UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE, SOCIETY,
AND POLITICS:
SOME KEY OBSERVATIONS

LESSON I
 GUIDE QUESTION

What constitutes our Sociality

as human beings?
HUMANS AS SOCIAL BEINGS
Sociality is defined by the categories that we posses, the
categories assigned to us by society at large. These
‘labels’, so to speak, function as tags with which our
society read our worth or value.
Example: Gender, mirror the way our culture ‘reads’ us
as member of society.
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. Society, culture, and politics as conceptual tools in
the analysis of social behavior and interactions.
2. Students as acting agents and social actors.
3. Factors that accounts social differences, cultural
variations, and political identities.
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. Society, culture, and politics as conceptual tools in
the analysis of social behavior and interactions.
2. Students as acting agents and social actors.
3. Factors that accounts social differences, cultural
variations, and political identities.
SOCIALITY in school setting
OBSERVATION OF A SCHOOL AS
SOCIAL WORLD AND STUDING AS
SOCIAL AGENTS
QUESTIONS:
1. What sort of students go to school?
2. What sort of things they do?
3. What sort of activities they do?
4. What sort of spots they tend to stay?
5. What sort of interaction takes place between people
of categories?
FOOD also mirrors
cultural diversity.

Question: Why is
Balut considered a
unique cultural icon of
the Filipinos?
 CULTURE, SOCIETY AND
POLITICS AS PART OF THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
CULTURE
It is defined as the customary beliefs, social forms and
traits that defines a specific racial, religious or social
group. A deep and integral sense of personal honor
which as part of his or her cultural heritage
SOCIETY
Comes from the Latin word ‘socius’ which means
comrades, companion or friend. Pertains to a group of
individuals involved in social interaction or sharing the
same geographical or social territory.
POLITICS
Comes from the Greek word ‘Politika’ which means
affair of the cities. Refers to achieving and exercising
positions of governance over a human community.
 CULTURE, SOCIETY AND
POLITICS AS CONCEPTUAL
TOOLS
CONCEPTS
Are created and have been used to have a firm grip of
phenomenon. According to Pierce (1998) concept
describes as the “rational purport of a word or a
conception”.

(When you turn a term into a concept, you make it more

rational)
CONCEPT AS CONCEPTUAL TOOLS
Allow us from other concepts, or relate concept to each
other or even deconstruct old ones and replace them
with something new.
CONCEPT AS HEURISTIC TOOLS
Allow the discovery of new aspects of a phenomenon.
Concept can be conceived as ‘a means’ rather than an
‘end’.

(Being heuristic means having assumptions in the field

of social science)
EXAMPLE
Culture. With the concept of culture, anthropologist are
able to explore and make sense of the complex
processes and dynamics that characterize the great
variety of ‘ways of living’ practiced and observed into a
handy word.
 SOCIAL
REALITIES:
BEHAVIOR
AND
PHENOMENO
N
SITUATION
Gary graduated a year ago. Despite being blessed with
several job offers, he chose to remain jobless and hang
around with his barkada. Together they love to go
around in the town plaza especially at night.

Behavior and Phenomena: Istambay

SITUATION
Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are
strongly prohibited from eating pork and food with
blood, as well as from smoking and drinking alcoholic
beverages.

Behavior and Phenomena: Food Taboos

SITUATION
Darius is openly gay. He lives with his partner Garner.
He and Garner are both college professors in the local
city college.

Behavior and Phenomena: Same-sex relationship

SITUATION
If grades were to be the basis of Rusty’s standing in his
economic class, he would surely fail the course.
However, he was given a passing grade by his economic
teacher; who happened to be a childhood friend of his
mother.

Behavior and Phenomena: Padrino System/Backer

VALUES AND
BELIEFS AS
BEHAVIOR
MOTIVATORS
VALUES
Are a person’s standards of behavior and are considered
as judgement of what is important in life. It is also the
criteria of people use in assessing their daily lives,
arranging their priorities, and choosing between
alternative courses of action.
BELIEFS
Is something one accepts as true or real. It takes the
form of firmly held opinion or conviction, regardless of
the lack of verifiable evidence. It may be based on
tradition, faith, experience, scientific research or some
combination of these.
BELIEFS
Is something one accepts as true or real. It takes the
form of firmly held opinion or conviction, regardless of
the lack of verifiable evidence. It may be based on
tradition, faith, experience, scientific research or some
combination of these.
 SOCIAL
DYNAMICS:
SOCIAL,
POLITICAL,
AND
CULTURAL
CHANGE
SCENARIO
Taking ‘selfies’ is Alyssa’s preoccupation. It became a
habit when her parents gave her phone on her birthday.

Phenomenon: Selfeing
SCENARIO
Kapitan Santiago Imperial is the incumbent mayor of
the Vertigo City. His son, Wacky is currently running
for the congressional seat of the district, a position
occupied by his mother Congresswoman Amanda
Imperial for about three consecutive terms.

Phenomenon: Political dynasty

SCENARIO
Parker, a college student, is living alone in provident
village. Both her parents are OFWs working in Canada.
She visits them every summer break.

Phenomenon: Transnational families

SCENARIO
As youth volunteer, Braylee finds the rainy season a
busy season due to the frequency of typhoon related
disasters. Sometimes, she even spends her own money
to buy relief goods for typhoon victims.

Phenomenon: Youth volunteerism

CONCLUSION
Scenarios presented are either new, emerging, and familiar.
Scenario 1 on selfie is a recent behavioral pattern due to
the infiltration of technology. Scenario 2 on political
dynasty is a familiar one and reflects the durability of
certain cultural and political practices. Scenario 3
represents and emerging pattern of family relations.
Scenario 4 is about volunteerism which appears to be a
personal expression of political principle by an increasing
number of people.
CONCLUSION
All of these scenarios is that they may all be considered
as manifestations of cultural and political changes. New
technological platforms facilitating communication, self
expression, and interactions represent the cultural
change, while possession and expressions of power
represent political change.