORK

Anthropologists conduct their research in the field with the species, civilization, or groups of
people they are studying. In cultural anthropology, our fieldwork is referred to as
ethnography, which is both the process and result of cultural anthropological research. The
Greek term ― ethno refers to people, and ― graphy refers to writing. The ethnographic
process involves the research method of participant-observation fieldwork: you participate in
people’s lives, while observing them and taking field notes that, along with interviews and
surveys, constitute the research data. This research is inductive: based on day-to-day
observations, the anthropologist asks increasingly specific questions about the group or about
the human condition more broadly. Often, informants actively participate in the research
process, helping the anthropologist ask better questions and understand different
perspectives.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The basic insight of sociology is that human behavior is shaped by the groups to which people
belong and by the social interaction that takes place within those groups. We are who we are,

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and we behave the way we do because we happen to live in a particular society at a particular
point in space and time. People tend to accept their social world unquestioningly, as something
"natural." But the sociological perspective enables us to see society as a temporary social
product, created by human beings and capable of being changed by them as well.
The sociological perspective invites us to look at our familiar surroundings in a fresh way. It
encourages us to take a new look at the world we have always taken for granted, to examine
our social environment with the same curiosity that we might bring to an exotic foreign culture.
The study of sociology leads us into areas of society that we might otherwise have ignored or
misunderstood. Since our world view is shaped by our personal experience and since people
with different social experiences have different definitions of social reality, sociology helps us to
appreciate viewpoints other than our own and to understand how these viewpoints came into
being.
Sociology also helps us understand ourselves better. Without the sociological perspective
(which has been called the "sociological imagination"), people see the world through their
limited experience of a small orbit of family, friends, co-workers. The sociological imagination
allows us to stand apart mentally from our limited experience and see the link between private
concerns and social issues. It permits us to trace the connection between the patterns and
events of our own and the patterns and events of our society.

Sociology includes three major theoretical perspectives:

1. Functionalist perspective
The functionalist perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on
how each part influences and is influenced by other parts. For example, the increase in
single parent and dual-earner families has contributed to the number of children who are
failing in school because parents have become less available to supervise their children’s

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homework. As a result of changes in technology, colleges are offering more technical

programs, and many adults are returning to school to learn new skills that are required in
the workplace. The increasing number of women in the workforce has contributed to the
formulation of policies against sexual harassment and job discrimination.

2. Conflict perspective
The conflict perspective views society as composed of different groups and interest
competing for power and resources. The conflict perspective explains various aspects of our
social world by looking at which groups have power and benefit from a particular social
arrangement. For example, feminist theory argues that we live in a patriarchal society—a
hierarchical system of organization controlled by men. Although there are many varieties of
feminist theory, most would hold that feminism “demands that existing economic, political,
and social structures be changed” (Weir and Faulkner 2004, p.xii).

The conflict perspective sees social life as a competition, and focuses on the distribution of
resources, power, and inequality. Assumptions of conflict theory include competition,
structural inequality, revolution and war. Some examples of conflict theory include pay
inequalities between groups and inequalities in the justice and educational systems of
governments.

3. Symbolic interaction perspective

Symbolic interaction theory, called symbolic interaction perspective, is a sociology theory
that seeks to understand humans' relationship with their society by focusing on the symbols
that help us give meaning to the experiences in our life.

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POLITICAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE studies the tendencies and actions of people which
cannot be easily quantified or examined. Political science is more focused than most social
sciences. It sticks to the political arena and to the realm of politics, either dealing with
situations with two competing sides or the lateral decisions that affect the group. An example
is the study of democracy as a form of government and why is democracy considered as the
best form of government.

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