Lesson 2 Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics.pptx

1. CULTURE AND SOCIETY: THE PERSPECTIVES OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics CHAPTER II

2. SOCIETY AND CULTURE: NICHE AND FUGITIVE CONCEPTS Society and culture are two durable constructs in the vocabulary of the social sciences. Although they can be claimed as “ niche concepts ” in sociology and anthropology, these terms are so malleable that other disciplines (such as political science, psychology, history, and economics to mention a few) have been quite successful in expanding their respective frontiers using them as tools. In this context, culture and society become “ fugitive concepts ” as their explanatory features move beyond the ambits of their original disciplines. Introduction U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics

3. Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics Sociology Anthropology Political Science SOCIAL i nterpretive dynamics of society c ritical dynamics of human evolution s tructural dynamics of culture Fig. 1 Interpretive, Critical, and Structural Dynamics of the Social

4. SOCIETY AS A CONCEPT The word “society” was coined by social scientists to facilitate their explorations of social phenomena. It is a tool to grasp the complexity of the phenomenon it represents and a means to explore its many other dimensions hidden by its normative use. As a concept, society represents an ideal type, which m less depicts the form, process, and dynamics of the social reality it embodies. Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics The Interpretive Dynamics of Society

5. SOCIETY AS A FACTICITY Society is formally defined as constituting a fairly large number of people who are living in the same territory, are relatively independent of people outside their area, and participate in a common culture. It is limited simply because it belittles the most important component of this phenomenon – interactions. It is limiting because the interpretive tradition of sociology may provide a more coherent definition of society. Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics The Interpretive Dynamics of Society

6. WHAT MAKES SOCIETY POSSIBLE: THREE THEORITICAL PERSPECTIVES Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics T he Interpretive Dynamics of Society

7. STRUCTURAL - FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT THEORY SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM THREE CLASSICAL THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics The Interpretive Dynamics of Society

8. STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM AND SOCIAL ORDER Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics What Makes Society Possible: Three Theoretical Perspectives

9. T he structural-functional school of thought looks at social “ order ”. It argues that society is made possible by cooperation and interdependence. G iven this line of argumentation, this view sees society as a system with parts, and these parts have their respective functions to perform. T he health and condition of the entiure system is dependent on these two processes of functions and interdependence. A s such, this basic allusion to parts, functions, and interdependence reflects the succeeding theoritical principles in almost all areas of sociological investigations – from social stratification, to deviance, to institutions, to socialization. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM AND SOCIAL ORDER

10. CONFLICT THEORY AND CONFLICT Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics What Makes Society Possible: Three Theoretical Perspectives

11. The Marxist-inspired perspective on the question of society looks at the other side of the issue. Instead of putting importance to social order, the conflict perspective sees society as an arena. Social actors are gladiators fighting for their very lives. The winner takes the reward and ease assured of freedom. Resources and their scarcity make up the bone of contention in every conflict situation. However, the conflict approach do not take the usual assumptions about the nature and ethos of conflict. Rather than emphasizing competition, this view sees conflict as something positive and advantageous. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics CONFLICT THEORY AND CONFLICT

12. For the proponents of this view, conflict makes change and dynamism – features of society that have not been clearly conceived by the structural functional theory – possible. Conflict brings about a new set of relations and interactions, which produces new dynamism in society. So to answer the question “WHAT MAKES SOCIETY POSSIBLE?,” the conflict theory invokes the social processes rather than functions and interdependence. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics CONFLICT THEORY AND CONFLICT

13. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AND MEANING-MAKING Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics What Makes Society Possible: Three Theoretical Perspectives

14. Unlike the previous two theories, symbolic interactionism does not deal with either order or conflict. Instead, it explores the issues of meaning-making and why this is crucial in understanding order or conflict as processes that brought about society. Humans as social beings have the capacity to generate meaning from their surroundings, be it social or otherwise. Meaning is important because it is the basis of actions towards or against specific elements of the environment. Meaning cannot be derived easily as it is lodged on and ascribed to symbols – anything that can stand as a representation of something. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AND MEANING-MAKING

15. Symbols, like meaning, are interpreted intersubjectively by social actors. The constellations of meaning assigned to an object, event, or person become the basis of social interactions, and they are constitutive of events and social phenomena. The latter statement means that interpretation of symbols may have a reality-making effect on people implicated in an interaction situation. W.I. Thomas’ definition of situation is a classic example of why definitions of situation have real effects on people’s actions and interactions. So to answer the question “WHAT MAKES A SOCIETY POSSIBLE?”, the symbolic interactionist perspective would say symbols and meanings. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AND MEANING-MAKING

16. RULES: INVISIBLE HAND OF SOCIETY Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics T he Interpretive Dynamics of Society

17. However, not all rules are visible, that is, written and understood by all. The written ones are easily seen and hence are easily observed and obeyed. A lot of difficult situations are made simpler by written and visible rules. The situation is different, however, in cases where rules are invisible and unwritten. At first, you may surmise that invisible rules create more disorder than order, which they are meant to establish in the first place. This assumption proves to be incorrect as our lives are made more meaningful by unwritten rules. Rules are guides in the performance of roles and in everyday actions and interactions. They provide order in a system characterized by the presence of many actors with different businesses and agenda to pursue. What orchestrate the simultaneous yet orderly transactions and interactions are the rules. With this thought, rules are essential in the everyday conduct of the members of society. In cases where there are conflicts, rules become the arbiter of disagreements and people’s respect for rules gives them this organizing power over human actions over time . U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics RULES: INVISIBLE HAND OF SOCIETY

18. Unwritten rules are exciting to study because they give invaluable insights into the nature of social behavior. Without us realizing it, almost 90% of our day-to-day actions are governed and shaped by these invisible rules. You may not know that rules exist for example, in certain contexts or situations. By simply observing how people act, behave, and interact, you may gain sufficient information as to what unseen rules are in operation in particular situations and contexts. U nderstanding Culture, Society, and Politics RULES: INVISIBLE HAND OF SOCIETY

19. CULTURE AS A CONCEPT U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society

20. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society Culture according to E.B. Tylor “is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” The Cambridge English Dictionary states that the culture is “the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time.”

21. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society As a defining aspect of what it means to be human, culture is a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human societies. In the humanities, one sense of culture, as an attribute of the individual, has been the degree to which it has cultivated a particular level of sophistication in the arts, sciences, education, or manners

22. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society In common parlance, culture is often used to refer specifically to the symbolic markers used by ethnic groups to distinguish themselves visibly from each other, such as body modification, clothing, or jewelry. Mass culture refers to the mass-produced and mass-mediated forms of consumer culture that emerged in the twentieth century.

23. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society Some schools of philosophy, such as Marxism and critical theory, have argued that culture is often used politically as a tool of the elites to manipulate the lower classes and create a false consciousness. When used as a count noun, culture is the set of customs, traditions, and values of a society or community, such as an ethnic group or nation.

24. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society In this sense, multiculturalism is a concept that values the peaceful coexistence and mutual respect between different cultures inhabiting the same territory. Sometimes “culture” is also used to describe specific practices within a subgroup of a society, a subculture or a counter-culture.

25. CULTURE AND SOCIETY U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society

26. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society The relationship between society, culture, and personality is stressed by Ralph Linton: “a society is an organized group of individuals. A culture is an organized group of learned responses. The individual is a living organism capable of independent thought, feeling, and action, but his independence is limited and all his resources are profoundly modified by contact with the society and culture in which he develops.”

27. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society A society cannot exist apart from culture. A society is always made of persons and their groupings. People carry and transmit culture, but they are not culture. No culture can exist except as it is embodied in a human society; no society can operate without cultural directives. Like matter and energy, like mind and body, culture and society are interdependent and interactive yet they express different aspects of the human situation.

28. U nderstanding Culture, Soceity, and Politicsc The Interpretive Dynamics of Society One must always keep in mind the interdependence and reciprocal relationship between culture and society. Each is a distinguishable concept in which the pattern and organization of the whole is more important than any of the component parts.

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