Socio-Cultural

Anthropology

Michael P. Vale
CULTURE
MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OR FEATURES
OF CULTURE
KEY CULTURAL CONCEPTS
RELATIONSHIP OF CULTURE AND
INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIORS
 CULTURE VS. SOCIETY
• CULTURE
• The totality of man
• The way of life
• The complex set material and non-material identity that
distinguish man from one another
• Complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as member of society.
• SOCIETY
• Group of people living together with one culture or
common way of life
– COMMUNITY- Group of people living together that is bound by
proximity/distance, neighborhood (small scale society)
 RELATIONSHIP AND BONDS IN
SOCIETY

•GEMEINSCHAFT
•Rural relationship
•Relationship is personal where friendship and
kinship is integrated in the relationship
•GESELLSCHAFT
•Urban relationship
•Relationship is impersonal, specialized and
business-like.
 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT
CULTURE
• The term “culture” equates to “civilization,
therefore when one is “cultured” he is civilized.
• NOTE: All people are cultured
• Culture equates to things that are colorful,
customs, food, clothing, dancing, music, etc.
• NOTE: Everything is culture, even those that are
usual (done and seen daily)
• Culture pertains to “traditional” material or non
material objects, the less are less “cultural”
• NOTE: There is no such thing as less cultural.
Everything makes up the society, and each is
important.
 MAIN FEATURES OF CULTURE
• CULTURE IS ALL ENCOMPASSING
• Culture is the sum total of human creation; the
things each of the new generation learn and
eventually add.
• CULTURE IS GENERAL AND SPECIFIC
• All have culture and we share it but it’s
differences/relativity makes people diverse.
• CULTURE IS SOCIALLY LEARNED
• Culture is an outgrowth of social interactions.
 MODES OF ACQUIRING CULTURE
• IMITATION- Duplication of culture
• INDOCTRINATION- Culture is formally taught
• INCULTURATION- Learning one’s culture for
necessity
• ACCULTURATION- Learning other culture trough
long contacts
• CONDITIONING- Culture is learned trough rewards
and punishments
• AMALGAMATION- Intermarriage
MODES OF ADAPTING TO CULTURE
• ACCOMODATION- You have learned a new culture
and added it to your culture without losing your
true cultural identity
• ASSIMILATION- Learning a new culture and
forgetting previous cultural identity
 DILLEMAS IN ADAPTING TO
CULTURE
• CULTURE LAG- Trouble adapting to new culture
• CULTURE SHOCK- Confusion and disorientation in
a new culture
 MAIN FEATURES OF CULTURE
• CULTURE IS SYMBOLIC
• Things, actions, behaviors, etc. always stand for
something else, other than merely, the thing
itself
• CULTURE IS SHARED
• Culture is a possession of individuals as
members of the social group
• CULTURE IS PATTERNED
• Culture is interrelated with one another
 MAIN FEATURES OF CULTURE
• PEOPLE USE CULTURE CREATIVELY
• CULTURE IS ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE
– ADAPTIVE- People adapt to the environment using
culture
– ADAPTIVE- People threatens his survival because of
culture (environmental problems due to technology)
• CULTURE IS STABLE YET IT CHANGES
• Culture survives through time, but it also changes
through time
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
• LEARNED
• Could be learned trough interaction
• SHARED
• No one knows the entire culture
• CUMULATIVE
• It can grow and expand
• DYNAMIC
• Change is continuous
• RELATIVE/DIVERSE
• Culture is different from one another
 ETHNOCENTRISM
• The belief that one’s culture is the best/standard
culture
• The belief that our own society’s ways are the
correct, normal and better ways and our group is
the center/axis of everything
• The tendency to apply one’s own cultural values
in judging the behavior and beliefs of people
raised in other cultural values
• Example: People think that familiar explanation,
opinion and customs are true, right, proper and
moral and different behavior is savage
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
• A culture should be studied and understood in
its own meaning and values.
• A situation wherein there is respect for cultural
differences rather than condemning other
people’s culture as uncivilized and backwards.
• Behavior in a particular culture should not be
judged based on the standards of another.
(There is no universal standard for culture)
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
• RESPECT FOR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:
– Appreciating cultural Diversity
– Accepting and respecting other cultures
– Understand other culture through its own elements,
context and logic
– Acceptance that each body of custom has its own
inherent dignity and meaning
– Knowing that a person’s own culture is only one
among many
– Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical and
acceptable in one culture may not be so in other
culture
 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
• An emerging DISCIPLINE which aims to create
equal educational opportunities for students with
diverse racial, ethnic, social class and cultural
groups
• MULTICULTURALISM
PHILOSOPHY that recognizes ethnic diversity
within a society
Promotes Cultural Relativism- Culture is diverse
and there is no universal standard for judging it.
 MULTICULTURALISM
LIBERAL MULTICULTURALISM
• Focus on the celebration of cultural diversity, ethnic
variety and teaching tolerance
• Recognizes pre-existing culture but does not examine
hierarchies of power from cultural interactions
• CRITICAL MULTICULTURALISM
• Concerns and focuses on institutions and their different
practices which forms the entire society
• Sees inequalities in power and racism which encourages
recognition of rights and advocates multiculturalization in
the society
 MULTICULTURALISM
• IMPLICATIONS OF MULTICULTURALISM TO THE
PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE OF EDUCATION
• Equal access to education regardless of color and
economic status
• Giving due recognition to contributions of diverse group
to the collective accomplishment of mankind
• Making meaningful connections between the abstraction
and actual life experiences of ethnically and culturally
different students
• Acceptance and celebration of diversity as normal fact of
human life and schooling
• There is mismatch in cultural incompatibility between
minority/ethnic students and their school culture
MARAMING SALAMAT PO!
“WHEN YOU ARE
TIRED WITH WHAT
YOU’RE DOING,
ALWAYS GO BACK
TO YOUR REASON
WHY.”
BREAK THE
ODDS,
CONQUER YOUR
FEARS,
BE THE NEXT LET
TOPNOTCHER!

-MICHAEL P. VALE
Licensed Professional
Teacher (LPT)
September 2016 LET,
4th National Placer