Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Presented by
Kristin Joy A. Mendoza
Topic Outline
•Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
-Cultural variation, social differences, social change and
political identities
-Observations about social, cultural and political
behavior and phenomena/change

•Lesson 2: Overview of anthropology, sociology and

political science
Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

• The learners demonstrate an understanding of:

1. Human cultural variation, social differences, social change and
political identities.
2. The significance of studying culture, society and politics.
3. The rationale for studying, anthropology, political science and
sociology.
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Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
➢Our differences and how we view
these differences are affected or
influenced by:

1. Cultural variation
2. Social differences
3. Social change
4. Political identities
Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
Cultural Variation
Differences in social behaviors that different
cultures exhibit around the world.

Example:
What may be considered good etiquette in
one culture may be considered bad
etiquette in another
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Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Social differences
Race
Socio-econ
Ethnicity
omic status
Differences among
individuals on the basis Sex Ability
of social characteristics
and qualities
Social
Class Culture
differences
Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
Social change Gender Roles

Any significant alteration

over time in behavior
patterns and cultural values
and norms

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Family relations

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Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
• Political Identities

Almost always associated with

a group affiliation and describes
the ways in which being a
member of a particular group
might express specific political
opinions and attitudes.
Lesson 2: Overview of Anthropology, Sociology and
Political Science

•The learners demonstrate an understanding of:

➢The significance of studying culture, society and politics
➢Rationale for studying anthropology, political science
and sociology
Lesson 2: Overview of Anthropology
•Holistic
Anthropology ➢ Studies the whole of the human
condition – past, present and
future; biology, society, language
Study of humankind at all
and culture
times and in all places
•Uniquely comparative
Constantly comparing the customs
of one society with those of the
others
Goals of Anthropology
1. Explain and analyze human cultural
similarities and differences.
2. Assess the cultural development of
our species as revealed in the
archaeology record.
3. Analyze the biological evolution of
the human species as evidenced in
the fossil record.
4. Explain human biological diversity
today.
Relationship of Anthropology with other Disciplines
Discipline Similar interests

Sociology Social relations, organizations and behavior

* Non-industrial societies vs industrial societies
Ethnography/participant observation vs questionnaires, sampling
and statistical techniques
Psychology Psychological traits (cross-cultural)

Education Attention to culture

Research that extends beyond the classroom
Business Ethnography for business settings
Four Major Fields of Anthropology
1. Biological Anthropology/Physical Anthropology

➢ Studies human diversity in time and space

➢ Describes and explains the biological evolution in our species

(including closely related primates)
Major Areas of Biological Anthropology

● Paleoanthropology
➢ Study of human evolution as
revealed by the fossil record
➢ Relies heavily on comparative
anatomy and evolutionary
biology (and also archaeology,
geology, chemistry)
Major Areas of Biological Anthropology

● Primatology
➢ Study of primates, our
nearest relatives
➢ Anatomy, physiology,
genetics, and behavior of
apes, monkeys and
prosimians
Four Major Fields of Anthropology
2. Cultural Anthropology (Social Anthropology)
➢ Description and comparisons of culture

Culture is seen as adaptations of human

groups to the diverse ecosystems of the
earth.
Major Areas of Cultural Anthropology
•Ethnography
➢ Descriptive study of one culture, subculture, or microculture
based on fieldwork

•Ethnology
➢ Comparative study of cultures, presents analytical
generalizations about human culture
Four Major Fields of Anthropology
3. Archaeology
➢ Systematic study of the remains of
previous cultures as a means of
reconstructing the lifeways of people
who lived in the past.
➢ Material remains, tools, pottery,
hearth and enclosures, human, plant
and marine remains
Major Areas of Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
➢ Study of the remains of
cultures and subcultures that
have written records but
about which little, if anything,
was recorded
Major Areas of Archaeology
• Cultural Resource Management
(CRM) or Cultural Heritage
Management or Salvage
Archaeology
➢ the survey for and documentation
of archaeological sites instigated by
the need to examine sites before
they are destroyed by construction
or natural disasters
Major Areas of Archaeology
• Applied Archaeology
➢ Uses the methods of
archaeology to study
contemporary material with
the aim of solving specific
problems
Four Major Fields of Anthropology
4. Linguistics/Linguistic Anthropology
•Study language, investigates their structure, history and
relation to social and cultural contexts

Major Areas:
•Descriptive Linguistics – mechanics of language
•Historical Linguistics – reconstruction of languages, including
the development and relationship to other languages
 Four Fields of Anthropology
Field Other term Focus Areas
Biological Physical human diversity in time Paleoanthropology,
Anthropology Anthropology and space Primatology

Cultural Social Description and Ethnography, Ethnology

Anthropology Anthropology comparisons of culture
Archaeology Archaeological remains of previous Historical Archaeology,
Anthropology cultures to Cultural Resource
reconstructing the past Management, Applied
Archaeology
Linguistics Linguistic language Historical linguistics,
Anthropology descriptive linguistics
Lesson 3: Overview of Sociology
Sociology

➢ The study of social life, social change, and the social causes
and consequences of human behavior (American
Sociological Association)

➢ Identify underlying, recurring patterns of and influences on

social behavior and provides explanations for such patterns
(considering shared feelings/behavior not at individual
reasons)
Lesson 3: Overview of Sociology
Journalist
Report on current events/what is
happening/focus on an interest story
(recent news on baby abduction)
VS

Sociologist
Attempt to explain the abduction by looking
into social factors, i.e. poverty
What leads people to vote for the Aquinos
or the Marcoses? Or the Dutertes?
Relationship of Sociology with other Disciplines
Discipline Similar interests

Anthropology Social relations, organizations and behavior

Psychology Social psychology which studies how an individual’s behavior and

personality are affected by the social environment
Economics Effect of economic factors on the lives of various groups in society

Political Science voting patterns, concentration of political power, formation of

politically-based groups
History study of past events to explain current social behaviors and
attitudes
Sociological Imagination
▫This is the kind of thinking which sociologists use to
explain/understand social behavior.

▫Awareness of the relationship between the individual and

the wider society

▫is the ability to look beyond the individual as the cause for
success and failure and see how one’s society influences
the outcome.
Sociological Thinkers
•Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
▫ French philosopher who coined the term
sociology
▫ Father of Sociology
▫ Believed that just as science had
discovered the laws of nature, sociology
could discover the laws of human social
behavior and thus help solve society’s
problems
Sociological Thinkers
•Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
▫ Positivism
⚫ A system of thought in which scientific
observation and description is considered
the highest form of knowledge as opposed
to religious dogma
⚫ Basis for modern scientific research
Sociological Thinkers
•Harriet Martineau
(1802-1859)
▫ British citizen, traveled to the US as
an observer in 1834
▫ Fascinated in the newly emerging
culture in America
▫ Wrote Society in America (analysis
of the customs observed), became a
classic
▫ Wrote How to Observe Morals and
Manners, first sociological methods
book
Sociological Thinkers

•Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

▫ Viewed society as an entity larger than the sum
of its parts (sui generis, thing in itself)
and should be studied separately from the sum
of the individuals who compose it
Sociological Thinkers

•Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

▫ Society is external to individuals, yet its
existence is internalized in people’s minds –
people come to believe what society expects
them to believe
▫ Society is an integrated whole – each part
contributing to the overall stability of the
system (basis for functionalism)
Sociological Thinkers
•Karl Marx (1818-1883)
▫ Devoted to explaining how capitalism
shaped society
▫ Profit is produced through the exploitation
of the working class
▫ Economic organization of society was the
most important influence on what humans
think and how they behave
▫ Beliefs of the common people tended to
support the interests of the capitalist
system not the interests of the workers
themselves (controls production of goods
and ideas)
Sociological Thinkers •Max Weber (1864-1920)
▫ Theorized that society had 3 basic
dimensions (political, economic and
cultural)
▫ Credited with developing a
multidimensional analysis of society
▫ Verstehen, German word, refers to
understanding social behavior from the
point of view of those engaged in it; to
understand social behavior, one had to
understand the meaning that a behavior
had to people
Sociological Thinkers •Herbert Spencer (1864-1920)
▫ Believed that society can be
compared to a living organism
having different parts with their
own functions
▫ Each part of society performs its
own function and contributes to the
survival and stability of the whole
▫ Social problems work themselves
out through the process of natural
selection
Theoretical Frameworks in Sociology
•Different theoretical frameworks within sociology
makes different assumptions and provide different
insights about the nature of society

▫ Macrosociology – strive to understand the society as a whole

▫ Microsociology – center on face-to-face social interaction

Functionalism
• Interprets each part of society in terms of
how it contributes to the stability of the
whole

• Each part is functional for society –

contributes to the society as a whole

• Key part of the functionalist theory is that

when one part is not working
(dysfunctional), it affects all other parts
and creates social problems
Conflict theory
• Emphasizes the role of coercion and power - a person’s or group’s
ability to exercise influence and control over others, in producing social
order
• Functionalism emphasizes cohesion, conflict theory emphasizes strife
and friction
• Derived from the work of Karl Marx - pictures society as fragmented
into groups that compete for social and economic sources
• Social order is maintained not by consensus but by domination, with
power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic and
social resources.
Symbolic interactionist theory
• A theoretical framework that focuses on how individual
interactions between people influence their behavior and how
these interactions can impact society.
• views human beings as living in a world of meaningful objects
(objects can refer to materials things, other people, actions,
relationships or symbols)
• founded by George Herbert Mead who often focused on human
interactions within one-to-one situations and small groups.
Political Science
•Deals with the
systems of
government, the “Man is by nature a
analysis of political political animal.”
activity and behavior
Control and Politics Relationship

1. Power - ability to make us do something

2. Influence – affect the behavior of another
3. Authority – right to exercise the power and
influence of a given position that comes from
having been placed in that position according
to regular, known and widely accepted
procedures.
Control and Politics Relationship
4. Legitimacy – is the perception that power is
exercised in a rightful, justified and acceptable
manner.
5. Linkage – the ways in which decisions in one nation
may force desired decisions in another
-Refer to the way pressure groups, political parties
and electoral processes connect the general public
with the leaders who make policy decisions
Types of Major Political Ideologies
1. Anarchism

➢ having no government; each citizen is his own legislator

➢ a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be

unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on
voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
Types of Major Political Ideologies
2. Communism
➢ refers to community ownership of property, with the end goal of
having complete social equality via economic equality.

Private property inevitably leads to inequality – social, economic

and political inequality. Where wealth and social status are
unequally distributed, so too is political power. And where there is
inequality, inevitably there will be a few who exploit and oppress
the many. The essential prerequisite of individual freedom, then, is
economic equality.
Types of Major Political Ideologies
3. Socialism - refers to state ownership of common
property, or state ownership of the means of
production. A purely socialist state would be one in
which the state owns and operates the means of
production.
Types of Major Political Ideologies
4. Fascism
➢Latin ‘fasces’, the bundle of sticks used by the Romans
to symbolize their empire.
➢“a governmental system led by a dictator having
complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and
criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and
emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often
racism.”
Types of Major Political Ideologies

5. Capitalism
➢ an economic system in which all or most of the means of
production are privately owned and operated, and the
investment of capital and the production, distribution and
prices of commodities (goods and services) are determined
mainly in a free market, rather by the state. The means of
production are generally operated for profit.
References
Anderson M. & Taylor H. (2012). Sociology: The Essentials; 7th edition.
Wadsworth Publishing
Saluba D., Damilig A., Carlos A., Barlan J. & Cuadra J. (2016).
Understanding Culture, Society and Politics for Senior High School. Mutya
Publishing House Inc. Malabon City
The Sociological Imagination. Chapter One: The Promise by C. Wright
Mills (1959)
https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/cultural-resource-m
anagement-51
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/lecture%20notes/capitalism
%20etc%20defined.htm