Nature, goals and perspectives in/of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science

Culture affects a society and shape the human nature of people in the society. It also casts people’s world outlook, outlook in life, and values; social customs and ethical morality are gradually formed in the process of cultural influence while Politics in a democracy is the people's voice in their government. Still, it takes leadership to construct a path to success. And how is the voice of the people formed? It is formed by the leadership.

Almost everyone attaches themselves to a political party and you hear the same versions of what government should or shouldn’t do through the voice of the people. Moreover, political identity is often thought of as the expression of an individual's belief system and social affiliations. Various factors can construct an identity, including race, nationality, where a person lives and a person's gender and sexuality. Political identity is almost always associated with a group affiliation and describes the ways in which being a member of a particular group might express specific political opinions and attitudes. Whereas, Social change can evolve from a number of different sources, including contact with other societies (diffusion), changes in the ecosystem (which can cause the loss of natural resources or widespread.

Cultural identity – the cultural identity of an individual refers to the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is considered as part of a person’s self-conception and selfperception. It pertains to one’s nationality, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. As to cultural awareness, it connotes to the ability of a person to recognize the different beliefs, values and customs that someone has based on that individual’s origins. This allows a person to build a more successful personal and professional relationship with others in a diverse environment. In fact, a person’s state, region or country of origin and local customs heavily influence his / her cultural background.

Cultural Background – on the other hand, essentially consists of the ethnic, religious, racial, gender, linguistic or other socioeconomic factors and values that shape an individual’s upbringing. The cultural background can be shaped at the family, societal or organizational level. Sociologically, people with different cultural background need to interactwith each other. Such interactions lead to strong relationships that would help build diverse communities and enable them to achieve predetermined goal’s.

For Example:

In the Philippines society, it is necessary to work effectively with people from different regions or with those who speak a different language to promote economic development and other primary socio-cultural undertakings.

Thus, although it is important to learn about the cultural identities of other people and succeed in working together, each one must primarily understand his own culture so he can appreciate other cultures as well. Concrete understanding of one’s culture starts with recognition of the values, customs and traditions passed down to us by our forebears or those acquired from personal experiences while interaction in a given society. In fact, we can learn about other people’s culture by interacting with them, by evaluating their biases towards other cultures, by inquiring pertinent questions and by simple observations.

Cultural variation refers to the rich diversity in social practices that different cultures exhibit around the world. Cuisine and art all change from one culture to the next, but so do gender roles, economic systems, and social hierarchy among any number of other humanly organized behaviors. Cultural variation can be studied across cultures (for example, a cross-cultural study of ritual in Indonesia and Brazil) or across generations (for example, a comparison of Generation X and Generation Y) and is often a subject studied by anthropologists, sociologists and cultural theorists with subspecialties in the fields of economic anthropology, ethnomusicology, health sociology etc. In recent years, cultural variation has become a rich source of study in neuroanthropology, cultural neuroscience, and social neuroscience.

Society refers to the persistent interaction among members of a particular group like kinship group and other Institutions. However, the boundedness of groups is always relative and so sociologist may refer to human society, where the reference is to the interdependencies among all social groups, or to subgroups such as family, society, where the reference is to the typical interactions among the individuals making up a grouping of close kin. (UCSP, Gerry M. Lanuza, Sarah S. Raymundo)

Gender and Sexuality

A common distinguishing factor of a person’s cultural background is gender sexuality. Gender refers to the personal traits and social roles of the male and female members of society. Sexuality is the state of being either masculine or feminine.

A person’s masculinity or manhood consists of a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with men.
A person’s femininity or womanhood refers to a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with women.
A person may experience identity crisis when he / she does not accept or understand his / her sexuality or is unable to understand his / her status.

Socio-Economic Status

Another common cultural identification factor is the level of an individual’s social standing and financial position in the society. This is known as socio-economic status, a personal or famil’s financial and social esteem on the basis of income, education, and occupation. Hence, it is the totality of a person’s social position and wealth combined. The socio-economic class refers to the status of every individual from the sociological and economic points of view. Social status means a person’s standing or rank in the social ladder of stratification based on prestige, power, popularity, etc. economic status means a person’s place in the society’s economic stratification based on wealth, property, and total assets.

Ethnicity

Is a condition in which a social group belongs to a common national or cultural tradition. The adjective ethic relates to large groups of people who have certain racial, cultural, religious, or other traits in common. The Philippines are inhabited by different ethno-liguistic groups converted to Christianity, particularly the lowland-coastal groups, and adopted may foreign elements of culture. Ethno-linguistic groups include the Ivatans, Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Kapampangans, Tagalogs, Bicolanos, Visayans (Masbatenos, Hiligaynons/Ilonggos, Cebuanos, Boholanos, Warays and Surigaonons) Maranaos, Subanons and Zamboanguenos.

Civilization

Any complex society characterized by urban development, social stratification, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment.

Politics pervades all aspects of social and cultural life. The ability of people to exercise their rights and perform their duties as citizens depends largely on the kind of government they have. The state monopolizes violence and provides security for the people and its territory. The legitimacy of the modern state is based primarily on legal rational authority. Such legitimacy on source of authority is based on modern laws and constitution. Whether the state for self-interest is a function of the political culture that exists in a given society. Given that the Philippines society is still beholden to traditional family dynasties; its legitimacy is often put under question by the public. (UCSP, Gerry M. Lanuza, Sarah S. Raymundo)

Culture is a dynamic system that does not stand outside human beings. Culture is very atmosphere that human beings breathe in everyday life. It is so pervasive in its influence that people hardly notice. Yet, culture is not something static. It is always in constant flux or change. As such culture can be studied in different ways. And many scholars of culture disagree among themselves on the best way to describe culture. Today, there is a growing consensus among scholars that culture cannot be separated from colonial influence and the power dynamics that shapes it, such as gender and racism. (UCSP, Gerry M. Lanuza, Sarah S. Raymundo)

Try to consider the following variance: the cultural variation is a difference in social behaviors in different cultures exhibit around the world. Social differences are the situations where people are discriminated against on the basis of social, economic, and racial inequality. Social change means the transformation of culture and social institutions over time and political identity is a measure of a group of people with similar political ideologies.

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