A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs

and knowledge slowly accumulated in the

course of centuries, elements difficult at times
to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as
paths when they lead somewhere since they
open up for man his inner distance

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “Le petit

Prince”
- Arkhaios (Ancient) and logos (Study).

Concerned with the origins and

development of early human cultrue between
the first appearance of man as a tool-suing
animal about 2 million years ago and the
beginning of the recent geologic period 12,000
years ago.
Archaeology like history
Studies the past, but
Archaeology is more concern
of reconstructing the way of
Life or culture of people
In the past.

Like other fields of

knowledge they are
continuously searching for
answer for human dilemma.
 Still we aim for survival for their basic needs
to be met and needs that would enable them
to live a mark legacy in their society
The next subfield in anthropological study is
the biological aspect of man.

They focus on how the human body adapts to

the different earth environments.

They look at the probable causes of deseases,

physical mutation and death.
 These scientist are interested in explaining
how the biological characteristics of human
beings affect how they lived their lives.

 Human beings at the present still share the

same biological vulnerabilities.
 Human survival is primarily linked to their
ability to communicate. This is another
capability that resulted from big human
brains.

 They want to discover how language is used

to create and share meanings, to form ideas
and concepts and to promote social change.
 Communicative
 Arbitrarily symbolic
 Generative
 Dynamic
 arbitrarily symbolic: Language creates an arbitrary
relationship between a symbol
 and what it represents: an idea, a thing, a process, a
relationship, or a
 description.
 3. regularly structured: Language has a structure; only
particularly patterned arrange-
 ments of symbols have meaning, and different
arrangements yield different
 meanings.
 4. structured at multiple levels: The structure of language
can be analyzed at more
 than one level (e.g., in sounds, meaning units, words, and
phrases).
 5. generative, productive: Within the limits of a linguistic
structure, language users
 can produce novel utterances. The possibilities for creating
new utterances are
 virtually limitless.
 6. dynamic: Languages constantly evolve.
 Language is used to communicate
 Communication has meaning
 Individuals can send and receive information
 No connection between symbol and
concept
 Words do not have to look or sound
like what they describe
◦ Principle of conventionality
 Meanings of words are determined by
conventions
◦ Principle of contrast
 Different words have different meanings
 Using rules of language can create an
unlimited number of new utterances
 Allows for new developments with the
creation of new words and ideas
◦ Blog
 Online diary meant to be read by others
◦ Spam has a new meaning
 Weird meat in a can
 Unwanted email
◦ Shut Up! Has new meaning
 One meaning is to quit talking
 YouthSpeak for “Really?”
 Language adapts to the existing conditions
 As societies change and technologies develop
so do the symbols and meaning people attach
to the objects and events as expressed
through the language that they use and their
manner of communicating
 Culture is described as group of people’s way
of life.

 They are interested in knowing what makes

one group’s manner of living particular to
that group and forms an essential part of the
members personal and social identity.

 Whether we admit it or not, we are part of our

culture.
 CULTURE HAS STRONG IMPACT! on how the
individual views himself is known as the
“Theory of Cultural Determinism”

“Human Nature is determined by the ideas,

meanings, beliefs and values learned as
members of society.”
 Negative Side- We blindly accept the learning
of our cultures. Human beings are seen as
helpless and do only what their culture
instructs them to do.

 Positive Side- human beings can be shaped

and formed to have kind of life they prefer.
 Symbols are ways and at different level of depth.
Symbols are considered the most superficial level of
culture and values belong to the deepest level or
considered as the core of the culture.

 Each culture has its own symbols and has its own
meaning; one must need to comprehend those
meanings keeping in mind the end goal to
understand the culture.

 One must disconnect the components of culture,

discover the relationship among those components,
and portray the entire framework in some broad way
1. Symbols are the words, gestures, pictures or
objects that have a recognized/accepted
meaning in a particular culture. Symbols can
be shared or copied by other cultures who
find them also fitting for their own culture.
2. Heroes are persons from the past or present
who have characteristics that are important in a
culture. They may be real or fictitious and are
models for behavior.

Example: Heneral Luna

3. Rituals – are activities participitated by a
group of people for the fulfillment or desired
objectives and are considered to be socially
essential.

Example : Weddings , Baptisms , Graduation

4. Values - are considered to be the core of
every culture. Values are unconscious and can
be neither be discussed nor be directly
observed but can only be inferred from this
way people act and react to circumstances and
situations.

Values involve human tendencies/preferences

towards good or bad, right or wrong.

Example: Po and Opo