Lesson 1: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics PDF

**CULTURAL VARIATION** - refers to the rich diversity in social practices that different cultures exhibit around the world. Cuisine and art all change from one culture to the next, but so do gender roles, economic systems, and social hierarchy among any number of other humanly organiz...

**CULTURAL VARIATION** - refers to the rich diversity in social practices that different cultures exhibit around the world. Cuisine and art all change from one culture to the next, but so do gender roles, economic systems, and social hierarchy among any number of other humanly organized behaviors. **SOCIAL DIFFERENCES** - It refer to situations **where people are discriminated on the basis of social, economic and racial inequality.** In other words, one class, group or culture is given preference over another on the basis of their social, economic, cultural or racial inequality. **SOCIAL CHANGE** - as changes in **human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions**. These changes occur over time and often have profound and long-term consequences for society. **POLITICAL IDENTITIES** - is a form of social identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power. This can include identification with a political party, but also positions on specific political issues, nationalism, inter-ethnic relations or more abstract ideological themes. **NATURE, GOALS AND PERSPECTIVES IN ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE** 1. **ANTHROPOLOGY** - Anthropology is the study of people and their culture. It uses a special research method known as ethnography in which anthropologists are required to live with their subject of study for a long period of time in order to make their writings more reliable and credible. - Anthropology started as a science during the time of exploration when European countries started to colonize what they considered as primitive societies where people were believed to be savages and barbaric. - Let it be clear that anthropology started as the study of non European people by European people (outward). - During their colonial encounter with these people, Europeans started to make a written records about non-Europeans. They focus on kinship, language, race, religion, cultural perceptions, and others. - Biological anthropology refers to the study of human origins (genetics, race, evolutions, fossils, primates). - Cultural anthropology is the study of living people (religion, social system, language, clothing, foods, beliefs, traditions, etc). - Linguistics is the study of language, its evolution, its connection to other languages, and others. - Archeology refers to the study of dead culture (religion, social system, language, how they dress, foods, beliefs, traditions, etc). **The goals of anthropology are the following:** - See the commonalities among people (tradition, language, kinship, etc.). - Look at what makes us the same to understand more about human nature. Discover what makes people different from each other in order to understand and preserve diversity - Produce new knowledge and new theories about mankind and behavior. - Look at one's own culture more objectively. 2. **SOCIOLOGY** - Sociology is the study of society, patterns of social interactions, and culture of everyday life. - Unlike anthropology, the knowledge created by sociology is used to understand one's own society. - Sociologists use qualitative research methods in doing their studies. - Sociology started as the study of European society by European people (inward). - Anything in a society that influences people's lives can be subjects of inquiry, like different social phenomena, issues, and problems. - Sociologists can also look into things that influence life like family background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, social classes, religion, gender, beliefs, traditions, norms, among others. - Some fields are social organization, social psychology, applied sociology, and human ecology - Sociologists use qualitative research methods in doing their studies. - Anything in a society that influences people's lives can be subjects of inquiry, like different social phenomena, issues, and problems. **The goals of Sociology are the following:** - Obtain possible theories and principles about society as well as various aspects of social life. - Study the nature of humanity to further examine our roles within a society. - Appreciate that all things in society are interdependent. - Expose our minds to different perspectives in attaining truth. 3. **POLITICAL SCIENCE** - It is a study of politics and power from Domestic and International. It entails understanding political ideas, ideologists, institution, policies and behavior as well as groups, classes, government, diplomacy, law and war. - Politics is an activities associated with governance of a country especially the debate or conflict among parties hoping to achieve power. - Politics impacts our lives directly or indirectly, whether we are aware of its effects or not. - (If there is a crime that took place, we call the police, and this scheme is part of the government. If there was a fire that occurred, we call the fire department, and that's also a part of the government. Military is government as well, let alone our civil liberty and our rights which have influences on us daily. In school, you were asked to read by heart the Constitution. When you are apprehended by an authority, you asked your violation and insisted on your legal rights. Even inside your house, there are still set of rules that are being enforced and followed.) - All these things are related to a field called Political Science. - **Aristotle in his book "Politics" stated that Man is a political animal. It means that it is our nature to live in a society and to have power over another.** - Political Science is the systematic study of government, politics, and political power. **The Goals of Political science are to:** - Make people a better citizen. - Keep social order and harmony among different groups of people. - Protect the rights of an individual. - Avoid conflict and promote cooperation among people. **Change is inevitable because it is the law of nature.** Similarly, society does not remain static. It changes, as the world continues to change, most especially with the advent of new discoveries in science and technology. It is not new to us how our ways of life before is no longer the ways of life of today's generation. People should be open for changes. It is very important that we understand and accept the challenges these changes are imposing on us and recognize all the factors that brought these changes.