UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE AND
SOCIETY
 OBJECTIVES

 Define society and discuss its essential characteristics and elements;

 Describe the growth and development of different societies;

 Define culture and discuss its various aspects and components;

 Discuss anthropology, its essential features and main concerns, and

how it contributes in understanding culture and society;

 Discuss sociology, its essential features and main concerns, and how
it contributes in understanding culture and society; and

 Discuss political science, its essential features and main concerns,

and how it contributes in understanding culture and society.
 SOCIETY
A group of individuals
sharing common
culture, geographical
location, and
government.

Societies enable
individuals to acquire
necessary survival
skills, maximize their
potential, and share
resources.
MAJOR TYPES OF
SOCIETIES
The basic
social and
economic
units were the
family and
local clan
which
organized
hunting and
gathering
activities and
distributed HUNTING AND GATHERING
the
accumulated
food supply.
Emergence
was brought
about by the
gradual shift
from the
hunting-and-
gathering
lifestyle to a
more
sedentary life,
and the
introduction HORTICULTURAL AND
of agriculture PASTORAL
as a more
stable food
production
Food
production
became more
efficient due
to the new
methods of
farming, the
invention of
more
advanced
tools, and the
establishment AGRICULTURAL
of permanent
settlements.
Technological
advancements
resulted in
the invention
of machines
that improved
production.

INDUSTRIAL
Knowledge is
a commodity
and
technological
innovation is
key to long-
lasting growth
and
development.

POST-INDUSTRIAL
 CULTURE
Set of beliefs, ideas,
values , practices,
knowledge, history
and shared
experiences,
attitudes, as well as
material objects and
possessions
accumulated over
time and shared by
the members of
society.
 CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

1. Material culture
– physical or tangible objects produced, shared, and
utilized within society such as tools or implements,
paintings and other works of art, architectural
styles, weaponry, and toys.

2. Nonmaterial culture
– intangible properties and elements of society that
influence the patterns of action and behavior of its
members such as language, beliefs, values, attitudes,
ideas, and norms shared among members of society.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

1. Symbols
– things that convey meaning or represent an idea.

2. Language
– set of symbols that enables members of society to
communicate verbally and nonverbally.

3. Values
– shared ideas, norms, and principles that provide
members of society the standards that pertain to what
is right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or
undesirable.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

4. Norms
– shared rules of conduct that determine specific
behavior among society members.

a. Folkways
– socially approved behaviors that have no moral
underpinning. (Socially acceptable behavior
without a moral basis.)

b. Mores
– norms related to moral conventions.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

c. Taboos
– behaviors that are absolutely forbidden in a
specific culture.

d. Laws
– rules and regulations that are implemented
by the state, making them the prime source of
social control.
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

1. Dynamic, flexible, and adaptive

– cultural behaviors allow people to fit into and
adapt to their respective environments.

2. Shared and contested

– this concept means that various members of a
society or group commonly share ideas,
activities, and artifacts.
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

3. Learned through socialization or

enculturation
– behavior patterns that constitute a specific
culture are not genetically or biologically
determined.

4. Patterned social interactions

– social interaction, as commonly viewed,
implies theories of reciprocity,
complementarity, and mutuality of response.
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

5. Integrated and at times unstable

– for a society or group, ideas, activities, and artifacts
are not only shared; their arrangement more or less fit
together and interlock to form a consistent whole.

6. Transmitted through socialization or enculturation

– acquired through learning, cultural ideas, and
artifacts are handed down from generation to
generation as a super organic inheritance, which
means it is inherently passed on through generations.
 ASPECTS OF CULTURE

7. Requires language and other forms of

communication
– language is a shared set of spoken, often
written symbols and rules used in meaningful
ways.
 ANTHROPOLOGY,
SOCIOLOGY, AND
POLITICAL SCIENCE
 ANTHROPOLOGY
 The word anthropology is
taken from two Greek
words logos which means
“study”, and anthropos
which means “man.”

 Anthropology can be
defined as the study of
people―their origins ,
their development, and
contemporary variations,
wherever and whenever
they have been found on
the face of the earth.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

1. Archaeology
– examines the ancient and historical human
populations to promote an understanding of
how humans have adapted to their
environment and developed.

2. Cultural Anthropology
– promotes the study of a society’s culture
through their belief systems, practices, and
possessions.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

3. Physical Anthropology
– looks into the biological development of
humans and their contemporary variation.

4. Linguistic Anthropology
– examines the language of a group of people
and its relation to their culture.
 SOCIOLOGY
 The word sociology has
been derived from two
terms, logos which
means “science” or
“study”, and socius
which means “group” or
“partners.”

 Sociology is the scientific

study of society,
including patterns of
social relationships,
social interaction, and
culture.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

1. Social Organization
– covers the study of the various social
institutions, social groups, social stratification,
social mobility, bureaucracy, ethnic groups and
relations, and other similar subject.

2. Social Psychology
– deals with the study of human nature as an
outcome of group life, social attitudes,
collective behavior, and personality formation.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

3. Social Change and Disorganization

– includes the study of the change in culture
and social relations and the disruption that
may occur in society.

4. Human Ecology
– studies the nature and behavior of a given
population and its relationships to the group’s
present social institutions.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

5. Population/Demography
– concerned with the study of population
number, composition, change, and quality as
they influence the economic, political, and
social systems.

6. Applied Sociology
– uses sociological research and methods to
solve contemporary problems.
 POLITICAL SCIENCE
 Political science comes
from two Greek words
polis refers to the “city-
state” in ancient
Greece, and scire
means “to know.”

 It is the systematic
study of governance by
the application of
empirical and generally
scientific methods of
analysis.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

1. Political Theory
– examines the contemporary application of
political concepts such as human rights,
equality, peace, and justice.

2. Comparative Politics
– aims to provide context to the differences in
government and political systems.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

3. International Relations
– study of state-to-state relations and the wider
margin of the impacts of globalization and climate
change such as terrorism, piracy, and
democratization of non-Western territories fall into
the category of international relations.

4. Political Behavior
– covers the attitudes, knowledge, and actions of an
individual in response to political variables such as
policies created by the government, behavior or
politicians, and general political environment.
 SUBDISCIPLINES

5. Public Policy
– inquires on the types of governmental
policies and the underlying motivations for
their enactment and implementation.

6. Public Administration
– examines the various administrative schemes
implemented by government officials.
THANK
YOU!