Socio-cultural Anthropology reviewer
and analyzing data.
I. Sociology
Sociology is a branch of social sciences that uses
systematic methods of empirical investigation
and critical analysis to develop and refine a
body of knowledge about human social
structure and activity.
Microsociology – involves the study of people
face to face.
Macrosociology – involves the study of
widespread social processes.
Sociology traditionally focuses on:
- Social relations
- Social stratification
- Social interaction
- Culture and deviance
The “cultural turn” of the 1970s and 1980s
brought more humanistic interpretive
approaches to the study of culture in sociology.
Emile Durkheim – one of the founders of
Sociology.
C. Wright Mills – a prominent mid 20-century
American Sociologist. Labeled the sociological
imagination: the ability to situate personal
troubles within an informed framework of social
issues.
- the sociological imagination could help
individuals cope with the social world by helping
them to step outside of their personal, self-
centric view of the world.
Peter Berger – “the sociologist tries to see what
is there. He may have hopes or fears concerning
what he may find. But he will try to see,
regardless of his hopes and fears.”
Sociology, then, is an attempt to understand
the social world by situating social events in
their corresponding environment and trying to
understand social phenomena by collecting
History of Sociology :p
Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline.
In emerged in the early 19th century in response
to challenges of modernity.
Auguste Comte – who coined the term
sociology.
- Socius – companion, associate (latin)
- Logia – study of, speech (Greek)
The law of three stages by Auguste Comte
1. Theological stage – where people took
religious view of society.
2. Metaphysical – where people
understood society as natural.
3. Positivist – which he believed to be the
pinnacle of social development.
The development of Sociology
The first book with term Sociology in its title
was written in the mid-19century by the
English philosopher Herbert Spencer.
The first sociology course was taught at the
University of Kansas, Lawrence in 1890
under the title elements of sociology.
Sociology in the Philippines
Fr. Valentin Marin – introduced sociology in
the Ph in 1896 as a course on criminology in
University of Santo Thomas.
1919, sociology were introduced at Siliman
University and the Theological seminary.
Serafin Macaraig – first Filipino to receive
doctorate degree in sociology in 1936.
- Introduction to Sociology (book) –
became the first text of the University
of the Philippines.
 Philippine Sociological Society – manage by
Filipino educators.
II. Culture
“kulthra” “samskara”
It is a set of accepted behavior patterns, values
assumption, and shared experience.
Culture is the non-biological or social aspects of
human life, basically anything that is learned by
human is part of culture.
Culture is more than the object and behavior,
culture also include norms, values, beliefs, or
expressive symbol.
“High” culture – “cultured”
Nature of culture:
- Culture is a learned behavior.
- Culture is transmitted.
- Culture is social.
- Culture provides opportunities.
- Culture is adaptive.
Components of culture:
- Symbol
- Language
- Values
- Folkways
- Mores
- Custom
- Law
The changing concept of culture:
Romantic era – develop more a more inclusive
notion of culture as worldview.
- Although more inclusive, this approach
to culture still allowed to distinction
between civilized and primitive or tribal
cultures.
th
Late 19 century – anthropologist had changed
the concept of culture to include a wider variety
of societies.
- High culture is the same as pop culture.
The origins of culture:
Anthropologists assume that all human beings
are equally evolved, and the fact that humans
have culture must in some way be a result of
human evolution.
Cliford Geertz – argued that human physiology
and neurology developed in conjunction with
the first cultural activities.
“Human instincts were culturally formed.”
Material culture & symbolic culture.
Subculture & counterculture:
Subculture – is a culture shared and actively
participated in by a minority of people within a
broader culture.
- A subculture is a group of people within
a cultural society that differentiates
itself from the conservative and
standard values to which is belongs.
- Sharing a specific understanding and
meaning that those outside their
subculture may not understand.
- Some subcultures achieve such as status
that they acquire a name of their own.
Counterculture – is a subculture with the
addition that some of its belief, values, or norms
challenge or even contradict those of those of
the main culture of which it is part.
- Diametrically opposed to mainstream
cultural mores.
Subcultures bring together like-minded
individuals who feel neglected by societal
standard and allow them to develop a sense of
identity.
Ethnocentrism & cultural relativism
Ethnocentrism – is the tendency to look at the
world primarily from the perspective of one’s
culture.
- Ethnocentrism often entails the beliefs
that one’s own race or ethnic group is
the most important or that some or all
aspects of its culture are superior to
those of other group.
Cultural relativism – is the belief that the
concepts and values of a culture cannot be
fully translated into, or fully understood in,
other languages; that a specific cultural
artifact (e.g. Rituals) has to be understood in
terms of the larger symbolic system of
which it is part.
- Cultural relativism is the principle that
an individual person’s beliefs and
activities should be understood by
others in terms of that individual’s own
culture.
Theories of Culture:
Ritzer’s integrative (micro-macro) theory of
social analysis.
- This model is of particular use in
understanding the role of culture in
sociological research because it present
two axes for understanding culture: one
ranging from objective (society) to
subjective (culture and cultural
interpretation); the other ranging from
the macro-level (norms) to the micro-
level (individual level beliefs)
- This model depicts how cultural norms
can influence individual behavior and
individual level values, beliefs, and
behavior can, turn, influence the macro-
level culture.
Cultural Change
Cultural change can have many causes,
including: the environment, inventions and
contact with other culture.
Diffusion theory – the form of something
moves from one culture to another, but not
its meaning. (e.g. the ankh symbol)
Anthropology
Anthropology – is a discipline of infinite
curiosity about human beings.
The term came from Greek word “Anthropos”
for man or human and “logos” for study.
Fields of anthropology:
Biological anthropology – biological
anthropology seeks to answer two distinct set of
questions.
1. about the emergence of the human
and their later evolution.
2. about how and why contemporary
human populations vary
biologically.
Branches of biological anthropology:
Human paleontologist search and study the
buried, hardened remains or impressions –
known as fossils – of human and animals.
Human variation – it investigates how and why
human contemporary human populations differ
in biological or physical characteristics.
- Why are some people generally taller
than others?
Cultural anthropology – it is the study how and
why cultures in the past and present vary or
similar.
Branches of cultural anthropology:
Archeology – the study of the past cultures,
primarily through their material remains.
- Archeologists seek not only to
reconstruct the daily life and customs of
people who lived in the past but also to
track cultural changes and to offer
possible explanation for those changes.
Anthropological Linguistics – it is concerned
with the emergence of language and with the
divergence of language over thousand of years.
- Anthropological linguistics are also
interested in how contemporary
language differ, especially in their
construction.
Ethnology (now often called simply cultural
anthropology) – seek to understand how and
why people of today and the recent past differ
or are similar in their customary ways of
thinking and acting.
Types of ethnologists:
1. Ethnographer – they usually spend a
year or so living with and talking to a
particular population and observing
their customs.
- Ethnographers may prepare a detailed
description (an ethnography) of many
or some aspects of cultural and social
life.
2. Ethnohistorian – they investigate
written documents to determine how
the ways of life of a particular group of
people changed over time.
3. Cross-cultural researchers – they studies
data collected by ethnographers and
ethnohistorians for a sample of cultures
and attempts to discover which
explanations of customs may be
generally applicable.
Prejudice, bias, and discrimination
Prejudice – as the name implies, the pre-
judging of something. Prejudice involves coming
to a judgement on a subject before learning
where the preponderance of evidence actually
lies.
- Prejudice generally refers to negative
views of an individual or group of an
individuals, often based on social
stereotype.
Bias – post judgement or beliefs and viewpoints
derived from experience that maintain unfair or
stereotypical perspective on a group of people
is more accurately referred to as bias.
Discrimination - while prejudice refers to biased
thinking, discrimination consists of actions
against a group of people.
Racism –
It refers to any or all of the following beliefs and
behavior:
1. It’s the primary determination of human
capacities.
2. A certain race is inherently superior or
inferior to other.
3. Individuals should be treated differently
according to their racial classification.
4. The actual treating of individuals
differently based on their racial
classification.
Expression of racism:
Individual-level racism – individual-level
racism is prejudice, bias, or discrimination
displayed in an interaction between two or
more people.
Examples :
- A person holding the belief that all
young African males are dangerous.
- An employer firing someone because of
his/her race.

Structural racism – structural racism refers

to inequalities built into an organization or
system.

Cultural racism – cultural racial

discrimination, a variation of structural
racism, occurs when the assumption of
inferiority of one or more races is built into
the culture of society. In this, racism is an
expression of culture and is also passed on
through the transmission of culture.

Historical racism – historical economic or

social disparity is a form of inequality
caused by past racism, affecting the present
generation through deficits in the formal
education and other kind of preparation in
the parents’ generation, and, through
primarily unconscious racist attitude and
actions on member of the general
population.

Racial profiling – racing profiling involves

the singling out of individuals based upon
their race for differential treatment, usually
harsher treatment.

Color-blind racism –