The document defines culture and its key characteristics. It discusses the main elements of culture including beliefs, values, norms, sanctions, and material culture. It also examines the relationship between culture and society. Culture is learned, transmitted, shared, patterned, and adaptive. It is comprised of ideas, beliefs, values, norms, languages, and material objects. Societies are made up of social institutions that fulfill important functions. The document then focuses on analyzing Philippine culture and values, emphasizing the central role of family and concepts like utang na loob, pakikisama, and bahala na.

1. Culture:
 that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, customs and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of a society. (Edward Taylor, 1871)
 Functionalists define culture as the totality of meanings, values, customs, norms and symbols
relative to a society. It includes all creations, material and non-material achievements, the
inherited expectations, the past and present gains as a result of living together.
 A mental map which guides us in our relations to our surroundings and to other people. (Downs,
1971)
 Everything people have, think and do as members of a society.
Characteristics of Culture
 Culture is learned
 Culture is transmitted
 Culture is shared
 Culture is patterned and integrated
 Culture is adaptive and maladaptive
 Culture is compulsory
 Culture is essential for social life
Elements of Culture
 Beliefs:
 represent people’s convictions about the reality of things and are shared ideas about
how the world operates. They are the means by which people make sense of their
experiences, both personal and social. They are reflective of highly valued feelings
about the world by which people live.
 Values:
 indicate the moral imperatives and social conscience or social control internalized by
people of the society. They direct people on what should and should not be done, what
is good or bad, and what, why and how to choose.
 Norms and Sanctions:

2.  Norms: are shared rules or patterns of behavior in a particular culture that informs its
members what they should or should not do, in a given situation. They are considered
as “oughts” or “should” of the society.
 Sanctions: are socially imposed rewards and punishments. Rewards for those who
behave properly and punishment for those who behave otherwise.
Kinds of Norms
 Folkways:
 are the habits, customs and repetitive patterns of expected behavior
and tend to be self-perpetuating. Some evolved into the present form
out of slow but continuous process of trial and experimentations. Some
are rational, others are irrational. Folkways include rules of eating,
sleeping, dressing, cooking, studying, working and modes of greetings
and farewell.
 Mores:
 are strongly held norms, which are essential to the welfare of the
people and their cherished values. They have moral or ethical values,
and thus going against them is offensive to the standards of
righteousness and right behavior. They consist in large part of taboos,
acts that are prohibited or forbidden. Incest, child abuse, battering
wives, and prostitution are examples.
 Laws:
 are formalized norms formulated by a governing body. Some mores are
enacted into laws and enforced by political and legal authorities.
Elements of Culture
 Material Culture:
 refers to the physical, tangible, and concrete objects produced by people. Behind the
artifacts or material objects is the pattern of culture that came from the ideas of the
artifact, its use and function and the techniques of using or applying it. Material culture
determines the physical options and opportunities of the society like the kind of foods
eaten, the kind of clothes worn, the kind of houses lived, or the settling of the
community in which one lives.

3.  Technology:
 refers to the techniques and knowledge in utilizing raw materials to produce food, tools,
clothing, shelter and means of transportation and weapons.
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Society
 Concepts of society and culture are the “building blocks” of understanding and analyzing
everyday life.
 Society refers to the totality of social organizations (ex. Corporations, schools, hospitals, and
religious groups that share a common habitat or a territorially defined place and depend on
each other for survival.
 Within the society are local networks or small groups characterized by a sense of belonging,
intimacy and affection.
 Society has both structure and function:
 Social Structure – refers to patterns of relationships between units of a specified whole.
(people’s behavior and their interrelation with one another)
 Function - refers to the purpose and effects, as well as the intended and actual
consequences of particular beliefs and actions.
With in the society there exist organized systems of social norms, beliefs, values and material culture
formed around the social needs of people. These are known as Social Institutions.
 Types (4):
1. Those that deal with the economy and property relations. (ex. Farms, banks, and
markets)
2. Those concerned with social control. (ex. Politics, law, and government)
3. Those concerned with the supernatural (ex. Magic and religion)
4. Those based on the principle of kinship created by descent and marriage. (ex. The
Family)
Theories
 Major Theoretical Perspectives of Society

4.  Structuralism Functionalism or Functionalism
▪ Advocates of this theory are, Durkheim, Weber, Thomas, Pareto, Parsons, and
Merton.
▪ Functionalist hold that society is a system made up of a set of elements or
components that are interrelated in a more or less stable way through a period
of time.
▪ Function refers to the “series of service activities carried on by an organized
group of persons in a society for the benefit of its members.”
 Conflict Theory by Karl Marx
 Society can be best studied through conflict and power struggle.
 They point out that within a society , wealth, prestige and power are always scarce, it is
always a constant conflict for these scarce resources and the inequalities in the
economic system would bring about revolution.
CULTURE
 Culture is an encompassing concept which includes all the recipes for living, a blueprint for
behavior and any social activity, the sum of human creations, and a way of life which serves as
potential guide for behavior.
 From the standpoint of the anthropologists and sociologists, all people have culture. All humans
participate in a culture in whatever statuses in life they have.
 Each society has its own distinctive systems therefore culture varies.
 Characteristics of Culture
 Culture is learned – Absorption of any habit , value, knowledge, skill and taste of the
group reflects the uniquely elaborate capacity of humans to learn.
 Culture is transmitted orally and by writing - through conditioning, imitation,
suggestion, identification, reward and punishment, formal instruction and mass
communication.
 Culture is shared – the elements of culture result from living and interacting with
one another and emerge out of the social life of people.
 Culture is patterned and integrated – culture is made up of elements which are not
haphazardly arranged but patterned into a unified whole.

5.  Culture is adaptive – No culture is static and each individual or generation makes
adjustments.
 Culture is compulsory – members of the society have to follow the culture in their
dealings with others if they wish to get along successfully.
 Cultures interact and change – through trade networks, conquests, migration,
education and tourism, cultures interact and change.
 Dimensions of Culture
 Ideas – represents the nonmaterial aspects of culture. Humans express the meaning of
their experiences through ideas.
 Beliefs – man’s conviction about the reality of things and are shared ideas about
how the world operates.
 Values – socially accepted and shared ideas about what is right.
 Common Understanding – use of gestures in interacting with other members of the
group without the constant need to explain what one is doing.
 Norms and Sanctions – norms are shared rules or ideals designating behavior in
certain situations. Sanctions are imposed when members violates the norms in order to
control their errant behavior maybe informal or informal, positive or negative.
 Folkways – are habits, conventions, customs and repetitive patterns of expected
behavior and tend to be self-perpetuating .
(ex. Pamanhikan)
 Mores – social norms that are essential to the welfare to the group and their cherished
values. They have moral or ethical value and are associated with strong feelings of right
or wrong.
 Laws – are formalized norms defined by a governing body or public authority.
 Fashion, Fads, Crazes – operates primarily as forces of social change. They are short
lived social norms which demand compliance at the time they operate.
 Sanctions – are a system of rewards and punishments.
 Rewards – positive sanctions
 Punishment – negative sanctions
 Material Culture and Technology – refers to all the physical, tangible, and concrete
produced by people.

6.  Determines the physical options and opportunities of the society.
 Language and Culture – language is an integral part of culture and human culture
cannot exist without it.
 Through the use of symbols, human have created ideas, organized and
systemized them and passed them on to others.
 Ideology – refers to a meaningful system of doctrines, ideas and symbols, norms
and values.
 They are organized into a system which moves its members to action.
 Culture Similarity and Culture Diversity
 Culture Similarity my be attributed to:
 Similarities in biological structures and drives (biological and psychological
needs).
 Each society has to carry out certain functions necessary for social living.
 Human beings have a similar range of emotions, needs for security and
response and possesses a symbolic language.
 The geographical environment .
 Diversity in culture is brought about by differences in the was people meet and
respond to their biological and psychological needs and the manner by which people
adapt to their environment.
 Subculture – smaller groups with a distinctive cultural pattern within the society.
 Arise from certain individual needs to obtain assurance and security from others for
an inability to cope with the dominant culture.
 Culture Shock - the feeling of unpleasantness or disorientation experienced when one goes to
an unfamiliar setting.
 Can also be experience in one’s country
 Urbanites going to rural areas
 Rural folks migrating to urban areas
 Ethnocentrism - the view to regard one’s culture as right and normal, with a superior
attitude.

7.  Literally means a belief that one’s group is the center of the universe
and one scales and rates other cultures with reference to it.
 Cultural Relativism - culture must be understood in terms of its own values and beliefs
and not by standards of the viewer’s culture. It assumes that no culture is better than
any other.
PHILIPPINE VALUES
Values
 Values are moral or ethical standards signifying what are intrinsically desirable.
 It is the bases for determining what behavior and attitudes are correct
Like the aspects of culture, values differ from one society to another. What is desirable in one society
may be contemptible in another.
 The basis of Philippine Value Orientations
 The Filipino of the 21th century is a blend of social strains and cultural elements –
Aeta, Indonesian, Malaysian, Hindu, Arabian, Chinese, Spanish, American and more
recently of the global community.
 Filipino values are basically Asian and have withstood the onslaught of
modernization and globalization
 The Study of Values
 Anthropologists and Sociologists have studied Filipino values through observation,
analysis of the people’s literature and empirical investigations.
 The Family Traditional Values
 The family is the central unit that defines the Filipino’s set of values and responsibilities.
 Social Acceptance
 Defined as being taken by one’s fellowmen for what one is or believes he/she is and
treated in accordance with his/her status, not rejected or improperly criticized.
 2 intermediate values subsumed in social acceptance are:

8.  Smooth interpersonal relations (SIR) is a mechanism to avoid potential
situations for hiya ( shame or loss of face).
 Pakikisama is the folk concept of good human relations and implies giving in or
yielding to the wish of the majority even if it contradicts to one’s own ideas.
 Reciprocity or Utang na Loob
 Another aspect of SIR, reciprocity is a universal form of behavior
 “Bahala na” – an expression widespread in use. “Let come what may” attitude.
 Indigenous Identity of the Filipino Values
 Dr. Virgilio Enriquez proposed a study of indigenous Filipino values through the
study and use of the local languages and research for core and surface values.
 Filipinos should be analyzed in terms of the Filipino worldview, experience and milieu.
 Values in Rural Communities
1. Paggalang – respect for the individual
2. Pagmamahal – concern for work and other people
3. Pananagutan – accountability for one’s actions
4. Pagbabalikatan – sharing burden with others
5. Pagbabayanihan – cooperation and teamwork
6. Pagmamalasakit – solicitous concern for all
 Values That Guide Democratic Citizenship
1. Pagkakaisa– implies a sense of unity and common purpose
2. Pagbabahagian – practice of sharing
3. Pagbabago – ability to change
4. Pananagutan – strong sense of responsibility
5. Pagsisikap – hardwork
6. Paninindigan – commitment
 Values held by Filipino Women

9. 1. Pagtitiis (more than patience)
2. Pagbibigay– (more than generosity)
3. Pagpupunyagi – (more than determination)
4. Matibay– (more than strong)
5. Spirituality – (more than religiosity)