Understanding Culture, Society and Politics Lecture 2 PDF

**Understanding Culture, Society and Politics** **Lecture 2** **Part 1** **Society** is a group of people interacting with each other and having a common culture; sharing common geographical or territorial domain, and having relatively common aspirations. **CHARACTERISTICS THAT CONSTITUTE SOCIET...

**Understanding Culture, Society and Politics** **Lecture 2** **Part 1** **Society** is a group of people interacting with each other and having a common culture; sharing common geographical or territorial domain, and having relatively common aspirations. **CHARACTERISTICS THAT CONSTITUTE SOCIETY** 1. **Likeness** The likeness or similarity of the members of a social group is the primary source of their mutuality. In the beginning, a common feeling of similarity between and among the members of the group may be due to a presumed or real common lineage, tribal affiliation, family advantage or compactness. Likeness implies mutuality, and that means society. 2. **The Reciprocal Awareness** Reciprocity is generated by likeness. Once some are aware of the mutual likeness, members of the society definitely distinguish themselves from others who are not like them. The issue of likes and dislikes was associated with social growth. This kind of consciousness can make sense of likeness. Reciprocal response is the foundation of all social action. This makes we-feeling possible. 3. **Differences** People have likeness but have differences also. No two people are similar in their nature. On the biological distinctions between the sexes, the social structure of humanity is centered. With variations in ideas, viewpoints, etc., the culture of society prospers. In terms of desires, capabilities, abilities and tendencies, people vary. Nevertheless, such differences do not necessarily imply conflict; instead the social organization is further strengthened by it. 4. **Interdependence** It is impossible for man to fulfill all his desires and needs in isolation. For survival, he needs the help of others. Society meets all the needs of individuals. For instance, the institution of family rests on the biological interdependence of the sexes. None of the two sexes is self-complete and therefore, each seeks fulfillment through the help of the other. Even social groups and countries rely on each other nowadays. 5. **Cooperation** No society can survive without cooperation. They will not lead a happy and comfortable life if the members of society do not work together for shared purposes. Cooperation prevents reciprocal destructiveness and negative economic outcomes. When men understand that they have mutual interests, cooperation occurs. 6. **Conflict** Not only cooperation, but also conflict is required for society to form. In a stable society, they must coexist. Conflict is a striving phase by which all things have come into being. A harmonious world free of dispute is essentially an impossibility. There is no denying the fact that society needs both peace and disharmony, cooperation and conflict for its formation and growth. **TYPES OF SOCIETIES** A. **Pre-Industrial Societies** The key economic practice of pre-industrial civilization is food production, which is carried out with the use of human and animal labor. These cultures are in turn, subdivided according to their level of technology and their food producing processes. Examples of these are hunting and gathering societies, pastoral societies, horticultural societies, agricultural societies, and feudal societies. **Types of Pre-Industrial Societies** **1. Hunting and Gathering Societies.** The main method of food production in these communities is collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals on a daily basis. As nomads, humans gather and search for food. **2. Pastoral Societies.** The dominant method of food production during this time was pastoralism or animal husbandry, raising livestock on natural pastures. It was more successful than the method of subsistence. **3. Horticultural Societies.** Such communities had studied how to cultivate fruits and vegetables grown in the garden plots that later became their main food source. **4. Agrarian Societies.** Societies that implemented technical advancements in agriculture to grow crops over a wide area. This provided regular food provision since production was made in larger quantities in regular intervals. **5. Feudal Society.** Several groups became wealthy and willing to acquire lands as an offshoot of the increased food chain and proclaimed them to be their own territory. This system is based on land ownership. B. **Industrial Societies** In the 15th and 16th centuries, an economic system called capitalism developed that started to replace feudalism. Capitalism, which is the acquisition or amassing of wealth predominated industrial societies. It is marked by open competition, free trade and the freedom to possess private property. More economic activity in European societies was encouraged by the influx of foreign metals, silk and spices into the economy. C. **Post-Industrial Societies** More advanced economies emerged which was known as post-industrial societies dominated by information, services, and high technology. The production of commodities was within the hallmarks of these societies. Advanced industrial economies moved toward rising or increasing the output in the service sectors over manufacturing and production. D. **Modern Societies** Mass production of all essential products characterizes highly industrialized modern society, such that the subsistence level of food production is now a thing of the past. Items are sold in massive quantities on the marketplace. People usually do not need to subsist on their own nowadays and instead buy things that they cannot manufacture individually to survive. **Part 2** **Culture** Culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" according to Edward B. Taylor. The Cambridge English Dictionary states that culture is "the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time." **CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE** 1. **Culture is learned.** The different habits, skills, values and knowledge are acquired or learned in the course of a person's life. This is what we call enculturation, the acquisition of culture that enable men to become active members of their communities. 2. **Culture is transmitted** Culture within a social group is transmitted to succeeding generations through imitation, instruction, and example, in the form of attitudes, values, beliefs and behavioral scripts are passed onto and taught to individuals and groups. 3. **Culture is adaptive.** All culture is changes. Changes in the environment are caused by inventions and discoveries. Man is capable of adjusting to his environment. Adaption is the process of change in response to a new environment. It is one component of acculturation, which relates to the change in a group's culture or the change in individual psychology in response to a new environment. - **Material culture** deals with the physical culture including contemporary technology, artifacts relics, fossils, and other tangible remains of cultural development, past and present. Material culture refers to the tangible and concrete objects produced by main in the process of social development. - **Non-material culture** deals with the intangibles including values, norms, beliefs, traditions, and customs that collectively hold a society and shape individuals are they interact within society. **ELEMENTS OF NON-MATERIAL CULTURE** 1. **Beliefs** - are man's perception about the reality of things and are shared ideas about how the world his environment operates. They are reflective of highly valued feelings about the world in which they live. Beliefs are influenced by emotions, attitudes, values ideology and religion. 2. **Folkways** - are fairly weak forms of norms, whose violation is generally not considered serious within a particular culture. They are habits, customs, and repetitive patterns of behavior. 3. **Values** - refer to the broad preferences of person on the appropriate course of action or decisions he has to take. Values are a reflection of a person's sense of right and wrong. A person's values sociologically influence his attitudes and behavior. 4. **Attitude** - Attitude is a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person\'s behavior. 5. **Laws**- are system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties. 6. **Norms** - are society's standard of morality, conduct, propriety, ethics and legality. Norms vary according to age, gender, religion, politics, economics ethnicity or race of the group. 7. **Artifacts** - An artifact is an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. 8. **Symbols** -- these are things that represents your country or culture by association, resemblance, or convention 9. **Knowledge** - can be natural, supernatural, magical or technical. These are the body of facts and beliefs that people accumulate over time. 10. **Ideas** - comprise man's concepts of his physical, social and cultural world as manifested in people's beliefs and values.