Perspectives of Anthropology,

Sociology, and Political Science

Lesson 1.2
 Our Objectives
By the end of this lesson, the student should be able to identify and explain the:

Nature Goals and Perspectives

of anthropology, sociology, and political science

 Culture

Society
Topics for
Cultural Perspective
Today Anthropological Perspective
What we'll be discussing?
Sociological Perspective

Theoretical Perspective
 Introduction

Cultu r e a n d S o ci et y
ar e n o t t he s am e .
 What is Culture?

Tylor defined culture as “the complex whole which includes

knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other
capabilities acquired by man as a member of society” (1871, p. 1).

What is Society?

A society is a grouping of individuals, which is characterized

by common interest and may have distinctive culture and
institutions.
1. Cultural Perspectives

Matthew Arnold
Culture and Anarchy (1867)

mentioned that culture or high culture as opposed to popular culture (or

folkways in an earlier usage) is a product of a special intellectual or artistic
endeavor humans had invented

Kroeber & Kluckhohn (1852)

"Culture is composed of behavior (explicit and implicit) acquired and transmitted

through symbols. It is a human group that includes their distinctive achievements and
embodiment in artifacts, traditional and historical ideas, and formation of values."

Shalom Schwartz (1992)

"Culture consists of experiences that are organized, learned or created by the individuals of a
population, including those images and images adding up their unique interpretations
transmitted from the past generations up to the future."
 2. Anthropological Perspectives
culture, cultural relativism, fieldwork, human diversity, holism,
bio-cultural focus

cross-cultural or evolutionary or ecological holistic

comparative historical emphasis emphasis
emphasis emphasis
statistical cross-cultural emphasizes the value of emphasizes the studies humans and
comparisons can be used culturally appropriate powerful role of their history
to discover traits shared methods, data analysis, social context in
between cultures and and interpretation. shaping behavior involve looking at
generate ideas about and the dynamic individual parts, but this
cultural universals nature of the inter- is a step in understanding
relationship the subject of interest as
between individuals a whole.
and social contexts
 3. Sociological Perspectives

Functionalist Perspective Conflict Perspective

• attempts to explain social institutions as collective means to • refers to the inequalities that exist in all societies
meet individual and social needs globally

• sometimes called structural-functionalism because it often “Every society is plagued by inequality based on social
focuses on the ways social structures (e.g., social differences among the dominant group and all of the other
institutions) meet social needs groups in society.”

Symbolic Interaction Perspective

• a theoretical approach to understanding the relationship between humans and

society

“Human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of
meaningful communication or symbols.”
 A
Auguste Comte
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
B
• Father of Sociology • described the emerging societies as
• coined the term sociology and said that, “societies of survival and primarily based on
“society is a social organism possessing a the concept of natural law”
harmony of structure and function”

re t ic a l Pe r s pe c t ive s
4. The o
D
C Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Karl Marx (1818-1917)
• “Society is composed of harmonious elements such as
• postulated that societies develop through class
individuals, organizations, and social institutions.
conflicts
These elements must perform their role in the society
• “The only way to end this conflict is through
to function effectively.”
social revolution”
 E
George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)
and other scholars who conceptualized the concept
of symbolic interactionism

“Society can be seen in a microlevel that focuses on the relationships of

individuals within a society primarily centers in their communication both
language and symbols.”
 Other Scholars
Herbert Blumer (1969) Erving Goffman (1958)
• coined the term symbolic interactionism • used dramaturgical analysis
• studied how humans interact to the  used theater as an analogy for
meanings ascribed into a specific object social interaction and recognized
under circumstances that people like actors and
actresses, play their role and
function according to it
 Charles Horton-Cooley (1902)
F

• “Society and individuals are not separated but are simply collective and distributive
aspects of the same thing.”
• theorized the concept of the looking glass self
 according to this, self-relation, or how one views oneself is not an isolated event
but rather includes others
The Looking
Glass Self

by Charles Horton-
Cooley
 • studies the tendencies and actions of
people which cannot be easily
quantified or examined

• more focused than most social sciences

5. Political Science  sticks to the political arena and to
Perspective the realm of politics, either
dealing with situations with two
competing sides or the lateral
decisions that affect the group as
a whole
Thank you!