handout 2

• Culture


  A people's way of life, encompassing beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares as a member of society
• The What, How, and Why of Culture

  • The What - Refers to the contents of culture
  • The How - Refers to the processes that guarantee the transmission of the contents
  • The Why - Refers to the reasons for compliance and the mechanism that facilitate performance
• The Anatomy of Culture and Society

  • Actions
  • Language
  • Attitude
• Enculturation


  Gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group by a person, another culture, etc.
• Culture Shock


  The feeling of uncertainty, confusion, or anxiety that people experience when visiting, doing business in, or living in a society that is different from their own
• Aspects of Culture


  • Explicit culture - similarities in words and actions which can be directly observed
  • Implicit culture - abstract forms that are not quite obvious
• Characteristics of Culture


  • Culture is social because it is the product of behavior
  • Culture varies from society to society
  • Culture is shared
  • Culture is learned
  • Culture is transmitted among members of society
  • Culture is continuous and cumulative
  • Culture is gratifying and idealistic
• Functions of Culture


  • Culture defines the situation
  • Culture defines attitudes, values, and goals
  • Culture defines myths, legends, and the supernatural
  • Culture provides behavior patterns
• Ethnocentrism


  The tendency of each society to place its cultural patterns at the center of all things, and the practice of comparing other cultural practices with those of one's own and automatically finding those other cultural practices to be inferior
• Cultural Relativism


  The idea that all norms, beliefs, and values are dependent on their cultural context and should be treated as such
• Xenocentrism


  A preference for the foreign, characterized by a strong belief that one's own products, styles, or ideas are inferior to those which originate elsewhere
• Xenophobia


  The fear of what is perceived as foreign or strange, including fear of losing identity, suspicion of other group's activities, aggression, and the desire to eliminate the presence of the other group to secure a presumed purity
• Anthropology


  The study of humankind in all times and all places, including human origin, globalization, social change, and world history
• Fields of Anthropology


  • Cultural Anthropology
  • Linguistic Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Biological Anthropology
• Sociology


  The systematic study of groups and societies that people build and how these affect their behavior
• Sociology was coined by August Comte, regarded as the "Father of Sociology"
• Sociology focuses on various social connections, institutions, organizations, structures, and processes
• Enables the scientific study of Sociology

  • Obtain possible theories and principles about society as well as various aspects of social life
  • Critically study the nature of humanity, which also leads to examining our roles within the society
  • Appreciate that all things (in society) are interdependent with each other
  • Broaden our familiarity on sociological facts, which are acquired through empirical process
  • Expose our minds to the different perspectives on attaining the truth
• Branches of Sociology


  • Social Organization
  • Social Psychology
  • Applied Sociology
  • Population Studies
  • Human Ecology
  • Sociological Theory and Research
  • Social Change
• Political Science


  The academic discipline that deals with the study of government and political processes, institutions, and behaviors
• The study of Politics has something to do with power – who wields it and how it is used
• Politics


  The art and science of governing city/state, the social process or strategy in any position of control which people gain, use, or lose power
• Government


  The agency to which the will of the state is formulated, expressed, and carried out, the organized agency in a state tasked to impose social control, a group of people that governs a community or unit
• The government exists for the benefit of the governed, not for the government officials to benefit from the people
• State


  A community of persons more or less numerous permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great body of inhabitants render obedience and enjoying freedom from external control
• Nation


  An ethnic concept which means that people are bound together by common ethnical elements such as race, language, and culture