I.

Introduction

• Anthropology Defined
• Scope and Disciplines of Anthropology
• Methods Used in the Study of Anthropology
• Values of Anthropology

At the end of the lesson, the student must be able to:

• define Anthropology in his/own words
• enumerate and differentiate among the various branches of Anthropology
• differentiate the various methods used in the study of anthropology
• discuss, verify and integrate the value of studying Anthropology

I Introduction
Anthropology Defined
Anthropology comes from the Greek words anthropos meaning man/ humankind, and
logia meaning “the study of.” Anthropology can be defined therefore, as the systematic
study of man.

The study of Anthropology aims to, among all others:

1. understand the uniqueness and diversity of human behavior and human
societies around the world;
2. discover the fundamental similarities that link human beings the world
over, both in the past and present.

Anthropology is primarily interested in answering the questions:

 when, where and why humans have appeared here on earth;
 how and why they have changed since then;
 how and why modern populations vary in certain physical features;
 how and why societies in the past and present have varied in their
customary ideas and practices.

The Scope of Anthropology

Anthropology seeks to explain humanity. It does this through its observations of all
varieties of people throughout the world, not only those close at hand or within limited
areas. Anthropology is concerned with peoples of both past and present. Further, the
discipline seeks to explain the interplay of biology and culture in the personalities of the
various peoples it studies.

The Holistic Approach

Anthropology makes use of what is known as the holistic approach in the study of
people and their culture. I is multifaceted in its approach to the study of humans. It studies
not only one but a variety of aspects of a particular culture. Anthropology, for instance,
would not be simply interested in the physical or biological characteristics of a group of
people, but also in the influence of environment to such characteristics. Like all the other
social sciences, anthropology is interested in man, but it stands apart from the rest because
it combines four sub disciplines that bridge the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the
humanities.

The Disciplines of Anthropology

There are four major fields in anthropology:
 o Physical (biological) anthropology
o Cultural anthropology (Ethnology)
o Linguistic Anthropology
o Archaeology

Physical anthropologists are basically concerned with the evolution of man and its
relations. They study fossils (hardened remains of organisms) and attempt to find out how
and why humans vary biologically. A specialized field of this major branch studies human
beings living in diverse cultures and examines the role of culture in the evolution of the
species. Another field concentrates on the similarities and differences between human
beings and other primates. Sub fields of Physical Anthropology would include:
a. biological anthropology
b. forensic anthropology
c. paleoanthropology
d. human anatomy
e. human taxonomy
f. paleopathology
g. primatology
h. ethology
i. population genetics
j. human ecology

Archaeologists work with tools such as spade or shovel, a tape measure, and possibly
other modern equipment as they attempt to reconstruct the cultural forms of the past
and to trace their growth and development in time. As such, archaeologists share the
same objectives as historians. The difference lies in the fact that history depends so
much on written documents, which cover only the last 5,00o years of human existence,
and only those cultures that possessed writing. Hence, archaeology would be more
helpful in obtaining data regarding periods that existed even before writing was
invented. Archaeology is not merely about digging artifacts (material remains of past
civilizations). A piece of charcoal may yield a date by tree ring or by carbon 14 analysis;
but the date is meaningless unless it can be shown that charcoal is a product of human
activity and is related to other evidences of human presence.
Arrangement of stones may tell something about the construction of the house; burial
sites and the manner by which bones were found in these sites may indicate status of
the dead in society during their lifetime; locations of settlement may yield information
regarding neighbors and other human relations. Archaeology is further divided into
various sub disciplines:
a. prehistoric archaeology
b. historical archaeology
c. classical archaeology
d. demographic archaeology
e. biblical archaeology
f. maritime archaeology
g. underwater archaeology
h. urban archaeology
i. ethnoarchaeology
j. industrial archaeology
k. cognitive archaeology
l. cultural resource management

Linguistic Anthropology deals with the study of the relationship between language
and culture. Language is a part, a very important part, of culture. The study of language
requires highly specialized techniques for recoding, description, and comparison of
languages. Linguists are also interested in the origins, development, and structure of
language, and its relationship to other aspects of culture, including ways in which language
spoken by a group of people is related to their status or social position. This sub discipline is
further divided into:
a. structural linguistics
b. historical linguistics
c. phonology
d. morphology
e. comparative syntax
f. ethnosemantics
g. cognitive linguistics
h. pragmatics
i. sociolinguistics

Cultural anthropology, which this particular course is focused on, deals primarily with
variations in cultural patterns of societies the world over. Because human beings always
possess culture and always live in societies, there is a broad sense in which all of
anthropology can be considered to be cultural anthropology. These group of anthropologists
are interested in the description and comparison of all human cultures, and they search out
and describe diverse cultures wherever they may be found. The goals of anthropology have
always been to describe the entire range of human behavior and to develop explanations of
similarities and differences among cultures. Cultural anthropology, also known as Ethnology,
is further classified into:
a. ecological anthropology
b. demography anthropology
c. economic anthropology
d. political anthropology
e. legal anthropology
f. anthropology of religion
g. medical anthropology
h. urban anthropology
i. applied anthropology
j. ethnomusicology
k. anthropology of art
l. ethnopoetics

Methods Used in The Study of Anthropology

There are two ways by which anthropologists study cultures: ethnographic method
and archaeological method.
Ethnography refers to the study of cultures of living peoples. This involves direct or
indirect observation of a people’s behavior which will serve as raw data in relation to the
topic being considered. This method therefore requires that the anthropologist live among
the people whose culture he wishes to investigate. The basic equipment of an ethnographer
is a pen and a notebook, and nowadays, as made possible by advances in technology, a
camcorder and/or a tape recorder. This particular method requires careful planning and
preparation on the part of those who will conduct the study, not to mention and adequate
knowledge in the field of anthropology.
The major goal of archaeology is to reconstruct lifeways or cultures of the past as
fully as possible. Although archaeologists cannot deal directly with human behavior, it is
assumed that all evidences of former human presence are the product of human behavior
and that the actual behavior can be inferred from a general knowledge of the nature of
humanity. In trying to understand how and why ways of life have changed through time in
different parts of the world, the archaeological method makes use of collecting materials
from sites of human occupation.

Values of Anthropological Research (or why study Anthropology)

The study of Anthropology, especially to students like you, is significant for various
reasons:

1. Anthropology contributes to a general liberal arts education which helps students

develop intellectually, personally, and professionally.

2. Exposure to cultures and lifestyles of unfamiliar societies would enable the students
to adopt a more critical and analytical stance towards conditions in their own society.
Critical skills enhance the reasoning abilities of
students wherever life takes them.

3. Anthropology creates an expanding global awareness and an appreciation for

cultures other than our won. Further, it promotes a cross-cultural perspective that
allows us to see ourselves as part of one family in the midst of diversity.

4. Viewing life from the anthropological perspective, students will also gain a greater
understanding of their personal lives in the context of a long period of human
evolution and development.

FOR YOUR ADDED INFORMATION – Locating Man’s Place in the Animal Kingdom

The Evolution of Man

Undisputed bipedal hominids lived in east Africa about 4 million years ago. These
hominids, and some others who lived later in east and South Africa, are generally classified
in the genus Australopithecus. Some African hominids that are nearly 2.5 million years old
are classified in our own genus, Homo.

Common Primate Traits

Physical Traits

• Except for humans, primates’ bodies are usually covered with hair for insulation

• They are more or less constantly warm-blooded (that is their body temperature is
usually higher than that of the air around them.

• They give birth to live young.

• They have long periods of gestation (or the length of time the young spends in its
mother’s womb).

Similar traits can be found in many non-primates. However the combination of traits found
in the primates distinguishes them from other animals.

• They (primates) are usually arboreal (tree-dwelling) and have dexterous hands,
opposable thumbs and prehensile hands and toes.

• They have omnivorous diet. Evidence of this is the primate’s dentition – the number,
form and arrangement of teeth. Teeth perform different functions: anterior (front)
 teeth are used for cutting, tearing and biting food; posterior (back) teeth are used for
crushing and grinding food.

• They have stereoscopic vision – eyes are directed forward, rather than sideways.
Evolution of primate eyes made them sensitive to different wavelengths of light and
produce color vision in most primates.

• They have larger brains relative to body size.

• They have more complex reproductive systems – most males have pendulous penis,
most females have two nipples on the chest, and their uterus is designed to carry
only one to two fetuses.

Social Traits

• Primates are almost always diurnal – that is they are active during the day.

• They have longer childhood dependency (with humans having the longest
dependency period among the primates).

• They employ play and imitation in learning. For the most part, their behavior is
learned (social) rather than instinctive, especially in the case of humans.

Primate Classification

Aristotle was the first one to attempt to classify animals according to their anatomical
characteristics. But it was the Swedish scientist, Carl Von Linnace (Karolus Linnaeus) who
perfected a system of Latin names to categorize plants and animals based on their
similarities. This is called Taxonomy.

The science of taxonomy showed that not only do we share similar features with
members of the order Primata, we are also very closely related to them.

Most biologists and primatologists assert that there is almost a 99% similarity in the
DNA structures of humans and apes. The diagram presented below shows us how much
truth there is to this assertion.

Primate Subdivision

Prosimians Anthropoids
(lemurs, lorises, tarsiers)

Platyrrhini Catarrhini
(New World Monkeys) (Old World Monkeys)

Cercopithecoida Hominoidae
Monkeys apes & humans

Pongids Hylobates
Hominids
 Great apes Lesser apes
Human
Orangutan gibbons
Chimpanzees siamangs
Gorilla

In as much as we are, relatively speaking, similar other members of the primate order,
human have qualities uniquely their own. Enumerated below are traits which are
distinctively human:

Physical Traits

• Bipedalism (the ability to walk upright)

• Larger brain capacity compared with other primates
• More or less complex brain structure
• More or less continuous female sexuality
• Prominent foreheads
• Less specialized teeth
• Relatively hairless

Behavioral Traits
• Greater proportion of human behavior is learned and culturally patterned.
• Only humans can use tools to create other tools.
• We have the capacity for complex forms of language.
• We are capable of imaginative social interactions.
• We are, for the most part, terrestrial.
• We have longer dependency periods than most primates.
• We are the only species which employs gender division by sex.

Pictures: “March of Progress” from F. Clark Howell’s Early Man

Pliopithecus - Proconsul - Dryopithecus – Oreopithecus Ramapithecus – A. africanus –

A. robustus – A. boisei –
(A. for Australopithecus)

Homo habilis - Homo erectus - Early Homo sapiens Neanderthal Man - Cro-
Magnon Man - Modern Man

II. The Nature Of Culture

• Definitions
• Characteristics/Assumptions
• Elements/Categories
• Theories on the practice of culture
• Functions of Culture

At the end of the lesson, the student must be able to:

• Discuss/elaborate the definition of culture
• Discuss/explain/relate the assumptions of culture
• Describe/ react on the theories explaining Culture
• Enumerate and give examples of culture categories and elements
• Discuss the functions of culture

Culture Defined

The search for explanation of humanity is in large part a search for explanations of
human culture, for it is culture that sets human beings apart from all other animal species.
This is not to say that animals have no culture to speak of; they do. Only that individual
animal species do not generally exhibit the diversity of behavior that characterizes
humanity. Animal behavior, most often showing great uniformity, can be generally
explained in terms of biology. The human specie, on the other hand, manifests a high
degree of biological uniformity and a high degree of behavioral variation at the same time,
made possible by what is known as culture. Cultural anthropology seeks not just an
explanation of humanity, for there cannot be an explanation of humanity without an
explanation of culture. This particular discipline seeks answers to questions like:
 What is the nature of culture?
 How do cultures affect the personalities of individuals contained within them?
 How does culture influence those forces of selection and reproduction which
affect human biological evolution?
 What directions is cultural evolution taking?
 How do cultures moderate the relationships between human beings and the
natural environment?

Culture is derived form the Latin word “cultura”, or “cultus” which means care or
cultivation. The fact that a human infant has prolonged dependency, he/she has to be taken
cared of by the people around him/her. He/She has to learn from them so he/she can better
adjust as he/she grows up in his/her immediate cultural environment. Since he/she has the
established ways of doing things adjustment will not be too difficult for him/her. Since
culture provides him/her with “proved” ways for his/her own survival and well-being,
meeting his/her own needs like food, safety, shelter, clothing, even relaxation, comes out
handily for him/her. Otherwise, life could be hard for him/her.

Culture as cultivation implies that every human being is a potential member of

his/her own social group. He/she is endowed with certain innate qualities like his/her own
social group. He/She is endowed with certain qualities like intelligence, creativity, and
resourcefulness. However, he/she cannot develop these inborn talents by himself/herself
alone. He/she needs other people who can provide him/her with the needed opportunities so
he/she can translate these potentialities into realities called achievements, therefore helping
him/her achieve self-actualization and making him/her a fully-functioning and contributing
member of his/her society.

The famous anthropologist, Edward Burnett Tylor, has defined culture as a study of
science as:

that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts,

laws, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as member of society (1871).

Although this definition would seem comprehensive in making us understand the

concept of culture, modern anthropology came up with recent modifications to the given
definition. For example, man would now be referred to as humankind. Also anthropologists
would prefer the broader definition of culture as a shared way of life that includes values,
beliefs, and norms transmitted within a particular society from generation to generation. The
term society here is differentiated from that of the one used by Tylor. In general, the term
society refers to a particular group of animals within a specific territory. In particular, it
refers to the patterns of relationships among the animals within this definite territory.

In the past, anthropologists would make a simple distinction between culture and
society. Society was said to consist of the patterns of relationship among people within a
specified territory and culture was viewed as a by-product of these relationships. However,
this view was derived primarily from ethnographic studies conducted in small-scale
societies. Nowadays, societies are more complex and consist of distinctive groups that
manifest different cultural traditions. Thus, this simple distinction between society and
culture is too artificial for modern anthropologists. The combination of the hybrid term
society (socio and culture – socio-cultural – was adopted by anthropologists to refer to what
used to be called society and culture. Socio-cultural system is now used as the basic
conceptual framework in analyzing ethnographic research.

Layers of Culture
There are very likely three layers or levels of culture that are part of your learned
behavior patterns and perceptions. Most obviously is the body of cultural traditions that
distinguish your specific society. When people speak of Italian, Samoan, or Japanese
culture, they are referring to the shared language, traditions, and beliefs that set each of
these peoples apart from others. In most cases, those who share your culture do so
because they acquired it as they were raised by parents and other family members who
have it.

The second layer of culture that may be part of your identity is a subculture. In
complex, diverse societies in which people have come from many different parts of the
world, they often retain much of their original cultural traditions. As a result, they are likely
to be part of an identifiable subculture in their new society. The shared cultural traits of
subcultures set them apart from the rest of their society. Examples of easily identifiable
subcultures in the United States include ethnic groups such as Vietnamese Americans,
African Americans, and Mexican Americans. Members of each of these subcultures share a
common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come
from their common ancestral background and experience. As the cultural differences
between members of a subculture and the dominant national culture blur and eventually
disappear, the subculture ceases to exist except as a group of people who claim a common
ancestry. That is generally the case with German Americans and Irish Americans in the
United States today. Most of them identify themselves as Americans first. They also see
themselves as being part of the cultural mainstream of the nation.

The third layer of culture consists of cultural universals. These are learned
behavior patterns that are shared by all of humanity collectively. No matter where people
live in the world, they share these universal traits. Examples of such "human cultural" traits
include:
1. communicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited
set of sounds and grammatical rules for constructing sentences
2. using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior
citizen, woman, man)
3. classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships
and having kinship terms to refer to
them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin)
4. raising children in some sort of family setting
5. having a sexual division of labor (e.g., men's work versus
 women's work)
6. having a concept of privacy
7. having rules to regulate sexual behavior
8. distinguishing between good and bad behavior
9. having some sort of body ornamentation
10 making jokes and playing games
.
11 having art
.
12 having some sort of leadership roles for the implementation of
. community decisions

While all cultures have these and possibly many other universal traits, different cultures
have developed their own specific ways of carrying out or expressing them. For instance,
people in deaf subcultures frequently use their hands to communicate with sign language
instead of verbal language. However, sign languages have grammatical rules just as verbal
ones do.

Assumptions of Culture

1. Culture is learned. It is learned by each individual as a result of his/her experiences

after birth. Definitely it is not innate or instinctive, or acquired through the biological
phenomenon known as heredity. The unique capacity for culture in the human beings
depends on learning. The process whereby we learn and acquire culture through
social interaction is called enculturation. Culture might be acquired consciously,
through formal learning, as for example when we are taught in school how to use
eating utensils properly or crossing the street using the pedestrian lane. Culture can
be acquired unconsciously, through informal interactions, as when one learns how to
smoke or comb one’s hair.

2. Culture is shared. To some degree, culture is based on shared practices and

understanding that are to some extent “public” and thus beyond the mind of any
individual. These publicly shared meanings provide designs or recipes for surviving
and contributing harmony to the society. While it is acknowledged that to some
extent culture varies from person to person, subgroup-to-subgroup, gender-to-
gender, age_group-to-age_group, common cultural understandings allow members of
a society to adapt, communicate, and to interact with one another. The Filipinos are
known to be magiliw sa pagtanggap ng maga bisita (hospitable) because anywhere
from Aparri to Jolo, it seems that it is not the Filipino’s mien to turn guests away,
especially if the person is a stranger to that place. When guests sleep over for the
night, we witness this as the best blankets and pillows are taken out of the cabinets
(where they have been kept for what seems to be a lifetime) for the guests to use.

3. Culture is a social product. A culture emerges when a group of individuals when a set
of individuals comes together to form a group and consciously or unconsciously make
decisions affecting some sort of common enterprise. While culture is most visible as
the characteristic behaviors of some particular group of people, it also exists in the
form of ideas, plans and common understandings that are acknowledged by
membership. Think of the practice of the Filipino penitents to imitate the pasyon ng
Panginoong Hesus up to pagpapapako Niya sa krus. These are products of the social
experience.
 4. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation. Certain traditions have
withstood the test of time because they are kept alive by continuous observance of a
group of people. Consider for example, the pagmamano sa matatanda now slowly
being replaced by either kissing on the forehead or just the cheeks.

5. Culture is varied. Nowhere is this particular characteristic of culture best manifested

than when observing the various eating patterns around the world: Chinese eat with
chopsticks; Filipinos and other peoples of Asia eat with spoon and fork or with their
bare hands; the French and the British elite use different kinds of spoon depending
on the type of food they are served; and the Polynesian custom of reserving certain
special utensils when eating human flesh. Consider also the type of food people eat
(cacording to Baliao and Loriega in Society and Culture):

Americans eat oysters but not snails. The French eat snails but
not locusts. The Zulus eat locusts but not fish. The Jews eat
fish but not pork. The Hindus eat pork but not beef. The Russians
eat beef but not snakes. The Chinese eat snakes but not people.
The Jale of New Guinea find people delicious.

6. Culture is generally adaptive. Culture is adaptive only with respect to a specific

physical and social environment. What may be adaptive in one environment may not
be adaptive in another. When we ask why a society may have a particular custom,
we are really asking if that custom makes sense as adaptation to that society’s
particular environmental conditions. The Filipinos are often criticized with regards to
our custom of taking a siesta. But in a tropical country such as ours, when the heat of
the suns rays is at its most intense around noon time, this practice has served to be
highly adaptive-it gives us the opportunity to renew our energies so we may work
effectively again.

7. Culture is integrated. It shows mutual adjustments among its elements, a unit of

beliefs and practices, without major conflicts and inconsistencies. Think, for example,
of how the Filipinos welcomed with open arms the advent of the cell phone, such that
to almost everyone we know and meet, from the so-called yuppies to the jeepney
drivers, from the highest official of an institution to students as young as grade 3, the
cell phone has become the single most important accessory. The Philippines has
even been touted to have the most number of texters in the world. Why is this so?
We can only theorize that our fondness for beso-beso, our propensity to be
gregarious, our tendency to maintain ties, is the foremost reason for this
phenomenon. We like to get in touch, and what better and surer way than to use a
cell phone?

Other Important Features of Culture

Cultures Change

All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate. At the same time that new
cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful. For
example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a
wilderness. Most would very likely starve to death because they do not know how to acquire
wild foods and survive the extremes of weather outdoors. What is more important in
modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a computer, and
understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant.

The regular addition and subtraction of cultural traits results in culture change. All
cultures change over time--none is static. However, the rate of change and the aspects
of culture that change varies from society to society. For instance, people in Germany today
generally seem eager to adopt new words from other languages, especially from American
English, while many French people are resistant to it because of the threat of "corrupting"
their own language. However, the French are just as eager as the Germans to adopt new
technology.

Change can occur as a result of both invention within a society as well as the
diffusion of cultural traits from one society to another. Predicting whether a society will
adopt new cultural traits or abandon others is complicated by the fact that the various
aspects of a culture are closely interwoven into a complex pattern. Changing one
trait will have an impact on other traits because they are functionally interconnected. As a
result, there commonly is a resistance to major changes. For example, many men in North
America and Europe resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for women
over the last century because of the far ranging consequences. It inevitably changed the
nature of marriage, the family, and the lives of all men. It also significantly altered the
workplace as well as the legal system and the decisions made by governments.

People Usually are not Aware of Their Culture

The way that we interact and do things in our everyday lives seems "natural" to us.
We are unaware of our culture because we are so close to it and know it so well. For most
people, it is as if their learned behavior was biologically inherited. It is usually only when
they come into contact with people from another culture that they become aware that their
patterns of behavior are not universal.

The common response in all societies to other cultures is to judge them in terms of
the values and customs of their own familiar culture. This is ethnocentrism. Being fond of
your own way of life and condescending or even hostile toward other cultures is normal for
all people. Alien culture traits are often viewed as being not just different but inferior, less
sensible, and even "unnatural." For example, European cultures strongly condemn other
societies that practice polygamy and the eating of dogs--behavior that Europeans generally
consider to be immoral and offensive. Likewise, conservative Moslem societies, such as
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, consider European women highly immodest and immoral for
going out in public without being chaperoned by a male relative and without their bodies
covered from head to toe so as to prevent men from looking at them. Ethnocentrism is not
characteristic only of complex modern societies. People in small, relatively isolated societies
are also ethnocentric in their views about outsiders.

Our ethnocentrism can prevent us from understanding and appreciating another

culture. When anthropologists study other societies, they need to suspend their own
ethnocentric judgments and adopt a cultural relativity approach. That is, they try to
learn about and interpret the various aspects of the culture they are studying in reference to
that culture rather than to the anthropologist's own culture. This provides an understanding
of how such practices as polygamy can function and even support other cultural traditions.
Without taking a cultural relativity approach, it would otherwise be difficult, for example, to
comprehend why women among the Masai cattle herding people of Kenya might prefer to
be one of several co-wives rather than have a monogamous marriage.
 Taking a cultural relativity approach is not only useful for anthropologists. It is a very
useful tool for diplomats, businessmen, doctors, and any one else who needs to interact with
people from other societies and even other subcultures within their own society. However, it
can be emotionally difficult and uncomfortable at first to suspend one's own cultural values
in these situations.

From an objective perspective, it can be seen that ethnocentrism has both positive
and negative values for a society. The negative potential is obvious. Ethnocentrism results
in prejudices about people from other cultures and the rejection of their "alien ways." When
there is contact with people from other cultures, ethnocentrism can prevent open
communication and result in misunderstanding and mistrust. This would be highly
counterproductive for businessmen trying to negotiate a trade deal or even just neighbors
trying to get along with each other. The positive aspect of ethnocentrism has to do with the
protection that it can provide for a culture. By causing a rejection of the foods, customs,
and perceptions of people in other cultures, it acts as a conservative force in preserving
traditions of one's own culture. It can help maintain the separation and uniqueness of
cultures.

We Do Not Know All of Our Own Culture

No one knows everything about his or her own culture. In all societies, there are
bodies of specialized cultural knowledge that are gender specific--they are known to men
but not women or vice versa. In many societies there are also bodies of knowledge that are
limited largely to particular social classes, occupations, religious groups, or other special
purpose associations.

Gender based skills, knowledge, and perceptions largely stem from the fact that boys
and girls to some extent are treated differently from each other in all societies. While there
may be considerable overlap in what they are taught, there are some things that are gender
specific. In the Western World, for instance, it is more common to teach boys about the
skills of combat and how machines work. Girls are more often exposed to the subtleties of
social interaction and the use of clothing and makeup to communicate intentions. Not
surprisingly, men are more likely to know how to fix their car or computer, while women
generally are better at predicting the outcome of social interaction and make finer
distinctions in fabric and color terms.

Culture Gives Us a Range of Permissible Behavior Patterns

Cultures commonly allow a range of ways in which men can be men and women can
be women. Culture also tells us how different activities should be conducted, such as how
one should act as a husband, wife, parent, child, etc. These rules of permissible behavior
are usually flexible to a degree--there are some alternatives rather than hard rules. In North
America, for instance, culture tells us how we should dress based on our gender, but it
allows us to dress in different ways in different situations in order to communicate varied
messages and statuses. The clothing patterns of women in this society can be particularly
rich and complex. Their clothing can be intentionally business-like, recreational, as well as
sexually attractive, ambiguous, neutral, or even repulsive. North American women are
generally more knowledgeable than men about the subtleties of using clothing and other
adornment to communicate their intentions. The wide range of permissible ways of being a
woman in North America today makes women somewhat unpredictable as individuals when
others are trying to understand their intentions but do not fully comprehend the cultural
patterns. It is particularly hard for men from other cultures to comprehend the subtle
nuances. This at times can result in awkward or even dangerous situations. For instance,
the easy friendliness and casual, somewhat revealing dress of young North American women
in the summertime is sometimes interpreted by traditional Latin American and Middle
Eastern men as a sexual invitation. What messages do the clothes and body language of
the women in the pictures below communicate to you? How do you think they might be
interpreted by members of the opposite gender and by people in other cultures? Do you
think that the age of the observer might play a part in their interpretation?

The range of permissible ways of dressing and acting as a man or woman are often
very limited in strictly fundamental Moslem, Jewish, Christian, and Hindu societies. In
Afghanistan under the Taliban rule during the late 1990's, men were expected to wear
traditional male clothing and were beaten or jailed by morality police for not having a full
beard, playing or listening to music, or allowing female family members to go out in public
unchaperoned. Women were similarly punished for being in public without wearing a plain
loose outer gown that covered their face and entire body including their feet. They also
were not allowed to go to school or to work outside of the home. To the surprise of
Europeans and North Americans, many of these conservative cultural patterns did not
disappear with the end of Taliban control. They are deeply ingrained in the Islamic tradition
of Afghanistan and in the more conservative nations of the Middle East.

Cultures No Longer Exist in Isolation

It is highly unlikely that there are any societies still existing in total isolation from the
outside world. Even small, out of the way tribal societies are now being integrated to some
extent into the global economy. That was not the case a few short generations ago. Some
of the societies in the Highlands of New Guinea were unaware of anyone beyond their
homeland until the arrival of European Australian miners in the 1930's. A few of the Indian
tribes in the Upper Amazon Basin of South America remained unaware of the outside world
until explorers entered their territories in the 1950's and 1960's. Members of these same
New Guinean and Amazonian societies today buy clothes and household items produced by
multinational corporations. They are developing a growing knowledge of other cultures
through schools, radios, and even televisions and the Internet. As a result of this inevitable
process, their languages and indigenous cultural patterns are being rapidly replaced.
Virtually all societies are now acquiring cultural traits from the economically dominant
societies of the world. The most influential of these dominant societies today are
predominantly in North America and Western Europe. However, even these societies are
rapidly adopting words, foods, and other cultural traits from all over the world.

The emergence of what is essentially a shared global culture is not likely to result in
the current major cultures disappearing in the immediate future the same way many of the
small indigenous ones have. Language differences and ethnocentrism will very likely
prevent that from happening. There are powerful conflicting trends in the world today. At
the same time that many people are actively embracing globalism, others are reviving
tribalism. The break-up of the former empire of the Soviet Union into largely ethnic based
nations is an example of the latter. Likewise, some of the nations in Africa whose
boundaries were arbitrarily created by Europeans during the colonial era are now
experiencing periodic tribal wars that may result in the creation of more ethnically based
countries.

Categories of Culture

The various elements of culture fall into two categories: material or non material.
Material culture consists of all the physical objects made by people, from kites to jets, from
paper boats to ships, from stone clubs to the nuclear missiles – practically everything which
are products of man’s ingenuity and creativity.
Non-material culture, on the other hand, are aspects of culture that have no physical
existence. These would include elements of culture such as language, ideas, knowledge and
behaviors.

Elements of Culture

Customs – long established practices considered as unwritten laws to a particular place

or class. Fiestas, observance of the Holy Week, celebrating the birth of Christ, making
sure that the dead be given a proper wake, are all part of the Filipino’s customs.

Beliefs – shared ideas about what is right or wrong. Of these, the Filipinos have plenty,
especially when a woman is conceiving. To ensure that the child comes out healthy and
“normal”, the mother must:
o only look at beautiful pictures and throw away the ugly ones;
o never make any unkind remarks as to the deformity of one person or the gods
will punish her and give her child that person’s deformity;
o must avoid eating “dinuguan” or duhat, or she will have a black child;
o must not sit under a stair or a doorway;
o must not attend a wake;
o must not look at a full moon or her child might develop a big ugly mark on
his/her face;

…………. and the list is endless.

Values – a people’s ideas of what is right or wrong. Among the Filipinos, we value hospitality,
pakikisama, pakikipagpalagayang- loob, pagka maka- pamilya, which are all positive values.
But we also have values, like for instance, ningas-kugon, bahala na, mañaña habit, bata-
bata system, which are considered to be hindrances to the progress of our country.

Norms – rules about what people should or should not do or say in a given situation. There
are three kinds of norms:

a) Folkways – ordinary usages and conventions of everyday life (Example, use the
spoon with your right hand, the fork with your left; brush your teeth; don’t pick
noses in public; wear a matching pair of shoes). Those who do not conform to
folkways may be considered eccentric, or even weird, but they are not considered
immoral or depraved.

b) Mores – (mor –ays) strong norms that have moral tones. Violations of mores
are considered a very serious matter. Someone walking down the streets without
his shirt on is violating a folkway, but a person who has nothing covering his body
as he saunters on the road is infringing upon one of the most important mores of
ours – that people cover our private parts in public. In America, a woman may
wear a bikini in the likeness of the American flag but do that here in the
Philippines with our flag and that is pure and simple desecration. While the
Swedish flaunt their sexual liberation, pre- marital sex is definitely a no-no in our
country, not to mention getting pregnant out of marriage. Because mores are
believed to be crucial for the maintenance of an orderly a society with morally
upright citizens, violations of such are often punishable through criticisms, gossip,
or ostracism.
 c) Law – a rule that has been formally enacted by a political authority and is
backed by the power of the state. Sometimes, some mores were practiced quite
so often enough which proved to be successful in maintaining peace and order in
a society that they were made into laws. The Code of Kalantiao and he Code of
Sumakwel are believed to be the first laws. Violations of laws result into formal
sanctions or punishments, such as paying fines for jaywalking, up to being jailed
for a number of years or even a lifetime for robbery, kidnapping or drug
trafficking.

Language – perhaps the most crucial element of culture as traditions and practices cannot
be passed on without language. This refers to a shared set of spoken or written symbols and
rules for combining those symbols in meaningful ways. This shall be discussed in detail in
the topic Language and Culture.

Symbols – objects that can express or evoke meaning, which are often arbitrary in nature.
Many physical objects have acquired meaning and are used for symbolic rather than
instrumental purposes. The kind of meaning though will depend on the context within which
it operates. For example, a pen might be something ordinary to foreigners but if it was the
one used by Jose Rizal in writing Noli Me Tangere, it has an altogether different meaning to
the Filipino. Thus for a Filipino, the cross losses it religious significance if used by Madonna
as an accessory while singing a Material Girl.

The cross has different meanings depending on who wears them, or in tha case of the last
picture, who is crucified on it. (From left to right: a Nazi cross and a Scientology cross; a
Roman Catholic cross, and singer Madonna’s version of the cross, a part of an opening
number in one of her concerts, which earned her the ire of the Roman Catholic Church.)

Taboo – from the Malayo-Polynesian word taboo, which means forbidden, taboo is a powerful
social belief that some specific act is utterly loathsome. Until recently, the Inuits (Eskimos)
have this practice of leaving their old members in a far-off place to die, as they are deem to
be not anymore fully-functioning members of the society. The old people know this, and
they expect this. There are no hurt feelings. In the Philippines, this is a taboo. To leave your
parents to die in some place would be to ask for a punishment from the gods themselves.

Other Important Concepts Related to Culture

Ethnocentrism – practice of judging another society by the values and standards of one’s
own society. Hindus in India would not dream of eating beef, not even if there is no food in
backyards and cows are just roaming their streets. In their culture, cows are sacred and may
not be slaughtered for food.

Relativism – the view that cultural traditions must be understood as objectively as possible.
From this standpoint, this position involves suspending judgment and realizing that each
culture reflects a particular society’s adaptation to its environment. In the Filipino society,
the wives are given authority to dispense of the family money, even if it is the husband who
earns. The wife sits next to the husband during family meals, whether guests are present or
not. In Iran, the wife is relegated fully in the background when guests are present, especially
when they are all males. It might be difficult for us to understand why this is so, but
understanding the values and norms of another society is important for reasons of goodwill.

Ideal Culture vs Real Culture – ideal culture consists of what people say they should do,
whereas real culture refers to their actual behavior. In our society, we have several laws
which are passed but not strictly implemented; laws such as No jaywalking, No parking, No
loading, unloading. We don’t need careful research to prove that these laws are not
seriously obeyed. All we have to do is open our eyes and look around us. It seems that
people have a penchant for throwing their waste immediately under the sign Please don’t
throw your garbage here.

Functions of Culture
No society cam exist without culture which develops as an answer to the multifarious
problems of the individual and group living. These problems center on meeting the survival
needs of each member of the group. Through culture every person is provided with
established and time-tested ways by which these needs can be met like various means of
livelihood, medicative practices in curing diseases, making tools and implements for
personal and home use, defense strategies against enemies, and even the process of
reproduction. Hence, all human activities could survive only in the presence of culture.

Culture, as the central pre-requisite for the survival of any society, does specific
functions, namely:

Culture provides behavioral patterns.

A growing child need not rely on his/her instincts nor goes through cumbersome hit-
and-miss method of adapting himself/herself to his/her immediate environment. Unlike other
animals, he/she has a ready-made set of patterns awaiting him/her which he/she needs only
outlearn and follow. His/her group has so defined every situation he/she is in that facilitates
his/her adjustment.

Building of shelter- one of the many behavioral patterns developed by man to help
him survive in his environment.
(From left to right, an old Ivatan house in Abra, Philippines, and a traditional Inupiat
(Eskimo) igloo in Alaska.)

Culture maintains the biological functioning of the group.

A human being is a biological being for he/she needs material things like food,
shelter, clothing and medicine including of course the need to reproduce. With culture,
he/she is provided with certain built-in mechanism so he/she can ably survive. Specifically,
through the technology of his/her group, he/she is better directed to procure all that satisfy
his/her biological needs.

Culture gives meaning and direction to one’s existence.

Human beings are curious and inquisitive beings. They have a lot of questions that
need certain answers. The group they grew up with provides them with explanations of
certain inquiries such as origins, the nature of the universe, his/her role in that universe, and
even the uncertainty of life and death. Without these explanations, life becomes
meaningless and consequently makes humans ignorant of events around them.

Culture offers ready-made solutions to man’s material and immaterial problems.

In order to survive, humans have to cope with the complexities of life. They have to
adjust to their natural environment, their fellows, and must have the assurance of the
abundance of security, recognition, love, achievement and inner peace.

Culture develops man’s attitude and values and gives him a conscience.
 The Filipinos (and other East Asian countries)value too much close family ties,
damayan, bayanihan, and all types of relationship that promote group unity and cooperation
as opposed to the highly individualistic attitude of the Western people. This is
understandable because this is what our society has taught us to value. Whatever attitude
and value every Filipino develops for himself is always within the framework of his culture.
Filipino values such as (from left to right) bayanihan, paggalang sa matatanda, at
pagtitiwala sa Diyos not only helps us develop the right attitude, they also ensure that order
is maintained in our society.

Assignment:
Complete the table below:

Filipino Symbols Associated Values Beliefs

Practice with the Practice (2 (2 for each practice) (3 for each practice)
each, explain)
1.Kwares 1. cross – symbol of Faithfulness Do not take a bath on Good
ma sacrifice Family togetherness Friday.
2. Ash – symbol of man’s 2. Do
mortality not make noise during
Holy Week.
3. Mak
e sure you do not wound
yourself on Holy Friday or
it will no longer heal.
2.
3.
Number 1 is an example only. But you are not to use it as your own answer. 24 + 1 points
for a perfect score. Submit next meeting. Submit on ½ crosswise. Work in pairs.