Understanding Culture, Society and Politics - PDF

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics Lesson 2: Defining Culture and Society from the Perspectives of Anthropology and Sociology  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to: 1. D...

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics Lesson 2: Defining Culture and Society from the Perspectives of Anthropology and Sociology  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to: 1. Define society and discuss its essential characteristics and elements; 2. Define culture and discuss its various aspects and components; and 3. Discuss ethnocentrism and cultural relativism as orientations in viewing other cultures.  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Look for the words that are related to Culture and Society  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Look for the words that are related to Culture and Society  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics WHAT IS SOCIETY? Is a group of individuals sharing a common culture, geographical location, and government  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics SOCIETY Society comes from the Latin root Socius, signifying "buddy" or "being with others.“ Is a group of individuals sharing a common culture, geographical location, and government.  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics How Sociologist view Society? Sociologists views society as a complex system of interconnected parts. 1. Individual are shaped by society 2. Society is shaped by individuals  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics SOCIOLOGIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES “I am the Founder of Sociology; I coined the word sociology from the Latin word ‘Socius’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ to describe the science of social life. Society is Auguste Comte  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics SOCIOLOGIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES “For me, society was the patterned interactions among members of a group, the sum of responses to ordinary life events.” George Simmel  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics A society is characterized by the presence of the following elements: a. Social Solidarity , whereby members of the community live together for mutual benefit b. Shared identity and culture among members that serve as basis for their patterns of action and behavior; c. A common language; d. A large population and the ability to sustain succeeding generations of members; e. Definite geographical area  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics - Came from the Latin expression 'clique or cultus’ means significance plowing, or developing or refining and love. In total it implies developing and refining. - Culture is one of the important bases that define and influence a society. - It refers to the set of beliefs, ideas, values, practices, knowledge, history and shared experiences, attitudes, as well as material objects  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics - Culture is a lifestyle. The food you eat, the garments you wear, the language you talk in what's more, the God you love all are parts of culture.  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Culture has two types: 1. Material Culture 2. Non-material Culture  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics COMPONENTS OF CULTURE 1. Technology - The combination of objects and rules 2. Symbols - Anything that represents something else; the very basis of human culture 3. Language - The organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics COMPONENTS OF CULTURE 4. Values - Are shared beliefs about what is good or bad; the type of values held by a group determines their character 5.Norms - Shared rules of conduct a. Folkways b. Mores  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Folkways are norms that describe socially acceptable behavior but do not have great moral significance attached to them. Mores are norms that have great moral significance attached to them that when violated endangers society. (e.g. dishonesty, fraud, killings)  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics ASPECTS OF CULTURE a. Dynamic, flexible and adaptive b. Shared and contested (given the reality of social differentiation) c. Learned through socialization or enculturation d. Patterned social interactions e. Integrated and at times unstable f. Transmitted through socialization/enculturation g. Requires language and other forms of  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics CULTURE is learned Society functions and through enculturation & maintains social order socialization through social interaction Enculturation – the Pattern of Social Interaction process of acquiring and 1. Exchange internalizing culture 2. Cooperation Socialization – The 3. Competition process of learning and 4. Coercion accepting social 5. Conflict behavior, values, beliefs, Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics D. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism as Orientations in Viewing Other Cultures (Response to Variation) Ethnocentrism – diminishes or invalidates “other” ways of life and creates a distorted view of one’s own. As a result, this could affect individual behavior and relationships with other cultures.  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Extreme forms of ethnocentrism have led to wars or colonization William Howard Taft, for example once referred to Filipino as the Americans’ “little brown brothers” who needed to be supervised by the United States of America in establishing a society and government that approximates “Anglo American standards”.  Understanding of Culture, Society and Politics Cultural Relativism - Recognizes and accepts the cultural differences between societies. - This view believes that every aspect of a culture can be justifies by the context in which the culture has been formed. - Interaction between members of different societies is more likely to succeed if everybody is