HUMAN CULTURAL

VARIATION, SOCIAL
DIFFERENCES, AND POLITICAL
IDENTITIES
Culture and Human Cultural Variation

 Culture is what has been cultivated. It is the product of

many years of continuous history and civilization of a
people.
 It is essentially what has grown from the minds and
creativity of a group of people that share a common
heritage.
Cultural Variation

 It refers to the differences or diversities in the ways of living of

people.
 These diversities are brought about in the way people meet
respond to their biological and psychological needs and the
manner on how they adapt to their environment.
 Geography, climate, social conditions and natural resources
can influence or bring about cultural variation.
 The cultural variation among individuals arises because of the
influences they have been subjected to.

These influences are of two categories:

 Those that act in the early stages of one’s formation.
 Those that arise later as a result of education, reading, travel,
and the like.
Dimensions of Culture

 Aesthetic Dimension – This includes language, literature, art,

poetry, music, dance, festivals, cuisine, etc. The esthetic
dimension gives color, enrichment, and enjoyment to a people.
It may be shared with outsiders.

 Moral Dimension – This consists of the values, laws, and ethical

framework that underlie a culture. The moral dimension usually
stems from the traditional religious roots of people, and over the
ages it could become independent of its religious roots.
 Society

 It refers to a group of people sharing their own culture.

 It is a network of relationships between people. A society may be a
particular or distinct people.
 It is a grouping of individuals that is characterized by patterns of
relationships between individuals having distinct culture.
 Society may also refer to organized or formalized association of
people whether it is religious, cultural, scientific, political, civic clubs
or other purposes.
Social Differences

 It
is all of the ways that people within a single
culture are set apart from each other.

 Elements of social differences can include

ethnicity, lifestyle, religion, language, tastes
and preferences.
Social Change

 It refers to changes in social structure,

like role or status of a person. It also
refers to modification or improvements
made in a certain living style.
Two important ways by which societies
change:

 Byinvention or discovery of new elements or

ideas within a society.

 Bydiffusion or borrowing of cultural elements,

traits or patterns from other societies.
Theories of Social Change

 EvolutionaryTheory – This theory is primarily

characterized by cumulative change and
directed towards increased complexity and
adaptability. It is influenced by Charles Darwin’s
theory of biological evolution or natural
selection.
 Equilibrium Theory – This theory is
characterized by the concept that society is
a social systems having structure with many
parts. It is complex, integrated and mutually
interrelated. Each part is functionally
interdependent.
 Conflict Theory – This theory views conflict as the
basic cause of all social and political change. The
need is the primary motive of action. Thus
according to Karl Marx, social classes are
continually in conflict with one another for
economic reason.
Sources of Social Change

 Natural Environment – Changes in the natural environment are

common. A drastic change or occurrence brought about by
natural influences can cause people to make appropriate or
practical response to or within their society.
 Population – The size, composition or distribution of population
can affect society and culture.
 Conflict – Conflict is another source of change. It is assumed
that change is endemic to all social organizations.
 Ideas – From a mere idea, change can happen. Ideas can bring about
the emergence of a new social order.
 Collective Behavior – It refers to the social behavior that is unplanned,
temporary, emotional and somewhat unpredictable. It refers to crowd
behavior, mob, riots, panics and social movements.
 Political Identities
Identity is often thought of as the expression of an individual’s belief
system and social affiliations. Political identity is almost always associated
with a group affiliation and describes the ways in which being a member of
a particular group might express specific political opinions and attitudes.
Political Identity

 Identity is often thought of as the expression of an individual's belief system

and social affiliations. Various factors can construct an identity, including
race, nationality, where a person lives and a person's gender and sexuality.
Political identity is almost always associated with a group affiliation and
describes the ways in which being a member of a particular group might
express specific political opinions and attitudes.

 Political identity frequently refers to a specific political party affiliation or

partisan identity. For many voters, belonging to a political party is not simply a
voting decision.
Some Factors that can Affect Political
Identity:

 Race
 Economic Status
 Gender
 Age
 Religion
 Political identity can also be shaped by race. Another possible
factor that shapes political identity can be economic class.
Peoples’ interests, outlook and life prospects are frequently
conditioned by their economic circumstances. For instance,
factory workers may be very different from one another in a
variety of ways, yet they share a very basic set of common
experiences that comes from their shared condition as factory
workers. As workers, they have in common a set of interests,
hardships and goals. The same is true of hedge fund managers,
farm laborers, nurses, high school teachers and university
professors.
Significance of Studying Culture, Society
and Politics
 It develops people’s awareness of cultural, social and political
dynamics and sensitivity to cultural diversity.
 It provides understanding of how culture, human agency, society
and politics works.
 It engages people in examining the country’s current human
development goals.
 It allows people to recognize cultural relativism and to overcome
prejudices.
 It develops people’s social and cultural competence to guide their
interactions with groups, communities, networks and institutions.