INTRODUCTION

This world is ever changing. And so are we, our cultures, and our societies.
From wanderers who forage every area passed by, people became settlers and built
many societies. Each society developed their own way of living, their own government, their
own beliefs and ideologies, and their own culture.

And because of these differences, conflict was inevitable, both inside and outside of
each society. Technologies were invented and enhanced to make lives easier within each
society and to win wars against others. Some nations were occupied. Some were erased from
the maps. Some cultures were adapted, some changed, and some forgotten. Religions were
created. Beliefs and ideologies were transformed. Colonies desired for freedom.
Citizens wanted change in their society. And so, revolutions were started. New countries
were formed. New governments reigned. But some social issues still remained and new ones
arose.

We need to understand why the things mentioned above happened. It is possible that
what happened in the past and in the present will repeat in the future. We need to study the
factors that caused them which centers around cultural changes within societies and cultural
differences between societies, as well as the social issues that resulted from these changes
and differences. If we can understand these, we can prepare ourselves to prevent such
conflicts from happening again and to further improve our lives. And to start this course, we
will begin with introducing ourselves with these three specific fields of social science:
Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology.

What is Anthropology?

Anthropology is the science or study of man. The word anthropology comes from the
Greek terms anthropos which means man, and logos which means science or study.
Anthropology lets us study the cultural and biological evolution of all human groups so we
can analyze them and apply the findings in the current situations of man and prepare
ourselves in the possible changes in human in the future.

Goals of Anthropology

1. Explain and analyze similarities and differences of different human cultures.

2. Assess the cultural development of our species based on the findings in archeological
records.
3. Analyze the biological evolution of the human species as revealed in fossil records.
4. Explain the present human biological diversity.

Lenkeit (2008), as cited by Saluba et al. (2016), listed the different fields of
Anthropology as follows:

1. Biological/Physical Anthropology. It studies Homo sapiens as biological beings both

in the present and in the past.
 o Paleoanthropology. The root word paleo means ancient. It is the study of
human biological evolution through an examination of the fossils of who we
believe are our ancestors.
o Primatology. It is the study of primates who are believed to be the closest
animal relatives of human beings.
2. Cultural/Social Anthropology. It is the description and comparison of the
adaptations made by human groups to the diverse ecosystems of the earth. We call
these adaptations culture.
o Ethnography. It is the descriptive study of one culture, subculture, or
microculture based on fieldwork. Ethnographers spend time (a year or more,
continuous or on and off) in the field (some live with the people they study) in
order to record the way of life and how it changes.
o Ethnology. It is the comparative study of cultures. Different cultures are
analyzed by explaining their similarities and differences. The subject of
comparison maybe the entire culture or a particular aspect of culture such as
gender, law, and education.
3. Archeology. It is the study of culture of people who lived in the past by examining
whatever remained in the sites where they once occupied. Archeologists study how
these people adapted to their natural and sociocultural environments and how culture
spread and changed through time.
o Prehistoric Archaeology. It is the study of the remains of cultures that existed
before the time of written records.
o Historical Archeology. It is the study of the remains of cultures and
subcultures that have written records but about which little, if anything, was
recorded.
o Cultural Resources Management. It is the work to preserve archeological
sites which are threatened, produce environmental impact reports, and do
salvage digs on sites that will be destroyed by contemporary buildings.
o Applied Archeology. An area in archeology that uses methods of archeology
to study contemporary material culture with the aim of solving problems.
4. Linguistics. It is the study of language - how language is formed and how it works,
the history and development of language, and its relationships to other aspects of
culture.
o Descriptive Linguistics. This study focuses on the mechanics of language.
o Historical Linguistics. This study works to reconstruct the history of
languages, including the development and relationship to other languages.

What is Political Science?

Political Science is the branch of social science that deals with systems of
government, and the analysis of political activities and behavior. It is above all the study of
power: how it is created, exercised, justified, and challenged. He who has the power has the
control.

As a social science, political science focuses on group power, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of
collective decision-making. Hence it leads us to consider the ethics of power, which in turn
involves conceptions of community, identity, justice, and citizenship. Under the banner of
political science, we gather the study of democracy, war, law, rights, wealth, and authority, as
well as the institutions that shape and secure them.

Aristotle and the Politics

"Man is by nature a political animal" - Aristotle, Father of Political Science

Aristotle likened politics to an organism rather than to a machine, a collection of

parts none of which can exist without the others. Politics as defined by Aristotle himself is a
"practical science" because it deals with making citizens happy. His philosophy is to find the
supreme purpose of life, virtue as he puts it.

Many of the key concepts of political science have to do with relationships of control,
according to Lawson (1997), as cited by Saluba et al. (2016).
1. Power. It is the heart of politics. But power is actually hard to define. Three fallacies
were given by Robert Dahl in the analysis of power:
• “lump-of- power” fallacy – power cannot be shared
• “confounding power with resources” fallacy – associating power with things such
as money
• “confounding power with rewards and deprivations” fallacy – associating power
with the ability to reward or sanction
2. Influence. It includes all cases when one party's desires affects the behavior of
another party. Power is another form of influence. But influence can take place
without the threat of sanctions or use of force, as well as without the promise of
personal reward.
3. Authority. It is the right to exercise the power and influence of a given position that
comes from having been placed in that position according to regular, known, and
widely accepted procedure, such as elections and appointments by elected official.
4. Legitimacy. It is the permission of the people for the government to do something on
behalf of the people. Authority is the right of someone to do something on behalf of
the government. But the government gained this right because the citizens give
them legitimacy. But it is possible to have authority without legitimacy such as an
insane king where the people could approve the next person in authority to lead the
nation.
5. Linkage. In all relationships of control, there is an element of linkage.
o In terms of international relations, linkage refers to ways on how one nation
may force desired decision in another. For example, a nation will aid another
country if the latter relaxes their tariffs on the former's exports.
o In domestic situations, linkage is how pressure groups, political parties, and
electoral processes connect the general public with the leaders to make a
policy decision.
 By providing government with legitimacy, ideology justifies the status quo according
to Rodee (1983), as cited by Saluba et al. (2016). But ideology may also be used by activists,
rebels, and reformists to go against the status quo.

1. Anarchism. It comes from the Greek word anarchos, meaning "having no

government". It is characterized by "each citizen is his own legislator". Legislation
and policy making are the exclusive right of each individual as he/she knows his/her
own interests and needs.

Ex. You have two cows. Keep both cows, shoot the government agent and steal
another cow

2. Communism. In practice, it is a system in which a small elite controlled the political

and economic life of a nation.

Ex. You have two cows. Give both cows to the government, and they might give you
some of the milk.

3. Socialism. It is the belief that the means of production should be owned and operated
by and for the people in general rather than by and for private individuals.

Ex. You have two cows. Give one to your neighbor.

4. Fascism. It is any centralized, authoritarian government that is not communist whose

policies glorify the state over the individual and are destructive to basic human rights.

Ex. You have two cows. You give all of the milk to the government, and the
government sells it.

5. Capitalism. It is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and

industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Ex. You have two cows. Sell one cow and buy a bull.

What is Sociology?

Sociology is the systematic study of human social relationships and institutions. It

focuses on how the parts of society fit together and change, as well as makes us aware of the
consequences of that social change.

Sociology’s subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family
to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common
culture, and from social stability to radical change in whole societies. Unifying the study of
these diverse subjects of study is sociology’s purpose of understanding how human action
and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures.
The Development of Sociology as a Science

Ancient philosophers such as Plato and Socrates have thought and taught about social
behavior. However, they did not utilize systematic methods is testing their theories on social
behavior. They were called social philosophers, not sociologists. It was only in the nineteenth
century when European social philosophers used scientific methods and thus, the field of
sociology was born.

Three revolutions had to take place before the sociological imagination could
crystallize:

1. The scientific revolution (16th to 17th c.) was part of the Renaissance period and it
encouraged the use of evidence to substantiate theories.
2. The democratic revolution (18th c.) encouraged the view that human action can
change society.
3. The industrial revolution (19th c.) gave sociologists their subject matter. It was
caused by the social upheavals of the nineteenth-century Europe (e.g. French
Revolution) and the advancement of the natural sciences.

Many social philosophers felt the need to find solutions to the challenges in their
societies and to understand how and why such radical change could occur. So, they utilized
the scientific method as means to understand and control the social world.

Challenges in the 17th to 19th Century Societies

Because of the Enlightenment movement in the late 17th century, citizens began to
question the legitimacy of the monarchies leading the European nations and their respective
colonies, and the authority of the backing churches which used fear to conduct abusive
atrocities to the citizens such as demanding higher taxes. These led the people to seek greater
freedom and thus, sparked the revolutions in the 18th century starting with the American
Revolution.

On the other hand, with the invention of the steam engine that started the industrial
revolution, transportation of goods and people became faster. People left the farms to work in
the factories in the cities. However, issues arose such as the congestion of the cities due to the
migration of people. Cities became crowded and housing became squalid. Moreover, crime
rate increased, and factory workers were exploited.

Sociology studies these links: how society affects the individual, how the individual
affects society, and how an individual affects another individual in a certain society. And
there are at least three reasons why we need to study these.

1. For intellectual exercise. Sociology can be pursued for our own personal intellectual
satisfaction, for the pleasure of tickling our own curiosity, or for producing scientific
knowledge.
2. To understand our lives. Sociology encourages us to be more curious of the society
we live in, to actively participate in it while evaluating the popular assumptions as
well as our understanding of the different social aspects such as race and ethnicity,
gender, and sexual orientation.
 3. To pursue a specific career. Sociology can be used to pursue a career in the
government (to fight crime, improve education, reduce poverty, and to solve other
social issues) or in the private sector (as a sociology teacher, social researcher, social
critic, political analyst, or any job that needs sociological knowledge).

One of the most useful lesson to learn in studying sociology is turning problems,
whether intellectual, personal, societal, or global, into opportunities to solve other problems
and improve our lives.

You may visit the following link to watch a lecture video on this module:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV1plNtALFA

REFERENCES

• Gupta, Meera. n.d. “Aristotle's Politics.” Aristotle. Accessed June 1, 2020.

https://minerva.union.edu/wareht/gkcultur/guide/18/aristotle.html.
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FIRST LECTURE.ppt. Accessed June 2, 2020.
http://www.yorku.ca/timm/courses/soci_1010_lectures/pdf/Intro_first_lecture.pdf.
• Newton, Kevin. 2015. "Political Legitimacy & Authority." Political Legitimacy &
Authority - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. Accessed June 1, 2020.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/political-legitimacy-authority.html.
• Parrish, Tyrone, (2017). "What's Up with All the Isms?" What’s Up with All the
isms?. 1.Socialism: the belief that the means of production should be owned and
operated by and for the people in general rather. - ppt download. Accessed June 1,
2020. https://slideplayer.com/slide/11767113/.
• Saluba, Dennis J. et. al. 2016. “Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics”
Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics for Senior High School. Malabon City,
Philippines. Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
• Tennessee State University. n.d. "Why Study Sociology?" Why Study Sociology?
Accessed June 2, 2020. www.tnstate.edu/sociology/why.aspx.
• The Department of Sociology at UNC Chapel Hill. n.d. “What Is Sociology?” What is
Sociology? | Department of Sociology. Accessed June 1, 2020.
www.sociology.unc.edu/undergraduate-program/sociology-major/what-is-sociology/.
• Williams College. n.d. “Political Science.” Political Science. Accessed June 1, 2020.
https://political-science.williams.edu/.