UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Week 1: Defining Culture, Society, and Politics, and Understanding Cultural, Social, and Political Behavior and Phenomena
1. Defining Culture, Society, Politics, and other Salient Terminologies
a. Culture
i. the sum of an individual’s way of life, ranging from the food he/she
eats, the clothes he/she wears, and the house where he/she lives
ii. includes both the material and non-material things that he/she
possesses or acquires
1. non-material things
a. the norms and values as well as the intangible
aspects of his/her existence: music, dance,
poetry, and other forms of expressions that
showcase his/her creativity or artistry
iii. includes the fads and fashion trends, manners, and taboos, as well as
scientific knowledge and technology that manifests through tangible
aspects, such as architectural and engineering wonders, advancement
in medicine, and the breakthroughs in transportation and
communication
b. Society
i. an organized group/groups of interdependent people who share a
common territory, language, and culture, and who act together for
collective survival and well being
ii. the ways that people depend upon one another can be seen in different
social features, such as their economic, communication, and defense
systems
iii. they are also bound together by a general sense of common identity
and pride of place
c. Politics
i. the theory, art, and practice of government
1. the political institution
a. a relatively stable cluster of statutes, general
norms, and role behavior, which are involved in
the acquisition and exercise of power and
decision-making in society
b. the government is a concrete example of a political
institution
i. it exercises power especially in relation
to governance and decision-making
2. power
a. a status granted to individuals of institutions to
properly run the government and implement the
rule of the law in a society
b. the president and the members of the cabinet are
granted executive power: the right to execute
governance and implement laws
c. the senators and congressmen are given the
legislative power: to make and pass laws for the
executive to implement
d. the chief justice and the justices of the country are
granted judicial power: to interpret laws in
accordance with a society’s standards and norms
d. Gender
i. the socially-constructed characteristics of being male or female
ii. refers to society’s definition of humanity into two distinctive categories
based on sex
iii. serves as a guide on how males and females think and act about
themselves
1. the ways they interact with others
2. how they perform their various roles in society
iv. the difference between sex and gender is:
1. sex chiefly centers on the biological differences that between
male and female
a. hormonal distinctions as well as diverse levels of
sexual arousal segregate men from women
2. gender is the culturally-learned difference between men and
women
v. the level of masculinity and femininity varies form one culture to
another, especially on how society dictates one’s productive and
reproductive roles or gender roles
vi. there is a popular notion that gender deals only with difference,
wherein society constructs masculine and feminine people, however
in reality, it is how society confers power on each of these sexes that
leads to the development of a sense of empowerment and sensitivity
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e. Socioeconomic status c. farm employees, skilled and unskilled artisans,
i. the category of persons who have more or less the same service workers, and people who may be
socioeconomic privileges in a society unemployed or underemployed are those who
ii. the types of social class/status operate in varying forces and belong to indigent families or informal sectors fall
combinations at different times within a society or in diverse societies on the lower class
iii. in the Philippines, three types of social classes are identified: iv. other than the three types of social statues aforementioned, the Class
1. the upper class A. B. C. D, and E categorization is also used by some academic
a. consists of elite families institutions and think tanks in the Philippines
i. the nouveau riche (new rich)
1. those who have humble Percent Share in Average Annual
beginning and often Class
Number of Families Income (2011)
experiences rags-to-riches
turn of fortunes AB 1% PhP 1,857,000
ii. the traditional upper class
C 9% PhP 603,000
1. made up of descendants of
powerful elite families who D 60 % PhP 191,000
acquired their wealth through
inheritance and birthright E 30 % PhP 63,000
b. considered the most productive in terms of
resource generation and oftentimes very f. Ethnicity
successful in their respective fields of interests i. the expression of the set of cultural ideas held by a distinct and ethnic
and endeavors of indigenous group
2. the middle class 1. an ethnic group refers to the people who collectively and
a. composed of small business and industry publicly identify themselves as distinct and unique based on
operators, mostly managers, professionals, office distinguishable cultural features that set them apart from
workers, farm owners, and overseas workers with others, such as language, shared ancestry, common origin,
income sufficient enough to provide a comfortable customs, and traditions
and decent living 2. the seven major ethno-linguistic groups in the country are:
3. the lower class a. Tagalog
a. the largest in terms of number and relatively earns b. Cebuano
their living through: c. Ilocano
i. a family could hardly eat three decent d. Bisaya/Binisaya
meals a day e. Ilonggo/Hiligaynon
ii. the daily income of the breadwinner f. Bikol
could hardly feed the entire family g. Waray
iii. the breadwinner does not have a g. Religion
permanent job i. an organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the
b. poverty-stricken communities in the country are supernatural, along with the associated ceremonial or ritualistic
often attributed to the rising percentage of have- practices by which people try to interpret and/or influence aspects of
nots in the social class ladder the universe otherwise beyond human control
ii. the main religions practiced and observed in the country are:

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 1. each person has sets of expectations on how others will
1. Catholics 82.9 % respond and react accordingly
a. Roman Catholics 80.9 % 2. these expectations are commonly known, understood, and
b. Aglipayan 2% agreed upon by the group
2. Islam/Muslim 5% 3. they also apply to day-to-day normal activities like routines
3. Evangelical 2.8 % and daily chores although there are some which are only
4. Iglesia ni Cristo 2.3 % applicable to specific situations or occasions
5. Other Christian Denominations 4.5 % vii. although conformity to these expectations is not totally absolute, since
6. Others 1.8 % each member has a choice in the making, remaking, and unmaking of
7. Unspecified 0.6 % his/her own culture
8. Irreligious 0.1 % viii. more often than not, these expectations relatively become sufficiently
h. Exceptionality regulative and make behavior in society quite predictable
i. refers to the state of being intellectually gifted and/or having physically ix. these expectations comprise what society regards as the range of the
or mentally challenged conditions concerning: ideal and tolerable (or normal) behavior as opposed to the range of
1. personality/behavior, deviant (or abnormal) behavior that serves as the watershed of social
2. communication (learning disability, speech impairment, and norms of society
hearing problems), x. the two most adhered norms in society are:
3. intellect (mild intellectual and mental development 1. norms of appropriateness/norms of decency
disabilities), a. commonly exhibited on the type of clothing a
4. physical appearance (blind-low vision), or person wears in a specific occasion
5. a combination of more than one specific exceptionality or b. includes the manners and behaviors that show a
disability person’s refinement and civility (how to treat
i. Nationality guests cordially)
i. the legal relationship that binds a person and a country c. includes the use or appropriate words and
ii. allows the state to protect and have jurisdiction over a person gestures that convey politeness and courtesy
iii. citizenship or nationality gives a sense of identity and belongingness i. for Westerners, it is improper for a
person to be too close or be too near to
a guest when having a conversation
2. Understanding Cultural, Social, and Political Behavior and Phenomena ii. for Asians, they value proximity as a
a. Norms sign of intimacy or friendliness
i. serve as guide or models of behavior which tell us what is proper or d. colors signify different meanings to certain
improper, appropriate or inappropriate, right or wrong cultures
ii. they set limits within which individuals may seek alternative wats to i. the color blue is perceived by the British
achieve their goals as the color of royalty, but in India, it is
iii. every society has its own norms to follow the color pink
iv. often in the forms of rules, standards, or prescriptions that are strictly ii. the Chinese equate the color red to luck,
followed by people who adhere on certain conventions and perform but for others it means heroism, or war
specific roles 2. norm of conventionality
v. often indicate a society’s standards of propriety, morality, ethics, and a. beliefs and practices that are acceptable to certain
legality cultures but can be unfriendly to others
vi. in the conduct of social interaction:

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 i. Bagobo inhabitants in Davao bury their
dead within their neighborhood
ii. T’bolis of South Cotabato hang corpses
of dead infants on trees
iii. while traditional burial practices like
these preserve indigenous culture, they
are not approved by other societies,
especially lowland communities that
value sanitation and fear the spread of
virulent disease
b. respect for one’s religious belief are given
paramount considerations, especially those
beliefs that deal with dietary restrictions
i. Muslim believers are prohibited to eat
pork
ii. Hindus are not allowed to eat beef
iii. Jewish practitioners are only allowed
kosher food
xi. Individuals or groups can shape the norms and values of their society
through the concrete applications of their beliefs, norms, and values in
their everyday lives
xii. through the process of experimenting and appropriating these norms
and values in society, one can gain wisdom at looking into the
significance of norms and values whether as sets of laws or rules or
guiding principles that regulate actions or as social mechanisms that
warrant approval or recognition in the community
3. Social control
a. a set of means that ensure people behave in expected and approved ways
b. every society has a form of social control
c. all norms, whether codified or not, are supported by sanctions: rewards for
conformity, and punishments for non-conformity
d. most types of social control are not exercised through the direct influence of other
people
e. thus, growing up in a society entails the internalization of norms—the
unconscious process of including conformity to the norms of one’s culture and
as part of one’s personality, so that an individual often follows social expectations
automatically and without question
4. Conformity
a. the state of having internalized norms as part of the social expectation
5. Conventional norms
a. as individuals and groups conform to an established norm, the norm then
becomes a convention
b. conventional norms exert more sanctions in society as it is tantamount to public
approval and recognition
6. Deviance
a. a form of behavior that is relatively or distinctly set away from the norm
b. despite the tendency of social control to enforce conformity as a potent
mechanism in the socialization process, deviant behavior or nonconformity is still
evident in almost all societies
c. deviant and nonconformist behavioral patterns can be tolerated, approved, or
disapproved depending on societal views
d. deviance is divided into two types:
i. Formal deviance
1. includes actions that violate enacted laws, such as robbery,
theft, graft, rape, and other forms of criminality
ii. Informal deviance
1. refers to violations to social norms that are not codified into
law, such as pricking one’s nose, belching loudly, and
spitting on the street, among others
e. deviance is also seen as a form of power struggle; determining what is deviant
and what is not is closely tied with the existing power structures of a society
i. in most capitalist countries, laws often tend to favor the interests of the
wealthy and powerful
7. Taboo
a. practices that are considered by some societies as normative, traditional or
desirable, but for other societies it is viewed as deviant
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