CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION TO
CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND
POLITICS
 ACTIVITY #01
◦ Directions:
◦ 1. Get one whole sheet of paper.
◦ 2. Write your name inside the circle.
◦ 3. Draw figure 1 on the sheet of paper
◦ 4. Write the following information of
yourself in the 4 spaces:
◦ a. gender
◦ b. socio-economic class ( rich/average/poor)
◦ c. ethnicity (tagalog/bisaya/ilocano etc.)
◦ d. religion
◦Starting points for the
understanding of
culture, society and
politics
A society’s way of life
It includes how people constructed their life,
customs, values, norms, religions,
ceremonies, show the way they dress, eat,
drink etc.

culture includes all our

behaviours and
structured all our lives
 An organized group or groups of interdependent people who share a
common territory, language and culture, and who act together for
collective survival and well-being.

According to MacIver and Page, it is a web of social

relationship, which is always changing.
 In reality, there can be no
culture without a society
and so far there are no
known human societies that
do not exhibit culture
( Haviland, et.al:312)
“theory, art, and practice of government”
 • Are essential in understanding human
behavior and social groups
• They are interrelated and to some extent
reflective of each other
 Task #02
1) Try introducing yourself to your seatmate by telling him or her at least five of your
identities
2) Compare your list with that of your seatmate
3) What similarities and differences in identity do you have?
4) How similar or different is your list with the rest of the class?
5) Do you see the possibility of your identities changing in the future?
 Is the distinctive
characteristic that
defines an individual or
is shared by those
belonging to a
particular group.
People may have
multiple identities
depending on the
groups to which they
belong.
F S
A C
M H
I O
L O
y l
 It is continuously
It can also shaped and re
change over shaped through
the passage of
the course of
time as well as
a person’s the over all
lifetime. context of one’s
life cycle.
They shaped both It enables a
individual and person to
group behavior as appreciate what
well as people’s makes him or her
views about other similar to and
and society. different from other
people.
 It serves as a guide
It refers to on how male and
society’s division of females think and act
humanity into two about themselves; the
distinctive way they interact with
categories based others and how they
on sex. perform their various
roles in the society.
◦It refers to the category of persons who
have more or less
 UPPER CLASS
*New rich ( nouveau rich)
*traditional upper class
With 1.8 million pesos income a
year

MIDDLE CLASS
With 190 000 pesos income per year

LOWER CLASS
62 000 income per year
• Refers to people who collectively and publicly identify themselves
as distinct and unique based on distinguishable cultural features
that set them apart from others. ( Haviland, etal.: 313)
• It is the expression of the set of cultural ideas held by distinct
ethnic or indigenous group.
◦Is an organized system of ideas
about the spiritual sphere or the
supernatural, along with associated
ceremonial or ritualistic practices by
which people try to interpret and or
influence aspects of the universe
other wise beyond human control
(Havinland, et.al.: 554)
◦Refers to the state of being intellectually
gifted and or having physically or mentally
challenged conditions concerning
personality/ behavior, communication.
◦The legal relationship that binds a person
and a country.
 Serves us guides or models of behavior which tell us
what is proper or improper, appropriate or
inappropriate, right or wrong.
 Are often in the form of rules, standards, or
prescriptions that are strictly followed by people who
adhere on certain conventions and performs specific
roles.
ACTIVITY #03
ACTIVITY #04
Directions: Based on the output from the previous activity, the teacher will ask the
students to discuss their observations based on the following questions:
1. What are the similarities and differences of every individual?
2. Do these similarities and differences affect the life of the whole community? Why?

The teacher will give each group a time frame of 2 minutes to present their answers
group outputs. Processing of answers shall follow.
ACIVITY #05
 Social
Cultural
Political Change
Refers to variations or modifications in the patterns of social
organization, of sub groups within a society, or the entire
society itself.
 It is the change that occurs in the realm of civil and political
societies and in the structure of relations among civil society,
political society and the state.

 It refers to the alterations affecting new traits or trait
complexes and change in a culture’s content and structure.
 Anthropology
Sociology
Political science
 ANTHROPOLOGY
• Is the scientific study of the origins of
humans, how we have changed over the years,
and how we relate to each other, both within
our own culture and with people from other
cultures.
• Anthropology is Arts and Science.
• The term originates from two words in Greek:
• Anthropos meaning “man” as in “human being”
• • logos meaning “study”.
THERE ARE FOUR MAIN SUBDIVISIONS
(AREAS) IN THE STUDY OF ANTHROPOLOGY:

Physical Anthropology
Archeology
Cultural Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Biological anthropology, also known as physical

anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the

biological and behavioral aspects of human beings.

Physical anthropologists focus on the evolution of human

anatomy and physiology, rather than culture.

ARCHAEOLOGY
• Archaeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through material
remains. It is a subfield of anthropology, the study of all human culture
• Archaeology offers a unique perspective on human history and culture.
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
 a branch of anthropology
focused on the study of cultural
variation among humans
Cultural anthropologists study
such topics as how people make
their living, how people interact
with each other, what beliefs
people hold, and what institution
organize people in the society
 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
It seeks to understand human language, written and
non written, spoken and non-verbal. The study of
how languages change over time is termed historical
linguistics.
Explores how language shapes communication,
forms social identity and group membership,
organizes large-scale cultural beliefs and
ideologies, and develops a common cultural
representation of natural and social worlds.
 FRANZ BOAS
 “Father of American Anthropology”
 He believed that the same method and
strategy could be applied in measuring culture and
human behavior while conducting research
among humans including the uniqueness of their
cultures.
 ALFRED KROEBER AND
WILLIAM HENRY
-indigenous rights like traditional cultural
preservation and ancestral domain
of the American tribes
 SOCIOLOGY
• Focuses on the ubiquity of social forces in
• unlikely forms: sex, gender, religion, class,
• race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and the
• like.
• “the study of human social life,
• groups and society”
AUGUSTE COMTE (1798-1857)
“FATHER OF SOCIOLOGY”
He believed that society
operates according to
certain laws, just as the
physical world operates
according to gravity and
other laws of nature.
HERBERT SPENCER
(1820- 1903)
“Survival of the fittest”
He likened society to an
organism with a life and
vitality of its own.
EMILE DURKHEIM
(1858-1917)
A French sociologist
One of the principal
founders of sociology
KARL MARX (1818-1883 )
He reiterated that
political revolution was
vital in the evolutionary
process of society, the
only means to achieve
improvement of social
condition.
MAX WEBER( 1864-1920)
He believed that a
“sympathetic
understanding, of the mind of
others” was essential to
understanding the
behavior of others
 POLITICAL SCIENCE
-The systematic study of government and politics.
- is the discipline that problematizes the nature of
power and studies how possession and exercise of
power can shape individual actions and collective
decisions for that matter.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
The activity through which people make,
preserve, and amend the general rules
under which they live.
 POWER
• Ability to influence others. It gives authority to
lead

ORDER
Is attained through obedience on the rules set
by leaders

JUSTICE
Is felt in a society with order.
 Anthropology and Sociology

• Are used to understand the cultural and behavioral

differences and similarities of various ethnic
groups
• It also help explain the tradition, customs and
beliefs of people.
 CONCEPTS IN ACTION #01
A. Complete the graphic organizer by writing the required
information in the spaces provided.
Discipline Description Significance Prominent
Scholars

Anthropology

Sociology

Political
Science