UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE, SOCIETY
AND POLITICS
• Complex whole which consist of
knowledge, beliefs, ideas, habits,
attitudes, skills, nabilities, values,
norms, arts, laws, morals,
customs, traditions, feelings and
capabilities of man which are
acquired, learned and socially
transmitted by man through
language and living together as
members of the society.
• Refers to a man’s social and
material inventions, man’s
artificial or man made
environment including the learned
ways of doing things
• Social heritage of a society. It
refers to the customary ways in
which groups organize their ways
of behaving, thinking, feeling and
which they transmit from one
generation to another.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
1. Culture is learned. It is acquired
through education, training and
experience.
2. Culture is socially transmitted
through language.
3. Culture is a social product
4. Culture is source of gratification
5. Culture is adaptive
6. Culture is the distinctive way of
life of a group of people
7. Culture is material and non-
material
8. Culture has sanctions and
controls.
9. Culture is stable yet dynamic.
10. Culture is an established
pattern of behavior.
 COMPONENTS
1. NORMS – guidelines people are
supposed to follow in their relation with
one another; they are shared rules that
specify what is right or wrong and the
appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
• Indicate the standards of propriety,
morality, legality and ethics of a society
that are covered by sanctions when
violations are made.
Ex. We are supposed to be sad and
depressed when a family member dies.
• SOCIAL NORMS
a. FOLKWAYS- everyday habits, customs,
traditions and conventions people obey
without giving much thought to the matter.
• Customary or habitual ways and patterns
of doing things which do not have
particular moral and ethical significance.
• People who violate folkways are labeled
as slobs or eccentrics but as a rule they
are tolerated.

• Ex. Eating with bare hands vs using

spoon and fork
• B. MORES- norms of people
consider vital to their well being and
most cherished values; special
customs with moral and ethical
significance which are strongly held
and emphasized.
• Coercive and compulsory due to their
strong moral and legal sanctions.
• Society’s code of ethics, moral
commandments and standards of
morality.
 2 kinds of Mores
a. Positive mores or duty (THOU
SHALL BEHAVIOR) which must
and ought to be done because
they are ethically and morally
good.
Ex. Giving assistance to the poor
and needy
• B. Negative or taboo or the
THOU SHALL NOT Behavior
Societal prohibitions on certain
acts which must not be done
because they are not only illegal
but unethical and immoral
Ex. Incest and murder
C. LAWS –formalized norms
enacted by people vested with
legitimate authority.
• With formal sanctions by the
state
• Sanctions are socially imposed
rewards and punishments that
compel people to obey the
norms.
2.IDEAS, BELIEFS, VALUES
• Ideas are non material aspects
of culture and embody man’s
conception of his physical,
social, and cultural
ex. Idea of model community
idea of educated person
idea of alternative marriage
• Beliefs refers to a person’s
conviction about a certain idea.
=primitive or scientific view
Ex. Belief in gravity, belief in life after
death
• VALUES=abstract concepts of what
is important and worthwhile
= general ideas that individuals share
about what is good or bad, right or
wrong, desirable and desirable
Ex. Equality, freedom, nationalism
3. MATERIAL CULTURE refers to the
concrete and tangible objects
produced and used by man to satisfy
his varied needs and wants.
From prehistoric stone tools and
weapons to sophisticated and
modern spaceships and weapons
=a piece of stone becomes a material
culture only when it has been
modified or fashioned into a tool, a
part of the building or a stone
monument
• 4. SYMBOLS = refers to object,
gesture, sound, color or design that
represents something “other than
itself”.
• Meanings of symbols must be
agreed so it is understood

• Ex. Cross for Christianity

Dove for peace
CATEGORIES OF CULTURE in
THE PHILIPPINES
1. Based on Nationality
• Filipino culture

2. Based on ethno linguistic group

• Tagalog, ilongo, bisaya, maranao

3. Based on Historical Epochs of Philippine

culture
• Before the coming of the Spaniards
• Spanish period
• War period, Japanese ocuupation
• New Republic
• Pre-martial Law
• Martial Law
• Post Martial Law
• 4. Based on Economic means
• Agriculture culture
• Fishing culture
• Business/commercial culture
5. Based on Geographical Location
• Lowland culture
• Upland culture
• Rural culture
• Urban culture

6. Based on Religion
• Christian
• Muslim
• Pagan
• 7. Based on Technology
• Advanced/modern culture
• Primitive/ traditional culture

8.Based on Age
Teenage culture
Culture of the retired and aged

9. Based on Economic Status

• Elitist culture
• Mass culture
• 10. Based on response to Colonialism
• Mainstream culture
• Indigenous culture
 OTHER SYMBOLIC USES OF
CULTURE
• 1. CULTURE OF POVERTY= learned
ways of the poor, vicious cycle of
deprivation and want transmitted from one
generation to another

2. CULTURE OF OPULENCE= ways of life

of the rich and famous in their world of
glitz and glamour
3. CULTURE OF CORRUPTION=
established patterns of illegally amassing
wealth and obtaining power of
concessions in the government or private
office

4. CULTURE OF SILENCE/SABOTAGE =
individual or group attitude to keep silent
as a resigned response to authority

. POP CULTURE = popular ways, practices

and interests of contemporary society.
• 6. CULTURE OF APATHY= prevalent
inaction, indifference, lack of emotion,
interest of the people in regard to the
issues and concerns which need attention
and resolution

7. CULTURE OF CONSPICUOUS
CONSUMPTION= ways and practices of
super rich in buying goods and obtaining
services in excess of what they can
actually consume or use
• 8. CULTURE OF EXPLOITATION AND
DEHUMANIZATION = socially entrenched
patterns of abusive and exploitative
practices by the moneyed and power
wielding members of the society against
culturally deprived and materially
disadvantaged group of the society.
 Viewpoints/Perspective on
culture
• 1. CULTURAL RELATIVISM states that
cultures differ, so that a cultural trait or
idea has no meaning or function by
itself but has a meaning only witing its
cultural setting. It implies that there are
different interpretations of the same or
similar behavior by members of
different cultures.Ex. Monogamy for
Christians and polygamy among
Muslims
• 2. CULTURE SHOCK refers to the
feeling of disbelief, disorganization and
frustration one experiences when he
encounters cultural patterns and
practices which are different from the
accustomed culture.

Example: religious person enters in a

nudist camp
3. ETHNOCENTRISM refers to the
tendency to see the behaviors, beliefs,
values, and norms of one’s own group
as the only right way of living and to
judge others by those standards.
• Feeling of superiority for one’s own
culture and to consider other cultures
as inferior, wrong, strange or queer.

Ex. Superiority of the white race

Philippines as Pearl of the Orient
4. XENOCENTRISM refers to the idea that
what is foreign is best and that one’s
lifestyle, products or ideas are inferior
to those of others.

Example: mania for imported goods and

foreigh lifestyles, Colonial mentality
5. NOBLE SAVAGE MENTALITY= refers
to the evaluation of one’s culture and
that of others based on the romantic
notion that the culture and the way of life
of the primitives or simple culture is
better, more acceotable and more orderly

Example: rural lifestyle is better

• 6. SUBCULTURE= refers to smaller
groups which develop norms, values,
beliefs, and special languages which
make them distinct from the broader
society.
• Maybe based on age, social class,
occupational, political or religious
affliations
• Teenagers, senior citizens, urban poor
• 7. COUNTERCULTURE or CONTRA
CULTURE = refers to subgroups whose
standards come in conflict with and
oppose the conventional standards of
the dominant culture
• A threat to the dominant society and
are considered as social problems
Example: criminals, juvenile delinquents,
drug addicts, prostitutes, terrorists
• 8. CULTURE LAG = refers to the gap
between the material and non material
culture. Material advances more rapidly
and is more readilty accepted by
people such as the non material culture
lags behind.
Example: Muslims readily accept
modern means of transportation and
communication but remain steadfast in
their religious faith
 CAUSES OF CULTURAL
CHANGE
1. DISCOVERY process of finding new
place or an object, artifact that previously
existed.

Discovery of fire led to the art of cooking

2. INVENTION implies creative process
of devising, creating and producing
something new.
Example: wheel, machines

3. DIFFUSION= spread of cultural traits

or social practices from a society or
group to another belonging to the
same society or another through
direct contact with each other and
exposure to new forms
 SOCIAL PROCESS OF
DIFFUSION
• A. Acculturation = cultural borrowing
and cultural imitation
=Filipinos are said to be best English-
speaking people of Asia

B.ASSIMILATION= blending or fusion of

2 distinct cultures through long periods
of interactions
= americanixation of Filipino immigrants
• C. AMALGAMATION= biological or
hereditary fusion of members of
different societies
=Marriage between a Filipino and an
American
D. ENCULTURATION =Deliberate fusion
of new culture to another
=teaching American History to the
Filipinos during the early American
Regime
• 4. COLONIZATION
• Refers to 5political, social and political
policy of establishing a colony which
would be subject to the rule or
governance of the colonizing state.
(IMPERIALISM)
• Economy of a more advanced country
dominates the economy of a less
developed state(NEO-COLONIALISM)
• Example; Hispanization of Filipino
Culture
5. REBELLION and
REVOLUTIONARY MOEMENTS=
aim to change the whole social
order and replace leadership.
• Challenge the existing norms,
values, and organization.
• Example: RAM(Reformed Arm
Forces Movement)