UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY

AND POLITICS
Identity – is often thought of as the expression of an
individual’s belief system and social affiliation.
Various factors can construct an identity including
race, nationality where a person lives, and a person’s
gender and sexuality.

 Cultural identity – is the identity or feeling of belonging

to a group. It is part of the person’s self-conception and
self-conception is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion,
social class and generation.
Political identity – is almost always associated with
a group affiliation and describes the ways in which
being a member of a particular group might express
specific political opinions and attitudes. Frequently it
refers to a specific political party affiliation or partisan
identity.

Social identity – is a person’s sense of who they are in

terms of their group membership. Examples are
race/ethnicity, gender, socio economic status sexual
orientation, religion, religious beliefs.
Anthropology
Anthropology provides a window to our past, a
mirror for our present and a lens through which
we look into the future. The word anthropology
comes from the Greek terms anthropos meaning
man and logos meaning science or study. In other
words, anthropology means the science and
study of man.
Political science is the study of politics. It is a
branch of knowledge that deals with the system
of government. It is the analysis of political
activity and behavior.
According to Lawson (1997), many of the key
concepts of political science have to do with
relationships of control namely:
Power – is the very heart of politics. According to
Robert Dahl there are three common fallacies in the
analysis of power:

a. Lump-of-power policy – is the mistaken

assumption that powers comes in lump-sums and
cannot be shared, so all one needs to ask is: “Who’s
in–charge?”
b. Confounding power-with resources – “Money
is power.

c. Confounding power with rewards and

deprivation – happens when we look beyond
the powerful act to its ultimate consequences for
the people it has been exercised for or against.
2. Influence-includes all cases when one party’s desire s
affect the behavior of another party.

3. Authority – is the right to exercise the power and

influence of a given position that comes from having
been placed in that position according to regular,
known and widely accepted procedures.

4. Legitimacy – means having the approval of others. It

is being regarded as correctly placed in a particular
role as carrying out the functions of that role correctly.
Political legitimacy means having widespread approval
for the way one exercises political power
5. Linkage –. Those who study domestic
political process use the term to refer to the
way pressure groups, political parties and
electoral process connect the general public
with the leaders who make policy decisions.
Sociology – is one of the disciplines that studies
human social behavior in a scientific, systematic
manner. It is the science of society, social institutions
and social relationships. Specifically, it is the study of
development structure interaction and collective
behavior of organized groups of human beings it can
be used for the following major purposes:
It can be used as an intellectual exercise,
pursued for its own sake and for producing
scientific knowledge.

It can be used as a general guide for

understanding our lives.

It can be used to pursue specific career in the

government.
Thomas (1995) highlighted the
relationship of Sociology with other
field of Social Sciences:
Anthropology – is the comparative study of
various aspects of past and the present; the social
science closest to sociology in its subject matter.

Psychology – is the social science that deals

with the behavior and thinking of organisms.

Economics – is the study of choices of people.

THANK YOU 