SOCIETY AND CULTURE

1. SOCIETY

2. Is formally defined as
constituting a fairly large
number of people who are
living in the same territory,
are relatively independent of
people outside their area, and
participate in a common
culture.

3. The definition simply
means that society only
exists if there are people
interacting and their
interactions constitute
the process that defines
society.

4. We can liken society to a deity. A
deity or God is supposed to
possess the tripartite powers
reserved for Him alone –
omnipotence, omniscience,
omnipresence (all-powerful, all-
knowing, and everywhere).

5. Society is all-powerful because it ‘agents’
control and runs the machinery of social
control.
It is all-knowing because its ‘library’
keeps all possible knowledge and collects
the memories of the people who form it.
It is everywhere because its ‘spies’ are
scattered in the four corners of the land.

6. WHAT MAKES
SOCIETY
POSSIBLE:
THREE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

7. The three classical theoretical of the origin of
society are:
1) The Structural Functionalism
2) The Conflict Theory and ;
3) Symbolic Interactionism.
The basic question they ask is not historical in
nature; rather it inquires about the nature of the
processes that created the possibilities of human
interaction. The question is: “What makes society
possible?”

8. RULES: INVISIBLE HAND OF SOCIETY
• Rules are guides in the performance of roles and
in everyday actions and interactions.
• They provide order in a system.
• Rules are essential in the everyday conduct of
the members of society.
• Society composed of written (visible) and
unwritten (invisible) rules.

9. Written Rules
•The written
ones are easily
seen and hence
are easily
observed and
obeyed.
Unwritten Rules
• Rules that are not visible or
easily seen.
• Our mundane and daily actions
are guided by these unseen
rules. Example, when riding
public transportation like
jeepney, when queuing at a
McDonald’s or Jollibee order
counter, when reciting in class,
when using the toilet, when
crossing the street, etc.

10. The relationship between society, culture,
and personality is stressed by Ralph Linton: “A
society is an organized group of individuals. A
culture is an organized group of learned
responses. The individual is a living organism
capable of independent thought, feeling, and
actions, but his independence is limited and
all his resources are profoundly modified by
contact with the society and culture in which
he develops.”

11. CULTURE

12. A society cannot exist apart from
culture. A society is always made of persons
and their groupings. People carry and
transmit culture, but they are not culture. No
culture can exist except as it is embodied in a
human society; no society can operate
without cultural directives. Like matter and
energy, like mind and body, culture and
society are interdependent and interactive yet
they express different aspects of the human
situation.

13. Culture is a people’s way of life. This is perhaps
the reason why E.B Taylor describes culture as “that
complex whole, which encompasses beliefs,
practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts,
symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person
learns and shares as a member of society.
The “complex whole” in the above paragraph
suggests that culture cannot be simply broken down
into a set of attributes. It means that an
understanding of a part can only be achieved (or is
only possible) in relation to the other parts of the
system.
One way of achieving this is by asking not only
about the ‘what’ aspects of culture, but also the ‘how’
and ‘why’ of it.

14. Anthropology Sociology
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
mechanisms that facilitate performance.
Actions Through socialization/ enculturation:
Individuals are exposed to and experience lessons in
everyday interactions. The lessons are practical and
address their basic social needs.
Language
Attitude
Through conformity:
Actions of individuals are routinized and
institutionalized in contexts like family, church,
schools, and government. In time, they become part
of their habits.
Through social control:
Conformity, or its absence thereof, is meted out
through the system of giving rewards and imposing
of punishments.
Learned
Shared
Communicated

15. ENCULTURATION AND THIRD
CULTURE SHOCK
ENCULTURATION
• The process by which individual
adopts the behavior patterns of
the culture in which he or she is
immersed.
• The process by which an
individual learns the traditional
content of a culture and
assimilates its practices and
values.
CULTURE SHOCK
• A feeling of
confusion, doubt, or
nervousness caused
by being in a place
(such as a foreign
country) that is very
different from what
you are used to.

16. E. B Taylor, an English Anthropologists, was the first to coin the term
‘culture’ in the eighteenth century. The study of society is incomplete
without proper understanding of the culture of that society because culture
and society go together.
There are several definitions of culture in the circulation.
“Culture is the handiwork of man and the medium through which he achieves his
ends.”
- B. Malinowski
“Culture is an organized body of conventional understandings manifest in art
which, persisting through tradition characterizes a human group”
- R. Redfield
“Culture is the body of thought and knowledge, both theoretical and practical
which only man can possess.”
- V. de Robert
“Culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morale, laws,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits as acquired by man as a member of
society.”
- E. B. Taylor

17. Culture exists in the minds or habits
of the members of society. Culture is a
people’s shared ways of doing and
thinking. There are degrees of visibility of
cultural behavior, ranging from the
regularized activities of persons to their
internal reasons for so doing. In other
words, we cannot see culture as such; we
can only see human behavior. This
behavior occurs in a regular, patterned
fashion, and this fashion is called culture.

18. CHARACTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
1. Culture is social because it is the product of
society.
2. Culture varies from society to society
3. Culture is shared
4. Culture is learned
5. Culture is transmitted among members of
society
6. Culture is continuous and cumulative
7. Culture is gratifying and idealistic.

19. FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
1. Culture defines situations.
2. Culture defines attitudes, values, and
goals.
3. Culture defines myths, legends, and the
supernatural.
4. Culture defines behavior patterns.

20. ETHNOCENTRISM
•The word ethno comes from the
Greeks and its refers to a people,
nation, or cultural grouping.
•Centric, comes from Latin and refers
to “center”.

21. The term ethnocentrism refers to
the tendency of each society to
place its own culture patterns at
the center things. Ethnocentrism
is the practice of comparing
other cultural practices with
those of one’s own and
automatically finding those other
cultural practices to be inferior.

22. Ethnocentrism is a term coined by
William Graham Sumner. It is the belief
that your native culture is the most
natural or superior way of understanding
the world. This leads to making incorrect
assumptions about other’s behavior
based on your own norms, values, and
belief. For instance, any time you think of
another culture’s traditional food as weird
or gross, that’s a product of
ethnocentrism.

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

24. XENOCENTRISM AND
XENOPHOBIA
Xenocentrism
• Refers to a preference
for the foreign.
• A strong belief that
one’s own products,
styles, or ideas are
inferior to those which
originate else where.
Xenophobia
• Is the fear of
what is
perceived as
foreign or
strange.

25. CULTURE AS HERITAGE
• The cultures have tangible (visible) and intangible
(nonmaterial) components.
• The tangible ones are those that are produced
and created based on specific and practical
purposes and aesthetic values. Example: National
Flag.
• The typical intangible heritage may be associated
with events. Intangible heritage may include our
national anthem and literary creations such as
music, dances, and other literary genre unique to
the Philippines.

26. Activity Number: 2
Activity Title: “My Culture, My
Heritage”
Learning Targets: At the end of the
lesson the leaners are expected to
identify forms of tangible and intangible
threats to Philippine cultural heritage.
Concept Notes:
• Culture – is a people’s way of life.

27. • Enculturation – refers to the gradual acquisition of the
characteristics and norms of a culture or group by a person,
another culture, etc.; the process by which an individual learns the
traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and
values.
• Explicit Culture – refers to similarities in words and actions
which can be directly observed.
• Implicit Culture – exists in abstract forms which are not quite
obvious.
• Ethnocentrism – “ethno” comes from the Greeks and it refers to
a people, nation, or cultural grouping. “Centric” comes from
Latin and refers to the center; Ethnocentrism then refers to the
tendency of each society to place its own culture patterns at the
center of things.
• Cultural Relativism – is the idea that all norms, beliefs, and
values are dependent on their cultural context nd should be treated
as such.

28. • Xenocentrism – a strong belief that one’s own
products, styles, or ideas are inferior to those which
originate elsewhere.
• Xenophobia – is the fear of what is perceived as
foreign or strange.
• Tangible – ones that are those that are produced and
created based on specific and practical purposes and
aesthetic values.
• Intangible – may be associated with events; may
include our national anthem and literary creations such
as music, dances, and other literary genre unique to the
Philippines.
• Culture Shock – a term used to express a negative
feeling experienced by persons moving from one
society to another or within one’s society.

29. Instruction: Identify two Philippine cultural heritages under threat,
one tangible and one intangible. For both, identify the threats and their
possible sources, and then come up with a plan of action on how to
deal with these threats. Write your output on the table.
Heritage Threats Plan of Action