UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS

1. Chapter 2
DEFINING CULTURE AND SSOCIETY
FROM THEE PERSPECTIVES OF
ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

2. I.Defining Culture
andSocietyfrom
theperspectives
ofAnthropology
andSociology
CULTURE- refers to the complex whole which
encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws,
norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge and everything that
a person learns and shares as a member of society.
CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURE:
a. Material culture- cultural components that are visible
and tangible.
b. Nonmaterial culture- components of culture that are
intangible or without representation
2 category of nonmaterial culture:
1. Cognitive- include the ideas, concepts, philosophies,
design etc. that are products of the mental or
intellectual functioning of the human mind.
2. Normative- includes all the expectations, standards
and rules for human behavior.

3.  ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
1. beliefs
2. values
3. symbols
a. verbal
b. nonverbal
4. language
5. technology
6. norms

4.  2 TYPES OF NORMS:
a. proscriptive- defines and tells is thing to do.
b. prescriptive- defines and tells is thing to do.
FORMS OF NORMS:
1. Folkways
2. Mores
3. Taboos
4. laws

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE:
1. dynamic, flexible and adaptive
2. Shared and may be challenged
3. Learned through socialization or enculturation
4. Pattered social interactions
5. Integrated
6. Transmitted through socialization/ enculturation
7. Requires language and other forms of communication.

6.  SOCIETY- describes a group of people who share a
common territory and a culture.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY:
a. hunting and gathering societies
b. pastoral societies
c. horticultural societies
d. agricultural societies
e. industrial societies
f. post- industrial societies

7. ETHNOCENTRISM/
XENOCENTRISMAND
CULTURALRELATIVISM
ASORIENTATIONSIN
VIEWINGOTHER
CULTURE
 ETHNOCENTRISM
- Is the tendency to see and evaluate other culture in terms of one’s own
race, nation or culture.
XENOCENTRISM
- one;s exposure to cultural practices of others may make one to give
preferences to the ideas, lifestyle and products of other cultures.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
- Is the principle that an individual humans beliefs and activities should
be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture.
3 IDEAS OF CULTURAAL RELATIVISM:
a. moral relativism
b. situational relativism
c. cognitive relativism

8.  Reference:
 Understanding, Culture, Society and Politics. 2016. Myla M. Arcinas Ph. D. pp 1-13.