LESSON 1: MY SOCIETY AND I

- Society is a group of people where we belong in which culture and politics existed and
originated.

- Gender is the socially constructed characteristics of being male or female. Serves as a

guide on how males and females think and act about themselves; the ways they interact
with others; and how they perform their various roles in society.

- Sex - refers to the biological differences of male and female.

- Socio-economic status refers to the category of persons or family who have more
or less the privileges in a society.

o Upper class- consists of elite families. They are considered the most productive
in terms of resources generation and oftentimes very successful in their field of
interests and endeavors.

o Middle class- is composed of small business and industry operators mostly

owners and managers, professionals, overseas Filipino workers (OFW), office
workers, farm owners with income sufficient to provide a comfortable and decent
living.

o Lower classes- are those farm employees, service workers, artisans and people
who may be unemployed or underemployed or those who belong to indigent
families or informal sectors. This class lives a subsistence lifestyle or those who
could hardly eat three decent meals a day.

- Ethnicity is the expression of the set of cultural ideas held by a distinct ethnic or
indigenous group.
o Tagalog, Cebuano
o Ilocano,
o Bisaya/Binisaya
o Ilonggo/Hiligaynnon
o Bikol
o Waray and others.

- Religion 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 influence aspects of the universe otherwise beyond
human control.
LESSON 2: SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS ITS SOCIAL
SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

- ANTHROPOLOGY
o It is the study of human beings and their ancestors. It produces knowledge
about what makes people different from one another and what they all
share.

- SOCIOLOGY
o It is considered the science of society and social behavior, which is viewed
as an aggregate of individuals. It deals with social development in general
and describes and analyzes social life in all its phases and complexities.
The discipline tries to provide a vivid awareness of the relationship
between private experiences and the wider society.
- POLITICAL SCIENCE
o It is a theory and practice of politics, including analysis on public office. It focuses
in making our society organize and in a harmonious life. This body of knowledge
involves to the study of the state and government. It primarily talks about to run a
country through politics and government.

- SOCIETY
o generally defined as an organized group of interdependent people who share a
common territory, language, and culture, and who act together for the collective
survival and well-being.

- INTERDEPENDENT PEOPLE
o means that the mean of that group depends with each other.

- FAMILY
o the basic unit of society. It is a group of people who are dependent with
each other. Each member of the family acts or behaves for the good of all.

- CULTURE
o generally defined as the sum or total of an individual’s way of life, ranging from
the food he or she eats, the clothes he or she wears, and the house where he or
she lives.

- TANGIBLE CULTURE
o Refers to physical artefacts produced, maintained, and transmitted
intergenerationally in a society.

- INTANGIBLE CULTURE
o indicates ‘the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well
as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith.

- POLITICS
o refers to the theory, art and practice of government. The political institution is a
relatively stable cluster of statuses, general norms, and role behavior, which are
involved in the acquisition and exercise of power and decision-making in the
society.
o Politics is considered as the mind of government. These are the plans, activities
and opinion that influence the decision of the government.

- GOVERNMENT
o A group of people or an organization that put into action the activities we have in
the politics.
 o These are the organizations or people who control and make decisions or the
one who run a particular system

LESSON 3: SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Changes in culture bring change in society and human beings, likewise, changes in society and
human beings bring change in culture and politics.

- SOCIAL CHANGE
o It refers to the variations or modifications in the patterns of social organization, of
sub-groups within a society, or of the entire society itself.
o It is manifested through the changes in functions, statuses and roles of social
organization in the society.

- THREE CAUSES OF CHANGE:

o INVENTION
 A new combination or a new use of existing knowledge.
 It produces mechanical objects, ideas and social patterns that reshape
society to varying degrees.
 Material invention and social invention.

o DISCOVERY
 It takes place when people reorganized existing elements of the world
they had not noticed before or learned to see in new way.
 It is also an addition to the store of verified knowledge.
 It contributes to the emergence of a new paradigm or perspective, and
even reshape and reinvents worldviews.

o DIFFUSION
 It refers to the spread of culture traits from one group to another.
 Culture spreads through the processes of enculturation, socialization,
association, and integration.

- CULTURAL CHANGE
o It refers to all alterations affecting new traits or trait complexes and changes in a
culture’s content and structure.
o These changes are caused by several factors, such as the physical environment,
population, war and conquest, random events and technology.

- PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
o Earthquakes, repeated flooding, severe droughts, and other interruptions in the
physical environment drastically alter people’s lifestyles.

- POPULATION MOVEMENT
o Brought about by migration and transnational origins as well as an increase or
decline in population also perpetuate change.

- POLITICAL CHANGE
o 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.
o Youth awareness and active participation during elections.
o Impeachment trial
LESSON 4: THE CHARACTERISTICS/ASPECTS OF CULTURE

- DYNAMIC, FLEXIBLE, & ADAPTIVE

o Cultural behaviors allow people to fit into and adapt their respective environment
o It adapts to the changing environment

Example: For instance, people wear clothes to protect their body from harsh climate.
They search food for nourishment and survival. In contemporary societies, building
temperate houses in tropical regions or constructing an ice amusement park in countries
like the Philippines.

- SHARED & CONTESTED

o This concept means that various members of a society or group commonly share
ideas, activities, and artifacts.
o People do not only interact together to share a common culture but also to
validate it.

Example: Its transmission is not simply automatic but largely depends on the willingness
of people to give and receive it. People, at least potentially, alter ideas, activities, and
artifacts if they no longer give them satisfaction.

- LEARNED/TRANSMITTED THROUGH SOCIALIZATION OR ENCULTURATION

o Behavior pattern that constitutes a specific culture are not genetically or
biologically determined.
o Every normal infant has the potential to learn any culture as he or she grows and
survives the various stages of life.

- PATTERNED SOCIAL INTERACTION

o Social interaction, as commonly viewed, implies theories of reciprocity,
complementarity, and mutuality response.

Example: A question implies an answer

- INTEGRATED AND AT TIMES UNSTABLE

o Society or groups, ideas, activities and artifacts are not only shared; their
arrangement more or less fit together and interlock to form a consistent whole.

- REQUIRES LANGUAGE AND OTHER FORMS OF INTERACTION

o Language is a shared set of spoken (often written) symbols and rules used in
meaningful ways.
o Language has been called “the store house of culture.
o Language is the most important means of cultural transmission.