UCSP Reviewer ➢ includes matters about human ancestry, economic process,

social change, and history of the world.

Nature, Goals, and Perspective of Anthropology, Sociology, ➢ about how various people can be, and it tries to go through
and Political Science in what sense that all humans have similarities.
➢ study of human race including our pre-historic origin and
• Anthropology - includes matters about human ancestry, contemporary human diversity.
economic process, social change, and history of the world.
Strauss (1983) - anthropology tries to grasp its object through its
• Sociology - is a systematic study of groups and societies that
most diverse manifestations’.
people build and how these affect their behavior.
• Political Science - is a study of the complex behavior of
Czarina Saloma, et. al. - Anthropology came from the Greek word-
various political actors such as the government,
anthropos which means ‘human’ and logos means ‘reason’- it means
administration, opposition, and subject.
‘reason about humans’ or ‘knowledge about humans’.
• Produce new knowledge and new theories about human
kind and human behavior - through this goal you can 2. Sociology
demonstrate an ability to respect the culture of others
without abandoning their own points of view. Steven Loyal (2003) - the study of human social life, groups, and
• The study of politics has something to do with power. society.
• Sociology - enable us to appreciate that all things and
interdependent with each other. ➢ seeks to give a deeper assessment of individual and group
• To understand human cultures in different ways - Discover behavior, including social events.
what all people have in common (folklores, traditions, ➢ gathers social inputs which composed of frequent forms and
language, etc.) manners such as viewpoints, consolidated values, and norms
• Anthropology - is a comparative study of cultural and social of social institutions which form part of social array.
life.
• Political Science - give and take relationship with the 3. Political Science
government and the people.
• Sociology - focuses on various social connections, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy - a classical discipline
institutions, organizations, structures, and processes that deals with the study of political phenomena.

1. Anthropology ➢ Goal: deepen human understanding of the forms and nature

of political action and to develop theoretical tools for
Banks, William E. (2020) - the study of humans, their close relatives, interpreting politically meaningful phenomena.
and their cultural environment.
 ➢ Focus: fundamental values of equality, freedom, and justice The Social and Cultural Change
and its process linked with the dynamics of conflict,
resolution, and cooperation. Social change - alteration in the social order of a society.
➢ may include changes in nature, social institutions, social
behaviors, or social relations.
Concept, Aspects and Changes In/Of Culture and Society
Cultural change - deals with the evolution of cultural components.
Society (Palispis, 2007 p. 254) - group of people sharing a common ➢ modification of a society through innovation, invention,
culture within a defined territorial boundaries. discovery, or contact with other societies.

Culture - composite or multifarious areas that comprise beliefs, • Culture - this is a complex whole which includes knowledge,
practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, beliefs, arts, morals laws, customs, and any other capabilities
knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares as a and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
member of society. • Cultural variation - this is the differences in social behaviors
that different cultures exhibit around the world.
Culture is: • Knowledge - an information received and perceived to be
1. A product of human interaction. true.
2. A social heritage that is complex and socially transmitted. • Beliefs - the perception of accepted reality.
3. Provides socially acceptable patterns for meeting biological and
• Social norms - established expectations of society as to how
social needs.
a person is supposed to act depending on the requirements
4. A distinguishing factor.
of the time, place, or situation
5. Cumulative
• Cultural relativism - the attempt to judge behavior according
6. Meaningful to human beings
to its cultural context.
• Ethnocentrism - judging another culture solely by the values
Aspects of Culture
and standards of one’s own culture.
1. Dynamic, flexible and adaptive.
• Cultural understanding - respecting, embracing and
2. Shared and contested.
understanding one’s culture.
3. Learned through socialization or enculturation.
• Society - social system that is composed of people assigned
4. Patterned social interactions.
to perform a definite task and function.
5. Integrated and at times unstable.
• Enculturation - process whereby individuals learn their
6. Transmitted through socialization.
group’s culture through experience, observation, and
7. Requires language and other forms of communication.
instruction.
Dean Champion (and his associates) - “the range of variations 1. Cultural Symbols and Practices
between culture is almost endless and yet at the same time cultures
ensemble one another in many important ways” Symbols - the basis of culture.
➢ Examples: objects, figures, sounds, and colors. It
Cultural variation – differences in social behaviours that different could also be facial expressions, gestures or word
cultures exhibit around the world. interpretations.
• affected by man’s geographical set-up and social experiences 1. Mano or pagmamano - performed as a sign of
respect to elders and as a way of requesting a
Ethnocentrism - bad or good? blessing from the elder.
• can lead to negative judgments of the behaviors of groups or 2. Bambanti Festival - aims to celebrate the
societies. province’s rich culture and tradition, its land and
• can also lead to discrimination against people who are most especially its people.
different.
2. Social Symbols and Practices
• can create loyalty among the same social group or people in
the same society. George Herbert Mead (1863- 1931) American sociologist and the
• National pride is also part of ethnocentrism. father of sociological tradition - our concept of the self is acquired
through the use of symbolic gestures.
Cultural relativism - not judging a culture to our own standards of
what is right or wrong, strange or normal. Gestures - earliest form of communication between animals.
• the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not Public Symbols - symbols which interest social
to make judgments using the standards of one’s own culture. anthropologists.
• Goal: promote understanding of cultural practices that are ➢ express aspects of the ideology of the group,
not typically part of one’s own culture. understood within a specific social and moral
• using the perspective of cultural relativism leads to the view system, and the same symbols may mean something
that no one culture is superior than another culture when quite different to members of another social group.
compared to systems of morality, law, politics, and the like. (e.g. Okay hand gesture)

3. Political Symbols and Practices

Cultural, Social, Political, and Economic Symbols and Practices Political symbolism - symbolism that is used to represent a
political standpoint.
➢ can be any object, person, word, performance, or
gesture that represents a political institution,
 hierarchy, movement, belief, or ideology. can be any 2. Stories, traditions, history, and cultural norms contribute to the
object, person, word, performance, or gesture that meaning of a symbol.
represents a political institution, hierarchy, 3. At the most basic level, symbols are important because they help
movement, belief, or ideology. people compose meaning in their interactions with one another.
➢ Examples:
1. Scales of justice - relate to fairness in the judicial
process. They indicate that each side of a case Socialization
will be considered in a court case.
2. LGBT symbols (Rainbow flag) - used to promote 1. When does socialization begin? At birth or shortly thereafter
the political goal of LGBT rights. 2. Which of the following is TRUE of socialization? Early childhood is
3. The Philippine Flag the period of the most intense and the most crucial socialization.
3. The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as
socialization.
4. Economic Symbols and Practices - supply and demand should 4. Which of the following is normally learned during the socialization
reach an equilibrium. process? a.
1. Scarcity - explains the basic economic problem that the • The roles we are to play in life
world has limited–or scarce–resources to meet seemingly unlimited • The culture's norms
wants. • The language of the people around us
2. Supply and Demand 5. Which of the following statements is TRUE? Human infants come
• Supply - refers to the amount of goods that are into the world ready to learn a culture but are not born with one.
available.
• Demand - refers to how many people want those Socialization - lifelong process where individuals develop a self-
goods. concept and prepare for roles, which in turn shape personality.
3. Cost-Benefit Analysis (benefit cost analysis) - process by
which organizations can analyze decisions, systems or projects, or More specifically, it is the process by which humans:
determine a value for intangibles. 1. acquire a sense of self or a social identity,
4. Economic Incentives - what motivates a person to behave 2. develop their human capacities,
in a certain way, while preferences are your needs, wants and 3. learn the culture(s) of the society in which they live, and
desires. 4. learn expectations for behavior.

Points to Ponder: • Socialization is a learning process that begins shortly after

1. A symbol has meaning within a group, because of a shared birth. Human infants are born without any culture.
understanding of what the symbol signifies. • Early childhood is considered as the period of the most
intense and the most crucial socialization.
 • Socialization is not a one-way process such that people 1. Functionalist - perspective is a big-picture, macro-level
simply absorb these lessons. It is also a process by which view that looks at how different aspects of society are
people negotiate, resist, ignore, and even challenge those intertwined.
lessons. 2. Structural functionalism - recognizes that there are
tensions or conflicts between different structural
Agents of Socialization: elements of the system.
1. The Family - the basic unit of society, the primary social
institutions or social group where one is born. • Primary group – this typically a small social group whose
2. The Peer Group - the informal grouping of two or more members share close personal and enduring relationships.
members, more or less of the same age, the neighborhood, This also includes intimate relationships that are usually long
or school is called peer group, friends, clique, gang, or lasting.
barkada. Ex: Family, Childhood friends
3. The Church - provides spiritual guidance, norms of conduct, • Secondary group – This has the opposite characteristics of a
and rules of behavior. primary group. It can be small or large and they are mostly
4. The School- a formal agency for weaning children from home impersonal and usually short term. These groups are typically
and introducing them to society. found at work and school.
5. The Workplace - where the individual gets socialized to its Ex: School mates, coworkers
norms and values and finds his or her place in its hierarchy of • Reference group – This is a group which we compare
statuses. ourselves such us those college freshmen serves as a
standard against which behaviors and attitude are measured.
It is use to guide our behavior and attitudes to identify social
Forms and Functions of Social Organization norms.
Ex: Parents, siblings, teachers
Group - people who have the chance to interact with others and think
of themselves as belonging together. 1. Manifest functions - those that are obvious and easily
• exists as long as individuals are interested to be connected discovered even by strangers.
among themselves. 2. Latent functions - are those that are less apparent and more
• prevalent in our social lives and provide a significant way to difficult to uncover.
understand and define ourselves—both through groups we
feel a connection to and those we do not.
• play an important role in society.
• There are four primary sociological perspectives for studying
groups: functionalist, critical, feminist, and symbolic
interactionist.