FINAL TERM – ANTHRO 1: B.
LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE
SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
WEEK 15: LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
• Primary means of communication
• Can be spoken (speech) or written (writing)
• Writing existed for less than 6,000 years, language
originated thousands of years before that.
WHAT MAKES LANGUAGE DIFFERENT FROM
OTHER FORMS OF COMMUNICATION?
• Language is based on arbitrary, learned
associations between words and the things for
which they stand.
• It is transmitted through learning, as part of
enculturation.
• It is absent in communication system of other
animals.
• It allows human to share experiences.
• Through language, people can transmit their
culture from one generation to the next. This makes
language the most important symbol in any culture
HOW ANTHROPOLOGIST AND LINGUISTS STUDY
LANGUAGE?
A. THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
• The scientific study of a spoken language
(descriptive linguistics) involves several
interrelated areas of analysis:
1. Phonology
- sounds (understanding the
facial parts na hanggang
leeg in order to create
language) for instance, the
intonation, rhythm; sound to
produce language
Speech sound
• Phoneme – Unit of sound in a
word.
- contrasting sounds (b/v) (p/f)
• Phonetics – Study of speech
sound.
- – speech sounds
(pinagsasama parang
makabuo ng salita)
2. Morphology “morphemes”
- word construction
3. Lexicon
4. Syntax
- construction/patterns of
sentences (subject and verb
agreement) how we
construct rule to impart
messages
1. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - The
proponents argued that grammatical
categories or different languages lead
their speakers to think about things in
particular ways.
2. Focal Vocabulary - A language dictionary
contains a set of names for things, events,
actions, and qualities. “Semantics”
3. Meaning – “Ethnosemantics” understand
culture from the point of view of people.
C. SOCIOLINGUISTICS
1. Linguistic Diversity
- style shifts
- diglossia
2. Gender Speech Contrasts
- Women are more likely to use adjectives
such as, adorable, charming sweet, cute,
lovely and divine than men are
3. Language and status position
- honorifics
- associated with gradations in age, rank
and status.
4. Stratification
- stereotypes about how people from
certain region talks
5. African American Vernacular English
- relatively uniform dialect spoken by
majority of black youth in most part of
United States.
HOW DOES LANGUAGE CHANGE?
1. Language changes over both short and long time
periods.
2. In a short time period- There are variation in speech
and language change progress. This includes
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. These
changes can be influenced by factors such as social
class, age, and geographic location.
3. In long time period- Language evolves, varies,
spreads, and divides into dialects and eventually
into subgroups or separate languages.
4. Historical linguists can reconstruct many features of
past languages by studying contemporary
daughter languages, which are languages that
descend from the same parent language and have
been changing for hundreds or even thousands of
years.
 FINAL TERM – ANTHRO 1:
SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
WEEK 15: RELIGION
WHAT IS RELIGION?
Religion is belief in a god or gods and the activities
that are connected with this belief, such as praying or
worshipping in a building such as a church or temple.
- The main concept here is sacredness.
- Yung paraan nila how they tie with their
own sacredness.
- Religion came from a word “religare”
meaning to tie or bond.
1. WHAT IS RELIGION, AND WHAT ARE ITS
VARIOUS FORMS, SOCIAL CORRELATES, AND
FUNCTIONS?
FORMS:
• Monotheism - The belief in a single all-powerful
deity
• Polytheism - the belief in many gods
• Pantheism - Pantheism stresses the identity
between God and the world, panentheism (Greek
en, “in”) that the world is included in God but that
God is more than the world.
• Atheism - A lack of belief in gods
• Agnosticism - the doctrine that humans cannot
know of the existence of anything beyond the
phenomena of their experience.
FUNCTIONS:
• Motivate people to change
• Helps to behavior and feelings
• Religious beliefs can help regulate the economy
2. WHAT IS RITUAL, AND WHAT ARE ITS VARIOUS
FORMS AND EXPRESSIONS?
VARIOUS FORMS:
• Rites of passage - Changes in social status
• Individual - Baptisms, initiation, weddings
• Collective - Sorority rites/ initiation
3 PHASES OF RITES OF PASSAGE
1. Separation - People withdraw from ordinary society
2. Liminality -Left one status but haven't yet entered or
joined the next.
- The transitional stage
- Stage ng challenged para makilala mo
yung sarili mo.
3. Incorporation - Social Solidarity
Social Control
TYPES OF RITUALS
a. Rites of Passage
- Liminality -Left one status but haven't
yet entered or joined the next.
▪ The transitional stage
▪ Stage ng challenged
para makilala mo yung
sarili mo.
b. Rites of Intensification
- These are habitual performance
imposed by an organization that they
intensify the solidarity between the
social organization.
TYPES OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
4 Forms of Religious Organization
a. Individualistic – this are spiritual in nature and noy
dictated by an organization
b. Shamanistic – “Shamman” (these are selected
persons or mediator para sa kanilang followers and
deities)
c. Communal - ancestral rites / purification
d. Ecclesiastical – bureaucratic nature; may
leadership and funding system on their foundation
(ex. Buddhism, Roman Catholic)
Religion and Cultural Ecology Sacred Cattle in India
3. WHAT ROLE DOES RELIGION PLAY IN
MAINTAINING AND CHANGING SOCIETIES?
1. Belief in a Higher Power:
- Many definitions of religious include the
belief in a higher power or powers which
can take many forms which as guide,
goddesses, apirits or a universal
consciousness.
2. Rituals and Practices:
- Religious traditional often involve a set of
rituals and practices that help believers
connect with the divine such as prayer,
meditation, sacredness or sacrifices.
3. Connectivity:
- Religion often creates a sense of
community among believers who come
together to worship, share their belies and
support one another.
4. Moral Ordinance:
- Many religious traditions offer moral
guidance providing a set of principles or
commandments that guide believers’
behavior and decision-making.
5. Meaning and Purpose:
- Religion can provide a series of meaning
and purpose helping believers make
sense of the world around them and their
place in it.
 6. Connection to the Transcendent:
- Religion can offer a way to connect with
something greater than oneself whether
that’s the divine, the universe, or a higher
power.

7. Emotional and Psychological Significance:

- Religion can have a profound emotional
and psychological impact on believers
providing comfort, solace, and a sense of
belonging.

8. Cultural Significance:
- Religion if often deeply embedded in
culture shaping social norms. Values, and
beliefs.

9. Historical Significance:
- Religion has played a significant role in
human history, shaping the course of
civilization and influencing important
events.

10. Diversity:
- Religion is incredibly diverse, with
countless different

TOTEM – these are related to a religious clan which

represented their values characters and lands; it usually
represented by animals, symbols

3 SIGNIFICANT THEORIES THAT EXPALINS THE

RELEVANCE OF RELIGION

1. Intellectual – explain complex events and

circumstances; relevant in the early period of
history
2. Psychological – religion is the only source of to
understand anxiety and crisis in life (faith)
3. Sociological – explains conformity
- bakit nagigigng mahalaga ang religion sa
social conrol to avoid danger
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS:
Quiz #3:
1. Bilateral is a type of Descent principle where
lineages from both parents are considered part of
one's ancestry.
2. Choosing a partner or spouse that is based on the
principle of belonging to the same social group is
known as Endogamy
3. If the culture allows a male member to have more
than one spouse, it is called polygyny.
4. Multiculturalism is a perspective and a policy that
promotes cultural diversity as something valuable
and worth maintaining.
5. Nuclear is the type of family composed of parent
and offspring(s) living in a separate or single
household.
6. Ethnic Expulsion is a negative response to
differences in ethnicity where a targeted ethnic
group goes through physical elimination by moving
or placing the targeted ethnic group outside the
territorial boundaries of their region or country.
7. The Holocaust during WW2 is an example of
Genocide.
8. Which one is an example of Affinal relation in the
Philippines? Manugang
9. Racial classification of people is commonly based
on one's evident biological traits which is also
known as Phenotype.
10. If the decision-maker and authority in the social
group resides in the female or the mother, the
society is considered as matriarchal.
TRUE OR FALSE:
1. Race is not universally ascribed status observed in
every cultural society or group.
2. Nationationality pertains to the cultural feeling of
belongingness to a group of people or
community.
3. In Filipino society, the cultural groups of
Kapampangan, Ilocano, and Visayan are examples
of subnationalities.
4. To recognize and accept an adopted child as part
of a Family is an example of Fictive Kinship.
5. In Anthropology, a Nation is also a kind of ethnic
group.
6. Polyandry is not accepted norm in the Philippines.
Quiz #4:
1. Shame and Gossip is an example of informal social
control?
2. Social Control refers to diverse ways or
mechanisms by which behavior is constrained and
directed into acceptable channels, thus
maintaining conformity.
3. Power refers to the ability or skill to exercise one's
will and influence over others
4. According to Antonio Gramsci, hegemony
describes a stratified social order observed in
interstate relations which subordinates accept
hierarchy and domination as "natural".
5. Among the types of distribution and exchange of
goods and services, Redistribution is type involves
collecting and moving of products and resources
from the periphery to the center or local level to
national level, then allocating the resources back.
6. Adaptive Strategy refers to a cultural group's way
of making a living or productive system.
7. Chiefdom refers to several economically
interdependent residence groups with a
centralized leadership, a ranked society, and a
hereditary leader with full formal authority.
8. Which of the following is not an example of a State
system? Inuit and Sans
9. Balanced Reciprocity is a form of reciprocity in
which parties involved expects something in return
to maintain good relationship.
10. Agriculture is one of the identified ways of making
a living of a particular social group where intensive
organized farming is evident and domestication of
animals is essential for plant cultivation.
TRUE OR FALSE
1. Both chiefdoms and State systems enforces formal
law and coded rules to its members.
2. Foraging is an adaptive strategy most commonly
found in a Tribe where the concept of "Big-man"
leadership existed.
3. Bands, tribes, and chiefdoms are mainly
characterized and established around kin-based
social relations.
4. __________ is a type of political organization that is
supported by a bureaucracy, founded by formal
law, and considered egalitarian in social relations.
5. The division of labor and value of labor in
Industrialism is ___________________________.
6. In Tribes, the role of the Village Head is the same
as the so called "Big Man".
7. Taxation is a good example of Reciprocity in the
system of distribution and exchange in a society.