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Module 1 SS102N

This document provides an overview of key concepts for understanding indigenous communities in the Philippines from a sociological perspective. It defines society, culture, ethnicity, and minority groups. It discusses four sociological perspectives on how society can be viewed - functionalism, conflict theory, feminist perspective, and symbolic interactionism. It provides definitions and characteristics of indigenous peoples and cultural communities according to Philippine law and the UN. It also defines the concepts of marginalization and deculturation in relation to indigenous groups.

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Placido Abuan
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313 views

Module 1 SS102N

This document provides an overview of key concepts for understanding indigenous communities in the Philippines from a sociological perspective. It defines society, culture, ethnicity, and minority groups. It discusses four sociological perspectives on how society can be viewed - functionalism, conflict theory, feminist perspective, and symbolic interactionism. It provides definitions and characteristics of indigenous peoples and cultural communities according to Philippine law and the UN. It also defines the concepts of marginalization and deculturation in relation to indigenous groups.

Uploaded by

Placido Abuan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

College of Arts and Sciences


Department of Political Science

SOC SCI 102N


Philippine Culture, Heritage and Indigenous Communities
MODULE 1 (WEEK 2)

Objectives:
At the end of the lessons, you should be able to:
 Understand the concept of society
 Describe and give examples for each perspective
 Fully understand the definition and characteristics of Indigenous Peoples
 Define different sociological terms related to Indigenous Communities

GUIDE QUESTIONS (A guide question is your basis in highlighting the important concepts
in the module)

 How is society defined in different perspectives?


 What is culture? What is ethnicity?
 What are the features of a minority group?

This course will focus on understanding the unique characteristics and the way of life of
the Indigenous Peoples (IPs). The first thing you need to ask yourself if, “am I part of the
IP groups of the Philippines?” If you are, then most probably, you are already familiar
with most of the examples that will be presented in this course.

The Indigenous Peoples are living in communities with the same practices, beliefs and
traditions. They live as one SOCIETY with a single CULTURE. With this notion, we have to
start by understanding these two sociological concepts.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Society as defined and characterized in different Perspectives (Henslin 2012)

1. Functionalism – views society as a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that


work together. When all the parts of society fulfill their functions, society is in a
normal state or in an equilibrium/harmony. It suggests also that whenever we
examine a smaller part, we need to look for its functions and dysfunctions to see
how it is related to the larger unit.

2. Conflict Theory – suggests that society is composed of groups that are


competing with one another for scarce resources

3. Feminist Perspective – argues that women have been systematically oppressed


and that men have been historically dominant as proved by the
institutionalization of patriarchy, an ideology which posits that sexual differences
are related to differences in the male/female character, behavior, and ability
justifying a gendered division of social roles and inequality in access to rewards,
positions of power, and privilege; therefore, this perspective aims to locate the
sites of social inequities and how to address such as well as highlight the
participation of women in the varied dimensions of social life

4. Symbolic Interactionism – views society as composed of symbols that people use


to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with
one another; argues that the labels we learn affect the way we perceive
people. Labels cause selective perception; that is, they lead us to see certain
things while they blind us to others. We shake off evidence that doesn‘t fit.

Ethnic Groups and Minorities

Ethnicity – refers to cultural practices and outlooks that distinguish a given community of
people: language, history, ancestry (real or imagined), religion, and styles of dress or
adornment; these differences are wholly learned

Culture - the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of
society or a social group that encompasses not only art and literature, but lifestyles,
ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs (UNESCO)

Minority group – as understood in sociology, a minority group has the following features:

1. Its members are disadvantaged, as a result of discrimination against


them by others. Discrimination exists when rights and opportunities
open to one set of people are denied to another group
2. Members have some sense of group solidarity, of belonging together.
Experience of being the subject of prejudice and discrimination usually
heightens feelings of common loyalty and interests – tend to see
themselves as ‗a people apart‘ from the majority.
3. Usually to some degree physically and socially isolated from the larger
community; tend to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods, cities
or regions of a country; little intermarriage between those in the
majority and members of the minority group

Indigenous Peoples (the politically correct term for minority ethnic groups) - are descendants of
the original people or occupants of lands before these lands were taken over or
conquered by others. Many indigenous peoples have maintained their traditional
cultures and identities (e.g., way of dressing, language and the cultivation of land) and
therefore have a strong and deep connection with their ancestral territories, cultures
and identities. The 370 million indigenous peoples around the world contribute to
enriching the world‘s cultural and linguistic diversity. (UNESCO)

The UNDRIP adopted Martinez Cobo‘s ―working definition‖ of indigenous


peoples:
Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a
historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that
developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other
sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them.
They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined
to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral
territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued
existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns,
social institutions and legal system … an indigenous person is … one who
belongs to these indigenous populations through self-identification as
indigenous (group consciousness) and is recognized and accepted by
these populations as one of its members (acceptance by the group). This
preserves for these communities the sovereign right and power to decide
who belongs to them, without external interference.

Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples — refer to a group of people or


homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have
continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined
territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied,
possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs,
traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to
political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and
cultures, became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall
likewise include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent
from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest or
colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the
establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social,
economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from
their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains (RA
8371)

Marginalization – the controls some peoples traditionally exercised over their local
societies (and their own lives) are taken from them, such that their remaining autonomy
of action does not conflict with the wider system (Eder, 1993)

Deculturation – a restriction of social relations, little or no cultural replacement and few


new cultural forms developing from local sources of technological and economic
growth (Eder, 1993)

References

 Eder, J.F. (1993). On the road to tribal extinction: Depopulation, deculturation,


and adaptive well-being among the Batak of the Philippines. Quezon City: New
Day Publishers.
 Giddens, A. (1994). Sociology. Second Edition. UK: Blackwell Publishers.
 Henslin, J. M. (2012). Sociology: A down-to-earth approach. 10th Edition. New
York: Allyn & Bacon

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