FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

ROXAS CITY
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

A Self-Learning Module 2
in Understanding Culture,
Society and Politics
The Concept, Aspects and Changes of Culture and SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Society

Grade 11

JOCEL ANNE OSO

Professor
Prepared by:
ROLI KEITH AGUIRRE
JOCEL ANNE OSO
Professors
Designed by:
MARU ALAYON
Teacher
Reviewed by:
LILIBETH BROCES
Focal Person, HUMMS
SHIRLEY F. TIPON, Ph D
Assistant Principal
URLA S. DELA, MAT
Acting Principal
Checked by:
EXEQUIEL A. CALIMUTAN, MAT
Quality Assurance Officer
Approved by:
MINIE P. CHAN, Ph D
VP- Academic Affairs

15
 INTRODUCTION

Dear Learner,

Welcome to the second module! This module will help you

understand the concepts, aspects and changes of culture and
society. It will also explain the importance of cultural relativism
in attaining cultural understanding. You will be equipped with
the skills needed in this fast changing world. The knowledge
you will gain from this module will enhance your ideas upon
relating to the changes of culture and society, thus will improve
your in- depth understanding of culture and social aspects on
our very own life setting.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the learners are expected to:

1. analyze the concept of culture and society; and
2. determine the aspects and changes of culture and
society
3. At the end of the lesson, you are expected to: •
define cultural relativism; and
4. explain the importance of cultural relativism in
attaining cultural understanding
.

16
 Ana
Lesson 3
lyse
the
Con
PRE-TEST cep
t,
Link Me
DIRECTIONS: ConnectAsp the dots by drawing a line that matches column A with the
ects
correct answer on column B.

A and B
1. Language Cha justice
2. Actions nge myths
3. Identity s of self- esteem
4. History rituals
5. Experience Cult dialect
ure
and
LEARNING Soc CONTENT
iety
Culture refers to the total lifestyle of the people, including all of the ideas, values,
knowledge, behaviours, and material objects that they share. • All people have
culture, for it is the learned social heritage that people accumulate through time and
pass on from generation to generation. • It is from their culture that people learn what
is good or bad, what is right or wrong, what they should, or should not do, and even
what they desire and what they dislike.

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THE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

1. Symbol- is something that can express or evoke meaning A symbol may be a

crucifix or statue of Buddha, a teddy bear, a constitution. They evoke meanings.
Many are physical objects that have acquired cultural meaning and are used for
symbolic rather than instrumental purposes. Symbolic meaning also varies within
a society. Even among people in temperate regions.
2. Language is a shared set of spoken (and often written) symbols and rules for
combining those symbols in meaningful ways. Also, language has been called the
"Storehouse of culture”
3. Values are people’s ideas about what is good or bad, right or wrong. Cultural
beliefs help people understand the world and their place in it. However, people
are seldom content simply to believe in something. They also tend to imbue their
beliefs with moral significance. When that happens, beliefs become values.
4. Cultural Change as the hipster example illustrates, culture is always evolving.
Moreover, new things are added to material culture every day, and they affect
nonmaterial culture as well. Cultures change when something new (say, railroads
or smartphones) opens up new ways of living and when new ideas enter a culture
(say, as a result of travel or globalization).
5. Social Change refers to any significant alteration over time in behaviour patterns
and cultural values and norms. By “significant” alteration, sociologists mean
changes yielding profound social consequences.
6. Norms are rules about what people should or should not do say or think in a given
situation.
7. An artifact is an object made by a human being. Artifacts include art, tools, and
clothing made by people of any time and place. The term can also be used to
refer to the remains of an object, such as a shard of broken pottery or glassware.
Artifacts are immensely useful to scholars who wants to learn about culture.

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 Cultural artifact or artifact is a term used in the social sciences, particularly
anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which
gives information about the culture of its creator and users.
 Artifacts are such valuable tools for exploring the past and using them to
understand the past.
 Human values are essential in our life because they help us to grow and develop.
It is a person's standards of behaviour, principles and own judgment. Some of the
values, human treasures are honesty, love, happiness, and integrity.
 Social and cultural norms are rules or expectations of behaviour and thoughts
based on shared beliefs within a specific cultural or social group.
 Social change - variations or modifications in the patterns of social organisation of
sub groups within society.
 Cultural change - refers to all alterations affecting new traits or trait complexes
and changes in a cultures content and structure.

7 characteristics of Culture

1. Culture is everything- It is what a person has, does and thinks as part of society.
This implies all of persons belief system, set of behaviors and material
possessions.
2 types of culture
a. Material Culture- includes all tangible and visible parts of culture, which
includes
clothes, foods and even buildings.
b. Nonmaterial Culture -includes all intangible parts of culture, which consist of
values,ideas and knowledge

2. Culture is Learned- culture is set of beliefs, attitudes and practices that an

individual
learns through his or her family, school, church and other social institutions
a. Enculturation- is a process of learning your own culture.
b. Acculturation- is a process of accommodating desirable traits from other
culture.
c. Deculturation- culture has been lost and even cultural trait itself is in the
process of being forgotten.

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3. Culture is Shared- This implies that a particular behavior cannot be considered as
a culture if there is only one person practicing it. Culture is shared
intergenerational

4. Culture Affects Biology - Humans are born into cultures that have values on
beauty
and body. As such, they alter their bodies to fit physiological norms that are
dictated
by their culture.

5. Culture is Adaptive - Culture is a tool for survival that humans use in response to
the pressures of their environment.

6. Culture is Maladaptive - Culture can also cause problems for the people who
subscribe to it. These problems arise when environment is change and culture
has remained the same.

7. Culture Changes - The final characteristic of culture it is never static. This

dynamism of culture is due to changing needs of humans as they interpret and
survive in their environment

Learning Activity
Slogan Making Directions: Create a slogan on your personal opinion or insights on
the concepts, aspects and changes of culture and society. Illustrate your slogan in a
¼ size of illustration board with your explanation.

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Lesson 4 Explain the Importance of Cultural Relativism
in Attaining Cultural Understanding.

PRE-TEST

Conceptualize Me
Directions: Use the given picture to conceptualize the importance of cultural
relativism in attaining cultural understanding.

Question: 1. What can you say about the picture? How the given words from the
picture help you conceptualize the importance of cultural relativism in attaining
cultural understanding.

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LEARNING CONTENT
Cultural Relativism is the recognition the one culture cannot be arbitrarily judge
by the standards of another. The ability to fully understand another culture depends
largely on one’s willingness to adopt the position of cultural relativism. From one
perspective, this posture involves suspending judgement and realizing that each
culture reflects a particular society’s adaptation to its environment.

Cultural relativism is difficult because it requires not only understanding the

values and norms of another society, but also accepting certain limits to the cultural
standards we have all known all our lives.

The importance of understanding cultural relativism is to know one's own culture.

Understanding this perspective of cultural relativism leads to the view that no culture
is superior to another culture and the idea that culture can be compared in terms of
law, politics, and systems has no bases at all.

The concept that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood
based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another. Cultural relativism cannot be used to evaluate other cultures based on the
ideas you believe in. An example is a country who specialized dried fried crickets for
food and you think it is weird because it is not usual in your culture.

Cultural relativism is an idea, that cultures must be examined, based on their own
context and merits, not to be seen as customs and codes of other cultures. Cultural
relativism is important in studying minority cultures, colonized cultures, and other
traditions which belongs to another culture.

Ethnocentrism is perspective that promotes an individual’s culture as the most

efficient and superior hence the individual who exhibit ethnocentrism feels that
his/her culture is the most appropriate as compared to toher culture.

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 IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES
 GENDER- refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and
attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
 SEX- biological characteristics of human such as male or female.

TYPES OF GENDER
 HETEROSEXUAL- a person with this gender is inclined to be sexually
attracted to a person of the opposite sex
 HOMOSEXUAL- person that is sexually attracted to the same sex.
 GAY- romantically and sexually attracted to male.
 LESBIAN- romantically and sexually attracted to female
 BISXUAL- individuals who are attracted to the opposite sex.
 ASEXUAL- totally incapable of being attracted to any sex
 POLYSEXUAL- attracted to multiple types of gender identity.
 PANSEXUAL- accommodates all types of gender. There are people whose
gender identities do not match on their biological identity as male or female.
These people classify themselves as transgender. Their sexual orientation is
not related to their genetalia, which allow them to identify with other type of
gender
.

Learning Activity
My Photo Essay!

Directions: Using photos, from the web, poster, magazines, newspapers

etc., create a photo essay that reflects your understanding of anthropology,

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sociology, and political science. Use the space provided in this module. Refer
to the rubric for scoring.
Answer Sheet/ Activity Sheet

Name of Student: ________________________________Date:_________________

Grade level: ________________ Section:__________ Academic Strand :_________
Subject: UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Module Week: 2 Quarter: 1

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 RUBRICS FOR PHOTO ESSAY
Category 4 Points 3 Points 2 Points 1 Point

Details on the photo Details on the photo and Details on the photo Details on the
and caption. Capture caption include important and caption relate to photo and
Coverage of
the important information but the the topic but are too caption have
the Topic audience may need more
information about the general or little or nothing
topic and increase the information to understand incomplete. The to do with
audience’s fully. audience needs main topic.
understanding. more information to
understand.
Photo All photos are related All photos are related to All photos relate to Photos do not
to the topic and make the topic and most make it the topic. relate to the
it easier to easier to understand. topic.
understand.
Organization Information is very Information is organized Information is The
organized with clear with Title, subheadings, organized, but title, information
Title, subheadings, and caption. Title, subheadings, and appears to be
subheadings, and caption. caption are missing
and caption. disorganized.
or do not help the
reader understand.
Layout and All information on the Most of the information on Most of the Much of the
poster is in focus and the poster is in focus and information on the information on
Design
can be easily viewed the content easily viewed poster is in focus the poster is
and identified from 6 ft. and identified from 6 ft. and the content is unclear or too
away. away. easily viewed and small.
identified from 4 ft.
away.
Presentation The presentation was The presentation was at The presentation The
at the appropriate the appropriate length but was at the presentation
length. It did not seem seemed slightly hurried or appropriate length was too long or
hurried or too slow. too slow. The presenter but seemed very too short.
spoke clearly most of the hurried or too slow. The presenter
The presenter spoke
time and established eye The presenter spoke did not speak
clearly and distinctly
contact with the audience. clearly and distinctly clearly most of
and established eye
only some of the time
contact with the the time and
and/or established
audience. established little eye little eye
contact with the contact with
audience. the audience.

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 Assessment
Directions: Write True if the statement is correct and False if it is wrong.

________1. The goal of studying anthropology is to understand the origin of human

evolution and the diverse forms of its existence throughout time.

________2. Linguistic anthropology is an example of cultural anthropology

________3. The symbolic interaction perspective is one of the three theoretical

perspectives of sociology.

________4. Political science deals with human societies and elements of cultural life.

________5. Theoretical perspective is not used to analyze and explain objects of social
study, and facilitate organizing sociological knowledge.

________6. The subject matter of anthropology is arthropods.

________7. Political science only deals with the analysis of political systems and
political behavior.

________8. It has been observed that the terms "nature" and "culture" that can be
translated into non-western languages.

________9. The conflict perspective sees social life as a competition, and focuses on
the distribution of resources, power, and inequality.

________10. In functionalist perspective societies are thought to function like

organisms with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and
reproduce societies.

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 REFERENCES

Book Sources

Ludeña, Jorey L. Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics Quarter-1 Module1

The Nature and Goals of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science. Department
of Education- Alternative Delievery Mode 2020

Lagulay, Eldefonso C. Illustrator, Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Quarter1
Module1 The Nature and Goals of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science
Department of Education- Alternative Delivery mode 2020
Jimenez, Dalia-Jimenez #Iintrospect Understanding, Culture, Society and Politics,
Don Bosco Press INC.

Online Sources

https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/introtosociology/UnitPages/UnitISoci o
lPerspective.html. Accessed May 28, 2020

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/nature-scope-political-science-464861.
Accessed May 28, 2020

Hudelson, Patricia M. “Culture and quality: an anthropological perspective”

International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Volume 16, Issue 5, October 2004,
Pages 345–346, https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzh076.
https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article/16/5/345/1822533

www.google.com/search?ei=hVfFXuuFEuWFr7wPkLmA4&q=nature+%2C+goal+and+p
erspectives+of+anthropology&oq=nature+%2C+goal+and+perspectives+of+anthropolo
gy &gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQDDoECAAQ. Accessed May 28, 2020

www.quora.com › What-are-the-differences-between-nature-and-culture

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Exit-Slip-Ticket-Lesson-
Reflection1800033. Accessed June 5, 2020.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/culture-and-development/the-future-

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wewant-the-role-of-culture/the-two-sides-of-the-coin/. Accessed June 1, 2020

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