UNDERSTANDING

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND

POLITICS
JANICE B. BARANDA, RN,LPT
Teacher III
Starting points for the understanding of
culture, society, and politics
CULTURE
•It is the way of life of a group of
people who share similar beliefs
and customs
SOCIETY
•The community of people living in
a particular country or region
and having shared customs, laws
and organizations
POLITICS
•It refers to achieving and
exercising positions of
governance----- organized
control over a human
community, particularly a state
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
•Language
•Religion
•Arts and Literature
•Government
•Economic system
•Customs and Traditions
 LANGUAGE
• Language is the cornerstone of culture.
• All cultures have a spoken language.

• People who speak the same language often share

the same

• Many societies include a large number of people

who speak different languages.

• Each language can have several different dialects.

The Coca-Cola Case in China
Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Kekoukela”,
meaning “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed
with Wax”, depending on the dialect. Coke then
researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent
“kokoukole”, translating into “Happiness in the Mouth”.
The Nike Air Case
Air Nike offended Muslims in June, 1997 when the “flaming
air” logo for its Nike Air sneakers looked too similar to the
Arabic form of God’s name, “Allah”. Nike pulled more than
38,000 pairs of sneakers from the market.
The Volkswagen Jetta Case
Volkswagen named the sedan version of Golf the Jetta. The
letter “J” doesn’t exist in the Italian alphabet, so Jetta is
pronounced “Ietta”, which means Misfortune.
Let’s steal it
TOSHIBA in China Toshiba once had a commercial jingle in
China that went “Toshiba, Toshiba”. In Mandarin Chinese,
Toshiba sounds a lot like “let’s steal it” (tou-chu-ba).
 RELIGION
• Answer the questions about life’s meaning
• Religion is often a source of conflict between
Animism: belief in a supernatural power that
organizes and animates the material universe.
Monotheism:belief in one god
Polytheism: belief in more than one god

Major World Religions

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism
ARTS AND LITERATURE
•How people express what they think is
meaningful
• They are the products of the human
imagination.
• They help us pass on the culture’s basis
beliefs.
• Examples: art, music, literature, and folk
tales
GOVERNMENT
• Rules in order to live together without confict
• People form governments to provide for
their common needs.
Forms of Government
 Forms of Government

• Democracy
• Monarchy
• Theocracy
• Dictatorship
• Transitional
 Democracy
• Supreme power is given to the people and
exercised by them directly or indirectly through
a system of representation.
• Democratic countries have free elections
where all citizens have a vote.
 Democracy
Examples of Democratic countries today:
• United States of America
• Philippines
Monarchy
• Rule by a single person (a king or queen), who is the
permanent head of state. The term is now used to
refer to countries with hereditary rulers. This means
that rule is passed down from parent to child.
• Constitutional monarchies are more common today.
Under this system, the powers of the king or queen
are restricted to those granted in the constitution.
• Most constitutional monarchies use a
parliamentary system in which the king or queen
may have strictly ceremonial duties. They often
have a elected prime minister who is the head of
government.
Monarchy
Examples of countries with monarchies today:
• Saudi Arabia
• Brunei
• Qatar
• Oman
• Great Britain (Constitutional Monarchy)
• Australia (Constitutional Monarchy)
• Morocco (Constitutional Monarchy)
• Bhutan (Constitutional Monarchy—new!)
Theocracy
• In a theocracy, government leaders are members
of the clergy (church officials), and the state's
legal system is based on religious law.
• Rulers are thought to be “divinely guided”.
Theocracy
Examples of theocracies today:
• Iran
• The Vatican
Dictatorship
• A government in which a single leader or
party exercises absolute control over all
citizens and every aspect of their lives.
• In most cases, this absolute power is exercised
in a cruel way.
• Other names for a dictatorship
include: Autocracy, Military Junta,
Right
Wing, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism or
Fascism
Dictatorship
Examples of Dictatorships today:
• North Korea
• Libya
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Sudan
Transitional
• A transitional government is one that is in the
process of changing from one form to another
• Countries with transitional governments are often
unstable
Transitional
Examples of countries with transitional
governments:
• Afghanistan
• Iraq
INVENTIONS AND
TECHNOLOGY
•Important advancements
Customs and Traditions
• Rules of Behavior are enforced ideas of right
and wrong.
• They can be customs, traditions, rules, or written
laws.
From your answers, give
your own definition of
culture, society, and
politics