Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences:

by Teacher Danielle D. Soriano

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the study of human activity through the
recovery and analysis of material remains
• pottery tools, houses, trash pits, burial sites  daily life
• human bones, teeth  diet, diseases
• plant and animal remains, soils  people’s use and
change of natural environments
• biology x culture: humans, primates, fossils
• origins x variations in human species
• evolution x adaptation: disease and early
death, how humans adapted
• study and comparative
analysis of pre-literate
societies
• religion, rituals, myths,
technology, gender roles,
kinship, economic and
political structures, music,
folklore
• beliefs, values, norms
• uses ethnography
“The best way to learn about diverse
peoples and cultures is to spend time
living among them.”
ETHNOGRAPHY  the recording and
descriptive analysis of a culture or society,
usually based on participant-observation,
resulting in a written account of a people,
place, or institution
High cases of AIDS in African countries
• language  how we see the world and how
we relate to each other
• building and sharing meaning
• forming or changing identities
• relations of power
• language x communication are keys to
how we make society and culture
• its use x how it changes over time
FRENCH SPANISH ENGLISH FILIPINO
il, elle el, ella He, she Siya
le, la lo, la his, her kanya
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• Greek: oikos (house) + nomos (custom/law)
• oikonomia – “management of a household”
• the study of how a particular society solves
its problem of
scarcity of
resources
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studies an overall economy on both a
national and international level
foreign trade, fiscal and monetary policy, inflation,
unemployment, interest rates, GDP, business cycles
foreign trade
government spending
government spending
fiscal policy
unemployment
focuses on how individual consumers,
households, and firms make decisions
how and why goods are valued differently
how individuals best trade with one another
division of labor, uncertainty, risk, game theory
factors affecting demand
factors affecting demand
factors affecting demand
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• Greek: geo (earth) + graphia (writing)
→ “description of the earth’s surface”
→ physical properties of the Earth’s
surface and their relationship with
human societies and culture
• natural environment x people in it
studies the natural
features and
processes of
the earth
(vegetation,
climate, soil,
water)
studies how human
activity affects and is
influenced by natural
environments
Informal settlers surrounding high-rise buildings
making, improving,
and developing
technologies in
map-making to
show geographic
information
develops databases of
geographic information
and systems to display
layers of geographic
data in a map-like format
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• Greek: historia (learning or inquiry)
• from Aristotle: a systematic account of
natural phenomena
• verify, record, and explain facts
and events that
happened in
the past
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pre-historic period (hominids)
ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Indus Valley,
Ancient Egypt, Mayans, Ancient China, Ancient Greek,
etc.)
Middle Ages (Western-Central Europe)
Crusades, Rise of Islam (West Asia)
Nara Period (Japan) Imperial (China)
EARLY MODERN
Renaissance
(new school of thought)
Reformation (Catholic
Church and Christianity)
Age of Discovery
(overseas exploration)
Rise of Capitalism
(private ownership, profit)
LATE MODERN
American Revolution
(US vs UK)
French Revolution
(Monarchy vs Democracy)
Russian Revolution
(Soviet Union; Communist)
WW1 and WW2
(Central vs Allied; genocide)
languages, customs,
arts, traditions

international relations
between states

economic occurrences,
way of living,
distribution of goods
human interaction w/
nature
– religious
experiences and ideas

women’s role
– military
affairs, strategies, armed
conflict
political ideas, events,
movements parties,
political leaders, elections,
policies, government

ways and customs of

a people: family and
children, education,
social institutions
 Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic,
Environmental, Religion, Women, Military,
Political, Social
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• Latin: lingua (language)
• scientific study
of language
• observe and describe
accurately
• find generalizations
• rules of manipulation
a set of spoken, written, or signed words
or symbols and the way we combine them
to communicate
meaning
a system of arbitrary signals (voice sounds,
gestures, or written symbols) that encode or
decode information
(1) a conventional set of arbitrary
signs...  LEXICON
(2) ...with rules manipulating these and
constraints on their distribution
 GRAMMAR
LEXICON (set of signs)
dictionary of arbitrary signs
GRAMMAR (rules)
sounds  sound patterns
words  phrases and sentences
meanings  usage and context
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PARTS of GRAMMAR:
pragmatics
PRAGMATICS | language usage; how
context influences the interpretation of
utterances
• literal meaning vs. intended meaning
• what is said vs. how and where it is
said

ex. 1) Can you pass the salt? 4) Hi,

miss.
• Greek: psyche (soul) + logos (study)
• scientific study of behavior
and mental processes
• physical state and
mental state and how
this relates to the
• environment of the
individual
• describe, explain,
predict, and/or
change behavior
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within a country
• public opinion, elections, political dynasties,
party politics
• federalism, national government, and state,
local, or regional government
• policy-making, public administration, and
the constitution
politics compared across countries
or regions
re: electoral behavior and public opinion,
political institutions, public policy (foreign
and domestic), political leadership, social
movements, etc
High cases of AIDS in African countries
international structures, relationships
and concerns
• international security (war, conflict, peace, etc.,)
• international political economy (trade, foreign
direct investment, international finance, etc.)
• other areas of global concern: environment,
human rights, international law, global health
• the role of international organizations
• consequences of globalization
historical and problem-based approaches
• challenges to concepts such as justice, authority,
liberty, and equality
• contemporary phenomena such as
democracy, human rights, neocolonialization,
and globalization
theories and political ideolgies
• liberalism, conservatism, socialism, politics and
morality, theories of revolution
WHO? Plato and Aristotle  perfecting the polis
WHY? diversity x scarcity  politics = inevitable
WHAT? study of politics: institutions + processes
Domestic P. | within a country
Comparative P | comparison across countries or regions
International Relations | international structures,
relationships and concerns
Political Theory | theories and ideologies
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• Greek socius (companion) + logy (study)
• the study of how the social world
operates and our place in it
human behavior within
a social context and how
individual experiences are
shaped by interactions w/
society, social institutions,
and social relationships
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pattern of relationships between and
among different groups and individual
people
• social institutions
• social groups
• social inequality
• bureaucracies
• government agencies
individual people x the larger social structures
and processes in which they participate
• deviance, crime and delinquency
• obedience and disobedience
• socialization
• health, race, ethnicity, and gender
• psychological consequences of family life
• attitudes of minority groups to the cultural
“mainstream”
behavior of a given group x interaction with
surrounding environment
• how social structures adapt to the quality
and quantity of natural resources and to the
existence of other human groups
• commerce, technology and natural
environment  distribution and movement
of population, utilities, and social institutions
• number, composition, change, and quality 
larger economic, social, and political systems
• fertility and mortality rates
• impact of migration on population distribution
• fertility, mortality, and migration rates x
population growth trends
• poverty and inequality x population
distribution
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