Promise of Sociology C.

Wright Mills
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to get out of trappings (intersection between history and biography)

address lack of quality of mind (sociological imagination)
ability to grasp the intersection of individual self and society

Invitation of Sociology Peter Berger

First Wisdom of Sociology: things are not what they seem
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there are layers of meaning to what you say

Theoretical Perspectives of Society

1. Functionalism/Structural Functionalism
- Society and interrelated parts coordinate
- Each part must contribute or work together
Merton (god) our society is not a living organism; it has:
Structures parts in our society must fit together
Functions parts must contribute to the well-being of society
a. Function positive function
b. Dysfunction negative function
i. Latent unintended function (Wearing of uniform may avail us of
discount)
ii. Manifest expressed function (Wearing of uniform to show
identity)
2. Conflict Theory by Karl Marx
- Society is not always harmonious or working all the time
- Human history is characterized by class struggle or conflict
- Groups competing for scarce resources (power)
- There is a binary opposition e.g., Bourgeoisie vs. Pulitarist, and Government
vs. Church
Dahrenlorf as long as you have relationships with other, conflict will always
arise because of authority
Coser conflict arises not just on relationships, but on close relationship
(interdependence)
3.
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Symbolic Interactionism
Our society is full of symbols, that has meanings
Symbols shape our behaviour
not to accept symbols superficially, but look behind their meanings e.g.,
Symbols of Bicolanos: Ina (Penafrancia - devotion), Sili (oragon), Pili

Culture something learned, patterned, adaptive (dynamic), shared, coercive

element (need to conform) p. 27
How and why cultures differ and are similar
Theoretical Orientation attitude how cultural phenomenon is to be explained
1. Early Evolutionism (Tyler & Morgan)
- Culture evolved from simple to complex:
- 3 stages of development: (1) Savagery, (2) Barbarism, and (3) Civilization;
accounts for variations; societies in different stages of evolution
2. Historical Particularism (Boas)
- Disagreed with evolutionists that cultures are governed by universal laws
- Cultural trait has to be studied in the context of society it appeared
- only after body of the data was gathered could theories be proposed and
interpretation made
- *Ethnocentrism tendency to see our culture as superior; to counterpart it,
we should look at the context of other cultures: What is the meaning?
3. Diffusionism (British school)
- couldnt trace any resemblance with Egyptian culture
- most aspects of civilization were developed in Egypt and diffused to other
parts
- German-Austrian school- from different cultural complex
- American school- features of culture area to a geographical culture center
- Question: how a culture accepts and rejects?
4. Functionalism (Malinowski)
- Cultural traits serve the needs of individuals in a society
- function of cultural traits is its ability to satisfy same basic needs or derived
needs of the members of the group
- needs include nutrition, reproduction, bodily comfort, safety, relaxation,
movement, growth
- Question: Needs are universal, then why ways of satisfying them vary from
one culture to another?
5. Structural Functionalism (Radcliffe-Brown)
- aspects of social behaviour maintain society's social structure rather than
satisfying individual needs
Question: How to determine whether a cultural trait is contributing to the
maintenance of society or not?
6. Psychological approaches (Benedict and Mead)
- cultures could be characterized in terms of different personality types
- Culture and personality types are linked
- Culture is responsible for personality differences between sexes
7. Structuralism (Levi-Strauss)
- culture as a surface representation of the underlying structure of the human
mind which is predisposed to think and behave in terms of binary opposition
- Like grammar in language, there are rules of thoughts that underlie culture
8. Ethnoscience
- attempts to derive these rules from logical analysis as free as possible from
contamination of biases

if we can know the rules of behavior , then we can explain much of what
people do and why they do it
9. Cultural ecology (Steward)
- explanation for some aspects of cultural variation could be found in the
adaptation of societies to their environment
- cultural traits can be adaptive or maladaptive
10.Political economy
- assumes external forces (e.g. politics, economy, world history) explain the
way a society changes and adapts
*Ethnography - a (thick) description and analysis of a single society
*Participant observation (fieldwork) - systematic observation and data collection

Forms of Culture
1. Material
2. Non-material way of doing and thinking
a. Gestures using ones body to communicate; symbolism for strong emotion
b. Language system of symbols (order); enables us to accumulate knowledge;
documents the past; and plan for the future; both inclusive and exclusive
Sapir and Whorf hypothesis
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Whatever things we see around us, people put labels to it that shapes our
consciousness and perception
Hypothesizes that language comes first before the thing

c. Values what is desirable to the society

d. Norms expectations in the society
Folkways vs Mores vs Taboo
Folkways not strictly enforced
Mores norms strictly enforced (laws)
Taboo norms strongly and strictly enforced; result in provoking emotions