USCP Reviewer

Anthropology

Origin:

- “anthropologia” : study of human

- “Anthropos” human being

Meaning:

- Study of human being and their ancestors through time and space in
relation to physical character, environmental, social relations, and
culture.

Franz Boas

- Father of American Anthropology and the Pioneer of Modern

Anthropology
- German
- First professor in Columbia University who taught physical
anthropology and then Anthropology as a separate discipline in 1899.
- Studied “historical particularism”

Ethnography

- Research method of long term participant observation.

Fields of Anthropology

Biological / Physical Anthropology

- Concerned with the origin, evolution, and diversity of people.

Cultural Anthropology

- How people who share a common cultural system organize and shape
the physical and social world around them, and are in turn shaped by
those ideas, behaviors, and physical environments.

Anthropological Linguistics
 - The nature of human languages in the context of those cultures that
developed them.

Archeology

- Study of human past using material remains.

Goals of Anthropology:

1. Observe the common things among people.

2. Create new knowledge through researches about humankind and
behavior.
3. Discover what makes people different from each other.
4. Shows courage by putting themselves in danger, often risking their life
to achieve their goal.

Sociology

Origin:

- “sociologie” & “ology”

Meaning:

- Study of society, patterns of social interactions, social life, social

change, and social consequences of human behavior.

Aguste Comte

- French philosopher
- Founder of sociology and positivism
- Gave the science of sociology its name
- Established the new subject in a systematic fashion.

Some topics of Sociology:

1. Family background
2. Social classes
3. Ethnicity
4. Beliefs
 5. Traditions
6. Religion
7. gender

Fields of Sociology

Social Organization

- network of relationships in a group and how they interconnect.

Social Psychology

- study of your mind & behavior with other people.

Applied Sociology

- to use theories, concepts, and methods to solve real-world problems.

(Steele and Price 2008)

Human Ecology

- analyses the consequences of human activities as a chain of effects

through the ecosystem and human social system.

Goals of Sociology

1. Study of the nature of humanity

2. Understand how membership in one’s social group affects individual
beings
3. Understand the causes and consequences of social change
4. Provide info that reflects upon different policy initiatives
5. Appreciate society
6. Understand the causes and consequences of modernity, post
modernity, and new globalization.
7. Understand the causes and consequences of population composition,
and how population affect environment.
8. Sometimes fail in their intention they themselves end uo changing to
conform society’s rules.
Political Science

Origin:

- Ancient Greeks

Meaning:

- Deals with systems of government

- Analysis of political activity and behavior.

Fields of Politics

Political theory

- Political matters that focus on and organize inquiry to describe,

explain, and predict political events, phenomena, and behaviors.
- Tries to organize generalizations and conclude from the data gathered.

Political Philosophies and Ideologies

- Concerned with the concepts and arguments involved in political

opinion.

Public management

- The strategic framework behind the effective operation of government

agencies.
- Managing the activities of organizations in the public sector, creating
policies, and providing public services that significantly impact society.

International relations and foreign policies

Goals of Politics

1. Make people better citizens

2. Protect the rights of an individual
3. Keep social order and harmony among different groups of people
4. Avoid conflict & promote cooperation

Change
  Make someone / something different; alter or modify.
 Replace something with something else. Especially something of the
same kind that is newer or better; substitute one thing for another.

Social change

 The alteration of mechanisms within the social structure, characterized

by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behavior, social orgs, or value
systems.

Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics

Introduction

Every society has its own norms to follow. These norms serve as guides or
models of behavior which tell us what is proper or improper, appropriate or
inappropriate, right or wrong. They set limits within which individuals may
seek alternative ways to achieve their goals.

CULTURE

- A way of life of a group of people –the behaviors, beliefs, values, and

symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and
that are passed along by communication and imitation from one
generation to the next.
- Includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

SOCIETY

- People who interact in such a way as to share a common culture,

- The term can also have a geographic meaning refer to people whos
hare a common culture in a particular location.
Culture and society are intricately related. A Culture consists of the
“objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the “people” who share
a common culture.

Elements of A culture

Material Culture

- Weapons
- Machines
- Jewelry
- Art
- Hair styles
- Clothing

Non Material

Beliefs

 Beliefs are the convictions that people hold to be true.

 Individuals in a society have specific beliefs, but they also share

collective values.

 Perception of reality.

Values

 Values are a culture's standard for discerning what is good and just in
society.

 Values are deeply embedded and critical for transmitting and teaching
a culture's beliefs.

 Shared ideas, right or wrong

Norms

 Norms are rules that govern our lives, and values are the goal of our
lives.

 Norms are the expectations or rules of behavior that develop out of

values.

 Norms may be informal or they may be formalized into laws.

  Norms are often in the form of rules, standards, or prescriptions that
are strictly followed by people who adhere to certain conventions and
perform specific roles.

 Norms indicate a society's standards of property, morality, ethics, and

legality.

 Example: Pagmamano

Types of Norms

Type Description

Ordinary people follows in everyday life.

Conformity is expected, not absolutely insisted on.

Folkwa
Not strictly enforced
ys
Little strength and may, within broad limits, be easily broken.

Ex: correct manners, appropriate dress, proper eating behavior.

Mores More serious and strictly enforced

“essential to our core values” Insist on conformity

Strongly held, considered essential, therefore must be strictly

enforced.

Some are enacted by the state and are referred to as laws

 Ex: flag burning, murder

Deeply held that even thought of violitng them upsets people.

Prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is

either too sacred and consecrated or too dangerous and accursed
Taboos for ordinary individuals to undertake.

So strongly ingrained that even the thought of its violation is

greeted with disapproval, disgust, or hate.

Ex: abortion, addiction, bestiality, cannibalism

Nbeing temporary outcomes of interactions & occur pursuant to a

challenge and response paradigm.
Law
Analyses of core legal paradigms shape the characteristics of
individual and distinctive legal culture.

Norms that prescribe what people should do

Mores and Taboos

Mores are norms that are taken more seriously and are strictly enforced.
They are considered "essential to our core values" and we insist on
conformity. (p. 2)

Mores:

 Strongly held norms that are considered essential and must be strictly
enforced

 Some mores are enacted by the state and are referred to as laws (e.g.,
rules against cheating in exams, having extramarital affairs)

 Examples: flag burning, murder

Taboos:

 Norms that are deeply held, and even the thought of violating them
upsets people

 Considered too sacred, consecrated, or dangerous for ordinary

individuals to undertake

 Approximate "super mores" - so strongly ingrained that even the

thought of violation is met with disapproval, disgust, or hate

 Examples:

o Abortion - terminating a pregnancy

o Addiction - to legal or illegal drugs, including alcoholism

o Adultery - sexual intercourse with someone other than your

spouse

o Bestiality or Zoophobia - sexual relations between a human and

an animal

o Cannibalism - a human being eating the flesh of another human

being

Law and Culture

Law:

 Legal cultures are described as temporary outcomes of interactions

and occur pursuant to a challenge and response paradigm

 Analyses of core legal paradigms shape the characteristics of individual

and legal cultures
 Ideal VS Real Culture Characteristics

Ideal Culture:

 Refers to the norms and values that a society professes to hold

 Describes models to emulate and which are worth aspiring to

Real Culture:

 Refers to the norms and values that are followed in practice

The Characteristics of Culture

Culture is learned, most of the behavior is learned in society.

It can be conscious or unconscious but no body can deny the process of

learning

Culture is learned and acquired

Culture is Learned

 Culture is not innate, but rather learned through interactions with

families, friends, institutions, and media.

 Culture is learned, most of the behavior is learned in society.

 It can be conscious or unconscious but no body can deny the process
of learning
 Culture is learned and acquired

 The process of learning about one's culture is known as enculturation.

 Examples of learned cultural behaviors include wearing clothes and

dancing.

Culture is Shared
  Groups of people within a society often share similar behavior patterns
that develop over time.

 Shared culture does not necessarily mean homogeneity, as there can

be variations within a cultural group.

 People living in the same society often share common elements, such
as language, dress, food, and holidays. (2)

Culture is Integrated

 Cultural integration is a process in which one group adopts the beliefs,

practices, and results of another group without sacrificing the
characteristics of its own culture.

 Integrating cultures typically involves several cultures coming together

to form a new, multicultural society, where each culture retains its
unique features and values. (3)

 Example: The integration of the cultures of Luzon, Visayas, and

Mindanao in the Philippines.

Culture is Adaptive and Dynamic

 Cultures are dynamic systems that respond to changes and actions

within and around them.

 Cultures must be flexible enough to allow for adjustments in the face of

unstable or changing circumstances.

 Cultures have evolved from hunter-gatherer societies to the globalized

world of today. (4)

Culture is Not Static, but Dynamic

 Culture is not a fixed or static entity, but rather a constantly evolving

process.

 Individuals play a crucial role in shaping culture through their thoughts,

words, and actions. (5)

Culture is Abstract

 Culture does not have a single tangible manifestation, but rather exists
in the minds of individuals interacting within a particular society or
across societies.
  Culture is manifested through behaviors, habits, mannerisms, and
activities. (6)

(1) "Culture is learned, most of the behavior is learned in society. This

learning might be conscious or unconscious but no body can deny the
process of learning. Culture is something learned and acquired."

(2) "For example, almost all people living in the Philippines share the Filipino
language, dress in similar styles, eat many of the same foods, and celebrate
many of the same holidays."

(3) "Integrating cultures usually refer to several cultures coming together to

form a new, multicultural society and each culture keeps its character,
features and values"

(4) "From hunter-gatherer to globalized world."

(5) "CULTURE IS NOT STATIC, IT'S DYNAMIC. EVERY DAY YOU ARE CREATING
YOUR CULTURE BY WHAT YOU THINK, WHAT YOU SAY AND WHAT YOU DO."

(6) "No single tangible manifestation that can take the form of culture itself.
Exist in the minds of the individual interacting with one another with a
particular society or even across societies. Manifest through behaviour,
habits, mannerisms and activities."

Culture is Symbolic:

 Societies developed a way to manifest concepts and ideas, and a

symbolic stands for different meaning for different societies.

 Example: White for western countries is a symbol of purity and peace,

while in Eastern and Asian culture, it is a symbol of death, mourning,
and misfortune.

Different Perspectives of Culture:

Ethnocentrism
 - people, nation, or cultural grouping
- centric is latin for center
- to judge other cultures as inferior
- has the tendency to use one’s own culture as a standard against which
to judge other people’s cultures.
- Can justify prejudice and discrimination.

Cultural relativism

- Belief that people and their ways of doing things can be understood
only in terms of the cultural context of those people.
- Not saying that all cultures are good, or that any way of doing is
acceptab;e.
- Means being objective enough to understand people’s behaviors in
terms of their cultures in social situations.
- Idea that all norms, belief and values are dependent on their cultural
context and should be treated as such.
- Promotes greater appreciation of the cultures on encountered along
the way.
- Social scientist strives to treat cultural differences as neither inferior or
superior.
- Cultural diversity / no universal standard for judging it.

Xenocentrisim

- Reference for the foreign

- Culturally-based tendency to value other cultures more highly than
one’s own.
- Opposite of ethnocentrism
- Xenocentric people are more appreciative of other societies culture
- Social solidarity is difficult to establish.

Xebophobia

- Fear of what is perceived as foreign or strange.

- Relations and perceptions of an in-group toward an out group.
Temporocentrism

- One’s time culture is important than other time culture.

Importance of Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics

1. Helps us navigate social interactions and understand the expectations

of others.

2. Allows us to appreciate the diversity of human experiences and

perspectives.

3. Enables us to critically analyze the structures and systems that shape

our lives.

4. Empowers us to participate in and influence the political processes that

affect our communities.

5. Fosters a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between

culture, society, and power.

"Norms are the expectations, or rules of behaviour that develop out of

values. They are guidelines for our behaviour."

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS

Every society has its own norms to follow. These norms serve as guides or
models of behavior which tell us what is proper or improper, appropriate or
inappropriate, right or wrong. They set limits within which individuals may
seek alternative ways to achieve their goals.

Culture
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people - the behaviors, beliefs,
values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about
them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one
generation to the next.

- Includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals custom, and other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
e.g. Music, Dances, Religious Activities
Society
o The people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture.
o The term society can also have a geographic meaning refer to people
who share a common culture in particular location.

Culture and Society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects”
of a society, whereas a society consists of “people” who share a common
culture.

When the term culture and society first acquired their current meanings,
most people in the world worked and lived in small group in the same locale.

Elements of Culture
1. Material
2. Non- Material

Material Culture
Culture is easily divided into material or non material concepts.
Material culture includes:
o Weapons
o Machines
o Jewelry
o Art
o Hair styles
o Clothing

Types of Non-Material Cultures

Belief
> Perception of reality
• Are the convictions that people hold to be true. Individuals in a society
have specific beliefs, but they also shared collective values.

Values
 Shared ideas, right or wrong
 Are a culture's standard for discerning what is good and just in society.
Values are deeply embedded and critical for transmitting and teaching
a culture's beliefs.

Norms
-Are rules that govern our lives and values are the goal of our lives. It is the
expectations, or rules of behaviour that
develop out of values. They are guidelines for our behaviour.
-Norms may be informal or they may formalized into laws.

-Are often in the form of rules, standards, or prescription that are strictly
followed by people who adhere on certain
conventions and perform specific roles. Often norms indicate s society's
standards of property, morality, ethics and legality.

-Example: Pagmamano

Types of Norms

Folkways
o Are norms that ordinary people follows in everyday life.
o Conformity is expected, but not absolutely insisted on.
o Folkways are not strictly enforced.
o Are norms that are little strength and may, within broad limits, be
easily broken. Some examples are manners of eating and dressing,
food preferences, use of po and opo, among others.

Example:
1. Correct manners
2. Appropriate dress
3. Proper eating behavior

Examples of Folkways
1. Pagmamano when meeting an elder.
2. Harana- serenading of the woman when a man is courting.
3. The use of "po" and " opo" when a person is talking to an elder or older
person, a person of superior or of higher status.
4. Another is the "pamamanhikan" wherein the man's family bring some
food to the woman's family for a conference to affirm their children's
engagement.

Mores
o Are norms taken more seriously and are strictly enforced.
o Considered as "Essential to our core values." We insist on conformity.
o Are norms that are strongly held, considered essential, and therefore
must be strictly enforced. E.g. Cheating in exams and having
exextramarital affair.

Example: Flag burning, murder

Examples of Social Mores:

o Talking to oneself in public is not considered a normal behaviour.
o Nudity in public is not acceptable in most areas.
 o Picking one's nose in public is not an acceptable behaviour.
o Rising for the national anthem is an expected behaviour.
o when dressing up for a job interview in an office, men should wear and
a suit

Taboos
• Are norms that are deeply held that even thought of violating them upsets
people. For example, incest taboo is universal.

* It is the prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behaviour is

either too sacred and consecrated or too dangerous and accursed for
ordinary individuals to undertake.

• Approximate super mores. Taboos are so “strongly ingrained that even the
thought of its violation is greeted with disaproval, disgust, or hate.

Example of Taboos:
o Abortion- terminating a pregnancy
o Addiction- addiction to legal or illegal drugs, including alcoholism
o Adultery- sexual intercourse with someone other than your spouse.
o Bestiality or Zoophobia - sexual relations between a human and an
animal.
o Cannibalism - a human being eating the flesh of another human being.

Law
• Legal cultures are described as being temporary outcomes of interactions
and occur pursuant to a challenge and response paradigm. Analyses of core
legal paradigms shape the characteristics of individual and legal cultures.
Ideal vs. Real Culture Characteristics

Ideal Culture
-refers to the norms and values that a society professes to hold. Ideal culture
describes models to emulate and which as worth aspiring to.

Real culture
-refers to norms and values that are followed in practice.

Characteristics of Culture

CULTURE IS LEARNED
• Is learned through families, friends and institutions and media.
• Cuture is learned., most behavior is learned in society. This learning might
be conscious or unconscious but nobody can deny the process of learning.
Culture is something learned and acquired.

Enculturation- Process of learning about culture.

Example: wearing of clothes or dancing.
• It is not something natural to the person.

CULTURE IS SHARED
o Groups of people usually share similar behaviour patterns which
develop overtime.
o but shared cultured does not mean that it is homogenous.
o People living together in a society share culture.

For example, almost all people living in the Philippines share the Filipino
language, dress in similar styles, eat many of the same foods, and celebrate
many of the same
Holidays.

CULTURE IS INTEGRATED
o Culture integration is a form of cultural exchange in which one group
assumes the beliefs, practices and result of another group without
sacrificing the characteristic of its own culture.
o Integrating cultures usually refer to several cultures coming together
to form a new, multicultural society and each culture keeps its
character, features and values

Example:
Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

CULTURE IS ADAPTIVE AND DYNAMIC

o Adopts to various environmental and geographical conditions.
o Culture are dynamic systems that responds to motions and actions
within around them.
o A culture must be flexible enough to allow such adjustments in the
face of unstable or changing circumstances.
o From hunter- gatherer to globalized world.

CULTURE IS NOT STATIC IT’S DYNAMIC. EVERYDAY YOU ARE CREATING

YOUR CULTURE BY WHAT YOU THINK, WHAT YOU SAY AND WHAT YOU
DO.

CULTURE IS ABSTRACT
• No single tangible manifestation that can take the form of culture itself.
* Epat i thrsociety theven acrosal societing with one another with
• Manifest through behaviour, habits, mannerisms and activities.

CULTURE IS SYMBOLIC
* Societies developed a way to manifest concepts and ideas, and a symbolic
stands for different meaning for different societies.

Example:
White for western countries is a symbol of purity and peace.
White for Eastern and Asian culture is death, mourning and misfortunE
Different Perspective of Culture

Ethnocentrism
o Comes from the Greeks and it refers to a people, nation, or cultural
grouping.
o Centric is a Latin word meaning "center".
o It is to judge other cultures as inferior.
o It has the tendency to use one's own culture as a standard against
which to judge other people's cultures. Although it brings together
people and builds solidarity within a particular society, it can justify
prejudice and discrimination.

Cultural relativism
o The belief that people and their ways of doing things can be
understood only in terms of the cultural context of those people. It is
not saying that all cultures are good, or that any way of doing is
acceptable.
o It means being objective enough to understand people's behaviors in
terms of their cultures in social situation.
o Idea that all norms, belief, and values are dependent on their cultural
context and should be treated as such.
o Promotes greater appreciation of the cultures one encountered along
the way

Cultural relativism
o Social Scientist strives to treat cultural differences as neither inferior or
superior.
o Cultural Diversity/ No universal standard for judging it.

Xenocentrism
o Refers to a reference for the foreign.
o A culturally-based tendency to value other cultures more highly than
one's own, which Is the opposite of ethnocentrism.
o Xenocentric people are more appreciative of other societies culture.
Hence, social solidarity among the people is difficult to establish.
"Filipino seems happy to buy imported goods rather than local products
because of the assumption that anything abroad is better"

Xenophobia
• The fear of what is perceived as foreign or strange. Relations and
perceptions of an in- group toward an out-group.

Temporocentrism
• One's time culture is important than other time culture.
Ex. Old People

BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION:

FROM HOMO HABILIS TO HOMO SAPIENS
IN THE FOSSIL RECORD.

The earth contains many buried objects from pre-historic past. Imagine
yourself that you are an archeologist or anthropologist looking for evidence
of materials remains of the prehistoric past as well as other evidence of
human

THE BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION

THE HOMINIDS
According to (Ember of 2002) that one of the most controversial aspects of
Darwin's theory, suggest that one species could evolve into another species.

 It is one of the earliest members of the primate family hominid,

containing humans, their immediate ancestors, close extinct relatives.
 Hominids are the group of primates that includes humans, gorillas, and
chimpanzees, among others.

You are a person, but you can also call yourself a hominid.

AUSTRALOPITHECUS
 The first definite Hominid, their teeth share basic hominid
characteristic of small canine, flat and thickly enamelled molars and a
parabolic dental arch, and there is ambiguous evidence that even the
earliest australopithecines were bipedal.

Bipedal refers to using two feet in moving.

YOU MUST KNOW!

* Lived: 3.7 million to three million years ago.
o Where: East Africa.
o Appearance: a projecting face, an upright stance and a mixture of ape-
like and human-like body features.
o Brain size: about 385-550cm'
o Height: about 1-1.7m (females were much shorter than males)

THE HOMO HABILIS

 Is known from Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.
 Species with a brain broca's area which is associated with speech in
modern humans and was the first to make stone tools. The ability to
make and use tools is unique quality to humans such that the species
is recognized to be the first true human.
 The specie names mean "Handy Man".
 Lived about 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago scavenging for food.

FACTS!
*Homo habilis is a species of early humans whose fossils were discovered in
the eastern African country of Tanzania.

This species of human that lived more than 1.4 million years ago earned the
nickname the "Handy Man" because it is thought that they were some of the
first humans to make and use stone tools.
THE HOMO ERECTUS
 The species names "Upright Man" with body proportion similar to that
modern humans.
 Lived 1.89 to 143,000 years ago; adapted to hot climates and most
spread in Africa and Asia.
 They were the first hunters with improvised tools such as axes and
knives, and were the first to produce fire.

FACTS!
 The extinct ancient human Homo erectus is a species of firsts.
 It was the first of our relatives to have human-like body proportions,
with shorter arms and longer legs relative to its torso.
 It was also the first known hominin to migrate out of Africa and
possibly the first to cook food.

THE HOMO SAPIENS

 The species name means "Wise Man" that appeared form 200,000
years ago. The present human race belongs to this species
 Homo sapiens are species of all the primates on the earth that are
highly developed and well evolved, and humans belong to this
category.
 The primates in this category are lemurs, lorises, apes, monkeys, to
name a few.
 Humans fall into the domain Eukarya. Such entities have DNA as their
genetic material, held in the form of chromosomes seen in the nucleus
in the cells of eukaryotic living things.
 Homo sapiens can be seen in this domain in the Kingdom Animalia
under the Phylum Chordata, and further under the class Mammalia,
categorised under the order Primates.

•Subspecies known as Cro-Magnon characterized to be anatomically modern

humans
 Lived in the last Ice age of Europe 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. They
were the first to produce art in in cave paintings and crafting
decorated tools and accessories.

FACTS!
•Homo sapiens sapiens are the subspecies coming from Homo sapiens; they
comprise modern humans only. The scientific name of humans is Homo
sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens sapiens is the definition of modern Homo
sapiens.

This subspecies is said to have been distinguished about 160,000 years ago
who apparently moved to different continents, based on archaeological
research and findings.

SIMPLE DIFFERENTIATION OF
THE CULTURAL EVOLUTION

PALEOLITHIC AGE
o Unpolished stone implements
o Hunting and gathering
"Nomadic way of living
FOOD
• Men hunted for food, and women gathered food from around the Food

SHELTER
o There were no permanent homes
o Because people hunted and gathered, they had to move to where the
food was.
Therefore, homes were tempor?

CLOTHING
o Clothing was made primarily from fur
o The climate during the time was cold, so people dressed to stay warm .

TOOLS
o Simple shaped stone tools like cutters and hand axes. Also, they used
spear tips and sticks

NEOLITHIC AGE
o Polished stone tools
o Domestication of plants and animals
o Living in permanent places

FOOD
o People learned how to grow their own food, and people domesticated
animals
Farming and herding was an important part of the Neolithic Aqe .

SHELTER
o They had permanent homes.
o Homes were usually made from timber or bricks
o
CLOTHING
o Animal skins .
In some places, people were able to make fabric.

TOOLS

o More advanced shaped tools like bows and arrows and harpoons. Also,
they used spear tips.

o Early societies started to emerge as a result of man interaction with his

environment.
o Every society is organized in such a way that there will be rules of
conduct, customs, traditions, folkways and mores, and expectations
that ensure appropriate behavior among members (Palispis,
2007 p.254).