Society and Culture as a Whole Complex

• Culture


  The complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [human] as a member of society
• Edward Taylor was first to specify that culture is learned and acquired, as opposed to being biological trait
• Belief


  Conceptions that people accept as true about how the world operates and where individuals fit in it
• Origins of belief

  • Blind faith
  • Experience
  • Tradition
  • Scientific method
• Beliefs can exert powerful influence on behavior
• Values


  General and shared perception of what is good, right, appropriate and worthwhile, and important with regard to modes of conduct and states of existence
• While beliefs are conceptions about how the people in it operate, values are conceptions about the world and how the people should be
• Filipino value system


  • Halaga (evaluative aspect of what Filipinos find most virtuous)
  • Asal (expression of the evaluative aspect which constitutes kapwa, damdamin, and dangal)
  • Diwa (the kalooban or inner self which is intertwined reason and emotion)
• Filipino values


  • Hiya (shame)
  • Amor propio (self-esteem)
  • Delicadiza (circumspection)
  • Palabra de honor (words of honor)
  • Utang na loob (debt of gratitude)
• Norms


  The written and unwritten rules that specify the behaviors appropriate to specific situations
• Folkways


  Norms that apply to routine matters like eating, sleeping, appearance, posture, use of appliances and relation to various people, animals and the environment
• Mores


  Norms that people define as pivotal to the well-being of the group, with violators usually punished through imprisonment, institutionalized, or executed
• Symbol


  Any kind of physical phenomenon to which people assign a meaning or value, where the meaning or value is not evident from the physical phenomenon alone
• Types of norms


  • Formal norms (legalized and written)
  • Informal norms (unwritten, casual behaviors passed down from generation to generation)
  • Folkways
  • Mores
  • Taboos
  • Laws
• Norms are defined as how people should act in public