GRADUATE SCHOOL

RA
INING D

ALDERSGATE COLLEGE

EV
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EARCH

ELO MEN
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SOLANO, NUEVA VIZCAYA, PHILIPPINES 3709 Telefax: (63-78) 326-5085/5390/5645

ES
R T

GR
A DUATE SCHOO
L e-mail: [email protected] website: www.aldersgate-college.com

MODULE 01: ANTHROPOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

LESSON 02 CULTURE
Prerequisite Skills: Understanding of the meaning of anthropology and its correlation with the learning
process of man
Instructor: Daton Jonathan B. Palitayan, Jr.
Level: MAED 1
Allotted Time: Three Hours

Overview: This module presents significant findings of anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians
to clarify and certify the historical background of both genetic and environmental anthropology.

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:
1. understand the different findings and theories of anthropologists, ethnologists, and archaeologists
concerning the evolutionary process of man; and
2. explain how the learning process of an individual is affected by the physical and cultural evolution of man.

Pretest:

A. Discuss concisely the significant findings and theories of the following anthropologists, ethnologists, and
archaeologists concerning the evolutionary process of man:
1. Herodotus
2. Ibn Khaldun
3. Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
4. Edouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet
5. Charles Robert Darwin
6. Gregor Johann Mendel
7. Herbert Spencer
8. Lewis Henry Morgan
9. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor
10. Franz Boas
11. Margaret Mead
12. Claude Gustave Levi-Strauss
13. Robert Fox

B. Define concisely the following:

1. law of segregation
2. law of independent assortment
3. “survival of the fittest”
4. Historical Particularism
5. Diffusionism

Learning Focus:

CULTURE
Tracing back from the behaviors and life patterns of earliest Filipinos anybody could assume without
experiencing the remote past that the habit and way of life of the contemporary people are framed from their
ancestors when they were still food gatherers, fishers, hunters, and nomads. The advent of sophisticated
technologies from the United States of America and European countries to the Philippine archipelago at the
beginning of the 20th century captured the interest of many Filipinos in several urban places and localities. But most
rural people especially those who live in far-flung places did not give much attention to modern technologies due to
some valid reasons that always end up with economic incapacity and deprivation. The common consideration of
Filipino families and social life pattern are divided into buhay sa nayon (promdi) and buhay sa ciudad ("Manileño").
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Most often than not many considered urban life and education as superior and sophisticated compared to the rural
way of life and learning, which is simple, naive, and unsophisticated.
At present, the Philippine nation is composed of twelve different political regions excluding the National Capital
Region (NCR), Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and
Caraga region, which imply diversity and variety of life pattern, tradition/behavior, and values. Different mentalities
and biases of such groups are rooted from their respective inherited (minana at kinamulatan) cultural values.
The term culture is taken from the Latin cultura which means tillage (or "paglinang" in Filipino). These two terms
tillage and paglinang are literally associated with the preparation of land and cultivation. Presently, culture may refer
to a pattern of behavior, thinking, beliefs, customs, and social practices of different group of people living, sharing,
and recreating in a community.
The advancement of culture from its primeval origin to a higher level of living is tight knit to the development of
human biology. The ability of people to have culture comes in large part from their physical features: having big and
complex brains; an upright posture; free hands that can grasp and manipulate small objects; and a vocal tract that
can produce and articulate a wide range of sounds. Filipino culture, then, is a product of intermarriages and social
interaction between foreign traders from the nearby islands and western invaders with the local inhabitants of the
islands. The longest presence of the Spanish colonizers in the archipelago, for instance, was able to alter and modify
most Filipino beliefs, values, thinking, behavior, and way of life.

1. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

The kalinangan or culture of an individual or group of individual Filipinos is vividly observed through words,
actions, and behavior that gradually amalgamate among other cultural group(s) in a society. Characteristics of one's
culture imply a manner and habit that people subsist in the changing environment.
As part of human existence and survival, culture has to be acquired and learned, shared and transmitted,
dynamically adapted, integrated, and symbolize in its meaning.
1.1 Culture is Acquired and Learned
Normally, the children acquired beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior from their parents,
grandparents, and relatives at home. To acquire means to get a bit of something from somebody or something.
A family, for instance, who attend religiously and participate to their church services every prescribed days and
holidays is a valuable habit that the young in the family may acquire at the onset of his life. In several occasions,
parents dictate the dos and don'ts of behaviors to their offspring and the latter obeys (even if, sometimes, he is
not in accordance with the parental demand) without having any inquiries and complaints, believing and
considering that what the parents want is for the good and safety of the children. On the other hand, culture can
be acquired and learned from the streets (kulturang kalye), marketplaces, government offices and private firms,
churches, parlors and cabarets, and the like. Culture may be assimilated in any circumstances by being with the
influential and domineering groups or personalities. Culture is learned through experience or applying what is
acquired. To learn is to find out something he gets. Fiesta syndrome, for example, is one among Filipino cultures
that is acquired and learned. Many Filipinos learned that fiesta upholds the human spirit, strengthens family ties,
reinforces bayanihan, and makes the camaraderie stronger. Thus, the culture of fiesta is good and laudable.
Besides, fiesta entails exaggeration and scrupulosity for many religious believers who, by all means, prepare
abundant foods and drinks for guests (mga namimiyesta) that may come to their house to partake (in eating and
drinking) the food that most often than not results in pangungutang or pagsasangla on the part of the maybahay
just to show and prove to the community that they have something (handa) for the fiesta.
1.2 Culture is Shared and Transmitted
The multiplicity of ethnic groups in the Philippines shows that an individual who belongs to his clan or
community possesses unique and inimitable culture. An Ifugao, Mangyan, or Tausog, for instance, who decided
to study, work, and live in the metropolis can neither separate from himself, nor leave behind his life pattern. In
every undertaking he does his beliefs, customs, values, and behavior are perceptible in him. His culture is vividly
expressed when he eats, walks, deals with people, and others. The Muslims from the southern part of the
archipelago have their own peculiar culture as well that differ from the northern aboriginal inhabitants of
Cordillera in the Mountain Province. When these two distinctive cultures meet at the center, say in Metro Manila,
for schooling, residency, or employment, there would be a great possibility that both cultures be shared and
transmitted. To share (one's culture) means to reveal one's beliefs and values through actions. Such disclosure
causes something to spread to others around him. Constant flaunting of one's ideas, values, and beliefs could
influence others' thinking and behavior. For this reason, culture is not only shared and transmitted but
amalgamated that produce other unique set of beliefs, values, and behavior.
Sharing and transmission of culture occurs when two different unique cultures open their horizons of
understanding and acceptance for a long term of assimilation.
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1.3 Culture is Dynamic and Adaptive

To claim that culture is dynamic entails continual changes. Culture alters because man himself, as the
fountain of culture, changes in the course of time based on his environmental situations and circumstances. As a
consequence, culture must adapted to the inevitable changes that perpetually occurs in the environment. The
culture of yesterday may not be the same vigorous and sound today or tomorrow because gradual modification
and development is continuously taking place. In the past, for instance, there were tribes in the Mountain
Province who practiced headhunting. Today, such cultural practice is completely eradicated due to the advent of
modern technologies that shaped the mind and heart of the Filipinos. Modern education has shaped man's
heart, mind, and spirit toward the perfection of his humane attitudes and values that respect others based on the
international ethics and values. The lowlander Roman Catholics (usually the whole family), moreover, used to
kneel down in front of their small altar at twilight to recite the Angelas and the Santo Rosario in honor of Mary,
the Mother of God. Nowadays, such benevolent and meritorious habits changed and transformed inaudibly when
most Catholics sit down in front of their television set to watch their favorite soap operas and religiously ponder
the script of the story as a mirror of their daily lives. Such altered practice shows that culture can never be static
in itself because it is in the process of becoming for better or for worse. Culture may not change right away but it
changes and develops, apparently, in the future.
1.4 Culture is All-embracing and Integrated
It is undeniable that every community and nation possesses its own culture. However, due to constant and
developing social interaction among different communities, cultures gradually diffuse throughout and become the
life pattern of many. Several Filipinos can easily embrace and integrate their culture to other non-Filipino's way
of life. Just imagine the American adobo, barong Tagalog with Chinese collar and buttons, air-conditioned
jeepney, sweet pasta, and the like that have been adapted from other countries. To embrace and integrate one's
culture or life pattern to other nationals overseas is not degrading and lessening (kabawasan) on the part of the
Filipino, rather such action widens the horizon and emotional maturity of a person to become more open and
accessible individual - a man for others. As a matter of fact, the contemporary Filipino's various cultures are a
product of fused European, American, and neighboring Asian cultures that settled and intermarried in the
archipelago hundred years past.
1.5 Culture is Symbolic
Visible signs are important to determine one's culture and life pattern.
Culture is continuously transmitted from one generation to the next through the use of signs and symbols
that maintain its vitality and significance. Every civilization from the past up to the present refers to the message
and meaning represented by signs and symbols. The cross is a vivid sign, which is sacred and is a symbol of
salvation and love based on the consideration of the Christian culture. The snake is a primitive (and modern)
sign of life and health based on the Egyptian civilization. The number "7" is a symbol of perfection and
completeness, while number "6" is a sign of imperfection, incompleteness, and sometimes evil, as conceived by
the Jewish tradition. Blood is a symbol of sacrifice, martyrdom, and life according to the perspective of the
Judeo-Christian community. Several signs like the Philippine flag, carabao, sampaguita flower, nipa hut, Dr. Jose
Rizal statue, and the like symbolize the Filipino nation.

2. THE CATEGORIES OF CULTURE

Human culture may be classified as material and social culture.
Material Culture
Filipinos are always longing for a better way of life. Education is seen and valued, by many, as a stepping-
stone and jumping board for a better and established job in the future in order to be secured financially. But due
to economic fluctuation in the Philippines, for one reason or another, education and schooling are considered as
green card, especially in the fields of nursing and caregiving courses, that will settle them abroad and abandon
their beloved country temporarily, if not permanently: Besides, there are small time blue collar jobs overseas
that most unemployed Filipinos, regardless of sexes and statuses in life, seek even at the expense of exposing
themselves in several dangers and deaths, in the Middle East, for instance. Materialistic orientation of several
Filipinos cannot be separated from their very existence since they need to feed their families regularly, shelter
them properly, send their children to school, and clothe them appositely.
Extreme poor Filipino families increase their statistics yearly. Numerous newly college graduates of different
courses find no job in the nearby places. Part- time and contractual modes of employment are prevailing in most
industries, firms, and government agencies. Countless families can no longer send their children to school due to
their incredible low-level economic status. Those who earned scarce amount from selling cigarettes and candies,
sampaguita flowers, junk foods or chichiria, mineral water, and the like in the roadside can only procure the
cheapest instant noodles and rice as their staple food in order to survive for another day.
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In spite of being economically unstable, many Filipinos are updated in prevailing technologies in the world.
Many of them can easily surf the Internet and have access in the global Microsoft network. Numerous families, in
both rural and urban areas, own radio and television sets with DVD or VCD players, enjoy electric fans, washing
machines, and electric or gas stoves. Majority of them own cellular phones, while others possess their own
personal computer units. Several manufacturers and industries are controlled and operated by computerized and
sophisticated machines. Filipinos living and working in the progressive cities have to go along with the advanced
machines that little by little alienate them.
Modern technologies contributed enormously to the development of Philippine society. Nongovernmental
organizations and private enterprises were able to procure and provide computerized machines and satellites for
the advancement of trade and industry in response to the challenge of the digital world. Machines are more
precise, faster, and accurate in producing products that require less manpower, time, and money. In several
agricultural lands, the cultivation of soil, growing and harvesting of crops are supplied and maintained by
fertilizers, insecticide, and fungicide that more often than not pollute and contaminate the soil that cause different
human maladies. Several bodies of water in both rural and urban areas are declared biologically dead due to
varied waste materials and toxins that large industrial firms dump carelessly and ceaselessly.
Social Culture
Countless Filipinos depend very much on others' ability and capability in terms Of survival, leadership,
employment, and even personal decision. Many individual Filipinos always want to assure themselves that they
have no conflict or grudge with others. They yearn to please the majority even if it is unattainable for everybody.
Some could easily and happily say yes but hardly and sadly say no in order not to offend anybody. Many
Filipinos are delighted to be with their peers, group, or federasyon more often.
Filipinos, by nature, are family-oriented individuals. They consider their acquaintances (especially the close
ones) as kin or kamag-anakan. Grandparents are considered in the family circle as values interpreter and
protector of marital relationship. Filipinos adhere and respect the sanctity and legality of monogamous marriage.
Many consider "Church marriage" as blessed and acceptable, than civil marriage. The existence of kabit or
querida shows that some married Filipinos believe themselves as macho.
Filipino workers have two faces: a group of Filipinos working abroad known as the bagong bayani and
another group working in the archipelago known as martir ng bayan. Their job overseas are almost the same
and closely related with the local jobs like domestic and care giving tasks, clerical and technical, factory workers,
construction workers, medical related, teaching, and the like but the compensation abroad is extremely
incomparable with the local remuneration. Overseas workers search for a greener pasture in foreign lands where
milk and honey flow abundantly, while Filipino workers that dedicate themselves in their own land receive a
minimum salary that hardly meets the very high standard cost of living. Many "white-collar" and "blue-collar"
workers get to the bottom of borrowing from lending institutions that are paid in several years.
Filipino leadership and politics always revolve in power, money, and influence. To be in power is a great
privilege and advantage. One in power could lead and serve his people unlimitedly with full dedication and
charity. Most Filipino politicians vowed to serve the country and people, at least days before the election, during
the political caucuses and campaigns.
Filipinos share different ideas, beliefs, and values that uphold them as ideology. Such belief systems and
dogmas serve as a rudder to guide their lives in attaining their goals and aspirations. Typically, such meaningful
belief system is sacred and respected for it helps man to become humane, cultured, and refined in dealing with
all circumstances in life at any moment.
Traditional religious beliefs and dogmas were contravened by modern philosophers and contemporary
positivists upholding that too much unverified speculation and conjecture to the saving actions of God to man
cannot be relied all the time. Besides, many use religion in order to gain more power and wealth. Religious
festivities and holidays are moments favorable for business and profits.

3. APPROACHES TO CULTURE
Culture has to be considered in several ways in order to know and understand how it is assimilated and
accommodated by people in time and space.
3.1 Cultural Pattern
Cultural pattern refers to a cluster of related ways of behavior found in a given culture. It is evident that
cultural pattern are not the entire same sort. During summer time, for example, vast majority of people from
different places flock the beaches to enjoy the summer heat. It is noticeable that most of them do not wear
proper swimsuits; instead they are contented in wearing T-shirts, short or long pants, even eyeglasses while
swimming and diving into the salty water. However, there are some who properly wear their swimsuits that
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become the center of attraction to many that have no courage to do so. Another cultural pattern in the
Philippines that nobody can break is the Todos Los Santos syndrome that befalls every Fast day of October (as
a preparation) and first day of November. People of different ages gather and crowd in their respective
cemeteries to pay a visit to their departed loved ones; offer prayers, candles, and flowers; play cards (like tong-
its, pekwa, pusoy, ungguy-ungguyan, and so on), while listening to the favorite music of the deceased; they
make revelry in the midst of whitened tomb and niches; and they stay for two consecutive days.
The Filipino way of cooking rice is casually ritualized by washing the rice first for at least twice then the
water is measured same as the height of rice inside the caldron using fingers for well-done boiling and cooking.
3.2 Cultural Determinism (Relativism)
Cultural relativism connotes that the culture of each society is not absolute but it changes in the passage of
time. It has its own tendency to presuppose that cultures are closed and self-contained system within which a
separate reality is created. In other words, customs and behavior that are considered wicked and immoral in one
culture may be pleasing, or even admired, in another. The practice of polygamous marriage, for instance, among
Muslims is acceptable, but the Christians repudiate such customs and behavior for they adhere to monogamous
union of man and woman of legal age. Culture relativism, in several circumstances, justifies and excuses,
uncommon behaviors and actions that are irreconcilable to many in a society. The machismo mentality among
many Filipinos, for instance, can never be a license to become unfaithful to one's wife and children.

4. CULTURE CHANGE
No cultures are static and stagnant since societies move hastily towards its full development and perfection.
4.1 Migration
Survival is one of the main reasons of all living organisms to transfer from place to place. Migration is a
social and cultural process in which an individual or group of individuals move from one region or nation to
another to look for a better life, job, personal satisfaction that they cannot find and realize in their former place.
When people transfer from one locality to another they carry with them their own culture and way of life since
their stay is temporary. Through migration, many Filipinos were able to enhance and develop their way of life,
thinking, beliefs, language, and culture when they work and live with other multinationals abroad. Aside from
their local dialect, Tagalog and English, many Filipinos can speak fluently other languages of the place where
they live and their children acquire not only the culture but the nationality as well. The use of "pidgin" (mixed
languages) among Filipinos became common for their daily activities. Example of "pidgin": Señor, per favore,
paki hold this paket. Merci. (Translation: Señor = Spanish for "Mister"; per favore = Italian for "please"; paki =
Tagalog for "please"; hold this = English; paket = German for "package"; and Merci = French for "thank you.")
4.2 Acculturation
When people inhabit in a new surrounding completely different from their former milieu they are obligated to
acculturate themselves in order to maintain their living. Acculturation is a process of change and alteration in the
cultural behavior and thinking of an individual or group through contact with another culture. Open-mindedness,
cultural acceptance, and emotional maturity are essential in acculturating oneself to the culture of others.
Acculturation does not necessarily mean to abandon and betray his very own culture that made him distinct from
others; rather he has to fit his culture to the culture of his new environment and companion. If a Filipino, for
instance, is working and living in the snowy country or continent he cannot be living similarly as he was in the
tropical region because everything need to change such as kinds of food, type of shelter, and manner of
clothing. Personal adjustment is strictly indispensable to anyone who is about to acculturate himself.
4.3 Conquest
Culture can be mandated forcefully and coercively by the powerful to the powerless through colonization and
conquest. The powerless has no choice and option but to follow the will and whim of the mighty to spare one's
life. Conquest is a cultural and social process, in which the mighty take a full control on their colonized people
using force of arms, threat, and punishment. The Filipino culture has been controlled and manipulated by the
Spaniards for more than three hundred years and altered by the Americans. Reading and evaluating the history
of the Filipino people, the nation acquired various cultures from different colonizers and traders that settled in the
archipelago in the realm of religion, politics, economy, and education that formed and framed the present
inhabitants of the islands.
4.4 Immigration
Upon informing an individual or group through friends or other contacts concerning a job offer in a place
where they can enjoy tenure of labor, proper health, and education for children, they decided to immigrate for
good throughout their lives and embrace the new citizenship. Immigration is an act in which an individual or
group enter into a new country to settle permanently.
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The common reason for immigration is life stability and job permanency that can regularly sustain the
material needs of a family.

5. FILIPINO CONTEMPORARY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE CULTURE

Currently, gargantuan institutions such as family, school, church, and government are shaken by several
counter-productive cultures that rapidly cripple the Filipino families, learning process, belief in the Supernatural, and
trust on government officials.
5.2 Culture of Toleration (hayaan mo na)
The culture of toleration is deeply rooted in religion. When someone is abused or maltreated in any form by
someone, the grieved person is usually counseled: Ipasa-Diyos mo na lamang 'yan or hayaan mo na. This kind
of mental and emotional conditioning affects much the personality of an individual or group and weakens his
spirit to protect his rights and human dignity. Toleration means to permit or allow something to happen or exist
out of compromise, fear, and self- interest. Toleration and acceptance occurs in several agencies, institutions,
and industries in which an individual or group seek camaraderie's approval, palatable treatment of people in
authority, job tenure, and social belongingness. Ethics, values, and morality have to be alienated temporarily if
not permanently in order to prioritize the culture of toleration. Tolerating one's action always involve self-interest
and compromise in one way or another - Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours as an old dictum says.
5.3 Culture of Survival (basta mabuhay lang)
When one speaks of survival, ethics and morality are usually marginalized, if not alienated. Any action is
considered true and right in a Machiavellian point of view - the end justifies the means - especially when
somebody has to feed himself and his family. There is no classification of work for many as long as it earns
money to support one's life. To survive denotes to do every possible thing in order to maintain one's existence
even if it violates the common social norms. Survival in any manner is a radical response to the call of the culture
of life.
5.4 Culture of Gapang and Lusot
To most Filipinos there is no impossible thing that they cannot perform or operate in any manner anywhere,
anytime. Filipinos are known as taong mapamaraan, maraming maaaring gapangan, and mahusay lumusot.
Gapang may be translated as crawling underneath hidden from the knowledge of others in order to escape
(lusot). The term gapang in this context is used as "reaching an individual or group as target for a purpose"
unknown to many. While, the term lusot is applied in this sense as getting away smoothly from ensnaring
situation. Many Filipino politicians, for instance, apply gapang to win the people's vote in favor of their candidacy.
Influential people use gapang to fix certain inconveniences such as failing grades, application for employment,
and the like. Lusot is commonly practiced by many to insist their wants and whim at the expense of rules and
regulations.

Summary
Culture is understood as a pattern of behavior, thinking, beliefs, customs, and social practices of different group
of people living, sharing, and recreating in a community. It may be characterized as learned and acquired, shared
and transmitted, dynamic and adaptive, all embracing and integrated, and symbolic. Culture is classified as material
and social. Cultural pattern and cultural determinism (relativism) are always considered in studying culture as
determining factors of every social way of living. Culture rapidly changes through migration, acculturation, conquest,
and immigration in which people are always seeking for a better mode of living.

KEY TERMS
Culture Material culture Social culture
Cultural pattern Cultural relativism Migration
Immigration Acculturation Culture of life
Culture of survival Culture of toleration Counter-productive culture
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TESTS
A. True or False
_____________ 1. Food gathering, hunting, and fishing were the life pattern of earliest Filipinos.
_____________ 2. Filipino culture is a product of intermarriages and social interaction between foreign traders
from nearby islands and western invaders with the local inhabitants of the archipelago.
_____________ 3. The Americans colonized the Filipino people for more than three hundred years.
_____________ 4. Fiesta syndrome is one among other cultures that Filipinos had learned and acquired from the
Spaniards.
_____________ 5. To share and transmit one's culture to others imply revealing one's beliefs and values through
actions.
_____________ 6. The advent of modern and sophisticated technologies altered the culture of every human
individual or group.
_____________ 7. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) embraced and adapted other cultures abroad in order to
survive.
_____________ 8. Culture cannot be prejudiced and judged as good or bad since it is uniquely relative.
_____________ 9. Migration is a social process in which an individual or group move from one region or nation to
another to look for a better life, job, and personal satisfaction that they cannot realize in their
former place.
_____________ 10. Counter-productive culture occurs due to man's willingness to survive.

B. Essay
1. How does culture affect the learning process of every individual?
2. How do you reconcile two conflicting cultures?

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