Anthropology

Ma. Jinky G. Gomez

Objectives:
At the end of the learning session, the students should
be able to:

 Understand the concept and importance of the self

embedded in culture
 Determine how the self is shaped by the ways of life
of the people
 Create an image of one’s self from the discussion
The Self Embedded in Culture
Activity:

Tell us what you feel when you see the following

pictures.

Why did you feel that way when you saw the
picture?

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Cultural Universals

 patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

Anthropologist George Murdock

• first recognized the existence of cultural universals while
studying systems of kinship around the world.

• found that cultural universals often revolve around basic

human survival (such as finding food, clothing, and shelter)
or around shared human experiences (such as birth and
death, or illness and healing). video
Through his research, Murdock identified other
universals including language, the concept of
personal names, and, interestingly, jokes.

Humor seems to be a universal way to

release tensions and create a sense of unity
among people (Murdock 1949).
“Control Mechanism” view of culture

Human thought is basically social and public that

its natural habitat is the house yard, marketplace,
and town square.

Thinking consists not of “happenings in the head”

but of a traffic significant symbols or natural objects.
 To supply the additional information necessary to
be able to act, we were forced in turn, to rely more
and more heavily on cultural sources-the
accumulated fund of significant symbols.
Such symbols are not mere expressions,
instrumentalities, or correlates of our biological,
psychological, and social existence: they are
prerequisites of it.
 Without men, no culture, but equally, and more
significantly, without culture, no men.

We live in an “information gap.”

Between what our body tells us and what we

have to know in order to function, there is a vacuum
we must fill ourselves, and we fill it with information
(or misinformation) provided by our culture.
Assignment:

On a bond paper, draw a symbol of yourself and

explain why you chose that symbol.
References:
“ The Interpretation of Cultures” by Clifford Geertz

Chapter 3. Introduction to Sociology-opentxtbc.ca

Opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter...

Culture and Positive Psychology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/.../Culture_and_positive_psychology

academic-master.com/evaluate-the-significance-of-
mausss...
Youtube.com/cultural universals the end
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