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Culture, Society, and Politics Overview

This document provides an overview of key concepts for understanding culture, society, and politics. It begins by discussing social and cultural identities like gender, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. It then examines social, political, and cultural behaviors and changes over time through examples. Finally, it defines the fields of anthropology, political science, and sociology and their focuses on human behavior, institutions, and social relationships respectively.

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Eleanor Elliott
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4K views2 pages

Culture, Society, and Politics Overview

This document provides an overview of key concepts for understanding culture, society, and politics. It begins by discussing social and cultural identities like gender, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. It then examines social, political, and cultural behaviors and changes over time through examples. Finally, it defines the fields of anthropology, political science, and sociology and their focuses on human behavior, institutions, and social relationships respectively.

Uploaded by

Eleanor Elliott
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Understanding Culture, Society and Politics: Explores fundamental concepts in culture, society, and politics with focus on social dynamics and identity.

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

A. Starting points for the understanding of culture, society, and politics.

1. Sharing of social and cultural backgrounds of students as acting subjects or social, agents, persons; (examples: gender,
socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, exceptionality/non-exceptionality, nationality)

 Gender – The World Health Organization defines gender as the result of socially constructed ideas about the
behavior, actions, and roles a particular sex performs. Gender is a term used to exemplify the attributes that a
society or culture constitutes as “masculine” or “feminine”.

 Socioeconomic Class – the social standing or status of an individual or group. It is often measured as a
combination of education, income and occupation. Examinations of socioeconomic status often rec=veal
inequities in access to resources, plus issues related to privilege, power, and control

 Ethnicity – based on traditions, language, nationality, or cultural heritage. Race or racial identity, on the other
hand, describes the physical features that a group of persons might have in common. For example: white or
Caucasian > British, French, German, etc., latino or Hispanic > Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc.

 Religion – a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when
considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual
observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs

 Exceptionality – has some area of functioning in which he or she is significantly different from an established
norm. This definition includes both students with disabilities and those with special gifts or talents. People with
non-average capacity: geniuses

 Non-exceptionality – people with disability and those physically challenged individuals.

 Nationality – group of people who share the same history, customs, traditions.

2. Observations about social, political, and cultural behavior and phenomena (examples: food taboos, istambay, political
dynasties, elections)

 Food Taboos
 Istambay
 Political Dynasties
 Elections

3. Observations on social, political, and cultural change (examples: txting, transnational families, local public services,
youth volunteerism)

 Txting
 Transnational Families
 Local Public Services
 Youth Volunteerism

4. Definition of anthropology, political science, and sociology

 Anthropology – the scientific study of humans, human behavior and societies in the past and present. Social
anthropology studies patterns of behavior and cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms
and values. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life.
 Political Science – a social science concerned with the description and analysis of political and especially
governmental institutions and processes

 Sociology – the study of human social relationships and institutions. Ranges from crime to religion, from the
family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; with
the purpose of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding
cultural and social structures.

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