UCSP HANDOUT

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Diversity is a natural part of social life. People come from different places. They have
different orientations and beliefs about life. They do different ways and means to solve their
dally problems and challenges in life. The differences are attributed to gender, age, physical
characteristics, potentials, skills, learning styles, intelligences, social and cultural backgrounds,
religion, ethnicity, places of origin, and others.
KEY POINTS:
Race – refers to a group of people who share biologically transmitted traits that are obvious and
considered important. Skin color is an important trait in Identifying the race of a person.
Ethnicity – refers to a shared cultural heritage like being that of the Jewish group of people.
Citizenship – refers to the legal status conferred by states upon individuals in a national political
community.
Social Status – is the level by which a person is grouped in accordance to his wealth, material
possessions, power and authority, and prestige In the society.
Religion – consists of the beliefs, values and practices that a person considers to be sacred or
spiritually significant.

SOCIAL, POLITICAL, CULTURAL BEHAVIOR AND PHENOMENA

In every society, there can be distinct social, political, cultural behavior of a group of
people. These behaviors can be products of their own beliefs, experiences, and perspectives in
life. Some behaviors can also be results of Influences from other groups which had been
practiced already for a significant period of time.
Social behavior refers to the collective actions of people as a response to a stimulation,
situation, or environment. Most of the time, a person behaves in accordance to what is socially
acceptable. People follow rules and regulations. They abide with existing social systems.
Following traffic rules leads to social order. Doing good deeds like generosity and kindness leads
to a more peaceful way of life. Deviating from something which is socially acceptable may lead
to punishments, discrimination or ostracism from the others.
Political behavior refers to how people respond to the kind of authority and power that govern
them. What determines this behavior and response are people's differences of personalities,
perspectives, and experiences. Some can actively and concretely manifest their participation, and
some can be simply passive participants. The most dominant political participation of people is
taking part in the election by voting their preferred leaders.
Cultural behavior refers to how people use, react, and perform actions in relation to the
established symbols, language, beliefs. values, and artifacts that are part of their society. People's
cultural behavior are guided by a society's norms, folkways, mores, taboos, and laws. In general,
people's cultural behavior is set to meet the general expectations of the majority.

1. Folkways – are norms that stem from and organize casual interactions and emerge out of
repetition and routines. We engage in them to satisfy our daily needs, and they are most often
unconscious in operation, though they are quite useful for the ordered functioning of society.
- A common example of a folkway is the practice, in many societies, of waiting in line.
This practice brings order to the process of buying things or receiving services, allowing
us to more easily perform the tasks of our daily lives.
2. Mores – Mores are more strict than folkways, as they determine what is considered moral and
ethical behavior; they structure the difference between right and wrong.
- For example, many religions have prohibitions on cohabitation with a romantic partner
before marriage. If a young adult from a strict religious family moves in with her
boyfriend then her family, friends, and congregation are likely to view her behavior as
immoral.

- They might punish her behavior by scolding her, threatening judgment in the afterlife, or
shunning her from their homes and the church. These actions are meant to indicate that
her behavior is immoral and unacceptable and are designed to make her change her
behavior to align with the violated more.
3. Taboos – A taboo is a very strong negative norm; it is a prohibition of certain behavior that is
so strict that violating it results in extreme disgust and even expulsion from the group or society.
- Example, in some Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo because the pig is considered
unclean. At the more extreme end, incest and cannibalism are both considered taboos in
most places.
4. Laws – A law is a norm that is formally inscribed at the state or federal level and is enforced
by police or other government agents.
SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL CHANGES
Change is inevitable. Change refers to the varied innovations, modifications, revisions
and transformation of a group's culture, behavior, social institutions, and social structure over
time. The following table presents the theoretical perspectives on social, political and cultural
changes (Vago, 2004).
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Functionalism – Society is relatively stable, which means that things occur in society for a
specific function and those functions help maintain stability.
- Society is in a natural state of equilibrium. Gradual change is necessary and desirable
and typically stems from such things as population growth, technological advances, and
Interaction with other societies that brings new ways of thinking and acting. However,
sudden social change is undesirable because it disrupts this equilibrium. To prevent this
from happening, other parts of society must make appropriate adjustments if one part of
society sees too sudden a change.
Conflict Theory – Because the status quo is characterized by social inequality and other
problems, sudden social change in the form of protest or revolution is both desirable and
necessary to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to address other social ills.
- Two main concerns for conflict theorists are economic wealth and power.
- In general, the essence of conflict theory suggests that pyramid structure of power wealth
exists in a society.

“Three social sciences, that help people understand a people's way of life”
1. Anthropology
- It is the study of humankind from its beginnings millions of years ago to the present day.
Anthropology embraces a comparative and holistic approach to the study of humans in different
cultural settings and covers the subfields of cultural anthropology, archaeology, and physical
anthropology.
Main Branches:
a. Cultural anthropology is the main division of anthropology that explains culture in its many
aspects.
b. Physical Anthropology is also known as biological anthropology, and it deals with the origin,
evolution and diversity of people.
e. Archaeological Anthropology or Archeology Archaeological anthropology traces the origin,
growth and development of culture in the past.
d. Linguistic anthropology is the branch of anthropology that is about language. It refers to the
languages of all people, past and present, as it is the main vehicle through which man preserves
and transmits his culture from generation to generation.
2. Political Science
- It is concerned with the kind of government of various societies. It considers what kind of
government a society has, how it formed, and how individuals attain positions of power within a
particular government. It is also concerned with the relation of people in a society to whatever
form of government they have. One of its major focus is on the theory and practice of
government and politics in different levels.
3. Sociology
- It is the study of people interacting with others individually, in social groups, and in social
systems.

WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is composed of those things that make a certain group of people different and
unique from other groups of people.
Society is a group of people who share a common culture.
Culture has been defined in many ways. Some of them are the following:
1. Culture consists of the values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that together; form
a people's way of life. It includes what we think, how we act, and what we own. It is a bridge to
our past and a guide to the future (Soyinka, 1991).
2. Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects. and other characteristics common to
the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define
themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes
many societal aspects: language, customs. values, norms, mores, rules, tools. technologies,
products, organizations, and institutions.
3. Culture is defined as the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts that are part of
any society.
4. The term "culture" can be used as part of a descriptive statement, as in discussing the
culture of our modern society or the culture of the Hispanic population. In this case, it
refers, in the collective sense, to the norms, values, beliefs, and expressive symbols held and
used in a particular subset of the population.
5. Sociology understands culture as the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge
and collective identities and memories developed by members of all social groups that
make their social environments meaningful. Sociologists study cultural meaning by exploring
Individual and group communication: meaningfulness is expressed in social narratives:
ideologies, practices, tastes, values, and norms as well in collective representations and social
classifications.
6. Culture is the symbolic-expressive dimension of social life. In common usage, the term
"culture" can mean the cultivation associated with "civilized" habits of mind, the creative
products associated with the arts, or the entire way of life associated with a group. Among
sociologists, "culture" just as often refers to the beliefs that people hold about reality, the norms
that guide their behavior, the values that orient their moral commitments, or the symbols through
which these beliefs, norms, and values are communicated.
7. Horton and Hunt defined culture as everything which is socially shared and learned by
the members of a society.
Tylor defined "It is that complex whole including beliefs, art, region, values, norms. ideas, law,
taught, knowledge, custom and other capabilities acquired by a man as a member of a society."
It is the totality of human experience acquired during transmission of heritage from one
generation to another and to learn the ways of learning, eating, drinking. behaving, walking,
dressing, and working is the culture of man.
From all these definitions, it can then be deduced that there are two general kinds of culture the
nonmaterial and the material culture. Nonmaterial culture is composed of all the intangible ideas
and concepts that were created and established by a society. The material culture on the other
hand refers to all the tangible and concrete elements of culture that were created by the people
and are continuously enhanced and used.
The presence of both the nonmaterial and material culture in a society helps people understand
that of their past. They are given a glimpse of their ancestors' way of life and at the same time
how they had been adapting to the challenges of their environment. People at present need to
preserve cultural knowledge of their past even if they are in a modern world. The way they put
value into their cultural past would also in one way or the other determine their direction for their
future.
The components of the nonmaterial culture are the following:
1. Symbols
A symbol is anything that represents a meaning that is accepted and recognized by the group
who share the same culture. Words, signs and nonverbal means of communication and language
are also considered symbols.
2. Knowledge
These are the facts, information, and skills acquired by a group of people through their own
experiences or education. People learn to use things from their environment because of specific
needs that arise. They learn to use plants as medicines because they need to cure certain kinds of
illnesses. People also learned to transform things in their surroundings because of what they were
able to learn from different situations.
3. Norms
Norms are the general guidelines or expectations for behavior. Norms may change frequently
because society can come up with its own informal rules for behavior and may decide when
these rules have been violated or need to be changed.
Norms can come into four categories:
a. Folkways are the forms of behavior that people do for the sake of observing traditions.
b. Mores are norms based on morality and are used as bases for knowing what is right from
wrong: good from evil.
c. Laws are enacted and enforced by people in authority. Deviations from the laws can mean
punishments and legal reprimands depending on severity of the violations.
d. Taboo is a very strong negative norm; it is a prohibition of certain behavior that is so strict that
violating it results in extreme disgust and even expulsion from the group or society.
4. Values
Values represent the people's standards of identifying what is good from bad; from what is good
and evil. They actually help shape a group's behavior and the ideals that they prefer to embrace
and live up to.
5. Beliefs
They are the convictions that people hold to be true. Each group of people have their own
specific beliefs.
6. Collective forms of behavior
They refer to those activities that majority of people follow and adhere to. They include trends,
fashions, vogue, riots and even rallies.
7. Ideas
Ideas are people's thoughts, concepts, Impressions, notions and formulated thoughts or opinions
about different objects, things or situations in their day-to-day activities.

The components of the material culture are the following:

1. Technology refers to how a group of people apply their knowledge in different situations thus
resulting to inventions and discoveries of tools, instruments and other things which can lessen
the burden of man.
2. Products are the results of peoples' use of technology and practical knowledge. They are those
that people create out of the abundance of resources from their own places.
3. Resources are both the natural and man-made sources of man's needs in a particular
environment. The resources found determine the type of livelihood, industry, and production that
a group of people can be engaged with.