Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics

 As a discipline it studies the society and the

manner in which people behave and
influence the world around us.
 Its goal is to answer different questions
and find solutions to problems of society to
improve human condition despite cultural,
social and political differences.
SOCIETY
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT & SIGNIFICANT
A group of individuals involved in CONTRIBUTORS ON THE BIRTH & GROWTH
persistent social interaction, or a large social OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
group sharing the same geographical or social
territory, typically subject to the same political Ancient Greek Philosophers
authority & dominant cultural expectations. SOCRATES
Involves social (actions & interactions), cultural
(practices & traditions), and political realities  Focused on asking, probing, sometimes
(power relations). humiliating questions in order to learn.
PLATO
SOCIAL SCIENCE
 He believed in the immortality of the soul
 A branch of science that deals with the
Plato’s Ideas:
institutions and functioning of human
 Idealist, believes in order and
society and with the interpersonal
harmony, morality and self-denial
relationships of individuals as members of
 Immortality of the soul
society.
 Virtue as knowledge
 It is the discipline under which identity,
 Theory of Forms – the highest function
culture, society, and politics are studied.
of the human soul is to achieve the
 It is comprised of a wide array of
vision of the form of the good
disciplines that studies the overall function
of a society, as well as the interactions ARISTOTLE
among individual members of an
 A champion of reason and believed in
institution.
avoiding extremes.
DISCLIPNES UNDER SOCIAL SCIENCE
 Anthropology
 Sociology
 Political Science

SOCIAL SCIENCE
CULTURE
 Complex whole which encompasses beliefs,
practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge, &
everything that a person learns & shares as
a member of society (E.B. Tylor, 1920).
 It is a strong part of people's lives.
 It influences their views, values, humor,
hopes, loyalties, worries and fears.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
It is a source of differences that exist
between people in society and between society
in the globe due to diversity in language, dress
and traditions, food preferences, etc.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Categorizes groups of people into a
hierarchy on the basis of wealth, status, or
power.
STRUCTURE OF CLASS SYSTEM
 Upper Class
 Middle Class
 Lower Class
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Describes the relative social position of
persons in a given social group, category,
geographical region or other social unit.
TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES
Are families who live apart but who
create and retain a "sense of collective welfare
& unity (familyhood) even across borders
(Bryceson & Vuorela 2002)
POLITICAL IDENTITIES
GOVERNMENT
 system by which a state or community is
controlled so as to put order.
 Every country in the world is ruled by a
system of governance to rule its people or
constituents; and in the process people
affiliates themselves and defined their
political identity as they relate to other
peoples of the world from other countries.
PHILIPPINES
is a republic with a presidential form of
government wherein power is equally divided
among three branches:
 EXECUTIVE - carries out & enforces laws.
(President, Vice President, cabinet,
executive departments, independent
agencies, boards, commissions &
committees)
 LEGISLATIVE -authorized to make laws,
alter & repeal through the power vested in
the Philippine Congress (Senate - 24
senators & House of Representatives-250)
 JUDICIAL - holds the power to settle
controversies involving rights that are
legally demandable & enforceable.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDYING CULTURE,
SOCIETY & POLITICS
 Social Science is a very complex study. It is
divided into different areas according to
focus or subject.
 In this subject, a special focus on the
interplay of Anthropology (culture),
Sociology (society), and Political Science
(political identities and government) will be
given focus with the use of trans-
disciplinary perspective to understand &
explain social issues in the human society.

ANTHROPOLOGY
Is the holistic ”science of man”, a
science of the totality of human existence.
Field Subfield
Physical Human Paleontology
Anthropology & Human Variation
Archaeology,
Cultural Anthropology linguistics, &
ethnology
2 BROAD FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
 PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (Biological
Anthropology)
a. human paleontology- concerns
about how human emerged &
evolved through times.
b. Human Variation - concerns how
human beings differ biologically.
 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY - concerns the
difference of cultures from time to time.
THREE BRANCHES OF CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
 Archeology - studies past cultures through
tangible or material remains. They help
reconstruct the life and culture of the
humans in the prehistoric time.
 Anthropological Linguistics - study of
languages. They explain the differences of
languages by culture and how it is
constructed.
 Ethnology - study of recent or present
cultures. They try to explain the difference
of cultures before & recent through vigor
research.
SOCIOLOGY
It is the study of relationships among
people. It is the study of the society and the
behavior of people in the society.
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION enables us
to grasp the connection between history and
biography within society. In sociological
imagination,
HISTORY means what is happening or the
events in time while
BIOGRAPHY means the personal
experience of individuals. (C. Wright Mills/The
Promise)
TWO APPROACHES IN EXAMINING HUMAN
SOCIETY
 MACRO-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE - examines
the social structure, the social institutions,
social organizations and social groups. It
uses the structural functionalist perspective
& the conflict perspective in examining the
larger social structure.
 MICRO-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE - more
emphasis on the role of the individuals in
society. It uses symbolic interactionist
perspective to look into the interactions
between or among individuals in the
society.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
 Deals with systems of government and the
analysis of political activity & political
behavior.
 It deals extensively with the theory &
practice of politics which is commonly
thought of as the determining of the
distribution of power and resources.
SUBFIELDS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
 Comparative Politics - it studies the politics
within other nations. It tries to compare
theories on a specific nation to other
nation.
 International Relation - it studies politics
among nations. Diplomatic affairs and
international law is being studied.
 Public Administration - it studies
bureaucracies on how it is functional and
how to improve it by certain theories.
 Constitutional Law - it studies how laws are
made and being applied on a certain nation
or state. Its major aim is to study legal
systems.
 Public Policy - it studies the interface of
politics and economic. It aims to create a
plan to develop programs that would be
sufficient and adequate to societies.
 Political Theory - It studies classical &
modern politics. It aims to discover what
theory suits the characteristics of good
politics.
TRANSDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE
refers to the viewpoint wherein multiple
disciplines are used to understand various
phenomena. It aims to understand the
modern world in a holistic manner.