Understanding Culture,

Society and Politics

• Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics  uses multi-disciplinal
insights from anthropology, political science, and sociology to
develop student awareness of cultural, social, and political
dynamics and sensitivity to cultural diversity. It provides a deeper
understanding of how culture, human agency, society, and politics
work; and engage students in the examination of the country’s
current human development goals. At the end of the course,
students should acquire ideas about human cultures, human agency,
society, and politics; recognize cultural relativism and social
inclusiveness to overcome prejudices; and develop social and
cultural competence to guide their interactions with groups,
communities, networks, and institutions.
•What is culture?
•What is society?
•What is politics?
 CULTURE
• Generally defined as the sum of an individual’s way of life,
ranging from the food he or she eats, the clothes he or she
wears, and the house he or she lives.
• Includes both material and non-material things that he
possesses or acquire.
 Material things Non-material things

Material Culture- tools, weapons,  Norms

utensils, machines, ornaments,  Values
art, buildings, monuments,  Intangible aspects
written records, religious images,  Music
clothing, and any other  Dance
ponderable objects produced or  Poetry
used by humans.  Other forms of expressions
(creativity and artistry)
 SOCIETY

•Groups of interdependent people who

share a common territory, language, and
culture, and who act together for
collective survival and well-being.
•In reality, there can be no culture
without a society and so far there are
no known human societies that do not
exhibit culture (Haviland, et. Al:312).
 POLITICS
• Refers to the “theory, art, and practice of government.”
• Politics is the way that people living in groups make
decisions. Politics is about making agreements between
people so that they can live together in groups such as
tribes, cities, or countries.
GENDER
•Gender is the socially-constructed
characteristics of being male or
female. In short, it refers to society’s
division of humanity into two
distinctive categories based on sex.
 •What is the difference
between the gender and the
sex?
• Upper class- Today, celebrities, politicians, investors, and other wealthy individuals fall into
this group
• Middle class- a social group that consists of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers,
and teachers, who have good jobs and are not poor, but are not very rich.
• Lower class- are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security.
The term "lower class" also refers to persons with low income.