UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE, SOCIETY &

POLITICS
LELLORD T. TOLETE
SUBJECT TEACHER
 THE NATURE, GOALS AND
PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY,
SOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL
SCIENCE
Learning Competency:
Discuss the nature, goals and perspective in/of anthropology, sociology, and
political science.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
1. Identify the nature of Anthropology, Sociology and Political
Science;
2. Know the goals of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science.
NATURE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
The nature of culture refers to a theoretical foundation of contemporary anthropology.

• Anthropology relates to sociology, it always describes human,

human behavior and human societies around the world. It is a
comparative science that examines all societies.
• The term anthropology means scientific study of man or human
beings. The purpose of sociology is to understand how human action
and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural
and social structures. Political Science is a social science that deals
with humans and their interactions. It is a branch of sociology; it
essentially deals with the large-scale actions of humans, and group
mentality.
• The word "anthropology" has been derived from two Greek words,
Anthropos (man) and logos (study or science).
• A discipline of infinite curiosity about human beings. They seek to
discover when, where, and why humans appeared on earth. They look at
how humans have changed since then.
• It is the study of humankind in all times and all places.
• It is the study of humanity including our prehistoric origins and
contemporary human diversity.
ANTHROPOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
• The proper sphere of anthropology as a science is to strive to secure
historical, sociological, and psychological laws that describe the overall
trends of processes among the people of all prehistoric and historic
periods.
FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Cultural Anthropology - Refers to the study of living people and their
cultures including variation and change. Cultural anthropologists also
study art, religion, migration, marriage, and family.
2. Linguistic Anthropology - Refers to the study of communication,
mainly (but not exclusively) among humans. It includes the study of
communication’s origins, history, and contemporary variation.
FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
3. Archeology - Refers to the study of past human cultures through their
material remains. It is the study of past human cultures through the
recovery and analysis of artifacts.
4. Biological Anthropology - Also known as “physical anthropology”,
this refers to the study of humans as biological organisms including
their evolution and contemporary variation. It seeks to describe the
distribution of hereditary variations among contemporary populations
and to sort out and measure the relative contributions made by heredity,
environment, and culture to human biology.
GOALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Discover what all people have in common – By studying
commonalities (folklores, traditions, language, etc.) in all humanity, we
could understand more about the human’s nature.
2. Produce new knowledge and new theories about humankind and
human behavior – This new knowledge is then applied to alleviate
human challenges.
GOALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
3. Discover what makes people different from one another to understand
and preserve diversity – Anthropology attempts to answer questions
like, “What does it mean to be a Filipino and a citizen of the world?
4. Look at one’s own culture more objectively like an outsider – It aims
to make “the strange familiar and the familiar strange.” Anthropology
also challenges individuals to evaluate and criticize their own culture.
NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY
• The word “sociology”, based on etymology, comes from the word
socius which means “group of partners” and logos which mean “science
or study of.”
• It is a systematic study of groups and societies that people build and
how these affect their behavior.
• Sociology deals with the study of groups.
NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY
• It focuses on various social connections, institutions, organizations,
structures, and processes.
• Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions.
Sociology’s subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion,
from the family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class
to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from social stability to
radical change in whole societies.
AREAS OF SOCIOLOGY
1. Social Organization - This includes the study of social institutions,
social inequality, social mobility, religious groups, and bureaucracy.
2. Social Psychology - This area focuses on the study of human nature
and its emphasis on social processes as they affect individual or
responses which are called “social stimuli”.
3. Applied Sociology - This is concerned with the specific intent of
yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations.
AREAS OF SOCIOLOGY
4. Population Studies - This area includes size, growth, demographic
characteristics, composition, migration, changes, and quality vis-à-vis
economic, political, and social systems.
5. Human Ecology - It pertains to the study of the effects of various
social organizations (religious organizations, political institutions and
etc.) to the population’s behavior.
NATURE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Political science is defined as the study of the state and government.
• It comes from the Greek word polis, which means city-state, and
ciencia, which means knowledge or study.
• Focuses on the theory and practice of government and politics at the
local, state, national and international levels.
• It is a study of the complex behavior of various political actors such as
the government administration, opposition, and subjects.
• It is the systematic study of political and government institutions and
processes.
POLITICS
• It originated from the Greek word ‘polis’, which means ‘city’ or
‘state’.
• It is the art and science of governing city/state.
• It is the social process or strategy in any position of control which
people gain, use, or lose power.
GOVERNMENT
• It is the agency to which the will of the state is formulated, expressed,
and carried out.
• It is the organized agency in a state tasked to impose social control.