Module 1: Nationality and Ethnicity

Nationality. Is the identity that is tied to being part of nation or country, “group of people who
share the same history, traditions, and language” and who inhabits a particular territory delineated
by a political border and controlled by the government. Nationality can be acquired by being born
in a country or by process of legal applications called naturalization.

Ethnic groups. Within a nation are smaller cultural groups that share specific environments,
traditions, and histories that are not necessarily subscribed to by the mainstream culture.

Gender. Refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given
society considers appropriate for men and women.

Sex. Refers to the biological characteristics of humans such as male or female, gender categories
are more varied, accommodating identities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer,
and intersex (LGBTQI), among others.

Heterosexual. A person with this gender is inclined to be sexually attracted to a person of the
opposite sex.

Homosexual. A person is sexually attracted to a person of the same sex.

Gay. A male who is romantically and sexually attracted to another male.

Lesbian. A female who is romantically and sexually attracted to another female.

Bisexual. Some individuals who are attracted to both sexes.

Asexual. Some who are totally incapable of being attracted to any sex.

Polysexual. Individuals who are attracted to multiple type of gender.

Pansexual. Accommodate all types of gender.

Transgender. People whose gender identities do not match their biological identity as male or
female.

Transsexual. These individuals believe that the discord between their internal gender and the
gender role that they have to perform can be addressed through medical sexual reassignment.

Social Differences. The society has various manifestations of social differences based on unique
social characteristics or qualities like social class, gender, age, education attainment, occupation,
and the like.

The Major Types of Social Stratification

1. Caste. Hereditary endogamous social group in which a person’s rank and his/her rights
and obligations are ascribed or on the basis of his/her birth into a particular group.

2. Class. A person’s position is based upon achievement.

3. Estate. Gives emphasis to birth as well as wealth and possessions.

4. Slavery. Had economic basis wherein the master shows power over slave.

Political Identity. As a social category refers to the set of attitudes and practices that an individual
adheres to in relation to the political systems and actors within his or her society.
Religion. The belief in the supernatural has been one of the universal preoccupations of humans
as early as 60, 000 years ago. The earliest forms of religion revolved around making sense of
natural occurrences such as extreme weather conditions, natural and man-made calamities,
sickness, and even death.

Monotheistic. Believing in the existence of one God.

Polytheistic. Believing in the existence of multiple Gods.

Module 2: Human Evolution and Cultural

Cultural Beginnings. Culture is defined 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 a society.

Biological Capacity for Culture

1. Our thinking capacity. The primary biological component of humans that allowed for
culture is the developed brain. It has the necessary parts for facilitating pertinent skills
such as speaking, touching, feeling, seeing, and smelling.

2. Our Speaking Capacity. As the brain is the primary source of humans’ capacity to
comprehend sound and provide meaning to it, the vocal tract as the mechanism by which
sounds are produced and reproduced to transmit ideas and values.

3. Our Gripping Capacity. The hand of human has digits (fingers) that are straight, as
compared with the curved ones of the other primates. Notice that the thumb of the human
is proportionately longer that those of the other primates.

Two Types of Grip

Power Grip. Enabled humans to wrap the thumb and fingers on an object; it became the
cornerstone of our capacity to hold tools firmly for hunting and other activities.

Precision Grip. Enabled humans to hold and pick objects steadily using their fingers. This
capacity was crucial for tool-making activities.

4. Our Walking/Standing Capacity. Primates have two forms of locomotion:

Bipedalism – is the capacity to walk and stand on two feet.

Quadropedalism – uses all four limbs.

Human Origins and the Capacity for Culture. Our evolution toward humanity as we know it has
been a long journey of survival against the elements of the environment and against competing
species. As our ancestors evolved biologically in response to their environment, they have also
developed cultural technologies that aided them to efficiently obtain food and deter predators.

The Oldowan Industry.

- The Oldowan Industry, a stone tool industry, is characterized by the use of “hard-water-
worn creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock”.
- Supporting the existence of this industry is the evidence found by Mary and Louis Leakey
at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, which was dated at 2.6 million years ago. The industry is
known to have been used by Homo habilis.
The Acheulian Industry
- Home erectus developed a more complex industry from what they inherited from the Homo
habilis. Using the same process of percussion flaking, Homo erectus created hand axes
that were bifacial, shaped in both sides, and with straighter and sharper edges.
- This industry was named after Saint Acheul, a patron saint in southwest France, as these
artifacts were discovered in the area.

The Mousterian Industry

- This industry was developed by Homo neaderthalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe and
West Asia between 300,000 and 30, 000 years ago.
- This industry was named after a site in France called Le Moustier, where evidence was
uncovered in 1860.

The Aurignacian Industry

- This industry was mainly present in Europe and Southwest Asia from 45, 000 to 35, 000
years ago.
- The term Aurignacian was derived from Aurignac, an area in France where the evidence
for this industry was found.
- Users from this industry used raw materials such as flint, animal bones, and antlers, The
method they employed in creating tools such as fine blades was similar to the one used
in the Mousterian industry.

The Magdalenian Industry

- This industry saw the end of the Paleolithic period as it transformed to the Neolithic period.
The industry was named after the La Madeleine site in Dordogue, France.
- This industry, which is also a proto-culture used by the early humans, was defined by
several revolutionary advancements in technology such as the creation of microliths from
flint, bone, antler, and ivory.

The Neolithic Revolution

- This period is characterized by a major shift economic subsistence of the early humans
from foraging to agriculture. This dramatic shift affected the other aspects of their lifestyle,
as foraging made them nomads and agriculture encouraged permanent settlement.

Early Civilization and the Rise of the State

- The earliest civilizations rose by the end of the Neolithic period as the complexities brought
about by the shift in food production demanded a more rigid social structure that would
manage the opposing perspectives of various sectors.
- Early civilizations were characterized by the presence of city-states, a system of writing,
and a ceremonial center where public debates and decisions were made.

As to how states rose, there are four primary theories:

1. Divine right theory. Rulers ascended to power convinced that their right to rule is based
on their filial relationship with supernatural forces and entities. The concept of the god-
king that was upheld in the city of Sumer is an example. People were made subjects to
these monarchs, as the latter were perceived by the former as direct descendants or
representatives of their gods.

2. Force theory. A group forces members of another group to subject themselves to their
rules. This was observed among the Mayans, as conflict over access to rivers resulted in
the subjugation of one group by another.

3. Paternalistic theory. The father essentially is the leader of the first political unit, which
grew as the number of the members of his family grew. This is true for highly patriarchal,
male dominated societies.
 4. Social contract. The creation of a state was a mutual agreement between the ruler and
the ruled to ensure order and security from outside threats.

5. Natural theory. Humans have an inmate need to be part of a community. The Greek
philosopher Aristotle described humans as “political animals”, as it is in their nature to
indulge in politics.

Democratization of Early Civilizations. The early states were governed by a limited few who
ascended to power through wealth, birth right, or religious dogma. This alienated the masses from
the daily administration of rules and regulations in their society. As a result, the social cleavage
in early civilizations widened and resulted in social clashes.

The Legacy of Early Humans to Contemporary Population. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the primary transnational entity that manages
and negotiates matters relating to human heritage. It defined cultural heritage as follows:

Tangible Heritage. Heritage being tangible in the form of structures, monuments, historical sites,
and other artifacts.

Tangible heritage could be divided into two categories:

1. Movable tangible heritage. Pieces are often removed from the sites where they were
found and transferred to museums for safekeeping and maintenance.

2. Immovable tangible heritage. Pieces are often left to the elements of nature (i.e., rain,
wind, sand, sun) which makes them vulnerable to decay and corrosion.

The Role of Museums in Preserving Human Heritage

Museums are the repository of archaeological finds that allow people from the contemporary
period to reconstruct the culture and environment of their ancestors.

Because history is encapsulated in a venue, which is the museum, ordinary people get to have
an access to their ancestors’ live and environment without travelling to archaeological sites, which
are often highly inaccessible.

Module 3: Anthropology and the Study of Culture

Introduction to Anthropology. Anthropology can be defined as “the study of people – their

origins, their development, and contemporary variations wherever and whenever they have been
found on the face of the earth” (Ember, Ember, and Peregrine, 2010).

These points of inquiry are addressed by the five sub disciplines of anthropology:

1. Archaeology. Examines the remains of ancient and historical human populations to

promote an understanding of how humans have adapted to their environment and
developed.
2. Cultural Anthropology. Promotes the study of a society’s culture through their belief
systems, practices, and possessions.
3. Linguistic Anthropology. Examines the language of a group of people and its relation to
their culture.
4. Physical Anthropology. Looks into the biological development of humans and their
contemporary variation.
5. Applied Anthropology. Attempts to solve contemporary problems through the
application of theories and approaches of the discipline.

Culture
- It refers to something ethnic; some people think of it as an all-encompassing term that
separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom.
 - Is everything that a person learns as a member of a society.

Culture is Everything
- It is what a person has, does, and thinks as part of society. This implies all of a person’s
belief system, set of behaviors, and material possessions.
- As such, it can be said that culture is a powerful agent in shaping the decisions and actions
of humans, given a situation. It consists of the material and the nonmaterial.

Material Culture. Includes all the tangible and visible parts of culture, which include clothes, food,
and even buildings.

Nonmaterial Culture. Includes all the intangible parts of the culture, which consists of values,
ideas, and knowledge.

Culture is Learned
- Culture is a set of beliefs, attitudes, and practices that an individual learns through his or
her family, school, church, and other social institutions.
- The process of learning your own culture is called enculturation.
- As you interact with your immediate family and peers, you learn the values and accepted
behaviors in your society. Due to constant interaction between societies, culture can be
modified to accommodate desirable traits from other cultures. The process is called
acculturation.
- When the culture of the older generation comes into conflict with the needs and realities
of the younger generation, deculturation happens, where the reason for the culture has
been lost and even the cultural trait itself is in the process of being forgotten.

Culture is Shared
- The set of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that a person possesses is part of a greater
collection of values and ideas that is communally owned and practiced by members of
society.
- Hence, to share a culture, it must be taught to members of contemporary society who will,
in turn teach the younger generation.

Culture Affects Biology. Humans are born into cultures that have values on beauty and body.
As such, they alter their bodies to fit into the physiological norms that ate dictated by culture.

Culture is Adaptive. Culture is a tool for survival that humans use in response to the pressures
of their environment. Both the material and the nonmaterial parts of culture are influenced by the
goal of humans to address their needs as dictated by their environment and their biology.

Culture is Maladaptive. Culture can also cause problems for the people who subscribe to it.
These problems arise when the environment has changed and culture has remained the same.

Culture Changes
- The final characteristics of culture is that it is never static. This dynamism of culture is due
to changing needs of humans as they interpret and survive in their environment.
- As such, culture s continuously reinvented by people. From the clothes that we wear to
the food that we eat, culture can be seen as ever changing.

Theories on Culture. Theories are perspectives that are essential in shaping an analysis about
a particular issue. In the field of anthropology, one of the key points of discussion is the concept
of culture. The following table presents seven theoretical orientations in anthropology and the
ideas on culture that they espouse.

Theory Perspective
Cultural Evolutionism All cultures undergo the same development stages in the same
order. The main classification includes savagery, barbarism,
and civilization.
 Diffusionism All societies change as a result of cultural borrowing from one
another.
Historicism Each culture is unique and must be studied in its own context.
Psychological Anthropology Personality is largely seen to be studied in its own context.
Functionalism Society is thought to be like biological organism with all of the
parts interconnected. Existing institutional structures of any
society are thought to perform indispensable functions, without
which the society could not continue.
Neo-evolutionism Culture is said to be shaped by environmental and
technological conditions. Cultures evolve when people are able
to increase the amount of energy under their control.
Materialism Culture is the product of the “material conditions” in which a
given community of people finds itself.

Anthropology in 21st Century. The key strength of anthropology as a discipline of the social
science is its holistic approach to the study of humans. It is holistic in the sense that it studies (1)
humans, both as biological and social creatures, (2) human behavior from the time the species
existed to the time that it will desist, (3) human behavior from all regions of the world, and (4) all
forms of human actions and beliefs. Such lens in understanding the human species allows
anthropology to provide a comprehensive insight into the nature of humans and the trajectory of
their behaviors.

Module 4: Sociology and the Study of Society

The Sociological Perspective

- Another branch of the social sciences is the discipline of sociology. Categorically,
sociology is the “scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social
interaction, and culture”.
- The operative term scientific refers to the methodological and theoretical rigor that
sociology applies in its study of society and human behavior.
- The phrase “sociological imagination” to refer to the ability of sociologist to understand
society systematically.

Society. Can be defined as a product of human interactions as humans subscribe to the rules of
their culture. It is an organization that caters to a human’s need for belongingness in a group.

Comparison of Theories on Society

Sociologist Perspective on Society
August Comte Society as a social organism possessing a harmony of structure
and function.
Emile Durkheim Society as a reality in its own right. Collective consciousness is
of key importance to society, which society cannot survive
without.
Talcott Parsons Society is a total complex of human relationships in so far as
they grow out of the action in terms of means-end relationship.
George Herbert Mead Society is an exchange of gestures that involves the use of
symbols.
Morris Ginsberg Society as a collection of individuals united by certain relations
or mode of behavior that marks individuals off from others who
do not enter into these relations or who differ from them in
behavior.
George Douglas Cole Society as the complex of organized associations and
institutions with a community.
Robert Maclver and Charles Society as a system of usages and procedures of authority and
Page mutual aid of many groupings and divisors, of controls of human
behavior and liberties.
Social Interaction. Within the framework of society is a process called social interaction. This is
a compilation of ways and means by which human interact with each other within the confines of
a society.

Social Organization
- This concept refers to the interrelationship of parts of society. As a society is an
organization in itself, it is structurally divided into layers of contexts and positions that
perpetuate is existence. The positions created within a society constitute the category of
status. This may include being a student, a son, and a parent.
- Each status prescribes a set of accepted behaviors that define the individual’s responses
ad inclinations. This set is called roles.
- A group is a basic unit of organizations. It involves at least two individuals who are in
constant interaction based on their statuses and roles.
- Institutions are established when roles, statuses, and groups are perpetuated within the
context of a society. Institutions are the building blocks of a society, as it is through these
that norms are produced from the consistent exchanges of individuals and groups.

Social Structure and Agency. This is the foundation of every society from which emanates the
possible roles, statuses, institutions, and organizations. It can be said that social structures is the
determining the factor by which every other part of a society is that of a building.

Six Sub-disciplines of Sociology

1. Studies that involve social structures such as institutions, social groups, social
stratification, social mobility, and ethnic groups fall within the scope of social organization.
2. The study of the impact of group life to a person’s nature and personality is the focus of
social psychology.
3. Social change and disorganization is the branch of sociology that inquires on the shift in
social and cultural interactions and the interruption of its process through delinquency,
deviance, and conflicts.
4. Human ecology pursues studies that relate human behavior to existing social institutions.
This is different from social psychology and social organization in that the social
institutions in which human subjects belong to are treated in the context of an
ecological/environmental element that defines human behavior.
5. Population or demography inquires on the interrelationship between population
characteristics and dynamics with that of a political, economic, and social system.
6. Applied sociology uses sociological research and methods to solve contemporary
problems. It often uses an interdisciplinary approach to better address social problems.

Methods in Sociology
There are two primary methodological perspectives in sociology:

Positivist Orientation. Perceives society as a quantifiable subject from which objective

conclusions can be made. As such, a positivist perspective uses methods employed by the natural
sciences to understand social phenomenon.

Anti-Positivist Orientation. Promotes a subjective approach wherein social phenomena are

understood through individual experiences. With this, it counters the positivist assumption that
general laws can be made to understand human behavior. Such orientation requires qualitative
methods in gathering data such as interviews, participant-observations, and other tools of
ethnography.

Module 5: Political Science and the Study of Politics

Political Science as a Discipline. Political Science comes from the Greek words: polis and scire.
Polis refers to the city state in ancient Greece. The political activities within a polis are later termed
as politikus (Latin). Scire means “to know”. Combining the two meanings, political science aims
to know the activities within the state.
Political Theory. Examines the contemporary application of political concepts such as human
rights, equality, peace, and justice. It seeks to address the variance of its implementation in
societies within the aim of understanding the nature of these concepts and the elements that
affect it.

Comparative politics. Is a branch of political science that aims to provide context to the
differences in government and political systems. It examines the parallelism and divergence of
political systems to provide analyses on the factors that make governments efficient and the
factors that make them fail.

International Relations. The study of state-to-state relations and the wider margin of the impacts
of globalization and climate change such as terrorism, piracy, and democratization of non-
Western territories fall into the category of international relations.

Political Behavior. This field covers the attitudes, knowledge, and actions of an individual in
response to political variables such as policies created by the government, behavior of politicians,
and general political environment.

Public Policy. This field inquires on the types of governmental policies and the underlying
motivations for their enactment and implementation.

Public Administration. This branch examines the various administrative schemes implemented
by government officials. It analyzes the strategies applied by administrative units in implementing
the existing policies and the feedback mechanism that they use to gain the opinion of the public.

Applied orientation. Pervades all of its sub-disciplines as they all address contemporary issues
on politics, ethics, and governance.

A conceptual model that may be used in analyzing the political dynamics within a society is that
of David Easton’s political system model (1957)/ Easton presents five primary variables in this
model: environment, input, political system, output, and feedback.

Environment consists of the historical, social, and economic conditions of the society that affects
the types of policies accepted and declined by the electorate.

Input refers to the forms of political events or products that are needed by society from its
government. This is divides into two categories: demands and support.

Demands refer to the perceived needs of the population that could better their lives.

Support refers to mechanisms within the system that would allow for such demands to be
facilitated.

Political System acts like a black box through which every form of demand is sifted and decided
upon.

The decision of the government toward an input is called an output. This includes policies, rules,
laws, regulations, and projects.

Whichever the government decides on, opinions and responses would be made by the affected
sectors. This is referred to as feedback.

Politics. This is the central concept in the discipline, as much as society is to sociology and
culture is to anthropology.
 Theorist Definition of Politics
Alfred Boyer Politics is the interaction between the civil society and the
government in the activity of governance.
Max Weber Politics is the exercise of power within a state.
David Easton Politics is the authoritative allocation of scare values.

Weber introduced two essential concepts in political science: power and state.

Power, as defined by Robert Dahl, is “the ability of person A to make person B do what person B
would not otherwise do.

A state is a political entity that consists of four elements: territory, government, people, and
sovereignty.

Government. The set of personnel who manages the affairs of the state in act of allocating scare
values.

Sovereignty. This is the capacity of a political system to make independent decisions within its
territory.

Territory. This is the geographic space in which the sovereignty of a state is exercised. A territory
includes “the terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains, including its territorial seas, the seabed, the
subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas”.

People. In the context of political science, the term people is synonymous to a nation. A nation is
a concept that is related to ethnicity, as people within it are bound by cultural and historical ties.

Module 6: Enculturation and Socialization

Socialization. Refer to the process by which an individual is oriented and taught by his or her
society’s norm.

Norms. The conceptions of appropriate and expected behavior that are held by most members
of the society.