Lesson 1

Starting points for the

understanding of culture,
society, and politics
Angelica Lazaro
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
College of Social Sciences and Development
Sociological Imagination C. Wright Mills
• The Sociological Imagination enables its processor to
understand the larger historical scene in terms of its
meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety
of individuals.
• The idea that the individual can understand his own
experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself
within his period, that he can know his own chances in life
only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his
circumstances.
• It is the most fruitful form of this self-consciousness.
• The most fruitful distinction with which the sociological
imagination works is between ‘the personal troubles of
milieu’ and ‘the public issues of social structure’.
TROUBLES
VS

ISSUES
 Social Science
Any of various disciplines that study human society
and social relationships, including sociology,
psychology, anthropology, economics,
political science, and history.
 Society
A group of people who share a culture and a
territory.
 Culture
• Is the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors,
and even material objects that are passed from one
generation to the next (Henslin, 2006).
• Culture consists of the abstract values, beliefs, and
perceptions of the world that lie behind people’s
behavior and that are reflected by their behavior
(Haviland, 1999)
 Politics
• Ideas and activities relating to gaining and
using power in a country.
•Striving for a share of power or for influence
on the distribution of power, whether it be
between states or between groups of
people within a single state.
POWER
• Power – ability to get your way, even over the
resistance of others, its either legitimate or
illegitimate.
• Legitimate power is called authority, this power
that people accept as right.
• Illegitimate power is called coercion, is power
that people do not accept as just
To be Continue…
 The Historical background of the growth of
Social Sciences
• Before the birth of modern social sciences in the West, the study
of society, culture, and politics were based on social and political
philosophy (Scott 2006, p. 9)(cited Lanuza, p.3)
• The Sciences are based on empirical data, tested theories, and
carefully contrived observations. Science seeks to discover the
truth about specific causes of events and happenings in the
natural world.
• After the French Revolution (the breakdown of the Church and
religious power), the sciences grew steadily and rapidly to
become the most widely accepted way of explaining the world,
nature, and human beings.
 The Growth of Social Sciences

• The Scientific Revolution, which begun with Nicolas

Copernicus, refers to historical changes in thought
and belief, to changes in social and institutional
organization, that unfolded in Europe.
• With the coming of the Scientific Revolution and the
Age of Reason, nature was to be controlled. “bound
into service and made slave”(Capra 1982, p.56)(cited
Lanuza 2016, p.4)
The Birth of Social Sciences as Response to
the turmoil of the Modern Period
Sociology
is branch of the social sciences that deals with the scientific
study of human interactions, social groups and institutions, whole
societies, and human world as such (Lanuza 2016, p. 7)

• Auguste Compte (1798-1857) – Father of Sociology, he coined the

term “Sociology”
3 stages in the development of societies
- theological stage (Fictitious)
- metaphysical stage (Abstract)
- positive stage (Scientific)
Positivism or the school of thought that says that science and
its method is the only valid way of knowing things.
• Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) – founding mother of sociology,
an English writer and reformist, she is also ethnographer.
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) – father of scientific socialism.
• Emile Durkheim (1858- 1917) – French sociologist.
Responsible for defending sociology as an
independent discipline from psychology.
• Max Weber (1864-1920) – German sociologist,
the pioneer of Interpretive sociology.
Weber learned that the greatest application of
scientific way of life is in bureaucracy.
Anthropology
as a scientific discipline originated from social
philosophy and travelogues of Western travelers.
the study of humankind everywhere, throughout time,
seeks to produce reliable knowledge about people and their
behavior, both about what makes them different and what
they all share in common (Haviland, 1999).
emerged as a distinct branch of scholarship around the
middle of the nineteenth century, when public interest in
human evolution took hold (Lanuza 2016, p 10).
• Franz Boas (1858-1942) – considered as the father
of modern American anthropology
Historical Particularism that each society is
considered as having a unique form of culture that
cannot be subsumed under an overall definition of
general culture.
• Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1884-1942) – an
anthropologist and ethnographer.
participant observation a method of social
science research that requires to have the ability to
participate and blend with the way of life of a given
group of people.
• Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881-
1955) - an English social anthropologist
who developed the theory of structural
functionalism.

Structural-functionalist paradigm,
the basic unit of analysis for anthropology
and social sciences are the social
structures and the functions they perform
to maintain the equilibrium of society.
Political Science
Is part of the social sciences that deals with the study of
politics, power and government.
politics the process of making collective decisions in a
community, society, or group through the application of influence
and power (Enthridge and Handelman 2010, p8)(cited in Lanuza
2016, p11).

Pluralism viewed as being composed of several competing

groups with different interests that generate conflicts.
 Social Sciences today have drastically changed
from being western oriented-centered to having a more
pluralistic orientation and being multicultural in nature
(Lanuza 2016,p 17).
Reference
• Henslin, James M. Essentials of Sociology: a down-to-Earth Approach.
Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2006.
• Haviland, William A. Cultural Anthropology: the Human Challenge.
Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 1996.
• Lanuza, Gerry M. & Raymundo, Sarah S. Understanding Culture,
Society, and Politics. Rex Book Store, 2016.

End of Lesson 1