Lesson 1: The Nature, Goals, and Perspective in/of
Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science
ANTHROPOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
Anthropology
- is the study, analysis, and description of
humanity’s past and present (pre-historic
origins & human evolution)
o Charles Darwin – father of human
evolution
- The study of humankind
NATURE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
- can be view from its historical perspective
- early beginner anthropologists were naturalists,
medical doctors, Christian ministers, or
educated adventurers
- anthropology is characterized as a discipline
containing four fields that emphasis on
separated yet interrelated subjects:
o archaeology
o biological anthropology (actual human
sciences)
o linguistic anthropology
o cultural anthropology (social human
studies)
GOALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
● To comprehend the fossil record of early people
and their precursors just as the archeological
record of later ancient social orders.
● To understand how we adapt to different
environmental conditions and how we vary as a
species.
● To comprehend the conduct of monkeys and
gorillas in their regular settings.
● To find out about both the natural and social
parts of humankind all throughout the planet
and all through time.
● To apply anthropological information to help
forestall or take care of issues of living people
groups, including destitution, substance
addiction, and HIV/AIDS
PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Holism
- anthropologists are keen all in all of mankind, in
how different parts of life connect
- by utilizing a comprehensive methodology,
anthropologists request how various angles
from human existence impact each other
2. Cultural Relativism
- the possibility that we should try to
comprehend someone else's convictions and
practices according to the viewpoint of their
way of life as opposed to our own
3. Comparison
- we compare ideas, morals, practices, and
systems within or between cultures. We might
compare the roles of men and women in
different societies, or contrast how different
religious groups conflict within a given society
4. Fieldwork
- is alluded to as ethnography, which is both the
interaction and aftereffect of social
anthropological examination
o ethno (greek expression) – alludes to
individuals
o graphy (greek expression) – alludes to
composing
SOCIOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
Sociology
- is the scientific investigation of human culture
and social behavior
- discipline in social sciences concerned about
human society and human social activities
Social Science
- it is the logical or efficient investigation of
human culture
- attention is on comprehension and clarifying,
and goes from the person in friendly
 collaboration to gatherings to social orders and
worldwide social process.
Auguste Comte "Father of Sociology"
- a French social scholar
- instituted the term 'Humanism' in 1839.
NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY
- arose early in the nineteenth century in
response to rapid social change
- major transformations in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, such as rapid
industrialization resulting in a large, anonymous
workforce
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917)
- French humanist
- made the biggest commitment to the
development of social science as a social
scientific discipline Sociology has created as a
worth free discipline
- concerned with is, not with what should be
Sociology is an empirical discipline like Physics,
Chemistry, or Mathematics, and not as an applied
science like Engineering or Computer Science.
GOALS OF SOCIOLOGY
Political Science
Samuel Koenig
- the ultimate aim of sociology is: ” to improve
man’s adjustment to life by developing
objective knowledge concerning social
phenomena which can be used to deal
effectively with social problems”
● To understand how membership in one’s social
group affects individual behavior.
● To understand the meaning and consequences
of modernity, postmodernity and the new
globalization.
● Understand the causes and consequences of
social change in terms of general causes and
effects as well as unique historical
circumstances.
● Understand how cultures and institutions
interact in different societies.
● Understand the causes and consequences of
population composition and pressures and how
population affects the environment and
development of societies.
● To provide information that reflects upon
different policy initiatives
PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY
- human conduct is molded by the gatherings to
which individuals have a place and by the social
communication that happens inside those
gatherings
- we are what our identity is and we act the
manner in which we do in light of the fact that
we end up living in a specific culture at a specific
point in reality
- empowers us to consider society to be a brief
social item, made by people and fit for being
changed by them also
- welcomes us to take a look at our recognizable
environmental factors in a new manner
- urges us to investigate the world
- sociology assists us with liking perspectives
other than our own and to see how these
perspectives appeared.
POLITICAL SCIENCE AS A DISCIPLINE
- is the study of the nature, causes, and
consequences of collective decisions and
actions taken by groups of people embedded in
cultures and institutions that structure power
and authority
- is a social science discipline that deals with
systems of governance, and the analysis of
political activities, political thoughts, associated
constitutions and political behavior
NATURE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
- also a mechanism for achieving societal goals
- is a social science concerned with the theory
and practice of politics and the description and
analysis of political systems and political
behavior
- power in making decision
 - an investigation of the state in the past, present
and future
Subfields:
● Political Hypothesis
● Public Policy
● Public Legislative Issues
● Worldwide Relations
● Human Rights
● Natural Government Issues
● Near Legislative Issues
GOALS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
● Is the concern with the process of growth,
industrialization and change and the impact on
government forms and policies.
● Is to describe how various political systems
function, and to find more effective political
systems.
● Is to measure the success of governance and
specific policies by examining many factors,
including stability, justice, material wealth,
peace and public health.
POLITICAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE
● Methodologically diverse and appropriates
many methods originating in psychology, social
research, and cognitive neuroscience.
● Approaches include positivism, interpretivism,
rational choice theory, behaviouralism,
structuralism, post-structuralism, realism,
institutionalism, and pluralism.
● as one of the social sciences, uses methods and
techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries
sought: primary sources, such as historical
documents and official records, secondary
sources, such as scholarly journal articles,
survey research, statistical analysis, case
studies, experimental research, and model
building.
Lesson 2: The Concept, Aspects, and Changes in/of
Culture, Society, and Politics
CONCEPT OF CULTURE
Culture
- from the Latin expression 'clique or cultus'
significance plowing, or developing or refining
and love
- implies developing and refining
- a lifestyle ; food, clothes, language, God
- epitome of the manner by which we think and
get things done (epitome of kindness)
- workmanship, music, writing, engineering,
design, reasoning, religion and science
- a human-made environment which includes all
the material and nonmaterial products of group
life that are transmitted from one generation to
the next
- seen in our writing, in strict practices, in
amusement and happiness
TYPES OF CULTURE
● Material Culture
- tangible, concrete
- ex: schools, materials, churches,
temples, factories, homes
● Non-material Culture
- intangible, abstract, idea
- ex: symbols, language, values and
norms, religion
ASPECTS OF CULTURE
1. Actions – activity
⮚ Ex: regime, justice, organization, work,
religion, techniques, science, art
2. Identity – personality
⮚ Ex: self-consciousness, self-esteem
3. Language – how we speak
⮚ Ex: mother tongue, lingo, dialect
4. Validity
⮚ Ex: values, opinions, laws, metaphors,
meanings
5. History
⮚ Ex: time experience, milestone, myths
6. Space
⮚ Ex: spatial experience, functional
spaces, living space
7. Experience
⮚ Ex: rituals, customs, practices
 ANTHROPOLOGIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
Edward Burnett Taylor
- “that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.”
Robert Ranulp Marrett
- tend to define culture in terms of
“communicable intelligence,” “conventional
understandings” or “communicated ideas.”
Radcliffe Brown
- culture as cultivation the process of transmitting
and acquiring traditions as a result of which
society is perpetuated
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
1. Culture is learned and acquired
- Culture is gained as in there are sure practices
which are obtained through heredity.
2. Culture is shared by a group of people
- An idea or activity might be called culture in
case it is shared and accepted or rehearsed by a
gathering of individuals.
3. Culture is cumulative
- Different information exemplified in culture can
be passed starting with one age then onto the
next age.
4. Culture changes
- There is information, musings or customs that
are lost as new social qualities are added.
5. Culture is dynamic
- No culture stays on the perpetual state. Culture
is changing continually as novel thoughts and
new procedures are added over the long haul
altering or changing the old ways.
6. Culture gives us a scope of passable standards of
conduct
- It includes how a movement ought to be
directed, how an individual should act properly.
7. Culture is diverse
- It is a framework that has a few commonly
reliant parts. Albeit these parts are isolated,
they are related with each other framing culture
as entirety.
8. Culture is ideational
- Often it sets out an optimal example of conduct
that are expected to be trailed by people in
order to acquire social acknowledgment from
individuals with a similar culture.
CONCEPT OF SOCIETY
Society
- from the latin root socius, signifying "buddy" or
"being with others."
- the Greek word 'logos' or 'logus' which intends
to contemplate
SOCIOLOGIST PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
- founder of sociology
- coined the word sociology from the latin word
‘socius’ and greek word ‘logos’
- society is something other than the sum of
individual actions.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
- marxism
- developed a complex theory of history and
society
- 3 contributions to social theories:
o The organic totality of society
o The relative importance of the
economic sector
o The historical process of society
George Simmel (1858-1916) Multiculturalism

- “For me, society was the patterned interactions - belief than in one territory there may be many
among members of a group, the sum of culture present
responses to ordinary life events.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIETY

1. Society is abstract
- Conceptual
- Imperceptible/theoretical
2. Likeness and Difference in Society
- Give and take
3. Cooperation and Conflict in Society
- Collaboration and struggle
4. Society is a Process Not a Product
5. Society is a System of Stratification

CONCEPT OF POLITICS

Politics

- from the Greek word 'Polis‟, which implies the

city state
- the art of government
- activity of control inside the society

CHARACTERISTICS OF POLITICS

1. Use or threat of use of legal force

2. Interactions
3. Interdependence of Parts

Lesson 3: Importance of Cultural Relativism in Attaining

Cultural Understandings

Ethnocentrism (negative)

- a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is

better than all others
- the use of other culture to judge
- “one’s group is the center of everything”
- the standard/basis is your culture

Cultural Relativism (positive)

- the practice of understanding one’s culture

using its own standards
- being open to other’s culture
- is not judging a culture
- putting self in their own shoes