LESSON 3: CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (PART 1: CULTURE)

CULTURE
- Edward Burnett (E.B.) Tylor, founder of Cultural Anthropology, defines culture as:
‘“…that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

- E.B. Tylor’s definition of culture include or imply that:

o Culture includes mental capabilities (thoughts)
o Culture involves behavior (actions)
o Culture is shared
o Culture is social (exists within groups)

- E.B. Tylor was the first to specify that culture is learned and acquired, as
opposed to being a biological trait.

ASPECTS OF CULTURE
1. Dynamic, Flexible, & Adaptive
 Culture is not static, it changes over time
2. Shared & Contested (given the reality of social differentiation)
(e.g. highly religious vs non-religious, liberals vs conservative)
3. Transmitted through socialization
(e.g. parent to child, teacher to student, friend to friend)
4. Learned through socialization
(e.g. interacting with studious students = higher chances of becoming
studious = excelling academically)
5. Patterned social interactions
(e.g. “know my friends and you’ll know me”,
“the apple does not fall far from the tree”)
6. Integrated and at times unstable
(e.g. when social institutions are integrated, a change in one affects other
institutions, thus making it unstable:
- Women empowerment in the economy changed family dynamics)
7. Requires language and other forms of communication
 Language/means of communication is necessary in order for culture
to be transmitted from one group to another
(e.g. Death of Baybayin, the pre-Spanish writing system in PH)
ETHNOCENTRISM
- The idea that one’s own culture is the main standard by which other cultures may
be measured
- An “Ethnocentric” is concerned with how similar others’ cultural practices,
symbols, and beliefs are to their own
- Ethnocentrism often leads to pride, vanity, belief in one’s own group’s superiority,
and contempt of outsiders
(e.g. Yaeba or multi-layered tooth may be absurd for Filipinos who spend
thousands of Pesos for braces)
(e.g. Filipinas injecting/using whitening products may be absurd for Americans
who spend thousands of Dollars for tanning salons)

CULTURAL RELATIVISM
- the idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based
on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another.
(e.g. Yaeba or multi-layered tooth is considered beautiful among the Japanese)
(e.g. The whiter/fairer the skin color, the more beautiful the woman is for
Filipinos)