This document discusses the colonial origins of social sciences and efforts to decolonize and indigenize them, using examples from the Philippines. It describes how early Western social sciences were complicit in colonial projects and imposed Eurocentric frameworks. It then outlines the development of Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology) from the 1960s onward, which challenged Western concepts and focused on indigenous cultural forms and experiences. The document discusses key figures who advocated for indigenization and describes some of Sikolohiyang Pilipino's strategies like participatory research methods. Finally, it notes ongoing efforts to reconstruct psychology in a way that is tailored to the local Filipino context and experience.

1. Colonial Origin
PMR

2. Colonial
Origins of
the Social
Sciences
• Simale and Kincheloe
• “The denigration of indigenous
knowledge cannot be separated
from the oppression of
indigenous people. Indeed,
modernist science, anthropology,
in particular, has been deployed as
a weapon against indigenous
people.”
• Eurocentrism

3. British Colonization

4. Colonial
Origins of
the Social
Sciences
• Social Darwinism, which
proclaimed the survival of the
fittest, was used to justify the
domination of native people
as well as the exploitation of
the underclass in industrial
societies. And these colonial
biases were also echoed in the
social science of that time.

5. Colonial Origins of the Social Sciences
• E. San Juan Jr. ( Toward a Decolonizing Indigenous Psychology…, 2006) provides a classic
example of American colonialism in the Philippines:
• Complicit with the invading military, US academics were appointed to implement
the systematic “tutelage” of the Filipino subject. One example is Dean Worcester,
professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, who wrote one of the
first sourcebooks of knowledge about the Philippines and its people. He
participated in the first Philippine Commission in 1899 on the basis of his expertise
in zoological specimens collected in the archipelago. As Secretary “barbaric”
practice of slavery and peonage of the Muslim, thus judging Filipinos unfit for
being recognized as people or a nation (p.51).

6. In the
Philippines
• After World War II –Philippine edication simply
perpetuated colonial knowledge
• Rebels: Filipino social scientists Virgilio Enriquez,
a psychologist; Zues Salazar, a historia; and
Prospero Covar, an anthropologist, advocated for
the indigenization of social sciences.
• Moreover Prospero Covar, a former UP Diliman
recalled that the clamor for indigenization was
done through Sikolohiya Pilipino (Filipino
Psychology) that manifested its beginnings in the
1960s.
• challenged the applicability of Western
concepts, theories, and research tools and
subsequently embarked upon researches
on Filipino concepts and indigenous
cultural forms

7. In the Philippines
• Sikolohiyang Pilipino (SP) is borne out of this move to indigenize social
sciences in the Philippines. Two leading exponents of SP, Narcisa Paredes-
Canilao and Maria Ana Babaran-Diaz, wrote: "Sikolohiyang Pilipino refers to
the psychology borne out of the experience, thought and orientation of
Filipinos, based on the full use of the Filipino culture and language"
• Book: Sikolohiyang Pilipino: 50 Years of Critical-Emancipatory Social
Science in the Philippines

8. In the Philippines
• According to these authors, "The idea is that the social sciences,
such as Western academic psychology, are very much a product of
the common sense concepts and lived daily realities of the white
male fathers of psychology, their respective communities, and
local histories."

9. In the Philippines
• Carolyn Sobritchea (2002) argued that the strategies
for collecting information as suggested by SP are
very useful for doing feminist ethnography in the
Philippine context such as pagmamasid
(observation), pakikiramdam (feeling your way
through), pakikilahok (participation), pagtatanong-
tanong (informal interview), pakikipagkuwentuhan
(informal conversation), and sama-samang talakayan
(focus group discussion)

10. In the Philippines
• Indigenization comes after decolonization.
Reconstructing Filipino psychology tailored-fit
to Filipino local experience can proceed in two
levels: from within and from without (Virgilio
Enriquez, Decolonizing the Filipino Psyche
1995)

11. Homework: Antonio de Marga and the Aetas

12. Globalization
• According to Gerald Delanty (2006), a British
sociologist, “The current action, or the social
sciences, "is characterized by post-disciplinary
developments and a plurality of theoretical and
methodological approaches" (p. xviii). "These
tendencies tend to undermine the venture of
grand theory that was part of the classical social
theory

13. Feminist Approach
• Henrietta L. Moore (2010) defines the feminist reorientation in
anthropology:
• Feminist anthropology is concerned with critically examining relations
between women and men, and investigating how gender, embodiment and
sexuality are produced through complex relays of power involving ideologies
and social institutions. Its focus of analysis has shifted over time, moving
from an initial emphasis on women to a concern with gender relations, issues
of difference and identity, and sexuality and heteronormativity (strict
distinction between male and female sexes]

15. Feminist Approach
• Feminist approaches in social sciences question the gender biases inherent in
traditional social sciences.
• Male-steaming (mainstreaming) disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and
political science
• Androcentric orientation - the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing a
masculine point of view at the center of one's world view, culture, and
history, thereby culturally marginalizing femininity.

16. Culture
Characteristics and Functions

17. Culture
• Culture is the way of life
• Explicit culture – refers to the similarities in words and actions
which can be directly observed
• Example: how adolescents dress
• Implicit culture – exists in abstract forms which are not quite
obvious

18. Culture
• Culture is organic because it is ultimately rooted in the biological nature of
human organism.
• Essences of Culture
• Super-organic
• Integrated
• Pervasive

19. Culture
• Super-organic
• Claims that culture is an entity that
exists over and beyond the individuals
that make it up.
• Culture has a “life of its own” which is
symbolic rather than genetic. In this
way, it is a “living” thing.

20. Culture
• Integrated – Culture possesses an order and system
• Its integrity makes it pervasive and is manifested in two
ways:
• One, culture provides an unquestionable context in which
individual action and response take place
• Two, culture pervades social activities and institutions

21. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is social because
it is a product of
behavior.
• It does not exist in isolation
• It needs to have an
interaction
• They can be outgrown
• Culture varies from society
to society
• Each culture is unique and
varied
• It evolves with time
• Defying culture gives it life
• Man creates culture thru their
behavior

22. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is shared
• It is communicated through
language whether oral, written, or
symbolic
• It could be handed up or down
• Unequal sharing
• Ex. Catholicism
• Culture is learned
• Conscious and unconscious learning
• Examples:
• Relationships
• Jeeps
• Patterned behavior

23. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is transmitted
among members of society
• Does not required behavior
pattern spontaneously
• Handed up or handed down
• Language is the main vehicle of
transmission and serves as
bond of a group
• Culture s continuous and
cumulative
• Dr. Ralph Linton called culture
“the social heritage” of man
• Subcultures - a cultural group
within a larger culture, often having
beliefs or interests at variance with
those of the larger culture.
• Ex. Hippies, activists, goths

24. Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is gratifying and idealistic
• Provides an opportunity for our needs and satisfaction
• It embodies the ideas and norms of a group.

25. Function
• Culture defines situations
• Culture defines attitudes, goal, and values
• Represents status quo or conformity in society
• Culture defines myths, legends, and the
supernatural
• Culture provides behavior patters

26. Modes of
Acquiring
Culture
Imitation
Formal Teaching
Conditioning

27. Cite examples of how culture is transmitted in
the following scenarios:
• Father to child
• Mother to child
• Teenager to teenager
• Teenager to parents

28. References
• San Juan, E., Jr. 2006. Toward a decolonizing indigenous psychology in the Philippines: Introducing
sikolohiyang Pilipino. Journal for Cultural Research 10 (1): 47–67.
• Morre, Henrietta, 2010. Feminist anthropology. In The Routledge encyclopedia of social and cultural
anthropology, 284-287. 2nd ed. Eds. Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer London: Routledge.
• ----.2013. Feminism and anthropology. Oxford: Polity.
• Semali, L. and J. Kincheloe. 1999. What is indigenous knowledge? Voices from the academy. New
York: Falmer Press.