ANTHROPOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

Anthropology is the science of people and culture. The word is the combination of two
Greek roots, “anthrops”, man, and “logos” an account or calculation.
Anthropology and Education
Education at its core refers to the pursuit of knowledge. Anthropology is the study of
culture and its people. Since inherent learning structures are a part of anthropology in
terms of human development, then education can be considered a primary feature of
people and their culture. In other words, without education, there would be no possibility
for people to persist in their cultural development and less there would be less emphasis
on studying cultural trends.
In the process of education, History is being studied which is the main and the basic
record of culture, hence, it cannot be denied that it is being nourished by education.
The purposeful and befitting of culture helps in the strength and spread of culture.
The needs of the society, whether religious, social, cultural or psychological, all are fulfilled
only by education.
One important function of education is the preservation of culture. Continuity of
man’s social life is possible through this process.
Culture has to be conserved and transmitted to the youth for their own benefits
because past benefits are useful in learning the new ones.
CULTURE
In its anthropological image, it is the manmade part of the human environment. It is
a way of life of a specific group.
Robert Redfield also speaks of culture as “an organized body of conventional
understandings manifest in art and artifacts, which persisting to traditions, characterizes a
human group.
Culture may be thought of as a design for living or a road map that guides the
behavior of members of a society, permitting them to live together in an organized, orderly
manner. It is that part of his environment which man himself has created.
CONCEPTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
CULTURE IS LEARNED
Man is not born with culture, but he is born with ability to acquire culture, developing it
through experience. Culture is learned rather than transmitted by the genes.
Culture is not instinctive. It is acquired by the person through senses and from experience.
Culture may be acquired through imitation, conditioning, suggestion, formal or informal or
mass media.
PEOPLE HAVE VARIED CULTURE
According to Philip Barge, it is an error to identify a culture with the society in which it is
formal and to talk about them both as if they were the same thing.
The habits traits and the institutions of a society were seen developing along the line from
savagery to barbarism to civilization.
The ways of people are results of their relationships with the environment.
CULTURE IS A GROUP PRODUCT
Culture is group product developed by many person interacting in a group.
Cultures is the result of a group’s accumulation of knowledge and expectations. These
group knowledge and habits are shared by the members of the group and kept relatively
uniform by certain social mechanism.
CULTURE IS TRANSMITTED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
Culture may be transmitted by suggestion, by formal communication and by system
of reward and punishment.
Language is imperative in the transmission of culture. Thus, communication arts is
emphasized in the curriculum in the schools.
CULTURE IS ADAPTIVE
All cultures are dynamic. They change over time. All these changes are adjustments to the
prevailing environment.
Culture is continually changing due to discoveries and inventions.
Teachers as innovations need to experiment in restoring discipline in the classroom.
FILIPINO CULTURE, THEN AND NOW
The Philippine culture is rich in customs and traditions. Philippine culture reflects
the complexity of the history of the Philippines through the combination of cultures of
foreign influences.
Family relationships are the basic buildings block of Philippine culture and traditions.
UNIVERSAL PATTERNS OF CULTURE
LANGUAGE
Without language, culture among men would be wholly impossible. The human being
learned his language just as he learned his culture; man is not born with a language.
Language is distinctly human system of behavior based on oral symbols. It is a special
system if communication that is specifically oral and symbolic and it is learned.
TECHNOLOGY
The prehistoric age of man are identified by his lithic technology. Tools are devices for
transforming or storing energy. When we speak of technologies of people, we are referring
to manmade elements in culture that have a physical existence of their own. Because of
this, they form the greater part of ethnographic museum collections.
ART
This is a universal feature of culture, but art is a concept that does not necessarily exist of
all people. Primitive art is simply the art of primitive peoples. It is not implicitly naïve or
technically deficient except the lack of perspective in graphic art. It may be naturalistic or
abstract. The primitive art is merely individualistic, works with a stable style, in close
communication with his tribal audience. The primary function of art, especially primitive
art is to communicate the value scheme of culture.
MYTHOLOGY
The questioning mind of man has always asked the eternal “why?” The creative
minds of artist have spun a literary web of answer in words and ideas.
Myths are the stories that correspond to the ceremonies. Myths are ways in which
the institutions and expectations of the society are emphasized and made dramatic and
persuasive in narrative form.
They instruct men in what must be done to avoid chaos the state that man,
individually and collectively fears most.
RELIGION
Less than a hundred years ago, scholars discussed with interest such questions as
how men could have come to conceive of gods whether there might be tribes so primitive
as to have no religion, and how far the faith and superstitions of savages could properly be
related to the great universal religions.
No one who studies tribal religious today is interested in trying to answer such
questions, nor even thinks that satisfying answers to them could be found.
SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
Religion is manifested not only through symbolism and tribal ceremonies but also
permeates the thought and feelings of individuals it express itself through spells and
incantations it blends into magic and sorcery it is managed by specialist the shaman and
the priest and it may be organized into cults.
Animism
 This is the belief in spirit beings, the most basic and universal component of
religious ideology.
Sir Edward Tylor, an English anthropologist, saw the origin of animism in the
phenomena of dreams, of life and death.
The attribution of spirit qualities to plants and objects then produced what we call
“nature worship.”
Mana
This is the belief in the supernatural attributes of persons and things which are not
ascribed to the presence of spirit beings. It is the exceptional power to do things hat are
unusual.
Religion and magic are both aspects of supernaturalism. Their difference lies in the
attitudes of the religious and magical practitioners. The religious person acknowledge his
inferiority to spirit beings. The magician believes he has mastered a supernatural force
through the possession of a compulsive formula. Religious specialists are found in all
societies. They are either shamans or priest or a blend on both. Shamans receive their
supernatural power directly from supernatural beings, usually in vision experience or
through possession. Priest receive their power through the authority of their positions in a
cult or church. They are officers, shamans are not.
MEDICINE
In the early Philippine culture, disease is understood as being caused by the
violation of some taboo, or any attack by a ghost or a witch. The process of curing must be
prefaced by a ceremony of divination. This is the means of finding the cause of the
difficulty. Following this is the precise ceremonial cure.
“Hand Tremble” – a specialist hired for the occasion begins his work by sitting down
beside the patient and carrying out a rite followed by a divination, the proper caring
ceremony and the shaman medicine man or singer can be summoned.
There is considerable variation in the chants, depending on the divine cause of
illness.
Some practices curing by rattles, bullroarers, pieces of wood shaped to whirl and
make peculiar roaring sound when swung on.
FAMILY
The universal functions of the family are:
The institutionalization of mating and the establishment of legal parents for a
woman’s children.
The nurture and enculturation of the young.
The organization of a complementary division of labor between spouses.
The establishment of relationships of descent and affinity.