Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics PDF

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, Social Differences: AND POLITICS - Class - Age CULTURE, SOCIETY, POLITICS - Race Culture - customs, beliefs, social norms, - Abili...

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, Social Differences: AND POLITICS - Class - Age CULTURE, SOCIETY, POLITICS - Race Culture - customs, beliefs, social norms, - Abilities / Education and traits that define a social, racial, or - Gender religious group. Social Change - refers to the alteration in Two Type of Culture: the behavioral patterns, cultural values, and 1. Material - created by a human and is norms of the people which yield long-term tangible. effects on significant changes in cultural, 2. Non-Material - type of culture that is behavioral, social, and value system of the being learned and observed by humans. people Key Elements of Culture: Factors that Affect Social Change 1. Symbols and Languages - used to - Demographic Process communicate with one another as well as to - Technological Innovation shape the thoughts of the people. - Economic Processes 2. Religion - it dictates the moral belief of - Physical Changes the people which guide their everyday lives. - Social Movement 3. Values and Beliefs - act as guidelines for the people in reference to what is good, Politics - “politika” in Greek which means desirable, important, and worthwhile. affair of cities. It pertains to achieving and 4. Custom - practice or behavior that is exercising governance over a human common to a particular class or group of community people that it becomes an unwritten law. 5. Laws and Politics - laws govern the Political Identities - concerned with the everyday decision making of the people difference between groups of people, while politics govern the people depending allowing individuals to express their on the characteristics of the people who differences. lead them. Sources of Political Identities (by Harriet Society - “socius” in Latin meaning Bradley) comrade and friend. It means a group of - Class people involved in social interactions. - Age - Gender Social Differences - the difference among - Race / Ethnicity individuals on the basis of social characteristics and qualities. CHANGE Three Types of Change: 1. Social Change - any observed difference in relationships of social groups. 2. Political Change - the disruption in individuals of older generation), while other government leading to drastic changes in cultural leadership and politics behaviors are handed up to elders. 3. Cultural Change - natural phenomenon Transmission of culture is made possible by in society that causes change in norms, language. Language is the main vehicle of attitudes, traditions, and way of life of a culture. Transmission of culture may take group of people place also through imitation as well as through instruction. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE 6. Culture is continuous and cumulative - 1. Culture is social because it is the Culture exists as a continuous process. In product of behavior - Culture does not its historical growth, it tends to become exist in isolation. It is a product of society. It cumulative. Ralph Linton called culture “the develops through social interaction. No man social heritage” of man. No culture ever can acquire culture without association with remains constant or permanent. It is subject others. to slow but constant variation. Likewise, 2. Culture varies from society to society - culture is responsive to the changing Every society has a culture of its own that conditions of the physical world; hence, it is differs from other societies. The culture of dynamic. every society is unique by itself. Cultures 7. Culture is gratifying and idealistic - are not uniform. Cultural elements like Culture provides proper opportunities for the customs, traditions, morals, values, and satisfaction of our needs and desires. Our beliefs are not constant. needs, both biological and social, are 3. Culture is shared - Culture is not fulfilled in cultural ways. Culture consists of something that an individual alone can the intellectual, artistic, and social ideals, possess. Culture, in a sociological sense, is and institutions where members of the shared. For example, people of a society society professes and strives to confirm. share all customs, traditions, beliefs, ideas, values, morals, etc. CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND 4. Culture is learned - Culture is not ETHNOCENTRISM inborn. It is learned. Unlearned behavior Ethnocentrism - a belief that one’s own then, is not culture is better than others. They culture. Shaking hands, saying thanks, etc. tend to compare, evaluate, and even judge are cultural behaviors. Not all behaviors are other people’s ways based on the values learned, but most of these can be. Combing and standards set in one’s own culture. hair, standing in line, telling jokes, criticizing Their worldview is based on the beliefs, the president, and going to movies all assumptions, expectations, and values constitute behaviors that need to be shaped by one’s language, behavior, learned. customs, values, religions and other 5. Culture is transmitted among aspects. members of society - Cultural ways are learned by people from others. Many of Cultural Relativism - Cultural relativism is these ways are handed down from elders, a belief that cultures are equally complex. parents, teachers, and others (most likely There is no such thing as superior or inferior culture. Cultural relativism is very important in studying the culture of other people. It is a hardness and it was used to make way of viewing the beliefs, values, and ornaments. practices of a culture from its own viewpoint. - The Bronze Age: bronze is an alloy Another way to say this is that others should of copper and tin and it is harder and understand an individual’s beliefs and stronger than copper. Several activities in terms of that person’s own eastern Mediterranean peoples culture. discovered this metallurgy and progressed rapidly. HUMAN CULTURAL EVOLUTION - Iron Age 1. Paleolithic Period -The term "Paleolithic," coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865, comes from the Greek words palaios (old) and lithos (stone), meaning "Old Stone Age." This period, which began 2.5 million years ago, is marked by cold climates and lower ocean levels, also known as the Ice Age. People were nomadic, using simple tools and weapons made of unpolished stone. Caves SOCIAL GROUPS provided shelter, and they discovered how Social Group - a group is composed of two to use fire for warmth and cooking. Humans or more persons interacting with each other lived in small groups, surviving by gathering and guided by a set of norms. It is also plants, fishing, hunting, and scavenging. defined as a specified number of individuals 2. Neolithic Revolution - Also called the where each recognizes members as distinct First Agricultural Revolution, this period from non-members. marked the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement, Basic Classifications of Social Groups leading to population growth. People began 1. Primary Groups - marked by concern for depending on domesticated plants and one another, shared activities and culture, animals. They developed crafts like pottery and long periods of time spent together. and weaving, and created boats for They are influential in developing an transportation and fishing. Moving from a individual’s personal identity. The goal of nomadic lifestyle, humans built villages and primary groups is actually the relationships towns, establishing more sedentary themselves rather than achieving some societies. other purpose. The examples of a primary 3. Age of Metals - (4000 B.C – 1500 B.C). group but not limited to be your family and The used of metal such as bronze, copper, childhood and close friends. The concept of and iron produced a new historical the primary group was introduced by development from the cradle civilization of Charles Cooley in hisbook, Social Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia including India, Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind. and China which later spread throughout - Sample Groups: Family, Play group, Asia. Village/Neighborhood, Work-team - The Copper Age: copper was the first known metal, it is of a low  6. Network - a collection of people tied 2. Secondary Groups - involve weak together by a specific pattern of emotional ties and little personal knowledge connections. They can be characterized by of one another. In contrast to primary the number of people involved, as in the groups, secondary groups don’t have the dyad (by twos) and triad (by threes), but goal of maintaining and developing the also in terms of their structures (who is relationships themselves. These groups are connected to whom) and functions (what based on usual or habitual interests or flows across ties). Networks indeed, are affairs. It includes groups in which one able to do more things and different things exchanges explicit commodities, such as than individuals acting on their own could. labor for wages, services for payments, Networks have this effect, regardless of the and such. content of the connections or persons - Sample Groups: Nation, Church involved. Hierarchy, Professional Association, - Example: Family Members, Friends, Corporation, University classes, Work Colleagues, Classmates Athletic teams, and groups of coworkers. CULTURAL PROCESSES 3. In-group - belonging to the same group Three Cultural Processes as others who share the same common 1. Enculturation - is the process by which bond and interests who are more likely to people learn the dynamics of their understand each other refers to an in- surrounding culture and acquire values and group. Sample norms appropriate or necessary to that - Groups: Sports team, Unions and culture and its worldviews. Sororities 2. Acculturation - is a process of social, 4. Out-group - those who do not belong to psychological, and cultural change that the in-group are part of the out-group, which stems from the balancing of two cultures exist in the perceptions of the in group while adapting to the prevailing culture of members and takes on social reality as a the society. result of behavior by in-group members who 3. Assimilation - involves the complete use the out group as a negative point of adoption of the ways of life of the new reference. cultural group, resulting in the assimilated 5. Reference Groups - a collection of group losing nearly all of its original or people that we use as a standard of native culture. comparison for ourselves regardless of whether we are part of that group. We rely GOVERNMENT BRANCHES on reference groups to understand social norms, which then shape our values, ideas, behavior, and appearance. This means that we also use them to evaluate the relative worth, desirability, or appropriateness of these things. - Sample Groups: parents, siblings, teachers, peers, associates and friends. RELIGIONS