UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND

7
POLITICS
CULTURE, SOCIETY
AND POLITICS Key points:
CULTURE
Objectives:
Identify and classify the subjects of
SOCIETY inquiry and goals of Anthropology,
POLITICS Political Science, and Sociology.
 SOCIETY SOCIETY
VS
CULTURE

• Culture is an attribute
• Is an interdependent
of a community: the
community.
complex web of
• “Society" is the actual
shifting patterns that
arrangement of social
Emerged in the fifteenth century and is link individuals
relations” Clifford
together.
derived from the French société. The French Geertz.
• "culture" consists of
word, in turn, had its origin in the Latin beliefs and symbolic
societas, a "friendly association with others," • In the study of social
forms”-Clifford Geertz.
sciences "society" has
from socius meaning "companion, associate, been used to mean a
• "culture or civilization,
comrade or business partner." Essential in the taken in its wide
group of people that
ethnographic sense, is
meaning of society is that its members share form a semi-closed
that complex whole and
some mutual concern or interest, a common social system, in which
any other capabilities
objective or common characteristics, often a most interactions are
and habits acquired by
with other individuals
common culture. belonging to the group.
man as a member of
society." Tylor.
 KARL MARX
Human beings are intrinsically,
necessarily, and by definition
social beings who—beyond
being "gregarious creatures"—
cannot survive and meet their
needs other than through social
co-operation and association.
MAX WEBER
Defined human action as "social"
if, by virtue of the subjective
meanings attached to the action by
individuals, it "takes account the
behavior of others, and is thereby
oriented in its course." In this case,
the "social" domain really exists
only in the intersubjective relations
between individuals.
EMILE DURKHEIM
A social fact is every way of acting,
fixed or not, capable of exercising on
the individual an influence, or an
external constraint; or again, every
way of acting which is general
throughout a given society, while at
the same time existing in its own
right independent of its individual
manifestations. (Carls, Paul, 2020)
 CULTURE NON MATERIAL MATERIAL

SOCIOLOGIST

It is one of the most important concepts within

sociology because sociologists recognize that
it plays a crucial role in our social lives. It is
important for shaping social relationships, CHARACTERISTICS OF
maintaining and challenging social order, CULTURE
determining how we make sense of the world
and our place in it, and in shaping our Culture as Learned
everyday actions and experiences in society. It Culture as Normative
is composed of both non-material and material Culture as Cumulative
things. (Little, William and McGivern, Ron Culture as Adaptive
2013) Culture as Diverse
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

Culture being a complex set of patterned CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE

social interactions is learned and
transmitted through socialization or
enculturation.
• Culture as Dynamic, Flexible and
Adaptive
• Culture as Shared, Contested and
Challenged
• Culture as Learned through
socialization and enculturation
• Culture as Patterned social
interactions
• Culture as Integrated
• Culture as Transmitted through
socialization or enculturation
• Culture as Language
• Language is symbolic
• Language is cultural
• Language is flexible
• Language has rules of usage
• Language is dynamic and not static
Language and its Functions
• Expressive and Communicative Functions
• Control Function
• The Functions of Remembering and Thinking
• The Discovery of One’s Name
• Social Functions of Language
• Creative Functions
 ETHNOCENTRISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM AS ORIENTATIONS IN VIEWING OTHER CULTURES
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The practice of assessing a
culture by its own
standards rather than
viewing it through the lens
of one’s own culture.
ETHNOCENTRISM
Ethnocentrism is a term
applied to the cultural or
ethnic bias—whether
conscious or unconscious—in
which an individual views the
world from the perspective of
his or her own group,
establishing the in-group as
archetypal and rating all other
groups with reference to this
ideal. 
XENOCENTRISM
The opposite of
ethnocentrism, and refers to
the belief that another culture
is superior to one‟s own. (The
Greek root word xeno,
pronounced “ZEE-no,” means
“stranger” or “foreign guest.”)
VS