UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE
SOCIETY
AND POLITICS
DAVY DEXTER B. ZAIDE, RPm
SUBJECT SYLLABUS
Quarter 1 TOPICS
Week 1 1. Social Science and the Three faces of socials
Week 2 2. Defining Culture and Society
Week 3 3. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Week 4 4. Looking Back at Human Biocultural and Social Evolution
Week 5 5. Becoming a member of Society
Week 6 6. Conformity and Deviance

Quarter 2 TOPICS
Week 1 1. Social Organization/Social Institution
Week 2 2. Education in the Philippines
Week 3 3. Social and Political Stratification
Week 4 4. Social and Political Inequalities
Week 5 5. Global Inequality
Week 6 6. Social Change
Objectives of the Lesson
1. The learners demonstrate an understanding
of
a. The human origins and the capacity for
culture.
b. The role of culture in human adaptation.
c. The processes of cultural and socio-political
evolution.
2. Analyze key features of interrelationships of
biological, cultural, and socio-political
processes in humans that can be used and
developed.
LOOKING BACK AT HUMAN BIOCULTURAL
AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION
• The origins of modern humans can be explained by
studying the biological, social, and cultural evolution.
• Biological evolution explains the physical
transformation of modern humans from hominids into
thinking modern humans of Homo sapiens sapiens.
• Aside from biological evolution, modern humans also
underwent social and cultural evolution. Humans
developed and modified their culture through time as
a response to the threats and challenges posed by
their environment. The cultural evolution of humans
also included the social and political evolution of
modern man.
INTERRELATIONAL SYSTEM OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
Looking at Evolution as Man’s Linear
Progression
• Evolution is a natural process of biological changes
occurring in a population across successive
generations. It helps us identify and analyze man’s
physiological development which is important in his
subsistence.
• The theory of evolution by natural selection, first
formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of
Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms
change over time as a result of changes in heritable
physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an
organism to better adapt to its environment will help it
survive and have more offspring.
• Evolution by natural selection is one of the best
substantiated theories in the history of science, supported
by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
(paleontology, geology, genetics and developmental
biology)
• The theory has two main points; "All life on Earth is
connected and related to each other," and this diversity of
life is a product of "modifications of populations by natural
selection, where some traits were favored in and
environment over others”
• The theory is sometimes described as "survival of the
fittest” because the theory suggests that only the species
who are capable to reproduce and survive the changes in
their environment can survive and exist in the modern
times.
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
• Biological evolution is the change in inherited traits
over successive generations in populations of
organisms.
• Adaptation is a key evolutionary process in which
variation in the fitness of traits and species are
adjusted by natural selection to become better suited
for survival in specific ecological habitats.
• The environment acts to promote evolution through
changes in development.
• Biological processes are often studied in model
organisms. A model organism is a species that is
studied extensively in the laboratory with anticipation
that the results can be applied to biological
phenomena in general.
FROM HOMINIDS TO HOMOSAPIENS
• Hominid - It is the general term used by scientists
to categorize the group of early humans and
other humanlike creatures that can walk erect
during the prehistoric times
• Four Categories of Hominid: Sahelanthropus,
Ardipithecus, Australopithecus and Homo
• The first three categories Sahelanthropus,
Ardipithecus and Australopithecus are
classified by scientist as humanlike and while
Homo is classified as humans and not humanlike
creatures because they had bigger brains and
were bipedal.
 BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF
HUMAN SPECIES AND
CHARACTERISTICS
• Homo Habilis, known as 'handyman' is a species of the
genusHomo which lived from approximately 2.33 to 1.4
million years ago, during the Gelasian Pleistocene period.
• The discovery and description of this species are credited
to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who discovered the
fossils in Tanzania between 1962 and 1964.
• They are species with a brain of a Broca’s area which is
associated with speech in modern humans and was the
first to make stone tools. The y have the ability to make
and use tools in a unique quality to humans such that the
species is recognized to be the first true man.
• Homo erectus are after Homo habilis came, the Homo
erectus who was also upright. He had a smaller but longer
face, less prominent or absent chin, larger brain size, and
prominent speech. He knew how to make and use
tools; he made a fire and knew how to control it. Homo
erectus was carnivorous. He knew the existence of
groups and they began spreading from Africa to Asia and
Europe. The Java Man and Peking Man had brain
capacities similar to the modern man at 1300cc. They
were cave dwellers.
•
• Homo Sapiens - The species name means
“Wise Man” that appeared form 200,000 years
ago. The present human race belongs to this species.
Homo sapiens– After Homo erectus came, the Homo
sapiens who separated into two types:
1) Homo sapiens Neanderthelensis
They had a brain size larger than modern man and
were gigantic in size. Also, they had a large head and
jaw and were very powerful and muscular. They were
carnivores and the tools from the era indicate they
were hunters. They were also caving dwellers but their
caves were more comfortable and they lived in groups
and hunted for food gathering.
• 2) Homo sapiens Sapiens
• Also known as ‘modern-day man’ is what we are today.
Compared to the Homo sapiens neanderthelensis, they
became smaller in size and the brain size reduced to
1300cc. There was also a reduction in the size of the jaw,
rounding of the skull and chin. Cro- Magnon was the
earliest of the Homo sapiens. They spread wider from
Europe, Australia, and the Americas. They were
omnivores, had skillful hands, and developed the power of
thinking, producing art, more sophisticated tools and
sentiments.
MAN’S CULTURAL EVOLUTION
• Cultural Evolution
• It refers to the changes or development in
cultures from a simple form to a more
complex form of human culture.
Sociocultural evolution on happens as a
result of human adaption to the different
factors like changes in climates or in their
environment and population increase.
GERHARD LENSKI’S 5
TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Sociologist Gerhard Lenski (1924–) defined societies
in terms of their technological sophistication and as a
society advances, so does its use of technology.
• Societies with undeveloped technology depend on
the fluctuations of their environments, while
industrialized societies have more control over the
impact of their surroundings and thus develop
different cultural features.
This distinction is so important that sociologists
generally classify societies along a spectrum of their
level of industrialization—from preindustrial to
industrial to postindustrial.
Preindustrial Societies
• Before the Industrial Revolution and the
widespread use of machines, societies were
small, rural, and dependent largely on local
resources.
• Economic production was limited to the amount of
labor a human being could provide, and there
were few specialized occupations.
• The very first occupation was that of hunter-
gatherer.
• Hunter-gatherer societies demonstrate the
strongest dependence on the environment of the
various types of preindustrial societies.
Horticulcural/Pastoral Societies
• In pastoral societies human societies began to recognize
their ability to tame and breed animals and to grow and
cultivate their own plants.
• Unlike earlier hunter-gatherers who depended entirely on
existing resources to stay alive, pastoral groups were able
to breed livestock for food, clothing, and transportation,
and they created a surplus of goods.
• Herding, or pastoral, societies remained nomadic
because they were forced to follow their animals to fresh
feeding grounds.
• Around the time that pastoral societies emerged,
specialized occupations began to develop, and societies
commenced trading with local groups.
Agrarian
• Agricultural societies relied on permanent tools for
survival.
• Around 3000 B.C.E., an explosion of new technology
known as the Agricultural Revolution made farming
possible—and profitable.
• Farmers learned to rotate the types of crops grown
on their fields and to reuse waste products such as
fertilizer, which led to better harvests and bigger
surpluses of food.
• New tools for digging and harvesting were made of
metal, and this made them more effective and longer
lasting.
Agrarian
• Human settlements grew into towns and cities, and
particularly bountiful regions became centers of trade
and commerce.
• This is also the age in which people had the time and
comfort to engage in more contemplative and
thoughtful activities, such as music, poetry, and
philosophy. This period became referred to as the
“dawn of civilization” by some because of the
development of leisure and humanities. Craftspeople
were able to support themselves through the
production of creative, decorative, or thought-
provoking aesthetic objects and writings.
INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETIES
Industrial
• In the eighteenth century, Europe experienced a
dramatic rise in technological invention, ushering
in an era known as the Industrial Revolution.
• Within a generation, tasks that had until this point
required months of labor became achievable in a
matter of days.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, work was largely
person- or animal-based, and relied on human
workers or horses to power mills and drive
pumps. In 1782, James Watt and Matthew
Boulton created a steam engine that could do the
work of twelve horses by itself.
•
Industrial
• It was during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries of the Industrial Revolution that
sociology was born.
• Life was changing quickly and the long-
established traditions of the agricultural eras did
not apply to life in the larger cities.
• Masses of people were moving to new
environments and often found themselves faced
with horrendous conditions of filth, overcrowding,
and poverty.
• Social scientists emerged to study the
relationship between the individual members of
society and society as a whole.
POST-INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETIES
Postindustrial Society
• Also known as postindustrial or digital societies
• Information societies are based on the production of
information and services.
• Since the economy of information societies is driven by
knowledge and not material goods, power lies with
those in charge of storing and distributing information.
• Members of a postindustrial society are likely to be
employed as sellers of services—software
programmers or business consultants, for example—
instead of producers of goods.
• Social classes are divided by access to education,
since without technical skills, people in an information
society lack the means for success.
END