UNDERSTANDING CULTURE

REVIEWER

CAHPTER 1. SOCIETY CULTURE AND POLITICS.

ANTHROPOLOGY Dubbed as the “Science of Humanity” is the study of human beings, their societies, and their
culture.
SOCIOLOGY is the scientific study of society its origin, development, networks, and function.
POLITICAL SCIENCE - it covers matters relating to the allocation of power, the roles and system of governance,
political behavior, and public policies.
SOCIETY - Defined as a group of people living together in organized communities, following common laws,values,
custom, and tradition.

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
FAMILY – Considered as the bedrock or foundation of the society.
EDUCATION - The formal institution designated to preserve and transfer cultural knowledge and identity to the
members of a society.
ECONOMY – The social institution generally responsible for the production and allocation of scarce resources and
service
GOVERNMENT – A social institution which states policy and law is enforced
MEDIA – The institution responsible for the circulation of vital information among the members of a society.
RELIGION – An organized collection of beliefs intended to explain the meaning, origin and purpose of life and
existence.

CULTURE
 Complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practice, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols and
knowledge that a person learns and share as a member of society.
 Culture as a system of ideas, feelings, and survival strategies shared in a particular group. Culture is the
structure that unifies a human group and gives it an identity as society.

ASPECT OF CULTURE
Shared and contested. No culture will be accepted by everyone in the society, some will always propagate the
beauty of a certain culture, while some contest and question its substance.
Culture, being a complex set of patterned social interactions, is learned and transmitted, through socialization or
enculturation. Through inheritance or through any biological process.
Most people adopt.
Culture also requires language.
Culture is also dynamic. Flexible, and adapt
MATERIAL CULTURE - Most culture manifest materially. Human’s material invemtions and inonovations such as
tools, weapons, instruments and the like are all part of material culture
NONMATERIAL – on the other hand refers to the intangible ideas that are from within a society. Including beliefs
perception, and tradition.
SUBCULTURE - may be defined as a modified culture within a larger culture practiced by a society.
COUNTER CULTURE – emphasizes conflict between two culture.
IDEAL CULTURE – the way in which people describe their way of life
REAL CULTURE – refers to the actual behavior of people in the society.
NORMS – one specially distinct element of culture. norms is society’s standard of acceptable behavior.
FOLLKWAYS – are norms which member of society have come to accept as the proper way of dealing with their
everyday living and social interaction.
MORES – means “custom”. Mores are custom or folkways a society needs to adhere.
LAWS – Formalized mores that are legislated, approved, and implemented in society.
BELIEF – as the means by which people make sense of their experiences, or ideas that people hold to be true,
factual and real. Scientific or nonscientific. Ex. Usog, sukob, bati, kulam.
SYMBOLS – are illustrations used to represent a particular meaning of something. Ex. Kissing the hand of elders as
respect.
LANGUAGE – defined as the system of symbols, that individuals utilize to communicate, interact, and share their
views.
VALUES – Serve as guiding principle in people’s lives. Values as guidelines for social living.
ETHNOCENTRISM - Basically pertains to the belief that ones native culture is superior to the most natural among
other cultures.
XENOCENTRISM – belief that one’s culture inferior to another.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM – the practice of viewing another culture by its own context rather than assessing it base
on standards of one’s own culture.

CHAPTER 2: HUMAN BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIOPOLITICAL EVOLUTION.

HOMINIZATION – Evolutionary development of human characteristics.

HOMONIDS - An organism belonging in the homo genus.
HOMINIZATION - An evolutionary development of human characteristics.
AUSTRALOPITHECINES/AUSTRALOPITHECUS - The predecessors of hominids.
AUSTRALOPITHECINES/AUSTRALOPITHECUS - The first to use stone tools for survival.
EVOLUTION The process by which beings develop from earlier beings.
CHARLES DARWIN He gives the precise theory on how humans must have evolved through Eons.

HUMANIZATION – is the long process of improving the humans everyday living through innovation.
MODERN HUMAN - The evolution of technology.
HOMO ERECTUS - The evolution of fire and hunting.
HOMO SAPIENS - The revolution of language.
HOMO HABILIS - The revolution of tool usage.
EARLY CIVILIZATION. The Chinese introduced the first compass.
INDUSTRIAL/MODERN PERIOD. US spacecraft Apollo 8 orbit the moon.
NEOLITHIC AGE. New stone tools like sickles and hoes were used.
EARLY CIVILIZATION. Chinese astronomers produce a star map.
INDUSTRIAL/MODERN PERIOD World War 1 and 2 happened during this time.
COOPER AGE Aboriginal Australians began using boomerangs.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD.Persian introduce 7-day week to China.
IRON AGE. Dynasties began ruling the kingdoms of China.
PALEOLITHIC AGE.Homo habilis created and used the first stone tools.
BRONZE AGE. In the middle East, the plow was invented.
CHAPTER 3: BECOMING A MEMBER OF SOCIETY

SOCIALIZATION – primarily consist of process and techniques observed by the society an acceptable, proper, and
desirable way of living.
PERSONALITY – as a body of person. The person acquired that body since his/her conception, and he/she has no
or less changing it complete.
IDENTITY – maybe linked to the sense of fashion, is the piece that observed by the people’s eyes.
DETERMINANT OF PERSONALITY FORMATION
BIOLOGICAL INHERITANCE (Nature) – the genetic characteristics of parents have something to do with his/her
personality.
ENVIRONMENT (Nurture) – environment can also influence personality formation and development.
GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT – The location, climate, topography, and natural resources in one’s society are all
parts of his/her environment.
CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT – Refers to the learned way of living- the norms, values, and beliefs one gets
accustomed in a society.
SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT – interactions happening in a particular group are all parts of a person’s social
environment.
CULTURE AND PERSONALITY - Cultural Environment is the main factor that determines the human behavior. They
believed that one’s personality development is a result of him/her learning his/her culture.
SOCIALIZATION PROCESS - is a continuous process, Socialization is based on the communication of meaning and
value.
Being Student, A Teacher, A Mother, Etc Are Examples of SOCIAL ROLES.
STATUS - on the other hand, is defined as person’s position in a social system.
ASCRIBE STATUS - is a predetermined status, which means that an individual with this type of status has no choice
to choose his/her position in the society
ACHIEVED STATUS is obtained by choice, such as club membership, educational degree, and more.
COMPLEMENTARY STATUS - pairs are expected to behave in different but compatible ways.
SYMMETRICAL STATUS - two or more holders of the same a status are expected to react to one another.
ENCULTURATION - This social process is defined as the manner by which a person learns or adopts the culture
followed by his/her co members in a society.
ACCULTURATION - The process in which a person adapts to the influence of another culture by borrowing many of
its aspects.
ASSIMILATION - An individual learns a new culture tending to lose entirely his/her previously held cultural identity.
COOPERATION - Rages from small to wide degrees- from the teamwork in a class, bonding among peers, helping
family members or relatives, and sharing expertise with fellow workers
DIFFERENTIATION - The ways through which major social spheres become disconnected in order to focus on
specialized roles and create a stronger organizational framework.
AMALGAMATION - It promotes acculturation and assimilation, and is the opposite of differentiation since it reduces
the number social units.
STRATIFICATION - It can be regarded as the division of society into social categories that in turn develop social
groups.
CONFLICT - “a struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resource”
COMPETITION - suggest the struggle between 2 or more person or groups that can be translated to innovation in the
long run.
SOCIAL CONTROL - Created Mechanism by which the social behavior of people is controlled to maintain order or
re-stablish order once rules have been broken.
DEVIANCE - As a violation of stablished social norms, whether folkways, mores or laws.
FOUR FORMS OF DEVIANCE –
INNOVATION – This form of deviance refers to the use of unadvised or sometimes illegal methods to achieve social
goals.
RITUALISM – from term itself, ritualist strictly observe the norms set by the society.
RETREATISM – this term of deviance happens when individuals try to escape from achieving social goals because
they cannot fulfill them, complete rejection of norms.
REBELLION –this form of deviance is usually observed in minorities promoting change and introducing alternatives
values and institution.

CHAPTER 4: ORGANIZATION OF A SOCIETY

GROUPS - A group is a number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and
consciously interact with one another.
PRIMARY GROUP - It is small groups. It is a small groups characterized by intimate. Face to face associations and
cooperation among the members.
SECONDARY – The secondary group refers to the formal and impersonal group wherein members have little social
intimacy or mutual understanding.
IN-GROUP – People feel they belong in a close group.
OUT-GROUP – The members of out-group feel as though they should not have been in that specific group
When a people use a group as a standard by evaluating its members and their behavior, sociologist call this group a
REFERENCE GROUP
NETWORKS – a network is a structure of connection of an individual with oneself, with other individuals, and groups.
MICROLEVEL NETWORK starts from a single individual, expanding his/her contacts with other individuals. A
barkada is example of Micro-level.
MESO-LEVEL – Associations, Such as Parent-Teacher Associations, belong in the meso-network level.
MACRO-LEVEL - where high density of connection is present, social networking sites and global organization is
both belong to macro-level.