Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics

Quarter 1 – Module 2: Defining Culture and Society from the Perspectives of

Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science

LESSON 1: Defining Culture and Society

Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to
the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define
themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Anthropology explains
that the origin of culture diversity is through mankind hence the concentration of a human
perspective. Sociology looks at the society which humans live so as to explain culture diversity.
In this lesson, you will be able to define culture and society; and explain anthropological and
sociological perspectives on culture and society.

Six primary categories of defining culture

1. Descriptive views culture as a total system of customs, beliefs, knowledge, laws, means
of expression and so forth.

2. Historical views culture as the continuation of generations.

3. Normative culture is related to value systems that constructed social and personal
behavior.

4. Psychological stresses culture’s role in interpersonal relations.

5. Structural culture focuses on relational aspects of cultural components through

abstraction.
6. Socio-genetic focuses on the genesis and continued existence of a culture.

Anthropological Perspective of Culture and Society

All human groups possess culture to the same degree. Anthropologists are concerned
mainly with differences between cultures, not whether some societies have more or less culture.
Virtually, all definition of culture shares certain features. There is wide agreement that culture:
• Is learned from other people while growing up in a particular society or group;

• Is widely shared by the members of that society or group;

• So profoundly affects the thoughts, actions and feelings of people in that group that
anthropologists say “individuals are the product of their culture” and “learning a culture
is an essential part of human development; and
 • In large part accounts for the differences between groups of people in how they act,
think, and feel.

Sociological Perspective of Culture and Society

Culture is the perspective people come to share as they interact. A society is a group of
people living in a given territory who share a culture and who interact with people of that
territory more than with people of other territories. Culture is what people share with one
another within a society. Despite the disagreements over definitions, sociologists somewhat
agree on the essential principles/ dimensions or aspects of culture such as: consists of tangible
and intangible components; biological, environmental and historical forces shape and change
culture; and that culture is a tool that people use to evaluate other societies and to adopt to
problems of living. There are different views on how culture affects people’s lives, and these
views correspond to the major sociological perspectives:

• The Functionalist View of Culture

Societies operate smoothly only if their members are able to meet the demands and
challenges of the environment in effective, coordinated ways. It emphasize that culture
serves as a buffer between people and their environment. Conflicts, miscommunication
and chaos are prevented with the use of language shared within groups.

• Conflict View of Culture

Society is not held together because everyone learns and shares common cultural values.
Conflict theorists are concerned with how the groups that control the means of material
production impose their products, values and norms on other group. Major shortcomings
of this perspective is that it sees the owners of production as imposing a culture, their
products, values and norms such as consumerism on other less powerful groups.

• Symbolic Interactionist View of Culture

They are not concerned with the functions of culture or with the question of how a
dominant culture is imposed on others. They are more concerned with the symbolic
properties of culture. They define symbols as essential to civilization because (1) cultures
emerge and are perpetuated as a result of symbols; (2) interaction between people
cannot take place without symbols, and (3) infants are transformed into human beings
when they acquire symbols. Although it is relatively easy to trace why a particular symbol
is associated with a physical form after the fact, there is no systematic framework for
predicting what symbolic meanings will arise. It is also not clear as well how people come
to agree on meanings.

LESSON 2: Society and Culture as a Complex Whole and Its Aspects

 “Culture is viewed as a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals,
law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by human as a member of society”,
as defined by Edward Tylor (2006). It is precisely the reason why society and the culture they
shared and transmitted within are a complex whole. In this lesson, you will be able to describe
society and culture as a complex whole. You will also be able to identify and understand the three
important aspects of culture and society such as shared; socially learned; and patterns of
behavior.

There are four aspects that make culture and society a complex whole, namely:

1. Beliefs are conceptions that people accept as true about how the world operates and
where individuals fit in it.

2. Values are general and shared perception of what is good, right appropriate and
worthwhile, and important with regard to modes of conduct as in the case of self-reliance
or obedience; and what which concerns states of existence like freedom of choice or
equal opportunity.

There are three elements that constitute the Filipino value system:
a. Halaga is the evaluative aspect as to what Filipinos find most virtuous which
constitute three dimensions: (1) Pagkatao or selfworth (2) pakikipagkapwa-
tao or dignified relationship with others (3) Pagkamaka-tao or compassion
b. Asal is the expression of the evaluative aspect of Filipino value system which
constitute three standards (1) Kapwa or relational

(2) Damdamin or emotional (3) Dangal or honor.

c. Diwa refers to the kalooban or inner which in essence is intertwined reason

and emotion.

3. Norms. All societies have guidelines that govern moral standards and even the most
routine aspects of life. Sociologists call the written and unwritten rules that specify the
behaviors appropriate to specific situations as norms. According to William Graham
Summer (1907), a classical liberal American social scientist distinguished folkways from
mores.
a. Folkways are norms that apply to routine matters like eating, sleeping,
appearance, posture, use of appliances and relations to various people,
animals and the environment.
b. Mores are norms that people define as pivotal to the well-being of the group.

4. Symbol is any kind of physical phenomenon. It is a word, an object, a color, a sound, a

feeling, an odor, a movement, a taste to which people assign a meaning or values.
 Culture is shared by some of people. “Shared by some group of people” is deliberately
vague because the “group” that “shares” culture depends largely on

particular interest. The term that describes this aspect of culture is called diffusion. It is a process
by which an idea, an invention, or some other cultural item is borrowed from a foreign source.

Culture is socially learned. Social learning is the process by which individuals acquired
knowledge from others in the groups to which they belong, as a normal part of childhood. The
process by which infants and children socially learn the culture of those around them is called
enculturation or socialization.

Culture is not behavior but the knowledge used to construct and understand behavior. It is
learned as children grow up in society and discover how their parents and others around them;
interpret the world. Culture is learned implies that culture is not transmitted to new generations
genetically or by biological reproduction. Culture is not part of a particular human group’s
biological makeup but is something the people born into that group acquire while growing up in
their social environment.

Humans do not learn culture primarily by trial and error. The main way children culture is
by observation, imitation, communication, and interference. The knowledge and behavior
acquired by one generation are available to future generations. By this process of social learning,
over many generations knowledge accumulates.

Culture has patterns of behavior. Even within a single culture, the behavior of individuals
is quite variable. In part, people act differently because of the distinctions their cultures make
between males and females, old and young, rich and, and so forth. During enculturation into a
particular culture, children learn the kinds of roles that exist and the expectations people have
about the rights and

duties of those roles. Shared knowledge of roles and expectations that people share are partly
responsible for pattern behavior (Bailey and Peoples, 2014).

• There are four aspects that make culture and society a complex whole, namely: beliefs,
values, norms, and symbol.

• Culture is shared by some people.

• Culture is socially learned.

• Culture has patterns of behavior.

LESSON 3: Towards a Holistic Appreciation of Culture

 Social scientists are aware that understanding of society and culture requires a closer look
on the patterns of its continuous development towards a holistic appreciation of culture.

According to Schaefer (2012), the development of culture throughout the world is

brought about by: (1) innovation; (2) globalization; (3) diffusion; and (4) technology.

Innovation
The process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture is known as innovation. There
are two forms of innovation: discovery and invention. A discovery involves making known or
sharing the existence of some aspect of reality. An invention results when existing cultural items
are combined into a form that did not exist before.

Globalization
Globalization may be defined as the world-wide integration of government policies,
cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas.

Diffusion
Sociologists use the term diffusion to refer the process by which a cultural item spreads
from group to group or society. Diffusion can occur through a variety of means, among them
exploration, military conquest, missionary work, the influence of the mass media, tourism, and
the Internet.

Technology
Technology in its many forms has increased the speed of cultural diffusion and broadened the
distribution of cultural elements. Sociologist Gerhard Lenski (2013) has defined technology as
“cultural information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy
human needs and desires”.