USCP

• Culture provides the basis for forging identities
• Identity is the distinctive characteristics that define an individual or is shared by those belonging to a particular group
• Identity is related to social, cultural, and political change
• Society is a group of individuals sharing a common culture, geographical location, and government
• Human beings are naturally inclined to establish societies to ensure their survival by establishing mutually beneficial relationships
• Major types of societies identified by Social Scientists:

  • Hunting and Gathering
  • Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
  • Agricultural Societies
  • Industrial Societies
  • Post-industrialist Societies
• Culture refers to the set of beliefs, ideas, values, practices, knowledge, history, shared experiences, and attitudes
• Material culture consists of physical or tangible objects produced, shared, and utilized within society

  • Examples: tools, paintings, architectural styles, weaponry
• Nonmaterial culture consists of intangible properties and elements that influence the behavior of society members

  • Examples: language, beliefs, values, norms
• Socialization is the lifelong process of forging identity through social interaction
• Enculturation is the process by which an individual learns or acquires important aspects of their society's culture
• Context refers to particular circumstances of a certain culture and is defined by location, weather, time period, and other factors
• Anthropology considers culture as the central focus of its discipline and studies different cultures of societies
• Relativistic approach views cultures as equal and unique in their own way
• Ethnocentric approach is the belief that one's native culture is superior to others
• Ethnocentrism diminishes or invalidates "other" ways of life and creates a distorted view of one's own culture
• Sociology relates culture with the overall context of social order
• Political science examines culture as a vital aspect of society and the rise of multiculturalism
• Cultural relativism implies that all aspects of a particular culture should be accepted and celebrated
• Cultural sensitivity advances awareness and acceptance of cultural differences but encourages a critical stance in dealing with issues regarding diversity
• Elements that characterize a society:

  • Social solidarity
  • Shared identity and culture
  • Large population and the ability to sustain succeeding generations of members
  • Definite geographical area
  • Political, economic, and social organization
• Folkways are norms that may be violated without serious consequences
• Mores are norms with moral connotations
• Laws are norms that are legally enacted and enforced
• Structural functionalism operates on the assumption that society is a stable and orderly system
• Conflict theory assumes that there is a constant power struggle among the various social groups and institutions within society
• Conflict theorists study the dominant culture classes and analyze how this culture is imposed on other classes
• Social anthropology studies how social patterns and practices and cultural variations develop across different societies
• Cultural anthropology studies cultural variation across different societies and examines the need to understand each culture in its own context
• Linguistic anthropology studies language and discourse and how they reflect and shape different aspects of human society and culture human communication, dialect
• Biological or Physical anthropology studies the origins of human as well as the interplay between social factors and the processes of human evolution, adaptation, and variation over time
• Archaeology deals with prehistoric societies by studying their tools and environment
• Political Science is the systematic study of politics
• Politics is described by Andrew Heywood as "the activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live"
• Sociology is the study of human social life, groups, and society
• Defined by Anthony Giddens as an academic discipline that attempts to provide a deeper assessment of individual and group behavior, as well as social phenomena
• Comparative politics compares domestic politics and governance systems across different sovereign states
• Public administration examines how the government functions, and how decisions and policies are made