CHAPTER 2: DEFINING

CULTURE and SOCIETY

FROM THE PERSPECTIVES
OF ANTHROPOLOGY and
SOCIOLOGY
We have the ability to achieve, if
we master the necessary goodwill,
a common global society blessed
with a shared culture of peace that
is nourished by the ethnic, national,
and local diversities that enrich our
lives.
--Bill Clinton
 GUIDE QUESTION

How are culture and society

defined from the
perspectives of
Anthropology and Sociology?
 TOPICS TO BE COVERED

Culture and society as

anthropological and sociological
concepts
Perspective in approaches to
the study of culture and society
 KEY CONCEPTS
 Cognitive culture  Normative culture
 Cultural relativism  Norms
 Culture  Sanctions
 Ethnocentrism  Society
 Folkways  Symbols
 Language  Taboos
 Laws  Technology
 Material culture  Values
 Mores  xenocentrism
 Nonmaterial culture
 SKILLS TO BE DEVELOPED
(LEARNING COMPETENCIES)
Explain society and culture from the
perspectives of anthropology and
sociology
Describe society and culture as a complex
whole
Identify aspects of culture and society
Become aware of why and how cultural
relativism mitigates ethnocentrism
 FORMATIVE TESTS
 STARTER
Answer the following activities to check what you know about
the topic.
A. Differentiate culture from society. Write your answer in the
box.
Culture Society
 REINFORCER
 B. How are culture and society interlinked with one another.

Culture and Society

DEFINING CULTURE AND
SOCIETY FROM THE
PERSPECTIVES OF
ANTHROPOLOGY AND
SOCIOLOGY
People rarely
distinguish the
difference between
the terms “culture”
and “society”, but
for the sociologist,
the two terms have
different meanings
and the distinction is
important.
A society describes a
group of people who
share a common
territory and a culture.
By “territory”, sociologist
refer to a definable region—as
small as a neighborhood (e.g.
barangay), a city (e.g. Manila),
a country (e.g. Philippines), to
as large as the global regional
context (e.g. Asia).
While “culture” refers to the
complex whole which
encompasses beliefs, practices,
values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and
everything that a person learns
and shares as a member of
society.” (E.B. Tylor 1920 [1871]).
To clarify, a culture represents the
beliefs, practices, and artifacts of a
group, while society represents the
social structures and organization of
the people who share those beliefs
and practices. Neither society nor
culture could exist without the
other.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
 Sociologists have classified the different types of societies
into six categories, each of which its own unique
characteristics:

Hunting and These are the earliest forms of society. These are
gathering small and generally with less than 50 members and
is nomadic. The members survive primarily by
societies hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering edible
plants. The family determines the distribution of
food and how to socialize children. Members are
mutually dependent upon each other and although
there is equal division of labor among the
members of hunting and gathering societies, there
is a division of labor based on sex wherein men are
responsible for hunting and women for gathering.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Pastoral Rely on products obtained through
the domestication and breeding of
societies
animals for transportation and
food. These are common in areas
where crops cannot be supported
and only have to move when the
land in which the animals graze is
no longer usable. They also allow
for job specialization, since not
everyone is needed to gather or
hunt for food.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Horticultural These societies rely on the
cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and
plants in order to survive. They are
often forced to relocate when the
resources of the land are depleted
or when the water supplies
decrease.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Agricultural They rely on the use of technology
societies in order to cultivate crops in large
areas, including wheat, rice, and
corn. Productivity increases, and as
long as there are plenty of food,
and then cities emerged, ob
specialization increases, and the
economy becomes more complex.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Industr They use advanced sources of energy to
ial run large machinery which led to
societi industrialization. Innovations in
es
transportation led people to travel,
work in factories, and live in cities.
Occupational specialization became even
more pronounced, and a person’s
vocation became more of an identifier
than his or her family ties, as was
common in nonindustrial societies.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Post- Their economy is based on services
industrial and technology, not production. The
societies economy is dependent on tangible
goods, people must pursue greater
education, and the new
communications technology allows
work to be performed from a
variety of locations.
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

Cultures have key features

(classification and
elements) and
characteristics that are
present in all cultures.
 Classification of Culture
All cultures have visible/tangible and
nonvisible or nontangible components.
Cultural components that are visible and
tangible are called material culture which
include all material objects or those
components or elements of culture with
physical representation such as tools,
furniture, buildings, bridges, gadgets, etc.
Components of culture which
are created/produced, changed
and utilized by people are all
included in the material
culture.
On the other hand, there are
components of culture that are
nontangible or without physical
representation and these are called
nonmaterial culture which can be
categorized into cognitive and
normative nonmaterial culture.
Cognitive culture include the
ideas, concepts, philosophies,
designs, etc. that are products of
the mental or intellectual
functioning and reasoning of the
human mind
while the normative culture
includes all the expectations,
standards, and rules for human
behavior.
The material and nonmaterial cultures
are always interlinked. The existence of
material culture is justified by the
nonmaterial culture (cognitive and/or
normative). Any form/element of the
material culture will be meaningless and
will cease to exist without the ideas and
normative expectations that support it.
Example, a chair will just be a
piece of wood or metal
without the function that it
serves in society, and its worth
or value varies depending on
who created it and who will sit
on it or use it.
 ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
 All cultures consist of key elements that are
crucial to human existence:

BELIEFS are conceptions or ideas people have

about what is true in the environment around
them like what is life, how to value it, and how
one’s beliefs on the value of life relate with his or
her interaction with others and the world. This
may be based on common sense, folk wisdom,
religion, science, or a combination of all of these
VALUES  describe what is
appropriate or inappropriate
(good or bad; desirable or
undesirable; worthy or unworthy)
in a given society or what ought
to be. These are broad, abstract,
and shared to influence and guide
the behavior of people.
 People live in a culture wherein
symbols are used to understand each
other. Symbols can be verbal (words)
or nonverbal (acts, gestures, signs,
and objects) that communicate
meaning that people recognize and
shared .
 LANGUAGE is a shared set of
spoken and written symbols. It is
basic to communication and
transmission of culture. It is
known as the storehouse of
culture.
 TECHNOLOGY refers to the
application of knowledge and
equipment to ease the task of
living and maintaining the
environment. It includes all
artifacts, methods and devices
created and used by people.
 NORMS are specific
rules/standards to guide appropriate
behavior. Societal norms are of
different types of forms.
 proscriptive Defines and tells us things not to do
Types
Prescriptive Defines and tells us things to do

Forms Folkways Also known as customs, these are norms for everyday
behavior that people follow for the sake of tradition or
convenience. Breaking a folkway does not usually have
serious consequences.

Mores These are strict norms that control moral and ethical
behavior. Mores are norms based on definitions of right
and wrong.

Taboos These are norms that society holds so strongly that

violating it results in extreme disgust. Often times the
violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in that
society.

Laws These are codified ethics, and formally agreed, written

down and enforced by an official law enforcement
agency.
 By themselves, norms are
guidelines for human behavior.
Sanctions encourage conformity
to norms.

Sanctions are socially imposed

rewards and punishments in
society which may be formal or
informal.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
 All cultures share basic characteristics that are key to
its existence.
1. Dynamic, Flexible, and Adaptive. This
basically means that cultures interact
and change. Most societies interact
with other societies, and lead to
exchanges of material (e.g. tools and
furniture) and nonmaterial (e.g. ideas
and symbols) components of culture.
All cultures change, or else, they
would have problems adjusting
and adapting to changing
environments. Culture is adaptive
and dynamic, once we recognize
problems, culture can adapt
again, in a more positive way, to
find solutions.
2. Shared and may be
challenged (given the reality of
social differentiation). As we
share culture with others, we
are able to act in 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).
It may be challenged by the
presence of other cultures and
other social forces in society like
modernization, industrialization,
and globalization.
3. Learned through socialization
or enculturation. It is not
biological, we do not inherit it
but learn as we interact in
society.
Much of learning culture is
unconscious. We learn, absorb,
and acquire culture from
families, peers, institutions,
and the media. The process of
learning culture is known as
enculturation.
4. Patterned social
interactions. Culture as a
normative system has the
capacity to define and
control human behaviors.
Norms are cultural expectation
in terms of how one will think,
feel, or behave as set by one’s
culture. It sets the pattern in
terms of what is appropriate by
some forms of standard and
expectation which in the end
regularize it.
5. Integrated. This is known as
holism, or the various parts of a
culture being interconnected or
interlinked. 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.
6. Transmitted through
socialization/enculturation. As we
share our culture with others, we were
able to pass it on to the new members
of society or the younger generation in
different ways.
In the process of
socialization/enculturation, we were
able to teach them about many
things in life and equip them with the
culturally acceptable ways of
surviving, competing, and making
meaningful interactions with others
in society.
7. Requires language and other
forms of communication. In the
process of learning and
transmitting culture, we need
symbols and language to
communicate with others in
society. A symbol is something
that stands for something else.
Symbols vary cross-culturally and are
arbitrary. These only have meaning when
people in a culture agree on their use.
Language, money, and art are all symbols.

 Language is one of the key elements of

culture needed for people in one culture to
interact or for one to interact with other
people in other cultures.
 ETHNOCENTRISM/
XENOCENTRISM
and
CULTURAL RELATIVISM as
ORIENTATIONS in VIEWING
OTHER CULTURES
 Today, we live in a rapidly changing
globalized society. And, as modern
technology gets more innovative,
people from various cultures get closer
in interaction with each other.
Depending on the level of sensitivity
and respect people have for other
cultural groups, this interaction may be
seen as positive or negative.
ETHNOCENTRISM
 Ethnocentrism, a term
coined by William Sumner, is the
tendency to see and evaluate
other cultures in terms of one’s
own race, nation, or culture.
 This rest on the belief of the
superiority of one’s own culture or
ethnic group compared to others.
While societies have the tendency
to display or manifest certain
amount of ethnocentrism, cultural
sensitivity is also expected
especially if one is a visitor.
Nonsensitivity to cultural
practices of other groups may be
misinterpreted and this may lead
to conflict with others or maybe
seen by others as rude behavior
especially when articulated or
expressed in front of others.
Learning to take the role of the other
person gives one the ability to see the
perspective of the other before articulating
or giving judgment. To do this, it is
important to: (1) study the cultural context
in which the action occurs, (2) determine
the circumstances of place, time and
condition surrounding it, and (3) look into
the reasoning behind any cultural element.
 XENOCENTRISM
People are highly influenced by the
culture or many cultures outside the
realm of their society. In this globalized
society, one’s exposure to cultural
practices of others may make one to
give preference to the ideas, lifestyle,
and products of other cultures which is
termed by John D. Fullmer as
xenocentrism.
People who usually experience
xenocentrism came from a country with
lower economic position as compared to
the one preferred.
This may be triggered by comparison
wherein the person sees one’s position
as inferior and would like to improve
one’s status or experience a better
condition compared to his/her current
position.
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Cultural relativism is the
principle that an individual
human’s beliefs and activities
should be understood by
others in terms of that
individual’s own culture.
Though Franz Boas coined the term,
the concept was popularized by his
students. Cultural relativism
highlights the perspective that no
culture is superior to any other
culture when comparing systems of
morality, law, politics, etc.
 Culture is seen to have equal value. It
rests on the idea that all cultural practices and
beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is
relative, depending on the cultural
environment.

 Followers of the idea of cultural relativism also

embrace the views that religious, ethical,
aesthetic, and political beliefs are completely
relative to the individual within a cultural
identity.
It also covers ideas of moral
relativism (ethics depend on
a social construct),
situational relativism (right
or wrong is based on the
particular situation), and
cognitive relativism (truth
itself has no objective
standard)
 Cultural Relativists claim the
following:
1. Different societies have different moral codes.
2. The moral code of a society determines what
is right or wrong within the society.
3. There are no moral truths that hold for all
people at all times.
4. The moral code of our own society has no
special status; it is but one among many.
5. It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We
should always be tolerant of them.
 GLOSSARY
 ANTHROPOLOGIST- person or practitioner who
studies Anthropology
 ANTHROPOLOGY- the study of humans, past and
present
 CULTURAL DIVERSITY- the existence of a variety of
cultural or ethnic groups within a society
 CULTURE- 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.
 GOVERNMENT- is the system by which a state or
community is controlled.
 POLITICAL IDENTITIES – includes the ways in which
people’s politics may be shaped by aspects of their
identity through loosely correlated social
organizations.
 POLICAL SCIENCE- is a social science discipline that
deals with systems of government and the analysis of
political activity and political behavior
 POLITICAL SCIENTIST- person who studies political
science.
 SOCIAL CHANGE- refers to an alteration in the social
order of a society
 SOCIAL SCIENCE- are academic disciplines concerned
with the study of the social life of human groups and
individuals
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION- refers to a system by which
a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
 SOCIETY- group of people involved in persistent
interpersonal relationships, or a large social grouping
sharing the same geographical or social territory,
typically subject to the same political authority and
dominant cultural expectation.
SOCIOLOGIST- person who
studies sociology
SOCIOLOGY- a discipline which
studies the behavior of groups of
people
STATE- an organized political
community living under a single
system of government.
 REFLECTION
In two to three sentences write in the
box what learning/s you have gained
as to how the understanding of the
interplay of society and culture will
help in addressing social problems
/issues that we have in our society.