UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS  Types of Culture

A. Material Culture –Ex. Food ✓ Architectural

REVIEW NOTES:
Structures ✓ Fashion and Accessories ✓
Technological Tools
B. NON – Material Culture- Ex. ✓ Ideas ✓
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM - It is the ability to
understand a culture on its own terms and not Behavior, Gesture and Habits ✓ Religion ✓
to make judgments using the standards of one's Language and Symbol
own culture. The goal of this is promote Elements of Culture:
understanding of cultural practices that are not
typically part of one's own culture. Knowledge
EX, • It refers to any information received and perceived to be true.
Practice of eating insects in some cultures but in
Western countries it is perceived as unusual or Beliefs
even repulsive. (SO instead of viewing it as • The perception of accepted reality.
disgusting, Cultural Relativism encourage
• Reality refers to the existence of things whether
understanding and respect for the cultural
material or nonmaterial,
content.
 ANTHROPOLOGY- refers to the branch of Social Norms
knowledge that deals with the scientific study of
• These are established expectations of society as to
man, his works, body, behavior and values in
how a person is supposed to act depending on the
time and space.
requirements of time, place, or situation.
 SOCIOLOGY – It is a scientific study of
patterned, shared behavior which analyzes Symbolic interactionism
human interaction essential to understanding is a sociological perspective that is most
man’s cultural growth concerned with the face-to-face
 POLITICAL SCIENCE- It is a systematic study of a interactions between members of society.
state and government, which deals with the Interactionists see culture as being created
nature, principles, and mechanics of rules and and maintained by the ways people interact
power. and in how individuals interpret each
 CULTURE- is that “a complex whole which other’s actions
encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes * Every object and action has a symbolic
laws, norms, artifacts, symbols knowledge, and meaning, and language serves as a means
everything that a person learns and share as a for people to represent and communicate
member of society” their interpretations of these meanings to
 Aspects of Culture others
➢ Dynamic, Flexible, & Adaptive
➢ Shared & Contested (given the reality of Structural Functionalists
social differentiation)
view society as a system in which all parts work—
➢ Learned through socialization or
or function—together to create society as a whole. In
enculturation
this way, societies need culture to exist
➢ Patterned social interactions
➢ Integrated and at times unstable
➢ Transmitted through
socialization/enculturation Requires language
and other forms of communication
Conflict theorists/ Social Conflict to a new cultural environment, while still
retaining their own distinct culture.
view social structure as inherently unequal, based on  ASSIMILATION – is the process by which a
power differentials related to issues like class, gender,
person or group adopts a new culture that
race, and age.
virtually replaces their original culture,
For a conflict theorist, culture is seen as reinforcing leaving only trace elements behind, at
issues of “privilege” for certain groups based upon race, most. When the process is at its most
sex, class, and so on extreme, it occurs wherein the original
Cultural variation refers to the differences in social culture is wholly abandoned and the new
behaviors that different cultures exhibit around the culture adopted in its place.
world. What may be considered good etiquette in  IMITATION – is an advanced behavior
one culture may be considered bad etiquette in whereby an individual observes and
another. Like so, there are two important replicates another’s behavior.
perceptions on cultural variability namely  IMMERSION – first hand experience to
ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
learn or adopt a skill or culture.
 INDOCTRINATION -the process of inculcating
 Ethnocentrism- It is a perception that arises ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and cognitive strategies
from the fact that cultures differ and each during the transfer of cultural traditions from
culture defines reality differently. one generation to the next with the expectation
*It is a belief in the superiority of your own that such traditions will not be questioned but
culture. It results from judging other cultures by practiced in the future.
your own cultural ideals.  CONDITIONING – giving rewards and
 Xenocentrism - the preference for the cultural punishments
practices of other cultures and societies, such as
how they live and what they eat, rather than of Cultural Deviance – the act of violating the
one's own social way of life. prescribed social norms.
 Agents of Socialization  Cultural Lag – occurs when one part of
1. Folkways - These are customary patterns culture changes faster than another, leading
that specify what is socially correct and
to a gap or “lag” between them
proper in everyday life. They are the
repetitive or the typical habits and
 Culture Shock –an experience a person has
patterns of expected behavior followed when moving from one’s cultural
within a group of community. environment to another leading to
2. Mores - They define what is morally right disorientation and anxiety.
and morally wrong. These are folkways  SYMBOLS – an object , gesture, and sound
with ethical and moral significance which that represents meaning
are strongly held and emphasized.  LANGUAGE – method of human
3. Laws - These are norms that are enforced communication via verbal or non-verbal
formally by a special political organization.  VALUES-refers to the ethical standards that
 ENCULTURATION – is the process by which distinguishes right from wrong, good or bad
an individual adopts the behavior patterns *considered to be valuable, desirable,
of the culture in which he or she is worthy and important in one’s culture.
immersed ( one’s own culture).  BELIEFS – refers to the accepted reality of
 ACCULTURATION – is the process by which the existence of things whether material or
an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts non material
 SOCIETY – is highly structured human
organization which follows common laws,
norms and knowledge.

 FOLKWAYS – informal, everyday customs,

or habits
Ex. Saying polite words ; opening the door
to someone
 MORES – serious norms considered vital to
society’s well being.
Ex. Respecting elders ; not committing acts
of violence
 SOCIAL NORMS – general rules or behaviors
within a society.
Ex. Not talking loudly inside the library;
waiting in line
