1. Your Date
UNDERSTANDING
CULTURE, SOCIETY
& POLITICS: SOME
KEY OBSERVATIONS
LESSON 1

2. LESSON 1
What constitutes our sociality as
human beings?
Guide Question:

3. LESSON 1
Sociality is defined by the categories that we possess,
the categories assigned to us by society at large.
These ‘labels’, so to speak, function as tags with
which our society read our worth and value.
Example: Gender, mirror the way our culture ‘reads’
us as members of society.
HUMANS AS SOCIAL BEINGS

5. LESSON 1
1. Society, culture, and politics as conceptual
tools in the analysis of social behaviour and
interactions
2. Students as acting agents and social actors
3. Factors that accounts for social differences,
cultural variations and political identities
Topics to be discussed:

6. LESSON 1
Question:
1. What sort of students go to school?
2. What sort of things do they bring?
3. What sort of activities do they do?
4. What sort of spots do they tend to stay?
5. What sort of interaction takes place between
people of different categories?
Observation of a School as a Social
World and students as acting agents

7. LESSON 1
LESSON PRETEST
Food mirrors cultural
diversity.
Guide Question:
Why is ballot
considered a unique
cultural icon of the
Filipinos?

8. LESSON 1
CULTURE
•It is defined as the customary beliefs, social forms,
and traits that defines a specific racial, religious or
social group
CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

9. LESSON 1
SOCIETY
•Comes from the Latin word “socius” which means
comrade, companion or friend
•Pertains to a group of individuals involved in social
interaction or sharing the same geographical or
social territory
CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

10. LESSON 1
POLITICS
•Comes from the Greek word “Politika” which
means affairs of the cities
•Refers to achieving and exercising positions of
governance over a human community.
CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

11. LESSON 1
Concepts are created and have been used to have a
firm grip of phenomenon. According to Pierce (1998,
p. 332) concept describes as “the rational purport of
a word or a conception.”
Concept as conceptual tools allow us form other
concepts, or relate concept to each other, or even
deconstruct old ones and replace them with
something new.
CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
CONCEPTUAL TOOLS

12. LESSON 1
Concept as heuristic tools allow the discovery of new
aspects of a phenomenon. Concept can be conceived
as a ‘means’ rather than an ‘end.’
CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
CONCEPTUAL TOOLS

13. LESSON 1
Example:
Culture. With the concept of culture, anthropologist
are able to explore and make sense of the complex
processes and dynamics that characterize the great
variety of ‘ways of living’ practiced and observed into
a handy word.
CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS
CONCEPTUAL TOOLS

14. SITUATION:
Gary graduated a year ago. Despite being blessed
with several job offers, he chose to remain jobless
and hang around with his barkada. Together they
love to go around in the town plaza especially at
night.
Behavior and Phenomena:
ISTAMBAY
SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND
PHENOMENON

15. SITUATION:
Members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church are
strongly prohibited from eating pork and food with
blood, as well as from smoking and drinking alcoholic
beverages.
Behavior and Phenomena:
Food taboos
SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND
PHENOMENON

16. SITUATION:
Darius is openly gay. He lives with his partner Garner.
He and Garner are both college professors in the
local city college.
Behavior and Phenomena:
Same sex partnership
SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND
PHENOMENON

17. SITUATION:
If grades were to be the basis of Rusty’s standing in
his economic class, he would surely fail the course.
However, he was given a passing grade by his
economic teacher; who happened to be a childhood
friend of his mother.
Behavior and Phenomena:
Padrino system
SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND
PHENOMENON

18. LESSON 1
Values are a person’s standards of behaviour and are
considered as judgement of what is important in life.
It is also the criteria people use in assessing their
daily lives, arranging their priorities, and choosing
between alternative courses of action.
VALUES AND BELIEFS AS BEHAVIOR
MOTIVATORS

19. LESSON 1
Beliefs is something one accepts as true or real. It
takes the form of firmly held opinion or conviction,
regardless of the lack of verifiable evidence. It may
be based on tradition, faith, experience, scientific
research or some combination of these.
VALUES AND BELIEFS AS BEHAVIOR
MOTIVATORS

20. SCENARIO:
Taking “selfies” is Alyssa’s preoccupation. It became a
habit when her parents gave her a phone on her
birthday.
Phenomenon:
selfieing
SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL,
POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE

21. SCENARIO:
Kapitan Santiago Imperial is the incumbent mayor of
the Vertigo City. His son, Wacky is currently running
for the congressional seat of the district, a position
occupied by his mother Congresswoman Amanda
Imperial for about three consecutive terms.
Phenomenon:
Political dynasty
SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL,
POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE

22. SCENARIO:
Parker, a college student, is living alone in Provident
Village. Both of her parents are OFWs working in
Canada. She visits them every summer break.
Phenomenon:
Transnational families
SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL,
POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE

23. SCENARIO:
As a youth volunteer, Braylee finds the rainy season a
busy season due to the frequency of typhoon-related
disasters. Sometimes, she even spends her own
money to buy relief goods for typhoon victims.
Phenomenon:
Youth volunteerism
SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL,
POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE

24. SCENARIO:
Louis Kingsley almost missed the chance to finish
high school because he had been absent most of the
time playing Mobile Legends (ML).
Phenomenon:
Video Gaming
SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL,
POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE