FILIPINO SOCIETY AND CULTURE

 Culture is socially shared

Topics to Discuss
Culture is a collectively approved or disapproved
 Society and Culture behavior, beliefs, customs, and traditions.

▪ Definition  Culture is an integrated system

▪ Characteristics Culture is a list of learned things that are integrated as a

whole.
▪ Function
 Culture changes
 On Filipino Society and Culture
Culture changes to adapt to the changing environment
Forer
and circumstances.
Humans are differentiated from other animals because
 Culture is a body of symbols
they have culture. Humans seemingly are the only
animals in the animal kingdom that have symbolic Symbols are things that stands for themselves and other
culture making it possible for them to lord it over their things. Cultural symbols are arbitrary, they are not fixed
fellow animals and their environment. or permanent, they can have multiple meanings to
different groups of people but people who belong to the
KEY CONCEPTS
same society can share common meanings to a set of
 Society – group of people who live within the symbols because of common experiences.
same territory, share a common culture,
Viewpoints in the Study of Culture
perpetuate themselves through reproduction,
and constitute a more or less self-sufficient unit.  ETHNOCENTRISM

 Culture – complex whole which includes The belief that one’s culture is superior to the other
knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, custom acquired cultures. It is the tendency of people to used their own
by humans as member of society. culture as the basis for evaluating the culture of others.
Extreme ethnocentrism can lead to “Culture shock” or
In its broadest sense, culture may be defined as:
the feelings of stress that people experience when faced
 Way of life, a design for living with other cultures whose ways of living are different
from their own culture. It can give rise to social and
 Shared patterns of behavior and meaning, of political conflict because it encourages the development
expectations and responses of derogatory stereotypes and denial of equal rights
 Shared system of vital ideas about the world against people whose culture are different.

UNESCO defines culture as:  XENOCENTRISM

The belief that the cultures of the foreigners are better

“The whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, or superior to one’s culture, and that the products, style
intellectual and emotional features that characterize a of life and ways of living of other people are better than
society or social group. It includes not only the arts and one’s culture. This viewpoint is developed among people
letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of who have been subjected to a long period of colonization
the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs.” and cultural brainwashing.
Characteristics of Culture  CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Culture is learned behavior The viewpoint that different cultures should be
Culture is learned through the process of understood in their own context and that different
“ENCULTURATION”. cultures have their own functions for the people who are
practicing them, and it posit on the belief that desirability
or undesirability of a given culture exists within the total “ought’’ and the “should’’. They provide
cultural framework of a given group of people and guidelines on how people should and ought to
therefore, should not be judged from the point of view behave in various situations.
of other cultures.
*FOLKWAYS – are the customary ways of doing
Functions of Culture things with little significance; these are the
norms that guide ordinary and conventional
A society cannot survive without culture that is
behavior and most members of
functional. From the individual point of view, culture
society conform to the folkways without
provides guidelines and perceptions of the person’s
necessarily being conscious of such
reality and meaning to the individual existence, tells the
compliance.
person his role in the society and universe, thereby
integrating the individual person to his society and *MORES – are norms very essential to the
environment. From the society’s viewpoint, culture group of survival; these are result of long
provides people, knowledge, values, norms, and beliefs established norms and are crucial in the
to help the society survive and with the ways of dealing maintenance of a decent and orderly way
with its basic problems. Culture provides social, of life. They are important because they
economic, educational, political and religious institutions are associated with strong feelings of right
that will make the society livable. and wrong

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE *LAWS – are formalized folkways or mores

that are enacted and enforced by the
 NON-MATERIAL CULTURE – is the non tangible
state, considered vital to maintain an
aspect of culture that includes knowledge,
orderly and peaceful public life.
beliefs, values, attitudes, norms, taboos and
sanctions. *TABOOS – are prohibitions against specific
behavior considered repulsive and
* KNOWLEDGE – is a set of absolute or
unthinkable by the society. violation of a
objective information that is shared and
taboo provokes people anger and
learned by people in the society. it provides
immediate imposition of severe
information that can guide, explain, and lead to
punishment from the society to which one
the understanding of people’s behavior.
belongs.
*BELIEFS – are convictions of the realities of
*SANCTIONS – are rewards and punishments
things and events composed of assumptions
for behaviors that are either in violation or in
(about the nature of universe and man’s place
conformity with the social norms. In order to
in it), basic orientations (regarding the destiny
impose sanctions, the person/s should be
of man and is relation with the environment),
aware of the conformity or violation of
and worldview on how to interpret and
certain norms.
understand realities.
 MATERIAL CULTURES – are the tangible or
*VALUES – are non material aspects of culture
concrete things that are used by society that
that defines the quality of things whether
include tools, artifacts, arts, houses, accessories,
desirable or not, good or bad, ugly or beautiful.
or concrete things like machines, computers, or
Values are important in society because they
statues with assigned meanings.
provide qualities considered to be important in
the survival of human society and serve as the Levels of Culture
basis for evaluating things, particularly human
 INTERNATIONAL CULTURE – is learned behavior
behaviors.
or things that are found in all societies and
*SOCIAL NORMS – standards of the society that extend beyond the national boundaries that are
regulate human behavior. Norms are sets of common to many societies because of cultural
rules that define how people will act ideally, the diffusion or borrowing.
 NATIONAL CULTURE – is the learned ways, gathering, hunting, and fishing to the
beliefs, habits values and institutions shared by agricultural- handicraft-industrial societies of
the people of the same country and it is highly peasant and urban communities.
distinguishable between the dominant group
▪ Gelia Castillo (1979) says that
and the minority group.
we are still a nation of villages
 SUBCULTURES – are the cultural patterns that and that majority of the Filipino
are different from the national culture. These are “taga-baryo” from the
are cultural beliefs, values, and behavior that are village despite the plushy
considered distinct from the larger society, yet Westernized appearance of
share some aspects of the dominant culture. modernizedd Makati.

*FOLK CULTURES – are the beliefs, The basic element of Filipino social structure:
values, traditions and works of art,
 The kinship Group. This is the system of social
dance, music and other material
relations based on blood, marriage, or affinal
things made by the ethnic
and ritual or the Kumpadre
minorities.
 It is through the kinship group that much of the
*POPULAR CULTURES – are the beliefs, local authority, rights, and obligations and
practices and material objects that are modes of interaction are expressed, defined,
mass- produced and mass-consumed ordered, and systematized.
by the significant number of people in  Kinship determines the interpersonal and
a society. intergroup movements of people in and out of
the barrios and towns. This accounts sometimes
*HIGH CULTURES – are the desirable
for the lack of civil consciousness among
beliefs, practices and material objects
Filipinos, for generally, a Filipino feels that one’s
that cater to the artistic needs of the
help and support should be centered on one’s
elite and the middle classes.
kinship group.
*COUNTERCULTURES – are subcultures  The kinship group is organized into a distinct
that reject openly and conspicuously horizontal or generational divisions. Central in
the most important beliefs, the kinship system is the nuclear family.
values, traditions and customs of the  On account of the existence of a collection of
dominant group in the society. isolated and fragmented kinship communities
brought together under the domination of an
ON FILIPINO SOCIETY AND CULTURE… alien culture, we failed to develop national
 Filipino culture is a blend from East (Oriental) consciousness, or the people sense of
and the West (Occidental) nationhood.
 Political parties in the Philippines essentially
 Filipino Culture is a product of our own history alliances of followers organized by family
experiences from pre-Spanish times up to the dynasties.
present.  The Philippine rural communities has always
 Out of this has developed a distinct and unique been described as a “bayanihan” society.
Filipino culture with an indigenous core PHILIPPINE CULTURE
embodied in pre-Spanish Malayan setting and
with assimilated elements and accessories from  Senator Shahani describe the Philippine culture
the Spanish and American culture. openness to foreign influences and also believes
that the Filipino images of the self is not based
Basic Feature… on a deep core of Philippine history and language
 The Philippines is a spectrum of social and these vagueness and weakness made the
organization ranging from the nomadic food
Filipinos highly susceptible to the total b. Blended/reconstituted Family
assimilation of western mass culture.
Rules of Descent
 According to Fernandez, Philippine culture is
 Unilateral
multi-layered and westernized, and is the result
of the synthesis of numerous highland and  traces the ancestry from either male or
lowland multi-linguistic groups. female line.
POPULAR CULTURE OF FILIPINOS  Patrilineal
 Fernandez asserts that the popular culture of the  Matrilineal
Filipinos is both colonial and neocolonial. It is
colonial because it is a product of colonial  Bilateral
mentality and the xenocentric belief that foreign  traces ancestry from the maternal and
culture is better than the local culture. It is neo- paternal side that is common in
colonial because the popular culture is basically agricultural and advanced societies
copied and assimilated by Filipinos because of
their desire to be modern and updated.
Rules OF authority
Family Structure
• Patriarchal family
Family
• Matriarchal family
 A social group related by common residence,
economic cooperation, and reproduction • Equalitarian family
Functions of Family Rules OF Residence
 Regulates sex and reproduction  Patrilocal
 Enculturates the new members of society  Matrilocal
 Designates status and roles  Neolocal/ Bilocal
 Provides security and protection Problems OF the family
Classifications of Families • Domestic violence
Family Size the use of force to control the members of the family
 Nuclear Family • Infidelity
 Small group composed of married Extramarital relations of either spouse
couple and their offspring
• Teenage pregnancy
 Can either be a family of procreation, or
a family of orientation Pregnancy of teenage girls caused by premarital SEX

 Extended Family FILIPINO FAMILY

 Big family composed of two or more

nuclear families that are related
together

 Types of Extended Family

a. Modified Extended