Your Date UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY & POLITICS: SOME KEY OBSERVATIONS LESSON 1 Guide Question: What constitutes our sociality as human beings? LESSON 1 HUMANS AS SOCIAL BEINGS Sociality is defined by the categories that we possess, the categories assigned to us by society at large. These ‘labels’, so to speak, function as tags with which our society read our worth and value. Example: Gender, mirror the way our culture ‘reads’ us as members of society. LESSON 1 Topics to be discussed: 1. Society, culture, and politics as conceptual tools in the analysis of social behaviour and interactions 2. Students as acting agents and social actors 3. Factors that accounts for social differences, cultural variations and political identities LESSON 1 Observation of a School as a Social World and students as acting agents Question: 1. What sort of students go to school? 2. What sort of things do they bring? 3. What sort of activities do they do? 4. What sort of spots do they tend to stay? 5. What sort of interaction takes place between people of different categories? LESSON 1 LESSON PRETEST Food mirrors cultural diversity. Guide Question: Why is ballot considered a unique cultural icon of the Filipinos? LESSON 1 CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES CULTURE • It is defined as the customary beliefs, social forms, and traits that defines a specific racial, religious or social group LESSON 1 CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIETY • Comes from the Latin word “socius” which means comrade, companion or friend • Pertains to a group of individuals involved in social interaction or sharing the same geographical or social territory LESSON 1 CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS PART OF SOCIAL SCIENCES POLITICS • Comes from the Greek word “Politika” which means affairs of the cities • Refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance over a human community. LESSON 1 CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS CONCEPTUAL TOOLS Concepts are created and have been used to have a firm grip of phenomenon. According to Pierce (1998, p. 332) concept describes as “the rational purport of a word or a conception.” Concept as conceptual tools allow us form other concepts, or relate concept to each other, or even deconstruct old ones and replace them with something new. LESSON 1 CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS CONCEPTUAL TOOLS Concept as heuristic tools allow the discovery of new aspects of a phenomenon. Concept can be conceived as a ‘means’ rather than an ‘end.’ LESSON 1 CULTURE SOCIETY, AND POLITICS AS CONCEPTUAL TOOLS Example: Culture. With the concept of culture, anthropologist are able to explore and make sense of the complex processes and dynamics that characterize the great variety of ‘ways of living’ practiced and observed into a handy word. LESSON 1 SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND PHENOMENON SITUATION: Gary graduated a year ago. Despite being blessed with several job offers, he chose to remain jobless and hang around with his barkada. Together they love to go around in the town plaza especially at night. Behavior and Phenomena: ISTAMBAY SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND PHENOMENON SITUATION: Members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church are strongly prohibited from eating pork and food with blood, as well as from smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages. Behavior and Phenomena: Food taboos SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND PHENOMENON SITUATION: Darius is openly gay. He lives with his partner Garner. He and Garner are both college professors in the local city college. Behavior and Phenomena: Same sex partnership SOCIAL REALITIES: BEHAVIOR AND PHENOMENON SITUATION: If grades were to be the basis of Rusty’s standing in his economic class, he would surely fail the course. However, he was given a passing grade by his economic teacher; who happened to be a childhood friend of his mother. Behavior and Phenomena: Padrino system VALUES AND BELIEFS AS BEHAVIOR MOTIVATORS Values are a person’s standards of behaviour and are considered as judgement of what is important in life. It is also the criteria people use in assessing their daily lives, arranging their priorities, and choosing between alternative courses of action. LESSON 1 VALUES AND BELIEFS AS BEHAVIOR MOTIVATORS Beliefs is something one accepts as true or real. It takes the form of firmly held opinion or conviction, regardless of the lack of verifiable evidence. It may be based on tradition, faith, experience, scientific research or some combination of these. LESSON 1 SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE SCENARIO: Taking “selfies” is Alyssa’s preoccupation. It became a habit when her parents gave her a phone on her birthday. Phenomenon: selfieing SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE SCENARIO: Kapitan Santiago Imperial is the incumbent mayor of the Vertigo City. His son, Wacky is currently running for the congressional seat of the district, a position occupied by his mother Congresswoman Amanda Imperial for about three consecutive terms. Phenomenon: Political dynasty SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE SCENARIO: Parker, a college student, is living alone in Provident Village. Both of her parents are OFWs working in Canada. She visits them every summer break. Phenomenon: Transnational families SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE SCENARIO: As a youth volunteer, Braylee finds the rainy season a busy season due to the frequency of typhoon-related disasters. Sometimes, she even spends her own money to buy relief goods for typhoon victims. Phenomenon: Youth volunteerism SOCIAL DYNAMICS: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CUNTURAL CHANGE SCENARIO: Louis Kingsley almost missed the chance to finish high school because he had been absent most of the time playing Mobile Legends (ML). Phenomenon: Video Gaming