COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT,

SOLIDARITY, AND CITIZENSHIP

 UNIT II
Definitions of Community
 Lesson 1
Social Science Perspective

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to

be prepared to take the helm.”
—Henrik Ibsen
Learning Objective:
• To understand the community through the lens of the social
sciences
Fundamental Queries:
• What are the various perspectives about the idea of a
community in various social sciences?
• How is the community viewed in various epistemological and
ontological foundations?
Learning Competency:
• Compare and contrast the definitions of community using
various perspectives
 Anthropological Perspective
 Human evolution came from the mold of the
evolutionary shifts of communities and has drastically
accelerated human development.
 Charles Darwin’s discovery of human evolution through
natural selection highlights the idea that development
stemmed from the ability of a certain species to adapt
and therefore survive its environment.
 Using this “human evolution” perspective, we can map
out not only how humans survived with the help of their
biological characteristics and advantages but also how
the creation of our own social mechanisms secured our
place at the top of the evolutionary chain.
A. Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
Hunting-Gathering

 Human development was marked by the development

of their tools, which they slowly improved as they had
more robust construction. This marked the Acheulean
tradition (1.6 million years ago).
 Hunting-foraging was one of the earliest forms of social
stratification where roles were given to certain members
of the group. These roles emphasized the need to form
relationships among themselves to improve their
chances of survival.
B. Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age)
Horticultural and Agricultural

 Due to the changing environment they were in, humans

started to cultivate more sustainable sources of food
and they later formed an agricultural society.
 Many humans opted to settle in fixed places and
cultivated plants, triggering communal settlements.
 Having a less nomadic and sustainable way to find food,
humans finally found a way to provide food for
themselves, thus causing the creation of more populous
communes.
C. Neolithic Age
Agrarian
 Herding was added to agriculture as their main sources
of food. This was the start of a more complex society
moving away from foraging as the commune’s primary
task.
 Humans started to evolve culturally. The communes had
more free time in other pursuits that resulted in the
materialization of societal relations.
 The dynamics in the commune became more grounded
and systematized, ushering the dawn of civilization.