PHILARTS 1 / Study Guide

Module 1
Understanding Concepts of Arts and Culture
Introduction
This module explores the different definitions of arts and culture as applied in the Philippine
context using workshop exercises that examine preconceived notions of Philippine art/s
and culture, including your own. The ideas of Philippine arts and culture are treated as
“constructs,” and viewed as “artifacts” of social processes involving human practices shaped
and influenced by powerful institutions. As such, concepts of arts and culture used by the
state and even the academe—including notions of “authentic culture” and “syncretic
culture”—are interrogated, to understand how how broader social processes such as
nationalism and globalization shape our understanding of these concepts.

The module is designed to develop an understanding of arts and culture from the local point
of view and considers processes of cultural hybridity, fluidity, negotiation, and contestation
of meaning. It examines the process of meaning-making in arts and culture, and how these
are expressed in expressive forms in various “contact zones” in the Philippines.

Learning Objectives

After accomplishing this module, you should be able to:

1) Explain why the word art eludes definition;
2) Explain how the process of defining art is dependent on the contexts operating in specific
societies, cultures, and histories;
3) Discuss why arts and cultures are constructs— concepts created by the meaning-making
processes particular to cultures and communities.

Defining Art
To define art is to take into consideration how people in specific contexts value art as part
of lives. When we say context, we refer to a set of contions that locate a particular place in

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a particular history (Fajardo and Flores, 2002). These includes social institutions such as the
government, religion, schools, and social practces such as oral lore, mythologies, literature,
rituals, and many others. It can also include even social movements and social forces
including dynamics of power, and the pursuit of goals relevant to the community and
society.

On the other hand, culture is about how people understand the world around them, how
they make meanings and how these meanings are shared with others. Scholars of scholar
are concerned with how to understand processes of meaning-making, and how to account
for different meanings.

Culture involves how people in society make senseof the world around them. Most of the time this
making sense of the world is referred to as meaning making. Human interaction is all about
how these meanings are shared to others who share common or contradictory contexts.

History is the sum of many processes that entail the action of human beings to transform both
nature and social conditions.

Ask yourselves these questions: Where have you heard the word ‘culture’? In what
context/s is this word used? What do you think these individuals/groups/institutions mean
when they use the term ‘culture’?

Readings:

Read “What is Art?” (from Humanities 2: Art, Man, and Society, UPOU 2002) [PDF]
The reading provides various definitions of art. Each definition is framed within a certain
context and privileges a certain set of values. It enables us to appreciate that the
appreciation of art is different across time, cultures, and societies. We can reflect on our own
assumptions about what is art and realize there is no single definition that can
encompass what is true for all time, peoples, and places.

Read “Introduction to Culture” by Tim Ingold [PDF]

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From: The Routledge Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture and
Social Life (1994), edited by Tim Ingold
Anthropologist Tim Ingold traces the evolution of the concept of culture and provides a
historical background of the earliest definitions of culture as tied up with the idea of
civilization and human development. Various approaches to the study of culture are also
presented, as well as the components of culture found in diverse societies and groups of
people.

Go to discussion board # 1 and 1.1 (transformed as FMA 1)

The discussion board asks these questions:

If you were to pick an object that represents Philippine culture or the culture of your own
community, what object would that be? Why did you choose this object?

Where did you learn your ideas about culture?

Often, people’s notions of culture, including their own, take the form of a “checklist” of
traits and practices (Wright 1998) that are associated with particular communities or
nations. This way of understanding culture is what Lassiter (2009) calls the “artifacts” of
culture approach. Such listing of traits become naturalized through a process where
particular “traits” are made to be more important or meaningful by powerful institutions in
society, such as the government.

Additional readings:

Read the following texts to guide you in writing your essay.

Lassiter, Luke. “Chapter 2: Anthropology and Culture.” In Invitation to Anthropology. 3d
ed. Lanham: Altamira Press, 2009. 35-68.

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 Wright, Susan. “The politicization of culture.” In Anthropology Today, vol. 14, no. 1,
(1998), 7-15.

Answer Question 2 of FMA 1

1. How is the “trait-list” or “artifacts” approach in the study of culture different from
the approach that view culture as a process of meaning-making? Why is it important
to alnalyze how practices, ideas and objects are meaningful to individuals?

2. What are the various “representations” of Philippine culture or of your own

community’s culture? Who has benefited from these representations? What is
included and excluded from these representations? Why is this problematic?

Discussion

The introductory readings and learning activities provide a critical view of ‘culture’. Instead
of viewing culture as natural feature of human societies, the readings tell you that what you
learn about your own as well as other people’s cultures come from our education, the
media, and the people we interact with. The content of what you learn is shaped by
powerful social institutions such as the government, in the interest of promoting
nationalism and our participation in global processes. As such, as individuals who go
through the process of socialization, we are all implicated in the process of (re-)/producing
our own culture, as learn and impart knowledge from our community.

Instead of viewing art as an object with fixed qualities, the interrogation of various
definitions that have been attached to it opens us to elusiveness of the concept, the fluidity
of its definitions.

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