TG Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

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Understanding Culture,
Society, and Politics
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Teacher’s Guide
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Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics
Teacher’s Guide
First Edition 2016
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Published by the Department of Education
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Secretary: Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC
Undersecretary: Dina S. Ocampo, PhD
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Development Team of the UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

Teacher’s Guide
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Anne Lan Candelaria (PhD) Jose Jowel Canuday (DPhil, Oxon.) Czarina Saloma (Dr. rer. soc.)
Nico N. Aquino Kalenna Lorene S. Asis Dr. Evelyn V. Avila Elisa Bustamante
Reynora Laurenciano Jeffrey Anthony F. Reyes Neil Vincent Sandoval
Cover Art: Quincy D. Gonzales Layout: Ivy Dumarada Illustrations: Jayson Villena
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Management Team of the UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

Teacher’s Guide
Bureau of Curriculum Development
Bureau of Learning Resources
Printed in the Philippines by ____________

Department of Education-Bureau of Learning Resources (DepEd-BLR)
Office Address: Ground Floor Bonifacio Building, DepEd Complex
Meralco Avenue, Pasig City, Philippines 1600
Telefax: (02) 634-1054 or 634-1072
Email Address: blr.lrpd@deped.gov.ph / blr.lrqad@deped.gov.ph
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introducing Culture, Society, and Politics ………………………….. 1

Lesson 1: Making Sense of Our Everyday Experiences ....................................... 3
On culture ............................................................................................. 5
On society ............................................................................................. 7
On politics ............................................................................................. 9
Lesson 2: Understanding the Concepts of Culture, Society, and Politics ……... 11
Aspects of culture ............................................................................... 11
Sociological Approaches to the Study of Society …………………... 12
Discerning Politics ………………………………………………….. 13
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Chapter 2: Tracing Human Evolution and Sociocultural and Political
Transformations …………………………………………………….. 19
Lesson 1: Human Biological and Cultural Evolution …………………………. 21
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The Concept and Study of Evolution ………………………………. 22
The First Humans …………………………………………………... 25
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Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution …………………………….... 29
Museums and Material Culture …………………………………….. 43
Chapter 3: Becoming a Member of Society ……………………………………. 48

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Lesson 1: Enculturation and Socialization ……………………………………. 52
Lesson 2: Conformity and Deviance ………………………………………….. 58
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Lesson 3: Human Dignity, Rights, and the Common Good …………………... 59
Chapter 4: Organizing Society ………………………………………………….. 66

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Lesson 1: Exploring Groups Within Society ………………………………….. 68

Lesson 2: Examining Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions …………….. 71
Chapter 5: Ranking Groups in Society ………………………………………… 81

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Lesson 1: Social and Political Stratification ………………………………….. 82

Theories of Social Stratification …………………………………… 84
Global Stratification and Inequality ……………………………….. 88
Chapter 6: Making Society Better …………………………………………….... 99

Lesson 1: Final Lesson ……………………………………………………….. 101
Additional Readings …………………………………………………………….. 127
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Grade: 11 or 12
Core Subject Title: Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics No. of hours/semester:80 hours
Course Description:
This course uses insights from Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology to develop students’ awareness of cultural, social and political dynamics, and
sensitivity to cultural diversity; provide them with an understanding of how culture, human agency, society and politics work; and engage them in the
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examination of the country’s current human development goals. At the end of the course, students should acquire ideas about human cultures, human
agency, society and politics; recognize cultural relativism and social inclusiveness to overcome prejudices; and develop social and cultural competence to
guide their interactions with groups, communities, networks, and institutions.
CONTENT PERFORMANCE LEARNING

CONTENT CODE
STANDARD STANDARD COMPETENCY
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A. Starting points for the understanding of The learners The learners: The learners:
culture, society, and politics demonstrate an
understanding of:
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1. Sharing of social and cultural 1. human cultural 1. acknowledge human 1. articulate observations
UCSP11/12SPU-
backgrounds of students as social variation, cultural variation, social onhuman cultural
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actors (examples: gender, social differences, social change, variation, social
socioeconomic class, ethnicity, differences, and political identities differences, social
religion, exceptionality/non- social change, change,and political
exceptionality, nationality) and political 2. adopt an open and critical identities
identities
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attitude toward different
2. demonstrate curiosity and
2. Observations about social, political, social, political, and
an openness to explore the
and cultural behavior and phenomena 2. the cultural phenomena UCSP11/12SPU-
origins and dynamics of
(examples: food taboos, istambay,
political dynasties, elections)
significance of
studying
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through observation and
reflection
culture and society, and
Ia-2
political identities
culture, 3. appreciate the value
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3. Observations on social, political,and society, and ofdisciplines of 3. analyze social, political, UCSP11/12SPU-
cultural change (examples: txting, politics Anthropology, Sociology, and cultural change Ib-3
transnational families, local public andPolitical Science as
4. recognize the common UCSP11/12SPU-
services, youth volunteerism) 3. the rationale social sciences
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concerns or intersections Ib-4
CONTENT CODE
for studying of anthropology,
4.
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Definition of anthropology, political anthropology, sociology, and political
science, and sociology political science with respect to the
science, and phenomenon of change
sociology
5. identify the subjects of
inquiry and goals of UCSP11/12SPU-
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Anthropology, Political Ib-5
Science, and Sociology
B. Defining Culture, Society, and Politics 1. The concepts of 1. appreciate the nature of 1. explain anthropological
1. Society as a group of people sharing a
E culture, society culture and society from the and sociological UCSPC11DCS-Ic-
common culture and politics perspectives of perspectives on culture 6
2. Culture as a “complex whole which anthropology and sociology and society
encompasses beliefs, practices, values, 2. perspectives
D 2. describe society and
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attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, in/approaches to 2. demonstrate a holistic UCSPC11/12DCS-
culture as a complex
symbols, knowledge, and everything the study of understanding of culture Ic-7
whole
that a person learns and shares as a culture, society, and society
member of society.” (E.B. Tylor 1920 and politics
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[1871]), and is: (i.e., 3. value cultural heritage and 3. identify aspects of culture UCSP11/12DCS-
a. Dynamic, Flexible, & Adaptive comparative, express pride of place and society Ic-8
b. Shared & Contested (given the
reality of social differentiation and
historical,
structural-
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without being ethnocentric
4. raise questions toward a UCSP11/12DCS-
competing interests) functional, holistic appreciation of Id-9
c. Learned through socialization or interpretive, cultures and societies
enculturation critical)
d. Patterned
e. Integrated and at times unstable 5. become aware of why and
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UCSP11/12DCS-
f. Transmitted through how cultural relativism
Id-10
socialization/enculturation mitigates ethnocentrism
g. Requires language and other
CONTENT CODE
forms of communication
h. Ethnocentrism and Cultural
6. identify forms of tangible
Relativism as orientations UCSP11/12DCS-
and intangible heritageand
3. Politics as the art of government, Ie-11
the threats to these
public affairs, compromise and
consensus, and power
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C. Looking back at Human Biocultural and 1. human origins Analyze key features of 1. trace the biological and
UCSP11/12HBS-
Social Evolution and the interrelationships of biological, cultural evolution of early
Ie-12
1. Biological and cultural evolution: from capacity for cultural and sociopolitical to modern humans
Homo habilis (or earlier) to Homo culture processes in human evolution
sapienssapiens in the fossil record 2. the role of that can still be used and 2. explore the significance of
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2. Cultural and sociopolitical evolution: culture in developed human material remains
from hunting and gathering to the human and artefactual evidencein UCSP11/12HBS-
agricultural, industrial, and post- adaptation interpreting cultural and If-13
industrial revolutions
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3. processes of social, including political
a. The Neolithic Revolution cultural and and economic, processes
b. Early civilizations and the sociopolitical
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rise of the state evolution 3. recognize national, local,
c. Democratization and specialized museums,
and archaeological and
historical sites as venues
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UCSP11/12HBS-
If-14
on the complexities of
biocultural and social
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CONTENT CODE
D. Becoming a member of society 1. how 1. identify norms and values
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1. Enculturation/Socialization individuals to be observed in
1. explain the development
a. Identity formation (identities, learn culture interacting with others in
of one’s self and others as UCSP11/12BMS-
disciplines, and aspirations) and become society, and the
a product of socialization Ig-15
b. Norms and values competent consequences of ignoring
and enculturation
c. Statuses and roles (e.g. age, members of these rules
gender) society
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2. Conformity and deviance
2. assess the rules of social
a. Social control (gossip, social
interaction to maintain 2. identify the context,
ostracism, laws and punishments)
b. Forms of deviance (ritualism,
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and the role of innovation
content,processes, and
consequences of
UCSP11/12BMS-
retreatism, rebellion, and Ig-16
in response to problems enculturation and
innovation)
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3. Human dignity, rights, and the
common good
2. how 3. recognize the value of 3. Identifies the social goals
individuals human rights and promote and the socially acceptable UCSP11/12BMS-
should behave
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the common good means of achieving these Ih-17
as part of a goals
political
community
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citizenship Ih-18
5. promoteprotectionof
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UCSP11/12BMS-
human dignity, rights, and
Ih-19
the common good
CONTENT CODE
E. How society is organized 1. cultural, 1. analyze aspects of social
1. Groups within society social, and organization
a. Primary and secondary groups political
b. In-groups and out-groups institutions as 2. identify one’s role in social 1. traces kinship ties and
UCSP11/12HSO-
c. Reference group sets of norms groups and institutions social networks
IIi-20
d. Networks
2. Formal organizations
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behavior that 3. recognize other forms of
a. Bureaucracy relate to major economic transaction such
b. “McDonaldization” of society social interests as sharing, gift exchange,
and redistribution in his/her
F. Cultural, social and political institutions 2. social own society
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1. Kinship, marriage, and the household stratification
a. Kinship by blood as the ranking 2. describe the organized
UCSP11/12HSO-
Descent systems of individuals nature of social life and
IIi-21
(matrilateral, patrilineal, bilateral)
b. Kinship by marriage
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wealth, power,
rules governing behavior
Marriage rules cross-culturally and prestige

(monogamy vs. polygamy, post-marital
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residency rules, preferred marriage 3. social and
partners, divorce) political
c. Kinship by ritual (Compadrazgo) inequalities as 3. compare different social
d. Family and the household features of forms of social
Nuclear, extended, and reconstituted societies and
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UCSP11/12HSO-
families (separated, transnational) the global IIj-22
their manifest and latent
e. Politics of kinship (political dynasty, community functions
alliances)
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2. Political and leadership structures
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CONTENT CODE
a. Political organization
i. Bands
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ii. Tribes
iii. Chiefdoms
4. analyze social and UCSP11/12HSO-
iv. States and nations
political structures IIj-23
b. Authority and legitimacy
i. Traditional
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ii. Charismatic
iii. Rational
3. Economic Institutions
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a. Reciprocity 5. analyze economic
b. Transfers organization and its UCSP11/12HSO-
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c. Redistribution impacts on the lives of IIa-24
d. Market transactions people in the society
e. Markets and state
4. Nonstate institutions
a. Banks and corporations
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b. Cooperatives and trade unions UCSP11/12HSO-
c. Transnational advocacy groups nonstate institutions in
IIb-25
society
d. Development agencies
e. International organizations
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5. Education
7. evaluate how functions of
a. Functions of education in society UCSP11/12HSO--
education affect the lives
(formal and nonformal) IIf-26
of people in society
i. Productive citizenry
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ii. Self-actualization
8. promote primary
UCSP11/12HSO-
iii. Primary education as a
human right education as a human right IIf-27
CONTENT CODE
6. Religion and belief systems 9. conduct participant
a. Animism observation (e.g., attend,
b. Polytheism describe, and reflect on a UCSP11/12HSO-
c. Monotheism
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d. Institutionalized religions
religious ritual of a
different group; observe
IIg-28
e. Separation of church and state elections practices)

7. Health
a. Culture-specific syndromes and
illnesses (e.g., “bughat”,
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10. recognize the practice of
“usog”/”buyag”)
medical pluralism in light UCSP11/12HSO-
b. Systems of diagnosis, prevention
of cultural diversity and IIg-29
and healing (e.g., traditional,
western, alternative healing
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systems)
c. Health as a human right
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G. Social stratification
1. Social desirables 11. examine stratification
UCSP11/12HSOI-
a. Wealth from the functionalist and
IIc-30
b. Power conflict perspectives
c. Prestige
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2. Social mobility system
a. Open (Class) 12. identify characteristics of
b. Closed (Caste)
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UCSP11/12HSO-
IId-31
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CONTENT CODE
H. Social inequality
1. Access to financial, social, political,
and symbolic capital
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2. Gender inequality
3. Marginalization of ethnic and other 13. suggest ways to address UCSP11/12HSO-
minorities global inequalities IIe-32
4. Global stratification and inequality
(e.g., relationships between states and
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nonstate actors in the global
community)
I. Social change and human agency 1. evaluate processes of social 1. identify new challenges
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1. Invention (e.g., new of forms of media change faced by human UCSP11/12CSC-
and social networking, technological populations in IIh-33
change) 2. assess options and contemporary societies
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2. Diffusion, acculturation, and alternatives for social
globalization action by individuals and
3. Social contradictions, conflict, and communities
change (e.g., inter-ethnic conflicts,
class struggle, armed conflict, 1. agents/
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terrorism, protests, gender issues) institutions,
4. Social movements (e.g., indigenous processes, and 2. describe how human
people’s rights, environmentalism, outcomes of
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challenges in the physical,
UCSP11/12CSC-
feminism, religious fundamentalism, cultural, political, IIi-34
revitalization movements) and social change social, and cultural
5. Demographic change (e.g., environment
transnational migration, Overseas
Filipino Workers)
6. New challenges to human adaptation
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(e.g., climate change
7. Inclusive citizenship and participatory
governance
3. develop a plan of action UCSP11/12CSC-
CONTENT CODE
for community-based IIj-35
response to change
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GLOSSARY1
Acculturation A process of culture change due to contact between societies; often used to refer to subordinate tribal societies
adapting to more dominant societies
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Agency A concept referring to the willed and voluntary nature of an individual’s life and action as opposed to the constraint
and determinism of social structures
Animism Belief in spirits dwelling in natural objects and phenomenon
Anthropology
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‘The study of humans’; social science which encompasses the fields of physical or biological anthropology,
archaeology, social or cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology
Authority The exercise of legitimate power
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Band A small social group (e.g. ranging from 6-50) occupying a territory, usually consisting of a kin group, and
characteristic of societies subsisting by hunting and gathering. Bands are nomadic, fluid (in population size), and
generally egalitarian C
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General References: O
Bates, D. and E. Franklin. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. Boston: Pearson.
Beilharz, P. and T. Hogan. 2006. Sociology: Place, Time and Division. Melbourne: Oxford University Press
Gezon, L. and C. Kottak. (2012). Culture. New York: McGraw Hill.
Heywood, A. (2013). Politics (4th Edition). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Macionis, J. 2012. Sociology (14th ed). Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd
Miller, B. (2012). Cultural Anthropology (7th Edition). Boston: Pearson.
North, D. (1991). “Institutions.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(1), pp. 97-112.
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Schaefer, R. (2001). Sociology (7th Edition). New York: McGraw Hill.
Bilateral kinship The kinship system wherein blood relationships are traced through both father and mother.(Also called Cognatic
descent.)
Caste system A hereditary system of rank, usually religiously dictated, that tend to be fixed
Chiefdom A political system in which kin groups are linked together through a political (or religious) hierarchy. Leadership is
Citizenship
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monopolized by highly ranked members who inherit their political roles
May be defined as: (a) identification of an individual based on a formal-legal status coterminous with the emergence
of states; or (b) shared membership of a political community in which conception [of] citizens are political actors
constituting political spaces
Class A term used by Max Weber to refer to a group of people who have a similar level of wealth and income
Class system A social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence mobility
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Closed system A social system in which the position of each individual is influenced by his or her ascribed status and there is little or
no possibility of individual mobility
Compadrazgo The establishment of ties between godparents and godchildren, and ‘coparents’ through ritual; ritual ‘coparenthood’
Conformity
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In Robert Merton’s “Strain Theory,” refers to the pursuit of cultural goals through approved means
Cultural relativism The ethical insistence that other cultures can only be evaluated and understood in terms of their own standards and
values
Culture
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The system of knowledge, norms and values more or less shared by members of a particular society
Culture-specific (or culture- A set of associated symptoms that is identified as a particular illness or ailment by the group itself; ‘folk illness’
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bound) syndrome
Deviance The recognized violation of cultural norms
Diffusion
another
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The process by which discrete cultural elements (e.g. ideas, artifacts, practices) may spread from one society to
Discovery The process of making known or sharing the existence of an aspect of the world
Education
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The systematic transfer of knowledge and skills from one generation to the next through teaching, training or
research; may take place in formal (ex: schools) or informal (ex: home) settings
Enculturation A child’s incorporation into his or her society through learning of the culture
Environmentalism Concern, advocacy or work toward protecting nature or the environment
Ethnicity One’s identification with social group that shares cultural traditions, languages, social experiences, or ancestry
Ethnocentrism Viewing other peoples and ways of life in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions
Family A set of people related by blood, marriage (or some agreed-upon relationship), or adoption, who share the primary
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responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society
Feminism/Feminist The various individuals, theories, doctrines, and social movements concerned with the experience of women,
especially the oppression and unequal treatment of women
Formal organization A large secondary group organized to achieve its goals efficiently
Gender The socially-constructed attitudes, meanings, beliefs, and behaviors associated with the sex differences of being born
male or female that are learned through the process of socialization
Gift exchange See Reciprocity
Globalization The economic, cultural, and political interdependence and interconnectedness of all nations in the planet, best
captured in the definition by Roland Robertson: “the time-space compression of the world and the increased
consciousness o the world as a whole”
Government One of the institutions involved in governance; one of the four elements of the state tasked to make, implement, and
interpret law
Group
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Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and consciously interact
Human agency See Agency
In-group A social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty
Institutions Humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interactions; stable, recurring patterns of
behavior; hence, political institutions are not the same as political organizations
Innovation In Robert Merton’s “Strain Theory,” a type of deviance characterized by the use of unconventional means rather than
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conventional means to achieve a culturally approved goal
Invention The process of combining existing cultural items into a form that did not previously exist
Market transactions Profit-oriented impersonal exchanges
Matrilineal descent
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Kin relations are traced only on the mother’s side
McDonaldization The process in which the four principles of the fast food industry, namely, efficiency, calculability, efficiency, and
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control, have come to dominate certain sectors of society throughout the world
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Medical pluralism The recognition of more than one medical system (e.g. Western and alternatives)
Monogamy Marriage rule to have only one spouse, or one spouse at a time (serial monogamy)
Monotheism Belief that there is only one god
Nation A group of people with a deeply shared fundamental identification often welded together by ties of blood
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relationships, a common language (often but not always), literature, history and tradition
Neolithic Revolution The process of domestication of plants and animals by hunters and gatherers, together with all the associated social
and demographic changes: population growth, sedentarization and settlement, craft specialization, production of
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surplus, social differentiation and the emergence of a ruling class, the rise of cities and civilizations (with writing,
monumental architecture, fine arts and sciences), trade and the State; the ‘New Stone Age’ level of technology
marked by polished stone tools and food production
Norms Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
Open system A social system in which the position of each individual is influenced by his or her achieved status
Out-group A social group toward which person feels a sense of competition or opposition
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Participant observation Qualitative research methodology in which the researcher participates in and to a certain extent becomes part of the
society under observation
Patrilineal descent Descent traced a line of male ancestors. (Also called Agnatic descent)
Political capital A sentiment/ overall image that a politician, elected official or candidate has a legitimate political mandate to get
things done in the eyes of the voting public; social and symbolic capital, winning elections, pursuing policies that
have public support, and performing favors maybe used to gain political capital
Political Science
Politics
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Is the systematic study of politics
May be defined as: (1) the art of government, (2) public affairs, (3) compromise and consensus, and (4) power
Polygamy Marriage to more than one spouse: Polygyny - marriage of a man to two or more wives; Polyandry - marriage of a
woman to two or more husbands
Polytheism Belief in many gods
Post-marital residence rules Rules on where a newly married couple should reside (e.g. Patrilocal - men remain in their territory and wives marry
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in [also called Virilocal]; Matrilocal - residence with the wife’s kin [also called Uxurilocal]; Neolocal - residence in a
new place)
Primary group A small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships
Rebellion
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In Robert Merton’s “Strain Theory,” a type of deviance characterized by the rejection of both cultural goals and
conventional means and the formation of a counterculture supporting alternatives to the existing social order
Reciprocity Recognition of obligations to give, receive, and reciprocate in kind; ‘gift exchanges’ that create bonds between
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persons or acknowledge personal ties
Redistribution The distribution of surplus which flows into and is accumulated by a political center before being redistributed
outward.
Reference group A social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions
Religion
Retreatism
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Beliefs and behavior concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces
In Robert Merton’s “Strain Theory,” a type of deviance characterized by the rejection of both cultural goals and
conventional means
Ritualism In Robert Merton’s “Strain Theory,” a type of deviance characterized by the inability to reach a cultural goal because
of rigid adherence to conventional means
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Role Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status
Secondary group A large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity
Social actor An individual endowed with human agency
Social capital A concept that refers to the positive connection between people and the virtues that emerge from them such as trust
and reciprocity; emphasizes that social bonds are a form of capital used for profit-making
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Social change The transformation of culture and social institutions over time
Social control The techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
Social dynamics The determinants of social change; to be understood in relation to social statics, or the requirements for social order
Social dysfunction Any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society
Social function The consequences of any social pattern for the operation of society as a whole
Social group Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another
Social inequality A condition in which members of a society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power
Social institution
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The major spheres of social life, or societal subsystems, organized to meet human needs
Social mobility A change in position within the social hierarchy.
Social movement An organized activity that encourages or discourages social change
Social network A series of social relationships that links a person directly to others and therefore indirectly to still more people
Socialization The lifelong process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate for individuals as members of
a particular society
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Social stratification A structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards, power, and prestige in a
society
Social structure Any relatively stable pattern of social behavior
Society
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People who interact in a defined territory and share a culture
Sociology The systematic study of society
State
government, and sovereignty
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An entity of power and authority within a given population and territory; Has four elements: territory, population,
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Status A social position that a person holds
Symbolic capital A concept used by Pierre Bourdieu to point out the way in which resources can have the quality of a type of “capital,”
but not seen as such. For example, educational qualifications allow one to do many things, including learn more and
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earn more, and thus they are a form of capital, a source of profit
Transfers Goods/value are passed to another without expectation of return
Tribe Stateless, small-scale society with distinctive language and culture engaged in subsistence-oriented food production
Values
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Collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—in a
culture PY
Code Book Legend
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LEGEND SAMPLE DOMAIN/ COMPONENT CODE
Learning Area and Starting points for the understanding of culture

Understanding Culture, SPU
Strand/ Subject or and society
Society and Politics
First Entry Specialization UCSP11/12
EP
Grade Level Grade 11 or 12 Defining Culture and Society from the
DCS
perspectives of anthropology and sociology
Uppercase Letter/s
Domain/Content/
E Starting points for the
understanding of culture SPU
Component/ Topic
and society Looking back at Human Biocultural and Social
HBS
D -
Evolution
xvii
Roman Numeral
Quarter 1st Quarter I
*Zero if no specific quarter Becoming a member of society BMS
Lowercase Letter/s
C
*Put a hyphen (-) in between
Week Week one a How society is organized HSO
letters to indicate more than
a specific week
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-
Cultural, Social, and Political Change Sources
CSC
articulate observations of social, cultural, and political change
on human cultural
variation, social
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Arabic Number Competency 1
differences, social
change, and political
identities
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS
I. INTRODUCTION
Summary
Chapter 1 provides some conceptual handles for understanding everyday experiences

and observations of culture, society, and politics. Thomas Hyland Eriksen (2001)
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illustrates the definitive and ambiguous ways by which the concept of culture has
been understood in terms of how people live their lives. C. Wright Mills invites
students to view the world around them in terms of the intersection of private lives
and the larger social and historical context. Lydia Yu-Jose points out the limits of
Western notions of politics to understand the Philippines and its democratic
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institutions and processes.
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The remaining readings in this chapter offer some definitions of culture, society and
politics. In defining culture and society, Eriksen (2004) situates the individual in the
broader social world in which he or she is embedded. To deepen our understanding of
culture, Renato Rosaldo addresses the misunderstanding of the notion of culture. He
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argues against widespread views that only cultural minorities have culture while
lowland Filipinos don’t on account of Western influences. Finally, Andrew Heywood
presents four views of politics as affairs of the state, public affairs, conflict and
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compromise, and power.

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How then are culture, society, and politics related in everyday life? Each person
interacts meaningfully with one another as members of society. Culture encompasses
the meaningful processes and products of these social interactions. People likewise
interact in society as individuals and as groups with duties and privileges. In the
exercise of duties and privileges, a person as a member of society engages in political
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activities.
Focus Questions
1. How is culture, society, and politics manifested in everyday life?

2. What perspectives can we use to understand culture, society, and politics?
II. CONTENT
A. Starting points for the understanding of culture, society, and politics
1. Sharing of social and cultural backgrounds of students as acting subjects

or social actors, agents, persons (examples: gender, socioeconomic class,
ethnicity, religion, exceptionality/non-exceptionality, nationality)
2. Observations about social, political, and cultural behavior and phenomena
(examples: food taboos, istambay, political dynasties, elections)
3. Observations on social, political, and cultural change (examples: texting,
transnational families, local public services, youth volunteerism)
4. Definition of anthropology, political science, and sociology
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B. Defining culture and society from the perspectives of anthropology and
sociology
1. Society as a group of people sharing a common culture
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2. Culture as a “that complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices,
values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and
everything that a person learns and shares as a member of society.” (E.B.
Tylor 1920 [1871])
3. Aspects of culture
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4. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism as orientations in viewing other
cultures
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III. STANDARD
Content Standard
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The learners demonstrate an understanding of:

1. Human cultural variation, social differences, social change, and political
identities
2. The significance of studying culture, society, and politics
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3. The rationale for studying anthropology, political science, and sociology
Performance Standard
The learners:
1. Acknowledge human cultural variation, social differences, social change,
and political identities
2. Adopt an open and critical attitude toward different social, political, and
cultural phenomena through observation and reflection
3. Appreciate the value of Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science as
social science disciplines
IV. LEARNING COMPETENCIES
A. Starting points for the understanding of culture, society, and politics
1. Articulate observations on human cultural variation, social differences, social

change, and political identities.
2. Demonstrate curiosity and an openness to explore the origins and dynamics of
culture and society, and political identities.
3. Analyze social, political, and cultural change.
4. Recognize the common concerns or intersections of anthropology, sociology,
and political science with respect to the phenomenon of change.
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5. Identify the subjects of inquiry and goals of Anthropology, Political Science,
and Sociology.
B. Defining Culture and Society from the perspectives of Anthropology and

Sociology
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1. Appreciate the nature of culture and society from the perspectives of
anthropology and sociology.
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2. Demonstrate a holistic understanding of culture and society.
3. Values cultural heritage and express pride of place without being ethnocentric.
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V. LESSON
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Lesson 1. Making Sense of Our Everyday Experiences
Specific Objectives
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This phase aims to identify the prior knowledge of students about culture, society,
and politics.
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Explore
Activity 1. Pinpoint!
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Using the picture above identify the concepts that you can associate with culture,
society, and politics. Write your answers in the graphic organizer.
CULTURE
SOCIETY
POLITICS
Process Question
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From your answers, give your own definition of culture, society, and politics.
Firm up
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On Culture
Material: Eriksen, Thomas Hyland, 2001. “Introduction: Comparison and Context,”
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Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural
Anthropology.2nd Edition. London: Sterling Press. pp. 1–7
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Guide Questions
1. Why are there great variations in the way people around the world live?
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2. Amid these variations, why do we see similarities among societies?

3. In what way can the study of the different and common aspects of human
existence contribute to our understanding of culture, society, and politics?
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A broad swath of people around the world relate with each other in different ways but
a closer examination of these differences also reveal how people are alike in terms of
their biological features and what they do as they interact with each other. The
difference and similarities by which people live, act, and interact show the numerous
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aspects of human existence. In the discipline of anthropology, these diverse but

familiar manifestations of humanity are referred to as culture. For anthropologists,
culture is the reference point by which people organize themselves and make sense of
themselves as members of their own society. For that matter, anthropology regards
culture as the “acquired cognitive and symbolic aspects of human existence, whereas
society refers to the social organization of human life, patterns of interaction and
power relationships” (Eriksen 2001: 4). Analyzing how people culturally differ and
what they share in common deepens our knowledge of humans as biological and
social beings. Being human and becoming human is to be a social person shaped by
culture but tempered or enabled by their own bodily anatomy. The anthropological
discipline offers a detailed study of human engagements that include family life, child
raising, beliefs and religion, politics, material productions and innovations, laws,
economic life and the relationship between men and women in different social
settings and time periods.
In a sense, anthropology ask big questions about the human condition but draws
answers from the study of the particular experiences of people living under different
circumstances, be these in a small village deep in the jungles, a farming settlement, a
bustling metropolitan city or a string of communities across different countries. By
looking at the general and particular aspects of human social life, anthropology
provides explanation of the interrelationship of the various facets of human life that
explains sociocultural and political practices of societies around the world across time
and spaces. Understanding these relationship means making sense of the unique
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situation and linkages that people establish within and between societies.
Key Concepts
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What is Anthropology?
The etymology or origin of the term anthropology can be traced back to two Greek
words, ‘anthropos’ and ‘logos’. When translated into English, ‘anthropos’ means
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‘human’ while ‘logos’ refers to ‘knowledge’ (Eriksen 2001: 2). In this sense,
anthropology can be understood as the ‘knowledge about humans’ (Ibid.). The subject
of anthropological study is humanity but unlike other disciplines in the human
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sciences, anthropology studies the diversity and similarity of the way a person live
and make connections as social and cultural beings. Anthropology as a discipline
compares cultural and social life primarily through participant observation, a research
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method that entails lengthy fieldwork or immersion in a specific social setting.

Through participant observation, anthropologists study in depth the various aspect of
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society and then compare how that society differ and reflect other societies. For
example, an anthropologist who studies the sea faring communities of Sama Dilaut in
the Sulu Archipelago would find ways of comparing and contrasting them to the
broader Bajao seafaring cultures across Southeast Asia or elsewhere in the world. By
doing these comparative studies, anthropology as an academic discipline provides a
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more grounded, insightful, and deeper understanding of our common humanity.

Through the years, a wide range of subfields of studies emerged within the academic
discipline of anthropology. These subfields include social and cultural anthropology,
archeology, biological anthropology, evolutionary anthropology, socio-linguistic
anthropology, visual anthropology, political and legal anthropology, cyborg
anthropology, psychological anthropology, economic anthropology, urban
anthropology, climate anthropology, development anthropology, and several more.
The subfields of the discipline continues to expand today but as the range of
anthropological knowledge grew and expanded, humanity are better equipped in
answering the question of how it is to become human.
Activity 2. Define Me!
The activity aims to give students a clear understanding of the basic concepts of
anthropology and its relation to culture.
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Process Questions
1. What are the objects of anthropological study?
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2. What perspective does anthropology offer to the study of culture and society?
3. Why is it important to know the similarity and diversity of cultures and
societies?
On Society
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Material: Mills, C. Wright. (1959). “The Promise,” The Sociological Imagination.

New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 3–24
Guide Questions
1. According to Mills, how can one understand society?
2. How is addressing or solving a personal problem different from addressing a
public problem?
Summary
C. Wright Mills argues that a great number of our social experiences can overwhelm
us into inaction. He then offers a solution: a way of seeing society that can help us
understand everyday events and make better choices as individuals and as a group. He
calls this the “sociological imagination,” which is a way of looking at people in terms
of the intersection of their own lives with the larger social and historical context. In
Mills’s view, society—not people’s personal failings—is the main cause of social
problems (Macionis 2012: 7). To illustrate how one can develop a sociological
imagination, Mills distinguishes between two kinds of situations that people find
themselves in: “private troubles” (personal problems) and “public issues” (social
problems). He points out that there are indeed private troubles, but some of them also
affect many other people since they have large-scale causes. Examples of private
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troubles that are also public issues are poverty; unemployment; lack of access to
education; poor quality of education; air, water, and noise pollution; bullying; single
parenthood; and so on. According to Mills, addressing or solving a private trouble is
different from addressing a public issue. Since personal trouble is a private matter, its
resolution lies within the individual and within the scope of his or her immediate
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personal experience. In contrast, people viewing personal problems as public issues
will look for solutions to social problems not at the level of the individual. Instead,
they will look into bringing people together to create needed change by organizing
themselves and through their social institutions.
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Key Concepts
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Sociology is the systematic study of human society (Macionis 2012: 2), focusing
particularly on the dynamic interplay between individual and society. At the heart of
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sociology is the sociological perspective, a special point of view of sociology that

sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people (Ibid.).

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One of the works that elaborate this special point of view is C. W. Mills’s
Sociological Imagination, a quality of mind that enables the possessor to link
personal with the social.
 The sociological imagination helps us understand everyday events. According
to Mills, “society—not people’s personal failings—is the main cause of
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poverty and other social problems. By turning personal problems into public
issues, the sociological imagination also is the key to bringing people together
to create needed change” (Macionis 2012: 7).
 The sociological imagination also requires a global perspective, a study of
the larger world and our society’s place in it (Macionis 2012: 6).
Activity 3. Turning personal problems into social problems

Organize a group discussion activity by dividing the class into groups. Ask them to
do the following:
1. Designate a group leader who will facilitate the discussion, a documenter who
will take down notes, and a reporter who will present the main points of the
group discussion to the class.
2. Illustrate the main points discussed by the group on a sheet of Manila paper or
any appropriately sized piece of paper.
3. Present the group work to the class.
Process Questions
1. What personal troubles have you experienced? Identify 2–3 personal troubles.
2. Are any of these personal troubles also social problems? Which ones and
why?
3. Identify solutions to these social problems.
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Note to the Teacher: A possible example of a personal trouble that is actually a
social issue is the noise caused by a karaoke session late at night that prevents
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people from getting rest. This activity can prepare students to see politics as a
concept that occurs in everyday lives. In this example, local governments
(including the barangay) can implement a local ordinance that seeks to regulate the
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use of karaoke during nighttime. In addition, it can designate building
(soundproofing) and zoning guidelines to minimize noise in the community. In
certain cases, this activity can potentially open sensitive issues such as family
abuse, relationship issues, experiences of violence, and other matters. Handle the
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discussion with keen sensitivity, empathy, and care.
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On Politics
Material: Yu-Jose, Lydia (2010). “Politics, You and Democracy,” Philippine Politics:
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Democratic Ideals and Realities. Quezon City: Ateneo University Press.
Guide Questions
1. Among the many definitions of politics which one is the most agreeable to
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you? Why?
2. How can one determine what is political and what is not?
2. What is the role of active participation in a democracy?
3. Do you agree that democracy is the best political system?
Summary
Yu-Jose’s article localizes the Western concepts of politics. It discusses politics and
its place in the Philippines and its democratic institutions and processes. The article
begins with a discussion on the various definitions of politics and its scope or focus.
Particular interest on how the study of politics revolves around the state, its
institutions, its decisions and its relationship with other states and individuals.
Pinpointing the scope of politics, however, remains a complicated task because of the
relational nature of politics. Therefore, an alternative way is to decide what is
political and what is not is to look at individuals’ attitudes toward the state—active
participation, rejection, or indifference. It ends with a discussion on the importance of
participation in the promotion and maintenance of democracy.
Activity 4. Who Said What?

In this activity the students should be able to identify different thinkers who gave
perspectives about politics. Whose idea of politics is the following?
1. A human being is a political animal.

2. Politics is the authoritative allocation of values in a society.
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2. Politics refers to any activity involving human beings associated together in
relationship of power and authority where conflict occurs.
3. Politics is a way of ruling in divided societies without violence.
4. Politics is reserved for statesmen and stateswomen.
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Answer key:
1. Aristotle
2. David Easton
3. Robert Dahl
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4. Bernard Crick
5. Michael Oakeshott
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Deepen
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Activity 5. Trace the relationships

Each person interacts meaningfully with one another as a member of society. Culture
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encompasses the meaningful processes and products of these social interactions.

People interact in society as individuals and as groups with duties and privileges. In
the exercise of duties and privileges, a person as a member of society engages in
political activities.
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Use the diagram to show how a person

experiences culture, society, and politics in
your everyday life. Society Politics
Process Question
How are culture, society, and politics PERSON
interrelated with one another?
Culture
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Lesson 2: Understanding the Concepts of Culture, Society, and Politics
Objectives
At the end of the course, the learners will be able to:
1. Identify the nature and dynamics of culture and society using key
anthropological, sociological, and political science concepts.
2. Distinguish key features of the three major approaches to the study of culture,
society, and politics.
3. Value cultural heritage and express pride of place without being ethnocentric.
Explore
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Activity 6. Role-playing a Religious Feast
Divide the class into groups. Instruct each group to elect their leader and a
documenter. Ask the class to prepare a short skit depicting people involved in the
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preparation and celebration of a religious feast.
Process Question
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1. What activities are involved in carrying out a religious feast?
2. How do they know that a religious feast requires these activities?
3. Why do they celebrate religious feasts?
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Firm up
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Aspects of Culture
The notion of culture presents a complex portrait of humanity. Anthropology regards
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culture as learned, symbolic, integrated, shared, and all encompassing (Tylor

1871).
 It is learned because culture is acquired by being born into a particular
society in the process of enculturation, as anthropologists would say, or
socialization, as sociologists would explain. Through language, the cultural
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traits of society are passed on to younger members in the process of growing

up and through teaching.
 Culture is symbolic in the sense that it renders meanings to what people do.
Beliefs, religion, rituals, myths, dances, performances, music, artworks, sense
of taste, education, innovations, identity, ethnicity, and so on, are meaningful
human expressions of what people do and how they act.
 The systems of meanings and many other facets of culture such as kindred,
religion, economic activities, inheritance, and political process, do not
function in isolation but as an integrated whole that makes society work.
Furthermore, these varying systems of meanings, relations, and processes are
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shared within a group of people rendering culture bounded to those who seek
a sense of belonging to the same society.
 Since culture is shared within exclusive domains of social relations, societies
operate differently from each other leading to cultural variations. Even as
culture is bounded, it does not mean that there are no variations in how people
act and relate with each other within a given system of their respective
societies. On the contrary, the same society can be broadly diverse wherein
people, for example, profess connections to each other yet practice different
religion, values, or gender relations. Furthermore, societies do not always
exist independently from each other.
 Around the world, people as members of their own societies establish
connections with each other and form relationship guided by their respective
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cultural practices and values. These complex relations underscore the all-
encompassing nature of culture as it covers every feature of humanity.
Edward Tylor, one of the founders of modern anthropology, characterize
culture as a “complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices, traits,
values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything
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that a person learns and shares as a member of society” (Tylor 1871).
 To further understand culture, it is important not to forget the biological
dimensions of being human. The capacity of a person to organize his or her
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own society and form cultural systems is made possible by the ability of
humans to imagine and execute what they can do. Through the power of their
brains, humans possess a considerable degree of awareness and knowledge of
what they can achieve. At the same time, the natural world casts limitation as
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well as opportunities for humans in terms of realizing how else they can
organize their societies and form their cultures. For instance, some societies
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harness resources on flatlands or high up in the mountains while others

organize their lives around the seas. These undertakings indicate that the
specific environment in which people live also shape human culture in the
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same way that culture shapes how people reshape nature.
Sociological Approaches to the Study of Society
Sociologists use three theoretical approaches: the structural-functional approach, the

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social-conflict approach, and the symbolic-interaction approach. A theoretical

approach is a basic image of society that guides thinking and research (Macionis
2012: 12)
Structural-Functional Approach
Structural-functionalists view society as a “complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability” (Macionis 2012: 12). It involves an
analysis of social structure, “any relatively stable pattern of social behavior. Social
structure gives our lives shape—in families, the workplace, the classroom, the
community.” The approach seeks to identify a structure’s social functions, or “the
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consequences of any social pattern for the operation of society as a whole” (Ibid). It is
an approach that is influenced by the ideas of Auguste Comte (1798–1857) who
coined the term sociology in 1838, and Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). Robert K.
Merton (1910–2003) also made significant contributions by distinguishing between
“manifest functions, the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern,
and latent functions, the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social
pattern. He also recognized social dysfunction, any social pattern that may disrupt
the operation of society” (Macionis 2012:13).
Social-Conflict Approach
The social-conflict approach sees society as an “arena of inequality that generates
conflict and change” (Macionis 2012: 13). It therefore highlights inequality and
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change. In contrast to the structural-functionalist approach, it does not see the social
structure as promoting the smooth operation of society. Instead, it focuses on how
social patterns benefit the dominant groups in society. Typically, “people on top try to
protect their privileges while the disadvantaged try to gain more for themselves”
(Ibid).
Symbolic-Interaction Approach
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The symbolic-interaction approach views sees society as the “product of the
everyday interactions of individuals”(Macionis 2012: 16). Human beings live in a
world of symbols. In the process of social interaction, they attach meaning to
everything.
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Macro and micro levels of analysis
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It should be noted that the Structural-Functional and Social-Conflict Approaches have

a macro-level orientation, or a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a
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whole. In contrast, the Symbolic-Interaction Approach uses a micro-level orientation,

a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations (Macionis 2012: 16).
Discerning Politics
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Material: Andrew Heywood (2007). Politics. 3rd edition. NY: Palgrave Macmillan
Guide Questions
1. What are the defining features of politics as an activity?
2. How can politics be understood?
2. Does politics take place within all social institutions or only in some?
3. Can the study of politics be scientific?
4. What approaches to the study of politics as an academic discipline have been
adopted?
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Summary
Heywood introduces the notions of politics and how it can be best understood. He
then presents four varying views of politics, particularly as: (1) the art of government
or what concerns the affairs of the state; (2) the conduct and management of public
affairs; (3) managing conflict through compromise and consensus; and (4) power as
basis for understanding how resources are produced, distributed and used. The study
of politics, therefore, has several approaches: (1) normative, stemming from the
philosophical tradition, which seeks to prescribe values and standards of conduct; (2)
empirical, which offers to make a dispassionate account and analysis of the political
reality; and (3) scientific, drawn heavily from behavioralism, which presents political
realities in a scientifically reliable manner. Due to the complex nature of political
realities, there are also several concepts, models and theories that can be used as tools
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for political analysis. While it is impossible to study politics objectively, these
approaches and tools help frame our investigations of reality.
Activity 7. My Political Thought
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This activity will use personification to know the different ideas of political thinkers.
Task: In small groups, students will prepare a 5-minute skit/ presentation that
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demonstrates how politics is defined by the following personalities.
Mechanics: Each group shall choose one personality. Aside from the text, encourage
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the groups to do independent research using the library and other sources of
information to prepare for the activity.
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1. Niccolo Machiavelli
2. Aristotle
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3. Hannah Arendt
4. St. Thomas Aquinas
5. Plato
6. David Hume
7. John Locke
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8. Karl Marx
9. St. Augustine of Hippo
10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Process Questions:
1. How similar/ different are their ideas about politics?
2. What factors do you think helped shape their ideas and thoughts?
3. If you were to ‘define’ politics based on your experience, what would it be?
4. Is it possible to study politics more scientifically? How?
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Deepen
Ethnocentrism
When people find cultural practices and values not their own as disturbing and
threatening, that can be regarded as ethnocentrism. A literal meaning of
ethnocentrism is the regard that one’s own culture and society is the center of
everything and therefore far more superior than others (Kottak 2012: 39; Eriksen
2001:7). It is understandable that people laud and hold importance to the cultural
values that were taught them by their parents, elders, and other institutions of their
society. The problem is when a person or groups of people regard their own society’s
set of cultural values as the only agreeable, acceptable, and highly respectable set of
convictions. Such a perspective can harden into chauvinism, a position that
everything about the other culture is wrong, unreasonable, detestable, and even
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wicked. From this perspective, the practices and institutions of people from other
societies are regarded as inferior, less intelligent, and even vicious. An ethnocentric
attitude can be an obstacle to understanding each other culture and foster tensions
within or between societies.
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Cultural Relativism
The concept of cultural relativism underscores the idea that the culture in every
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society should be understood and regarded on its own terms. Societies are
qualitatively different from one another, such that each one has its own “unique inner
logic” (Eriksen 2001: 14). Cultural traits can only be known and valued in the context
of the society by which they emerge and are practiced. Cultural relativism promotes
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the idea that a society has to be viewed from the inside so that inner logic can be
better explained. A society’s idea of a good life will not likely be shared by another
society that interprets the notion of “good” from a sharply different social
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perspective. In other words, each society has a different yardstick in appreciating the
value of its own cultural trait. Cultural relativism, however, cannot be regarded as the
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flip side of ethnocentrism. The concept of cultural relativism is more analytical and
methodological rather than being a moral principle. Anthropologists apply the
concept of cultural relativity in investigating and comparing societies without
declaring one being better or more preferable to the other.
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Moreover, appreciating and accepting the uniqueness of one society’s cultural trait
does not mean that universal human moral traits of right or wrong no longer apply.
For instance, cultural traits that promote subjugation of women by hurting or killing
them do not necessarily mean that they are right by virtue of one society’s inner logic.
There are underlying patterns of human cultural traits that are common and
universally acceptable to humanity. The violent subjugation and elimination of
human life or traits are broadly unacceptable to the rest of humanity. Through a
relativist approach consciously balanced by a universalist understanding of what is
humanely acceptable, the dangers of ethnocentrism can be addressed.
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Activity 8. Detecting Ethnocentrism and Promoting Respect for Other Cultures
Find pictures of food usually prepared and not usually prepared in your community or
region. Ask the students to comment on the food in the picture and compare them to
the food from the students’ place.
Kinds of Strange
Bad Food Good Food Best Food Reasons
Food Food
Food 1
Food 2
Food 3
Food 4
Food 5
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Note to the Teacher: In choosing the pictures of food, be sensitive to religious or
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some other forms of cultural prohibitions on food. A religious or cultural
prohibition on food does not mean an ethnocentric rule but a cultural particularity
that underscores the idea that societies are indeed diverse.
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Activity 9. Lights, Camera, Action!
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The class will be grouped into two. The first group will be assigned to do a short skit
on ethnocentrism while the other will do a short skit on cultural relativism. After each
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presentation, the students will be asked to write a reflection paper on what they have
learned/realized after watching the performance of each group.
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Process Questions for Activities 8 and 9

1. Is it right to pass judgment on cultures not our own as inferior, threatening, or
disturbing?
2. Should we expect societies around the world to practice the same set of
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cultural values and traits?

3. How is it possible to recognize the uniqueness of each society’s cultural traits
and not from the standpoint of one’s own society?
Transfer
By now, the students should be ready to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they
gained from the discussions in a debate on current issues. Divide the class into two
groups. Ask each group to choose three speakers who will argue their side of the
debate. The Middle School Public Debate Program (MSPDP) format will be used.
The teacher may also use other styles.
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Activity 10. Believe in Me! (A debate using the MSPDP Format)
The Middle School Public Debate Program Rules for Competition cover three key
areas of a debate. These are:
1. Debate Topics
2. Number of Teams and Debaters
3. Speaking Order and Speaking Time Limits
Below are the rules for MSPDP competitions in brief:
1. Debate Topics
Topics for debate competition are usually announced 2–4 weeks before
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debates are held. MSPDP debating supports the use of both extemporaneous
and impromptu topics.
An extemporaneous debate topic is one in which you will have limited

preparation before debating. There will be several weeks to think about the
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topic, research the main points of arguments for and against the topic, and
carefully organize some notes on the better arguments. An impromptu topic is
one that is not known before the debate is set. Students may debate
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extemporaneous and/or impromptu topics in a competition.
Topics are selected to provide a range of debates on personal, educational,

social, political, economic, and cultural issues.
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2. Number of Teams and Debaters
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An MSPDP debate requires two opposing teams. One team is called the
proposition, the other is called the opposition. Each side of the debating teams
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comprises three students. Two members of each team serve as the first and
second speakers. The third student of each team is the rebuttal speaker.
3. Speaking Order and Speaking Time Limits

Speakers make their presentations in the following order and time allotments:
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 First Speaker, Proposition Team, 5 minutes

 First Speaker, Opposition Team, 5 minutes
 Second Speaker, Proposition Team, 5 minutes
 Second Speaker, Opposition Team, 5 minutes
 Rebuttal Speaker, Opposition Team, 3 minutes
 Rebuttal Speaker, Proposition Team, 3 minutes
17
Closure
Complete the unfinished sentences to summarize the lesson.
 The chapter was about…
 One key idea was …
 This is important because …
 Another key idea was…
 This matters because …
PY
References
1. Eriksen, Thomas Hyland (2001) Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and
Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition. London: Sterling Press.
2. Eriksen, Thomas Hyland (2004) What is Anthropology. London: Pluto Press.
O
3. Kottak, Conrad (2011) Anthropology: Appreciating Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill.
4. Macionis, John (2012) Sociology, 14th Edition. Boston: Pearson.
C
5. Tylor, Edward (1871) Primitive Culture, Volume 1. London: John Murray.
E D
EP
D
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CHAPTER 2
TRACING HUMAN EVOLUTION AND SOCIOCULTURAL AND
POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS
I. INTRODUCTION
Summary
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To study and understand the processes of becoming human, it is important that we
look back to the past. Anthropology offers two methods of doing this study. One is
through the close examination of the material remains that early humans had left
behind. The other is through the study of the genetic codes that were passed on across
O
several generations. Through these approaches, the story of human evolution can be
told. It will be seen that humans evolved as they made use of their peculiar biological
features in harnessing the natural environment and in propagating themselves widely
C
across the planet as social beings.
To harness the environment, humans produced tools and organized themselves

socially into diverse and hierarchical groups in many cases. These acts are by
D
themselves cultural process that mark the characteristics of being human. Human
tendencies to relate socially can be tracked to human anatomical features right down
from childbirth. Human anatomy, in particular the female pelvis evolved in
E
consideration of the ability of humans to walk upright, the comparatively big brain
size of human babies, and the difficulty that these babies go through in negotiating a
EP
complicated birth canal during birth (Kottak 2013: 73). These anatomical features and
birthing process are not widely shared with other primates, the genetic order to which
humans belong. Due to complicated anatomy and birthing processes, humans evolved
by requiring assistance from fellow humans. Such requisite for human existence
establishes the biological basis of the establishment of social relations guided by
D
cultural processes. In other words, humans are social and cultural as a matter of
biological necessity.
Through the lessons on Human Evolution and Sociocultural and Political

Transformations, this chapter reconstructs the relations between biology and culture.
Central to this lesson is the understanding of human evolution and its implication on
the transformation of cultures across time periods. To present human evolution, the
lesson entails the discussion of the rise of the hominids under the taxonomic
superfamily of Hominidae, of which all primates including extinct and modern
species of apes and human beings belong. The lesson covers the appearance of the
early hominins, or the taxonomic line that refers to early forms of humans that split
19
up from apes in the course of primate evolution as well as the emergence of the
archaic forms of the genus homo of which the modern humans are classified.
Furthermore, the lesson explains how modern humans, scientifically referred as the
Homo sapiens sapiens species, populated the world. The lesson goes on to explain
how the first human settlements in the advent of early agriculture were established
and ends with an account of the rise of the first cities and states that were generally
regarded as the early forms of civilization.
The long process of human evolution, the uniqueness of human anatomical features
resulting from evolution, and the human material remains such as fossils and artefacts
that have been gathered and kept in museums and universities for further studies
illustrates the complex relationships of human biology and culture. The interaction of
PY
human biological and cultural processes played significant roles in being and
becoming human. Moreover, how humans evolved to become what they are
implicates our understanding of race and racial issues, class and discrimination,
fairness and oppression, and so on. When humans are understood from biological
evolutionary and transformative cultural point of view, the question of race, class
O
distinction and discrimination, and oppression, are not by themselves natural features
of human life. C
Focus Questions
1. What makes us human?
2. How did humans evolve biologically and culturally?
D
3. What can the study of human and cultural evolution tell us about
transformations of society and political institutions?
E
II. CONTENT
EP
1. Biological and cultural evolution: from Homo habilis (or earlier) to Homo
sapiens sapiens in the fossil records
2. Cultural and sociopolitical evolution from hunting and gathering to the
agricultural, industrial, and postindustrial revolutions:
a. The Neolithic Revolution
D
b. Early civilizations and the rise of state

c. Democratization
III. STANDARD
Content Standard
The learners articulate the following:
1. Human origins and the capacity for culture
2. The role of culture in human adaptation
3. Processes of cultural and sociopolitical evolution
20
The learners should be able to analyze key features of interrelationships of biological,
cultural, and sociopolitical processes in human evolution that can still be used and
developed.
At the end of the chapter, the learners will be able to:

1. Trace the biological and cultural evolution of early to modern human.
2. Explore the significance of human material remains and artefactual evidence
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to interpreting cultural and social, including political and economic processes.
3. Recognize national, local, and specialized museums and archeological and
historical sites as venues to appreciate and reflect on the complexities of
biocultural and social evolution as part of being and becoming human.
O
V. LESSON
Lesson 1: Human Biological and Cultural Evolution

C
Specific Objectives
In this module, the students are expected to do the following:
D
1. Explain the biological evolution of humans based on the fossil records.
2. Infer the capacity of early humans for culture.
E
3. Identify major fossil groups.

4. Identify anatomical features, and behavioral and cultural changes necessary
for adaptation.
EP
5. Describe the development of hominin lifestyle during the Paleolithic,

Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods.
6. Analyze the factors that led to formation of state and democratization.
7. Simulate the work of archeologists and anthropologists.
8. Appreciate the value or importance of local and national museums.
D
Explore
Activity 1. Imagining Yourself

Let your students imagine themselves as archeologists or anthropologists. Read them
the paragraph below:
The earth contains many buried objects from the prehistoric past. Finding and
interpreting these objects require training. Assume that you are an archeologist or an
21
anthropologist looking for evidence of material remains of the prehistoric past as well
as other evidence of human activity. Answer these questions:
1. What specific evidence will you look for?

2. What material evidence will you be interested to know and learn about?
3. What technology will you use?
Activity 2. Taking Pictures

In this activity, students demonstrate their prior knowledge of human evolution by
analyzing and interpreting the pictures shown to them before the lesson. After
learning about the topics, students will reevaluate their prior knowledge of human
evolution by reviewing their initial interpretation of the drawings.
PY
Talking Pictures. Study the human evolution pictures in Chapter 2 of the Reader and
write down your thoughts about on we evolved.
Process Questions
O
1. How did human and cultural evolution take place?
2. In what ways were human and cultural evolution studied?
3.
4.
Who studies human and cultural evolution?
C
Why is it important to know how humans evolved biologically and culturally?
Firm up
D
Guide Questions
E
1. What is evolution?
2. In science, why is evolution considered a theory and a fact?
EP
3. What does creationism say about the characteristics of human life?

4. How did Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace explain evolution?
5. How does the study of genetics explain biological adaptation, variation, and
change?
6. Why is it important to study fossil remains to know how humans and the
D
environment on which they live evolve?

7. In what way can fossil remains be found and studied?
The Concept and Study of Evolution
Material: Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “Evolution and Genetics,” Anthropology:

Appreciating Human Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 94–110
Guide Questions
1. How can our knowledge of the human past and their material remains inform
us of the uniqueness and commonality as human being?
22
2. In what way can human evolution and material productions tell us the
processes of becoming human?
Summary
The reading presents a comprehensive account of the biological as well as the
reconstruction of human evolution based on a wide sweep of studies generated by the
anthropological subfields of paleo-anthropology, archeology, and genetics. The
reading underscores the scientific research methods that anthropologists working the
fields of paleo-anthropological and genetic studies used in reconstructing the account
of human evolution.
This particular chapter briefly discusses the progression of human evolutionary theory
PY
across centuries of research. It tracks the old debates as well as the range of ways that
evolutionary events are explained in the concepts of creationism, catastrophism, and
uniformism. These discussions present learners the fundamental comprehension of
how evolution was systematically studied and debated by generations of scientists.
Furthermore, the reading explains the breakthrough in understanding the origin of
O
species, biological diversity, and similarities of various life forms through adaptation,
variation, and change in the idea of natural selection thought up by Charles Darwin
C
and Alfred Russel Wallace in the 19th century. With natural selection as a frame of
understanding biological evolutionary processes, the reading explains how the study
of classical and modern studies of molecular genetics enriched the science of
biological variation, and with it the knowledge of how humans evolved.
D
Terms and Names

E
Carolus Linnaeus catastrophism Charles Lyell

Creationism Evolution natural selection
EP
Uniformitarianism genetics Alfred Russel Wallace
Activity 3. Summary Chart

In this activity, students will summarize the ideas of creationism, catastrophism,
D
transformism, and natural selection. Compare and summarize the four theories by
writing your answers in the columns provided below.
Natural
Creationism Catastrophism Transformism
Selection
Basis
Explanation
23
Process Questions
1. What questions were raised about the concept of creationism and
catastrophism?
2. How did the concept of transformism explain the gradual transformation or
modification of species? What did the earlier theories of transformism fail to
explain?
3. How does natural selection explain biological adaptation, variations, and
change?
Activity 4. Agree/Disagree Matrix
PY
This activity aims to know how students react to the facts and theories discussed in
the lesson. Read each statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with it. Put
an x in the column of your answer. Provide a brief explanation for your choice of
answer.
O
Agree Statements Disagree
1. Characteristics of life
C
forms are immutable and
could not change.
2. Explanation for past events
should be sought in the
D
long-term action of
ordinary geological forces
E
that still operate today.

3. Evolution works as the
EP
process of natural selection

takes advantage of the
variety that is already
present in a population.
4. Evolution through natural
D
selection continues today.

5. Human populations adapt
genetically in response to
environmental forces.
Process Questions
1. How does natural selection work?
2. How does the study of genetics explain the process of natural selection?
24
The First Humans
Material: Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “Early Hominins,” Anthropology: Appreciating
Human Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 162–180
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “Archaic Homo,” Anthropology: Appreciating Human
Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 186–201
Summary
This chapter of the reading studies how the unwritten history of the human past was
unearthed through paleo-anthropological field excavation of human fossil remains
and the things that early humankind had produced. It goes on to explain how these
remains were further analyzed through the study of changing environment in the
PY
ancient world, early human tools, diet, and other forms of material culture in what
could be ancient camping remains of the first humans.
The reading also explains how the various techniques used in dating human remains
and early human tools. Furthermore, the reading presents the processes of biological
O
and social evolution beginning with the appearance of archaic forms of humans
known as the hominins, the taxonomic classification that marked the great split of the
primate order into apes and humans about 5.8 million years ago. Furthermore, the
C
reading tracks the further evolution of humans into older forms of the genus homo
about 2 million years ago and the appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens or
anatomically modern humans (AMH) between 300,000 and 150,000 years ago in
Africa. A critical aspect that links biological and cultural dimensions of human
D
evolution are the material cultures that were produced alongside these interlinked
processes.
E
Guide Questions
EP
1. What are the key human attributes that scientists use in identifying certain
fossils as early hominins?
2. What is the epoch when the first hominins appeared?
3. What are the biological changes and cultural abilities developed by each
particular species of hominins?
D
4. What are the distinguishing characteristics of anatomically modern humans?

5. Has any of the hominins been able to spread out and populate a larger part of
the world? If so, what made this possible?
Terms and Names

Ardipithecus kadabba Ardipithecus ramidus Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus anamensis Australopithecus boisei Australopithecus garhi
bipedalism foramen magnum Homo
hominid hominin Oldowan tools
Homo habilis Kenyanthropus platyops Homo antecessor
Orrorin tugenensis Pleistocene Homo erectus
25
Sahelanthropus tchadensis Heidelberg man Homo heidelbergensis
Acheulian Homo floresiensis Paleolithic
Homo rudolfensis interglacials Pleistocene
mitochondrial DNA interstadials tundra
Activity 5. Analysis Chart

In this activity, the learners identify the biological characteristics and the capacity for
culture of selected species of hominin in the process of human biocultural evolution.
Cite the biological characteristics and cultural adaptation of the selected hominins
necessary in the evolution process.
PY
Significant Biological Cultural Means of
Hominin or Hominid
Characteristics Adaptation
Australopithecus
anamensis
O
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus boisei
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
C
Homo sapiens
Neanderthalensis
D
Process Questions
E
1. What is the role of cultural adaptation in human evolution?

2. How did early humans adapt to their environment?
EP
3. How is cultural adaptation of early hominins relevant to modern humans?
Activity 6. Evidence Chart

In this activity, the students will identify the physical characteristic and cultural
D
advances of hominins. Imagine you are an archeologist digging an excavation site in

search for fossil remains of early hominins. List down the biological features of a
hominin fossil that you would look for in an excavation site.
Evidence for Bipedal Other anatomical /

Cranial Capacity Teeth
Locomotion biological features
26
Process Questions
1. What information about hominid evolution does the fossil evidence provide?
2. What are the limitations of fossil evidence?
2. What inferences about early hominins are made from the fossils?
3. What do tool-making abilities suggest about the cognitive capabilities of early
hominins?
Activity 7. Idea Wheel
The learners are expected to infer the meaning behind the drawings or pictures that
suggest the human attributes or markers of humanity in this activity. Identify the
physical markers of hominins as suggested in the illustration provided in the areas
PY
circle A. Explain these characteristics in circle B.
O
C
E D
EP
D
Process Questions
1. What are the traits shared by hominids?
2. What is the role of natural selection in the development of these traits?
3. When did bipedalism evolve?
4. Which species was the first early bipedal hominid?
5. What specific evidence supports the idea of bipedalism in early hominids?
6. Which early hominid fossils provide the strongest evidence of bipedalism?
7. What does tool making suggest about the hominins’ capacity for culture?
8. What advantages might have been given by an increase in brains size?
27
Activity 8. Compare and Contrast Diagram
Students will compare and contrast the physical traits of australopithecines and the
archaic Homo. How was the Homo habilis different from the australopithecine?
Explain the comparison using the diagram below:
PY
O
C
E D
EP
D
Activity 9. Create a Timeline

In this activity, the learners should trace the biological evolution of the hominids and
hominin species using a timeline. The learners select the significant events and justify
these events within the period. For instruction, teachers may ask the learners to do the
following:
1. Create and illustrate a timeline of the evolution of hominins. Draw a straight

line in the middle of the paper.
28
2. Space the events out evenly with the earliest hominin below and the more
recent on the lines that follow.
3. Label each hominin with a boxed title, the date, and a colored drawing
representing the hominin.
4. Write the dates for each event in time order from left to right. Add the details
along the line.
PY
O
C
E D
EP
Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution

Materials: Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “The Origin and Spread of Modern Human,”
D
Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp.

208–226
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “The First Farmers,” Anthropology: Appreciating
Human Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 232–251
Summary
Citing evidence from the paleo-anthropological study of fossil remains as well as
sophisticated analysis of human genes in the laboratory, the reading discusses the
remarkable journey of modern humans out of Africa some 135,000 years ago and
their eventual spread around planet. Genetic and fossil evidence suggest how a small
band of humans who possibly descended from a single ancestral female parent
29
successfully made their way out of Africa, and then went on to reproduce several
more descendants who peopled the world. Furthermore, findings from archeological
sites and investigations of ancient climate patterns helped reconstruct the phenomenal
story of how the descendants of this band of people populated and settled across
several continents notwithstanding formidable natural barriers. Populating the world
means overcoming deserts, oceans, and mountains as well as being enabled or
constrained by shifting weather events such as glaciation (ice ages) and de-glaciation
(global warming), and sea-level rise and fall.
Key to understanding this human journey is cultural evolution as manifested by the

growing sophistication of technology that humans produced and complexity of the
groups that they organized. A flowering of creativity brought forth new kinds of
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tools, artworks, and later on farming and animal domestication in the steppes of
Central Asia some 10,000 years ago. These events set in motion the series of change
in the patterns of human settlement, including population increase and the emergence
of towns. To support rapid population growth, particularly in the alluvial plains of
southern Mesopotamia around 6,000 years ago, early forms of irrigation and intensive
O
agricultural productions are evident along river valleys.
Guide Questions
C
1. What theory explains the origin and spread of modern humans? What pieces
of evidence support this theory?
2. What cultural advances enabled the spread of modern humans?
D
3. What is behavioral modernity? What are the first evidences of behavioral
modernity among anatomically modern humans?
E
4. When did tools appear? In what species?

5. Which was the first hominid to leave evidence of culture?
6. What are the advances in technology made by the anatomically modern
EP
humans? What does this suggest about them?

7. What clues did hominins leave behind that reflected their cognitive abilities?
8. Describe three theories that may explain the purpose of cave art. Which do
you think offers the best explanation?
9. When and how were the Americas and Australia settled?
D
10. Who settled in the Pacific?
Later parts of the reading explain how the first groups of modern humans migrated
and populated the world by settling in different regions as farmers and eventually as
city dwellers.
Terms and Names

anatomically modern humans Austronesians Upper Paleolithic
behavioral modernity Beringia blade-core method
broad spectrum revolution Clovis tradition Cro-Magnon
30
haplogroup Herto Homo sapiens
Lake Mungo Lapita culture Lascaux Cave
Melanesia mitochondrial DNA Neanderthals
Out of Africa II Polynesia Sahul
Caprine China dry farming
Hilly Flanks Indus Valley Jarmo
Jomon culture llama maize
Nabta Playa Natufians Neolithic
Revolution New World Old World
sedentism State teosinte
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Activity 10. Thesis-proof Chart
In this activity, students will gather and sort information in the two-column chart.
Students will use key ideas to support the thesis. Write down ideas from the readings
to support the thesis.
O
Thesis: Out of Africa II: An Explanation of the Origin and Spread of Modern
HumansC
Supporting Evidence Conclusion
E D
EP
D
Process Questions
1. What are the bases for this theory?
2. According to this theory, what was the origin of anatomically modern humans
and how did they spread?
31
Activity 11. Concept Map
In this activity, the learners will visualize and grasp the relationship of concepts in the
readings. As a matter of instruction, the teacher may ask the students to summarize
and provide examples of behavioral modernity.
What is it? Examples
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Advantages of Behavioral
O
Modernity of Anatomically
Modern Humans
Behavioral Modernity
C Source 1 –
D
Evidence of Behavioral Advantages of

E
Modernity of Behavioral Modernity Source 2–

Anatomically Modern of Anatomically
Humans Modern Humans
EP
D
Source 3 -
Process Questions
1. How important was creativity in the evolution of humans?
2. In what way had the flowering of human creativity enabled the spread of
modern humans?
32
Activity 12. Visual Memory Chart
In this activity, the students will identify the picture that represents important cultural
development during the Upper Paleolithic. They will include words related to the
visual and provide their own conclusion regarding these important cultural
milestones. Learners should be instructed to identify the cultural advancements of
AMHs during the Upper Paleolithic and provide their own conclusion.
PY
O
C
E D
EP
Process Questions
D
1. What is the observable trend in tool making during the Upper Paleolithic?
2. What are the other trends in Homo’s economic activities during this period?
3. What were the consequences of glacial retreat?
4. How did people adapt to postglacial environment?
5. What were the interpretations for the cave art painting made during the Upper
Paleolithic?
33
Activity 13. Comic Strip
This group activity requires the learners to visualize the sequence of events in the
spread of modern humans in the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific. Teachers may
ask the learners to do the following:
1. Choose a topic from the choices below:
a. The Settling of Australia
b. Settling the Americas
c. The Peopling of the Pacific
2. Provide a visual and sequential explanation of the events listed below. Show
only significant or major events in your comic strip.
PY
Rubric for Comic Strip
Category 4 3 2 1
The pictures and All but 1 of the All but 2 of the More than 2 of
captions reflect an pictures and pictures and the pictures
O
exceptional captions reflect captions reflect and captions
Creativity degree of student an exceptional an exceptional reflect little
creativity. There degree of degree of degree of
is great attention
C
student student student
to detail. creativity creativity creativity
Theme All 6 panels relate Only 5 panels Only 4 panels Less than 4
D
to the theme. relate to the relate to the panels relate
theme. theme. to the theme.
The main The main The main It is hard to
E
characters are characters are characters are tell who the

clearly identified, clearly identified but main
Characters
EP
and their actions identified, and not well characters are.

and
and dialogue are their actions developed and
Dialogue
well matched to and dialogue their actions
each other. match most of and dialogue
the time. are too general.
D
Landscape and Landscape and Landscape and Landscape and

props are directly props are props are props seem
related to the directly related generally randomly
Landscape theme or purpose to the theme or related to the chosen OR
and Props of the comic and purpose of the theme or distract the
enhance comic. purpose of the reader.
understanding of comic.
the scene.
The comic has at The comic has The comic has The comic has
Number of
least 6 panels. 5 panels. 4 panels. less than 4
Items
panels.
34
Category 4 3 2 1
There are no There are 1–3 There are 4–5 There are
spelling, spelling, spelling, more than 5
Spelling,
punctuation, or punctuation, or punctuation, spelling,
Punctuation,
grammatical grammatical and punctuation,
and
errors. errors. grammatical and
Grammar
errors. grammatical
errors.
Class time was Class time was Class time was Class time was
used wisely. used wisely; used wisely; not used
Much time and however the however the wisely.
Time and effort went into student could student could
PY
Effort the planning and have put in have put more
design of the more time and time and effort
comic. effort into the into the design.
planning.
O
Source: science7tigers.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/... /rubric_for_comic_strip.do...
Activity 14. Comparison Chart

C
Students will describe and summarize their understanding of the changes that took
place during the broad spectrum revolution. For instructions, teachers may ask the
D
students to fill out the chart below by comparing how early humans carried out their
lives in the lithic or stone-age revolutions:
E
Aspect of life Mesolithic Neolithic

EP
Lifestyle
Food
D
Tools/Weapons
Important Contributions
35
Activity 15. OPTIC
In this activity, the learners are expected to demonstrate the five steps in analyzing
the picture. As they view the graphic, they may participate in the discussion, write a
paragraph or chart to record the information. Teachers may instruct the learners to
follow the following format of visual analysis:
O – overview
P – parts
T – title
I– interrelationship
C – conclusion
PY
O
C
E D
EP
1.Overview:
____________________________________________________________________
D
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2.Parts (Important parts or details):

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
36
3.Title (Event being shown):
____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
4.Interrelationships (main idea connecting the parts in the picture):

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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5.Conclusion:
____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Process Question
O
C
What factors may help explain why people settled in permanent villages and began
growing crops and raising livestock?
D
Activity 16. Data Retrieval Chart
In this activity, the learners will list down all the information related to the spur of the
E
agricultural revolution. The teachers may ask the learners to fill the chart with the
needed information about the origin and spread of agriculture.
EP
Specific Specific Group Domesticated Domesticated

Regions
Place/s of People Animals Plants
Old World
D
Middle East
Africa
Asia
New World
Mesoamerica
South
America
37
Process Questions
1. What factors probably played a role in the origin of agriculture?
2. The agricultural revolution had several birthplaces. Name three of them.
3. What is sedentism? How is sedentism and farming connected?
4. What factors led to the shift from foraging to food production?
5. What are the differences between wild and domesticated plants?
6. How did food production fuel the rise of state?
7. In one or two sentences, summarize the section “Farming began in many
places.”
PY
Activity 17. Power Map
In this activity, students shall be asked to analyze the advantages and disadvantages
of food production using the power sequence below:
 Power 1 (Main idea)
O
 Power 2 (Details supporting Power 1)
 Power 3 (Details supporting Power 2) C
Teachers may ask the students to identify and explain the cost and benefits of food
production.
D
Process Questions
1. Why is food production considered an evolutionary advancement?

E
2. Does the cost of food production outweigh the benefits? Justify your answer.
EP
Material: Kottak, Conrad Phillip. “The First Cities and States,” Anthropology:
Appreciating Human Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 256–277
Summary
D
This chapter of the Kottak readings examines how the expansion of farm production
and populated settlements led to the development of hierarchical but less stratified
societies. These types of societies were referred to as chiefdoms, the precursor
of sharply stratified class divided socio-political structures known as states.
Furthermore, the reading tracks the origin of the state using an array of explanations.
One theory of state formation points to the emergence of a central authority that
regulates river-dependent agricultural enclaves. This theory argues that the regulation
of these water-based farming colonies was born out of the need to manage and repair
irrigation systems, drainage facilities, and flood-control infrastructures. Another
theory suggests that the earliest states emerged from strategic sites of long-distance
trading networks. Athird theory suggests that the rise of states may yet be driven
38
by various factors, which includes the concentration of population and resources
into local but strategic areas. These concentrations eventually spurred population
growth and increased tension with outside forces, underscoring the need for local
unity and more sophisticated organizations. Furthermore, the reading traces the
emergence of distinctive social ranks, classes, and the rise of the elites alongside the
birth of cities and states in the Middle East.
Guide Questions
1. What is a state?
3. What theories explain the formation of a state?
4. What are the attributes of states?
PY
5. What are the earliest states in the Middle East? What are the characteristics of
these states?
6. What are chiefdoms? How does chiefdom differ from a state?
7. What gave rise to early states in Mesopotamia? Northwestern India and
Pakistan? China? Africa? Mesoamerica?
O
8. Why do states collapse?
Activity 18. Summary Diagram

C
In this activity, the learners will summarize the main idea of each theory about the
rise of the state. The teachers may instruct the learners to summarize and provide a
brief explanation on the theories on the rise of states.
E D
EP
D
Process Questions
1. What are the theories on state formation?
2. What theory offers the most convincing explanation? Why?
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Activity 19. Equation
Students will explain the conceptual meaning and definition of state. Provide the
information required for each circle.
The difference
The attributes The meaning of
between state
of a state state
and chiefdom
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O
Activity 20. Sequence Chart
In this activity, students will identify the possible causes or reasons (in sequential
order) that led to the rise of states. Teachers may ask the learners to list down the
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sequence of critical pre-historic human events leading to state formation.
Topic : State Formation

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First :Shift from foraging to food production
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Next :
Next :
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Next :
Next :
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Next :
Last :Rise of states
Process Questions
1. What is the most important development in the rise of the state?
3. Why do chiefdoms become states?
4. Why do some states collapse? Cite some examples.
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Activity 21. Muddiest Point
This activity will help teachers gather written feedback on the aspects of the readings
that the learners find difficult to comprehend. Teachers may ask the learners to point
out the part of the reading that they find least comprehensible.
Selected Readings What is the muddiest point in the readings?
Evolution and Genetics
Early Hominins
Archaic Homo
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The Origin and Spread of
Modern Humans
The First Farmers
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The First Cities and States
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Deepen
Material: Jocano, F. Landa. 1967. “The Beginnings of Filipino Society and Culture,”
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Philippine Studies 15 (1): pp. 9–40
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Summary
Life-forms scattered across what is now known as the Philippines appeared during a
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geological period known as the lower Eocene, some 60 million years ago. Evidence
of the earliest human presence in the archipelago, however, was dated only after a
series of geological and climate changes that brought forth an epoch referred as the
Pleistocene, the ice ages that began some 1.8 million years ago and ended around
11,700 years ago. The Pleistocene is geologic period characterized by receding of
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seas that, in turn, resulted in the conjoining of what used to be islands into continuous
land masses. Cultural remains such as stone tools collected from several parts of the
Philippines showed that a group of people produced crudely made choppers and
implements using flint, quartz, and chalcedony. Archeological work in the Tabon
Cave of Palawan also found an industry of flake tools that were dated to 21,000 to
22,000 years ago. Subsequent Philippine archeological works as well as analysis of
prehistoric artefacts deposited in the National Museum also indicated the appearance
of several other types of tools dating between 7,000 and 250 years ago.
Notwithstanding the array of material remains gathered up across a range of

archeological sites, available records and analysis of prehistoric human migration to
41
the Philippines offer no conclusive proof of their migration origins. So far, a few
theories have been suggested on the peopling pattern of the Philippines. On the basis
of the remarkable features of the early stone implements, one theory suggested a
migration pattern coming from mainland Asia that made its way to Luzon by way of
Indo-China and then through the China Sea. Another theory suggested a migration
route starting from Manchuria to later move eastward towards Japan and then
southwards into Formosa and Luzon. Yet a third proposed a movement that began
from central China and then carried on into Indo-China and Luzon and northward into
Korea, Japan and Manchuria. While these suggested routes have remained a theory,
geological evidence and human material remains indicate that there was indeed a
series of prehistoric migration initiated by many groups of people with varying
cultural and physical characteristics that reached the Philippines across time.
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Guide Questions
1. When and how did the Philippine islands emerge?
2. Who were the first peoples of the islands? Where were they from? How had
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they made their way into the islands?
3. What was the effect of the Pleistocene climate on the Philippines?
4. What is man’s classification in nature?
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5. What are the major fossil groups described in the readings?
6. According to the text, who was considered the first Filipino?
7. What are the important biological and cultural developments during the
Pleistocene period?
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8. What notable developments took place in the Philippines during the
Pleistocene period?
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Activity 22. Inquiry Chart

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In this activity, the learners will be asked to compare their stock information of the
first peoples in the Philippines with the article about “The Beginnings of the Filipino
Society and Culture” written by F. Landa Jocano. Fill out the chart with facts and
details from the Jocano reading.
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How was it possible Was there only one How does these
for early humans to cultural group that changes affect or
Topic / Question
migrate to the spread out to the influence the
Philippines? Philippines? present?
What I (we) know
Text Source
Summary
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Process Questions
1. How did the Philippine islands emerge?
2. Who were the first humans in the Philippines?
3. What were the cultural advances in the Philippines during the paleolithic and
neolithic periods?
Museums and Material Culture

Material: Pearce, Susan. 1999.“Museums of Anthropology or Museums as
Anthropology?”  Anthropologica, Vol. 41, No. 1, Anthropologie et musées,
pp. 25–33
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Summary
Museums are institutions that do not only keep and showcase material remains of the
past for people to see and learn from. Museums play even more crucial role in
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influencing how people view the past, understand the present, and perceive the future
in the way past materials and more recent artistic interpretations of these materials are
displayed. In other words, museums are powerful institutions that authorize the
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people running them to decide what artifact is more valuable or interesting for
people to see and experience. Through artistic reconstructions of the artifacts of
museum artists and curators, the public is also redirected to a particular way of
seeing museum pieces. Hence, museums shape the viewing public’s perspective of
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what is valuable and interesting in accordance with the political interest and aims
of its managers. Museums are instrumental in rearranging the artifacts into
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meaningful but specific patterns. These patterns range from the justification or
condemnation of colonialism to the presentation of human experiences.
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For example, these patterns and issues are encapsulated in the way the Pitt Rivers
Museum at Oxford University in the United Kingdom has been set up. Established in
the 19th century, the museum originally aimed to showcase artifacts from around the
world. A closer examination of its objects, however, indicates that the knowledge the
museum offers emanates from the scientific information on the cultural material itself
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as well as the point of view of the succession of curators that took care, labeled, and
arranged these objects across the centuries. This reading highlights the political
significance of museums in shaping not only the knowledge of mankind but also the
way the people or communities wish to publicly represent their past, current
circumstances, and hopes for the future.
Guide Questions
1. What object did the Pitt Rivers Museum produce and market in 1995?
2. What is the significance of this object?
3. What authority does a museum have on material culture?
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4. How do collectors view their collection? Why do some collectors bequeath
their collections to accredited museums?
5. How did the Pitt Rivers Museum show the value of labels for museum
collections? What is the importance of these labels?
6. What changes were made by some museums to improve their physical
curation and display? Why were these changes necessary?
7. How did museum visitors react to these changes?
Activity 23. Museum Wheel

In this activity, the learners identify museums and archeological sites near their area
or that they are familiar with. Teachers may instruct the learners to list down some of
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the museums and archeological sites in the Philippines that they are familiar with or
had visited. Include a short description of the location of these museum and
archeological sites.
O
C
E D
Museums and
Archaelogical Sites
in the Philippines
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Process Questions
1. Are there enough museums in the country? Justify your answer.
2. Why are museums and archeological sites important?
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Activity 24. Field Trip
At this point, the teacher may devise a plan and encourage the learners to visit a local
museum, an archeological site, or a place of historic importance near the area. Instruct
the students to write and submit a reflection paper on their field trip upon their return
to school. The reflection paper may answer the following questions:
1. What are the main collections of the museum?

2. What do you think is the most important collection?
3. What have you learned from your visit in the museum?
4. What is the important role of museums in our culture and history?
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Transfer
Research Presentation
Organize the learners into research groups of manageable size. Instruct them to
prepare a research presentation that encapsulates the readings, lessons, fieldtrip
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experience, and further collection of secondary reading materials on biological human
biocultural, sociopolitical evolution, and museum study. The goal of the research
presentation is for the learners to reconstruct the story of human migration to the
C
Philippines and the emergence of multiple cultures across the islands in prehistoric
times. In this presentation, the learners should be able to demonstrate how evidences
of human and sociocultural evolution had been gathered and analyzed by paleo-
anthropologists and genetic scientists in the study of human evolution and the
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succession of human journeys out of Africa. Moreover, the learners are expected to
articulate the importance of fossil remains, the understanding of climate changes, and
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genetic analysis in piecing together the story of the early peoples of the Philippines.
To execute this project, teachers may instruct the learners to work as a group in
preparing for the report. Encourage the students to collect pictures for their
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presentation and write down their summary of findings on a Manila paper or as a

slide presentation, if feasible. The report should be presented before a committee of
instructors who will determine with the teacher which among the groups meets the
standards of human biocultural and sociopolitical evolutionary research.
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Standard
Exceeds Meets Does Not
Nearly Meets No
Standard Standard Meet
Category Standard Evidence Score
Standard
(3) (1)
(5) (4) (2)
Details of Includes all Includes most Includes some Includes only No details
Research details from details from details from a few details from
research and research and research and from research research
has clear has clear labels has labels or using labels
labels, phrases, or phrases phrases or phrases
or sentence
descriptions
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Nearly Meets No
Standard
(3) (1)
(5) (4) (2)
Effective Viewer has a Viewer has an Viewer has Viewer has Backboard
ness thorough understanding some difficulty does not
understanding of the topic understanding understanding communicate
of topic researched. of the topic topic topic
researched. Backboard researched. researched. researched.
Backboard includes Backboard Backboard
includes examples and includes some includes few
specific /or illustrations. examples examples
examples and/or and/or
and/or illustrations. illustrations.
illustrations in
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an organized
manner and/or
well-organized
illustrations.
Quality Includes Includes Includes Does not Work is
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illustrations illustrations illustrations include haphazard
and labels. and labels. and labels. illustrations and
Content is Content is Content is not and labels careless,
edited for edited for edited for and/or and has
spelling and
punctuation
spelling and
punctuation
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spelling and
punctuation
contains more
than 3 errors
none of the
required
and has no and has less and has more in spelling elements.
errors. than 3 errors. than 3 errors. and
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punctuation.
Results All data are All data are All data are Incorrect data
recorded and recorded and recorded and are provided
E
organized in a organized in a organized in a regardless of

clear manner. clear manner. clear manner. inclusion or
All visible All visible Visible presentation
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observations observations observations of all other

are provided. are provided. are missing. criteria.
Complete and Analysis of Analysis of
correct data is data is
analysis of provided with provided with
data is a few errors. a few errors.
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provided. Errors of Errors of

Errors of experimentatio experimentatio
experimentatio n are provided. n are provided.
n are provided.
Conclusi The The The Incomplete Not
on conclusion is conclusion conclusion and/or applicable
engaging and restates the does not unfocused
restates learning. adequately
personal restate the
learning. learning.
Reflect Shows great Relates Does not go Little or no Shows no
personal depth of learning with deeply into the explanation evidence of
learning knowledge and research and reflection of or reflection learning or
learning, project, learning, on learning, reflection.
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Nearly Meets No
Standard
(3) (1)
(5) (4) (2)
reveals personal and generalizations no or few
feelings and general and limited details to
thoughts, and reflections are insight, uses support
abstract ideas included, uses some detail reflection
reflected concrete
through use of language
specific details
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Lesson Closure
Complete the phrases below to summarize the lesson:
 The chapter was about …
 One key idea was …

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This is important because …
 Another key idea was…
 This matters because …
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E D
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CHAPTER 3
BECOMING A MEMBER OF SOCIETY
I. INTRODUCTION
As we learned in the previous chapter, culture is key to human adaptation, and as

such every society has its own culture. In this chapter, we look at how individuals
learn culture and become competent members of society through the process of
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enculturation or socialization, or the process of preparing individuals for membership
in a given society. It explores four theories that explain the development of the self as
a product of this process. The process of socialization entails learning the various
elements of a society’s culture as well as its social structure. The discussion focuses
on values, norms, status, and roles, as well as gender role socialization. The Reader
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for this course includes an article by Hiromu Shimizu which examines the process of
socialization in the Philippines. Shimizu shows how the social environment in which
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Filipino children grow up orients the child toward getting along and being
cooperative with others. Another article, by Michael Herzfeld, dissects how
individuals become socialized to become indifferent persons, with social indifference
being conditioned by the state, and the political and ideological interests that underpin
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bureaucratic structures.
Since it is important that members follow cultural norms, every society has a system
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of social control to encourage conformity and discourage deviance or norm breaking.

Nevertheless, deviance to a certain extent is tolerated by society. To understand why,
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this chapter explores Emile Durkheim’s argument that deviance has at least four
social functions. Robert Merton argued that the extent and type of deviance people
engage in depend on whether a society provides the means (such as schooling and job
opportunities) to achieve cultural goals (such as financial success). Conformity lies in
pursuing cultural goals through approved means. Four types of deviance may,
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however, arise from the inability to achieve a cultural goal using socially approved
means.
The discussion of socialization and deviance emphasizes that members of any society
have to work toward the continued existence of that society. Carol Hanish, Richard
Bellamy, and Arjun Appadurai and Katerina Stenou explore the wider context,
content, processes, and consequences of socialization, conformity, and deviance.
Hanish discusses the rise of social movements, in particular the feminist movement in
the United States, and in a broader sense, how important collective action is for a
collective solution. Bellamy explores citizenship, why it matters, and the challenges
confronting it today. Appadurai and Stenou utilize the idea of cultural pluralism as a
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lens for understanding and addressing the situation of migrants, refugees, minorities,
and many others.
Focus Question
How do individuals learn culture and become members of society?
II. CONTENT
I. Enculturation/Socialization
a. Identity formation
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i. Identities
ii. Disciplines
iii.Aspirations
b. Norms and values
c. Statuses and roles
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i. Age
ii. Gender C
2. Conformity and deviance
a. Social control
i. Gossip
ii. Social ostracism
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iii. Laws and punishments
b. Forms of deviance
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i. Ritualism
ii. Retreatism
iii. Rebellion
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IV. Innovation
3. Human dignity, rights, and the common good

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III. STANDARD
Content Standard
A. How individuals learn culture and become competent members of society.

B. How individuals should behave as part of political community.
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The learners:
 Identify the norms and values to be observed in interacting with others in
society, and the consequences of ignoring these rules.
 Assess the rules of social interaction to maintain stability of everyday life and
the role of innovation in response to problems and challenges.
 Recognize the value of human rights and promote the common good.
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1. Explain the development of one’s self and others as a product of socialization
and enculturation
2. Identify the context, content, processes, and consequences of enculturation
and socialization
 Identify the social and the socially acceptable means of achieving these goals
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 Advocate inclusive citizenship
 Promote protection of human dignity, rights, and the common good
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Key Concepts
Socialization is the lifelong social experience by which people develop their human
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potential and learn culture. Unlike other living species, whose behavior is mostly or
entirely set by biology, humans need social experience to learn their culture and to
survive. Social experience is also the foundation of personality, a person’s fairly
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consistent patterns of acting, thinking and feeling (Macionis 2012: 102).

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Another term for socialization is enculturation.
There are many theories on how the self, as a product of socialization, is formed. We
will examine the work of four researchers: Sigmund Freud, Charles Cooley, George
Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget (Macionis 2012: 104–108).
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Freud’s model of personality. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) combined basic needs

and the influence of society into a model of personality with three parts: id, ego, and
superego. The id represents the human being’s basic drives, or biological and
physical needs which are unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction. In the
human personality, the superego refers to the cultural values and norms internalized
by an individual. Society, through its values and norms, opposes the self-centered id.
The ego is, thus, a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking
drives (id) with the demands of society (superego).
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Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. From his studies of human cognition, or
how people think and understand. Jean Piaget (1896–1980) identified four stages of
cognitive development.
Stage one is the sensorimotor stage (first two years of life), the level of human
development at which individuals know the world only through the five senses. Stage
two is the preoperational stage (about age two to seven) at which individuals first
use language and other symbols. Stage three is concrete operational stage (between
the ages of seven and eleven) at which individuals first see causal connections in their
surroundings. The last stage is the formal operational stage (about age twelve) at
which individuals think abstractly and critically.
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Mead’s theory of the social self. George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) For Mead, the
self is a part of our personality and includes self-awareness and self-image. It is the
product of social experience, and is not guided by biological drives (see Freud) or
biological maturation (see Piaget). According to Mead, the key to developing the self
is learning to take the role of the other. Infants can do this only through imitation and,
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without understanding underlying intentions, have no self. As children learn to use
language and other symbols, the self emerges in the form of play. Play involves
assuming roles modeled on significant others, or people, such as parents, who have
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special importance for socialization. Then, children learn to take the roles of several
others at once, and move from simple play with one other to complex games
involving many others. The final stage in the development of the self is when children
are able to not only take the role of specific people in just one situation, but that of
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many others in different situations. Mead used the term generalized other to refer to
widespread cultural norms and values we use as references in evaluating ourselves.
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Cooley’s Looking-glass Self. Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) used the phrase
looking-glass self to mean a self-image based on how we think others see us. As we
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interact with others, the people around us become a mirror (an object that people used
to call a “looking glass”) in which we can see ourselves. What we think of ourselves,
then, depends on how we think others see us. For example, if we think others see us
as clever, we will think of ourselves in the same way. But if we feel they think of us
as clumsy, then that is how we will see ourselves.
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Agents of socialization
Several settings have special importance in the socialization process. These include
the family, school, peer group, and the mass media. The family, usually the first
setting of socialization, has the greatest impact on attitudes and behavior. Schools
teach knowledge and skills needed for later life, and expose children to greater social
diversity. The peer group takes on great importance during adolescence. The mass
media have a huge impact on socialization in modern societies.
51
Values, norms, status, and roles
Socialization is also defined as the process of preparing members for membership in a
given group in society. Through socialization, individuals learn the norms and values
of their society. Values are culturally defined standards that people use to decide
what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social
living. Norms are the rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior
of its members.
Socialization prepares individuals to occupy statuses and roles (Macionis 2012: 127–
128). Status refers a social position that a person holds. An ascribed status is a
social position a person receives at birth or takes on involuntarily later in life.
Examples of ascribed statuses include being a daughter, a Filipino, a teenager, or a
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widower. Achieved status refers to a social position a person takes on voluntarily
that reflects personal ability and effort. Achieved statuses include honors student,
athlete, nurse, software writer, and thief. Role refers to behavior expected of someone
who holds a particular status.
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Gender role socialization
Sex refers to the biological characteristics distinguishing male and female (Macionis
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2012: 169). Sex is based on chromosomes, anatomy, hormones, reproductive systems,
and other physiological components.
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Gender refers to those social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and
females through particular social contexts. Sex makes us male or female; gender
makes us masculine or feminine. All the major agents of socialization—family, peer
E
groups, schools, and the mass media—reinforce cultural definitions of what is

feminine and masculine. (Dionisio 1992: 1-2; Macionis 2012: 170).
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V. LESSON
Lesson 1: Enculturation and Socialization

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Explore
Activity 1. DOs and DON’Ts

In this activity, let the students revisit their past experiences and research on the
norms and values of their family, community, municipality, and country. Answers
should be limited to the DOs and DON’Ts of their age. The discussion in classes in
urban areas could include norms of traffic behavior requiring mutual consideration
(e.g., drivers stop atpedestrian lanes and pedestrians cross the street speedily and only
on pedestrian lanes, drivers not jumping the queue during heavy traffic). Class
discussions in non-urban schools could include norms on overspending for a fiesta
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and other festivities, homecoming celebration of an overseas Filipino worker, or
weddings.
Social Environment DOs DON’Ts
Family
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Community/
Neighborhood
Municipality/
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City
C
D
Country
E
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Ask someone from your class to share his/her story using the questions as guide.
Process Questions
1. Did you have any difficulty in answering the activity? If yes, why? If no, why
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not?
2. Are there similarities between your experiences and observations and those of
your classmates?
3. In your family, who gives guidance on proper decorum and other “family
traditions”?
4. In your community or neighborhood, who defines standards of what is
acceptable or not?
5. In your municipality/city and the country, who determines what is moral
and immoral, and what is legal and illegal?
6 Was there an instance when you did what you shouldn’t as prescribed by
“authorities”? How did they react?
53
Note: The term “authorities” in question no. 6 pertains to parents, grandparents,
aunts, uncles, and elder siblings in the family; neighbors, elders, and leaders in the
community and neighborhood; and the agents of the local and national
governments in municipality/city and country.
Firm up
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Activity 2. The World and I
This activity is related to Activity 1 in Explore phase.Teachers will ask the students to
look back on their childhood. The focus of this activity is their
interaction/socialization with their families, relatives, neighbors, and godparents.
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C
Family Relatives
E D
ME
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D
Neighbors
Godparents
Ask volunteers from your students to share their activity with their classmates.
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Process Questions
1. How did your family take care of you as a child?
2. What role did your relatives play in your upbringing?
3. How did your neighbors interact with you as a child? To what extent did they
socialize with your family?
4. Do you personally know your godparents? How did your parents choose your
godparents?
5. What roles did your godparents play in your upbringing?
After the students assess the extent or level of their interaction/socialization with their
family, relatives, neighbors and godparents with them, let them read an article to
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reinforce their initial knowledge on how a Filipino child develops within a family and
community.
Material: Shimizu, Hiromu, 1991. “Filipino Children in Family and Society: Growing
Up in a Many-People Environment” SA 21 Selected Readings, Department of
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Sociology and Anthropology (ed.). Quezon City: Office of Research
Publications, Ateneo de Manila University. pp.106–25
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Guide Question
 What are the context, content, processes, and consequences of the socialization of
Filipino children?
D
Summary
E
Shimizu discusses the social environment in which children grow up in the

Philippines. In particular, he examines the socialization process of Filipino children
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who are born and brought up in the many-people environment beyond the nuclear
family. In the Philippines, the nuclear family has frequent and intimate interactions
with the families living nearby, forming a local kin group comprising magkamag-anak
(consanguineal or affinal relations) and magkapitbahay (neighboring relations). The
socialization agents of children include the personal kindred (a range of a person’s
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relatives accorded special cultural recognition) and ritual kinship (compadre system).
Within this context, child rearing develops the following features: presence of
many parenting figures or surrogates for the mother and father; long dependency
period, owing to the fact that there are many adults or elderly people who can
become parenting figures; and very little stress or feelings of frustration for the child
because there are many parent-surrogates to satisfy his or her desires. This
socialization process of the child in the Philippines may be described as extremely
dependent, but it has a positive connotation. Dependency in this case implies that the
child is able to form cooperative relationships in which all the members depend on
and help each other. In this social environment, the good child is one who is
oriented toward getting along and is cooperative with others.
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Activity 3. Inquiry Chart (Tracing How the Filipino Child Grows Up)
the text.
TOPIC
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After reading Shimizu’s article, ask the students to answer the guide questions in the inquiry chart to check their understanding of
Inquiry Chart
Filipino
Children in
Family and
Guide Question
1
Who are the
Guide Question
2
What does
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Guide Question
3
What does
Guide Question
4
Who has the
Guide Question
5
How does a
Other
Society:
Growing Up in a
Many-People
Environment
members of a
nuclear family?
magkamag-anak
mean? C
magkapitbahay
mean?
responsibility for
child rearing?
Filipino child
mature?
Important
Information
New Questions
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What I know
D E
According to the
article EP
Summary
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Process Questions
1. How do magkapitbahay help one another?
 If women are working, how can they easily find someone to take care of their
children?
 What is the family’s typical reaction towards a newborn child of a separated
or unwed member of the family?
 How does long dependency affect Filipino children’s development?
 What is the role of Filipino children in a family?
 How does the view of the child being an investment and security for old age”
affect the size of Filipino family?
 How does the Filipino community affect the development of Filipino children
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as members of society?
Deepen
Material: Herzfeld, Michael. 1993. “Introduction: The Social Production of
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Indifference,” The Social Production of Indifference: Exploring the Symbolic
Roots of Western Democracy. Chicago and London: Chicago University
Press. pp. 1–16
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Guide Question
 How is social indifference conditioned by state, political, and ideological
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interests that underpin bureaucratic structures?
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Activity 4. Chain Reaction

After reading the material written by Herzfeld, ask the students to answer the chain-
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reaction chart to check their comprehension and understanding of the text.
Bureaucracy
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State Politics Ideology
Social Indifference
57
Process Questions
1. What is the definition and scope of bureaucracy according to Herzfeld?
 How does the aim of having a national character/identity affect the social and
cultural beings of individuals?
 What are the state’s instruments of control?
 Why do the people blame the bureaucrats if the latter fail to meet the former’s
expectations? Once it happens, why do the bureaucrats blame the system for
the said failure?
 How does the idea of fate (Inshalla) affect the person’s ability and belief?
 How did Herzfeld compare bureaucracy to the system of religion?
 How did the power of blood kinship evolve from primitive time to the modern
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nation-state?
 How does bureaucracy transform individuals into socially indifferent
members of the state?
Lesson 2: Conformity and Deviance
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Firm Up C
Conformity and deviance (Macionis 2012: 194)
Every society is a system of social control, or attempts by society to regulate
people’s thoughts and behavior. Social control encourages conformity to certain
D
norms and discourages deviance or norm breaking. Deviance range from minor
infractions, such as bad manners, to major infractions, such as serious violence.
E
Norms that become specified and institutionalized are called laws. Crime refers to
the violation of the law.
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There is a lack of consensus in society regarding which behaviors or traits are

deviant. What is considered as deviance will vary across time, places, and social
groups. How a society defines deviance, who is branded as deviant, and what people
decide to do about deviance all have to do with the way society is organized.
D
The functions of deviance (Macionis 2012: 197).According to Emile Durkheim

(1858–1917), deviance performs the following functions:
 Affirms cultural norms and values. Deviance is needed to define and support
morality. There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime.
 Clarifies moral boundaries. By defining some individuals as deviant, people
draw a boundary between right and wrong.
 Brings people together. People typically react to serious deviance with shared
outrage, and in doing so reaffirm the moral ties that bind them.
 Encourages social change. Deviant people suggest alternatives to the status
quo and encouraging change.
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Merton’s strain theory (Macionis 2012: 197–198). Robert Merton (1910–2003)
argued that the extent and type of deviance people engage in depend on whether a
society provides the means (such as schooling and job opportunities) to achieve
cultural goals (such as financial success). Conformity means achieving cultural
goals through approved means. However, the strain between the cultural goal and the
lack of opportunities to achieve these goals using approved means may result in
deviance. Merton identifies four types of deviance: innovation, ritualism, retreatism,
and rebellion. Innovation involves using unconventional means (for example, Steve
Jobs, the founder of the Apple computer company, and his colleagues who, without
support from big corporations, worked in a garage to invent personal computers)
rather than conventional means (working for an established computer company) to
achieve a culturally approved goal (wealth). In ritualism, people do not care much
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about the goal (getting rich) but stick to the rules (the conventional means) anyway in
order to feel “respectable.” A third response to the strain between the cultural goal
and the approved means is retreatism, rejecting both cultural goals and conventional
means so that a person in effect “drops out.” The fourth response is rebellion. Like
retreatists, rebels reject both the cultural definition of success and the conventional
O
means of achieving it, but they provide alternatives to the existing social order.
Lesson 3: Human Dignity, Rights, and the Common Good

C
Material: Bellamy, Richard. 2008. “What is Citizenship, and Why Does is Matter,”
Citizenship: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.
D
1–26
E
Activity 5. My Prediction
Let the students read the title, first page, and last page of the article. Make them think
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of what they already know about the topic or the article itself.
I think this reading about citizenship would be about __________________________

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__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
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My Prediction
Draw or write a short paragraph on

what you think would be discussed in
the reading.
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Processing Questions
1. Why did you come up with these speculations?
2. What ideas, events, and actions can you relate with citizenship?
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Activity 6. Build with Details
Let the students read the article all the way through. List three important details about
citizenship that will help them come up with the most important idea that the material
is trying to express.
C
Title: _______________________________________________________________
D
Detail 2
E

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________________

____________
__ __
_________
il 1
Deta
____ _____
D
Deta
______
il 3
_______ ________
____
__________ ___________
_
______________ ______________

_________________ _________________
__
___________ ___________
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Process Questions
1. What made you choose the details that you pick up?
2. How would these listed details add up to your understanding of citizenship?
Activity 7.Citizenship Chart

Tell the students to fill in the citizenship chart below to organize the important points
on the reading.
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Citizenship
O Definition
C of
citizenship What are the
Why does it
on the challenges
need to be understood
D
in political terms? article to citizenship?
E
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My own definition of citizenship

D
Process Questions
1. Why does citizenship matter to every nation?
3. Why is citizenship often regarded as the solution to a country’s ills?
2. How can problems on citizenship be solved?
3. What would be your considerations in coming up with your own definition of
citizenship?
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Activity 8.Footprints of a Good Citizen
Tell the students to list down the ways with which one can become a good citizen of
the nation and then ask them to elaborate on how they themselves would do these.
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2
O
3
C
D
4
E
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5
D
Process Questions
1. How will the country benefit from what you have listed?
2. How will you influence other people to become good and active citizens?
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Activity 9:Article Review
Tell the students that they will make an article review of the reading “What is
Citizenship, and Why Does is Matter?” Remind them to take into considerations the
proper ways of doing the article review. Instruct them to research on the Internet on
ways to do article reviews.
Give them this rubric as a guide for their article review.
Performance Indicators
Minimally
Excellent Very Good Satisfactory Unacceptable
Criteria Responsive
(4 points) (3 points) (2 points) (0 points)
(1 point)
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1. Summarizes Provides a Provides a Provides a Provides a Provides an
the context very thorough clear and clear but somewhat unclear and
and content of and clear and concise shallow muddled, unintelligible
the selected concise summary of summary of unclear and summary of the
article summary of the article the article; rambling article
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the article context and may be summary of OR
context and content. excessively the article. No summary at
content. brief or may all.
include some
C extraneous
information.
2. Identifies and Thoroughly Describes Describes Attempts to Provides an

D
describes your describes your your personal your personal describe your unclear,
personal personal reaction to the reaction to the personal unintelligible
reaction to the reaction to the article; article; reaction to and illogical
E
article article; includes a includes no the article, description of

includes simplistic discussion of but lacks a personal
discussion of discussion of the relevant logical flow reaction
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the relevant the relevant issues within and reaction OR

issues within issues within the article. is muddled; No description
the article. the article. no discussion of personal
of any reaction at all.
relevant
issues in the
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article.
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Performance Indicators
Minimally
Excellent Very Good Satisfactory Unacceptable
Criteria Responsive
(4 points) (3 points) (2 points) (0 points)
(1 point)
3. Grammar, Contains all Contains all Contains Contains Response is
mechanics, correct correct info mostly correct incorrect info totally
and APA information regarding info regarding regarding unintelligible
style for regarding article title, article title, article title, OR
references and article title, author name, author name, author name, No response
citations author name, and article and article and article
and article source and source and source and
source and date. date. date.
date. Contains Contains Contains
Consistently accurate frequent numerous
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contains and proper errors in errors
accurate and grammatical grammatical in
proper conventions, conventions, grammatical
grammatical spelling, and spelling, and conventions,
conventions, punctuation; spelling, and
spelling, and errors begin to punctuation;
O
punctuation. interfere substantially
Clearly and with paper’s interferes
consistently meaning. with paper’s
uses proper
APA
C Inconsistently
uses APA
meaning.
formatting
E D
Source:file:///C:/Users/Ben/Downloads/Documents/SHS_PBH342_Article_Review_R
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ubric.pdf
Article Review Grading Rubric

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The following criteria will be used to grade your article review. Keep in mind that the
score requirement described under each point outlines the minimum performance
that must be demonstrated in order to achieve that score. The grade received for each
article will account for 5%, with a total of 5 accountable for 25% of your final grade.
Transfer
Activity 10. Interviews and Presentation

As a closing activity for this chapter, the class shall be divided into four (4) groups.
Each group will interview a particular set of interview partners. The assignment of
64
each group is listed below. Sample questions are also listed below. All the groups will
be asked to present their findings and analysis before the class.
Group Interview partners

Group 1 Grandparents
Group 2 Parents
Group 3 Single Adults
Group 4 Teenagers
Guide Questions:
1. What kind of work, school (if applicable) and leisure activities do you engage
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in nowadays?
2. Were there changes in these activities? When and why?
3. How has your family (neighbors, society in general) shaped your
understanding of what it means to be a grandfather (or grandmother, parent,
adult, teenager) with regard to work, school and leisure activities?
O
4. What messages did you receive regarding what it means to be a “grandfather”
(or “grandmother”, “parent”, “adult”, “teenager”)?
5. What norms govern your social interactions with:
C
- grandchildren (for grandparents)
- children (for parents)
- nephews/nieces (for single adults)
- teenagers and younger siblings (for teenagers)
D
6. Describe yourself as a Filipino citizen.
E
Note: Rubrics on paper presentation can also be used in evaluating this activity
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References
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1. Dionisio, Eleanor. 1992. Chapter 1, “Sex and Gender” in: E. Eviota (ed.) Sex and
Gender in Philippine Society. Manila: NCRFW. pp. 1–30
2. Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology, 14th ed. Boston: Pearson
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CHAPTER 4
ORGANIZING SOCIETY
I. INTRODUCTION
Summary
This chapter explores our membership in particular social groups, and brings us to
the topic of social structure, or the organized aspects of social life. At a smaller
level, social structure refers to the interrelationships between particular social
groups in a society such as kinship and barkada. In a broader sense, it refers to the
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interrelationships of the social institutions of a society. The chapter is divided into
two parts. Lesson 1 explores how society is organized and how social structure
affects one’s relationships and influence. Lesson 2 deepens the discussion on social
structure by analyzing various social and political institutions and how they interact
with one another. Understanding how society is organized helps us probe how
O
social interactions influence the role we play and the power we wield as an
individual, a group, and a nation. C
Focus Questions
1. What is the relationship between how society is organized and the social
interactions in everyday life?
D
2. How does the social organization of society influence political participation?
E
II. CONTENT
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A. How Society is Organized

1. Groups within Society: Primary and Secondary
2. In-groups and Out-groups
3. Reference Groups
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4. Networks
B. Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions

1. Kinship, Marriage, and the Household
2. Political and Leadership Structures
3. Economic Institutions
4. Nonstate Institutions
5. Education
6. Religion and Belief Systems
7. Health
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III. STANDARD
Content Standard
The learners demonstrate an understanding of cultural, social, and political
institutions as sets of norms and patterns of behavior that relate to major social
interests.
At the end of the chapter, the learners will be able to:
1. Analyze aspects of social organization
2. Identify one’s role in social groups and institutions
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3. Recognize other forms of economic transaction such as sharing, gift exchange,
and redistribution in his/her own society
A. How Society is Organized
O
C
1. Trace kinship ties and social networks
2. Describe the organized nature of social life and rules governing behavior
3. Compare different social forms of social organization according to their
manifest and latent functions
D
4. Analyze social and political structures
B. Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions

E
1. Analyze economic organization and its impacts on the lives of people in

the society
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2. Differentiate functions of nonstate institutions in society

3. Evaluate how functions of education affect the lives of people in society
4. Promote primary education as a human right
5. Recognize the practice of medical pluralism in light of cultural diversity
D
and relativism
6. Conduct participant observation of an activity associated with any of the
various institutions in society (e.g., attend, describe and reflect on a
religious ritual, observe elections practices)
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V. LESSON
Lesson 1: Exploring Groups Within Society

Specific Objectives
In this lesson, the learners are expected to do the following:
1. Explain what is a social group
2. Differentiate the different types of social groups
3. Evaluate how these groups relate to one another
Explore
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Activity 1: My Social Groups
Directions: Identify the groups that you are a part of and assign this on the drawing
below according closeness.
O
C
E D
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D
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Process Questions
1. Who/ what group(s) is/are the closest to you?
2. Who/ what group(s) is/are farthest from you?
4. Are some group(s) that are connected with each other? What are they?
5. What are the factors that you consider when identifying a group’s proximity to
you?
Firm Up
Key concepts
Society is made up of social groups. A social group consists of two or more people
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who identify with and interact with one another. People who make up a group share
experiences, loyalties, and interests. Examples of social groups are couples, families,
circles of friends and barkada, churches, clubs, businesses, neighborhoods, and large
organizations (Macionis 2012: 146).
O
According to Macionis (2012), there are two types of social groups. The primary
group is a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships.
These personal and tightly integrated groups are among the first groups an individual
C
experiences in life. The most important primary group in any society is the family.
Friends who shape an individual’s attitudes, behavior, and social identity also form
one’s primary group.
D
The secondary group is a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue
a specific goal or activity. Unlike the primary group which is defined according to
who they are in terms of family ties or personal qualities, membership in secondary
E
groups is based on what people can do for each other.

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Over time, a group may transform from secondary to primary, as with classmates or
neighbors who develop closer relationships. Moreover, while it is possible to identify
some groups as either primary or secondary, most social groups actually contain
elements of both. For example, a student organization may be larger and more
anonymous, but its members may identify strongly with one another and provide
D
mutual support.
Through socialization, individuals develop the need to conform. To assess one’s own
attitudes and behaviors, individuals use a reference group, a social group that serves
as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions (Macionis, 2012).
Reference groups can be primary or secondary, as well as groups that we do not
belong to, as in the case of a person following fashion styles described in a fashion
magazine.
Besides reference groups, there is also the opposition of in-groups and out-groups. An
in-group is a social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty, while an
69
out-group is a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or
opposition (Macionis, 2012).
As groups grow beyond three people, they become more stable and capable of
withstanding the loss of one or more members. At the same time, increases in group
size reduce the intense personal interaction possible only in the smallest groups.
Larger groups are based less on personal attachment and more on formal rules and
regulations (Macionis, 2012).
A network is group containing people who come into occasional contact but who
lack a sense of boundaries and belonging (Macionis, 2012). Some scholars claim that
networks are nonhierarchical, value-free, and structure-less organizations, and that
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they are composed of people working on similar tasks without necessarily knowing
each other. This is illustrated by social networking sites such as Facebook.
Activity 2: “Group” Matrix
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Directions: Complete the table/matrix below by citing examples of various kinds of
groups in the Philippine context. Why do You Think So?
C
Examples Explanation
1. Primary Group
E D
2. Secondary
Group
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3. In-Group
D
4. Out-Group
5. Networks
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Transfer
Activity 3. Small Group Work
1. Identify the various social groups in your barangay.
2. On a sheet of paper, map out these groups. Use symbols to indicate the
relationship between two or more groups (example: arrow/straight line for
network, broken line for out-group, etc).
Lesson 2: Examining Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions
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Explore
Activity 4: Find Me!
Directions: Ask the learners to complete the table/matrix below. Each learner must
go around asking classmates to sign on the box if they match the description
O
contained therein. Alternatively, the class may fill in the boxes as a group. In this
case, the teacher would have to reproduce the matrix on the blackboard, and then ask
for a show of hands for the description in each box.
C
Who has been treated at a Who has a brother or sister Who has a copy of his or
health center or hospital in currently enrolled in her birth certificate (at
the last six months? elementary school? home)?
D
Who lives with their Who carries a religious Who has met a local
E
parent(s) and item in his/her bag or government official?

grandparent(s)? pocket?
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Who has shared a food Who is a member of a Who has bought anything
item with neighbors in the community-basedyouth from a sari-sari store in the
last twelve months? group? last two weeks?
D
Process Questions
1. What kinds of institutions do you think were represented in the activity?
2. How do the family, school, religion, economy, civil society, and the health
center or hospitals affect your life?
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Firm up
Living in a society implies that we are governed by a set of rules. Some rules may be
imposed while others are negotiated. Regardless of how these were arranged, their
importance in understanding what is culturally, socially and politically acceptable
cannot be denied. A social institution “consists of all the structural components of
a society through which the main concerns and activities are organized, and
social needs … are met” (Marshall 1998: 317–318). In addition to this, there is
also a tradition of the study of institutions as constraining. Douglass North
defines institutions as “humanly devised constraints that structure, political,
economic and social interactions” (North 1991: 97). These constraints come in the
form of informal control such as taboos, culture and tradition. Constraints are also
manifested through the establishment of formal rules such as law and constitution.
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Generally, institutions evolve over time as a result of the changing relationship
among groups in society. There are institutions, however, that persist despite changes
in the economic, social, and political landscape. In Philippine society, some
important institutions are family, religion, and civil society. Other institutions such
O
as market and economy, education, and health are also notable.
Key concepts
C
Family is a social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative
groups to care for one another, including any children (Macionis 2012: 418). The
D
nuclear family is a family composed of one or two parents and their children. It is
also known as a conjugal family.
E
As an extended family is a family composed of parents and children as well as other

kin. It is also known as a consanguine family (Ibid). Shimizu (1991: 106) observed
that while the nuclear family is the basic form of household in the Philippines, the
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nuclear family is “not a closed, isolated unit consisting of only the married couple and
their unmarried children It has frequent and intimate interactions with the families
living nearby. It is not unusual to find elderly parents or elderly unmarried siblings of
the household’s head still living together in the same household.”
D
A reconstituted family is a family whose composition and form of emotional care

differ from those of the nuclear or extended family. One example is the female-
headed transnational family, a household with “core members living in at least two
nation-states and in which the mother works in another country while some or all of
her dependents reside in the Philippines” (Parreñas 2001: 361). From Parreñas’s
definition of a female-headed transnational family, we can define the transnational
family as one with core members living in at least two nation-states.
Kinship.Family ties are also called kinship, a “social bond based on common
ancestry, marriage, or adoption” (Macionis 2012: 418). A more traditional
understanding of kinship follows the idea that persons who extend duties and
72
privileges to one another on the basis of consanguinity or blood relations are
considered members of the same kin group. Kinship relations around the world,
however, are organized differently and in ways that do not simply follow blood or
biological relations. There are several types of kinship relations within groups. For
instance, some societies organize themselves through a matrilineal descent, where
people are regarded as members of the mother’s group by birth and throughout their
lifetime. Societies organized along a patrilineal descent automatically consider people
as members of the father’s group by birth and throughout their lifetimes. Societies
with bilateral descent, such as many of the societies in the Philippines, trace
automatic membership to both sides of descent. Many societies share the idea that
members of a kin group help each other take care of a person’s welfare, protection,
marriage, offspring, career, and identity (Service 1962; Ember, Ember, and Perigrine
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2011).
Ritual kinship refers to ritual parent-child relations such as the godparent-godchild

relationship established through the baptism ceremony of Roman Catholics. In the
Philippines, this is called the compadre system (Shimizu 1991: 118).
O
Bands. In many areas of the world, small groups of people connected mainly by
kinship ties organize themselves into a community.This form of organization is called
C
a band.A band is usually led by a headman who members of the the community
considered as either their best hunter or wisest member. A band, which is by itself a
politically autonomous organization and a type of society, typically comprises about
100 persons and occupies a large local territory that serves as their hunting or
D
foraging ground. Members of the band either live within one community or scatter
themselves across their territory. Nearly all societies established before the
development of farming some 10,000 years ago organized themselves into bands.
E
More recent nomadic and foraging societies also establish themselves into groups that
may resemble the anthropological description of band (Service 1962; Ember, Ember,
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and Perigrine 2011).
Tribes. Some kindred groups from multiple localities integrate themselves into a
larger unit of relations. That integrated formation of multi-local kin groups can be
referred as a tribal society or a tribe. As a tribe, communities of kin form an informal
D
structure especially in cases of outside threats but breaks up and return to a state of
self-reliance once that threat subsides. A tribe is rather fragile as a political system
but militarily and organizationally efficient in dealing with threats whether from an
external enemy or natural calamities. In the Philippines, some wrongly consider a
linguistic group as a tribal formation.Members of the same linguistic groups do link
together for various reasons but do not necessarily integrate themselves into larger
political units in times of external threat and then dissolve that integration when a
threat has passed (Service 1962; Ember, Ember, and Perigrine 2011).
Chiefdoms. Some societies organize some form of formal structures that integrate
several communities into a political unit under the leadership of a council with or
73
without a chief. These societies are referred as chiefdoms. A chiefdom, however, is
usually headed by a chief, a person of higher rank as well as authority compared to
other members of a council. The council that makes up a chiefdom normally
comprises the chiefs of a community or multiple communities (district). Many
chiefdoms have an established system of social stratification with some members,
particularly the chief and the district chiefs, being bestowed with a higher rank and
accorded a status of prestige. The primary role of the chief is to resolve conflicts,
distribute goods, plan the use of resources and public labor, supervise religious
ceremonies, and command military affairs in accordance with the interest of the
chiefdom(Service 1962; Ember, Ember, and Perigrine 2011).
Weberian Types of Authority (Weber 1961: 173–179)
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Max Weber’s work on social action showed one of the clearest links between
individuals and institutions. As defined by Weber, social action is one thatindividuals
attach subjective meanings to. In other words, social action is action that is
meaningful.
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Weber identified four types of social action.
• Traditional action isdetermined by the actor’s habitual and customary ways
of behaving.
C
• Affectual action isdetermined by the emotional state of the actor.
• Value rationality isdetermined by a conscious belief in the value of some
D
ethical, aesthetic, religious or other forms of behavior.
• Means-ends rationality is determined by goal orientation.
E
These four types of social action form the bases of the structures of authority, or the
legitimate forms of domination. There are three types of authority according to
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Weber.
• Traditional authority is associated with hereditary authority (example:
monarchy).
• Charismatic Authority is associated with charismatic leaders whose
authority comes from followers’ belief in the leaders’ special personal
D
qualities (example: cult leaders, benevolent dictators).

• Rational-legal authority is associated with leadership that is goal-oriented
for the benefit of society (example:duly-elected government officials;
bureaucrats).The ultimate form of goal-oriented action is the bureaucracy.
A bureaucracy is a large, rational organization, designed to perform tasks

efficiently (Macionis 2012: 153).
Weber identified the following as features of a bureaucracy:

• Specialization: There exists a specialized division of labor.
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• Hierarchy of position:Jobs are structured from greater to lesser amounts of
authority.
• Rules and regulations: Formal rules and regulations guide a bureaucracy’s
operations.
• Technical competence: Bureaucratic workers are technically trained.
• Impersonality: Rules and regulations, not personal whim, govern the treatment
of both clients and workers so that they are treated in the same way.
• Formal, written communications: There is a reliance on records and files.
Economy is the “social institution that organizes a society’s production, distribution,

and consumption of goods and services” (Macionis 2012: 370). The economy has
three sectors (Ibid: 372). The primary sector relies on raw materials from the natural
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environment. It is the most important sector in low-income nations. Examples are
agriculture, fishing, and mining.
The secondary sector is the manufacturing sector which transforms raw materials
into manufactured goods. This sector has a significant shareof the economy in low-,
O
middle-, and high-income nations. Examples are automobile and clothing
manufacturing. The tertiary sector produces services rather than goods. It is the
dominant sector in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Examples are call
center services, sales, and teaching.
C
Nonstate actors are organizations, groups, or networks that participate in
international relations and global governance.They are deemed to have sufficient
D
power and influence to advocate for and cause changes in international norms and
development practices.They include civil society, nongovernmental organizations
E
(NGOs) and international NGOs (INGOs), economic and social groups, including
trade union organizations and transnational corporations, and the private sector. In
practice, nonstate actors include, among others, community-based organizations,
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human rights association, universities and research institutes, and chambers of

commerce.
Civil society is “the population of groups formed for collective purpose primarily
outside of the State and marketplace” (van Rooy 1998: 30).
D
Education is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and beliefs. There are many
competing ideas about education as an institution. For some, it is viewed as a
socializing process while others view education as a status competition. Finally,
education can also be seen as a system of legitimation, where it restructures entire
populations, creating elites and redefining the rights and duties of its members
(Meyer 1977). Mass education, or public education, is an example of how education
can restructure entire populations and redefine the rights and obligations of citizens.
75
Religion. Giddens and Duneier (2013) cite Durkheim’s definition of religion as
involving a set of symbols that invoke feelings of reverence or awe, which are linked
to rituals practiced by a community of believers.
Activity 5. Matching
Directions: Draw a line to match the phrase that best represents the concepts.
Civil Society • • constraints that structure

social, political, and economic
interactions
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Religion • • goal-oriented leadership
Rational-legal authority • • acquisition of knowledge,

skills, values, and beliefs
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Kinship • • groups formed outside of the
State and market that band
together due to collective
C purpose and interests
Education • • A set of symbols linked to

rituals practiced by a
D
community of believers
Institution
E
• • Persons who extend duties

and privileges to one another
usually on the basis of
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consanguinity or blood
relations
Process Questions
D
1. What are the different kinds of institutions?

2. How do these institutions affect how we think and behave?
Deepen
Selected Materials
The selected articles in the Reader present important institutions in the Philippines
and how it permeates our everyday lives. Mary Hollnsteiner examines “utang na
loob” (debt of gratitude) reciprocity that serves as a continuing economic mechanism
up to today. The next readings provide insights into the workings of various
institutions
76
such as family, religion, and civil society. Alfred McCoy identifies the elite families
as a powerful socio-political institution in the Philippines and presents cases of
political dynasties in the country. Frank Lynch examines the concept of folk
Catholicism and how it makes us better Christians and Filipinos. Jose Cruz points out
the lack of separation of church and state and how the social dynamics of faith
challenges the legal and political restrictions in contemporary Philippines. Jose
Magadia examines the transformations of political and social institutions and how
these brought about new modes of relationship between the Philippine state and
Filipino society after the EDSA People Power Revolt.
The following are the guide questions and summary for each of the text that you can
use in deepening the students’ understanding of institutions.
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Hollnsteiner: What is utang na loob reciprocity? On what occasions is it
experienced? How have utang na loob practices changed along with the values
and norms of Philippine society?
Hollnsteiner explores the norm of reciprocity, which refers to the principle of
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behavior wherein every service received, solicited or not, demands a return, the
nature and proportion of which is determined by the relative statuses of the parties
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involved and the kind of exchange at issue. She classifies reciprocity into three types,
namely, contractual reciprocity, quasi-contractual reciprocity, and utang na loob (debt
of gratitude) reciprocity. The article then proceeds to discuss utang na loob
reciprocity in the context of the family and outside of it, emphasizing that the concept
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of utang na loob in relation to family obligations is deeper than that used in
nonfamilial relationships. It is also complementary rather than reciprocal, imposing
on family members to help their closest relatives when the situation demands. In
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contrast to complementarity, utang na loob reciprocity is incurred in various ways

such as when sending a relative’s or friend’s child through school, putting up a
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relative in one’s home, rendering professional services for free, giving a job, and so
on. Occasions for reciprocation are festive events such as the fiesta and elections.
Hollnsteiner argues that up to today, utang na loob reciprocity continues to be an
important economic mechanism. Nevertheless, with modernization, it has found more
dominance in the noneconomic favor -- doing practices among smaller social
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circles than in the wider economic order.
McCoy:What factors gave rise to elite families as the most power sociopolitical
institution in the Philippines? How does a political dynasty created and maintained?
McCoy’s article locates the importance of elite families as a socio-political institution

in the Philippines. Historically, Filipinos have learned to rely on their families for
social support, basic services, and protection because of the inability of government
and the church to provide for these. This legitimized the role of kinship in politics
which allowed local elite families to gain power and control over provinces and
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towns.A family name, therefore, is the most valuable asset in politics—Laurel in
Batangas, Osmeña in Cebu, and Cojuangco in Tarlac to name a few.
Two key elements have been attributed to the rise of powerful political families post-
independence. The first is rent-seeking, in which the Philippine post-colonial state
created an artificial advantage for entrepreneurs, often elite families, by restricting
others from entering into the market. The second is the weakening of central
government control over the provinces, which gave rise to the proliferation of arms
and warlords. It then briefly presents cases of political dynasties in the country.
Lynch: What is folk Catholicism? What are examples of folk-religious beliefs and
practices? How does folk Catholicism make the Filipino more religious? In what
ways does it make him/her a better Filipino?
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Lynch introduces the notion of folk Catholicism to show how the Church and
Philippine culture have adapted to each other. Key to its definition is the distinction
between between official and nonofficial. Official Catholicism refers to doctrine,
ritual, and administrative organization proposed, approved, or maintained as
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normative by officially designated authority. Unofficial Catholicism includes the
tolerated, the disapproved, and the condemned. Folk Catholicism includes these three
unofficial categories but only where the belief is popularly derived and used, and is
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sanctioned as traditional in the community where it is practiced. The practice of
official religious beliefs and practices promotes community solidarity, but it is in the
practice of folk-religious customs such as Santacruzan, pabasa, undras, coparenthood
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system, lamay, and padasal, which often operate independently of official
supervision that the sense of community is most clearly cultivated. According to
Lynch, folk Catholicism makes Filipino better Christians by making it easier for them
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to understand and accept the message of Christ. Folk-religious customs give faith a
physical form and provided it the language and other symbols that are distinctly
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Filipino. And because folk Catholicism supports core Philippine values, it also makes
those who practice it better Filipinos.
Cruz: What examples of political events in the Philippines show religion to have
contributed or played a significant role?
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Cruz’s article points out the lack of separation between church and state and how the
social dynamics of faith challenges the legal and political restrictions in contemporary
Philippines. He posits that “religion shapes society, even while being shaped by
it”(p.32). This blurs the line between socio-political and religious realities. Religion’s
role in the political evolves, depending on the historical and social contexts. The
article then offers several examples how religion’s role and impact in Philippine
society constantly changes. It ends with a call for the Church to constantly reassess
itself and its place in Philippine society and politics to remain significant in the
process of nationbuilding.
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Magadia: How did societal organizations participate in the redemocratization process
of the Philippines (post-1986)?What are the challenges of this expanded role? How
can the Philippine state maintain these gains?
Magadia examines the transformations of political and social institutions in the

Philippines post-martial law and how this affected their relationship. The study finds
societal organizations to have been gaining influence beyond local policymaking,
even at a very challenging context.New modes of state-society relations and an
increasingly inclusive space for engagement have emerged consistent with the
features of post-authoritarian regimes.Internally, societal organizations have gained
technical capacities and confidence to engage the tate more effectively. To be able to
maintain these gains, the following must be pursued: (1) institutionalize civil society
participation in the formal political processes of the state; (2) establish stable
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institutions (such as elections and political parties) that correspond to democratic
ideals;(3) rationalize government functions and structures, which implies curbing
corruption and increasing capacities of its own human resources; and (4) achieve a
balance between guardianship and enabler of autonomy as the primary role of the
Philippine state.
Transfer
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Activity 6. Observing Institutions
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In the lesson’s final activity, students will write an essay as a result of their
participant-observation of an activity associated with any of the various institutions in
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society. Students could,for example, attend a religious ritual, observe activities
conducted by the city or municipal government, or observe a family gathering. In
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addition, they could gather more information by conducting interviews and analysis
of written documents such as brochures and newsletters.
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Participant observation is a research method used widely in the social sciences in

which “investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine
activities” (Macionis 2012: 41).Eriksen (2001: 4) refers to participant observation as
consistingof lengthy fieldwork in a particular social setting. A participant
observer“tries to immerse oneself in the life of the locals and tries not to be noticed,
D
so that they can carry on with their own lives as usual” (Eriksen 2001: 26).
However, in conducting fieldwork, one must be aware of the research

participants’right to informed consent and right to privacy. In the former, it would
be unethical not to inform the individuals, groups, or organizations about your
project, as they must have the right to refuse to be observed. Moreover, researchers
must ensure data confidentiality. When the findings are reported, the research
participants must be rendered anonymous to protect their privacy. This is usually
done by assigning pseudonyms.
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Directions
1. Choose one important institution in Philippine society that was discussed.
2. Conduct a participant-observation of the setting of the institution (for
example, a marketplace), event (for example, a trade fair), or activities (for
example, what the groups did from the start of the event up until it was
finished).
3. Write an essay that describes how this institution works in terms of actors,
rules governing the behavior of actors, goals of the institution, and what was
done to attain these goals.
4. How important is this institution to society? Why?
5. Why do you think this institution persists to this day?
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References
1. Ember, Carol R., Melvin Ember, and Peter N. Perigrine. 2011. Anthropology. Boston:
Prentice Hall.
2. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (2001).Chapter 3.”Fieldwork and Its Interpretation.” Small
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Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition.
London/Virginia: Pluto Press. 24-39.
3. Giddens, Anthony and Mitchell Duneier (2013). Introduction to Sociology, 9thEdition. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company.
C
4. Macionis, John (2012). Sociology, 14th Edition. Boston: Pearson.
5. Marshall, Gordon (1998). A Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6. Meyer, John (1977). “The Effects of Education as an Institution”, The American Journal of
D
Sociology, 83(1), 55-77.
7. North, Douglass (1991). “Institutions”. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(1), pp. 97-112.
8. Shimizu, Hiromu 1991. “Filipino Children in Family and Society” in: Department of
E
Sociologyand Anthropology (ed.) SA 21: Selected Readings. 106-125.

9. Parreñas, Rhacel S. (2001). “Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender and
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Intergenerational Relations inFilipino Transnational Families.”Feminist Studies, 27, pp. 361-

390.
10. Service, Elman (1962). Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective. New
York: Random House.
11. Van Rooy, Alison (1998). Civil Society and the Aid Industry. London: Earthscan.
12. Weber, Max (1961). Social Action and Its Types. In T. Parsons et al. (eds.), Theories of
D
Society:Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory. New York: The Free Press. 173-179.
80
CHAPTER 5
RANKING GROUPS IN SOCIETY
I. INTRODUCTION
Summary
This chapter explains the meaning of social stratification, social inequality, and
poverty. It provides various explanations for the existence of social stratification—
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from looking at the functions it performs for the whole society to examining the
accompanying social conflicts as it benefits only a few in society. It also introduces a
micro-level analysis of social stratification that emphasizes the meanings attached to
status symbols.
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An article by Herbert Gans then identifies the functions of poverty in society, while
pointing out that while poverty is functional to society, there are ways to solve it.
Within a country, there are categories of people distinguished by physical or cultural
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difference that a society sets apart and subordinates. The chapter thus examines
gender and ethnic stratification and the issues of prejudice, discrimination, and
marginalization of minorities in a given society. The work of Rudy Rodil shows how
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ethnic marginalization and social inequality unfolds in Philippine society. Rodil
illustrates how the enactment of land registration and titling legislations as well as
policies that facilitated the resettlement of farmers from Visayas and Luzon to
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Mindanao between the 1900s and 1960s contributed to the minoritization of Moro
and indigenous communities.
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Since social stratification does not only involve people within a single country but is
also a worldwide pattern, the discussion turns to global stratification, in which some
nations are far more economically productive than others. The chapter examines two
major explanations for global inequalities—Modernization Theory and Dependency
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Theory—and the solutions they offer for reducing the gaps between countries.
Walden Bello’s article completes the discussion by pointing out the repercussions of
globalization on poorer countries, particularly the devastating effects of free trade and
monopolistic competition principles.
Focus Question
How are people ranked according to power, wealth, and prestige in a given society
and what are the consequences of this ranking?
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II. CONTENT
Social and Political Stratification

1. Social Desirables
2. Social Mobility System
i. Open (Class)
ii. Closed (Caste)
3. Social Inequality
i. Access to Social, Political, and Symbolic Capital
ii. Gender Inequality
iii. Ethnic Minorities
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iv. Other Minorities (e.g., persons with disabilities)
v. Global Inequality (relationships between states and nonstate actors in the
global community)
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III. STANDARD
Content Standard
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1. The social stratification as the ranking of individuals according to wealth,
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power, and prestige
2. The social and political inequalities as features of societies and the global
community
E
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1. Examine stratification from the functionalist and conflict perspectives

2. Identify characteristics of the systems of stratification
3. Suggest ways to address global inequalities
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V. LESSON
Social and Political Stratification

Explore
Activity 1.Throwback Time
As the name of the activity suggests, this activity will allow students to revisit
personal experiences by answering the following questions:
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1. When was the last time you experienced “hunger” due to lack of provisions
(e.g., money, resources) to buy food?
2. What actions did you take to satisfy your hunger?
3. Did you ask for help from anyone (e.g., family members, close friends)
toaddress the concern? Why or why not?
4. Did anyone extend help?
5. Is there anyone to blame for the difficult situation you experienced?
Ask someone from your class to share his/her story using the questions as their guide.
Process Questions
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1. What did you feel while doing the activity above?
2. What were your thoughts upon hearing the experiences of your classmates?
3. What does this experience tell you about your socioeconomic status?
The teacher will link the last question to the lesson proper on social stratification
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Before the teacher proceeds to the discusssion proper, it is but imperative to diagnose
the students’ schema regarding the concepts on stratification.
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Activity 2.KWLHS Matrix
Let the students accomplish the first two columns of the following matrix. The
three remaining columns will be answered after all the content and reading materials
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have been thoroughly discussed and examined.
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What I Know What I Want What I Have How Did I And So What
to Know Learned Learn
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D
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Firm up
Key Concepts
Social stratification is a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a
hierarchy according to power, wealth, and prestige (Macionis 2012: 224). Power,
wealth, and prestige are referred to as social desirables, or rewards of social positions
of statuses. Wealth pertains to ownership or control of resource. Power is the ability
to compel obedience or control a number of people. Prestige refers tosocial
recognition and deference. People in different positions have different access to
wealth, power, and prestige. These differences in society give rise to social
inequality.
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Macionis (2012) points out that in certain societies, some people experience social
mobility orthe change in position within the social hierarchy. Vertical mobility
refers to the change from one status to another that is higher or lower.Individuals who
rose from modest beginnings to fame and fortune experience upward mobility. Some
people move downward because of business failures, unemployment, or illness. In
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contrast, horizontal mobility isthe change from one status to another that is roughly
equivalent. This is the case when people switch from one job to another at about the
same social level.
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There are two types of social stratification systems. Closed systems allow for little
change in social position, while open systems, permit much more social mobility.
D
Closed systems are called caste systems, and more open systems are called class
systems.A caste system is social stratification based on ascription, or birth.India’s
caste system and apartheid, or separation of the races in South Africa, are examples of
E
a caste system. A class system, in contrast, issocial stratification based on both birth
and individual achievement. The system is common in industrial societies. In some
societies such as the United Kingdom and Japan, social stratification mixes caste and
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class (Macionis 2012: 228).
Theories of social stratification

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A. Functionalist perspective
According to the structural-functional approach, social inequality exists
because it plays a vital part in the continued existence of society. Kingsley
Davis and Wilbert Moore (1945) argue that the more important a position is to
society, the more rewards a society attaches to it.Rewarding important work
with income, prestige, and power encourages people to do these jobs and to
work better, longer, and harder. Macionis (2012: 231—233) summarizes the
criticisms of Davis-Moore Theory as follows:
• How do we assess the importance of a particular occupation? Do rewards

actually reflect the contribution someone makes to society? Do corporate
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executives, for example, deserve mega-salaries for their contributions to
society?
• Living in a society that places so much emphasis on money, we tend to
overestimate the importance of high-paying work. How does one see the
value of work that is not oriented toward making money?
• It likewise ignores how social inequality may promote conflict and even
outright revolution. This criticism leads us to the social-conflict
approach...
B. Social conflict perspective

Marxist social-conflict perspective
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Social conflict analysis draws on the ideas of Karl Marx and Max Weber
(Macionis 2012: 232–234). Rather than viewing social stratification as
benefiting society as a whole, it emphasizes how it benefits some people and
disadvantages others. According to Marx, social stratification is created and
maintained by one group in order to protect and enhance its own economic
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interests. Since stratification is not essential in a classless society. As
expected, the Marxist view is criticized for denying the Davis-Moore theory:
that a system of unequal rewards is necessary to place talented people in the
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right jobs and to motivate them to work hard.
Weberian social conflict perspective

D
Max Weber claimed that social stratification involves three distinct
dimensions of inequality: class, social status or prestige, and power
E
(Macionis 2012: 234–235). A public school teacher might exercise great

power as a source of knowledge and wisdom in the community yet have little
wealth or social prestige. Influenced by Weber’s ideas, sociologists use the
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term socioeconomic status (SES) to refer to a composite ranking based on

various dimensions of social inequality, and not only on economic position or
class as Marx argued.
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C. Symbolic Interactionist perspective

The symbolic-interaction approach, a micro-level analysis and influenced by
the ideas of Weber, explains that we size up people by looking forclues to
their social standing. We can know about a person’s position in society
through status symbol, anything than can give an idea as to what stratum an
individual belongs to. Among some groups, conspicuous consumption,
orbuying and displaying products that make a “statement” about social class,
happens. For Thorstein Veblen (1953, orig. 1899, cited in Macionis 2012:
235–236; 546) who introduced the concept, conspicuous consumption
involves people buying expensive products not because they need them but to
show off their wealth.
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Inequality
One important dimension of social stratification is income inequality. Poverty
is a state in which resources, usually material but sometimes cultural, are
lacking. Relative poverty isthe lack of resources of some people in relation to
those who have more. Absolute poverty refers to a lack of resources that is
life threatening (Macionis 2012: 257).
Social ranking likewise involves gender and ethnicity. Minority refers to any
category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a
society sets apart and subordinates (Macionis 2012: 303). In societies that give
more power and other resources to men than to women, gender is an important
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dimension of social stratification (Macionis 2012: 299). Gender is the
meaning a culture attaches to being female or male (see Chapter 3). Gender
stratification is the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege
between men and women. Often, as a result, women increasingly join the
ranks of the poor, giving rise to a phenomenon referred to as the feminization
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of poverty.
Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage based on common ancestry, language,

C
or religion that gives a group people a distinctive social identity (Macionis
2012: 320). People of a particular ethnicity can be a target of prejudice, just
like those of a particular social class, sex, sexual orientation, age, political
D
affiliation, or physical disability. Prejudice isa rigid and unfair generalization
about a category of people. A related concept, discrimination, is the unequal
treatment of various categories of people. Macionis (2012: 323–324) clarifies
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that prejudice refers to attitudes while discrimination involves actions. Both

prejudice and discrimination can be either positive (favorable views,
providing special advantages) or negative (unfavorable views, creating
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obstacles). Also, these biases may be built into the operation of society’s
institutions such as schools, hospitals, the police, and the workplace. This is
referred to as institutional prejudice and discrimination.
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Social reproduction of inequality

Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1990) points out that various linguistic and
cultural competencies that some parents pass on to their children are capital.
He highlights the importance of family background to one’s social status.
Cultural capital refers to cultural advantages coming from a “good home.”
Social capital refers to “features of social organization, such as networks,

norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual
benefit” (Putnam 1993:35). Putnam argues the social capital embodied in
norms and networks of civic engagement seems to be a precondition for
economic development, as well as for effective government. Many studies
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have, however, documented how dynamics of social capital may result in
social exclusion as nonmembers of an organization or networks may not have
access to the resources otherwise available to members.
Symbolic capital refers to the resources available to an individual on the basis

of honor, prestige, or recognition. Graduating from a certain university, for
example, may have symbolic capital in the context of looking for a job.
Bourdieu (1984) points out that symbolic capital can come from the
possession and appropriation of objects with a perceived or concrete sense of
value. For example, a watch worn by a Hollywood actress possesses symbolic
capital because of the prestige of the one wearing it, which in turn
distinguishes the person wearing it.
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Political capital refers to the goodwill that a politician or political policy can
build up with the public through the pursuit of popular policies. This goodwill
can be then be mobilized to achieve other objectives such as the passing of
unpopular policies.
Activity 3.Stop, Look, Examine (Triad)
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C
Instruct the students to form a group composed of three members. They will analyze
key sociological perspectives onstratification by citing situation/condition where it
overtly manifests. They will also give their reaction/s to it.
D
Key Ideas Manifestation/s Reaction/s
E
Social inequality exists

because it plays a vital
part in the smooth

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operation of society.
Social stratification is
created and maintained
D
by one group in order to

protect and enhance its
own economic interests.
We size up people by
looking for clues to their
social standing.
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Process Questions
1. Is social and political stratification a must for a society to exist? Why or why
not?
2. What is the difference between vertical and horizontal mobility?
3. How do wealth, power, and prestige affect the social stratum of an individual?
4. Is stratification exclusive within the parameters of economic dimensions?
Prove your answer.
5. How does conflict perspective examine social stratification?
6. Among the sociological perspectives discussed, which do you think best
explains why social and political stratification exists in society? Why?
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Firm up
Global stratification and inequality

Social stratification involves not just people within a single country; it is also a
worldwide pattern with some nations far more economically productive than others.
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One system of classifying countries is according to a Three Worlds Model:
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The “First World” is made up of rich, industrial, capitalist countries, while the
“Second World” refers to less industrialized socialist countries. The non-
industrialized poor countries comprise the “Third World.” Macionis (2012) notes that
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in this model, the capitalist West (the First World) and the socialist East (the Second
World) are against each other, while other nations (the Third World) remain more or
less on the sidelines. Changes in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the former Soviet
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Union in the early 1990s meant the end of the “Second World,” and the usefulness of
the three worlds model.
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The revised system of classification is not based on ideology or political structure

but on the economic development of countries (United Nations Development
Programme 2010 and the World Bank 2011, as cited in Macionis 2012: 271).
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High-income countries: The 72 high-income countries are those with the highest
overall standards of living. These nations have a per capita gross domestic product
(GDP) greater than $12,000.
Middle-income countries: The 70 middle-income countries are those with a standard

of living about average for the world as a whole. Their per capita GDP is less than
$12,000 but greater than $2,500.
Low-income countries: The remaining 53 low-income countries are those with a per
capita GDP less than $2,500, and a low standard of living. Most people in these
nations are poor.
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Theories of global stratification
There are two major explanations for inequality among nations: Modernization theory
and Dependency theory (Macionis 2012: 280-281).
1. Modernization theory. Walt Rostow explains global inequality in terms of

technological and cultural differences between nations. Nations become rich
by developing advanced technology, a process that depends on a culture that
encourages innovation and change toward higher living standards. Rostow
identifies four stages of development:
• Traditional stage: People’s lives are built around families and
local communities (Example: Bangladesh)
• Take-off stage: A market emerges as people produce goods not just for
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their own use but also to trade with others for profit. (Example:
Thailand)
• Drive to technological maturity: The ideas of economic growth and
higher living standards gain widespread support (Example: Mexico)
• High mass consumption: Advanced technology fuels mass production
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and mass consumption as people now “need” countless goods.
(Example: the United States of America)
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How to address global inequalities? Rostow’s modernization theory
highlights the role of technology transfer and foreign aid. Accordingly, rich
nations can help poor nations by providing technology to control population
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size, increase food production, and expand industrial output and by providing
foreign aid to support economic development.
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2. Dependency theory. This views global inequality as a result of the historical

exploitation of poor nations by rich ones. It maintains that colonialism created
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global inequality beginning 500 years ago, giving rise to rich nations and
underdeveloped poor nations. This process continues today in the form of
neocolonialism, or the economic exploitation of poor nations by multinational
corporations. Immanuel Wallerstein’s model of the capitalist world
economy identified three categories of nations:
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• Core: the world’s high-income countries, which are home to

multinational corporations
• Semiperiphery: the world’s middle-income countries, with ties to core
nations
• Periphery: the world’s low-income countries, which provide cheap
labor and raw materials, and a vast market for industrial products
How to address global inequalities? The dependency theory claims that

three factors, namely export-orientation, a lack of industrial capacity, and
foreign debt, make poor countries dependent on rich nations and prevent their
economic development.
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Andre Gunder Frank’s dependency theory argues that countries in the
Periphery must cut the “umbilical cord” that connects them to the Center, if
they were to become developed countries themselves.
Activity 4.MoDe Diagram

After examining Modernization and Dependency theories, let the students enumerate
(based on their understanding) the differences between the two theories in terms of
their solutions to global inequality. Below the diagram is a box where students will
write three or more solutions/programs that address global poverty.
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O
Modernization Dependency
Theory Theo ry
C
E D
THE BOX OF GLOBAL EQUALITY

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1.
2.
3.
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Deepen
Material:Gans, Herbert. 1991. “The Uses of Poverty,”Down to Earth Sociology, J.

Henslin (ed.). New York: The Free Press. pp. 327–333
Guide Questions
1. What are the economic, cultural, and political functions of the poor?
2. What could be the functional alternatives to poverty and how can these
eliminate poverty?
Summary
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Although an analysis of poverty in American society, this article offers insights into
the poverty in Philippine society. Gans shows that the continued existence of the poor
in society is due to the fact that they perform vital services (functions) for society.
Functionalism, one of the theoretical approaches in Sociology maintains that
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conditions persist in society only if they benefit or perform functions for society or
some of its parts. Gans then identifies those functions and categorized them into
economic, sociocultural, and political functions. In the first set, poverty makes
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possible the existence of a number of respectable professions and occupations;
ensures that society’s “dirty work” will be done; subsidizes a variety of economic
activities that benefit the affluent; and prolongs the economic usefulness of goods.
The sociocultural functions performed by the poor include: being identified and
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punished as alleged or real deviants in order to uphold the legitimacy of conventional
norms; offering vicarious participation to the rest of the population in the uninhibited
sexual, alcoholic,narcotic, and other behaviors which the poor are thought to indulge
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in; creating culture that would later be adopted by the more affluent; guaranteeing the
status of those who are not poor; aiding the upward mobility of groupsjust above
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them in the class hierarchy; and keeping the aristocracy busy, thus justifying its
continued existence. Finally, the poor perform the following political functions:
absorbing the costs of change and growth in society; facilitating and stabilizing the
political process; and by upholding conventional norms, support certain ideologies or
policies. Gans, however, points out that while poverty is often functional, it has many
D
more dysfunctions than functions. Thus, he ends the article with some functional
alternatives such as paying “dirty workers” decent wages. The challenge remains: the
elimination of poverty through functional alternatives would generate dysfunctions
for the affluent or powerful. Poverty can, therefore, be eliminated only when it
become dysfunctional for the affluent or powerful, or when the powerless obtain
enough power to change society.
Material:Rodil, Rudy B. 2004. The Minoritization of Indigenous Communities in

Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Davao City: Alternate Forum for
Research in Mindanao
91
Guide questions
1. Who are the minority peoples in the Philippines?
2. How were indigenous communities minoritized and marginalized in
Mindanao and Sulu?
3. In what ways do national government policies contribute to the
marginalization of minority populations?
Summary
Muslim (Moro) and indigenous peoples (lumad) comprise the majority of the
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population in Mindanao in the years before the American colonial government
imposed its rule over the Philippines.Communities associated with both groups
settled and moved freely across the vastness of the region. People occupied and
cultivated lands based on temporary distribution and usage arrangements under the
stewardship of highly respected community leaders. That traditional pattern of
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population settlement and distribution, however, shifted after the colonial government
issued a public land registration and titling policies in the early 1900s.
C
These land laws required all the residents of the Philippine islands, including
Muslims and indigenous people, to register and then apply for the titling of the lands
that they and their ancestors had occupied since time immemorial. In justifying the
disenfranchisement of native communities, the American government argued that all
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lands across the Philippine archipelago belonged to the Spanish crown from the time
of conquest but were effectively transferred to US sovereign control on the basis of
the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
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Communities that were not accustomed to or had opposed the imposition of colonial
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system of land registry and titles failed to register or seek title for the land. As a
consequence, the native communities were no longer considered legitimate stewards
of their own lands. On the strength of US-enacted laws, persons and families who are
not native to Mindanao managed to own tracts of land including those occupied by
Muslim communities and indigenous peoples. The problem was further complicated
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when the American colonial government and a succession of administrations under an

independent Philippine government pursued a series of Mindanao land resettlement
programs for landless farmers from the Visayas and Luzon. The programs spurred
massive migration into Mindanao and the acquisition of new land titles that were
already occupied by Moro and lumad. The scale of migration was quite vast that it
altered population patterns in the region.By the 1980s, farmers with roots in Luzon
and the Visayas outnumbered the population of Muslims and indigenous peoples. As
a result, the settler population became the majority while Muslims and indigenous
peoples were minoritized and then marginalized.
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Activity 5. Simulating Marginalization
This activity places learners in a position to experience and reflect about the
relationship between the privileged and marginalized groups of people in a society.
To accomplish this, teachers may initiate the following:
1. Organize the class into majority and minority groups, then set them out into a
quiz bee based on questions taken from “The Minoritization of Indigenous
Communities in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago” reading.
2. The teachers may prepare at least ten sets of questions from the reading and
directly ask both groups about them. The teachers, however, should stack the
rules of the game against the minority group to ensure that the majority wins.
3. To stack the game unfairly, 60 percent of the total number of learners in the
class should be designated as the majority,with 40 percent as the minority.
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4. To further make the game unfair, teachers may instruct learners in the
minority group to prepare themselves a mouth cover, which they should take
to class.
5. Before commencing the quiz bee, the teacher should instruct the minority
group to wear their mouth covers and restrict them from speaking unless
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granted permission.
6. During the question-and-answer activity, the teachers should allow the
majority group to open their notes and read, but restrict the minority from
doing so.
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7. In fielding the questions, the teachers may call the majority most of the time
and the minority the least of the time.
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8. The teachers should also let the majority talk freely to explain and argue their
answers but only allow the minority to do so if they raise their hands and ask
permission. The teacher smay ignore the minority’s raised hands most of the
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time.
9. The majority should win the game and earn the most correct answers to the
ten questions asked.
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10. After declaring the members of the majority group as the winner, ask the
learners to settle down and listen to the processing of the activity very
carefully. Explain the game using the questions in the process questions.
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Process Questions
1. How did the majority and the minority feel after realizing that the game
favored or was stacked against them?
2. Did anyone feel that the game was rigged and unfair? Explain why.
3. Did anyone in the game feel the need to break the rules of the game sometime
during the quiz bee? Explain.
4. Did anyone stop participating when he/she felt that the game was unfair?
Explain.
5. How did this game apply to the situation that Rodil described in the reading?
6. Who are the people represented by those with themouth cover and those
without in the context of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago?
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7. Who are the marginalized people in your community? How were they
marginalized?
8. Discuss what can be done to end the marginalization of indigenous
communities and the Morosand lumad of Mindanao.
Material: Bello, Walden. 2005. “Multilateral Punishment: The Philippines in the

WTO (1995–2003),” The Anti-Development State: The Political Economy of
Permanent Crisis in the Philippines. Quezon City: UP Diliman Press.131–187
Guide Questions
1. What is trade liberation and how does it affect economies of developing
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countries such as the Philippines?
2. Is it possible to achieve a market that is fair to both big and small players?
3. What can the Philippines do to help our farmers and local producers?
Summary
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Walden Bello discusses the repercussions of globalization on the Philippine
agricultural sector, particularly the devastating effects of free trade and monopolistic
competition principles lodged in the GATT-WTO (General Agreement on Tariffs and
C
Trade-World Trade Organization). His work analyzes the impact of the Philippines’
participation in the WTO beginning in 1995 when it officially became a member.His
study reveals that the country derives no benefits and instead incurs tremendous costs
D
most especially the agriculture sector that produces rice, corn, and vegetables, and
raises poultry. It has displaced a significant number of producers and farmers with the
unrestricted imports of similar agricultural produce with a much lower price.
E
Ironically, trading powers such as the United States, the European Union, and
Australia have restricted the entry of Philippine products such as tuna and bananas to
protect their own producers.The study critiques the neoliberal assumption that trade
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liberalization, rather than aggressive state support, will improve the Philippine
agriculture sector.
Activity 6. Fact or Fiction

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Based on the article, “The Uses of Poverty,” identify if each “function” presented in
the first column is applicable in the context of Filipino society. Write Fact if it is
applicable and Fiction if it is not on the second column. Substantiate your answer by
providing evidences on the third column. The first item serves as an example.
Fact or
Function of Poverty Proof
Fiction
Household helpers, construction
1. Ensures that “dirty workers, and other menial jobs are
Fact
work” will be done provided by the poor members of the
Philippine society
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Fact or
Function of Poverty Proof
Fiction
2. Subsidizes a variety of
economic activities that
benefit the affluent
3. Creates jobs for a
number of professions
4. Prolongs the economic
usefulness of goods and
services
5. Uphold the legitimacy of
social norms
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6. Offers vicarious
participation to the rest
of the population in the
uninhibited sexual,
alcoholic, and narcotic
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behavior
7. Creates“culture” for the
affluent’s consumption
8. Guarantees the status of
C
those who are not poor
9. Aids the upward
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mobility of groups
above them
10. Helps keep the
E
aristocracy busy
11. Absorbs the costs of
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change and growth in

the society
12. Facilitates and stabilizes
the political process
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Process Questions
1. Are all the functions of poverty enumerated by Herbert Gans applicable or
relevant to the Philippine setting? If not, what could be the possible reason(s)
for this?
2. Do you agree with Gans that poverty has its functions in any society? Why or
why not?
3. What insights did you gain from the article?
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Activity 7.KWLHS Matrix
At this point, let the students answer the last three columns of the matrix.
What I Want What I Have How Did I

What I Know And So What
to Know Learned Learn
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O
C
D
Activity 8.Lesson Closure
Let the students complete the following statement that would summarize their
“essential understanding” of social and political stratification.
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1. Knowing the various sociological perspectives in examining stratification, I

learned that___________________________________________________
2. Learning the dynamics of social and political stratification, Irealized that

______________________________________________________________
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3. Stratification is not a simple social construct, thus

______________________________________________________________
4. It is important to learn social and political stratification

because________________________________________________________
5. I will start ______________________________________________________

inorder to help alleviate poverty in the country.
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Transfer
The students will make a case study on the extent of poverty in their own
community or a community within their barangay. Possible topics include but are
not limited to:
1. Malnourishment
2. Informal settlers
3. Unemployment
4. Out-of-school children/ youth
5. Hunger
Information should come from the local government unit’s records, interviews with
local leaders and residents, and other vital sources.
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Case Study Format
I. Brief introduction (information such as location and population of the
community, leadership and governance structures in the community,
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availability of public services)
II. Presentation and analysis of the problem and its possible solutions
III. Conclusion
IV. Insights/Realizations
C
Students will be rated using the following rubric.
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4 3 2 1
Identifies & Identifies and Identifies and Identifies and
E
Identification
understands all understands understands understands
of the Main
of the main most of the some of the few of the
Issues/
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issues in the main issues in issues in the issues in case

Problems
case study the case study case study study
Superficial
Insightful and Thorough
analysis of Incomplete
Analysis of thorough analysis of
some of the analysis of the
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the Issues analysis of all most of the

issues in the issues
the issues issues
case
Well Appropriate,
Little or no
documented, well thought Superficial
action
reasoned and out comments and/or
Comments suggested,
pedagogically about inappropriate
on effective and/or
appropriate solutions, or solutions to
solutions/stra inappropriate
comments on proposals for some of the
tegies solutions to all
solutions, or solutions, to issues in the
of the issues in
proposals for most of the case study
the case study
solutions, to all issues in the
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4 3 2 1
issues in the case study
case study
Excellent
research into
Links to the issues with Good research Limited Limited
Course clearly and research and research and
Readings and documented documented documented documented
Additional links to class links to the links to any links to any
Research (and/or material read readings readings
outside)
readings
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http://www.winona.edu/air/resourcelinks/group%20case%20study.doc
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References
1. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. “Artistic Taste and Cultural Capital.” In Culture and Society:
Contemporary Debates. Jeffrey Alexander and Steven Seidman (eds.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.205–215.
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2. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
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3. Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology, 14th edition. Boston: Pearson.
4. Putnam, Robert. 1993.“The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life.”The
American Prospect 13. 35-42
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D
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CHAPTER 6
MAKING SOCIETY BETTER
I. INTRODUCTION
The final chapter focuses on cultural, social, and political change, or the
transformations of cultural, social and political institutions over time. There are many
causes of social change—when something is discovered, created, and diffused, during
times of conflict caused by inequalities and differences in ideas, when characteristics
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of population alter, and when modernization is experienced by society.
The first set of readings offered in this chapter present these various reasons why
change occurs. George Ritzer’s notion of the McDonaldization of society, which
emphasizes predictability, efficiency, calculability, and substitution of human labor
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by machines, epitomizes some of these changes. Randolf David examines education,
market, mass media, overseas work, law, and culture as some of the crucial sites and
signs of modernity in Philippine society. The next three readings then address two
C
major challenges to human adaptation and social change: global warming and climate
change, and transnational migration and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Garrett
Hardin explains how the “tragedy of the commons,” which relates to ecological
D
problems, results from individuals’ maximization of self-interests. F. Landa Jocano
explains cultural differences and culture shock experienced by Filipino domestic
helpers abroad. Rhacel Parreñas further provides details on the consequences of the
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feminization of international labor migration by highlighting how Filipina labor

migration results to the formation of the transnational household and family.
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How can we respond to these changes? Two readings explore the politics outside and
beyond the institutions of the political system of the nation-state. Charles Tilly and
Sidney Tarrow discuss the idea of “contentious politics” that brings together power,
shared interests, and government policy. They present various ways of understanding
D
what social movement is, how it starts, and how it is sustained. In the final reading,
W. Lance Bennett presents the paradox of “large-scale individualized collective
action” enabled by social media that challenges group-based political participation.
Focus Question:
1. Why do societies change?
2. How does society cope with change?
3. How can we respond to these changes?
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II. CONTENT
Cultural, Social and Political Change

A. Sources of social, cultural, and political change
1. Innovation
2. Diffusion
3. Acculturation and assimilation
4. Social contradictions and tensions (e.g., interethnic conflicts, class
struggle, armed conflict, terrorism, protests, gender issues)
B. New challenges to human adaptation and social change
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1. Global warming and climate change
2. Transnational migration and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)
C. Responding to social, political, and cultural change
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1. Inclusive citizenship and participatory governance
2. New forms of media and social networking
3. Social movements
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III. STANDARDS
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Content Standards
This chapter interrogates agents/ institutions, processes, and outcomes of cultural,
E
political, and social change.
Performance Standards
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At the end of the chapter, the learner is expected to:

1. Evaluate factors causing social, political, and cultural change.
2. Advocate how human societies should adapt to such changes.
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At the end of the chapter, the learner is expected to:

1. Identify new challenges faced by human populations in contemporary
societies.
2. Describe how human societies adapt to new challenges in the physical, social,
and cultural environment.
3. Develop a plan of action for community-based response to change.
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V. LESSON
Explore
Activity1. My Amazing Life
This activity will allow the students to realize that change starts within them. Ask the
students to fill out the organizer below with information about them and the big
changes in their lives.
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O
C
E D
EP
D
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Process Questions:
1. What is the most significant event in your life? Why is this most important to
you?
2. How do you relate to this quotation “Nothing is permanent in this world
except change?" Give concrete examples.
3. Why do some people oppose or resist change?
Activity 2. Decode And Link It!

Let your student unlock the important words place on the left part of the table
below. Use the legend in unlocking the terms. After unlocking the words let your
students answer the first column (L – list everything you know)
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Legend:
A B C D E F G H I
O
C
D
J K L M N O P Q R
E
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S T U V W X Y Z
D
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you know
What do
now?
K
what you going to take
Inquire about Now we are
notes
N
you know want to know

I
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everything
List
L
O
C
E D
EP
D
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Firm-Up
What is Social Change?

Social change is the “transformation of culture and social institutions over time”
(Macionis 2012: 565).
Characteristics of social change (ibid.)
The process of social change has four major characteristics:

1. Social change happens all the time.Everything in our social world are subject
to change, although some societies change faster than others. As Macionis
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points out, hunting and gathering societies change quite slowly, whereas
members of today’s high-income societies experience significant change
within a single lifetime. Some elements of culture alsochange faster than
others. Macionis thus cites William Ogburn’s theory of cultural lag, which
states that material culture (things) usually changes faster than nonmaterial
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culture (ideas and attitudes). For instance, advances in genetic technology
have developed more rapidly than ethical standards on the use of the
technology.
C
2. Social change is sometimes intentional but is often unplanned. Today’s high-
income societies generate many kinds of change. Yet, it would be impossible
to envision all the consequences of the changes that are set in motion. For
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example, telephones (invented in 1876) have taken on different forms and
uses over time.
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3. Social change is controversial. Social change brings both good and bad
consequences, and thus could be welcomed by some and opposed by others.
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Karl Marx and Max Weber have chronicled the transformations brought about
by the Industrial Revolution. The capitalists welcomed the Industrial
Revolution because new technology meant increased productivity and profits.
However, workers opposed it as they suffered alienation and the
dehumanization brought about by newer techniques and social relations of
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production.
4. Some changes matter more than others.Some changes such as fashion fads
only have passing significance, while others such as major medical
discoveries and inventions may change the world.
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Causes of social change
Social change has many causes.

A. Culture and change
There are three important sources of cultural change (Macionis 2012: 565–
566). First is invention, or the creation of something new by usually by
putting things together. Inventions can range from the seemingly complex
technological objects such as the spacecraft or even the lightbulb to the
seemingly simple such as kitchen gadgets (like can openers).
Second is discovery, or finding something that has existed but previously not
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known. Chapter 2 provides various examples of the discovery of material and
fossil remains of prehistoric societies that changed our understanding of
biophysical and cultural evolution.
Third is diffusion, or the spread of cultural attributes from one culture to
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another through contact between different cultural groups. Change happens as
products, people, and information spread from one society to
another.An example of cultural change is the wide variety of cuisine from
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other lands that is made available to us. Fast-food courts and restaurants in
major Philippine cities offer food from around the country and the world that
is usually not part of a person’s everyday meal. Filipino overseas workers
have also been known to introduce balut and other Filipino foods to their
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host societies. Another example is the evolving ideals of beauty as people
come in greater contactwith others.
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B. Conflict and change

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Inequality and conflict in a society also produce change. Karl Marx foresaw
that “social conflict arising from inequality (involving not just class but also
race and gender) would force changes in every society to improve the lives of
working people” (Macionis 2012: 566). In the Philippines, the rising
inequalities and human rights violations during the Martial Law period caused
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mass uprisings that culminated in the 1986 People Power Revolt. The
Philippines was considered to be the first in the world to have challenged
authoritarian rule through a non-violent process.
C. Ideas and change

Weber, like Marx, also saw that conflict could bring about change. However,
he traced the roots of most social change to ideas (Macionis 2012: 566). For
example, charismatic people such as Mahatma Gandhi or Jose Rizal had
political ideas that change society.
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D. Demographic change
Population patterns such as population growth, shifts in the composition of a
population, or migration also play a part in social change (Macionis 2012:
566). An increasing population may encourage the development of new
products and services, but it can also have ecological and social implications
such the conversion of more agricultural land to residential subdivisions. In
other societies, lower fertility rates (women are having fewer children), an
aging population, and the influx of migrants from other societies are changing
many aspects of social life.
Modernity
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A central concept in the study of social change is modernity. Modernity refers
to social patterns resulting from industrialization. These social patterns were set in
motion by the Industrial Revolution, which began in Western Europe in the 1750s
(Macionis 2012: 566). Related to the discussion of modernity is modernization, or
the process of social change begun by industrialization (Ibid).
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For Emile Durkheim, modernization is defined by an increasing division of labor. The
division of labor refers to the degree to which tasks or responsibilities are specialized.
C
Durkheim defines a society according to type of solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is
based on shared activities and beliefs while organic solidarity is characterized
by specialization makes people interdependent. As societies become industrialized,
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mechanical solidarity is gradually replaced by organic solidarity. (Macionis 2012:
569).
E
For Weber, modernity meant replacing a traditional worldview with a rational way
of thinking characterized by goal-oriented calculation and efficiency. He focused on
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the dehumanizing effects of modern rational organization, especially the bureaucracy

which is the ultimate form of rationalization (Macionis 2012: 569–570).
Marx saw modernity as the triumph of capitalism over feudalism. Capitalism

creates social conflict, which Marx claimed would bring about revolutionary change
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leading to an egalitarian socialist society (Macionis 2012: 569–570)
George Ritzer introduces the concept of McDonaldization of society while Randolf

David explores the Philippine experience of modernity.
New challenges to human adaptation and social change

1. Global warming and climate change: Discuss Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the
commons.
2. Transnational migration and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs): Discuss F.
Landa Jocano’s “Culture Shock” and Rhacel Parreñas’s, “Mothering from a
Distance”.
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Responding to social, political, and cultural change
1. Inclusive citizenship and participatory governance
2. New forms of media and social networking
3. Social movements (e.g., environmentalism, feminism, religious
fundamentalism)
Activity 3:Pic-Graphic Organizer

This activity will allow students to think of the different characteristics and causes of
social change. Instruct them to use the clue pictures as guide to complete the
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organizer.
SOCIAL CHANGE
O
The transformation of culture and social
C
institution over time
D
Characteristics Causes
E
________________ ________________
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_ _
________________ ________________
D
_ _

________________ ________________
_ _

________________ ________________
_ _
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Process Questions:
1. Which among the characteristics of social change can be seen mostly in our
society?
2. Which among the causes of social change is prevalent in the Philippine
setting?
3. In your own perception, give one characteristic and cause of social change.
Explain and provide examples.
Activity 4:Chain of Changes

This activity will allow students to identify things around them that undergo change
or modernity. Let them specify in the lines below the objects, things, and events that
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undergo change. Use the chain to describe the process of change that took place.
1. _________________________
O

C
2. _________________________
D

E
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3. _________________________
Process Questions
1. Why does change happen?
2. What will happen to our society if it will not undergo modernity?
3. What are the positive and negative effects of our changing society?
108
Activity 5: Train of Implications: Dimensions of Modernization
This activity will serve as basis for students understanding of the important concepts
of modernization. Let your students analyze the implications of the modernization on
culture, society, and politics. Answers will be written below the balloons that specify
the dimensions of modernization according to Peter Berger (1977).
Orientation toward
Increasing the future and a
The expansion
The decline of growing awareness
of personal social diversity
small, traditional of time
choice
communities
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O
C
Process Questions:
D
1. How does the community experience the decline of tradition?
2. How do you experience the expansion of choices?
E
3. What are signs of increasing social diversity?

4. What are your plans for the future? Do you consider yourself modern based
on these plans?
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Deepen
There are several articles in the Reader that are useful to deepen the initial concepts
presented.
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Material: Ritzer, George.(1993). “Chapter 1. The McDonaldization of Society.”The

McDonaldization of Society. California: Pine Forge Press. pp. 1–17
Guide questions:
1. What are the features of an increasingly rational society, one that is driven by
means-end calculation?
2. What are the dangers of an increasingly rational world, and how can we cope
with it?
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Ritzer argues that the rationalization of modern society’s bureaucracy and the
economy have been employed by the fast-food restaurant (such as McDonald’s).
These are also being applied in increasingly numerous and diverse social settings and
products such as newspapers, hospitals, and schools, among others. These principles
are: efficiency, quantifiability and calculability, predictability, replacement of human
technology with nonhuman technology, and control. Ritzer makes use of sociologist
Max Weber’s work on the rationalization of modern society that emphasizes formal
rationality (or means-ends calculation). Just as Weber pointed out the irrationality of
rationality in the bureaucracy and the economy, Ritzerexhorts us to extract the best of
what the McDonaldized world has to offer without succumbing to its dangers and
excesses. He suggests ways to cope with the increasing irrationality of rationality: by
developing personal ties wherever we may be.
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Activity6: Race to Change
This activity will identify the new challenges faced by human populations in modern
society.The students will enumerate the changes and how they adapt to new
O
challenges that are generally faced by the human population as enumerated below.
Changes:
C
Food and Education Home and Shopping Employment
industry family and
D
entertainment
The new
E
challenges
faced by
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human
population
D
Adaptation:
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Process Questions
1. How did modernity started in the food business?
2. Why do some people can easily adapt to change?
3. Which among these changesdo people find difficult to adapt?
4. How can you be rational in everything you do?
Material: David, Randolf. 2002. “Modernity and the Filipino,”Nation, Self, and
Citizenship: An Invitation to Philippine Sociology. Quezon City: University of
the Philippines Press. pp. 347–357
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Guide Question:
What are the signs of modernity the Philippines?
A central concept in the study of social change, modernity refers to social patterns
resulting from industrialization. For David, to be modern—to feel at home in a
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rapidly changing world—immediately brings to mind the overseas Filipino worker.
However, he also points out that we do not need to go away to experience modernity.
David examines education, market, mass media, overseas work, law and culture, and
C
politics as some of the crucial sites and signs of modernity in Philippine society. For
example, as the most important workshop of modernity, the school rescues children
from the vicious cycle of poverty. In particular, new entrepreneurs of learning
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produced skilled technicians for the digital age, and schools such as AMA ad STI
have democratized access to tertiary education. In another example, David cites the
presence of malls and Filipino fast food chains adopting the American way but
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improving on what has been adopted as a sign that Filipinos are a modern people. He
concludes that to be modern is to leap into a world that is changing, creating new
meanings while remaining firmly rooted to humanity and to one own’s society and
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culture.
Activity 7: Shapes of Modernization

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This activity will measure on different generations experience and define modernity
in the Philippines. Students will ask their parents or grandparents to share their
experiences of the following signs of modernity (as indicated in the shapes). On a
separate sheet, students will also fill up the shapes based on their experiences.
Then, they will assess the similarities and differences.
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Value of law
Role of education in and culture:
modernizing our
society:
Consumers Character traits of an

view of the OFW in adapting in
Signs of Modernity
market: his /her new
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in the Society
environment:
O

Mass media as a
means of
C
communication:
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Process Questions:
1. How is modernity experienced by different generations?
E
2. What are the similarities and differences? What could be the reason for such
variation?
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Material: Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.”Science. 162: 1243–
1248
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Guide Questions:
1. What are examples of common own resources?
2. What brings about the tragedy of the commons?
3. What are the ways of avoiding mismanagement and abuse of the commons?
Hardin points out that there are problems that do not have a technical solution. A
technical solution is defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of
the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human
values or ideas of morality. No technical solution problems include the management
of common-pool resources. Using the case of a common pasture, Hardin argues that
resources held in common are doomed to destruction because people instinctively
112
pursue their own best interests. The pursuit of self-interest brings about the tragedy of
the commons. People view it as their right to use the parks, to throw their wastes, and
to have as many children as they see fit, without consideration for other people. To
pursue sustainability, society must discourage selfish acts; thus, there is a need to
foster responsibility. The social arrangements that produce responsibility are
arrangements that create coercion, the most preferred of which is mutual coercion.
Mutually agreed upon coercion practices include payment of user’s fees and taxes.
For Hardin, however, an increase in human population necessitates the abandonment
of the commons. The only way to preserve and nurture other freedoms is by
relinquishing the freedom to breed, and by doing so, put an end to the tragedy of the
commons.
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Activity 8: Table Completion
This will measure the ability of our students to think rationally by answering the table
below.The students will fill out the needed information in the chart below.
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Tragedy of
Problems Solutions Programs Effect
Commons
1. Pollution
C
2. Fertility
Decisions
D
3. Use of Public
Spaces
E
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Process Questions:
1. Based on the readings, who are the commons?
2. How you will describe the commons based on the author’s perspective?
3. Do you believe that the problems listed above have no technical solution?
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Explain your answer.
Material: F. LandaJocano. 1994. “Culture Shock: The Case of Filipina Domestic

Helpers in Singapore and Hong Kong”. Solidarity.No. 143–144. pp. 61–66
Guide Questions:
1. How do differences in cultures lead to difficulties and problems for many Filipino
migrant workers?
2. How can these difficulties and problems be addressed?
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Reports of incidents of “mental disorders,”“emotional stress,”“suicides,” and many
other forms of difficulties suffered by Filipino domestics in faraway places often
make headline news. In this analysis of the experiences of domestic helpers in
Singapore and Hong Kong, Jocano offers another explanation for these difficulties:
culture shock. Many Filipinas working as domestic helpers in Singapore and Hong
Kong experience culture shock, or a form of anxiety that results from an inability to
predict the behavior of others or act appropriately in a cross-cultural situation. This
anxiety arises because of differences in cultural ways of thinking, believing, feeling,
and acting that characterize the orientations of people in different cultures. Jocano
points out that the Philippines has had a history of international labor migration, as its
people have long searched for greener pastures, but in the 1980s and the decades that
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followed, the labor migration pattern became associated with women workers, which
include women domestic helpers. Jocano identifies six areas where culture“shock” is
most prominent: language, food, loneliness, jealousy, sexual abuse, and cultural
practices. In conclusion, Jocano highlights that although the Philippines, Hong Kong,
and Singapore are the same Asiatic cultures, the nuances of each country’s cultural
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orientation vary. There is, therefore, a need for greater cross-cultural understanding
among Filipinos. C
Activity 9: Character Reference
This activity intends to summarize the circumstances experienced by Filipino migrant
workers. Using the article by LandaJocano, provide information that corresponds to
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the situation of OFWs.
The reason for going abroad: The problems encountered by OFWs:

E
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Places where domestic helpers are seen:
The Filipino
Domestic Helper

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The job of the Filipino

migrant:
The effects of being an OFW:

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Process Question:
1. What is culture shock?
2. Why do OFW’s suffer from culture shock?
3. Why is the Filipino woman often the victim of culture shock?
4. What are the government programs that deal with problems of Filipino
domestic helpers?
Material: Parreñas, Rhacel S. (2001). “Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender

and Intergenerational Relations in Filipino Transnational Families.”Feminist
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Studies, 27, pp. 361–390
Guide Questions
1. What are transnational families?
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2. What are the emotional consequences of geographical distance in female-
headed transnational families? How do mothers and children cope with them?
3. How can society help female-headed transnational families manage the
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consequences of mothering from a distance?
As one of the largest sources of independent female labor migrants in the world, the
Philippines has seen a growing number of female-headed transnational families.
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These families are households with core members living in at least two nation-states
and in which the mother works in another country while some or all of her
dependents reside in the Philippines. Accompanying this phenomenon, therefore, is
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the increasing number of Filipino-women migrants who are mothering their children
from a distance. Parreñas identifies the emotional strains of transnational mothering
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that include feelings of anxiety, helplessness, loss, guilt, and the burden of loneliness.
Mothers negotiate these emotional strains in three ways: the commodification of love,
the repression of emotional strains, and the rationalization of distance through
communication to ease distance. Children also bear the emotional costs of
geographical distance with feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and vulnerability, as
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they crave greater intimacy with their migrant parents. These sufferings resulting
at least three central conflicts plaguing intergenerational relationships between
migrant mothers and the children whom they have left behind in the
Philippines. First, children disagree with their mothers that commodities are
sufficient markers of love. Second, they do not believe that their mothers recognize
the sacrifices that children have made toward the successful maintenance of the
family. Third and last, although they appreciate the efforts of migrant mothers to
show affection and care, they still question the extent of their efforts. In
conclusion, the article points out that these feelings of pain in transnational
families are intensified by the failure in a great number of families to meet the
gender-based expectations of children for mothers (and not fathers) to nurture
them, and also the self-imposed expectations of mothers
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to follow culturally and ideologically inscribed duties in the family.Traditional
attitudes in the family identify the man as the provider and the woman as the nurturer.
The persistence of these role expectations poses an additional burden on migrant
mothers. Not only are they expected to work abroad as wage earners but they must
also remain parents, even from such distance. To help transnational families cope, the
general public should support the “reconstitution of mothering” led by numerous
female migrants toward the acceptance of multiple forms of family life.
Activity 10: Five Thinking Hats

This activity will provide an opportunity for students to think critically by providing
answers in the chart below.
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What are transnational families?
Why are they called transnational families?
O
C
How does a transnational family cope with the pain of separation and
mothering from a distance?
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What are the advantages of transnational families?
E
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What are the fears of transnational families?

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Material: Tilly, Charles and Sidney Tarrow, S. 2015. “Making Claims in Contentious
Politics,”New York: Oxford University Press.pp. 3–22
Guide Questions
1. What is contentious politics?
2. What are examples of its manifestations?
3. What factors affect contentious politics?
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Tilly and Tarrow discuss the concept of ‘contentious politics’ as the nexus among
contention, collective action, and politics - as familiar features of social life.It
involves the “interactions in which actors make claims bearing on other actors’
interests, leading to coordinated efforts on behalf of shared interests or programs, in
which governments are involved as targets, initiators of claims, or third parties” (p.
7). In other words, contentious politics brings together power, shared interests and
government policy. At the heart of contentious politics is the notion of collective
claim-making, by political actors with unique political identities and histories,
through varying performance strategies ranging from presentation of petition to street
demonstrations, the use of social media of other emerging forms such as the
“Occupy” movement. Contentious politics is affected by the kind of political
opportunity structures available brought about by either periods of rapid or
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incremental political change.
Activity 11: Table Completion

This activity will measure students’ capability to analyze situations where they can
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relate to the topics below.Let the student identify situations / examples of contention,
collective action, and politics. Where do these occur?
C
Examples/ Situations Place of Occurrence
Contention
D
Collective Action
Politics
E
Contentious Politics
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Process Question:
1. What are the similarities and differences between contention, collective
action, and politics?
2. How do contentious politics affect our lives?
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Material: Tilly, Charles and Sidney Tarrow, S. 2015.“Social Movements,”New York:

Oxford University Press.145–167
Guide Questions
1. What is social movement?
2. What are the important elements of social movements?
3. What are the possible paths a social movement will most likely to follow after
the campaigns have subsided?
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Social movement is “a sustained campaign of claim making, using repeated
performances that advertise the claim, based on organizations, networks, traditions
and solidarities that sustain these activities” (pp. 11). There are two distinct but
interrelated aspects of social movement—a social movement base, which tells us
when social movement is possible, and a social movement campaign, which signifies
that claimmaking is in motion. Highly successful movements at times transform into
a party, as in the case of Poland’s Solidarity, a base of industrial workers that
successful challenged the authoritarian regime and ultimately became political party
leaders. Besides contentious activities, social movements also engage in consensus
mobilization within and outside institutions. Social movement impacts on various
aspects of political and social life—from policy changes to effects brought about in
the lives of activists.Beyond campaigns, however, social movements have been
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observed to follow four different trajectories—institutionalization, commercialization,
involution, and radicalization.
Activity 12. The Making of a Social Movement
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This activity will measure the capability of the students to trace and analyze how
social movements develop and evolve. C
Task: In small groups, identify important events that led to the development of a
social movement of their choice.
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Mechanics:
1. Based on what students have learned in the reading, ask them to research on
one social movement either in the Philippines or any other country.
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2. Then, identify the events that shaped the movement.

3. Which ones can be considered base, and which ones can be considered
campaigns? Write them down on the table below.
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Social Movement Base Social Movement Campaign

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Process Questions:
1. Who is the movement attempting to change?
2. How much change is being advocated?
3. What factors have led to the inception of the movement?
4. How was the movement sustained?
5. What happened to the movement (was it institutionalized? commercialized?
involuted? radicalized?)?
6. What benefit does knowledge about social movement offer to the Filipino
youth today?
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Material: Bennett, W. Lance. 2012. “The Personalization of Politics: Political
Identity, Social Media and Changing Patterns of Participation,”The Annals of
the American Academy, 644, pp. 20–39
Guide Questions
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1. What is personalization?
2. How is personalization related to individualized collective action?
C
3. How do social media and other forms of communication alter political
participation among the younger generation?
Bennett proposes and investigates how large-scale individualized collective action

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challenges the traditional group-based political participation. He begins the discussion
with the rise of personalization brought about by the proliferation of social media and
personalized communication technologies. The global neoliberal economic regime
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also introduced privatization and market forces into one’s daily personal life that
highlighted personal freedom and growth.These developments shifted the nature of
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political participation away from conventional social movements and toward

individualized collective action. Several manifestations of such personalized
collective actions that have arisen from both left- and right-wing movements are
mentioned.Shifts in citizenship orientations among the younger generation have also
been observed, as well as rise of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) politics. Despite criticisms for
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being diverse and loosely organized, it seems that personalized politics have been
gaining successful and recognition in the contemporary discussions on political
participation.
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Activity 13: Relate It.
This will measure the capacity of the students to relate two topics. Let the students
show the relationship between two concepts by giving information that is related to
each other.
PERSONALIZATION INDIVIDUALIZED COLLECTIVE

ACTION
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Process Questions:
O
C
1. How is personalization related to individualized collective action?
2. How does collective action challenge traditional notions of social movement?
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Activity 14: Human Tableau
This will measure the capability of students in thinking creatively by making a human
tableau. Divide students into groups. Assign them to create different scenarios on how
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social media and other forms of communication alter political participation among
younger generation.
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Criteria Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Thinking; Few elements Some Elements of the Elements of
use of planning of the tableau elements of tableau are the tableau are
skills are the tableau purposefully purposefully,
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purposefully are organized precisely

organized purposefully organized
organized
Communication Lacks Somewhat Modifies body Expertly
precision in precise when position to suit modifies body
modifying modifying audience and position to
body position body position purpose of suit audience
to suit to suit tableau with and purpose
audience and audience and precision of tableau
purpose of purpose of
tableau tableau
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Criteria Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Communication, Effectively Effectively Effectively uses Effectively
facial uses one uses two or four or five uses all six
expression convention of three conventions of conventions
contribute to tableau conventions tableau of tableau
focal point of tableau
Application; Expresses the Expresses the Clearly

making character’s character’s expresses the
connections thought, thought, character’s
within and emotion, or emotion, or thought,emotion,
between action with action with or action
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contexts little or no some clarity
clarity
Source : http://code.on.ca/resource/tableau-rubric
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C
E D
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D
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Activity 15: Link It.
Let your student answer the K part of the activity

you know
What do
now?
K
what you going to take
Inquire about Now we are
notes
N
you know want to know
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I
everything
List
L
O
C
E D
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D
122
Transfer
Advocacy Campaign
You are a member of a creative group that was tasked by a government agency to
create an advocacy campaign in support of its programs towards sustainable
development. There are 17 goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development adopted by world leaders during a United Nations summit in September
2015. These goals are indicated in the picture below.
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O
C
E D
EP
Source:http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
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Your task is to conceptualize and create an advocacy campaign using new forms
of media and communication technologies. Your goal is to convey to the public
the cultural, social, and political challenges attributed to your chosen goal and
how the public can effectively adapt to these changes. Agency executives will
determine the effectiveness of your campaign.
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Standards
Category 4 3 2 1 0
Use of class Used time Used time Used some Did not use Little to no
time well during well during of the time class time to work
each class each class well during focus on the completed
period. period. each class project OR during class.
Focused on Usually period. There often
getting the focused on was some distracted
project done. getting the focuson others.
Never project done getting the
distracted and never project done
others. distracted but
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others. occasionally
distracted
others.
Graphics — All graphics Most Some Graphics do No graphics
relevance are related to graphics are graphics not relate to used.
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the topic and related to the relate to the the topic.
make the ad topic and topic.
easier to make the ad
understand. easier to
understand.
C
Required The ad The ad The ad The ad No ad turned
elements includes a includes a includes a contains no in.
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propaganda propaganda figurative propaganda
technique technique but language technique
and at least 1 no figurative device but no and no
E
figurative language propaganda figurative

language device. technique. language
device. device.
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Content The ad The ad is The ad is The ad No ad turned

accuracy accurately missing 1 missing 2 or doesn’t in.
depicts the element that more depict the
propaganda accurately elements that propaganda
technique depicts the accurately technique
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assigned. propaganda depicts the assigned.

technique propaganda
assigned. technique
assigned.
Source : http://www.slideshare.net/CandaceR/propaganda-11435623
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Activity 16: Lesson Summary Closure
This activity will allow the students to reflect on what they have learned from the
lesson. Let the student complete the unfinished sentences to summarize the chapter.
The thing that strikes me the most about social change is _________________
_____________________________________________________________.
An all-encompassing statement that summarizes what social movement is
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_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________.
Three most important concepts from this chapter are:
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1. C
2.
3.
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I can become an active member of Philippine society by _________________
_____________________________________________________________.
E
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The form of political participation I am most comfortable doing is

_______________________ because ________________________________
_____________________________________________________________.
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References
1. Berger, Peter (1977). Facing up to Modernity: Excursions in Society, Politics, and Religion.
New York: Basic Books.
2. Macionis, John (2012). Sociology, 14th Edition. Boston: Pearson.
Sources of Graphics:
1. Link Activity http://www.middleweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Link-strategy-red.png
2. My Amazing Life https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=021631&subject
=English%2FWriting/7&category=CREATIVE+WRITING/1633
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C
E D
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Additional Readings
A Ideology, Place, and People Without Culture 129

Renato Rosaldo
B What is Anthropology? 140
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
C The First Farmers 152
D The First Cities and States 169
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E Museums of Anthropology or Museums as Anthropology 187
Susan M. Pearce
F A Time to Build, A Time to Tear Down: Religion, Society and State 200
in Contemporary Philippines
Jose M. Cruz, S.J.
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G Folk Catholicism in the Philippines 205
Frank Lynch
H Modernity and the Filipino
C 214
Randolf S. David
I The Case of Filipina Domestic Helpers in Singapore and Hong Kong 223
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F. Landa Jocano
J Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender and Inter- 231
Generational Relations in Filipino Transnational Families
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Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

K The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social Media, and 253
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Changing Patterns of Participation

W. Lance Bennett
L Making Claims in Contentious Politics 269
Charles Tilly & Sidney Tarrow
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127
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C
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A Ideology, Place, and People without Culture
RENATO ROSALDO
When I was a graduate student contemplating fieldwork in the Philippines, one of my

professors warned me that Filipinos have “no culture.” Meaning to be helpful, he suggested
fieldwork in Madagascar instead. In the end, I ignored his advice.
When I arrived in Manila, his prophecy appeared to be confirmed by the standard

Filipino half-joke that they were “people without culture.” Unlike Indonesia, they explained,
the Philippines never had Hindu-Buddhist temples and other signs of ancestral high culture.
What, they added with a twinkle, could one expect from people who had spent three hundred
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years in a monastery (Spanish colonial rule) and a half century in Hollywood (American
colonial rule)?
When I reached the Ilongots in the hills of northern Luzon, Philippines, they
appeared to be “people without culture”; they lacked the ethnographic staples of the day:
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lineages, villages, men’s houses, elaborate rituals, not to mention matrilateral cross-cousin
marriage. Even at the beginning of our second period of field research, Michelle Rosaldo
wrote in her field journal that we both felt “sad and nervous because there’s no hint that we’ll
C
find more ‘culture’ than last time and every reason to think that there’ll be less” (M. Rosaldo
1974). The following passage from her field journal comments on the impossibility of
arriving at a cultural understanding of the drastic cultural changes brought by settlers and
missionaries:
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Some good things are sure to come out of this… but the overwhelming fact that
things are changing so quickly, settlers impinging, choices being made between
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possible lowland allies, padi fields being built which don’t work, people rejecting
their past for a polyanna-ish idea of religion—all that is something I have
absolutely no sense of how to understand. (It has to be interesting but when I think
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about it, all I’ve got are boring, depressing thoughts.) [M. Rosaldo 1974]
Evidently, the concept of culture could barely describe, let alone analyze, flux,
improvisation, and heterogeneity. Weren’t these changes simply robbing Ilongots of their
culture? What was so cultural anyway about an apparently transparent brutal process of
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landgrabbing and “incorporation” into the nation-state?
Cultural Visibility and Invisibility
Arguably, anthropologists hold contradictory notions of culture. The discipline’s

official view holds that all human conduct is culturally mediated. In other words, people act
in relation, not to brute reality, but to culture-specific modes of perceiving and organizing the
world. Thus, in principle, the processes Ilongots were undergoing should be as amenable to
cultural description as a kinship system or an initiation ritual. No domain of culture is more or
less culturally mediated than any other. Indeed, the quantitative notion of “more” or “less”
culture appears to be a throwback to the days when “high culture” was (and, in certain sectors
of the academy, still is) measured in terms of opera houses, museums, and literary salons.
129
If the official view holds that all cultures are equal, an informal filing system, more
often found in corridor talk than in published writings, classifies cultures in quantitative
terms, from a lot to a little, from thick to thin, and from elaborate to simple. Such variables as
ritual elaboration, cosmological reticulation, kinship intricacy, and institutional complexity
define greater and lesser “degrees” of culture.
Culture in this view is defined by difference. Difference both makes culture visible to
observers and makes it relatively easy to separate nature from nurture. Cultural similarities
could be biologically based, but differences require cultural explanation. Thus fieldworkers
go half-way around the world to report on having found cultural worlds that are closed,
coherent, and different from ours. In their more grouchy moods, ethnographers grumble that
they did not risk dysentery and malaria only to discover that Tahiti and Des Moines are, in
certain respects, quite alike. To pursue a culture is to seek out its differences, and then to
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show how it makes sense, as they say, in its own terms.
What follows pursues the informal view and maps zones of cultural visibility and
invisibility onto the spatial organization within and between nations, particularly Mexico, the
Philippines, and the United States. In “our” own eyes, “we” appear to be “people without
culture.” By courtesy, “we” extend this postcultural status to people who resemble “us.”
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What are the consequences of making “our” cultural selves invisible? What cultural politics
erase the “self” only to highlight the “other”? What is the ideological fallout from this play of
cultural visibility and invisibility?
C
The preceding and what follows deliberately use caricature to bring once prevalent
disciplinary norms into high relief. Although these norms have become particularly visible
because they are losing their grip, they continue to exercise a certain hold and therefore
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require critical scrutiny. By exploring an absence—zones of cultural invisibility-I hope to
make present the need to continue revising the discipline’s concept of culture.
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Zones of Cultural Visibility and Invisibility

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Let me begin with a truism: different places are different. Imagine taking this truism
a giant step further and devising a Handbook for Young Anthropologists that advises: go to
India for hierarchy, New Guinea for pollution, Oceania for adoption, Africa for unilineal
descent, and so on across the globe. Conversely, those interested in the unilineal descent
group should steer clear of the Philippines where they’ll only be afflicted by the cognatic
problem.
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This imaginary handbook could even advise members of theoretical schools about
their preferred places. During my graduate school days in the 1960s, for example, we all
knew that smart structural anthropologists could best find what they were looking for either
in eastern Indonesia or among Brazil’s Ge-speaking peoples whose dual organizations were
strikingly visible in aerial photographs of their villages. Ethnoscientists, on the other hand,
prospered most in the Philippines or in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, where people
seemed to care about nothing so much as naming plants.
The fact that different places are different does not derive simply from stereotypes
about what’s typical of India, New Guinea, or anywhere else. Nor are these differences
merely an artifact of the territorial claims of different schools of metropolitan theory. There
130
really is something—call it a sizable grain of truth—to informal professional perceptions. The
question is one of limits: where do these typifications yield insight? How do they exclude
certain problems from ethnographic study? To what extent can they be understood as
ideology?
The problem just raised brings to mind the story told by a noted Spanish philologist
about his German colleague who rejected most of his Galician linguistic informants because
they did not speak the “pure” dialect of Gallego-Portugues. Rather like tourists who seek out
the exotic and call it typically Galician, the philologist found that only a tiny minority of the
region’s inhabitants spoke their “true” dialect. In his view, the speech of most Galicians had
been linguistically “corrupted” by Castilian, leaving them without an authentic language and
culture.
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What concerns me in the following are precisely the cultural phenomena that escape
analysis because they fail to conform with standard expectations about the typical and the
authentic. Culture areas contain zones, indeed are laced with pockets and eruptions, where
anthropological and other typifications fail. Ambitious young anthropologists would be well
advised to avoid such zones, pockets, and eruptions because they are inhabited by “people
without culture.” Perhaps because my dissertation no longer is on the line, I will suggest in
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what follows that zones of cultural invisibility now pose compelling, as yet unresolved, issues
for cultural analysis. C
The Postcultural Top and the Precultural Bottom
Within particular nations, those who most nearly resemble “ourselves” appear to be
“people without culture.” In Mexico, Indians have culture and “Ladinos” do not. In the
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Philippines, hill tribes or cultural minorities have culture and lowlanders do not. Ladinos and
lowlanders are full citizens of the nation-state. They have jobs, and are regarded as rational,
not cultural. People in metropolitan centers classify them as civilized, in contrast with Indians
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and cultural minorities.

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To the ethnographic gaze, these civilized people appear too transparent for study;
they seem just like us: materialistic, greedy, and prejudiced. Because their worlds are so
down to earth and practical, our commonsense categories apparently suffice for making sense
of their lives.
This analysis can be complicated by further spatialization. In Mexico, Indians inhabit

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what the Mexican anthropologist Aguirre Beltrán has called refuge regions. The people with
culture, in the anthropological sense, have either remained on or been forced onto marginal
lands. Their cultural distinctiveness derives from the inherited remnants of indigenous
civilizations. Their quaint customs signal isolation, insulation, and subordination within the
nation-state.
In the Philippine case, the “people without culture” occupy both ends of the social
hierarchy. Roughly speaking, Negrito hunter-gatherers are on the bottom and lowlanders are
on top. The difference between the two ends of the spectrum is that the Negritos are
precultural and the lowlanders are postcultural.
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The Philippine case differs from the Mexican one above all in its overall explicitness.
Schemas crystalized during the American colonial era and still current in Philippine popular
culture order the nation’s peoples along a scale arranged from lesser to greater: Negritos,
hunter-horticulturalists, dry rice cultivators, wet rice cultivators, and lowlanders (see R.
Rosaldo 1978, 1982). In spatial terms, Negritos occupy the most marginal lands; dry rice and
wet rice cultivators tend to be upland, upriver, or in the interior; lowlanders, as their name
suggests, reside in the valleys. In this pseudo-evolutionary ladder, people begin without
culture, and grow increasingly cultured until they reach that postcultural point where they
become transparent to “us.”
Degrees of mobility differentiate people “with” and “without” culture. “People with
culture” appear sedentary and rooted in their particular niches. Negritos, on the other hand,
often are idealized as nomadic, rootless, and absolutely mobile. Although they are linked to
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national educational and political institutions, lowlanders comprise a (formally) mobile labor
force that makes rational choices to go where the jobs are.
Not unlike the !Kung, Negritos are often represented as if they were raw primal
humanity, the famous missing link; they supposedly can tell us—if only we listen with care—
about the essence of human nature. In ethnographic terms, they appear ideally suited for
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ecological studies, but of little interest to students of kinship and symbolism. They have not
achieved that peculiar hybrid status, at once ecological and symbolic, of the Australian
aborigines. Nor do they have the more visible forms of social organization and ritual activity
C
enjoyed by other groups of northern Luzon. As wet rice cultivators, Ifugao settlers, for
example, often boasted that they were culturally superior to the hunter-horticulturalist
Ilongots whose land they were taking. The Ifugaos measured their greater degree of culture,
not in opera houses, but in elaborate rituals, material culture, and terraced wet rice
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agriculture.
Filipino low landers, on the other hand, more nearly resemble Americans in being
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posthistorical and postcultural. They have been educated; they make decisions about wage
labor in accord with an economically rational calculus. Not unlike Mexican ladinos, lowland
Filipinos appear to have been assimilated into a system that “we” understand because it is
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“our” own advanced capitalism. Evidently lowlanders are transparent to “us” because of their
colonial heritage. First they were evangelized under the Spaniards, and then they were
educated under the Americans. Like “us,” they have undergone an educational process that
has disciplined them and made them fit to live in a city, work in a factory, serve in a
penitentiary, or undergo confinement in an asylum.
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Immigration as Cultural Stripping Away
If a social hierarchy’s top and bottom appear to be zones of “zero degree” culture, so
too is the zone of immigration, or the site where individuals move between two national
spaces. Ideally, that is, from the dominant society’s point of view, immigrants are stripped of
their former cultures, enabling them to become American citizens, transparent, just like you
and me, “people without culture.” In ethnographic terms, so-called acculturation is probably
better described as deculturation, or the production of postcultural citizens.
The myth of immigration as a cultural stripping away recently appeared, among other
places, in a New York Times story about so-called illegal aliens. Published shortly after
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Congress passed the new immigration bill, the story begins by depicting remarkable diversity
among the undocumented:
Their stories are as diverse as America. Some entered this country swimming naked
through the Rio Grande, others with tickets aboard jet liners. They are laborers,
classical pianists, secretaries, dishwashers, restaurant owners, high school students.
[Reinhold 1986:1A]
The writer goes on, however, to celebrate the essential unity underlying this apparent
cultural diversity:
They come from almost every conceivable country—Mexico, El Salvador, Japan,

Vietnam, Korea, Haiti, Ethiopia, Iran, Poland, New Zealand. For all their cultural
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differences, they have shared a semi-secret life in their chosen land, forming a kind
of shadow economy and culture in which any day could end in arrest and deportation.
[Reinhold 1986:1A]
In the writer’s view, the shared experience of living the “same” secret lives has been
the brew in the Great American Melting Pot. As a resocializing medium, it has produced
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homogenization and created a new group of “people without culture.” Verbally, at least, the
undocumented have been assimilated into the mainstream.
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Apparently, images of “illegal aliens” have been manufactured for the consumption
of North American readers who at once see themselves as culturally transparent and feel
threatened by differences of class and culture. Indeed, metropolitan portraits of Mexican
ladinos, Filipino Negritos, Filipino lowlanders, and the vast array of immigrants to the United
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States strangely resemble the North Americans portrayed in Frances Fitzgerald’s Cities on a
Hill. Her book describes subcultures that have found ways to live out a number of versions of
the “American dream.” For all their differences, they share utopian fantasies of making new
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The retirement village of Sun City, for example, appears extraordinary, not because
its local melting pot has succeeded in amalgamating diversity, but rather because of its
residents’ past and present homogeneity:
Sun Citians are a remarkably homogeneous group; in particular, those who live in
Sun City proper occupy a far narrower band on the spectrum of American society
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than economics would dictate… the men are by and large retired
professionals… Most of the women were housewives... Most Sun Citians are
Protestants... Politically, they are conservative and vote Republican. [Fitzgerald
1986:218]
Yet this uniformity remains largely invisible to Sun Citians. One Sun City couple, for
example, affably remarked on how its residents live in the present and appear to have erased
their pasts:
“No one gives a hang here what you did or where you came from,” Mrs. Smith said.
“It’s what you are now that matters.” Later, in a different context, her husband said
133
much the same thing, adding that the colonels refused to be called “Colonel.”
[Fitzgerald 1986:219]
Phenotype aside, Sun Citians appear to themselves as 20th-century versions of

nomadic, rootless Philippine Negritos. In remarking on the absolute irrelevance of social
origins, however, the Smiths failed to notice the striking absence of blacks, Chicanos, Puerto
Ricans, and Native Americans in Sun City. For the social construction of distinctively North
American rootless utopias, some pasts evidently matter more than others.
Assimilation as a Model of Cross-Cultural Understanding
The model for cross-cultural understanding that produces immigration as a site of

cultural stripping away is the academic version of the melting pot: theories of acculturation
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and assimilation. In this view, immigrants, or at any rate their children and grandchildren, are
absorbed into the national culture. Above all, the process involves the loss of one’s past-
autobiography, history, heritage, language, and all the rest of the so-called cultural baggage.
Where Jose Rizal and Gregorio Cortes once stood, there shall be George Washington and the
Texas Rangers. The theory of assimilation appears to have the inevitability of a law of
history. If it doesn’t catch up with you this generation, it will in the next.
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In this view, social mobility and acculturation usually go hand-in-hand, for to
become middle-class in North America is purportedly to become part of the mainstream.
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Indeed, this notion suggests that the Philippine social hierarchy with its degrees of culture
owes much to assimilation theory. Those most down and out, such as Philippine Negritos and
the urban North American underclasses, appear to lack culture. Social mobility from the
“bottom” brings people into zones where culture flourishes, such as Mexican refuge regions,
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Philippine upland and upriver areas, and North American ethnic neighborhoods, barrios, and
ghettos. Social mobility closer to the “top,” however, reverses the process and begins a
cultural stripping away in which Mexican Indians and Filipino cultural minorities become
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peasants and workers, and North American farmers and workers become members of the
urban middle class.
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Professional anthropologists can probably dismiss the views just outlined as

somebody else’s ideology, a dated theory, a bit of popular culture, or mere journalism. We
would do well, however, to remind ourselves that assimilation and resocialization as models
of cross-cultural understanding implicitly inform much North American field research. How
often does one hear fieldworkers (implausibly) compare their fluency in non-Western
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languages with that of indigenous children? At any rate, in my own experience of learning
Ilongot culture in the Philippines I constantly compared myself with a child. My first
transcriptions of Ilongot texts were written in awkward, large, bold script, peculiarly like my
first grade son’s efforts to squeeze the “b” or the “p” between the wide lines. His teacher tells
me that Manny’s trouble is small motor coordination, but I don’t know quite how to describe
my own problem while initiating ethnographic fieldwork. Perhaps voluntary infantilization
will do.
Learning a second culture apparently should replicate learning the first one, hence the
process of reinfantilization, and the peculiarly North American equation of the fieldworker
with a child (for a revealing contrast with French anthropology, see Clifford 1983). Perhaps
this process of reinfantilization informs the myth of fieldwork as rebirth and initiation.
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In any case, the fieldworker’s task as a version of early childhood enculturation and
socialization seemed so natural to me that I eagerly endowed Ilongots with the same
perception. When Ilongots decided to teach us their language, I imagined that they did so by
commanding (tuydek) us to get things, much as they did with their own children (for an
extended treatment of tuydek see M. Rosaldo 1982). In so doing, I conflated my perception
with theirs. Altogether too unconsciously, not to mention mistakenly, I acted on an implicit
cultural universal: it is only natural to imagine that learning a second culture resembles
learning the first one.
Anthropologists often talk about the seeing things from the native point of view. We
invoke native views in discussions of such culturally distinctive notions as honor, shame, the
person, marriage, the family, kinship, hierarchy, and even history. Yet we have given little
thought to how members of other cultures conceive the translation of cultures. How do they
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go about understanding cultural difference, whether in their neighbors, their ethnographers, or
their missionaries?
Consider, for example, an Ilongot life history that I recorded from a man named
Tukbaw (R. Rosaldo 1976). Tukbaw and I at the time conceived our task as linguistic. He
was trying to teach me his language, and I was trying to learn it. His first text begins as
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follows:
We are making a house, a new house. Come here, we are going to cut down some
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trees. Now we are going to put it into the ground. I am going to cut and scrape the
earth clean and we will see if we do not put up the house tomorrow. Raise up the
house posts. Go and get some people. Go and get some rattan that we can use for
tying it together. Also, get some grass for the roof.
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Reading this text today, I find myself puzzled about Tukbaw’s conception of cross-
cultural understanding. His narrative contains multiple commands, but he clearly did not
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think (as, at the time, I imagined) that I was like an Ilongot child who was learning the
meaning of words by following adult commands (tuydek). His words are spoken more man to
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man than man to child. In fact, the task he imagines that we are about to begin, tying knots on
houses, is a skill so difficult to achieve that Ilongots regard it as one of the primary
indications that a boy has achieved the status of adult manhood. Tukbaw’s other early texts
similarly describe such other adult activities as visiting, fishing, hunting, and drinking.
Just how Ilongots “put themselves in somebody else’s shoes,” or “see things from the
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native point of view,” or whether such terms for cross-cultural understanding even make
sense to them remains unclear to me. They do not suppose, for example, that they can know
what is in another person’s heart. Insofar as I grasp it, their notion is that they achieve cross-
cultural understanding by successfully following another person’s directions (by knowing
how, as the philosophers say, rather than by knowing that). Surely, however, reinfantilization
does not begin to describe Ilongot notions of cross-cultural understanding.
Unassimilable Cultures
Perhaps we should return to the New York Times story and listen for a moment to the
“illegal aliens,” poised as they are on the brink of North American citizenship. Resocialized
by their shared secret lives, they supposedly have already become “people without culture.” It
135
is tempting to assume that monopoly capitalism inexorably commodifies people, turning
them into so many rational decision-making individuals. Yet a certain irresistible something
about the “illegal aliens” bubbles over the rim of the melting pot:
[Lan Thiet Lu, from North Vietnam]: “I feel I belong here. I want to belong here,
especially because I don’t have my country any more.”
[Shunsuke Kurakata, Japan, playing with a symphony orchestra]: he has not decided if
he will seek American citizenship. “I just don’t know yet,” he said. “It’s not all real
yet.”
[Mexican, Marcelino Castro]: He has learned a passable version of English and

exhibits a certain fatalism about his life. “Ni modo,” he says, roughly “what could I
do?” when describing his troubles… Now he wants to start his own business and
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become an American citizen. He already owns two color television sets and a
cordless telephone and is a fervent Dallas Cowboys fan. [Reinhold 1986: 10B]
The undocumented speak with a measure of irony. They simultaneously accede to

and resist their cultural homogenization. Even as they move toward co-optation, they prove
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unassimilable.
The writer himself manifests a significant factor (or barrier) in this contradictory
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process, for he cannot resist indulging his prejudices: his Vietnamese appears inscrutable, his
Japanese successful, and his Mexican fatalistic—“ni modo.” In response to the writer’s
stereotypes, the undocumented both comply and deviate, bobbing and weaving between
assimilation and resistance. The Vietnamese woman feels she belongs here, but notes that she
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has no choice because her native country has vanished; the Japanese musician finds possible
citizenship so unreal that he can’t decide whether or not even to apply; the Mexican has a
cordless telephone and roots for the Dallas Cowboys, but speaks only passable English,
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spiced with “ni modo.” The writer’s prejudice and the resistance of the undocumented
combine to muddy the clear waters of compliance and assimilation.
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Border Zones
The complex case of the undocumented suggests the need for a notion of the border,
conceived as a zone between stable places. The site of the implosion of the Third World into
the first, the border has been portrayed, among other places, in the popular television series,
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Miami Vice. Much as the right so often, at least in recent years, masquerades as the left,
Miami Vice disguises itself as affirmative action heaven, with blacks, Ladinos, and whites all
playing cops and robbers, vibrantly policing and trafficking drugs together. Yet the 1984–86
seasons involve a play of racial domination more subtle than the Lone Ranger and Tonto. The
black cop Tubbs consistently acts overly emotional (irrational) and has to be cared for by his
white partner Crockett. During the 1986-87 seasons, Tubbs often nurtures his slightly crazed
partner in a displaced version of the relationship between a nanny and her master.
Stereotypic Latino figures-flamboyant, slimy, lazy, cowardly-pervade the episodes,

as American viewing audiences reinforce or learn forms of prejudice that probably will prove
useful during the coming decade. Official pronouncements about the “Decade of the
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Hispanic” barely conceal diffuse anxieties about the impending impact of demographic
projections for Latinos in the United States.
Strangely enough, a front page story from the San Jose Mercury News suggests that
life under advanced capitalism at times almost imitates television art:
A massive cocaine-selling ring uncovered in Foster City last week was a model
of sophisticated Colombian-run operations common in Southern California but
only recently surfacing on such a large scale in the Bay Area.
Some believe this wholesaling of cocaine, already firmly established in Southern

California, is moving north.
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In a typical scenario, some inconspicuous, very middle-class-looking people—often
unarmed middle-aged women—move into a comfortable neighborhood and rent a
condominium by putting down a hefty deposit.
But inside the condos they are guarding huge amounts of cocaine. [Bailey
1986:18]
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White zoot suits, high tension mood music, and carefully chosen pastels (especially
during the 1984–86 seasons) may make the blood run faster, but socially invisible
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Colombians, perhaps living next door, strike terror in suburban souls.
Not unlike “illegal aliens,” Colombian cocaine peddlers cannot be contained within
the dominant society’s vision of citizenship and assimilation. Evidently, drab reality at once
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has been informed by, and appears more threatening than, television fantasy:
Contrary to the stereotype depicted in television shows like “Miami Vice,” the
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suspects in many cases drive new but not flashy cars and refrain from displays of
weaponry, exotic or otherwise. [Bailey 1986:6B]
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The immigrants who most appear to fit right in—Foster City’s cocaine trafficker’—
are in fact the most alien.
The story involves a play of spatial stereotypes, the South is invading the North, Los
Angeles is infiltrating the Bay Area, and Latino cocaine traffickers are infesting middle-class
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neighborhoods. This racial nightmare of the imagination has a venerable genealogy, most
recently invoked by Ronald Reagan when he spoke about Nicaragua’s proximity to south
Texas; it gave the new immigration bill a boost; it assisted California’s overwhelming
passage of the English-only initiative; it informs Miami Vice.
Just as Ilongots have a distinctive conception of cross-cultural understanding, and the

undocumented describe their “assimilation” in peculiar tones, so too Latino zoot suiters enjoy
an alternative view of their own cultural flamboyance. Take, for example, a representative
passage from Jose Montoya’s “El Louie,” an early 1970s evocation of a “pachuco” from the
late 1950s:
137
En Sanjo you’d see him
sporting a dark topcoat playing in his fantasy
the role of Bogart, Cagney
or Raft.
An Louie would come through-

melodramatic music, like in the mono—tan tan taran!—Cruz
Diablo, El Charro Negro! Bogart
smile (his smile as deadly as
his vaisas!) He dug roles, man, and names—like “Blackie,” “Little Louie…”
Ese, Louie…
Chale, man, call me “Diamonds!” [Montoya 1972]
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People have often interpreted this poem with too much solemnity. Perhaps El Louie
inhabits the drab world of the lumpenproletariat, but he’s also a ludic figure, playing the role,
the cat role, just plain playing. He seeks out incongruity, unlikely juxtapositions: Cagney, El
Charro Negro; Bogart, Cruz Diablo. “Postmodern” before its time, the poem celebrates
polyphony in its polyglot text, and heterogeneity in making Anglo, Chicano, and Mexican
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elements move together in the dance of life. It epitomizes the border as a culturally distinctive
space. C
The Play of Cultural Practices
The view of an authentic culture as an autonomous internally coherent universe no

longer seems tenable in a postcolonial world. Neither “we” nor “they” are as self-contained
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and homogeneous as we/they once appeared. All of us inhabit an interdependent late 20th-
century world, which is at once marked by borrowing and lending across porous cultural
boundaries, and saturated with inequality, power, and domination.
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Most metropolitan typifications suppress, exclude, and even repress border zones.
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What the San Jose Mercury News and Miami Vice see as threatening can be seen as ludic.
Perhaps we—El Louie, myself, and others—can serve as reminders that space is neither
necessarily coherent nor always homogeneous. Nor need it parce neatly into zones:
precultural, cultural, and postcultural. It just could be, more often than we usually like to
think, criss-crossed by border zones, pockets, and eruptions of all kinds. These border zones,
pockets, and eruptions, along with our supposedly transparent cultural selves, are as
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profoundly cultural as anything else.
138
References Cited
1. Bailey, Brandon 1986 Sophisticated Cocaine Rings 6. Rosaldo, Michelle 1974 Field Journal. MS.
Moving Into the Bay Area. The San Jose Mercury 7. Rosaldo, Michelle 1982 The Things We Do with
News, October 26:1B, 6B. Words: llongot Speech Acts and Speech Act Theory
in Philosophy. Language and Society II :203–237.
2. Clifford, James 1983 Power and Dialogue in 8. Rosaldo, Renato1976 The Story of Tukbaw: They
Ethnography: Marcel Griaule’s Initiation. In Listen as He Orates. In The Biographical Process:
Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Studies in the History and Psychology of Religion.
Fieldwork. George W. Stocking, Jr., ed. Pp. 121–156. Frank Reynolds and Donald Capp, eds. Pp. 121–151.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. The Hague: Mouton.
9. Rosaldo, Renato 1978 The Rhetoric of Control:
3. Fitzgerald, Frances 1986 Cities on a Hill: A Journey llongots Viewed as Natural Bandits and Wild Indians.
through Contemporary American Cultures. New In The Reversible World: Symbolic Inversion in Art
York: Simon and Schuster. and Society. Barbara Babcock, ed. Pp. 240–257.
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Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
4. Montoya, José 1972 El Louie. In Literature Chicana, 10. Rosaldo, Renato 1982 Utter Savages of Scientific
Texto y Contexto. Antonia Castaneda et al., eds. Pp. Value. In Politics and History in Band Societies.
173–176. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Eleanor Leacock and Richard Lee, eds. Pp. 309–325.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5. Reinhold, Robert 1986 Illegal Aliens Hoping to Claim
Their Dreams. The New York Times, November 3:1,
10.
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B
What is Anthropology?
THOMAS HYLAND ERIKSEN
In the 1950s, anthropologists were discovering change, either as an evolutionary

movement (in the United States) or as an individual innovation (in Britain). But they were
also discovering meaning. Speculation on the meaning of symbols was nothing new. Indeed,
in the United States, the ‘discovery’ was not the least subversive. The most important young
American symbolic anthropologists, Clifford Geertz and David Schneider, both saw
themselves as direct inheritors of the Boasian tradition. In Britain, the situation was different.
Here, the study of meaning was still associated with Frazer, who had speculated extensively
on the functions of magic in The Golden Bough. Durkheim had studied religion, but in its
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ritual aspect, rather than as a universe of meaning. It was the organizational practice of
religion, rather than its content with which he was concerned. Weber’s interpretive sociology
was not well known. Thus, the study of meaning, in the British context, was tainted with
evolutionism and was best avoided. The great exception to the rule, here, was Evans-
Pritchard, who had boldly followed Frazer’s topic in his study of Azande witchcraft, before
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becoming a main promoter of structural-functionalism. Now he would turn apostate and lead
British anthropology into this new realm. In France, an entirely different pathwas taken. Lévi-
Strauss’s structuralism was widely seen as the crowning achievement of the tradition from
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Durkheim and Mauss. But was it? Later French intellectuals would spend many years
discussing this question.
From Function to Meaning

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We turn to the British situation first. Now, the interest in meaning was not entirely
absent from the mainstream of British social anthropology. An example was the seminal
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article by Jack Goody and the literary theorist Ian Watt, ‘The Consequences of Literacy’
(Goody and Watt 1963), which argued that writing irreversibly changed both the social
structure and the structure of reasoning (or cognitive style) of society. The article, which
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sparked a debate with complex ramifications—in part because it intersected with the
elaborate conception of ‘action as text’ proposed by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (see
Ricoeur 1971)—is definitely concerned with meaning, but with the social functions of
meaning, not with meaning itself. Evans-Pritchard’s interests were more radical than this. He
could afford to be radical. When he succeeded Radcliffe-Brown as Professor at Oxford in
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1946, he had already authored two hugely influential monographs and co-edited a book—
African Political Systems—that defined the mainstream research agenda of British
anthropology for two decades. The companion volume, African Systems of Kinship and
Marriage, edited by Radcliffe-Brown and Forde, had much less impact. Firth at the LSE and
Fortes at Cambridge not with standing, Evans-Pritchard was beyond doubt the most powerful
social anthropologist of the time. When, in his Marett lecture on ‘History and social
anthropology’ in 1951, he repudiated structural-functionalism and distanced himself from his
teacher, this was headline news and impossible to ignore for the anthropological community.
In the lecture he claimed, on the one hand, that it would be nonsense to believe that
synchronous studies could yield insights of the same depth as historical studies; on the other,
that in terms of method, social anthropology had more in common with history than with the
natural sciences. He was rejecting two of the main stays of structural-functionalism. In his
later work, Evans-Pritchard abandons the search for ‘natural laws of society’ and attempts,
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more realistically, to understand the meaning of particular social institutions. His second
Nuer book, Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer (1951b), was much more descriptive and
less theoretically ambitious than The Nuer. On the other hand, it contains fewer contestable
ideas. It was in no small measure the elegant, but simple models of The Nuer that led to the
‘revolution’described in the previous chapter. In 1958, the philosopher Peter Winch published
The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy, a book that would subsequently
exert considerable influence on anthropological discourse about intercultural translation. In
the book, Winch argued that it was impossible to establish objective, ‘testable’ knowledge
about cultural phenomena, since their meaning was defined by the cultural universe of which
they were a part. Head opted a strongly relativist position, arguing that there exists no
privileged, ‘context-independent’ position from which to compare and evaluate other
cultures, except for our common experiences of universal bodily processes, such as ‘birth,
copulation and death’ (Winch himself quotes Eliot at this point). Social anthropology was, in
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Winch’s view, a Western cultural oddity on a par with the witchcraft institution among the
Azande, and had no right to see its access to knowledge as privileged. Winch used the
Azande monograph as the main example of a philosophically untenable position, since
Evans-Pritchard presented a ‘scientific’ explanation of the ‘obviously mistaken’ belief in
witches. What if the tables were turned? How can we judge whether a ‘witchcraft’
explanation of the ‘obviously mistaken’ belief in science would be less true? Winch’s book
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was the starting-point of a long and important debate about rationality and cultural
translation, to which both philosophers and anthropologists contributed (B.Wilson 1970;
Hollisand Lukes 1982; Overing 1985).
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It is worth noticing that Evans-Pritchard seems to have arrived at a similar position
independently of Winch. The third volume of the Nuer trilogy, Nuer Religion (1956), is more
interpretive than explanatory; at the outset, the author declares that his main ambition is to
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make sense of the Nuer worldview, not to explain it sociologically. In this, he is in accord
with his Oxford colleague and close associate in his later period, Godfrey Lienhardt, whose
later work on the Nuer’s neighbours, the Dinka, was similarly interpretive (see Lienhardt
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1961). Understanding and translation now had become a more pressing task than explanation
and the search for general ‘laws’. On the other hand, it is also true, as Evans-Pritchard’s
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student, Mary Douglas(1980) says, that his entire output was marked by continuity—from the
Azande book onwards. Even The Nuer, which is often described as the archetype of
orthodoxy, is in fact an evocative, even a poetic, book. While the renewed focus on change in
British anthropology is often described as a transition from structure to process, the change in
Evans-Pritchard’s position was a movement from function to meaning. Especially two of his
intellectual descendants would, in the decades following the Marett lecture, fulfil the promise
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of a combination of a micro-sociology concerned with integration, and an interpretive method

concerned with symbolic significance. The first was Gluckman’s student Victor Turner
(1922–83). During the 1950s and 1960s, he developed a perspective on symbols and social
cohesion which has become increasingly influential ever since. Unlike Leach, Turner was
mainly concerned with ritual, not myth; and while Leach saw the germ of social dissolution
in myths, Turner ultimately saw rituals as cohesive (though not as unchanging). As Durkheim
had implied, they offered splendid material for the ethnography since they expressed the
central values and tensions of a society in an intensely concentrated form. Turner’s approach
to rituals, which was increasingly oriented towards symbols rather than social integration,
nevertheless sought to combine a concern with symbolic meaning with an underlying
Durkheimian notion of cohesion. In one of the most influential British monographs of the
1950s, Schism and Continuity in an African Society (Turner 1957), he introduced the concept
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of the social drama. Like most of his writings on ritual, its ethnographic focus is on the
Ndembu of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and the main problem is a classic one, namely how
matrilineal societies (like the Ndembu) solve the problem of integration. While succession,
inheritance and group membership are united in a single principle among patrilineal peoples,
different rights and duties are based on different criteria among matrilineal groups. In the
social drama, which tends to be a rite of passage, underlying norms are given a symbolic
expression, and the ritual thereby contributes to the integration of society. Although the
monograph was structural-functionalist in its basic assumptions, it suggested that change was
on its way.
In a series of articles written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and published as The
Ritual Process in 1967, Turner developed his influential theory of ritual communication. In
‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites-de-Passage’, he introduced the concept of
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liminality, later a staple in anthropological studies of ritual (and, it sometimes seems, almost
anything else). Taking his cue from van Gennep’s early work on rites of passage, Turner
regards the ritual, and in particular the initiation ritual, as a process of transformation
whereby a person moves from one defined state to another, with an intervening period of
uncertainty and crisis. It is this state of crisis—the liminal stage—that is the focus of the
ritual, which seeks to control it and to impose the values of society upon the wavering
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individual who is, for a short but critical period, ‘betwixt and between’. In this ‘gap’ between
social statuses, neither old nor new rules apply, and the individual is compelled to reflect on
her situation, her place in society and indeed the existence of society as such. Thus, liminality
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is both a critical and a creative state of being, and change seems a potential of any ritual. And
yet, in the end, the initiate is nearly always re-integrated into society. In other words, there is
continuity with both Durkheim and Gluckman in Turner’s work, which nevertheless stands
out through its emphasis on the individual, its preoccupation with the meaning of symbols,
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and its focus on critical phases in social process. Turner also emphasised the multivocality or
multiple meanings of symbols, implying that symbols themselves might be a tension-filled
source of change, and that identical symbols could mean different things to different people,
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thus creating a sense of community among people who were otherwise very different. In
another couple of decades, the latter idea would be followed up by students of nationalism.
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Another Africanist of structural-functionalist descent who would give social anthropology a

determined thrust towards the study of symbols in their social context, was Mary Douglas
(1921– ).
A student of Evans-Pritchard, Douglas studied the Lele of Kasai, Belgian Congo, in

the late 1950s. This brought her into close contact with French and Belgian anthropology, and
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she would eventually be more influenced by Durkheim himself than by Radcliffe-Brown. Her
most influential early work was not the monograph that came out of the fieldwork, but a
theoretical and comparative study of symbolic boundaries and classification, Purity and
Danger (1966). The book combines an almost orthodox structural-functionalism with a
highly sophisticated symbolic analysis drawing on both structuralist and psycho analytical
impulses. Hugely successful both within and outside anthropology, Purity and Danger is, in a
way, a British counterpart to Patterns of Culture. In both cases, the concern is with group
identity and values; but whereas Benedict does not look beyond the symbolic aspects of
culture, Douglas consistently links symbols to social institutions in the classic Durkheimian
way. In her view, symbols are means of social classification, which distinguish between
various categories of objects, persons or actions, and keep them separate. The order of the
classificatory system reflects and symbolises the social order, and ‘intermediate’,
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‘unclassifiable’ phenomena therefore represent a threat to social stability. Snakes (animals
without legs) and substances that pass in and out of the body, are regarded as problematic.
Foods are often ordered in hierarchies of ‘pure’ and ‘polluted’,which have nothing to do with
their nutritional value. Bodily waste is universally polluting and potentially dangerous, since
it symbolically challenges the existing order. Where Barth, for example, would see an
unorthodox, unclassifiable person as a potential entrepreneur, as someone who might make
change come about, Douglas would see the same person as a classificatory anomaly. This
contrast indicates the differences between systemic and actor-centred perspectives, as they
appeared in British anthropology in the 1960s. Both Douglas and Turner would refine and
expand their perspectives through the next decades. Douglas, who is still active today, would
eventually do pioneering work on economic consumption (Douglas and Isherwood 1979),
risk perception and modern technology, and institutional anthropology. Turner, who moved
to the United States in 1961, would develop his ideas of liminality into a general theory of
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ritual performance (Turner 1969, 1974, 1987). Though Turner died in 1983, his influence
continued to grow during the 1980s and 1990s, when his concern with performative play and
reflexivity would be welcomed by the postmodernist movement in anthropology, and by
anthropologists concerned with bodily experience, emotions and the symbolic dimensions of
power. Though his intellectual itinerary thus passes from a fairly orthodox structural-
functionalism to a radical focus on aesthetics and performance, he remained at heart a
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Durkheimian—although his Durkheimianism differed radically from that of Radcliffe-Brown.
Ethnoscience and Symbolic Anthropology

C
While many anthropologists in the early postwar years, especially in Britain, rejected
attempts to turn anthropology into an accurate science, others went in the opposite direction.
This was not only the case with the American cultural ecologists and the British
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methodological individualists, but also—perhaps surprisingly—with people working within
the broad framework of American linguistic anthropology. Several of Sapir’s successors
explored semantics and language structures in traditional societies in an accurate way. Some
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of these devised quantitative methods tailored to measure frequencies and connections

between native terms, and worked closely with psychologists, linguists and others engaged in
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the emerging interdisciplinary field of cognitive science. Among the foremost of these were
Harold Conklin, Charles Frake and Ward Goodenough, who all contributed to the
development of ethnoscience in the 1950s. Ethnoscience was concerned with describing
‘cultural grammars’, through identifying the building-blocks of semantic universes or systems
of knowledge. They drew on both the culture and personality school’s interest in
socialisation, on formal linguistics and on the comparative study of classification, where both
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Sapir and Whorf (and, before them, Durkheim and Mauss) had done ground-breaking work.
In its most technical form, ethnoscience appeared as componential analysis, which combined
linguistic anthropology and quantitative methods with the general 1950s concern with
kinship. In its original form, ethnoscience died out some time during the 1960s, but the
general issues it raised have been pursued later in cognitive anthropology (see D’Andrade
1995; Shore 1996). Regardless of methodology, they largely concern the relationship between
the universal and the culturally specific in human knowledge systems. Colour classification
was an early, and relatively simple field, which was explored in this way. There were also
interesting parallels between the concerns of ethnoscience and the emerging rationality debate
in Britain on the one hand, and the concerns of Lévi-Straussian structuralism on the other
hand. However, unlike both Winch and Lévi-Strauss, the ethnoscientists worked inductively,
amassing huge amounts of data which were processed by the massive, sluggish computers of
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the day. After Boas’s death, the pater familias of American anthropology was Kroeber. In
1952, he published, with Clyde Kluckhohn (1905–60), Culture: A Critical Review of
Concepts and Definitions, which discusses 162 definitions of culture, and ends by
recommending the abandonment of Tylor’s and Boas’s all-embracing concept in favour of a
definition limited to cognitive (symbolic, meaningful) culture.
In the 1950s, American anthropology was still largely dominated by Boas’s students,
who produced rather predictable work in the culture and personality tradition, often merged
with Durkheimian and Weberian ideas, which were gradually gaining acceptance in the USA,
largely through the work of Parsons, who collaborated with several of the leading American
anthropologists of the day. One of the most interesting monographs of this period was
Kluckhohn’s Navaho Witchcraft (1944), which resembles Evans-Pritchard’s Azande
monograph, in that it attempts to combine a sociological, functionalist analysis with a
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psychological perspective. The swing towards the study of meaning which took place in
British anthropology had its parallel in the USA, not least thanks to Parsons’s influence.
Parsons, the leading social scientist in the USA in the 1950s, had monumental visions for the
social sciences, and was well connected with funding agencies. He suggested a ‘temporary
division of labour’ between sociology and anthropology, in which the sociologists would
study power, labour and social organisation, while the anthropologists (in accordance with
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the new, cognitive definition of culture) would focus on the symbolic and meaningful aspects
of social life. In an article jointly authored by Parsons and Kroeber in 1958, this ‘truce’ (as
the authors themselves called it) was programmatically endorsed (see Kuper 1999: 69).
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Although twentieth-century American anthropology had always concentrated chiefly on the
symbolic, this development entailed a further narrowing of the subject—or, at least, part of it.
Geertz and Schneider

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Two of the postgraduate students who received funds through a joint Parsonian-
Kroeberian programme at Harvard were Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) and David M.
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Schneider (1918–1995). Both took part in interdisciplinary projects during their Ph.D.
studies—Schneider doing fieldwork on Yap, in Micronesia, Geertz on Java. Both at the time
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endorsed the cognitive definition of culture, with Geertz, in his early work, carefully
distinguishing between two ‘logics of integration’: society, or social structure, was integrated
‘causal functionally’, while culture, or the symbolic realm, was integrated ‘logico-
meaningfully’. The two subsystems, he argued, true to the 1950s ‘truce’, could in principle be
studied independently of each other.
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In the 1960s, Geertz and Schneider emerged as the most important American
symbolic anthropologists (along with Turner, who was by now in the USA), with research
programmes that were sharply opposed to the materialist views of Steward’s students, such as
Wolf and Sahlins (for a while a colleague of Geertz at Chicago). Both Geertz and Schneider
eventually saw the ‘division of labour’ between sociology and anthropology as a limitation,
but instead of re-conquering the social, they expanded the field of culture as a symbolic
system. They began to promote an idea of culture as an independent, self-sustaining system,
which could perfectly well be studied without taking societal conditions into account. This
view was met with hostility in Britain, where the idea that meaning could be studied without
taking social organisation into account seemed patently absurd. Schneider’s best known work
is American Kinship (1968), a study of American kinship terms based on interview data
collected by his students. The ‘American Kinship Project’ was the result of a cooperation
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between Firth and Schneider. The two anthropologists, who had spent a year together at
Stanford University during the late 1950s, agreed that it would be of interest to extend the
anthropological tradition of kinship studies to modern societies, and inaugurated a
comparative project of middle-class kinship in London(Firth) and Chicago (Schneider).
Although the comparative aspect of the project was never realized, and the two studies were
published separately, Schneider’s book became a milestone in kinship research, in part
because it demonstrated that kinship studies in complex societies were possible and
interesting, and in part because it fundamentally challenged the way in which anthropologists
thought about kinship. After Evans-Pritchard’s defection, kinship studies remained the last
stronghold of structural-functionalism, which had not yet been affected by the new
methodological individualism. Then, in 1962, John Barnes published the critical article
‘African models in the New Guinea Highlands’ (reprinted in Barnes 1990), which
demonstrated conclusively that the theory of segmentary lineages, which had so successfully
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been applied in Africa, could not be transferred to the New Guinea context without seriously
distorting the data.
The problem lay not with the kinship terms themselves. It was possible to interpret
the New Guinea material in the orthodox way, but such an interpretation flew in the face of
native understandings of kinship as well as their practices. Schneider’s book made a similar
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statement, but its conclusions were more radical. While Firth, in his London study, had
catalogued a fairly standard range of kinship terms, Schneider’s informants were asked to
give information about allthe relatives with whom they had any kind of kin relationship.A far
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broader view of kinship thus became possible, indeed, it emerged that kinship constituted an
entire cultural universe, within which the informants moved at will. This implied that the idea
of kinship as a biologically based model of human relations was faulty. This was not a new
observation, but in Schneider’s version, a culture could construct kinship entirely from
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scratch, without any reference to blood-ties whatsoever. Moreover, within ‘the culture of
kinship’ each individual term derived its meaning from the integrated semantic network of
which it was a part, and which was unique for the culture in question. This meant that even
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elementary kinship terms, such as ‘father’, would have different meanings in different kinship
cultures—which undermined the entire project of comparative kinship studies that had
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survived since Morgan. Schneider’s redefinition of kinship from social structure to culture
has parallels in the work of Geertz. Geertz’s association with Parsons at Harvard has already
been mentioned. However, influences from European sociology, from Boas, and even from
Steward’s cultural ecology, are also apparent. Geertz’s early work dealt with a wide variety
of themes, from ecology (1963a) and economy (1963b) to religion (1960). His oft-cited and
eloquent article on ‘thick description’ (1964, reprinted in Geertz 1973) states his
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methodological credo, and argues, in line with Malinowski and Boas, that anthropologists
should seek to describe the world from the native’s point of view. Of the European
sociologists, Geertz was familiar with both Durkheim and Weber, in addition to Alfred
Schütz (1899–1959), a German social phenomenologist who insisted on an interpretive
approach to action.
The decisive intellectual impulse in Geertz’s mature work, however, came from the
French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913– ), who had argued that society (or culture) can be
interpreted as a text, using the interpretive methods of hermeneutics that were specifically
evolved for this purpose. Hermeneutics is a method of approaching a text that has its roots in
medieval exegesis of texts, notably the Bible, and which has since been used extensively by
historians, literary theorists and philosophers. Very briefly, it states that a text is
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simultaneously an assemblage of individual parts and a seamless whole, and that interpreting
the text involves a movement to and from between these two poles. When Geertz introduced
this notion into anthropology, it seemed to obviate the distinction between methodical
individualism and collectivism, since a society cannot be understood without taking account
of both perspectives.
On the other hand, it also seemed to imply that social phenomena must be’read’, not
only by the anthropologist, but by the members of society themselves. As opposed to the
British anthropologists, who focused on the individual as a (normative or strategic) actor,
Geertz thus introduced the individual as a reader. Against their assumption that society was
rationally constituted and that the individual might participate in it through rational activity,
Geertz posited the idea that the world is often incomprehensible, and that the subject must
actively interpret what she sees. Thus, in the article ‘Religion as a cultural system’ (1966,
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reprinted in Geertz 1973), he argued that religion is not primarily a functionally integrated
subsystem of a social whole, but a means for individuals to make sense of the world. In 1973,
Geertz’s most important early articles were collected in The Interpretation of Cultures, and
his reputation has been on the rise ever since. During the 1980s in particular, he was viewed
as a kind of postmodernist avant la lettre, although it seems obvious to the present authors
that this is at least a partial over simplification.
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Lévi-Strauss and Structuralism C
The son of prosperous Jewish parents of the cultured middle class, Claude Lévi-
Strauss (1908– ) studied philosophy and law in Paris in the early 1930s, and associated with
the intellectual circle around the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1935–39, he
taught at the University of São Paolo in Brazil, and carried out short-term field trips to several
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peoples of the Amazon region. Being a Jew, he again left France during the Second World
War, and upon the intercession of Métraux and Lowie, he was offered a position at the New
School of Social Research in New York City, where he stayed until 1945. While in New
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York, he was influenced by Boasian anthropology, and met the great Russian-American
linguist, Roman Jakobson (1896–1982), whose structural linguistics would become a
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mainstay of Lévi-Strauss’s later work. He received his doctorate in Paris in 1947, and
published his dissertation in 1949 as Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté (The
Elementary Structures of Kinship, 1969). It was a book that would revolutionise kinship
studies. Six years later, Lévi-Strauss published the ultimate anthropological travelogue,
Tristes Tropiques (1955), a wide-ranging, beautifully written and intricately composed
narrative, so full of suggestive and haunting passages that it would be useless to summarise it
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here. Then, after three more years, came a collection of articles, Anthropologie structurale
(1958; Structural Anthropology, 1963a). Together, these three books established Lévi-
Strauss’s reputation as a formidable thinker with enormous ethnographic and theoretical
knowledge, and outlined the monumental lifework that would unfold over the next four
decades. By now, he had also established structuralism, the theoretical approach for which he
is renowned. Structuralism is a theory that attempts to grasp the general qualities of
meaningful systems, most famously, in Lévi-Strauss’s own work, of kinship systems and
myths. Such systems consist of elements, but the elements themselves are not delineated
categories or objects, but relationships. A kinship system, for example, is a meaningful
system and thus consists of relationships, rather than positions (‘statuses’). A father is not in
himself a father, but only in relationship to his children. The idea that meaning was relational
was not in itself new. It was an important component of Jakobson’s structural linguistics, as
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well of the semiotic linguistics established by Ferdinand de Saussure before the FirstWorld
War. In both, meaning derives from the relationship—the contrast or difference—between
linguistic elements (phonemes, words, signs). Relational meaning was also central to
cybernetics—as Bateson liked to say, meaning is a ‘difference that makes a difference’
(1972: 453).
Finally, and most importantly, relational meaning is implicit in Mauss’s discussion of

the gift. Here, objects are charged with magical power by the relationships through which
they move. It is the exchange that gives the gift its meaning (see Lévi-Strauss 1987a [1950]).
The advantage of reducing meaningful systems to structures of contrasts is that the flow of
time within the system is frozen. Living language is reduced to a static grammar. The
confusing enactment of kinship in practice is reduced to a lucid, formal structure. Roughly,
structuralist analysis consists, first, in unearthing this structure; second, in deducing its
underlying principles—its ‘logic’; and finally, in arriving at a universal ‘logic of logics’ of
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human communication. The technicalities of this process need not concern us here, but we
shall briefly outline how it was expressed in The Elementary Structures of Kinship.
Structural-functionalism’s reputation rested to a great extent on its analyses of segmentary
lineage systems, which seemed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the role of kinship as the
prime organizational principle in tribal societies. Lineage theory, in turn, presupposed a
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primary emphasis on linear kin relationships (grandfather-father-son), while lateral
relationships (husband-wife, sibling-sibling) were often downplayed. All of this was upset by
Elementary Structures. In Lévi-Strauss’s view, kinship was not primarily a mode of social
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organisation, but a meaningful system, a system of relationships and the primary relationship
was not the ‘natural’ bond of blood (parent-child), but the socially constructed bond between
husband and wife. Marriage is the point of indeterminacy in biological kinship—you cannot
choose your parents, but you must choose your spouse. For Lévi-Strauss, this choice is the
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fissure through which culture enters kinship, transforming tribal society from biology to
culture. Clearly, the integrity of this choice must be safeguarded. It must not appear to be
determined by nature. You must not marry your siblings; they are ‘too close’, ‘too natural’, it
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would be too much like marrying yourself. It would do nothing to ‘open up’ your world, to
give it meaning by relating it to something else. In marriage, as practiced in tribal societies,
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women are exchanged between groups of men, and a meaningful relationship is formed
between these groups—a lateral kin relationship which Lévi-Strauss refers to as an alliance.
From this, the logic of kinship is deduced—that is from lateral, rather than linear, kin
relations.
The result is a theory diametrically opposed to lineage theory, that places alliance
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above descent, contrast above continuity, arbitration above norms, meaning above
organisation. In a rather brisk letter written near the end of his life, Radcliffe-Brown told the
Frenchman that they would probably always talk past each other. Still, Lévi-Strauss expresses
more respect for Radcliffe-Brown than for Malinowski, ‘for whom culture is merely a
gigantic metaphor for digestion’ (Lévi-Strauss 1985). Radcliffe-Brown and Lévi-Strauss had
a common interest in uncovering the hidden structures that governed thought and social life,
and a common ancestor in Durkheim—and though they belonged to very different segments
of his line age, well, blood (to give Radcliffe-Brown the last word) is thicker than water.
Lévi-Strauss’s further writings are hard to summarize. His books are long, erudite, packed
with facts, and held together by some very sophisticated, and at times very technical,
thinking. Thus, Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (1961; Totemism, 1963b) seems to be a discussion
of the concept of totemism (which is debunked), but it is also (among other things) a highly
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ambiguous critique of the Western opposition of nature and culture. La Pensée sauvage
(1962; The Savage Mind, 1966) discusses a fairly standard ‘primitive’ vs. ‘modern’
dichotomy, reminiscent of Durkheim, Weber or Tönnies, but starts with an inventory of the
detailed knowledge that ‘primitives’ have of their natural surroundings, and ends with a
critique of Sartre’s theory of history. Earlier, ‘The science of the concrete’, Lévi-Strauss
establishes the basis of ‘savage’ or ‘mythical’ (in contrast to ‘modern’ or’scientific’) thought.
Both are equally complex and equally rational, but their governing rationalities differ.
The bricoleur starts with the world that is directly accessible to his senses. He relates
the objects found in this world to each other, and builds structures of meaning out of them,
that are narrated, for example, as myths. Thus he creates structure out of events. The
engineer, in contrast, creates events out of structure. He starts with a blueprint, an abstraction
that the senses cannot perceive, and by manipulating it he changes the real world.
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The Savage Mind marks the transition from Lévi-Strauss’s ‘kinship period’ to his
‘mythology period’. The most remarkable work of this latter period is the Mythologiques, a
vast, four-volume compilation and analysis of Native American myth, published between
1967 and 1974. The sheer complexity of this work has limited its influence, just as the
(relative) simplicity of The Savage Mind has made it exceedingly popular.
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Early Impact C
Lévi-Strauss’s impact on Anglo-Saxon anthropology was limited before the 1960s,
and his early work was belatedly translated into English. The Elementary Structures of
Kinship appeared in translation only in 1969, and for a long time, the book was largely
known indirectly, through an introduction written by a Dutch anthropologist—the founder of
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another, older structuralist school—J.P.B. Josselin de Jong (1952). In spite of the dearth of
translated texts, Lévi-Strauss was from the first a controversial and influential author. In
France, structuralism became an alternative to Marxism and phenomenology in the 1950s,
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and the impact of structuralism on general intellectual life was at least as pronounced as in
anthropology. Important non-anthropologists such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and
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Pierre Bourdieu were brought up on structuralism and eventually rebelled against it—and
their rebellion was in turn noted and debated by anthropologists, who brought these authors
into the canon of anthropology. In Britain, Leach was the first of the leading anthropologists
to be attracted to Lévi-Strauss. Lévi-Strauss himself had commented quite extensively on
kinship among the Kachin, and Leach immediately recognised the relevance of his
conclusions for his own data. In structuralism, Leach discovered a sophisticated alternative to
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the often common sensical and pedestrian British empiricism, and in 1970, he wrote an
introduction to Lévi-Strauss, which substantially increased knowledge of his work in the
English-speaking world. The Oxford anthropologist Rodney Needham, who had studied with
Josselin de Jong in Leiden, was another early enthusiast for Lévi-Strauss, although he had
certain reservations from the beginning (Needham 1962). These were further strengthened by
an unfortunate exchange with Lévi-Strauss himself, who repudiated Needham’s interpretation
of his kinship theory in a strongly phrased preface to the English edition of his kinship book.
Needham, for his part, continued to develop structuralist thought about classification and
kinship in innovative directions, but without referring to Lévi-Strauss. Most Anglo-American
anthropologists were nevertheless deeply suspicious of structuralism. They were provoked by
Lévi-Strauss’s abstract models and deductive thinking. Many regarded his work as useless
because it could not be tested empirically (an assessment Lévi-Strauss emphatically disagreed
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with). Lévi-Strauss’s kinship theory (often referred to as alliance theory, as opposed to
structural-functionalist descent theory) was already debated in Britain during the 1950s
(although misunderstandings were inevitable because of the lack of translations). Within
structural-functionalism, there had been growing dissatisfaction with descent theory, which
seemed to be unable to account for kinship systems that were non-unilinear. The structuralist
focus on exchange and alliance seemed to have the potential tore solve these problems, since
it accorded greater weight to lateral than lineal kin relationships; thus it was widely embraced
by anthropologists working in societies without clear-cut unilineal descent groups. In a
famous debate in the journal man, in 1959, Leach thus defended Lévi-Strauss’s views, while
Fortes defended the descent model. But even Leach may have misunderstood Lévi-Strauss’s
intentions, which were less sociological and more concerned with meaning than his British
colleagues tended to believe. Like the formalist-substantivist controversy in economic
anthropology, the debate on alliance versus descent in kinship studies slowly petered out
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towards the end of the 1970s. By then, there was a tendency to see the two systems as
complementary (a tradition that may be followed all the way back to Morgan), and Lévi-
Strauss himself proposed a theory of kinship that seemed to incorporate both perspectives
(see Lévi-Strauss 1987b).
In France, Louis Dumont (1911–99) developed his own brand of structuralism, by
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combining impulses from Lévi-Strauss with classical European sociology (Durkheim,
Tönnies) into an influential theory of social integration and symbolic meaning. Dumont, who
is particularly well known for his erudite study of the Indian caste system, Homo
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Hierarchicus (1968), posited that caste was a cultural system of classification, rather than a
functional means of social organisation (a view not dissimilar to Needham’s). He emphasised
the irreducibility of Indian (Hindu) categories, in explicit opposition to political
anthropologists like Barth, who had described caste in purely sociological terms, and argued
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that strategic actors were driven by the same kinds of motivations as Europeans. Still,
Dumont was more sociologically oriented than Lévi-Strauss, and his analysis emphasises the
uniqueness of Indian culture, values and categories.
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The State of the Art in 1968

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By 1968, anthropology had become a very diverse discipline. The ‘Man the Hunter’
symposium had just been held, demonstrating the power of an ecologically oriented
anthropology. The interpretive anthropology of Geertz had begun to exert its influence.
Peasant studies in Latin America and the Caribbean had become a mainstay at some
American departments. Barth’s radical ‘transactionalism’ (his preferred term was ‘generative
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process analysis’) rubbed shoulders with the creative revitalisation of structural functionalism
carried out by Douglas and Turner. The rationality debate was on, formalism confronted
substantivism, alliance theory confronted descent theory, while structuralism loomed on the
horizon, and young radical Marxists and feminists waited in the wings for their share of the
academic pie. New journals, conferences and workshops, monograph series and institutions
devoted to anthropological research made important contributions to the growth and
diversification of anthropology.
The demographic expansion had been formidable. In 1950, a mere 22 Ph.D.s were
awarded in the USA. By 1974, the number had increased to 409, a level that remained stable
atleast until the mid-1990s (Givens and Jablonski 1995). However, the discipline had grown
not only in complexity and size, but in its geographic dispersal. Dutch, Scandinavian, Italian
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and Spanish anthropology became part of the mainstream—in the two former cases, the
Anglo-American influence was strongest; in the latter, the main impulses came from France.
In several Latin American countries, notably Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, indigenous
anthropologies influenced both by the Boas school, by Steward and his students, and by
French anthropology, flourished and did research on both Indians and peasants. But in spite
of strong non-metropolitan milieus such as Leiden and Bergen, the discipline remained
centralised. In Britain, Oxford, Cambridge and London still held the reins, although
Manchester was becoming a power to be reckoned with, and anthropology was taught in
several other places as well. In the USA, the dispersal was greater, since the numbers were
greater, but prominent universities such as Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford,
Michigan and Chicago still had the lead. In France, all roads led towards the prestigious
institutions in Paris. The 1950s and 1960s also saw considerable diversification of the core
areas for ethnographic research. During the 1920s and 1930s British anthropologists had
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expanded from the Pacific to Africa, American anthropology saw a less pronounced move
from Native North America to Southand Central America. In France, both Africa and the
Pacific had been important since the 1920s and, after the war, Georges Balandier further
strengthened the African orientation (Balandier 1967), while Dumont and his students
flocked to the Indian subcontinent and Oceania. By the 1960s, the mountaineous New
Guinean highlands had become an extremely fertile area for ethnographic research, and with
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this change came new perspectives on gender relations, warfare, exchange and kinship. For
although anthropological research may be carried out anywhere, each region tends to confront
ethnographers with new questions. In spite of occasional attempts at dialogue, there was still
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little contact between the three dominant national traditions. As we have repeatedly pointed
out in the last two chapters, research interests were frequently similar, but the theoretical
approaches were sufficiently different to make direct discussion difficult. Firth and Schneider
had to abandon their comparison of kinship in London and Chicago.
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Lévi-Strauss debunked Needham’s interpretation of his work. While Kroeber and
Kluckhohn presented 162 definitions of culture, few British anthropologists had discussed the
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concept since Tylor. There was a lot of individual movement going on, though mostly in a
westward direction: Bateson, Turner and Polany I had settled in the USA, and Lévi-Strauss
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spent the war there. Many others were to make the move later, particularly from Britain. The
national traditions were nevertheless still relatively bounded. Language differences played
their part in this. The belated translations of Lévi-Strauss delayed the acceptance of
structuralism by at least a decade in most of the English-speaking world, and research
published in less prestigious European vernaculars than French generally fared even worse.
Throughout much of the ‘Third World’ (a term introduced into English by anthropologist
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Peter Worsley in 1964; in French le tiers monde had been used, with a slightly different
meaning, since the 1950s), these problems were exacerbated by the lack of adequate
economic resources in academia. Finally, political conflicts delayed the internationalisation
of the discipline. In the former colonies, hostility was often directed at anthropology as such,
thus inhibiting and sometimes even halting its spread. With decolonisation, the relationship
between metropolitan institutions and their colonial counterparts was severed. In Europe two
decades earlier, the Iron Curtain had effectively prevented most academic contacts between
East and West. Anthropology was becoming a global discipline, as scholars increasingly
started publishing in English, but even in the West, scholars in, say, Stockholm, could draw
inspiration from metropolitan anthropologists, but they could also feel certain that their own
work would never be read outside of Scandinavia unless they chose to publish in a foreign
language. With the next chapter, we rapidly approach the present, and we begin to recognise
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research interests that are still high on the agenda at the turn of the millennium. The radical
Marxism of the 1970s lies at the root of various present-day research agendas. The radical
feminism of that decade has been transformed into sophisticated gender studies. Research on
ethnicity in complex societies has continued, and spawned later burgeoning interest in
nationalism. The new discussions of fieldwork methods that saw the light of day in the early
1970s were soon to be drawn up into wider debates on reflexivity and field ethics, which are
still eliciting professional interest. On the other hand, the political awareness that was so
powerful in anthropology during these years eventually receded, along with the optimistic
hope that anthropological insight could change the world. Nevertheless, while anthropologists
in 1968 were still grappling with problems that would soon seem outdated, several of the
concerns of 1978 remained important in 2001 as well.
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151
C The First Farmers
THOMAS HYLLAND ERIKSEN
In the previous chapter, we considered some of the economic implications of the end of
the Ice Age in Europe. With glacial retreat, foragers pursued a more generalized economy,
focusing less on large animals. This was the beginning of what Kent Flannery (1969) has
called the broad-spectrum revolution. This refers to the period beginning around 15,000
b.p. in the Middle East and 12,000 b.p. in Europe, during which a wider range, or broader
spectrum, of plant and animal life was hunted, gathered, collected, caught, and fished. It was
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revolutionary because in the Middle East it led to food production—human control over the
reproduction of plants and animals.
The Mesolithic
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The broad-spectrum revolution in Europe includes the late Upper Paleolithic and the
Mesolithic, which followed it. Again, because of the long history of European archaeology,
our knowledge of the Mesolithic (particularly in southwestern Europe and the British Isles) is
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extensive. The Mesolithic had a characteristic tool type—the microlith (Greek for “small
stone”). Of interest to us is what an abundant inventory of small and delicately shaped stone
tools can tell us about the total economy and way of life of the people who made them.
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By 12,000 b.p., subarctic animals no longer lived in southwestern Europe. By 10,000
b.p. the glaciers had retreated to such a point that the range of hunting, gathering, and fishing
populations in Europe extended to the formerly glaciated British Isles and Scandinavia. The
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reindeer herds had gradually retreated to the far north, with some human groups following
(and ultimately domesticating) them. Europe around 10,000 b.p. was forest rather than
treeless steppe and tundra—as it had been during the Upper Paleolithic. Europeans were
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exploiting a wider variety of resources and gearing their lives to the seasonal appearance of
particular plants and animals.
People still hunted, but their prey were solitary forest animals, such as the roe deer,
the wild ox, and the wild pig, rather than herd species. This led to new hunting techniques:
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solitary stalking and trapping. The coasts and lakes of Europe and the Middle East were
fished intensively. Some important Mesolithic sites are Scandinavian shell mounds—the
garbage dumps of prehistoric oyster collectors. Microliths were used as fishhooks and in
harpoons. Dugout canoes were used for fishing and travel. The process of preserving meat
and fish by smoking and salting grew increasingly important. (Meat preservation had been
less of a problem in a subarctic environment since winter snow and ice, often on the ground
nine months of the year, offered convenient refrigeration.) The bow and arrow became
essential for hunting waterfowl in swamps and marshes. Dogs were domesticated as retrievers
by Mesolithic people (Champion and Gamble 1984). Woodworking was important in the
forested environment of northern and Western Europe. Tools used by Mesolithic carpenters
appear in the archaeological record: new kinds of axes, chisels, and gouges.
Big-game hunting and, thereafter, Mesolithic hunting and fishing were important in
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Europe, but other foraging strategies were used by prehistoric humans in Africa and Asia.
Among contemporary foragers in the tropics, gathering is the dietary mainstay (Lee
1968/1974). Although herds of big game animals were more abundant in the tropics in
prehistory than they are today, gathering probably always has been at least as important as
hunting for tropical foragers (Draper 1975).
Generalized, broad-spectrum economies lasted about 5,000 years longer in Europe
than in the Middle East. Whereas Middle Easterners had begun to cultivate plants and breed
animals by 10,000 b.p., food production reached Western Europe only around 5000 b.p.
(3000 b.c.e.) and northern Europe 500 years later.
After 15,000 b.p., throughout the inhabited world, as the big-game supply
diminished, foragers had to pursue new resources. Human attention shifted from large-
bodied, slow reproducers (such as mammoths) to species such as fish, mollusks, and rabbits
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that reproduce quickly and prolifically (Hayden 1981). This happened with the European
Mesolithic. It also happened at the Japanese site of Nittano (Akazawa 1980), located on an
inlet near Tokyo. Nittano was occupied several times between 6000 and 5000 b.p. by
members of the Jomon culture, for which 30,000 sites are known in Japan. These broad-
spectrum foragers hunted deer, pigs, bears, and antelope. They also ate fish, shellfish, and
plants. Jomon sites have yielded the remains of 300 species of shellfish and 180 species of
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edible plants (including berries, nuts, and tubers) (Akazawa and Aikens 1986).
The Neolithic
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The archaeologist V. Gordon Childe (1951) used the term Neolithic Revolution to
describe the origin and impact of food production—plant cultivation and animal
domestication. Neolithic was coined to refer to new techniques of grinding and polishing
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stone tools. However, the primary significance of the Neolithic was the new total economy
rather than just its characteristic artifacts, which also included pottery.
E
The transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic occurs when groups become dependent
on domesticated foods (more than 50 percent of the diet). Usually this happens after a very
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long period of experimenting with and using domesticates as supplements to broad-spectrum

foraging. The archaeological signature of Neolithic cultures (which are called Formative in
the Americas) includes dependence on cultivation, sedentary (settled) life, and the use of
ceramic vessels.
Neolithic economies based on food production were associated with substantial

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changes in human lifestyles. By 12,000 b.p., the shift toward the Neolithic was under way in
the Middle East (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Israel). People started intervening in
the reproductive cycles of plants and animals. No longer simply harvesting nature’s bounty,
they grew their own food and modified the biological characteristics of the plants and animals
in their diet. By 10,000 b.p., domesticated plants and animals were part of the broad spectrum
of resources used by Middle Easterners. By 7500 b.p., most Middle Easterners had moved
away from the broad-spectrum foraging pattern toward more specialized, Neolithic,
economies based on fewer species, which were domesticates.
They had become committed farmers and herders. Kent Flannery (1969) has
proposed a series of eras during which the Middle Eastern transition to farming and herding
took place. The era of seminomadic hunting and gathering (12,000–10,000 b.p.) encompasses
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the last stages of broad-spectrum foraging. This was the period just before the first
domesticated plants (wheat and barley) and animals (goats and sheep) were added to the diet.
Next came the era of early dry farming (of wheat and barley) and caprine domestication
(10,000–7500 b.p.). Dry farming refers to farming without irrigation; such farming depended
on rainfall. Caprine (from capra, Latin for “goat”) refers to goats and sheep, which were
domesticated during this era.
During the era of increased specialization in food production (7500–5500 b.p.), new
crops were added to the diet, along with more productive varieties of wheat and barley. Cattle
and pigs were domesticated. By 5500 b.p., agriculture extended to the alluvial plain of the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Figure 11.1), where early Mesopotamians lived in walled towns,
some of which grew into cities. (Recap 11.1 highlights these stages or eras in the transition to
food production in the ancient Middle East.) After two million years of stone-tool making, H.
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sapiens was living in the Bronze Age, when metallurgy and the wheel were invented.
First Farmers and Herders in the Middle East
Middle Eastern food production arose in the context of four environmental zones.
From highest to lowest, they are high plateau (5,000 feet, or 1,500 meters), Hilly Flanks,
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piedmont steppe (treeless plain), and alluvial desert—the area watered by the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers (100–500 feet, or 30–150 meters). The Hilly Flanks is a subtropical
woodland zone that flanks those rivers to the north (Figure 11.1).
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It was once thought that food production began in oases in the alluvial desert.
(Alluvial describes rich, fertile soil deposited by rivers and streams.) This arid region was
where Mesopotamian civilization arose later. Today, we know that although the world’s first
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civilization (Mesopotamian) did indeed develop in this zone, irrigation, a late (7000 b.p.)
invention, was necessary to farm the alluvial desert. Plant cultivation and animal
domestication started not in the dry river zone but in areas with reliable rainfall.
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The archaeologist Robert J. Braidwood (1975) proposed instead that food production
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started in the Hilly Flanks, or subtropical woodland zone, where wild wheat and barley would
have been most abundant (see Figure 11.1). In 1948, a team headed by Braidwood started
excavations at Jarmo, an early food-producing village inhabited between 9000 and 8500 b.p.,
located in the Hilly Flanks. We now know, however, that there were farming villages earlier
than Jarmo in zones adjacent to the Hilly Flanks. One example is Ali Kosh (Figure 11.1), a
village in the foothills (piedmont steppe) of the Zagros mountains. By 9000 b.p., the people
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of Ali Kosh were herding goats, intensively collecting various wild plants, and harvesting
wheat during the late winter and early spring (Hole, Flannery, and Neely 1969).
Climate change played a role in the origin of food production (Smith 1995). The end
of the Ice Age brought greater regional and local variation in climatic conditions. Lewis
Binford (1968) proposed that in certain areas of the Middle East (such as the Hilly Flanks),
local environments were so rich in resources that foragers could adopt sedentism—sedentary
(settled) life in villages. Binford’s prime example is the widespread Natufian culture (12,500–
10,500 b.p.), based on broad-spectrum foraging. The Natufians, who collected wild cereals
and hunted gazelles, had year-round villages. They were able to stay in the same place (early
villages) because they could harvest nearby wild cereals for six months.
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Donald Henry (1989, 1995) documented a climate change toward warmer, more
humid conditions just before the Natufian period. This expanded the altitude range of wild
wheat and barley, thus enlarging the available foraging area and allowing a longer harvest
season. Wheat and barley ripened in the spring at low altitudes, in the summer at middle
altitudes, and in the fall at high altitudes. As locations for their villages, the Natufians chose
central places where they could harvest wild cereals in all three zones.
Around 11,000 b.p., this favorable foraging pattern was threatened by a second
climate change—to drier conditions. As many wild cereal habitats dried up, the optimal zone
for foraging shrank. Natufian villages were now restricted to areas with permanent water. As
population continued to grow, some Natufians attempted to maintain productivity by
transferring wild cereals to well-watered areas, where they started cultivating.
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In the view of many scholars, the people most likely to adopt a new subsistence
strategy, such as food production, would be those having the most trouble in following their
traditional subsistence strategy (Binford 1968; Flannery 1973; Wenke 1996).
Thus, those ancient Middle Easterners living outside the area where wild foods were
most abundant would be the most likely to experiment and to adopt new subsistence
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strategies. This would have been especially true as the climate dried up. Recent
archaeological finds support this hypothesis that food production began in marginal areas,
such as the piedmont steppe, rather than in the optimal zones, such as the Hilly Flanks, where
traditional foods were most abundant.
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Even today, wild wheat grows so densely in the Hilly Flanks that one person working
just an hour with Neolithic tools can easily harvest a kilogram of wheat (Harlan and Zohary
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1966). People would have had no reason to invent cultivation when wild grain was ample to
feed them. Wild wheat ripens rapidly and can be harvested over a three-week period.
According to Flannery, over that time period, a family of experienced plant collectors could
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harvest enough grain—2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms)—to feed themselves for a year. But
after harvesting all that wheat, they’d need a place to put it. They could no longer maintain a
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nomadic lifestyle, since they’d need to stay close to their wheat.
Sedentary village life thus developed before farming and herding in the Middle East.
The Natufians and other Hilly Flanks foragers had no choice but to build villages near the
densest stands of wild grains. They needed a place to keep their grain. Furthermore, sheep
and goats came to graze on the stubble that remained after humans had harvested the grain.
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The fact that basic plants and animals were available in the same area also favored village
life. Hilly Flanks foragers built houses, dug storage pits for grain, and made ovens to roast it.
Natufian settlements, occupied year-round, show permanent architectural features

and evidence for the processing and storage of wild grains. One such site is Abu Hureyra,
Syria (see Figure 11.1), which was initially occupied by Natufian foragers around 11,000 to
10,500 b.p. Then it was abandoned—to be reoccupied later by food producers, between 9500
and 8000 b.p. From the Natufian period, Abu Hureyra has yielded the remains of grinding
stones, wild plants, and 50,000 gazelle bones, which represent 80 percent of all the bones
recovered at the site (Jolly and White 1995).
Prior to domestication, the favored Hilly Flanks zone had the densest human
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population. Eventually, its excess population started to spill over into adjacent areas.
Colonists from the Flanks tried to maintain their traditional broad-spectrum foraging in these
marginal zones. But with sparser wild foods available, they had to experiment with new
subsistence strategies. Eventually, population pressure on more limited resources forced
people in the marginal zones to become the first food producers (Minford 1968; Flannery
1969). Early cultivation began as an attempt to copy, in a less favorable environment, the
dense stands of wheat and barley that grew wild in the Hilly Flanks.
The Middle East, along with certain other world areas where food production
originated, is a region that for thousands of years has had a vertical economy. (Other
examples include Peru and Mesoamerica—Middle America, including Mexico, Guatemala,
and Belize.) A vertical economy exploits environmental zones that, although close together in
space, contrast with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation (Figure
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11.1). Such a close juxtaposition of varied environments allowed broad-spectrum foragers to
use different resources in different seasons.
Early seminomadic foragers in the Middle East had followed game from zone to
zone. In winter they hunted in the piedmont steppe region, which had winter rains rather than
snow and provided winter pasture for game animals 12,000 years ago. (Indeed it is still used
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for winter grazing by herders today.) When winter ended, the steppe dried up. Game moved
up to the Hilly Flanks and high plateau country as the snow melted. Pastureland became
available at higher elevations. Foragers gathered as they climbed, harvesting wild grains that
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ripened later at higher altitudes. Sheep and goats followed the stubble in the wheat and barley
fields after people had harvested the grain.
The four Middle Eastern environmental zones shown in Figure 11.1 also were tied
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together through trade. Certain resources were confined to specific zones. Asphalt, used as an
adhesive in the manufacture of sickles, came from the steppe. Copper and turquoise sources
were located in the high plateau. Contrasting environments were linked in two ways: by
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foragers’ seasonal migration and by trade.

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The movement of people, animals, and products between zones—plus population

increase supported by highly productive broad-spectrum foraging—was a precondition for
the emergence of food production. As they traveled between zones, people carried seeds into
new habitats. Mutations, genetic recombinations, and human selection led to new kinds of
wheat and barley. Some of the new varieties were better adapted to the steppe and,
eventually, the alluvial desert than the wild forms had been.
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Genetic Changes and Domestication
What are the main differences between wild and domesticated plants? The seeds of
domesticated cereals, and often the entire plant, are larger. Compared with wild plants, crops
produce a higher yield per unit of area. Domesticated plants also lose their natural seed
dispersal mechanisms. Cultivated beans, for example, have pods that hold together, rather
than shattering as they do in the wild. Domesticated cereals have tougher connective tissue
holding the seedpods to the stem.
Grains of wheat, barley, and other cereals occur in bunches at the end of a stalk
(Figure 11.2). The grains are attached to the stalk by an axis, plural axes. In wild cereals, this
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axis is brittle. Sections of the axis break off one by one, and a seed attached to each section
falls to the ground. This is how wild cereals spread their seeds and propagate their species.
But a brittle axis is a problem for people. Imagine the annoyance experienced by broad-
spectrum foragers as they tried to harvest wild wheat, only to have the grain fall off or be
blown away.
In very dry weather, wild wheat and barley ripen—their axes totally disintegrating—
in just three days (Flannery 1973). The brittle axis must have been even more irritating to
people who planted the seeds and waited for the harvest. But fortunately, certain stalks of
wild wheat and barley happened to have tough axes. These were the ones whose seeds people
saved to plant the following year.
Another problem with wild cereals is that the edible portion is enclosed in a tough
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husk. This husk was too tough to remove with a pounding stone. Foragers had to roast the
grain to make the husk brittle enough to come off. However, some wild plants happened to
have genes for brittle husks. Humans chose the seeds of these plants (which would have
germinated prematurely in nature) because they could be more effectively prepared for
eating.
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People also selected certain features in animals (Smith 1995). Some time after sheep
were domesticated, advantageous new phenotypes arose. Wild sheep aren’t woolly; wool
coats were products of domestication. Although it’s hard to imagine, a wool coat offers
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protection against extreme heat. Skin temperatures of sheep living in very hot areas are much
lower than temperatures on the surface of their wool. Woolly sheep, but not their wild
ancestors, could survive in hot, dry alluvial lowlands. Wool had an additional advantage: its
use for clothing.
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What are some of the differences between wild and domesticated animals? Plants got
larger with domestication, while animals got smaller, probably because smaller animals are
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easier to control. Middle Eastern sites document changes in the horns of domesticated goats.
Such change may have been genetically linked to some other desirable trait that has left no
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skeletal evidence behind.
We’ve seen that sheep and goats were the first animals to be domesticated in the
ancient Middle East, where the domestication of cattle, pigs, and other animals came later.
Domestication was an ongoing process, as people kept refining and changing the traits they
considered desirable in plants and animals—as they still do today through bioengineering.
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Different animals were domesticated at different times and in different regions. The factors
that govern animal domestication are discussed further in the section “Explaining the
Neolithic” later in this chapter.
Food Production and the State
The shift from foraging to food production was gradual. The knowledge of how to
grow crops and breed livestock didn’t immediately convert Middle Easterners into full-time
farmers and herders. Domesticated plants and animals began as minor parts of a broad-
spectrum economy. Foraging for fruits, nuts, grasses, grains, snails, and insects continued.
Over time, Middle Eastern economies grew more specialized, geared more
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exclusively toward crops and herds. The former marginal zones became centers of the new
economy and of population increase and emigration. Some of the increasing population
spilled back into the Hilly Flanks, where people eventually had to intensify production by
cultivating. Domesticated crops could now provide a bigger harvest than could the grains that
grew wild there. Thus, in the Hilly Flanks, too, farming eventually replaced foraging as the
economic mainstay.
Farming colonies spread down into drier areas. By 7000 b.p., simple irrigation
systems had developed, tapping springs in the foothills. By 6000 b.p., more complex
irrigation techniques made agriculture possible in the arid lowlands of southern
Mesopotamia. In the alluvial desert plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a new economy
based on irrigation and trade fueled the growth of an entirely new form of society. This was
the state, a social and political unit featuring a central government, extreme contrasts of
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wealth, and social classes. The process of state formation is examined in the next chapter.
We now understand why the first farmers lived neither in the alluvial lowlands,
where the Mesopotamian state arose around 5500 b.p., nor in the Hilly Flanks, where wild
plants and animals abounded. Food production began in marginal zones, such as the piedmont
steppe, where people experimented at reproducing, artificially, the dense grain stands that
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grew wild in the Hilly Flanks. As seeds were taken to new environments, new phenotypes
were favored by a combination of natural and human selection. The spread of cereal grains
outside their natural habitats was part of a system of migration and trade between zones,
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which had developed in the Middle East during the broad-spectrum period. Food production
also owed its origin to the need to intensify production to feed an increasing human
population—the legacy of thousands of years of productive foraging.
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Other Old World Food Producers
The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed
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independently in at least seven world areas. As we’ll see later in this chapter, at least three
were in the Americas. At least four were in the Old World. In each of these centers, people
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independently invented domestication, although of different sets of crops and animals.
As we’ll see in more detail later in this chapter, food production also spread from the
Middle East. This happened through trade; through diffusion of plants, animals, products, and
information; and through the actual migration of farmers. Middle Eastern domesticates spread
westward to northern Africa, including Egypt’s Nile Valley, and into Europe (Price 2000).
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Trade also extended eastward from the Middle East to India and Pakistan. In Egypt, an
agricultural economy based on plants and animals originally domesticated in the Middle East
led to a pharaonic civilization.
The African Neolithic
Excavations in southern Egypt have revealed considerable complexity in its Neolithic

economy and social system, along with very early pottery and cattle, which may have been
domesticated locally rather than imported from the Fertile Crescent. Located in the eastern
Sahara and southern Egypt, Nabta Playa is a basin that, during prehistoric summers, filled
with water. Over several millennia this temporary lake attracted people who used it for social
and ceremonial activities (Wendorf and Schild 2000). Nabta Playa was first occupied around
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12,000 b.p., as Africa’s summer rains moved northward, providing moisture for grasses,
trees, bushes, hares, and gazelle, along with humans. The earliest settlements (11,000–9,300
b.p.) at Nabta were small seasonal camps of herders of domesticated cattle. (Note the very
early, and perhaps independent, domestication of cattle here.) According to Wendorf and
Schild (2000), Nabta Playa provides early evidence for what anthropologists have called the
“African cattle complex,” in which cattle are used economically for their milk and blood,
rather than killed for their meat (except on ceremonial occasions). Nabta was occupied only
seasonally, as people came over from the Nile or from better-watered areas to the south. They
returned to those areas in the fall.
By 9000 b.p. people were living at Nabta Playa year-round. To survive in the desert,
they dug large, deep wells and lived in well-organized villages, with small huts arranged in
straight lines. Plant remains show they collected sorghum, millet, legumes (peas and beans),
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tubers, and fruits. These were wild plants, and so the economy was not fully Neolithic. By
8800 b.p. these people were making their own pottery, possibly the earliest pottery in Egypt.
By 8100 b.p. sheep and goats had diffused in from the Middle East.
Around 7500 b.p. new settlers occupied Nabta, whose previous inhabitants had been
forced away by a major drought. The newcomers brought a more sophisticated social and
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ceremonial system. They sacrificed young cattle, which they buried in clay-lined and roofed
chambers covered with rough stone slabs. They lined up large, unshaped stones. They also
built Egypt’s earliest astronomical measuring device: a “calendar circle” used to mark the
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summer solstice. Nabta Playa had become a regional ceremonial center: a place where
various groups gathered seasonally or occasionally to conduct ceremonies and to socialize.
The existence of such centers, as well as their religious, political, and social functions, is
familiar to ethnographers who have worked in Africa. Nabta seems to have been such a
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center for prehistoric herders who lived in southern Egypt. It probably began to function as a
regional ceremonial center around 8,100–7,600 b.p., when various groups gathered there for
ceremonial and other purposes during the summer wet season.
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Gathering on the northwestern shores of the summer lake, those ancient people left
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debris, including numerous cattle bones. At other African Neolithic sites (Edwards 2004),
cattle bones are rarely numerous, which suggests that the cattle were being tapped “on the
hoof” for their milk and blood, rather than being slaughtered and eaten. The numerous cattle
bones at Nabta Playa, however, suggest that its people killed cattle seasonally for ceremonial
purposes. Among modern African herders, cattle, which represent wealth and political power,
are rarely killed except on important ceremonial or social occasions.
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Nabta’s role as a regional ceremonial center is also suggested by an alignment of nine

large upright stone slabs near the place where people gathered, along the northwest margin of
the seasonal lake. This formation, probably dating between 7500 and 5500 b.p., recalls
similarly dated large stone alignments found in Western Europe, which were built during the
late Neolithic and early Bronze Age.
Construction of large, complex megalithic structures requires well-organized work

parties and a major effort. This suggests that some authority (religious or civil) may have
been managing resources and human labor over time. The findings at Nabta Playa represent
an elaborate and previously unsuspected ceremonialism, as well as social complexity, during
the African Neolithic.
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The Neolithic in Europe and Asia
Around 8000 b.p., communities on Europe’s Mediterranean shores, in Greece, Italy,

and France, started shifting from foraging to farming, using imported species. By 7000 b.p.,
there were fully sedentary farming villages in Greece and Italy. By 6000 b.p., there were
thousands of farming villages as far east as Russia and as far west as northern France (see
Bogaard 2004).
Domestication and Neolithic economies spread rapidly across Eurasia.

Archaeological research confirms the early (8000 b.p.) presence of domesticated goats, sheep,
cattle, wheat, and barley in Pakistan (Meadow 1991). In that country’s Indus River Valley,
ancient cities (Harappa and Mohenjodaro) emerged slightly later than did the first
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Mesopotamian city-states. Domestication and state formation in the Indus Valley were
influenced by developments in, and trade with, the Middle East.
China was also one of the first world areas to develop farming, based on millet and
rice. Millet is a tall, coarse cereal grass still grown in northern China. This grain, which today
feeds a third of the world’s population, is used in contemporary North America mainly as
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birdseed. By 7500 b.p., two varieties of millet supported early farming communities in
northern China, along the Yellow River. Millet cultivation paved the way for widespread
village life and eventually for Shang dynasty civilization, based on irrigated agriculture,
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between 3600 and 3100 b.p. (See Chapter 12.) The northern Chinese also had domesticated
dogs, pigs, and possibly cattle, goats, and sheep by 7000 b.p. (Chang 1977).
Discoveries by Chinese archaeologists suggest that rice was domesticated in the

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Yangtze River corridor of southern China as early as 8400 b.p. (Smith 1995). Other early rice
comes from the 7,000-year-old site Hemudu, on Lake Dongting in southern China. The
people of Hemudu used both wild and domesticated rice, along with domesticated water
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buffalo, dogs, and pigs. They also hunted wild game (Jolly and White 1995).
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China seems to have been the scene of two independent transitions to food
production, based on different crops grown in strikingly different climates. Southern Chinese
farming was rice aquaculture in rich subtropical wetlands. Southern winters were mild; and
summer rains, reliable. Northern China, by contrast, had harsh winters, with unreliable
rainfall during the summer growing season. This was an area of grasslands and temperate
forests. Still, in both areas by 7500 b.p., food production supported large and stable villages.
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Based on the archaeological evidence, early Chinese villagers had architectural expertise.
They lived in substantial houses, made elaborate ceramic vessels, and had rich burials.
At Nok Nok Tha in central Thailand, pottery made more than 5,000 years ago has
imprints of husks and grains of domesticated rice (Solheim 1972/1976). Animal bones show
that the people of Nok Nok Tha also had humped zebu cattle similar to those of contemporary
India. Rice might have been cultivated at about the same time in the Indus River Valley of
Pakistan and adjacent western India.
It appears that food production arose independently at least seven times in different
world areas. Figure 11.3 is a map highlighting those seven areas: the Middle East, northern
China, southern China, sub-Saharan Africa, central Mexico, the south central Andes, and the
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eastern United States. A different set of major foods was domesticated, at different times, in
each area, as is shown in Recap 11.2. Some grains, such as millet and rice, were domesticated
more than once. Millet grows wild in China and Africa, where it became an important food
crop, as well as in Mexico, where it did not. Indigenous African rice, grown only in West
Africa, belongs to the same genus as Asian rice. Pigs and probably cattle were independently
domesticated in the Middle East, China, and sub-Saharan Africa. Independent domestication
of the dog was virtually a worldwide phenomenon, including the Western Hemisphere. We
turn now to archaeological sequences in the Americas.
The First American Farmers
As hunters benefiting from the abundance of big game, bands of foragers gradually
spread through the Americas. As they moved, these early Americans learned to cope with a
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great diversity of environments. Eventually their descendants would independently invent
food production, paving the way for the emergence of states based on agriculture and trade in
Mexico and Peru.
The most significant contrast between Old and New World food production involved
animal domestication, which was much more important in the Old World than in the New
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World. The animals that had been hunted during the early American big-game tradition either
became extinct before people could domesticate them or were not domesticable (sic). The
largest animal ever domesticated in the New World (in Peru, around 4500 b.p.) was the llama.
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Early Peruvians and Bolivians ate llama meat and used that animal as a beast of burden
(Flannery, Marcus, and Reynolds 1989). They bred the llama’s relative, the alpaca, for its
wool. Peruvians also added animal protein to their diet by raising and eating guinea pigs and
ducks.
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The turkey was domesticated in Mesoamerica and in the southwestern United States.
Lowland South Americans domesticated a type of duck. The dog is the only animal that was
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domesticated throughout the New World. There were no cattle, sheep, or goats in the areas
where food production arose. As a result, neither herding nor the kinds of relationships that
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developed between herders and farmers in many parts of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and
Africa emerged in the pre-colonial Americas. The New World crops were different, although
staples as nutritious as those of the Old World were domesticated from native wild plants.
Three key caloric staples, major sources of carbohydrates, were domesticated by

Native American farmers. Maize, or corn, first domesticated in the tropical lowlands of
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southwestern Mexico, became the caloric staple in Mesoamerica and Central America and
eventually reached coastal Peru. The other two staples were root crops: white (“Irish”)
potatoes, first domesticated in the Andes, and manioc, or cassava, a tuber first cultivated in
the South American lowlands, where other root crops such as yams and sweet potatoes also
were important. Other crops added variety to New World diets and made them nutritious.
Beans and squash provided essential proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Maize, beans, and
squash were the basis of the Mesoamerican diet. This chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology”
discusses how anthropologists recently have confirmed that the earliest domesticates,
including squash, in the Americas are about as old as the first Old World domesticates.
Food production was independently invented in at least three areas of the Americas:
Mesoamerica, the eastern United States, and the south central Andes. Mesoamerica is
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discussed in detail below. Food plants known as goosefoot and marsh elder, along with the
sunflower and a species of squash, were domesticated by Native Americans in the eastern
United States by 4500 b.p. Those crops supplemented a diet based mainly on hunting and
gathering. They never became caloric staples like maize, wheat, rice, millet, manioc, and
potatoes. Eventually, maize diffused from Mesoamerica into what is now the United States,
reaching both the Southwest and the eastern area just mentioned. Maize provided a more
reliable caloric staple for native North American farming. Domestication of several species
was under way in the south central Andes of Peru and Bolivia by 5,000 b.p. They were the
potato, quinoa (a cereal grain), beans, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs (Smith 1995). This
chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology” discusses how anthropologists recently have
confirmed the very early domestication of squash, cotton, and peanuts in Peru.
The Tropical Origins of New World Domestication
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Based on microscopic evidence from early cultivated plants, New World farming
began in the lowlands of South America and then spread to Central America, Mexico, and the
Caribbean islands. In Chapter 4 we learned about new techniques that allow archaeologists
and botanists to recover and analyze microscopic evidence from pollens, starch grains, and
phytoliths (plant crystals) (Bryant 2003, 2007a). This evidence has forced revision of old
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assumptions, most prominently the idea that New World farming originated in upland areas,
such as the highlands of Mexico and Peru. This chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology”
reports that domesticated squash seeds from Peru date back 10,000 years. Although found in
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the highlands (western Andes), those seeds, along with other domesticates from that site,
were not domesticated there originally. This means that domestication must have occurred
even earlier, most probably in South America’s tropical lowlands.
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Dolores Piperno and Karen Stothert (2003) found that phytoliths from cultivated
squashes and gourds are substantially larger than those from wild species. They then used
phytolith size to confirm that domesticated squash and gourds (Cucurbita) were grown in
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coastal Ecuador between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago.

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According to Piperno and Deborah Pearsall (1998), farming in the tropical lowlands
of Central and South America began at about the same time as food production arose in the
Middle East— around 10,000 years ago. By that time, cultural groups in Panama, Peru,
Ecuador, and Colombia were cultivating plants in garden plots near their homes. Between
9000 and 8000 b.p., changes in seed form and phytolith size suggest that farmers were
selecting certain characteristics in their cultivated plants. By 7,000 years ago, farmers had
D
expanded their plots into nearby forests, which they cleared using slash-and-burn techniques.
By that time also, early farming ideas and techniques were diffusing from tropical lowlands
into drier regions at higher elevations (Piperno and Pearsall 1998; Bryant 1999, 2003).
What about maize (corn), a major New World crop, long thought to have been
domesticated in the Mexican highlands? Recent molecular and genetic studies indicate that
maize domestication actually took place in the lowlands of southwestern Mexico. The wild
ancestor of maize is a species of teosinte (a wild grain) native to the Rio Balsas watershed of
tropical southwestern Mexico (Holst, Moreno, and Piperno 2007). Evidence for the evolution
of maize from its wild ancestor has yet to be found in that poorly studied region. Still, we can
infer some of the likely steps in maize domestication.
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Such a process would have included increases in the number of kernels per cob, cob
size, and the number of cobs per stalk (Flannery 1973). These changes would make it
increasingly profitable to collect wild teosinte and eventually to plant maize. Undoubtedly,
some of the mutations necessary for domesticated maize had occurred in wild teosinte before
people started growing it. However, since teosinte was well adapted to its natural niche, the
mutations offered no advantage and didn’t spread. But once people started harvesting wild
maize intensively, they became selective agents, taking back to camp a greater proportion of
plants with tough axes and cobs. These were the plants most likely to hold together during
harvesting and least likely to disintegrate on the way back home. Eventually, teosinte became
dependent on humans for its survival because maize lacks a natural means of dispersal—a
brittle axis or cob. If humans chose plants with tough axes inadvertently, their selection of
plants with soft husks must have been intentional, as was their selection of larger cobs, more
kernels per cob, and more cobs per plant.
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A phytolith analysis of sediments from San Andrés, in the Mexican state of Tabasco,
confirms the spread of maize cultivation eastward to the tropical Mexican Gulf Coast by 7300
b.p. Data from many sites now confirm that maize spread rapidly from its domestication
cradle in tropical southwestern Mexico during the eighth millennium b.p. (8000–7001)
(Bryant 2007b; Piperno 2001; Pohl et al. 2007). For example, analysis of starch grains from
O
stone tools in Panama’s tropical lowlands confirms that maize was grown there by 7800–
7000 b.p. (Dickau, Ranere, and Cooke 2007). C
During the last century, for reasons enumerated by Vaughn Bryant (2003),
archaeologists tended to seek evidence for early New World farming in the highlands of
Mexico and Peru. These upland areas were easy to reach and had caves and rock shelters with
preserved plant remains. They also were in the vicinity of the centers of major civilizations
D
that would eventually develop in the Mexican highlands (see Chapter 12). Decades ago,
excavations in the Mexican Valleys of Tehuacan and Oaxaca (see the next section) yielded
well-preserved seeds and fruits, maize kernels and cobs, fibers, and rinds. Few archaeologists
E
sought the origin of domestication in lowland and jungle regions, which were wrongly
assumed to be infertile and where plants did not preserve well (Bryant 2003). Today, the
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microscopic evidence says otherwise and reveals the key role of tropical lowland regions in
early New World farming.
The Mexican Highlands
Long before Mexican highlanders developed a taste for maize, beans, and squash,
D
they hunted as part of a pattern of broad-spectrum foraging. Mammoth remains dated to

11,000 b.p. have been found along with spear points in the basin that surrounds Mexico City.
However, small animals were more important than big game, as were the grains, pods, fruits,
and leaves of wild plants.
In the Valley of Oaxaca, in Mexico’s southern highlands, between 10,000 and 4000
b.p., foragers concentrated on certain wild animals—deer and rabbits—and plants—cactus
leaves and fruits, and tree pods, especially mesquite (Flannery 1986). Those early Oaxacans
dispersed to hunt and gather in fall and winter. But they came together in late spring and
summer, forming larger groups to harvest seasonally available plants. Cactus fruits appeared
in the spring. Since summer rains would reduce the fruits to mush and since birds, bats, and
rodents competed for them, cactus collection required hard work by large groups of people.
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The edible pods of the mesquite, available in June, also required intensive gathering.
Eventually, people started planting maize in the alluvial soils of valley floors. This
was the zone where foragers traditionally had congregated for the annual spring/summer
harvest of cactus fruits and mesquite pods. By 4000 b.p., a type of maize was available that
provided more food than the mesquite pods did. Once that happened, people started cutting
down mesquite trees and replacing them with corn fields.
By 3500 b.p. in the Valley of Oaxaca, where winter frosts are absent, simple
irrigation permitted the establishment of permanent villages based on maize farming. Water
close to the surface allowed early farmers to dig wells right in their cornfields. Using pots,
they dipped water out of these wells and poured it on their growing plants, a technique known
as pot irrigation. Early permanent villages supported by farming appeared in areas of
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Mesoamerica where there was reliable rainfall, pot irrigation, or access to humid river
bottomlands.
The spread of maize farming resulted in further genetic changes, higher yields, higher
human populations, and more intensive farming. Pressures to intensify cultivation led to
improvements in water-control systems. New varieties of fast-growing maize eventually
O
appeared, expanding the range of areas that could be cultivated. Increasing population and
irrigation also helped spread maize farming. The advent of intensive cultivation laid the
foundation for the emergence of the state in Mesoamerica—some 3,000 years later than in the
C
Middle East, a process examined in the next chapter.
Explaining The Neolithic

D
This section focuses on the factors that influenced the origin and spread of Neolithic
economies in various world areas. (Much of this section is based on observations in Chapters
8 through 10 of Jared Diamond’s influential book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
E
Human Societies [1997]).

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Several factors had to converge to make domestication happen and to promote its
spread. Most plants, and especially animals, aren’t easy—or particularly valuable—to
domesticate. Thus, of some 148 large animal species that seem potentially domesticable (sic),
only 14 actually have been domesticated. And a mere dozen among 200,000 known plant
species account for 80 percent of the world’s farm production. Those 12 caloric staples are
wheat, corn (maize), rice, barley, sorghum (millet), soybeans, potatoes, cassava (manioc),
D
sweet potatoes, sugarcane, sugar beets, and bananas.
Domestication rested on a combination of conditions and resources that had not come
together previously. The development of a full-fledged Neolithic economy required settling
down. Sedentism, such as that adopted by ancient Natufian hunter-gatherers, was especially
attractive when several species of plants and animals were available locally for foraging and
eventual domestication. The Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East had such species, along
with a Mediterranean climate favorable to the origin and spread of the Neolithic economy.
Among those species were several self-pollinating plants, the easiest wild plants to
domesticate, including wheat, which required few genetic changes for domestication. We’ve
seen that the Natufians adopted sedentism prior to farming. They lived off abundant wild
grain and the animals attracted to the stubble left after the harvest. Eventually, with climate
164
change, population growth, and the need for people to sustain themselves in the marginal
zones, hunter-gatherers started cultivating.
Compared with other world areas, the Fertile Crescent region had the largest area
with a Mediterranean climate, with the highest species diversity. As we saw previously, this
was an area of vertical economy and closely packed microenvironments. Such diverse
terrains and habitats concentrated in a limited area offered a multiplicity of plant species, as
well as goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle. The first farmers eventually domesticated several crops:
two kinds of wheat, barley, lentils, peas, and chickpeas (garbanzo beans). As in Mesoamerica,
where corn (supplying carbohydrate) was supplemented by squash and beans (supplying
protein), the Neolithic diet of the Middle East combined caloric staples such as wheat and
barley with protein-rich pulses such as lentils, peas, and chickpeas.
PY
Anthropologists once thought, erroneously, that domestication would happen almost
automatically once people gained sufficient knowledge of plants and animals and their
reproductive habits to figure out how to make domestication work. Anthropologists now
realize that foragers have an excellent knowledge of plants, animals, and their reproductive
characteristics, and that some other trigger is needed to start and sustain the process of
domestication. A full-fledged Neolithic economy requires a minimal set of nutritious
O
domesticates. Some world areas, for example, North America (north of Mesoamerica),
managed independently to invent domestication, but the inventory of available plants and
animals was too meager to maintain a Neolithic economy. The early domesticates—squash,
C
sunflower, marsh elder, and goosefoot—had to be supplemented by hunting and gathering. A
full Neolithic economy and sedentism did not develop in the east, southeast, and southwest of
what is now the United States until maize diffused in from Mesoamerica—more than 3,000
years after the first domestication in the eastern United States.
D
We’ve seen how the presence or absence of domesticable animals helps explain the
divergent trajectories of the Eastern and Western hemispheres in that the mixed economies
E
that developed in Eurasia and Africa never emerged in Mesoamerica. Of the world’s 14 large
(over 100 pounds) successful domesticated animal species, 13 are from Eurasia, and only 1
EP
(the llama) is from South America. Ancient Mexicans domesticated dogs and turkeys and
created toy wheels, but they lacked sheep, goats, and pigs as well as the oxen or horses
needed to make the wheel a viable transport option. Once the big five Eurasian animal
domesticates (cow, sheep, goat, pig, horse) were introduced into Africa and the Americas,
they spread rapidly.
D
We’ve seen that detailed knowledge of plants and their reproduction is not a
sufficient condition for domestication to occur. Similarly, the knowledge that animals can be
tamed or kept as pets isn’t enough to produce animal domestication, because not all tamed
animals can be domesticated. Just as some plants (e.g., self-pollinating annuals) are easier to
domesticate than others are, so are some animals. Cattle, dogs, and pigs were so easy to
domesticate that they were domesticated independently in multiple world areas.
Consider some reasons why most large animal species (134 out of 148 big species)
have not been domesticated. Some are finicky eaters (e.g., koalas). Others refuse to breed in
captivity (e.g., vicunas). Some animals are just too nasty to domesticate (e.g., grizzly bears),
and others have a tendency to panic (e.g., deer and gazelles).
165
Perhaps the key factor in domestication is animal social structure. The easiest wild
animals to domesticate live in hierarchical herds. Accustomed to dominance relations, they
allow humans to assume superior positions in the hierarchy. Herd animals are easier to
domesticate than solitary ones are. Among the latter, only cats and ferrets have been
domesticated, and there’s some question about the completeness of domestication of those
animals (hence the expression “It’s like herding cats”). A final factor in ease of domestication
is whether a wild animal typically shares its range with others. Animals with exclusive
territories (e.g., rhinoceros, African antelope) are harder to pen up with others than are
animals that share their territories with other species.
Geography and the Spread of Food Production
As Jared Diamond (1997, Chapter 10) observes convincingly, the geography of the
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Old World facilitated the diffusion of plants, animals, technology (e.g., wheels and vehicles),
and information (e.g., writing). Most crops in Eurasia were domesticated just once and spread
rapidly in an east-west direction. The first domesticates spread from the Middle East to
Egypt, Northern Africa, Europe, India, and eventually China (which, however, also had its
own domesticates, as we have seen). By contrast, there was less diffusion of American
domesticates.
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Look at Figure 11.4 to see that Eurasia has a much broader east-west spread than
does Africa or does either of the Americas, which are arranged north-south. This is important
C
because climates are more likely to be similar moving across thousands of miles east-west
than north-south. In Eurasia, plants and animals could spread more easily east-west than
north-south because of common day lengths and similar seasonal variations. More radical
climatic contrasts have hindered north-south diffusion. In the Americas, for example,
D
although the distance between the cool Mexican highlands and the South American highlands
is just 1,200 miles, those two similar zones are separated by a low, hot, tropical region, which
supports very different plant species than the highlands. Such environmental barriers to
E
diffusion kept the Neolithic societies of Mesoamerica and South America more separate and
independent in the Americas than they were in Eurasia. It took some 3,000 years for maize to
EP
reach what is now the United States, where productive Neolithic economies eventually did
develop. They were based on the cultivation of new varieties of maize adapted to a colder
climate and different day lengths.
In the Old World, the spread of Middle Eastern crops southward into Africa
eventually was halted by climatic contrasts as well. Certain tropical crops did spread west-
D
east in Africa, but they did not reach Southern Africa because of climatic barriers. Again and
again, the geographic and climatic barriers posed by high mountains and broad deserts have
slowed the spread of domesticates. In what is now the United States, for example, the east-
west spread of farming from the southeast to the southwest was slowed by the dry climates of
Texas and the southern great plains.
This section has examined the factors that favored and retarded the origin and spread
of Neolithic economies in various world areas. Several factors combined to promote early
domestication in the ancient Middle East. The first domesticates spread rapidly across
Eurasia, facilitated by climatic similarities across a broad territorial expanse. In the Americas,
food production spread less rapidly because of north-south contrasts. Another factor that
slowed the Neolithic transition in the Americas was the lack of large animals suitable for
166
domestication. Factors that explain the origin and diffusion of food production involve
climate, economic adaptation, demography, and the specific attributes of plants and animals.
Costs And Benefits
Food production brought advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages were
discoveries and inventions. People eventually learned to spin and weave; to make pottery,
bricks, and arched masonry; and to smelt and cast metals. They developed trade and
commerce by land and sea. By 5500 b.p., Middle Easterners were living in vibrant cities with
markets, streets, temples, and palaces. They created sculpture, mural art, writing systems,
weights, measures, mathematics, and new forms of political and social organization (Jolly
and White 1995).
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Because it increased economic production and led to new social, scientific, and
creative forms, food production is often considered an evolutionary advance. But the new
economy also brought hardships. For example, food producers typically work harder than
foragers do—and for a less adequate diet. Because of their extensive leisure time, foragers
have been characterized as living in “the original affluent society” (Sahlins 1972). Certain
foragers have survived into recent times and have been studied by anthropologists. Among
O
foragers living in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, for example, only part of the group
needed to hunt and gather, maybe 20 hours a week, to provide an adequate diet for the entire
group. Women gathered, and adult men hunted. Their labor supported older people and
C
children. Early retirement from the food quest was possible, and forced child labor was
unknown.
With food production, yields are more reliable, but people work much harder. Herds,
D
fields, and irrigation systems need care. Weeding can require hours of arduous bending. No
one has to worry about where to keep a giraffe or a gazelle, but pens and corrals are built and
maintained for livestock. Trade takes men, and sometimes women, away from home, leaving
E
burdens for those who stay behind. For several reasons, food producers tend to have more
children than foragers do. This means greater childcare demands, but child labor also tends to
EP
be more needed and valued than it is among foragers. Many tasks in farming and herd work
harder than foragers do—and for a less adequate diet. Because of their extensive leisure time,
foragers have been characterized as living in “the original affluent society” (Sahlins 1972).
Certain foragers have survived into recent times and have been studied by anthropologists.
Among foragers living in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, for example, only part of
the group needed to hunt and gather, maybe 20 hours a week, to provide an adequate diet for
D
the entire group. Women gathered, and adult men hunted. Their labor supported older people
and children. Early retirement from the food quest was possible, and forced child labor was
unknown.
With food production, yields are more reliable, but people work much harder. Herds,
fields, and irrigation systems need care. Weeding can require hours of arduous bending. No
one has to worry about where to keep a giraffe or a gazelle, but pens and corrals are built and
maintained for livestock. Trade takes men, and sometimes women, away from home, leaving
burdens for those who stay behind. For several reasons, food producers tend to have more
children than foragers do. This means greater child care demands, but child labor also tends
to be more needed and valued than it is among foragers. Many tasks in farming and herding
can be done by children. The division of economic labor grows more complex, so that
167
children and older people have assigned economic roles.
And public health declines. Diets based on crops and dairy products tend to be less
varied, less nutritious, and less healthful than foragers’ diets, which are usually higher in
proteins and lower in fats and carbohydrates. With the shift to food production, the physical
well-being of the population often declines. Communicable diseases, protein deficiency, and
dental caries increase (Cohen and Armelagos 1984). Greater exposure to pathogens comes
with food production.
Compared with a seminomadic foraging band, food producers tend to be sedentary.

Their populations are denser, which makes it easier to transmit and maintain diseases. We
saw in Chapter 5 that malaria and sickle-cell anemia spread along with food production.
Population concentrations, especially cities, are breeding grounds for epidemic diseases.
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People live nearer to other people and animals and their wastes, which also affect public
health (Diamond 1997). Compared with farmers, herders, and city dwellers, foragers were
relatively disease-free, stress-free, and well nourished.
Other hardships and stresses accompanied food production and the state. Social
inequality and poverty increased. Elaborate systems of social stratification eventually
O
replaced the egalitarianism of the past. Resources were no longer common goods, open to all,
as they tend to be among foragers. Property distinctions proliferated. Slavery and other forms
of human bondage eventually were invented. Crime, war, and human sacrifice became
widespread.
C
The rate at which human beings degraded their environments also increased with
food production. The environmental degradation in today’s world, including air and water
D
pollution and deforestation, is on a much larger scale, compared with early villages and cities,
but modern trends are foreshadowed. After food production, population increase and the need
to expand farming led to deforestation in the Middle East. Even today, many farmers think of
E
trees as giant weeds to be cut down to make way for productive fields. Previously, we saw
how early Mesoamerican farmers cut down mesquite trees for maize cultivation in the Valley
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of Oaxaca.
Many farmers and herders burn trees, brush, and pasture. Farmers burn to remove
weeds; they also use the ashes for fertilizer. Herders burn to promote the growth of new
tender shoots for their livestock. But such practices do have environmental costs, including
air pollution. Smelting and other chemical processes basic to the manufacture of metal tools
D
also have environmental costs. As modern industrial pollution has harmful effluents, early
chemical processes had byproducts that polluted air, soils, and waters. Salts, chemicals, and
microorganisms accumulate in irrigated fields. These and other pathogens and pollutants,
which were by and large nonissues during the Paleolithic, endanger growing human
populations. To be sure, food production had benefits. But its costs are just as evident. Recap
11.3 summarizes the costs and benefits of food production. We see that progress is much too
optimistic a word to describe food production, the state, and many other aspects of the
evolution of society.
168
D The First Cities and States
THOMAS HYLAND ERIKSEN
The Origin Of The State
As food-producing economies spread and became more productive, chiefdoms, and

eventually states, developed in many parts of the world. A state is a form of social and
political organization that has a formal, central government and a division of society into
classes. The first states developed in Mesopotamia by 5500 b.p. and in Mesoamerica some
3,000 years later.
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Chiefdoms were precursors to states, with privileged and effective leaders—chiefs—
but lacking the sharp class divisions that characterize states. By 7000 b.p. in the Middle East
and 3200 b.p. in Mesoamerica, there is evidence for what archaeologists call the elite level,
indicating a chiefdom or a state.
O
How and why did chiefdoms and states originate? Compared with foraging, food
production could support larger and denser populations. Also, the complexity of the division
C
of social and economic labor tended to grow as food production spread and intensified.
Systems of political authority and control typically develop to handle regulatory problems
encountered as the population grows and/or the economy increases in scale and diversity.
Competition, including warfare, among chiefdoms for territory and resources also can
D
stimulate state formation. Anthropologists have identified the causes of state formation and
reconstructed the rise of several states. A systemic perspective recognizes that multiple
factors always contribute to state formation, with the effects of one magnifying those of the
E
others. Although some contributing factors have appeared again and again, no single one is
always present. In other words, state formation has generalized rather than universal causes.
EP
Furthermore, because state formation may take centuries, people experiencing the
process at any time rarely perceive the significance of the long-term changes. Later
generations find themselves dependent on government institutions that took generations to
develop.
D
Hydraulic Systems
One suggested cause of state formation is the need to regulate hydraulic (water-
based) agricultural economies (Wittfogel 1957). In certain arid areas, such as ancient Egypt
and Mesopotamia, states have emerged to manage systems of irrigation, drainage, and flood
control. However, hydraulic agriculture is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for
the rise of the state. That is, many societies with irrigation never experienced state formation,
and states have developed without hydraulic systems.
But hydraulic agriculture does have certain implications for state formation. Water
control increases production in arid lands. Because of its labor demands and its ability to feed
more people, irrigated agriculture fuels population growth. This in turn leads to enlargement
of the system. The expanding hydraulic system supports larger and denser concentrations of
169
people. Interpersonal problems increase, and conflicts over access to water and irrigated land
become more frequent. Political authorities may arise to regulate production as well as
interpersonal and intergroup relations.
Large hydraulic works can sustain towns and cities and become essential to their
subsistence. Regulators protect the economy by mobilizing crews to maintain and repair the
hydraulic system. These life-and-death functions enhance the authority of state officials.
Thus, growth in hydraulic systems is often (as in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Valley of
Mexico), but not always, associated with state formation.
Long-Distance Trade Routes
Another theory is that states arise at strategic locations in regional trade networks.
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These sites include points of supply or exchange, such as crossroads of caravan routes, and
places (e.g., mountain passes and river narrows) situated so as to threaten or halt trade
between centers. Here again, however, the cause is generalized but neither necessary nor
sufficient. Long-distance trade has been important in the evolution of many states, including
those in Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica. Such exchange does eventually develop in all states,
but it can follow rather than precede state formation. Furthermore, long-distance trade also
O
occurs in societies such as those of Papua New Guinea, where no states developed.
Population, War, and Circumscription

C
Robert Carneiro (1970) put forth an influential theory that incorporates three factors
working together instead of a single cause of state formation. (We call a theory involving
multiple factors or variables a multivariate theory.) Wherever and whenever environmental
D
circumscription (or resource concentration), increasing population, and warfare exist,
suggested Carneiro, state formation will begin (Figure 12.1). Environmental circumscription
may be physical or social. Physically circumscribed environments include small islands and,
E
in arid areas, river plains, oases, and valleys with streams. Social circumscription exists when
neighboring societies block expansion, emigration, or access to resources. When strategic
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resources are concentrated in limited areas—even when no obstacles to migration exist—the

effects are similar to those of circumscription.
Coastal Peru, one of the world’s most arid areas, illustrates the interaction of
environmental circumscription, warfare, and population increase. The earliest cultivation
there was limited to valleys with springs. Each valley was circumscribed by the Andes
D
Mountains to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and desert regions to the north and
south. The advent of food production triggered a population increase. In each valley, villages
got bigger. Colonists split off from the old villages and founded new ones. With more
villages and people, a scarcity of land developed.
Rivalries and raiding developed between villages in the same valley.
Population pressure and land shortages were developing in all the valleys. Because
the valleys were circumscribed, when one village conquered another, the losers had to submit
to the winners—they had nowhere else to go. Conquered villagers could keep their land only
if they agreed to pay tribute to their conquerors. To do this, they had to intensify production,
using new techniques to produce more food. By working harder, they managed to pay tribute
170
while meeting their own subsistence needs. Villagers brought new areas under cultivation by
means of irrigation and terracing.
Those early inhabitants of the Andes didn’t work harder because they chose to do so.
They were forced to pay tribute, accept political domination, and intensify production by
factors beyond their control. Once established, all these trends accelerated. Population grew,
warfare intensified, and villages eventually were united in chiefdoms. The first states
developed when one chiefdom in a valley conquered the others (Carneiro 1990). Eventually,
different valleys began to fight. The winners brought the losers into growing states and
empires—mature, territorially larger, and expansive systems—which eventually expanded
from the coast to the highlands. By the 16th century, from their capital, Cuzco, in the high
Andes, the Inca ruled one of the major empires in the tropics.
PY
Carneiro’s theory is very useful, but again, the association between population
density and state organization is generalized rather than universal. States do tend to have
large and dense populations (Stevenson 1968). However, population increase and warfare
within a circumscribed environment did not trigger state formation in highland Papua New
Guinea. Certain valleys there are socially or physically circumscribed and have population
densities similar to those of many states. Warfare also was present, but no states emerged.
O
Again, we are dealing with an important theory that explains many but not all cases of state
formation. C
Whatever their deficiencies may be, all these theories properly look to environmental,
demographic, economic, and other down-to-earth factors in particular areas to explain the
origin of early states and civilizations. Some theories for the origin of the state are not nearly
as plausible. This chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology” casts doubts on certain pseudo-
D
archaeological theories about the emergence of civilizations, especially those in the
Americas.
E
Early states arose in different places, and for many reasons. In each case, interacting
causes (often comparable ones) magnified each other’s effects. To explain any instance of
EP
state formation, we must search for the specific changes in access to resources and in
regulatory problems that fostered stratification and state machinery. We also must remember
that chiefdoms and states don’t inevitably arise from food production.
Another, the losers had to submit to the winners— they had nowhere else to go.
Conquered villagers could keep their land only if they agreed to pay tribute to their
D
conquerors. To do this, they had to intensify production, using new techniques to produce
more food. By working harder, they managed to pay tribute while meeting their own
subsistence needs. Villagers brought new areas under cultivation by means of irrigation and
terracing.
Those early inhabitants of the Andes didn’t work harder because they chose to do so.
They were forced to pay tribute, accept political domination, and intensify production by
factors beyond their control. Once established, all these trends accelerated. Population grew,
warfare intensified, and villages eventually were united in chiefdoms. The first states
developed when one chiefdom in a valley conquered the others (Carneiro 1990). Eventually,
different valleys began to fight. The winners brought the losers into growing states and
empires—mature, territorially larger, and expansive systems—which eventually expanded
171
from the coast to the highlands. By the 16th century, from their capital, Cuzco, in the high
Andes, the Inca ruled one of the major empires in the tropics.
Carneiro’s theory is very useful, but again, the association between population
density and state organization is generalized rather than universal. States do tend to have
large and dense populations (Stevenson 1968). However, population increase and warfare
within a circumscribed environment did not trigger state formation in highland Papua New
Guinea. Certain valleys there are socially or physically circumscribed and have population
densities similar to those of many states. Warfare also was present, but no states emerged.
Again, we are dealing with an important theory that explains many but not all cases of state
formation.
Whatever their deficiencies may be, all these theories properly look to environmental,
PY
demographic, economic, and other down-to-earth factors in particular areas to explain the
origin of early states and civilizations. Some theories for the origin of the state are not nearly
as plausible. This chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology” casts doubts on certain pseudo-
archaeological theories about the emergence of civilizations, especially those in the
Americas.
O
Early states arose in different places, and for many reasons. In each case, interacting
causes (often comparable ones) magnified each other’s effects. To explain any instance of
state formation, we must search for the specific changes in access to resources and in
C
regulatory problems that fostered stratification and state machinery. We also must remember
that chiefdoms and states don’t inevitably arise from food production.
State Formation in the Middle East

D
In the last chapter we saw that food production arose in the ancient Middle East
around 10,000 b.p. In the ensuing process of change, the center of population growth shifted
E
from the zone where wheat and barley grew wild (Hilly Flanks) to adjacent areas (piedmont
steppe) where those grains were first domesticated. By 6000 b.p., population was increasing
EP
most rapidly in the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia. (Mesopotamia refers to the area
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now southern Iraq and southwestern Iran.)
This growing population supported itself through irrigation and intensive river valley
agriculture. By 5500 b.p. towns had grown into cities (Gates 2003). The earliest city-states
were Sumer (southern Iraq) and Elam (southwestern Iran), with their capitals at Uruk
(Warka) and Susa, respectively.
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Urban Life
The first towns arose around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. Over the
generations houses of mud brick were built and rebuilt in the same place. Substantial tells or
mounds arose from the debris of a succession of such houses. The Middle East and Asia have
hundreds or thousands of such mounds, only a few of which have been excavated. These sites
have yielded remains of ancient community life, including streets, buildings, terraces,
courtyards, wells, and other artifacts.
The earliest known town was Jericho, located in what is now Israel, below sea level
at a well-watered oasis a few miles northwest of the Dead Sea (Figure 12.2). From the lowest
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(oldest) level, we know that around 11,000 years ago, Jericho was first settled by Natufian
foragers. Occupation continued thereafter, through and beyond biblical times, when “Joshua
fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down” (Laughlin 2006).
During the phase just after the Natufians, the earliest known town appeared. It was an
unplanned, densely populated settlement with round houses and some 2,000 people. At this
time, well before the invention of pottery, Jericho was surrounded by a sturdy wall with a
massive tower. The wall may have been built initially as a flood barrier rather than for
defense. Around 9000 b.p. Jericho was destroyed, to be rebuilt later. The new occupants lived
in square houses with finished plaster floors. They buried their dead beneath their homes, a
pattern seen at other sites, such as Çatal Hüyük in Turkey. Pottery reached Jericho around
8000 b.p. (Gowlett 1993).
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Long-distance trade, especially of obsidian, a volcanic glass used to make tools and
ornaments, became important in the Middle East between 9500 and 7000 b.p. One town that
prospered from this trade was Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia, Turkey (DeMarco 1997). A grassy
mound 65 feet high holds the remains of this 9,000-year-old town, probably the largest
settlement of the Neolithic age. Çatal Hüyük was located on a river, which deposited rich soil
for crops, created a lush environment for animals, and was harnessed for irrigation by 7000
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b.p. Over the mound’s 32 acres (12.9 hectares), up to 10,000 people once lived in crowded
mud-brick houses packed so tight that residents entered from their roofs.
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Shielded by a defensive wall, Çatal Hüyük flourished between 8000 and 7000 b.p. Its
individual mud-brick dwellings, rarely larger than a suburban American bedroom, had
separate areas reserved for ritual and secular uses. In a given house, the ritual images (wall
paintings) were placed along the walls that faced north, east, or west, but never south. That
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area was reserved for cooking and other domestic tasks.
The ritual spaces were decorated with wall paintings, sculpted ox heads, bullhorns,
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and relief models of bulls and rams. The paintings showed bulls surrounded by stick figures
running, dancing, and sometimes throwing stones. Vultures attacked headless humans. One
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frieze had human handprints painted below mounted bullhorns. These images and their
placement are reminiscent of Paleolithic cave art. The dwellings at Çatal Hüyük were entered
through the roof, and people had to crawl through holes from room to room, somewhat like
moving between chambers in a cave. The deeper down one went, the richer the art became.
The town’s spiritual life seems to have revolved around a preoccupation with animals,
danger, and death, perhaps related to the site’s recent hunter-gatherer past.
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Two or three generations of a family were buried beneath their homes. In one
dwelling, archaeologists found remains of 17 individuals, mostly children. After two or three
generations of family burials, the dwelling was burned. The site was then covered with fine
dirt, and a floor laid for a new dwelling.
Çatal Hüyük’s residents, though living in a town, acted independently in family

groups without any apparent control by a priestly or political elite. The town never became a
full-fledged city with centralized organization. Just as it lacked priests, Çatal Hüyük never
had leaders who controlled or managed trade and production (Fagan 1996). Food was stored
and processed not collectively but on a smaller, domestic scale (DeMarco 1997).
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The Elite Level
The first pottery (ceramics) dates back a bit more than 8,000 years, when it first
reached Jericho. Before that date, the Neolithic is called the pre-pottery Neolithic. By 7000
b.p., pottery had become widespread in the Middle East. Archaeologists consider pottery
shape, finishing, decoration, and type of clay as features used for dating. The geographic
distribution of a given pottery style may indicate trade or alliance spanning a large area at a
particular time.
An early and widespread pottery style, the Halafian, was first found at Tell Halaf in
the mountains of northern Syria. Halafian (7500–6500 b.p.) refers to a delicate ceramic style.
It also describes the period during which the elite level and the first chiefdoms emerged. The
low number of Halafian ceramics suggests they were luxury goods associated with a social
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hierarchy.
By 7000 b.p. chiefdoms had emerged in the Middle East. The Ubaid period (7000–
6000 b.p.) is named for a southern Mesopotamian pottery type first discovered at a small site,
Tell el-Ubaid, located near the major city of Ur in southern Iraq. Similar pottery has been
discovered in the deep levels of the Mesopotamian cities of Ur, Uruk, and Eridu. Ubaid
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pottery is associated with advanced chiefdoms and perhaps the earliest states. It diffused
rapidly over a large area, becoming more widespread than earlier ceramic styles such as the
Halafian.
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Social Ranking and Chiefdoms
It is easy for archaeologists to identify early states. Evidence for state organization
D
includes monumental architecture, central storehouses, irrigation systems, and written
records. In Mesoamerica, even chiefdoms are easy to detect archaeologically. Ancient
Mexican chiefdoms left behind stone works, such as temple complexes and the huge carved
E
Olmec heads (see page 272). Mesoamericans also had a penchant for marking their elites with
durable ornaments and prestige goods, including those buried with chiefs and their families.
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Early Middle Eastern chiefs were less ostentatious in their use of material markers of
prestige, making their chiefdoms somewhat harder to detect archaeologically (Flannery
1999).
On the basis of the kinds of status distinctions within society, the anthropologist
Morton Fried (1960) divided societies into three types: egalitarian, ranked, and stratified. An
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egalitarian society, most typically found among foragers, lacks status distinctions except for
those based on age, gender, and individual qualities, talents, and achievements. Thus,
depending on the society, adult men, elder women, talented musicians, or ritual specialists
might receive special respect for their activities or knowledge. In egalitarian societies, status
distinctions are not usually inherited. The child of a respected person will not receive special
recognition because of his or her parent but must earn such respect.
Ranked societies, in contrast, do have hereditary inequality. But they lack

stratification (sharp social divisions—strata—based on unequal access to wealth and power)
into noble and commoner classes. In ranked societies, individuals tend to be ranked in terms
of their genealogical distance from the chief. Closer relatives of the chief have higher rank or
social status than more distant ones do. But there is a continuum of status, with many
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individuals and kin groups ranked about equally, which can lead to competition for positions
of leadership. Recap 12.1 lists key features and examples of egalitarian, ranked, and stratified
societies.
Not all ranked societies are chiefdoms. Robert Carneiro (1991) has distinguished
between two kinds of ranked societies, only the second of which is a chiefdom. In the first
type, exemplified by some Indians of North America’s Pacific Northwest, there were
hereditary differences in rank among individuals, but villages were independent of one
another and not ranked in relation to each other. Exemplifying the second type were the
Cauca of Colombia and the Natchez of the eastern United States. These ranked societies had
become chiefdoms, societies in which relations among villages as well as among individuals
were unequal. The smaller villages had lost their autonomy and were under the authority of
leaders who lived at larger villages. According to Kent Flannery (1999), only those ranked
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societies with such loss of village autonomy should be called chiefdoms. In chiefdoms, there
is always inequality— differences in rank—among both individuals and communities.
In Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and Peru, chiefdoms were precursors to primary

states (states that arose on their own, not through contact with other state societies—see
Wright 1994). Primary states emerged from competition among chiefdoms, as one chiefdom
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managed to conquer its neighbors and to make them part of a larger political unit (Flannery
1995). C
Archaeological evidence for chiefdoms in Mesoamerica dates back more than 3,000
years. Mesoamerican chiefdoms are easy to detect archaeologically because they were
flamboyant in the way they marked their aristocracy. High-status families deformed the heads
of their infants and buried them with special symbols and grave goods. In burials, prestige
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goods show a continuum from graves with many, to less, to no precious materials, such as
jade and turquoise (Flannery 1999).
E
The first Middle Eastern states developed between 6000 and 5500 b.p. The first
societies based on rank, including the first chiefdoms, emerged during the preceding 1,500
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years. In the Middle East, the archaeological record of the period after 7300 b.p. reveals
behavior typical of chiefdoms, including exotic goods used as markers of status, along with
raiding and political instability. Early Middle Eastern chiefdoms included both the Halafian
culture of northern Iraq and the Ubaid culture of southern Iraq, which eventually spread
north.
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As in Mesoamerica, ancient Middle Eastern chiefdoms had cemeteries where chiefly

relatives were buried with distinctive items: vessels, statuettes, necklaces, and high-quality
ceramics. Such goods were buried with children too young to have earned prestige on their
own, who happened to be born into elite families. In the ancient village of Tell es-Sawwan,
infant graves show a continuum of richness from six statuettes, to three statuettes, to one
statuette, to none. Such signs of slight gradations in social status are exactly what one expects
in ranked societies (Flannery 1999).
Such burials convince Flannery (1999) that hereditary status differences were present
in the Middle East by 7000 b.p. But had the leaders of large villages extended their authority
to the smaller villages nearby? Is there evidence for the loss of village autonomy, converting
simple ranked societies into chiefdoms? One clue that villages were linked in political units is
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the use of a common canal to irrigate several villages. This suggests a way of resolving
disputes among farmers over access to water, for example, by appeal to a strong leader. By
later Halafian times in northern Mesopotamia, there is evidence for such multivillage
alliances (Flannery 1999). Another clue to the loss of village autonomy is the emergence of a
two-tier settlement hierarchy, with small villages clustering around a large village, especially
one with public buildings. There is evidence for this pattern in northern Mesopotamia during
the Halafian (Watson 1983).
Advanced Chiefdoms
In northeastern Syria, near the border with Iraq, archaeologists have been excavating
an ancient settlement that once lay on a major trade route. This large site, Tell Hamoukar,
dates back more than 5,500 years (Wilford 2000). Its remains suggest that advanced
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chiefdoms arose in northern areas of the Middle East independently of the better-known city-
states of southern Mesopotamia, in southern Iraq (Wilford 2000).
The oldest layer yet uncovered at Tell Hamoukar contains traces of villages dating
back 6,000 years. By 5700 b.p. the settlement was a prosperous town of 32 acres, enclosed by
a defensive wall 10 feet (3 meters) high and 13 feet (3.9 meters) wide. The site had fine
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pottery and large ovens— evidence of food preparation on an institutional scale. The site has
yielded pieces of large cooking pots, animal bones, and traces of wheat, barley, and oats for
baking and brewing. The archaeologist McGuire Gibson, one of the excavators, believes that
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food preparation on this scale is evidence of a ranked society in which elites were organizing
people and resources (Wilford 2000). Most likely they were hosting and entertaining in a
chiefly manner.
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Also providing evidence for social ranking are the seals used to mark containers of
food and other goods. Some of the seals are small, with only simple incisions or cross-
hatching. Others are larger and more elaborate, presumably for higher officials to stamp more
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valuable goods. Gibson suspects the larger seals with figurative scenes were held by the few
people who had greater authority. The smaller, simply incised seals were used by many more
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people with less authority (Wilford 2000).
The Rise of the State
In southern Mesopotamia at this time (5700 b.p.), an expanding population and

increased food production from irrigation were changing the social landscape even more
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drastically than in the north. Irrigation had allowed Ubaid communities to spread along the
Euphrates River. Travel and trade were expanding, with water serving as the highway system.
Such raw materials as hardwood and stone, which southern Mesopotamia lacked, were
imported via river routes. Population density increased as new settlements appeared. Social
and economic networks now linked communities on the rivers in the south and in the foothills
to the north. Settlements spread north into what is now Syria. Social differentials also
increased. Priests and political leaders joined expert potters and other specialists. These non-
food producers were supported by the larger population of farmers and herders (Gilmore-
Lehne 2000).
Economies were being managed by central leadership. Agricultural villages had

grown into cities, some of which were ruled by local kings. The Uruk period (6000–5200
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b.p.), which succeeded the Ubaid period, takes its name from a prominent southern city-state
located more than 400 miles south of Tell Hamoukar (Recap 12.2). The Uruk period
established Mesopotamia as “the cradle of civilization” (see Pollock 1999). Recap 12.2
highlights archaeological periods in the process of state formation in the ancient Middle East.
There is no evidence of Uruk influence at Tell Hamoukar until 5200 b.p., when some
Uruk pottery showed up. When southern Mesopotamians expanded north, they found
advanced chiefdoms, which were not yet states. The fact that writing originated in Sumer, in
southern Mesopotamia, indicates a more advanced, state-organized society there. The first
writing presumably developed to handle record keeping for a centralized economy.
Writing was initially used to keep accounts, reflecting the needs of trade. Rulers,
nobles, priests, and merchants were the first to benefit from it. Writing had reached Egypt by
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5200 b.p., probably from Mesopotamia. The earliest writing was pictographic, for example,
with pictorial symbols of horses used to represent them.
Early Mesopotamian scribes used a stylus (writing implement) to scrawl symbols on

raw clay. This writing left a wedge-shaped impression on the clay, called cuneiform writing,
from the Latin word for wedge. Both the Sumerian (southern Mesopotamia) and Akkadian
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(northern Mesopotamia) languages were written in cuneiform (Gowlett 1993).
Writing and temples played key roles in the Mesopotamian economy. For the historic
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period after 5600 b.p., when writing was invented, there are temple records of economic
activities. States can exist without writing, but literacy facilitates the flow and storage of
information. We know that Mesopotamian priests managed herding, farming, manufacture,
and trade. Temple officials allotted fodder and pastureland for cattle and donkeys, which
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were used as plow and cart animals.
As the economy expanded, trade, manufacture, and grain storage were centrally
E
managed. Temples collected and distributed meat, dairy products, crops, fish, clothing, tools,
and trade items. Potters, metalworkers, weavers, sculptors, and other artisans perfected their
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crafts.
Prior to the invention of metallurgy (knowledge of the properties of metals,

including their extraction and processing and the manufacture of metal tools), raw copper was
shaped by hammering. If copper is hammered too long, it hardens and becomes brittle, with a
risk of cracking. But once heated (annealed) in a fire, copper becomes malleable again. Such
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annealing of copper was an early form of metallurgy. A vital step for metallurgy was the
discovery of smelting, the high-temperature process by which pure metal is produced from
an ore. Ores, including copper ore, have a much wider distribution than does native copper,
which was initially traded as a luxury good because of its rarity (Gowlett 1993).
When and how smelting was discovered is unknown. But after 5000 b.p., metallurgy
evolved rapidly. The Bronze Age began when alloys of arsenic and copper, or tin and copper
(in both cases known as bronze), became common and greatly extended the use of metals.
Bronze flows more easily than copper does when heated to a similar temperature, so bronze
was more convenient for metal casting. Early molds were carved in stone, as shaped
depressions to be filled with molten metal. A copper ax cast from such a mold has been found
in northern Mesopotamia and predates 5000 b.p. Thereafter, other metals came into common
177
use. By 4500 b.p., golden objects were found in royal burials at Ur.
Iron ore is distributed more widely than is copper ore. Iron, when smelted, can be
used on its own; there is no need for tin or arsenic to make a metal alloy (bronze). The Iron
Age began once high-temperature iron smelting was mastered. In the Old World after 3200
b.p., iron spread rapidly. Formerly valued as highly as gold, iron crashed in value when it
became plentiful (Gowlett 1993).
The Mesopotamian economy, based on craft production, trade, and intensive

agriculture, spurred population growth and an increase in urbanism. Sumerian cities were
protected by a fortress wall and surrounded by a farming area. By 4800 b.p., Uruk, the largest
early Mesopotamian city, had a population of 50,000. As irrigation and the population
expanded, communities fought over water. People sought protection in the fortified cities
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(Adams 1981), which defended themselves when neighbors or invaders threatened.
By 4600 b.p., secular authority had replaced temple rule. The office of military
coordinator developed into kingship. This change shows up architecturally in palaces and
royal tombs. The palace raised armies and supplied them with armor, chariots, and metal
armaments. At Ur’s royal cemetery, by 4600 b.p. monarchs were being buried with soldiers,
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charioteers, and ladies in waiting. These subordinates were killed at the time of a royal burial
to accompany the monarch to the afterworld. C
Agricultural intensification made it possible for the number of people supported by a
given area to increase. Population pressure on irrigated fields helped create a stratified
society. Land became scarce private property that was bought and sold. Some people amassed
large estates, and their wealth set them off from ordinary farmers. These landlords joined the
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urban elite, while sharecroppers and serfs toiled in the fields. By 4600 b.p., Mesopotamia had
a well-defined class structure, with complex stratification into nobles, commoners, and
slaves.
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Other Early States

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In northwestern India and Pakistan, the Indus River Valley (or Harappan) state, with
major cities at Harappa and Mohenjodaro, takes its name from the river valley along which it
extended. (Figure 12.3 maps the four great early river valley states of the Old World:
Mesopotamia, Egypt, India/Pakistan, and northern China.) Trade and the spread of writing
from Mesopotamia may have played a role in the emergence of the Harappan state around
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4600 b.p. Located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, the ruins of Harappa were the first to be
identified as part of the Indus River Valley civilization. At its peak, the Indus River Valley
state incorporated 1,000 cities, towns, and villages, spanning 280,000 square miles (725,000
square kilometers). This state flourished between 4600 and 3900 b.p. It displayed such
features of state organization as urban planning, social stratification, and an early writing
system, which remains undeciphered. The Harappans maintained a uniform system of
weights, and their cites had carefully planned residential areas with wastewater systems. An
array of products from sophisticated craft industries included ceramic vessels made on
potter’s wheels (Meadow and Kenoyer 2000).
The Indus River Valley state collapsed, apparently through warfare, around 3900 b.p.
Its cities became largely depopulated. Skeletons of massacre victims have been found in the
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streets of Mohenjodaro. Harappa continued to be occupied, but on a much smaller scale than
previously (Meadow and Kenoyer 2000). (For more on the ongoing Harappa Archaeological
Research Project, visit http://www.harappa.com.)
The first Chinese state, dating to 3750 b.p., was that of the Shang dynasty. It arose in
the Huang He (Yellow) River area of northern China, where wheat, rather than rice, was the
dietary staple. This state was characterized by urbanism, palatial (as well as domestic)
architecture, human sacrifice, and a sharp division between social classes. Burials of the
aristocracy were marked by ornaments of stone, including jade. The Shang had bronze
metallurgy and an elaborate writing system. In warfare they used chariots and took prisoners
(Gowlett 1993).
Like Mesopotamia and China, many early civilizations came to rely on metallurgy.
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At Nok Nok Tha in northern Thailand, metalworking goes back 6,000 years. In Peru’s Andes,
whose astonishing system of suspension bridges is described in this chapter ‘s “Appreciating
Diversity,” metal-working appeared around 4000 b.p. Ancient Andeans were skilled not only
in using natural fibers to make bridges but also in working with bronze, copper, and gold.
They are well known, too, for their techniques of pottery manufacture. Their arts, crafts, and
agricultural knowledge compared well with those of Mesoamerica at its height, to which we
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turn after a discussion of African states. Note that both Mesoamerican and Andean state
formation were truncated by Spanish conquest. The Aztecs of Mexico were conquered in
1519 c.e., and the Inca of Peru in 1532 c.e.
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African States
Egypt, a major ancient civilization, developed in northern Africa, as one of the

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world’s first states (Morkot 2005). Egyptian influence extended southward along the Nile into
what is now Sudan. Sub-Saharan Africa witnessed the emergence of several states (Hooker
1996), only a few of which can be described here.
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As in the other world areas just discussed, metallurgy (especially iron and gold)
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played a role in the eventual rise of African states (Connah 2004). About 2,000 years ago,
iron smelting began to diffuse rapidly throughout the continent. That spread was aided by the
migrations of Bantu speakers. (Bantu is Africa’s largest linguistic family.) The Bantu
migrations, launched from north-central Africa around 2100 b.p., continued for more than a
thousand years. Bantu speakers migrated south into the rain forests of the Congo River and
east into the African highlands. Along with their language and iron-smelting techniques, they
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also spread farming, particularly of high-yielding crops such as yams, bananas, and plantains.
One crowning achievement of the Bantu migrations was the Mwenemutapa empire.
The southeast-moving ancestors of the Mwenemutapa brought iron smelting and farming to
the region called Zimbabwe, south of the Zambezi River and located within the contemporary
nation of the same name. This area was rich in gold, which the Mwenemutapa mined and
traded with the city of Sofala on the Indian Ocean, starting around 1000 c.e. (1000 b.p.). The
Mwenemutapa developed a powerful kingdom based on trade. The first centralized state there
was Great Zimbabwe (zimbabwe means “stone enclosure”— the capital was protected by
huge stone walls), which arose around 1300 c.e. (700 b.p.). By 1500, Great Zimbabwe
dominated the Zambezi Valley militarily and commercially as the seat of the Mwenemutapa
empire.
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Another African region where states arose, also abetted by trade, was the Sahel, the
area just south of the Sahara in western Africa. Farming towns started appearing in the Sahel
around 2600 b.p. One such town, Kumbi Saleh, eventually became the capital of the ancient
kingdom of Ghana. West Africa was rich in gold, precious metals, ivory, and other resources,
which after 750 c.e. (1250 b.p.) were traded (thanks to the camel) across the Sahara to North
Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East. Cities in the Sahel served as southern terminal points for
the trans-Saharan trade (e.g., of gold for salt). Several kingdoms developed in this area:
Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu, together known as the Sahelian kingdoms, of
which Ghana was the first. By 1000 b.p. Ghana’s economic vitality, based on the trans-
Saharan trade, was supporting an empire formed through the conquest of local chiefdoms,
from which tribute was extracted.
States also arose in the forested region of western Africa south of the Sahel. Between
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1000 and 1500 c.e., local farming villages started consolidating into larger units, which
eventually became centralized states. The largest and most enduring of these states was
Benin, in what is now southern Nigeria. Benin, which thrived in the 15th century c.e. (600–
500 b.p.), is known for its artistic creativity, expressed in terra-cotta, ivory, and brass
sculpture. Benin art became one of the most influential African art traditions.
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State Formation in Mesoamerica
In the last chapter we examined the independent inventions of farming in the Middle
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East and Mesoamerica. The processes of state formation that took place in these areas were
also comparable, beginning with ranked societies and chiefdoms, and ending with fully
formed states and empires.
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The first monumental buildings (temple complexes) in the Western Hemisphere were
constructed by Mesoamerican chiefdoms in many areas, from the Valley of Mexico to
Guatemala. These chiefdoms influenced one another as they traded materials, such as
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obsidian, shells, jade, and pottery. (Figure 12.4 maps major sites in the emergence of
Mesoamerican food production, chiefdoms, and states.)
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Early Chiefdoms and Elites
The Olmec built a series of ritual centers on Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast between
3,200 and 2,500 years ago. Three of these centers, each from a different century, are known.
Earthen mounds were grouped into plaza complexes, presumably for religious use. Such
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centers show that Olmec chiefs could marshal human labor to construct such mounds. The
Olmec were also master sculptors; they carved massive stone heads, perhaps as images of
their chiefs or their ancestors.
There is evidence, too, that trade routes linked the Olmec with other parts of
Mesoamerica, such as the Oaxaca Valley in the southern highlands and the Valley of Mexico
(see Figure 12.4). By 3000 b.p. a ruling elite had emerged in Oaxaca. The items traded at that
time between Oaxaca and the Olmec were for elite consumption. High-status Oaxacans wore
ornaments made of mussel shells from the coast. In return, the Olmec elite imported mirrors
and jade made by Oaxacan artisans. Chiefdoms in Oaxaca developed canal and well
irrigation, exported magnetite mirrors, and were precocious in their use of adobes (mud
bricks), stucco, stone masonry, and architecture. Chiefdoms in the Olmec area farmed river
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levees, built mounds of earth, and carved colossal stone heads.
The Olmec are famous for their huge carved stone heads, but other early Mexican
chiefdoms also had accomplished artists and builders, using adobes and lime plaster and
constructing stone buildings, precisely oriented 8 degrees north of east.
The period between 3200 and 3000 b.p. was one of rapid social change in Mexico.
All or almost all of Mesoamerica’s chiefdoms were linked by trade and exchange. Many
competing chiefly centers were concentrating labor power, intensifying agriculture,
exchanging trade goods, and borrowing ideas, including art motifs and styles, from each
other. Archaeologists now believe it was the intensity of competitive interaction—rather than
the supremacy of any one chiefdom—that made social change so rapid. The social and
political landscape of Mexico around 3000 b.p. was one in which 25 or so chiefly centers
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were (1) sufficiently separate and autonomous to adapt to local zones and conditions and (2)
sufficiently interactive and competitive to borrow and incorporate new ideas and innovations
as they arose in other regions (Flannery and Marcus 2000).
It used to be thought that a single chiefdom could become a state on its own.
Archaeologists know now that state formation involves one chiefdom’s incorporating several
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others into the emerging state it controls, and making changes in its own infrastructure as it
acquires and holds on to new territories, followers, and goods. Warfare and attracting
followers are two key elements in state formation. Recall that this chapter’s “Appreciating
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Anthropology” on pp. 260–261 debunks popular pseudo-archaeological theories about the
origin of Mesoamerican civilization.
Many chiefdoms have dense populations, intensive agriculture, and settlement

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hierarchies that include hamlets, villages, and perhaps towns. These factors pave the way for
greater social and political complexity. Political leaders emerge, and military success (in
raiding) often solidifies their position. Such figures attract lots of followers, who are loyal to
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their leader. Warfare enables leaders to incorporate new lands and people. Success in warfare
leads to states’ becoming even more densely occupied and in control of new lands. States, in
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contrast to chiefdoms, can acquire labor and land and hold on to them. States have armies,
warfare, developed political hierarchies, law codes, and military force, which can be used in
fact or as a threat.
Olmec and Oaxaca were just two among many flamboyant early Mexican chiefdoms
that once thrived in the area from the Valley of Mexico to Guatemala. Oaxaca went on to
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develop a state a bit earlier than the Teotihuacán state in the Valley of Mexico. Oaxaca and
other highland areas came to overshadow the Olmec area and the Mesoamerican lowlands in
general. By 2500 b.p., Oaxaca’s Zapotec people had developed a distinctive art style,
perfected at their capital city of Monte Albán (see Blanton 1999; Marcus and Flannery 1996).
Warfare and State Formation: The Zapotec Case
Warfare often plays a key role in primary state formation. The first Mesoamerican
state, Zapotec had developed in Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca by the start of the Common Era
(c.e.—formerly a.d.). The city of Monte Albán served as capital of this Zapotec polity
(political unit, such as a chiefdom or a state) for twelve hundred years, between 500 b.c.e. and
700 c.e. (The Zapotec polity was a chiefdom from ca. 500 b.c.e. to 100 b.c.e., and after that a
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state). Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus (2003b) describe the archaeological evidence for
changing warfare patterns in Oaxaca—from early raiding among sedentary villages to
warfare aimed at conquest between 330 and 20 b.c.e. (formerly b.c.).
The oldest defensive palisade in the Valley of Oaxaca dates to 3260–3160 b.p., just a
few centuries after village life was established there (see Chapter 11). Over the next
millennium, raiding evolved into war, with homes and temples burned, captives killed, and
populations relocating to defensible hills. A monument from the site of San José Mogote,
dating no later than 2510 b.p. (560 b.c.e.), is the earliest reliably dated monument with
writing in Mesoamerica. It depicts a named, sacrificed captive, likely a rival chief and a
probable victim of inter-village raiding. Armed conflict in Oaxaca thus began as raiding, with
killing, burning, and captive taking but no permanent acquisition of territory. By the time the
Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century, the Zapotec-speaking inhabitants of the
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Valley of Oaxaca (no longer centered at Monte Albán) had armies with noble officers and
commoner foot soldiers. They waged wars that exacted tribute from conquered territories
(Flannery and Marcus 2003b).
The shift from raiding to warfare aimed at territorial conquest occurred prior to 300
b.c.e. This shift is documented not only by hieroglyphs but also by survey and excavation in
O
areas that were targets of Monte Albán’s expansionistic designs. As Charles Spencer (2003)
notes of Oaxaca, evidence for the earliest conquest warfare occurs simultaneously with
evidence for emerging state organization. This correlation supports the idea of a causal link
between conquest warfare and state formation.
C
Long ago, Henry Wright (1977) described the state as a society with not only a
centralized but also an internally specialized, administrative organization—a bureaucracy.
D
Chiefdoms, by contrast, lack administrative specialization. States have at least four levels of
decision making (Wright 1977). The center or capital establishes subsidiary administrative
centers. The result is a nested lattice of secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary centers.
E
Population size tends to follow this administrative structure: States typically have at least a
four-level hierarchy of settlements according to both administrative functions and population
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size. Chiefdoms have no more than three levels (Spencer 2003).
To expand, a state must send delegates, such as soldiers, governors, and other
officials, to subjugate and rule in distant territories. Lacking a group of bureaucrats,
chiefdoms can’t do this, which means that the geographic range of chiefly authority is smaller
than in a state. According to Spencer (2003), the limit of a chiefdom’s range is half a day’s
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travel from its center. States, however, can transcend such limits and carry out long-distance
conquests. Archaeological evidence for conquest warfare includes burned and abandoned
villages, specialized forts and administrative outposts, and forced changes in the economic,
social, and religious behaviors of subjugated peoples.
Expansion through conquest can play a key role in the formation of a primary state
by building the administrative hierarchy. Subjugation of polities in other regions, coupled
with regularized tribute exaction, can bring about a transition from chiefdom to state (Spencer
2003). For such a strategy to succeed (especially when the conquered polities lie more than a
half-day’s trip away), the leadership will have to dispatch agents to the conquered areas.
Generals and bureaucrats are needed not only to carry out the subjugation but also to maintain
long-term control and to manage tribute collection. Given its need to rely on distant
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representatives, the central leadership promotes internal administrative specialization and
loyalty (and thus bureaucratic proliferation). Tribute provides new resources to support this
administrative transformation. Archaeological data from Oaxaca confirm that the conquest of
distant polities and bureaucratic growth were integral parts of the process of Zapotec primary
state formation.
Typically, state bureaucracies occupy a group of administrative buildings, especially

at the capital. Surrounding the Main Plaza at Monte Albán were specialized buildings,
including palaces, temples, and ball courts. Of these, the palace is an especially useful
diagnostic of state organization. Hieroglyphs on a building in Monte Albán’s Main Plaza
record the bringing of outlying areas under Monte Albán’s control, often by conquest. There
is archaeological evidence at Cañada de Cuicatlán (a two-day walk north of Monte Albán) for
Zapotec conquest around 300 b.c.e. Evidence of outright colonization has been found in the
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Sola Valley, a two-day walk southwest of Monte Albán. The Zapotec also claimed control of
the Tututepec area on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast.
Monte Albán did not expand its rule in a gradual, concentric fashion. Although it
managed to subjugate distant regions to the north, west, and southwest by approximately 300
b.c.e., certain areas to the east and south managed to resist for centuries. For example, Monte
O
Albán attacked and burned its chief local rival, San Martín Tilcajete, only a day’s travel to the
south, around 330 b.c.e., but the local inhabitants refused to capitulate. They rebuilt their
community and constructed defensive walls at a higher location, El Palenque. These people
C
continued to resist Monte Albán until roughly 20 b.c.e., when they finally were conquered.
Evidence for co-occurrence of Monte Albán’s conquest strategy with the emerging
Zapotec state offers strong support for the expansionist model of primary state formation.
D
That state had formed by 30–20 b.c.e., with a four-tier, site-size settlement hierarchy: royal
palaces and two-room state temples. Monte Albán built its own secondary administrative
center on a hilltop above the ruins of El Palenque (Elson 2007). After centuries of dominating
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the region, Monte Albán eventually lost its central role as capital. After 700 c.e., the Zapotec
state dissolved into a series of smaller centers or principalities—alternately vying for
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supremacy through continued warfare and forming peaceful alliances through marriage
(Flannery and Marcus 2003a; Marcus 1989). (Figure 12.5 locates the Valley of Oaxaca and
the sites discussed here.)
States in the Valley of Mexico

D
During the first century c.e., the Valley of Mexico, located in the highlands where
Mexico City now stands, came to prominence in Mesoamerican state formation. In this large
valley, Teotihuacán flourished between 1900 and 1300 b.p. (100 and 700 c.e.).
The Valley of Mexico is a large basin surrounded by mountains. The valley has rich
volcanic soils, but rainfall isn’t always reliable. The northern part of the valley, where the
huge city and state of Teotihuacán eventually arose, is colder and drier than the south. Frosts
there limited farming until quick-growing varieties of maize were developed. Until 2500 b.p.,
most people lived in the warmer and wetter southern part of the valley, where rainfall made
farming possible. After 2500 b.p., new maize varieties and small-scale irrigation appeared.
Population increased and began to spread north.
By 1 c.e. Teotihuacán was a town of 10,000 people. It governed a territory of a few
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thousand square kilometers and perhaps 50,000 people (Parsons 1974). Teotihuacán’s growth
reflected its agricultural potential. Perpetual springs permitted irrigation of a large alluvial
plain. Rural farmers supplied food for the growing urban population.
By this time, a clear settlement hierarchy had emerged. This is a ranked series of
communities that differ in size, function, and building types. The settlements at the top of the
hierarchy were political and religious centers. Those at the bottom were rural villages. We
have seen that a four-level settlement hierarchy provides archaeological evidence of state
organization (Wright and Johnson 1975).
Along with state organization at Teotihuacán went large-scale irrigation, status

differentiation, and complex architecture. Teotihuacán thrived between 100 and 700 c.e.. It
grew as a planned city built on a grid pattern, with the Pyramid of the Sun at its center. By
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500 c.e. the population of Teotihuacan had reached 130,000, making it larger than imperial
Rome. Farmers were one of its diverse specialized groups, along with artisans, merchants,
and political, religious, and military personnel.
After 700 c.e. Teotihuacán declined in size and power. By 900 c.e. its population had
shrunk to 30,000. Between 900 and 1200 c.e., the Toltec period, the population scattered, and
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small cities and towns sprang up throughout the valley. People also left the Valley of Mexico
to live in larger cities—like Tula, the Toltec capital—on its edge (see Figure 12.4).
C
Population increase (including immigration by the ancestors of the Aztecs) and urban
growth returned to the Valley of Mexico between 1200 and 1520 c.e. During the Aztec period
(1325–1520 c.e.) there were several cities, the largest of which— Tenochtitlán, the capital—
may have surpassed Teotihuacán at its height. A dozen Aztec towns had more than 10,000
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people. Fueling this population growth was intensification of agriculture, particularly in the
southern part of the valley, where the drainage of lake bottoms and swamps added new
cultivable land (Parsons 1976).
E
Another factor in the renaissance of the Valley of Mexico was trade. Local
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manufacture created products for a series of markets. The major towns and markets were
located on the lake shores, with easy access to canoe traffic. The Aztec capital stood on an
island in the lake. In Tenochtitlán, the production of luxury goods was more prestigious and
more highly organized than that of pottery making, basket making, and weaving. Luxury
producers, such as stone workers, feather workers, and gold and silversmiths, occupied a
special position in Aztec society. The manufacture of luxury goods for export was an
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important part of the economy of the Aztec capital (Hassig 1985; Santley 1985).
Why States Collapse
States can be fragile and decomposable, falling apart along the same cleavage lines
(e.g., regional political units) that were forged together to form the state originally. Various
factors could threaten their economies and political institutions. Invasion, disease, famine, or
prolonged drought could upset the balance. A state’s citizens might harm the environment,
usually with economic costs. For example, farmers and smelters might cut down trees. Such
deforestation promotes erosion and leads to a decline in the water supply. Overuse of land
may deplete the soil of the nutrients needed to grow crops.
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If factors such as irrigation help create states to begin with, does their decline or
failure explain the fall of the state? Irrigation does have costs as well as benefits. In ancient
Mesopotamia, irrigation water came from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Because sediment
(silt) had accumulated in those rivers, their beds were higher than the alluvial plain and fields
they irrigated. Canals channeled river water as it flowed down into the fields by gravity. As
the water evaporated, water-borne mineral salts remained in the fields, eventually creating a
poisonous environment for plants.
Mashkan-shapir, for example, was a Mesopotamian city located about 20 miles from
the Tigris, to which it was connected by a network of canals. This city was abandoned just 20
years after it was settled. Destruction of its fields by mineral salts seems to have been a prime
factor in its collapse (see Annenberg/CPB Exhibits 2000 at
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/ mesopotamia.html).
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The Maya Decline
Generations of scholars have debated the decline of classic Maya civilization around
900 c.e. Classic Maya culture, featuring several competing states, flourished between 300 and
900 c.e. (1700–1100 b.p.) in parts of what are now Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador,
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Guatemala, and Belize. The ancient Maya are known for their monuments (temples and
pyramids), calendars, mathematics, and hieroglyphic writing.
C
Archaeological clues to Maya decline have been found at Copán, in western
Honduras. This classic Maya royal center, the largest site in the southeastern part of the Maya
area, covered 29 acres (11.7 hectares). It was built on an artificial terrace overlooking the
Copán River. Its rulers inscribed their monuments with accounts of their coronation, their
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lineage history, and reports of important battles. The Maya dated their monuments with the
names of kings and when they reigned. One monument at Copán was intended to be the
ruler’s throne platform, but only one side had been finished. The monument bears a date, 822
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c.e., in a section of unfinished text. Copán has no monuments with later dates. The site
probably was abandoned by 830 c.e.
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Environmental factors implicated in Copán’s demise may have included erosion and
soil exhaustion due to overpopulation and over-farming. Over-farming contributes to
deforestation and erosion. Hillside farmhouses in particular had debris from erosion—
probably caused by over-farming of the hillsides. This erosion began as early as 750 c.e.—
until these farm sites were abandoned, with some eventually buried by erosion debris. For the
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classic Maya in general, William Sanders (1972, 1973) has attributed state decline to over-
farming, leading to environmental degradation through grass invasion and erosion.
Food stress and malnutrition were clearly present at Copán, where 80 percent of the
buried skeletons display signs of anemia, due to iron deficiency. One skull shows anemia
severe enough to have been the cause of death. Even the nobility were malnourished. One
noble skull, known to be such from its carved teeth and cosmetic deformation, also has
telltale signs of anemia: spongy areas at its rear (Annenberg/CPB Exhibits 2000).
Just as the origins of states, and their causes, are diverse, so are the reasons for state
decline.
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The Maya state was not as powerful as was once assumed; it was fragile and
vulnerable. Increased warfare and political competition destabilized many of its dynasties and
governments. Archaeologists now stress the role of warfare in Maya state decline.
Hieroglyphic texts document increased warfare among many Maya cities. From the period
just before the collapse, there is archaeological evidence for increased concern with
fortifications (moats, ditches, walls, and palisades) and moving to defensible locations.
Archaeologists have evidence of the burning of structures, the projectile points from spears,
and some of the bodies of those killed. Some sites were abandoned, with the people fleeing
into the forests to occupy perishable huts. (Copán, as we have seen, was depopulated after
822 c.e.) Archaeologists now believe that social, political, and military upheaval and
competition had as much as or more to do with the Maya decline and abandonment of cities
as did natural environmental factors (Marcus, personal communication).
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Formerly archaeologists tended to explain state origin and decline mainly in terms of
natural environmental factors, such as climate change, habitat destruction, and demographic
pressure (see Weiss 2005). Archaeologists now see state origins and declines more fully—in
social and political terms—because we can read the texts. And the Maya texts document
competition and warfare between dynasties jockeying for position and power. Warfare was
indeed a creator and a destroyer of ancient chiefdoms and states.
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What’s its role in our own? C
E D
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186
E Museums of Anthropology or Museums as Anthropology
SUSAN M. PEARCE
During 1995 the Pitt Rivers Museum, one of the Oxford University museums,
produced and marketed a surprising piece of merchandise. It sells in the ordinary way in the
museum’s gift shop and it costs only 25p (approx. 15¢). The object is a standard postcard, but
it depicts a selection of 14 early handwritten museum labels from the Pitt Rivers’
documentation archive. This represents an extraordinary piece of self-reflection, not least
because it is cast in the form of a cheap commercial piece, intended either as a basic souvenir
or as the medium for brief, open, interpersonal communication of the “please meet the 4:30”
variety. This paper is devoted to teasing out the significance of the postcard.
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The situation at the Pitt Rivers (and at every other museum) can be captured by the
analysis given in Figure 1. This shows the sequence of events over the last century or so as a
series of interrelated action sets, each of which stands in a relationship to all those which
preceded it. There is a relationship between the sets, because in each segment of the sequence
the objects themselves remain the same and continue to offer opportunities for re-appraisal.
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But each re-appraisal, numbered 2–4 in the figure, positions the objects differently in relation
to each other and to other objects and so creates a new context with a new meaning. The
relationship between the segments, following (one strand of) normal semiotic usage can be
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called metaphorical, in contrast to the perceived intrinsic relationship of the material within
the sets.
It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider the colonial societies from which the
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objects whose labels are shown on the postcard were taken. We shall, how-ever, need to look
at the nature of collecting, particularly the collecting represented on the Pitt Rivers card. We
shall need to consider how the material has been treated curatorially within the museum; and
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finally we must reflect upon ironic, postmodernist, or postcolonial, activity to which the
postcard belongs, and how this may strike the visiting public, who come at the end of the long
line of metaphors because their contact with the material is the final segment in what has
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already been a long and complex sequence of events. But first, we must put all these
considerations into context by glancing at the genealogy of the museum.
Figure__1. Diagram Representing the Metaphorical Relationships of the Process of Material

Culture from Its Own Society to that of the Museum-visiting Public
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1 2 3 4 5
Contemporary Contemporary
Indigenous self-reflecting visitors who see
community at a Collectors’ and parodying, the earlier
time when donation to the ironic
The collectors displays and
objects Pitt Rivers post-colonial
and the
collected with Museums; the museum
their colonial contemporary
all its own objects’ activity
(actual or irony in
complexities accession, postcard,
implicit lifestyle juxtaposition,
and ironies: curation and artist’s and may buy
colonial society display
residence the postcard
187
The Genealogy of the Museum
Recent work based upon the social analysis of Foucault and his successors (Bennett,
1995; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992) has made us understand how the museum as an institution was
part and parcel of each successive manifestation of modes of understanding, those modes
which Foucault calls the episteme, during the period from about AD 1400 to the present
postmodernism. This has the effect of taking special authority away from the museum, or any
other institution, and replacing it with a rhetorical mode in which each museum is charged
with the necessity to explain itself and make the public case for the value of whatever it
thinks it has to offer. The truth of these assertions, however, does not detract from the
“objective” fact of the weight of history which such institutions embody. Since we are,
individually and collectively, endowed with the power to experience and to remember
experience, no matter how much this is rewritten in the process, we cannot escape the
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accumulation of past context which creates present character.
For museums, the basis of authority is the power to arbitrate upon material culture, to
decide what is “valuable” or “interesting” and what is not, to endeavor toad the former to the
museum’s holdings, and to construct it into meaningful patterns, which, of course, reinforce
the estimable quality of the original decisions. We should not forget that “decide” carries the
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sense of “to cut out, or to cut away”: the good is top-sliced and the dross finds it own level.
Overall, therefore, we can perceive a cycle of / material meaning / museum as

C
institution / power / popular respect / power / ability to define material meaning / which is
self-fulfilling, and which draws its strength from cultural traits of the long term. Most of the
material objects within the system have arrived there either by inheritance from earlier
comparable institutions, or (the majority) by gifts from those who see themselves as holding a
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particular relationship with the meaning-defining institution. In this network of significancies,
the Pitt Rivers has an important, indeed almost excessive, place, but in essence what it is and
does is repeated in every museum of anthropology and of everything else.
E
The Collectors
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For some collectors happiness is a feeling of harmony between their private

valuations of what they have gathered together and public perceptions of value, represented
by exactly the cycle of institutional power which we have just outlined (although for other
collectors, it is tension which provides the thrills). A range of surveys and studies (Pearce,
1995: 159–170; 1998) have shown how collectors privately regard their material as extensions,
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or even completions, of themselves. Within their inner lives they see their objects possessed
of transforming power which can represent themselves to themselves, and to the outer world;
collections are a way of living with chaos and turning it into sense.
Figure 2 represents this process in schematic formby suggesting the major

dimensions within which each individual life is led. Collections encapsulate memories and
reconnect us to the momentous moments in our lives: travel, wedding, and recovery from
illness. Collections order space, both literally in our homes, and figuratively in our minds,
through the spatial and intellectual patterns which they assume. We love our material, but
sometimes “the collection takes over” as collectors say, and dominates our lives. We can play
about with our own material as we can with few things in our lives, and decide for ourselves
how to create closures. We can work through our notions of gender, and use our collections
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as a way of creating ourselves more as we would wish to be. Above all, for the purposes of
this discussion, collectors can hope to give, or bequeath, their collections to accredited
museums, and so achieve a material immortality which is denied to humans. This, of course,
is only possible if the material is deemed by curators as being of “museum quality,” and so
arises the importance of the coincidence of the public and private systems.
Four named
collectors are recorded in
the labels on the Pitt Rivers
postcard, with the dates of
their donation: Dr. E.T.
Wilson (1909), J.P.Mills
(1928), Miss M.A. Murray
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(1926) and A. Combs
(1907). Of the other labels,
one tells us its object (the
nose clip) was purchased in
1926, while the rest simply
carry a description and a
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cultural location.
Noticeably, if an object was
purchased, rather than
C freely gifted, the original
owner is not considered
worthy of recall. The other
collectorless objects were
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also, we presume, acquired
in ways which deviated
from the honourable norm
E
of donation.
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The collectors
include one obvious
professional man (the
doctor) and one man (Combs), who is given the honorific suffix “Esq(uire),” still a
meaningful distinction in 1907 when it is likely to imply a gentleman without a profession
living on his own means. We have no direct clue to Mills’s occupational though it is likely
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that he was a member of one of the colonial services. One of the four is a woman, a fairly
probable proportion in such a company, but she is the only member of the group who made
any mark on the broader history of anthropology.
Margaret Alice Murray gave much of her life to the study of European witchcraft,
publishing her important The Witch-Cult in Western Europe in 1921, and her notorious The God
of the Witches and The Divine King in England in 1933 and 1936. Before and after this she
was a serious Egyptologist as, as she herself says, W.M. Flinders Petrie’s fellow-worker for
many years at University College, London (Murray, 1949 [1962]: 255). In 1949
Sidgwick and Jackson published her The Splendour that Was Egypt as a volume in the
famous series which included The Glory that Was Greece by J. Stodart. Her gift of the
English witch bottle was a characteristic one.
189
The majority of the dates on the labels cluster in the 1900s and 1920s (1907, 1909,
1909, 1926, 1926, 1928). Inspite of the fact that the watershed of the First WorldWar lies
between these two decades, the mind-set of the establishment, particularly of the middle-
ranking members of its imperial services, remained relatively little changed. These generally
subscribed wholeheartedly to the traditional value system and its institutions, without
noticing the self-reference this involved. The inner psychology of their collecting, therefore,
coincided with the overt judgments of their society, in ways which confirmed both men and
institutions. They had maintained British standards in savage parts of the world (including the
savagery of darkest Sussex from whence came the witch bottle) and the trophies which they
brought back as evidence of battles fought and won were accepted into the permanent
collections of the most important anthropological museum in one of the two most prestigious
universities in the country.
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Curation and Display
Once material has been received into the museum, it has achieved the official
imprimatur of value and significance conveyed by the institution and its curatorial
complement. It, and by inference its collectors, has joined the charmed circle of power and
authority, and henceforth it will be treated in ways which make its meaning manifest,
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meaning which is thought of as “inherent” and “natural” but which is, in fact, a matter for
deliberation and contrivance on the part of thecurators.
C
The most intimate link between the object and the curator is the label, especially the
handwritten label, which will remain physically tied to the piece as long as they both may
live, and which bears the individual, and easily recognized, mark of its creator. Handwritten
labels easily attain relic status, the museum’s equivalent of the nail clippings or locks of hair
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through which past masters in other sacred institutions are revered, and recognized as still
living amongst us. Such labels become museum material in their own right, preserved as
carefully as other specimens, ostensibly for the information which they contain, but in fact
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equally for the contact with the great men of the past which they offer and the sense of the
chain of living continuity which they embody: such things are important in the construction
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of authority and bring consoling comfort and support to each latter-day generation of
curators.
The labels on the Pitt Rivers postcard are all handwritten, and show at least seven
different hands. All are written in black ink which has scarcely faded at all, witness to the dim
and secure conditions in which they have been kept. All are written on white cards, which in
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some cases have turned biscuit-coloured and started to show traces of foxing, like a preserved
water colour or artist’s print might do. The labels are of various sizes and of two main shapes:
round, and rectangular with the two front corners cut off to form a typical luggage label
shape, redolent to the standard fittings of the contemporary pigskin suitcases which once
travelled by P & O and the Blue Train. Each card is securely held within a silver-metal
binding which is folded down on both side so fits edge, an operation obviously performed by
one of those stamping machines which displayed its innards of rugged wheels and cogs. As
Julian Walker, a museum installation artist, has so aptly remarked (personal communication),
these label borders seem intended to keep the “goodness” in and infection out, a notion which
the original owners of the pieces, as participants in societies where notions of purity and
containment were the norm, would have understood and welcomed. Each card is also pierced
with a small round hole, so that it may be secured to its object with a piece of string.
190
Together, the binary star of object and label sit on display, and together they make
meaning. To the viewer, the label is not the lesser of the partnership. If the label tells us that
this is the rifle with which Kennedy was shot, then it is telling us to invest our attention span
and ask questions like: The only rifle? Who held it? If the label simply describes the same
gun as a particular make of rifle, then it will not detain most of us. There clearly is a sense in
which the object comes to illustrate the label and not the other way round, just as the history
of curatorship is written in the labels which practitioners have left behind them. In other
words, the label, as well as the specimen, has the status of museum artefact.
Of the 14 labels on the postcard, nine can be read in whole or large part. Three
describe broadly medical practices in exotic parts; the rest describe witchcraft and magic and
of these two are English and the rest exotic.
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This cultural stretch is an interesting intervention on the part of the card’s editor; but
it is justified by the museum’s collection as a whole in which European material is better
represented than many people suppose. One of the medical labels reads “CHINESE
hypodermic syringe home-made from thimbles etc. Pres. by A. Combs Esq. 1907”; the
second has “Protecting-cap for a sore toe MARING (OLD KUKI), LAMLONG village,
MANIPUR, Dse., 1927 d.d. J.P. Mills 1928”; and the third “S.INDIA, MADRAS,
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TUTICORIN Nostril clip used by Arab pearl divers in India and Ceylon to stop breathing
Purch. 1926”. The texts have a staccato, dislocated feel, which appeal equally to low
humour, sore toes, nostril clip, homemade from thimbles—and to a taste for the
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exotic— Chinese, pearl divers and MARING (OLD KUKI), LAMLONG, MANIPUR -
faraway places with strange-sounding names, wherever they maybe.
Three of the witchcraft and magic labels refer to “Charm used to cause death of
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enemy, Isabel Is, Solomon Islands,” “Worn by traders in salt to avert sickness on the
journey” and “ring given by Russian priest at Fort Wrangell to the uncle of Kootay, the first
HAIDA devil-doctor at MASSET.” We notice how specific these are in unhelpful ways,
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with their detailed record of individual and place and the complete lack of any serious
exegesis of the object. This is demonstrated even more clearly by an English member of
the group “‘iron razor’ used by sailors for the ceremony of ‘crossing the line.’
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ENGLISH.” This is quite incomprehensible if you do not know (as many of the younger
generation do not) that English ships made a ritual of crossing the Equator which involved
“King Neptune” and his sailors lathering up those men (including passengers) who had
not crossed the line before with a filthy mixture of grease and oil and then shaving
them with the “razor,” in its way, an interesting rite of passage which links together
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extensive sailing, the need to start shaving and male adulthood. Obviously, similar
narratives lie behind the other, equally impenetrable, labels. The remaining two witchcraft
labels have much larger texts. The first, which does not credit a donor, reads, “Night-horse.
By mounting this a member of the Mbatsav secret society gains invisibility and can travel
far at night, kill an enemy and return. TIV (MUNSHI), WUKARI divisn.
BENUEPROV.N. NIGERIA.” The second reads “Silvered & stoppered bottle, said to
contain a witch. Obtained about 1915 from an old lady living in a village near HOVE,
SUSSEX. She remarked ‘and they do say there be a witch in it, and if you let ‘ur out there’ll
be a peck o’ trouble.’ Pres. by Miss M.A. Murray, 1926.”
Both again concentrate on detailed anecdote and on the supposed consequences in

primitive society which the use of the objects bring rather than upon their role in their society.
The careful rendition of the Sussex dialect is interesting and points up a common mistake
191
when the relationship of Europeans in general, and British in particular, to the exotic world is
discussed. Frequently “us” does not mean all British in opposition to the rest(although
sometimes it does); what it often means is “we who are middle-class, educated and travelled”
in opposition to an “other” which includes both the rest of the world and the internal
otherness, that is the deeply rural or industrial underclass. These two witchcraft labels are
presented in exactly the same way and make the same points.The stress on location is
interesting, suggesting as it does a uniqueness in time and place, which leads to
assumptions that culture is a static set of institutions and beliefs that are produced by
tradition rather than historical process. As Ravenhill (1988:5) has noted:
Throughout colonial museography there was this type of assumption

that the attribution of an object to the correct indigenous category constituted in
itself anexplanation. The enterprise of categorisation ultimately produced nice,
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neat lists of basic object types for... and restricted to... each ethnic. This
packaging of material culture on an ethnic basis served in turn to reinforce the
“reality” of colonially reified ethnicity. For material culture studies, the
question of style became simply a matter of ethnic traits.
Shelton reinforces this point with his description of the old ethnographic display at
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Brighton, Southern England, which combines a blackened, dimly lit exhibition space with
wall cases decorated by an assortment of dark cloths, animal print wallpaper and mirrored
plinths. The gallery, due to be refurbished this year, suggests a subtle ranking of cultures by
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the use of backdrops. Connotations of savagery produced by the animal print papers used to
display the African collections, reinforce the narrative classification of peoples. African and
North American collections are divided by tribal affiliation, while Asian materialis identified
by nation. The exhibition therefore provokes a contrast between tribal and national
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cultures. Within this division, each African society is represented by specific and different
manufactures—the Yoruba by sculpture, the Hausa by domestic clothing, South and East
Africa by weapons and shields. Such an approach encourages the notion that
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material specialization corresponds to specific psychological dispositions: the notion

that some societies are made up of religiously devoted artists, while others have a settled,
practical anddecorative flair. (1992:11–12).
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Together, the labels present a range of related characteristics. They trivialize the
object by their cool, anecdotal tone, and irony, superior and well-bred, is directed towards the
specimen and its people. The object and its original owners are distanced away from “us” to
become “them.” As Julian Walker has put it, drawing on his own experience of galleries: “So
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do the specimen boxes with their glass tops, the display pins, the use of filler, and the
accumulations of dust in the case corners” (personal communication).
The objects are wrenched out of their own social context, in which they would have
made good but non-exotic sense, and recontextualized within an English early- to
mid-20th-century middle-class sitting room, where they stick out like sore toes indeed.
And this replacement works a sea change as profound as that dividing the northern and
southern hemispheres. Distancing transmutes into objectifying, and the original owners
are reified through the displacement of their things into the new setting. What is
particularly true of labels is also true of the other elements in physical curation an
display. Objects were often tied onto their display boards by crossover strings threaded
through holes in the boards, suggesting capture and constraint, followed by exhibition in
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the worst sense with its obvious sado-masochist connotations. Frequently, now, the
objects have been removed, but sometimes the boards still survive, like so many Turin
Shrouds, with their ghostly presences visible. The boards, plinths, case manufacture,
internal case layout, graphics and floor layout of cases all contribute to the making of
knowledge and its protective control. The museum history of an object chronicles the
construction of knowledge in which it has played a part, and the old labels, display
boards, plinths and graphics are the fossils of the history of meanings. Meaning and
understanding become a conglomeration of assorted biographies, of the collector, of the
curator and of the object specimen itself.
Laying-out has a double meaning, and the biographies are those of the dead, an
image which has been seized by critics and artists, whose notions we will soon explore.
The lesson learned by the Spanish museum community through the Natural History
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Museum at Banyoles, whose display of a 104-year-old stuffed southern African caused a
threatened African boycott of the Barcelona Olympics, is not just political, immensely
significant although this is; it has a deeper resonance.
Theodor Adorno (1967: 24) described museums as “the family sepulchres of works of
art.” Robert Harrison (1977: 140) sees the museum as “its life, naturally ghost-like, meant for
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those more comfortable with ghosts, frightened by working life but not by the past.” David
Mellor, a British politician and briefly Secretary of State responsible for arts, museums and
heritage, finds museums existing as “twilight zones” whose still life (a regular euphemism for
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“dead”) displays combine worker with terror (1989:16). The characteristic smell of the
ethnographic museum, compounded of embalmed animal skins, old fabric and preserved
wood, faintly spicy and faintly dusty, is the sweet stench of mummification, and curators
become cemetery-haunting necrophiliacs compelled by a dubious romantic impulse to
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arrested time and decay.
Unfortunately, this has been particularly true of British anthropological collections,

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in a practical as well as a metaphysical sense. There are probably some 378 ethnographic
collections in Britain (Gathercole and Clarke, 1979), almost all of them containing material of
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serious cultural significance (for if all objects are equal, some are certainly more equal than
others). Many of these collections have remained in store for decades. Outside London, there
are about 17 museum ethnography posts in the country as a whole. Equally significantly,
ethnographic display galleries tend to be obvious after- thoughts, occupying the poorest back
galleries and separated from other history-based displays (Shelton,1992: 11). As Susan Vogel
has put it:
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The museum communicates values in the types of programmes it

chooses to present, and in the audiences it addresses, in the size of staff
departments and the emphasis they are given, in the selection no objects for
acquisition and more concretely in the location of displays in the building
and the subtleties of lighting and label copy. None of these things is neutral.
None is overt. All tell the audience what to think beyond what the museum
ostensibly is teaching. The past neglect of ethnographic collections tells its
own story. (1991:47)
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Artists in Residence
The Pitt Rivers postcard belongs within what is now recognized as a “museum scene,”
that is the desire (or fashion?) to create ironic comment upon the objects and the conventional
way in which they are displayed by bringing some external influence to bear upon the
exhibitions. Most of these outsiders have been artists, who view the collected materials as
raw material for their own installations; some of the material has turned out to be very raw
indeed.These artists are not old-speak iconoclasts,who think all museums should be burnt as
the best way of coping with the corpses of dead yesterday; they are bricoleurs who are
curious about the categories of received knowledge, which museums show more clearly
perhaps than many other institutions by virtue of the physicality of their holdings and the
concrete patterns into which it can be formed. They are piqued by the displayed complacency
and wish to disturb settled convictions by their own individualist interventions.
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The first artist to do this in Britain was Eduardo Paolozzi, whose exhibition, Lost
Magic Kingdoms, was shown at the Museum of Mankind (the Ethnography Department of
the British Museum) in 1987, and subsequently toured nationally. At the invitation of
Malcolm McLeod, curator of the department, Paolozzi spent three years investigating the
300,000 objects in store, most of which had never been displayed. His exhibition created
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assemblages which mimicked typical ethnographic displays by mixing categories of objects
which would not normally be combined, for, as he says “for an artist, the thing of little value
can be seen as immensely significant” (Malbert, 1995: 26). In McLeod’s words the mixture
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was “letting in previously neglected or despised areas and breaking down the division
between museum objects and life” (ibid.: 25).
Paolozzi was ideally cast for this project. He is one of the best collage artists of his
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generation, and by applying the anarchic, free-spirited methods of collage, he produced a play
on the material as material, which for him was the point of the endeavour. For this, he was
taken to task by critics who would have preferred a more directly political turn to the
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exhibition: such critics should have given more care to the exhibit’s title. Lost Magic
Kingdoms has a nostalgic flavour (did Paolozzi mean “lost to the original makers and their
successors” or did he mean “lost in the museum’s storage vaults”? or both?). Magic suggests
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the conjuror’s sleight of hand which produces surprises; and Magic Kingdoms has an
unmistakable Disney ring.
Fred Wilson, a Black artist based in New York, did take a more directly political
approach. In 1990 he was asked by the Museum for Contemporary Art, Baltimore, to
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organize an exhibition in the city, and he chose to position it in the Maryland Historical
Society, an extremely conservative institution. Wilson says that before the project he would
never have dreamt of going into the place, “but after spending some time there, I realized it
was not so much the objects as the way the things were placed that really offended me”
(Wilson, 1995: 27). The installation that emerged was Mining the Museum which, as Wilson
says, could mean digging up something rich, or exploding myths and perceptions, or making
it his (ibid.).
The opening display set the emotional tone of the exhibition, with its silver globe of
1870 juxtaposed beside empty plastic display mounts labeled “Plastic display mounts made ca
1960s, make run known,” and its two sets of pedestals, one set with the busts of Maryland’s
acknowledged heroes and the other set empty, where the busts of important Maryland
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African-Americans should have been but are, of course, unavailable. This was also the
exhibition which held the now-famous case with the label “Metalwork 1793–1880”; the case
showed a group of elegant silver cups and flagons together with a pair of iron slave shackles.
As Wilson says, the objects had a lot to do with each other because life does not operate in
neat categories; the case has become one ofthose gestures which is obvious, but only after it
has been made.
Wilson followed this with an exhibition at the Seattle Art Gallery, a museum with a
broad sweep of collections, which juxtaposed traditional African clothing with a
businessman’s grey suit, and showed photographs of contemporary African architecture.
Viewers did not realize that all the clothing was worn by Africans, or that what they took to
be Los Angeles was actually Lagos. As he puts it: The interest of western museums in Africa
and the Third World is only in “difference” (the exotic) and what it can offer as a way of
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seeing, in stark relief, the western self. Museums, it seems, are highly narcissistic institutions.
They feel most comfortable either when mirroring their own values, ideas and aesthetics
through western art, or when casting other cultures as dramatically different affairs. (Wilson,
1995)
In his re-dressing of the Seattle late 20th-century gallery, Wilson simply moved the
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furniture. He placed the museum’s Mies van der Rohe tables and chairs in front of a Morris
Louis painting, added a coffee table and somebooks and—presto—we had a diorama of ‘the
collector’s home” (29). The diorama was garnished with two videos running a tape that
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Wilson had made of various collectors’ homes. As he points out, the recreation of an African
compound or a Japanese tea-house are museum standards, and so are European period rooms
“but the spaces where much 20th-century art resides are absent.” Here, Wilson has progressed
from the straightforwardly political perception of power and dominance which a group of
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related objects can be made to clarify, to a sense that we are all anthropology, that all human
life can be viewed with the same gaze which, therefore, acknowledges its equality.
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An enterprise which takes the same point, but from an even freer free-fall
perspective, is the series of experiments at the Pitt Rivers in which, over the past decade,
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artist Chris Dorsett has been joined by some 100 artists who have brought artistic license into
a creative dialogue with curatorial responsibility in the museum. Dorsett believes that, while
the results have sometimes been uncomfortable for all concerned, the general consensus is
that they have initiated unexpected uses of humour, fantasy, factual information and political
debate.
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A principle motif in these artist experiences was to slip a piece of contemporary

art in among the museum materials on show in order to add an element of surprise to the
permanent displays. So, in 1990, Dorsett’s lime wood figure joined the exhibition called
Upturned Ark.The piece showed an angel or fetus-like figure on either a long lead or a
species of umbilicalcord. Fromits back sprouted what might be wings or a giant key for
winding up clockwork. The figure stood in close proximity to the display of model boats
and to the huge Northwest coast totem pole towards the rear of the ground-floor
gallery.The exhibition Snares of Privacy in 1992 included a huge block of wax by
Elizabeth Rosser, placed so that it looked as if it were on legs as one of a sequence of
similar-sized display cases, also on the ground floor. The wax “case” suggests notions
about the impenetrability of the standard cases, and their readiness to take the imprint of
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whoever wishes to impose upon them. It is with this decade of experiment that the labels
postcard belongs.
These British and American artistic endeavours belong within a continental context
which runs back to the early 1970s. Around then a number of creative artists, including
Christian Boltanski, Nikolaus Lang andAnne and Patrick Poirier, became interested in what is
usually translated as “securing evidence,” Spurensichering, which is a criminological term
meaning “securing circumstantial evidence,” and expresses their interest in examining what
constitutes evidence and why: the first exhibition of this broad group, which took place at the
Kunstverein, Ham- burg, in 1974, was called Spurensicherung. Their criticism of museum
dialectic was expressed through a material practice of ordering objects – the point is
important – just as museums do for their own purposes, rather than by discursive writing
(Schneider, 1993, to which article I am indebted for information about these events). The
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artists employ the devices of collection, rearrangement and fictive production of human
activities in the widest sense, significant because a strong narrative element infuses their
practice.
Around 1974–75 Nikolaus Lang, who himself comes from Oberammergau in

Bavaria, arranged in boxes unlabeled objects which he had found in one isolated farm-stead
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in the countryside nearby, previously inhabited by an immigrant Swiss family called Gotte.
He had known the Gottes in his youth as marginal people, all dead by the time he
“excavated” and collected the traces of their lives. In his Box from the Gotte Siblings, he
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prepared boxes in which were arranged animal bones, tools, old newspapers, household
items and books, together with contemporary photographs, maps and geological
diagrams. The inspiration of the work was the showcases in natural and human history
museums but the scientific mimicry included field work collection as well as display
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(Metken, 1977: 108). In the following years (1976–77) Lang took the idea of field work
into the Tuscan countryside, classifying together Palaeolithic flint artefacts, earth colours
in use since Etruscan times, and contemporary erotic graffiti he found on the walls of
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abandoned farm houses. The hallmarks of Lang’s approach are searching, observing,
recording and reenacting traces of human activities, as part academic parody, part
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humanistic self-identification (Lang, 1978).
Christian Boltanski is more interested in depersonalizing individual traces

and objects by serializing them into anonymity. As he says: At the beginning of January
1973, I wrote to the directors of sixty-two art, history and anthropology museums suggesting
they arrange an exhibition which would consist of all the available objects that a given
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individual has had around him during his lifetime, from handkerchiefs to cupboards. I asked
them to concern themselves with such things as classification and labelling, but not with the
choice of the person. They were to acquire the objects through an auction or by borrowing
them from some one living in their area (it is indeed necessary that the objects, on each
occasion, be obtained from the district in which they are being shown). The person concerned
should always remain anonymous. Pieces of furniture as well as small objects under glass
should be carefully arranged to a certain order, or in some cases a photographic inventory
could be compiled. (Boltanski, 1973:n.p.) Boltanski has repeated these inventories of
private belongings of anonymous people in a number of other places, including Paris,
Oxford, Baden-Baden and Amsterdam and, as Schneider says:
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These individual and yet asceptically anonymous collections of
personal belongings, convey the same kind of eerie feeling one might have in
an imagined situation upon walking through the Victoria and Albert
Museum’s 20th-century collection, suddenly being confronted with a
showcase containing one’s own toothbrush, hair slide and dressing gown.
(1993: 4)
All these endeavours, in their different ways, are intended to subvert the
museum’s dialectic by illuminating it with the beams of parody, irony and deliberate
fiction. The museum is shown to be self-entranced, using “science” to create
narcissistic imagesinwhich “keep off the grass” signs are more in evidence than
flowers. It becomes one fiction among many possible.
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Museum Visitors
And what of the last category in the metaphorical skein, the visiting and viewing
public? Cases like Wilson’s incorporating silver plate and iron slave shackles cannot fail
to shock the consciousness of all who see them. Similarly, when Wilson redisplayed the
early 20th-century gallery in the Seattle Art Museum, he pushed all the art into one
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corner so that a Matisse bronze was in front ofa marble harp, a tall Giacometti in front of
a de Kooning portrait and so on. This gallery was “the most disturbing, or the most
engaging, to the visitors” (Wilson, 1995: 29). The clustering created a frenetic
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arrangement in which the individual works seemed to be struggling to breathe. When
viewers asked the reason for this, says Wilson, the museum staff explained that this was
the way the African and Native American collections were displayed on the floor
below.We are not told what the visitors made of this explanation, but it is clearly
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something that they asked thequestion.
Questions are less in evidence through the now considerable history of the Pitt
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Rivers self-examination. The Pitt Rivers is, of course (among many other things), a
museum of museums in which the displays exhibit a Victorian density within a wholly
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Victorian building and largely Victorian museum fittings. Moreover, following the
typological exhibition regime laid down as a continuing condition in Pitt River’s original
agreement with Oxford University, the material is arranged according to categories of
object, not cultural origin. For the visitor, this in itself creates an unexpected appearance
in which European weaving equipment, for example, is juxtaposed in the same case with
similar pieces from native Africa. It seems likely that most visitors lack the formal
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anthropological information to understand what they are looking at anyway, so the

interpolation of modern pieces of commentary probably misfires; the whole thing looks
so odd that the modern installations merge into the background without remark. It may
also be that the labels postcard is generally purchased at its face value, and the two
witchcraft labels in the centre of it, in particular, are accepted in much the same spirit as
that in which they were written.
We clearly need to know more about what visitorsmake of such exhibitions and
interventions. Do they see them as a breath of fresh air, which will be capable of
generating new interest and new audiences? Or are they upset and confused, unhappy to find
that another supposed security has melted away? Or are they irritated by what they see as
pretension on the part of self-loving poseurs, whom they would have no wish to take into
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their own lives? We do not know the answers to these questions, and shall not until the
necessary information- gathering projects are put in hand. We may find that, in the publics’
eyes, museums have simply offered special hospitality to yet one more privileged, self-
elected group within the elitist club.
Conclusion
Like all museum artefacts, therefore, the Pitt Rivers postcard (and all its friends)
offers an ambivalent message. Self-reflexive museum efforts, through artists and others, may
invigorate collections by showing how much magic and powerful knowledge they hold, and
how exhilarating their exhibition can be. Curators are transferring some power to named
artists, which is liberating in itself, and may yet take the abandonment of anonymity—one of
the easier pieces of mystification—to the point when named designers, researchers and
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writers can be acknowledged in displays (Arnold, 1995: 39). This would help the review of
exhibitions to be more like that of a film or a stage play, and might help to bring museum
work into the critical marketplaces.
But, quite possibly, the visitors may reject much of what is done because they find it
not powerfully ironic, but superficial, tinny and trivial. Moreover, as the Pitt Rivers
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installations showed all too well, museums and their material are very powerful, with an
immense capacity for the absorption of aliens; after all to turn the problematic alien into the
“Other” which supports ”Us” is, par excellence “the museum’s” art. When Wilson (1995:29)
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created a set of head photographs from objects made at a time when contact between races
was new, he realised that they showed a subtle blending of ethnic features, making it visibly
apparent that when you depict another, you inevitably end up depicting yourself. Just so, it
may turn out, are the artists and their supportive curators, for subversion can only exist by
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admitting the real presence of the values it endeavours to undermine. Wilson called his
photographic exhibition Mixed Metaphors and says that “this is the perfect metaphor for the
museum itself”: we may agree with him.
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References
Adorno, T.
1967 Valery Proust Museum Prisms, London: Neville Spearman.
Arnold, K.
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1995 Flights of Fancy, Museums journal, 5: 39.
Bennett.T.
1995 The Birth of the Museum, London: Routledge.
Boltanski, C.
1973 Lists of Exhibits belonging to a woman of Baden-Baden followed by an explanatory note
(exhibition catalogue). Oxford: Museum of Modern Art.
Gathercole, P. and C. Clarke

1979 Survey of Oceanic Collections in Museums in the United
Kingdom and Irish Republic, Paris: UNESCO.
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Harrison. J.
1977 Eccentric Spaces, New York: Avon Books.
Hoeper-Greenhill, E.
1992 Museums and the Shaping of Knowkdge. London: Routledge.
Lang, N.
1978 Farben Zeichen Steine (exhibition catalogue), Munich: Galerie im Lenbachhaus.
Malbert, R.
1995 Artists as Curators, Museums Journal. 5: 27-29.
Mellor, D.
1989 The Delirious Museum in Museology, New York: Aper-ture Foundation.
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Metken, G.
1977 Spurensicherung Kunst ais Anthropologie und Selbster-forschung: Fiktive Wissenschaften
in der Leutige Kunst, Cologne: DuMont.
Murray, M.A.
1921 The Witch Cult in Western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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1933 The God of the Witches, London: Faber.
1936 The Divine King;1I England. London: Faber.
1949 The Splendour that Was Egypt. London: Sidgwick and Jackson; reprint 1962, London:
New English Library.
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Pearce. S.M.
1995 On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in theEuropean Tradition, London:
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Routledge.
1998 Collecting in Contemparary Practice, London: Sage.
Ravenhill. P.
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1988 The Passive Object and the Tribal Paradigm: Colonial Museology in French West
Africa. Paper presented at the Workshop on African Culture at Bellagio, May. Unpublished ms.
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Schneider, A.
1993 Kunst und Ethnologie, Ethno-LiJgik. May 1981, Mun- ster: 25-32.
Shelton, A.
1992 The Contextualization of Culture, Anthropology Today.8(5): 11•16. Vogel, S.
1991 Always True to the Object, In Our Fashion, Exhibiting Culture. I. Karp and S. Levine
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(eds.), Washington: Smithsonian Institution: 191-204.
Wilson, F.
1995 Silent Messages, Museums Joumal, 5: 27•29.
199
A Time to Build, A Time to Tear Down: Religion, Society and State in
F Contemporary Philippines
JOSE M. CRUZ, S.J.
In some Philippine towns and cities, images of Christ in his passion and death are
carried through the streets during Holy Week. The images are ordinarily kept in private
homes, either in storage areas or in those parts where people move about such as living
rooms. People’s sense of ease in having an image of a dead person in one’s house is rooted, I
suggest, in a practice that dates from before the 16th century. When the datu (community
headman) died, his remains prior to secondary burial were kept in the house of a powerful
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family with aspirations of installing the next datu. The ownership of images of the suffering
or dead Christ, grounded partly in some ingrained memory of how to deal with a dead
headman, is an act of devotion but also serves as an indicator of one’s place in the social
hierarchy. Religion shapes society even while being shape by it.
The category of religion allows for a fuller understanding of society, but its use is not
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without risks. The phrase “Muslim Minadanao” for example, prevents an appreciation of the
fact that Muslims comprise only 17% of the population of Mindanao and only 4.5% of the
national population. It conjures up a Mindanao with a Muslim majority, a notion contrary to
fact.
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Furthermore in the phrase “Muslim Mindanao,” the modifier is made to stand as a
proxy for very complex socio-political realities into religious categories causes a blurring of
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ethnic and other differences, of contradictions within highly stratified Muslim communities,
and of heterodox practices in everyday Islam. Not infrequently, effective remedies elude
government planners because categories they employ are inappropriate.
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Religion, whose role we seek to examine, does not have a permanent, immutable
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form. It takes on a particular form, depending on the particular historical period and the
particular social context. When the context is pluralistic, contamination can occur. For
example many Filipinos, who believe in the personal God of Christianity, find no
inconsistency in believing as well in karma, an impersonal calculus of good and evil that
belongs to another religious tradition. A believer, who lives out his religion in a pluralistic
context, hears, so to, speak, many voices alongside that of his religion. Even as believers
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formally assent to an orthodoxy, they might be quite comfortable in accepting a variety of

heterodox ideas and practices.
The pluralistic context, in which religion is lived, explains how someone can move in
and out of belief and unbelief, move from one particular belief to another, and move in and
out of particular articulations of one’s belief. Since Filipinos live in rapidly changing social
conditions, exemplified by the temporary migration of millions, we should expect changes in
the forms of religion.
Christianity in contemporary Philippines is in flux, as described above. It certainly

penetrates both private and public spheres. But it falls short of vigorously engaging the space
occupied by the formal mechanisms of civil authority.
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When the question of religion’s impact on society is raised, the People Power
Revolutions, EDSA I and EDSA II, are often cited as concrete instances. Undoubtedly, the
two events were laden with powerful religious symbolism. However, while religion was
involved in the injection of the incumbents, it did not provide the fresh energy and the new
consciousness needed to reconfigure Philippine society. As the Philippine Revolution of
1898, religion, a century later in 1986 and 2001, played a crucial role in political shifts, but
not in any social revolution.
The Philippine society, which religion is supposed to help transform, has had a
terrible record of providing for its citizens. In the period between 1960 to the present, the
population has grown from 27 million to 82 million, or at an average annual growth rate of
about 2.6%. Although poverty incidence has declined from 58% to 33%, 27 million still live
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below the poverty line, with about 10% of the labor force unemployed. More than 8 million
Filipinos now hold jobs overseas, but their increased earnings and the $8 billion dollars they
remit annually to the national economy are purchased at a very high social cost to themselves
and their families.
How do the masses perceive these social realities, and what has the Church’s record
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been in addressing their social concerns? In 1896, on the eve of the revolution against
Spanish, brothers Teodoro and Doroteo Pansacula led successful armed uprising and later
declared themselves governor and brigadier-general. When the revolution succeeded in 1898,
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however, they did not recognize the authority of the revolutionary government led by
Aguinaldo and urged their followers to do likewise. Furthermore, they instigated the
harassment of the wealthy families in the locality, whose departure they viewed as a
necessary step toward the equitable distribution of property. They proposed that time had
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finally come “for the rich to be poor and for poor to become rich.” While the elite in various
parts of the country considered the expulsion of the Spaniards a sufficient indication that the
goals of the revolution had been met, there were those who, like the two brothers, sought
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freedom from all sources of their oppression, indeed an abundance of all good things.
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The incident may be instructive when attempting to make sense of the 2004 electoral
popularity, short of victory, of FPJ (Fernando Poe Junior) and of the 1998 electoral victory of
Joseph Estrada. Significant difference between notwithstanding, both appeal to the masses, in
the dual sense that the masses relate to them and that they consider the masses their
constituency.
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Although the Catholic Church has withheld its support from both Esrada and FPJ,
Estrada won by a huge margin and FPJ came close to winning in May 2004. When the
masses make political choices at variance with the published preferences of the Catholic
Church, its capacity to form society has to be reassessed.
The civil disturbances of May 1, 2001, sometimes called EDSA III, are instructive. In
the early hours of that day, large crowds originating mainly from the blighted areas of Metro
Manila attacked the presidential palace, in protest over Estrada’s ouster and detention. To the
chagrin of many Church groups and NGOs that had openly supported the Estrada
impeachment, many of the protesters came from areas that had been under their care for
years. What the Church groups found disconcerting was not so much the fact that “their
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people” had moved over to the wrong side, but that the political action completely caught
them by surprise. It was as if the Church had been out of touch with its own people.
The May 1, 2001 protest may be an omen of things to come. The event revealed not
only a growing desperation among the people, but also their alienation from their traditional
leaders, including the Church. If the Church is unable to renew its presence among the masses
and to articulate its response to their social concerns, a parting of ways may occur. Millions
of Catholics even now take their cue not from Church officials but from leaders like Mike
Velarde and other charismatic figures, whose links to the Church are tenuous.
EDSA IV is a distinct possibility. The reason is that, when in EDSA III people went
into a rampage, there were at work other players, whose social status and political agenda
were not those of the masses. Sadly, EDSA III was never intended to bring about real
reforms; nor could that be expected of an EDSA IV of similar character.
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The Church may rethink its ways, if it wishes to make a significant contribution
toward the improvement of the people’s quality of life. In the Philippines, Christianity’s
presence in the public sphere has typically been in a denunciatory mode, not in a constructive
mode. The Church has shown itself capable of tearing things down, as it did in the ouster of
morally bankrupt administrations. What it has to demonstrate is its capacity to build up, its
O
capacity to sustain a campaign for productivity and equitability.
The lack of articulation of the constructive dimension is indicated by people’s idea of

C
what constitutes good works. If one asked an executive to say what good thing he has done
lately, he probably would mention a donation made to charity. Other good acts, such as the
creation of jobs, would probably not be readily seen by him as a meritorious living out of his
religion.
D
Incredible though it may seem, the average declared annual income of medical
doctors inthe Philippines is Pl00,000 or about $2,000. While many doctors carry out medical
E
missions in the slums and perform other useful service to indigent families, the moral sense
that impels them to serve others in such admirable ways is somehow suspended in the
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computation of their taxes. There is obviously a selective application of morality, a situation

that arises from the lack of effective Church teaching on social realities, beyond sexuality and
family life. Almsgiving has become, for most, the quintessential good work; the reshaping of
society, meanwhile, is left to other hands.
As the State shows itself increasingly unable to design and carry out, a program of
D
national reconstruction, the Church is called upon to bring its vision and its resources to the
project of rebuilding the country. But while its position on family planning is well-known, its
position on agrarian reform, taxation, the environment, and other important issues is not fully
articulated.
The Church cannot hope to bring reform in these areas without wrestling with the
formal mechanism of civil authority. Should it succeed however, in awakening the
considerable qualities and resources of the People, the Church would then have to grapple
with the issue of its intervention in matters of State.
202
Figure F-1. Flagelante (c. 1950).
During Holy Week, and culminating in
Good Friday, a traditional aspect of
Filipino religiosity manifests itself. A
penitent man has taken up a cross and
borne it all the way from the province of
Pampanga to a suburb of Manila.
A companion leads him, and from time

to time applies lashes to his back. A
crowd surrounds the two, with the
flagelante on the ground. (ALK2, KIT
Tropen museum, Amsterdam)
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O
Figure F-2. Monument to "the Philippine
Mother" (1950s).
C
In contrast to the different patrilineal systems
of the Japanese and the Arabs, family
systems in Phil-lndo are bilateral, open,
and extended. An important consequence is
the relatively high position of Phil-lndo
D
women. The value of maternal power and
succor is represented in this sculpture. (WP4,
KIT Tropen museurn, Amsterdam]
E
The values inherent in this image track easily

to the role assumed by Corazon Aquino
after the murder of her husband. This role
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as "the Mother of Sorrows" was strongly

projected on her by Filipino religiosity.
D
203
Figure F-3. Magsaysay at Giant
Eucharistic Mass.
The President and his wife join

among international dignitaries of
the Roman Catholic Church.
Attendees flow across the
Luneta, a massive assembly
space near Manila Bay, as far as
the eye can see. (Ramon
Magsaysay Award Foundation)
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O
Figure F-4. President Magsaysay
C as Wedding Sponsor.
To serve as a ritual co-parent,

compadre or comadre, is a
request that in the Philippines
cannot be denied. The role
D
enriches extended family ties
with ritual relationships. Here, in
the mid-1950s, President
Magsaysay is pictured accepting
E
one such responsibility. (Ramon

Magsaysay Award Foundation)
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D
204
G Folk Catholicism in the Philippines
FRANK LYNCH
From one point of view, the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines may be
characterized as a highly complicated bureaucracy, with levels and divisions sufficient in
number and shades of distinction to boggle the mind. But this is not the peole’s view.
For most Filipino Catholics—and the word “most” immediately means the rural, the
poor, and the poorly educated—the Catholic Church is the local simbahan, the clergy is the
one or two priests they may have met but rarely approach, the hierarchy (if they are aware of
it at all) is the local bishop, and the pope is probably an unknown entity.1 This is not said
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in alarm or disparagingly. It is reported as a reasonably well-established fact, and with
the personal conviction that deficiencies in these matters are no cause for alarm.
Balancing this general unfamiliarity with the official Church structure and its
incumbents are a remarkable average frequency of attendance at mass (Lynch and Makil
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1968), in an extraordinarily high place accorded the virtue of trust in God (Porio et. Al 1975,
41–44), and a traditional year-round mixing of culture and religion that has produced the folk
Catholicism of the Philippines.
C
It is this unique blend of official Catholic ritual and belief, peninsular Spanish and
Mexican additives, and the preexistent Malay base that I wish to describe in middle-distance
details. I shall do this by asking, and answering, two basic questions to which any folk
D
religion must respond, namely how does this folk system make the Filipino more religious?
And in what way does it make him a better Filipino?
E
The Concept of Folk Catholicism
Before reviewing the various ways in which the Church and Philippine culture have
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adapted to each other, we do well to look more closely at the notion of folk Catholicism. It is
a term that merits accurate definition, for only if the limits of its coverage are clear will one
understand why certain traiditional beliefs qualify as elements of folk Catholicism while
others do not.
D
We can begin with the statement that, in the concrete, that is, in real-life situations,
one may find in any organized religion components which are officials, nonofficial, and folk,
Wether the system in question be Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam, the behavior and
beliefs of its adherents will have some elements that are orthodox, others that are officially
neither prescribed nor recommended but nonetheless of common occurrence, and still others
that, while also unofficial, have the added note of popular or folk origin.
The key to the distinction between official and nonofficial if sound in notion of
normative, in the sense of “ agreeing with an established and morally imposed standard.”
This is not to say that no unofficial or folk components will be comsidered obligatory or
prescribed by the people where they are found; on the contrary, they are frquently viewed as
at least as important as official elements, and sometimes as even more necesary for the
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integrity of the ritual or belief. Nnor is it to say that the officially normative will always be
the total community’s ideal religious pattern. The community’s ideal will, as a matter of fact,
often deviate from the official ideal, and idelas will differ, in turn, from community to
community. However, we can very usefully define official Catholicism, for instance, as
doctrine, ritual, and administrative organization proposed, approved, or maintained as
normative by officially designated authority.
“Normative” here embraces both the prescribed and the recommended, as

distinguished from elements which are tolerated, disapproved, or demned. These latter
elements constitue the nonofficial component, and are represented in the concrete by beliefs
and practices which are viewed by officially designated church authority as respectively
harmless, suspect, or clearly unorthodox. It is evident from this range that term “ catholicism”
is applied in a different sense to the official component on the one hand, and to the unoffical
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on the other, and with strikingly different degrees of looseness to the categories placed under
the latter component, namely the tolerated, the disapproved, and the condemned. In this
broadest “sense, and to cover all categories in the continuum from prescribed to condemned,
the rubric Catholicism may be taken for beliefs and practices which are either orthodox or
are obliquely derived from, or manifested in the context and under the name of Catholicism,
regardless of orthodoxy.
O
Suggested continuum of concrete religious behavior
Folk Catholicism
C includes the three nonofficial
categories mentioned above,
but only where the belief is of
popular derivation and use,
D
and is sanctioned as
traditional in the community
where it obtains. This restriction reserves for separate consideration apart from folk religion
E
those innovations and deviations which may be incipient folk-religious elements, but have not
yet won community acceptance.
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Returning to the official component, it should be noted that the Roman Catholic
Church includes both an Eastern and a Western branch united under the Roman Pontiff.
While prescribed belief and the essential elements in certain rites (the sacraments) are
universal or worldwide, there is considerable variation in liturgy, church law, and
practice.Within the Western or Latin branch, moreover, there are further differences in rites.
D
In Latin America and the Philippines, for example, one finds the Toledo or Mozarabic rite in
the marriage ceremony, instead of the Roman rite familiar to most Catholics of theUnited
States, Canada, and Western Europe. Another example of official but particular, as
distinguished from universal, Catholicism can be found in the rule of Friday abstinence.
There was a time when Catholics were forbidden by universal Church law to eat meat on
Fridays. However, all of Spain’s former colonies nonetheless enjoyed the privilege conferred
on Spain for her participation in the crusades, namely, exemption most of the year from the
Friday abstinence. Elements belonging to official Catholicism, then, maybe either universalor
particular in their extension.
But the concrete religious behavior (beliefs, attitudes, practices) of a Catholic is a

function not only of official doctrine and practice, universal or particular, but also of the
206
culture in which he was reared, and the community in which he dwells. The nonofficial
component of his Catholicism will derive not only from the cultural peculiarities of his
environment and his own idiosyncrasies, but from those embellishments as well which are
due to the agent which introduced Catholicism to his people.Thus Latin American folk
Catholicism is in large part a transplanted and transformed peninsular Spanish Catholicism,
while Filipino folk Catholicism is the local development of both of these sources. Knowing
what constitutes the orthodox elements of a particular belief or practice, and knowing as well
the added ideas or behavior that are traceable to Spain or Mexico or the tradition of one
religious order or another, we should be able to recognize in various religious phenomena the
residual elements due to the local version of Philippine culture.
Folk Catholicism and Philippine Society
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The central message of Catholicism, like that of Christianity in general, is one of
twofold love—love of God and love of neighbor. Kindness, respect, and compassion for
one’s fellow human beings, particularly those who are on one’s side or (alternatively) are in
need of assistance, also figure prominently in those Philippine cultures of which we have
some knowledge. In the broadest sense, then, Christianity provides additional motivation for
the observance of an old cultural imperative—and for its extension beyond the traditional
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segment boundaries (loving one’s enemies is certainly not a pre-Spanish trait).
Beyond this very general relation of Catholicism to culture, there are three particular
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areas that deserve attention. For from the social scientists’ viewpoint the new religion has
reinforced community and family solidarity in various ways, and has also seen its own
institutions influenced and modified in turn by local social patterns. We confine ourselves to
these three copies, since we have already treated the social and economic implications of the
D
town fiesta elsewhere (sec LynchI 62).2
Community Solidarity
E
Religion has often been referred to as a divisive force. Certainly the history of
EP
mankind provides numerous examples of conflicts which began or were continued in its
name. To mention the subject is to be reminded at once of the crusades, for example. Even
in the Philippines of 1975, there are those who appeal to religious loyalty in their attempts
to fan the flames of Muslim-Christian distrust and enmity in the troubled provinces of
Bukidnon, North Cotabato, and elsewhere in Mindanao.
D
There is no doubt that, paradoxically, religion can be an effective instrument for

turning the children of God against one another.
This is not the place to discuss how such uses of religion and religious commitment
are in fact abuses of a good thing, nor to explain how Christianity, for example, contains the
antidote for the virus of dissension and hate. Rather, let us accept that people often do
use religion for their own ends, consciously or unconsciously, in clearly reprehensible ways.
We shall consider instead what the situation is in those Philippine municipalities where
the population is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Since 85 percent of the nation
claim membership in this Church, we shall be describing the majority of municipalities.
It is understood, nonetheless, that in those places dominated by Muslims or Aglipayans,
folk Islam or folk Aglipayanism will probably serve similar functions.
207
The sense of community sharing is supported and expressed by attendance at official
church services such as mass on Sundays and holy days, novenas, and the rites celebrated on
the occasion of baptisms, marriages, and funerals. However, these activities, prescribed or
recommended, are supplemented and overshadowed in socializing intensity by various folk-
religious ceremonies. Most of these traditional observances are of Spanish folk origin, but
have received local elaboration and embellishment.
The Christmas season. The novena of dawn masses, or misas de gallo, draws more
of
the community co the church at one time than any otherevent in the local religion’s calendar,
with the possible exception of the high mass of the town fiesta, or the Good Friday or
Maundy Thursday services. The misa de aguinaldo, or Christmas midnight mass, is the
climax of the Misas de gallo, and fills the church to overflowing; it is the year’s high point in
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church attendance. By this very fact of bringing the people together the Christmas religious
celebrations stimulate community solidarity.
However, they do more than this, for the official services have been supplemented by
social usages which, if not strictly religious in nature, may be considered so by context (see
the definition above of folk Catholicism). Reference is to the customary gatherings in the
O
church patio or the plaza after the misa de gallo, and to the family repast after the Christmas
midnight mass. The general mixing in the first instance makes for stronger community
feelings within age—or generation—grades, while the second custom—that of the noche
C
buena, or media noche–strengthens family ties. In both cases the religious gathering becomes
the context of the social.
Kin visiting is associated in a special way with the three feasts of Christmas, New
D
Year’s (Santo Nino), and the Three Kings (Tres Reyes, January 6). In this two-week period
the community seems at any given moment to be comprised entirely of guests and hosts;
everyone is visiting or receiving. Kin—blood, affinal, and ceremonial—are all visited in turn
E
if opportunity permits, and the children especially are urged to go see their godparents. The
child is brought into pleasant and rewarding contact with relatives, honoring all its elders with
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a respectful kiss (or forehead-touch) of the hand. This has the effect of reinforcing and
perpetuating kin ties and their accompanying feelings of trust and responsibility thus
strengthening the thread of which community solidarity is woven.
Processions. At various times of the year, but especially during Holy Week, the
month of May, and the time of the town fiesta, processions bring the townspeople together as
D
participants or observers. The Santakrusan of a moderately large barrio is probably more

effective as a socializing influence than any other procession in the year, since it closes with a
merienda for all participants, and these include men, women, and children. The Flores de
Mayo procession and services have become the affair of women and children, while the
Holy Week and town fiesta processions tend to become either sincere dramatic
enterprises, opportunities for the fulfillment of a vow, or competitive displays. Community
solidarity is promoted, but it is by appeal and support, straining action and silent or vocal
encouragement, by participants on the one hand, and sidelines on the other. This solidarity
between chose who march and those who watch is clearly expressed in the lighted candle
held on the sidelines or placed in the windows of homes on the route of the procession.
208
The Lenten season. During the Lenten season the community is brought together
for several folk-religious practices which have been described else where (Lynch 1956) in
detail, namely, the pabasa ng pasiyon, or reading of the passion, and the senakulo, or
popular passion play. The first includes a merienda and an opportunity for socializing, both
or which may occupy the majority of chose who attend far more than do the seemingly
endless verses of the vernacular pasiyon. This reading, or chanting, of the passion is, to
my knowledge, found only in the Philippines. It was apparently initiated by early
missionaries who capitalized on the widespread, pre-Spanish custom of chanting lengthy
local epics.
In those communities which present the senakulo with a cast drawn from the
townspeople, the weeks of rehearsal and preparation demand the active cooperation of many
in the common effort. Where traveling professionals present the senakulo, community
feelings are still bolstered and expressed in the gatherings for the performances, and for
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attendant refreshments. But when the drama is presented by the local people, it is clearly
more significant as a factor for community solidarity than is the professional innovation.
Feast of the dead. The folk-feast of undras (from the Spanish honras, “obsequies”) is
occasioned by the feast of All Souls (November 2). It brings the people of the town together
at the cemetery and in its vicinity, beginning in the afternoon or early evening of November
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1. Since many barrios bury their dead in the cemetery which is attached to the poblacion
parish church, town and barrio folk come into contact—or at least juxtaposition and mutual
observation—on this occasion. As in the preparations for Christmas, and for the town fiesta,
C
when visitors and returning kin are expected to flood the town, so for undras large numbers
of the community go to the cemetery early November 1 to clean and whitewash the tombs or
niches occupied by their deceased kinsmen, and to help in cutting the weeds and grass that
disfigure the common areas of the kamposanto. It is the community as such that muse make a
D
favorable impression on those who will pay their respects at the cemetery. The local group is
on display, and it makes a common effort not to seem too dowdy co its children returned
from the city.
E
Life-crisis ceremonies. The three major life-crisis ceremonies of baptism, marriage,

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and burial are the occasion and context for important social activities. Elsewhere (Lynch
1956), in the section on the typical religious biography, the local elaboration of the
compadrazgo, or co-parenthood system, has been described. It was there noted that whereas
church law provides for at most two baptismal godparents, it is common in some parts of the
Philippines, such as the Tagalog area, for the child’s parents to invite others to be katuwang,
or cosponsors. In this way the parents can intensify or create a significant relationship with a
D
great number of people, for the kumpare bond is tended even to the brothers and sisters of the
katuwang. A small community derives notable solidarity from this far-flung web of ritual
kinship.
Marriage is the joining of two extended families, symbolized and sealed by the union
in matrimony of a representative couple. Since the tendency in the Philippines is toward
geographical endogamy, crosscutting marriages even in a fairly large town will eventually
unite much of the community- but generally within one or other of the two social classes,
upper or lower. In the rural areas (generally not in the cities) the wedding banquets, at the
home of the bride, and then at the home of the groom, are often public affairs to which all are
invited. These are occasions on which the community members renew their acquaintance
with one another.
209
The wake, or Lamay, and the nine-day padasal (prayers) following the burial have a
similar function. The customary game of forfeits (juegode prenda, Sp.) is a convenient
framework within which the community, or part of it, can give public recognition to an
individual’s talent as a singer, guitarist, or perhaps an impersonator. It also provides an
occasion for the young men and women to come to know one another better, or publicly to
taunt some blushing couple about their budding romance.
Summary. In conclusion, it can be stated that the sharing of official religious belief
and practice strengthens and supports the sense of oneness in the average local community.
Further, certain official observances become the occasion of traditional social practices which
also tend to unite the town or barrio folk. Finally, there are folk-religious customs which
operate almost independently of official supervision; in these observances (such as the
Santakrusan, pabasa, undras, the coparenthood system in its extended, non-official form, the
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lamay, and padasal) the consequent bolstering and extending of community solidarity is most
clearly seen.
Family Solidarity
O
When one speaks of the family here, he must understand it as the extended family, or
as the nuclear or immediate family with no exclusion of the extended; hence at least as the
immediate-and-potentially extended family. This unit (the mag-anak) is reunited and
C
revitalized on one or more of four major occasions during the annual religious cycle: the town
fiesta, Christmas day, undras (November 1–2), and Holy Week. These traditional reunion
days are named in the order of importance usually attributed to them.
D
All families in the town or barrio feel new life in their kin-bonds at these four
celebrations. But not all of them are strengthened by another source of family solidarity,
namely, the sponsorship of some religious activity for the entire community. Only families
E
which are wealthier than most can afford to underwrite the expenses for such activities as a
misa de gallo (with band and fireworks) or a panunuluyan or posada, procession, and
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subsequent merienda. Only those who have some sufficiency will sponsor a pabasa, or give
lodging to touring senakulo actors during Lent. Only those households with money to spare
will be the hermanos for a Flores de Mayo or Santa Cruz de Mayo procession (Santakrusan).
Only they will possess and richly adorn a processional image for the admiration and delight
of all. Other families may go into debt, but it will be for the town fiesta, and not on the
community’s but their own account.
D
The vow (panata) of a deceased member of the family is frequently another factor
making for solidarity and a sense of continuity with the past, usually the recent past. A
grandparent or great-grandparent might have made a vow to hold a pabasa on such-and-such
a day every year. His descendants will strive religiously to adhere to the promise, and in
doing this they freshen their memory of the dead. Again, a family may lodge certain senakulo
players from the same motive. The roles of the Apostoles for Maundy Thursday are in many
towns handed down from father to son, and roles in the senakulo are similarly passed along.
Past generations are honored in the present.
Summary. Sponsorship of community religious functions, then, serves to make of

the family a clearly designated unit which has accepted a responsibility vis-a-vis the
210
community. By this stewardship it increases in both prestige and solidarity. Not all families in
the town or barrio have the means for this public service, bur they are strengthened at least by
the reunion of their far-flung members on one or more of the great annual commemorations
the town fiesta, Christmas, undras, and Holy Week.
Reflections of Social Patterns
In the previous subsection, it was mentioned that sponsorship of community

religious activities tends to unify the families involved. In a society nearly divided into “little
people” and “big people,” it is the latter who are consistently given the honor and the
burden of this sponsorship. Hence the essentially two-class system of the rural Philippines
finds its image here. It is not to be concluded, however, that the poorer members of the
community either resent this distinction or contribute nothing to the common effort. On
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the contrary (whether the observer agrees with it or not), the class division and its
consequences are generally considered the natural state of affairs, and the lower class
brings to each religious event its artistic and manual labor for the preparation of the feast
and hearty participation in its celebration. It can be said that the upper class makes
folk-religious activities a possibility, while the lower class makes them an actuality. In
the local view, who will say which contributes more?
O
Compadrazgo. The co-parenthood system is both an expression and a semireligious
validation of Philippine society’s emphasis on generational solidarity. Reference is not to the
C
official Catholic provision for one or two godparents at baptism and confirmation, but to the
widespread local custom of having many more godparents, and of recognizing a coparent
relationship toward, not only these persons, but also their brothers and sisters. The parents of
a child may select, for instance, a total of four godparents, all from different families. If each
D
of the sponsors has four siblings, the parents will have a coparent (kumpare) relation to
twenty persons and potentially, at least, to twenty nuclear families, perhaps in the same town.
If the parents choose the godparents for their future children from different families, it is not
E
difficult to realize how this compadrazgo, or coparenthood system, gives perfect expression
to the Filipino’s desire to enjoy some kind of kin bond with all the age-grade or generation
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comembers with whom he must now, or may someday, carry on the business of life.
Procession images. A striking example of religious behavior reflecting social

patterns is to be found in the use of large images, usually of life-size proportion, which are
carried or pulled along on their carriages in the various processions of the annual cycle.
Because this image-complex is a notable feature of folk Catholicism in most countries raised
D
in the Iberian colonial tradition, it is perhaps justifiable to develop this point at

greater length than others.
Many observers of Latin American folk-religious behavior have pointed out what the
tourist is struck by when he visits countries in which the local folk Catholicism gives a
prominent place to images and statues. The people give the impression of treating the statue
itself as the personage who is being honored. Yet, when questioned on the subject, almost all
will reply (there will be exceptions) by making the distinction which any well-instructed
Catholic would make, telling the inquirer that the statue or painting is to remind us of the
saint being honored, or that the various images—all under different titles—of our Lord or our
Lady merely do respect to them in some special mystery or event of their lives on Earth,
or some special attribute.
211
Why then is it that, knowing that this is merely an image and not the ultimate object
of the honor being shown, so many people speak of these images as though they were
persons, and treat them accordingly? I suggest that the image represents for the persons
honoring it a means of bridging what at times seems to them an immense gap or distance
between the saint and themselves.
In Latin America, Italy, Spain, and many other countries other than the Philippines,
relations of trust, or confianza, are associated principally with one’s kin, blood or ceremonial.
This is true of the Philippines, especially in the areas outside the large cities of Manila, Cebu,
and Davao. Furthermore, friendship is showed (and confianza encouraged) by intimate face-
to-face dealings, usually with some added manifestation such as a grasping of the person’s
arm or hand while talking to him. Where the influence of the damay or folk society is strong,
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these primary relations are the kind which most quickly strike a responsive chord. If one is to
show friendship and confidence, he must treat the person like a kinsman, and must be in
physical touch or contact. But how does one establish this kind of closeness with a heavenly
saint?
Through the image of the saint. Most images are adopted into households, in the
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sense that they are not the property of the Church, and are not kept in the church building
during the year. Rather, when they are not in procession they are kept in private homes and
are the property of the householder. They are, in effect, members of various household in
C
the village or town. Thus the saint which the image represents is, in a sense, adopted into
the community, and, in a society where everyone is related to nearly everyone else by
myriad relationships, the holy one can be considered a kinsman by all.
D
The tendency to be able to touch the object of one’s trust and affection is also
satisfied through the image. For the image can be clothed, kissed, held, touched, carried,
caressed, and, in general, manipulated in a way which gives the devotee sensible realization
E
of having come close to the saint, as he would to anyone in whom he would confide.
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Conclusion
How then does folk Catholicism make Filipinos better Christians? Quite simply, by
D
making it easier for them to understand and (with God’s help) co accept the message of
Christ. This it does by giving their faith a physical form which they recognize as their own,
communicating the Good News in language and other symbols that are distinctly theirs.
Because folk Catholicism is Christianity incarnate, however imperfectly in the Philippine
setting, it touches the heart and soul of the Filipino as no abstract text of theology could
possibly do. It has, in its own simple fashion, and with admitted errors and excesses, made a
good start on the ultimate task that faces the Church in every culture to which it is sent: the
fashioning of a Christian Way that perfects and enhances the preexistent native way of life. It
is this cherished goal, a perfect blend of orthodox Christianity and all that is good in
Philippine culture, to which folk Catholicism points the way. It is a precursor to be sure, but
an effective one.
212
Folk Catholicism also makes better Filipinos of those who practice it. For the
behavior which it encourages is almost invariably supportive of central Philippine values and
norms. Practicing folk Catholics, in fact, will generally be solidly traditional Filipinos. The
orthodox Filipino Catholic need be no less Filipino, to be sure, and should indeed be more
profoundly and perfectly Filipino. Otherwise, the Incarnation has not touched the Philippines
as it was intended to.
References
Lynch, Frank. 1956. Organized religion: Catholicism. HRAF Area Handbook on
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the Philippines. Chicago: University of Chicago for the Human Relations Area
Files, Inc. pp. 476–686.
---------. 1962.Town Fiesta: An Anthropologist’s view. Philippines International 6,
no. 6:4–11, 26–27.
Lynch, Frank and Perla Q Makil. 1968. The BRAC 1967 Filipino family survey. Saint
Louis Quarterly 6, nos. 3–4:293–330.
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Porio, Emma, Frank Lynch, and Mary R. Hollnsteiner. 1975. The Filipino family,
community, and nation: The same yesterday, today, and tomorrow? Quezon City:
Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University.
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Notes:
1. One source of empirical data on these matters is a report on the Baguio Religious Acculturation
Conference (BRAC) Christian Filipino family survey (Lynch and Makil 1968).
2. In reading the paragraphs that follow, those who are unfamiliar with the Philippine Rural
scene may find some of the references to folk rituals too brief or uninformative for their taste. Detailed
descriptions are given in an earlier publication (Lynch 1956).
213
H Modernity and the Filipino
RANDOLF S. DAVID
In the 1960s, the debates in Philippine social science with modernization, defined
roughly as the replacement of traditional values and institutions with modern ones. Forty
years later, we seem to be still harping on the same issues, although we are wont to speak
today about “modernity” rather than modernization. By “modernity,” we mean the ability to
feel at home in a rapidly changing world, a world in which, in the memorable words of Marx,
“ everything that is solid melts into air.” In the past, the only way to face modernity was by
the route of modernization, a thinly veiled synonym for Westernization. Today, we speak of
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alternative modernities to refer to various ways of dealing with lure of the new.
Other observers might see the evolving environment in which we live in terms of
theprocessesofglobalizationand their associatedperilsand opportunities. I think, however, that
it is not just the global scale or reach of these processes, but also the radical changes in the
way human beings are asked to live, that invites careful analysis.
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Until recently, to modernize was an option that every society could take up or ignore.
Non-western nations, with long histories and ancient traditions, were particularly wary of
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modernization because it meant giving up their identity and adopting the Western way of life.
The link between economic progress and modernization was, however, such
powerfulincentive that many tooktheroadshown bytheWest.Even so not everyonewas,
seduced into following this road. Countries like India often, chose value-friendlyslow growth
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over the West’s value-disrupting fast growth.
Today, globalization is radically erasing that choice. Nations seeking acceptance into
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larger community of nations are virtually being commanded to modernize, or perish. In the
past, the world community was content to regard marginalized societies purely in the
humanitarian terms of refugees to be fed and sheltered, and fragile governments to be nudged
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in the direction of greater respect for human rights, democracy and more open way of life.
Today, the risks previously associated only with rogue states—small unfriendly nations with
the capability to use weapons of mass destruction—are being monitored wherever a potential
for sheltering terrorist networks, dirty money, drug dealers and criminal syndicates exists.
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The world in which we live not only compels us to be modern under pain of isolation
and marginalization; indeed it also lures us into risking everything we value and believe in on
the promise, not necessarily of a better life, but only of something different. Is there a way of
dealing with the forces of modernity without losing our freedom, our balance, and our
humanity?
To be modern
“To be modern,” Marshall Berman writes, “is to experience personal and social life
as a maelstrom, to find one’s world and oneself in perpetual disintegration and renewal,
trouble and anguish, ambiguity and contradiction: to be part of a universe in which all that is
solid melts into air.”
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Berman meant this as a portrait of the human condition in modern society, but it
occurs to me that it may as well be the most eloquent description of the situation of Filipino
overseas worker. They who bravely wrench themselves free from everything that is
familiar—family, community, and nation—in order to participate in societies and cultures of
which they often know nothing, to earn a living among strange peoples that normally
welcome their labor but not necessarily their person, in time of great uncertainty and danger;
but also of reinvention. I consider our OFWs “ true moderns,’ and my sense is that a close
look at their situation may illustrate for us the realities and challenges facing us as a nation.
“ To be a modernist,” continues Berman, “ is to make oneself somehow at home in

the maelstrom, to make its rhythm one’s own, to move within its current in search of the
forms of reality, of beauty, of freedom, of justice that its fervid and perilous flows allows.”
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This characterization is important because it can apply to the saga of individuals as
well as of whole nation. To be modern does not mean to be engulfed by the maelstrom. It is
rather to have the audacity to create a home within it, to master its rhythms, and to move
within its currents. It is not to drown, but to flow with its tides; it is to live and survive and
claim some happiness in a frenzied and eternally spinning environment, trusting and using
only whatever personal strength and creativity one can summon. At once what come to mind
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is the image of those intrepid adventurers who work all week but fill Europe’s otherwise
empty cathedrals every Sunday, or gather spontaneously in the central squares of Hong Kong,
Singapore, and Jeddah in a bid to recreate a bit of the hometown in the bosom of a faraway
land.
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The overseas Filipino worker may be likened to a turtle: she carries her home on her
back wherever she goes. She may go away, she may cut all physical ties, clear the deck of all
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entanglements, and harden herself for the rigors of isolation and powerlessness and abuse, but
in whatever she does, she continually draws from a basic self that her native culture had put
together for her. No matter if she is alone, she never feels totally unprotected. Researchers of
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Filipino migrant workers have taken note of this remarkable gift and have referred to it in
various ways—resiliency, resourcefulness, courage, survival instincts, practicality, spiritual
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fortitude, or simply the good old bahala na attitude surfacing as a positive virtue. We may
think of it simply as the portrait of the modern as a Filipino.
We don’t need to go away, of course, to experience modernity. Our own society has
been rapidly transformed in ways that evoke Berman’s metaphor of the maelstrom. Those
among us who grew up in an earlier time often feel like immigrants in our own society. We
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have problems living with the new and pine for the simplicity and integrity of the old. We
search for order and predictability based on the recognition of duty.
But that is a world that is permanently gone. Modern technology has changed our
lives in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. Satellite television, the fax machine, the
personal computer, the shopping mall, the Internet, the cellular phone and the whole amazing
culture of “texting” just to take the most recent examples, have massively altered the way was
we experience and look at the world, and relate to one another. To fail to realize this is to risk
isolation and disorientation.
The response to modernity may be passive or it may be active. Passive modernists

are caught in the swirl of a world they cannot hope to control; theirs is a life of constant
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coping under pain of isolation. Active modernists, in contrast, try to assert control over some
aspects of their situation by anticipating events and planning ahead; theirs is a life of
continuous creative adaptation, non-stop experimentation and passionate engagement.
Let us examine some crucial sites and signs of modernity in our society.
a) Education. As it was then, when the American teachers known as the Thomasites
first arrived on our shores a hundred years ago, so it is today, through the popular computer
schools that are making the new science of information accessible to the lower classes—the
school remains the most important workshop of modernity. Filipino parents know that only
formal education can rescue their children from the vicious cycle of poverty. It is formal
education that has created the Filipino middle class.
Unlike other cultures that look upon the modern school as the workshop of the devil
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or the incubator of dangerous ideas, our culture has always nurtured an instinctive faith in the
miracle of education. The school is without any doubt the most important channel of social
mobility, a fact that makes us wonder even more why we have the state of our public
educational system to languish in neglect.
What the public educational system has failed to address, the private sector has taken
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up both as a mission and as a business enterprise. While public institutions remained tuck in
the traditional academic offerings like law, medicine, engineering, and the liberal arts—the
new entrepreneurs of learning saw the market for skilled technicians in the communication
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and information sectors and sought to produce the workhorses of the digital age. Their
foresight has paid off as we can see from the proliferation computer schools everywhere.
Today, for example, the new AMA Computer University, which started from rented spaces in
rundown buildings in lower-middle class neighborhoods, boasts of a student population that
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is three times as big as that of UP, and spread out in over a hundred campuses all over the
country. Not far behind is the STI, whose phenomenal expansion has benefited from
the importation of professors from the ranks of our own faculty.
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The role of these schools in democratizing access to tertiary education cannot be

underestimated. They have become the principal channels for oversease technical
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employment, and the main producers of those that we in the elite universities used to sneer at
as mindless vocational technicians. These technicians now constitute the country's reserve
army in the new information economy.
What’s fascinating about these schools is the way in which they create a hospitable
home for non-elite ambitions. Class and family background are totally irrelevant within their
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settings. They cater to individuals in search of skills they can use in a globalized anonymous
market, not credentials they can flash in a hierarchical status-fixated society.
b) The Market. By “Market”, I mean here the wide arena of exchange through
which products are introduced and traded. From the moment our ancestors began to trade
with the Chinese junk boat merchants, we became aware that there is a world outside
waiting to be explored. We are a nation or tireless shopper, and our fondness for
imported goods in legendary. We often see it as a colonial hangover, but in many ways,
our receptiveness to things foreign is also what makes us so open to the modern. Goods are
the bearers of entire lifestyles, and as a people we have always been friendly to imports.
Unlike the Japanese, we have no emotional or cultural attachment to our own products.
For a nation that seeks to develop its own productive system, this is not exactly
something to rejoice over. But it is what makes us Asia’s most modern people.
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Perhaps the clearest and most dominant trope we can use for this cultural openness is
the “mall rat,” a rough equivalent for Charles Baudelaire’s flaneur. He window-shops and
people-watches all day, but buys almost nothing. He surveys the bountiful offerings of
consumerism, looks at them with fascination, and moves on. He is familiar with what every
mall has to offer and the kinds of people who flock to them, but he has no attachments to
people or to objects. He loves the cool ambience, the clean toilets, the noise and frenzy, and
the variety. He knows every nook and corner of it, and can feel comfortable in it, but it is not
exactly his home. He is neither terrorized nor mesmerized by the new or the imported. He
looks at its promises, but is not completely lured by it.
I think that as a people in the throes of modernity, we learn the techniques of the
modern over time; we adjust our ways, and improvise and improve upon the imported. I do
not believe that we have been passive recipients of foreign goods and technologies. Just to
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take one example, McDonalds’s entry into the local food sector launched the whole notion of
“fast-food” a way of delivering service in a fast-paced, efficient, inexpensive, and cheerful
way without sacrificing quality and hygiene. Today it is not unusual to see Filipino fast-food
chains adopting the American way, but doing better than their foreign counterparts.
I don’t think we have ever been afraid of the new and the foreign, although our
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indiscriminate openness to external forces has been a classic source of vulnerability—insofar
as the project of nationhood is concerned. The 1997 Asian financial exemplifies this very
well.
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c) The Mass media. Television, in particular, has exerted a profound influence on the
way we live. Because of the pervasiveness of English, we are a natural market for American
programs and American movies, which are the most effective carriers of modernity. Unlike
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newspapers, TV cuts through class barriers. The most impoverished families would dispense
with basic furniture in their homes but not a television set. TV has always been for our people
a window to what they can be, and to a way of life they can aspire to have. In many ways, the
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long exposure to American television has given million Filipino migrant workers the basic
cosmopolitanism that allows them to adapt easily to other cultures. Again, this is a quality of
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the modern person.
Today, the Internet is playing the same radical role in our lives shown earlier by
television. Internet use in our society is in its early stages still, but the great class divide that I
thought would prevent the children of poor families from participating in the new digital
world no longer seems insurmountable. Computer schools and Internet cafes and centers are
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sprouting all over, and while it is still a largely middle class tool, with the diminishing costs
of computers, the Internet is becoming more and more a lifeline to the future for the children
of the poor.
E-mail and e-groups are reweaving the various threads of the Filipino nation, be they
families, regional and linguistic communities, school-based affinities, professional
associations or hobby groups dispersed around the globe. These electronic tools are also
spawning new communities, new social movements, and new intellectual and political for a
never before thought possible. The speed and simplicity with which these modern tools work
have transformed the whole world of communication. Interestingly, instead of obliterating the
content of the old cultures and erasing old ties, the Internet can also serve as a resuscitator
and intensifier of primordial identities. But unlike traditional loyalties, the new electronic
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communities do not engulf the whole person. Withdrawal from their fold is quick and easy:
just type “unsubscribe” No further explanation is needed or required.
d) Overseas work. Finally, there is overseas employment, about which I spoke earlier
and on which I want to share a few more notes here. I think it is worthwhile looking into the
impact of this phenomenon beyond the problems posed by brain drain. If one examines
Philippine social history, one would be hard-pressed to find any other phenomenon that has
had as dramatic, as deep and as comprehensive an impact on the collective fate and private
lives of Filipinos as overseas employment.
Short-term overseas work of the last 25 years has irreversibly shaped the Philippine
economy, modified the bureaucracy, and transformed the Filipino family, the relations
between spouses, and between parents and children. It has changed the physical landscape of
the remotes barrios, now teeming with the ubiquitous “katas ng Saudi” (literally, “sap from
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Saudi”) homes. It has transposed career patterns, consumer tastes, status systems, and even
mode of spirituality.
It has altered the nature of consular work abroad, and made new demands on foreign
policy. It has liberated Filipino women contract workers from traditional bondage to the
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men in their families. It has allowed them to nurture the private self as a worthy project,
free from the constraints of tradition, and away from the unrelenting and often suffocating
pressure of family obligations. Within only one generation, the foreign travel that overseas
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contract work has made possible has brought our nation into the very heart of the modern and
global age.
I call this phenomenon and the sum total of its effects the Filipino Diaspora—a
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collection of experiences arising from the “doubled relationship” or dual loyalty that
migrants, exiles, and refugees have to places—their connections to space they currently
occupy and their continuing involvement with “back home”.” (Lavie and Swednburg, 1996,
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p.14)
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It is not the travel itself that is new, but the purpose and magnitude in which it is being
undertaken, and the various unexpected consequences it has brought about. What was
originally conceived as a stop-gap measure to alleviate domestic unemployment and to help
the country pay for its oil imports in the mid-70s has become a lucrative industry for
recruiters, a steady source of foreign exchange for the government, and a popular and instant
exit from poverty for millions of poor families.
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The gender shift in migration may be regarded as among the most revolutionary events
in the history of the Filipino family, Filipino women in traditional households were
homebound, institutionally deprived of the opportunities for higher education, a professional
career, and a life of their own. But when the OCW program dangled the prospect of capturing
the international market for domestic helpers and nurses for the Middle east, tradition
crumbled and millions of Filipino women found themselves suddenly released from their tacit
vows of obedience to the males in their families—their fathers, brothers, and husbands. To go
abroad, to work in foreign homes, was for them an act of liberation. This phenomenon
triggered overseas jobs—as the out-migration of Filipino women for other overseas jobs—as
singers, dancers, and hostesses in Japan, as factory workers in Japan, Taiwan and South
Korea, and as domestic helpers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy and Spain. A corollary route
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was intercultural marriage, which was extensively promoted by “mail-order-bride” or match-
making agencies. The phenomenon of mail-order brides has now invaded the Internet.
Websites like Filipina.com and Filipino.wife.com lure thousands of Filipino women from
everywhere and from different levels of education. I do not know how this can be stopped or
regulated except by making available counter-information that warns our women against the
dangers of such arrangements.
But here again we are face to face with a situation of globality that available national
instruments are simply unable to deal with adequately. Here you have a nation-state that is
desperately attempting to maintain a level of relationship with its citizens, and it realizes that
the only way to do that is to redefine its own institutions.
Two things come to mind in this regard—two urgent bills filed in Congress—one that
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provides for dual citizenship to Filipino who have adopted foreign citizenship, and another
that offers absentee-voting rights to Filipinos residing or working abroad. Just a few years
ago, both bills would have been unthinkable, as we were wont to think of Filipinos who have
decided to leave the country for greener pastures as somehow having lost any moral right to
participate in its political processes. But if we assiduously claim a part of their earnings in the
form of taxes or remittances, why shouldn’t they continue to exercise rights within the
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political community? This brings us to the contradictions and modes of adaptation that the
transition of modernity spawns in our society.
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e) Law and Culture. The culture of our ancestors was a profoundly personalistic culture
befitting small face-to-face communities, where “hiya” or shame was a powerful social
sanction, and where the need for social acceptance kept members of the community from
straying too far from the customary.
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The culture, based largely on tacit understandings and expectations, has, over the years,
become irrelevant to the requirements of a complex society. Yet the spread of a modern legal
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culture, that would take the place of the customary culture, has been slow and uneven.
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Culture and law often clash with one another in some settings, while in others they
ingeniously ride on each other. We find lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats bending the legal to
accommodate the cultural. And vice-versa, we find old cultural scores being settled using
modern law and the judicial system as a weapon. The trial of Erap is a volatile blend of all
these.
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The reason for the failure of the culture of the law to be internalized by our people is
due, I think in no small measure to the foreign origin of our legal system. Our civil and penal
codes are largely Spanish, Our corporate and electoral laws are American. These legal
systems, like our own political system, did not spring originally from the cumulative
experiences of our nation. They do not resonate deeply-held indigenous values.
Offenses in our society are well-defined by our laws, but they are seldom accompanied
by a sense of guilt in the offenders. There is, we say, a disconnect between the laws and the
“collective conscience,” to borrow a term from Emile Durkheim. This is not to say that laws
of foreign origin can never be our own. It is only to say that a process like this is never
smooth. Imported laws acquire specific uses never anticipated by their authors. We cannot
pressure too much. The Filipino driver who goes through a red traffic light is not always
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maliciously flouting the law; he may think he is just being practical, but the chances are he
cannot even read traffic signs.
The disconnect is perhaps most visible in behavior in public office. One of the most
basis features of Western modernity is the clear separation of the public and the private.
Where this distinction is not part of the consciousness of individuals, it is difficult to speak of
corruption in any meaningful sense. In our society, the personal almost always shades into the
official, and vice-versa. A public official may not accept a bribe, the Filipino cannot turn
down a gift without risking insult to the given. Joseph Estrada’s troubles as president
multiplied from the precise moment he stopped going to his designated office in Malacañang
and decided to hold court instead in the sala of the Presidential Residence. There, Cabinet
meetings dovetailed the informal gatherings of presidential cronies.
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Perhaps no laws have been taken more lightly than our election laws. I know of no one
in our country who has been jailed or disqualified from holding office for over-spending or
accepting illegal contributions. The Comelec gives no more than a cursory glance at the
declaration of contributions and expenditures filed by candidates at the end of every election.
These sworn statements are only very rarely truthful; no one believes them. The same
cavalier attitude shown toward electoral laws is mirrored in the Filipino voter’s lack of
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appreciation for the meaning of his ballot. He seldom gives his right to vote the importance it
deserves because he does not understand the simple philosophy in which it is embedded.
Political right came to our people ahead of economic liberation. And so they have spent the
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last half century trying to appease their economic wants by trading in their political rights.
f) Politics. In the previous sections of this papers, I have tried to show how in many
subtle ways, Filipino community has been fragmented by the globalization of the labor
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market. But, we know by now, I think, that the biggest danger we face as a nation is
fragmentation and dissolution but a prolonged civil war.
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We were closest to a civil war during the dying years of Martial Law, when the Marcos
regime was increasingly unable to govern, and credible mechanism of succession did not
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exist. In 1985, in answer to an American TV anchor’s doubts about his political legitimacy,
Marcos offered the challenge of an election that everyone knew he would rig. We took that
challenge despite what reason was telling us. Looking back, I think if our people had rejected
it, as they had every reason to, there would have been no other choice for us at the same time
but armed struggle.
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But we took a leap of faith, literally and metaphorically. In this, I believe, we were
being modern, albeit in a reckless way. Instead of a clear plan of action, we drew from a rich
reserve of spirituality to overcome our fears.
We, as expected, the Bataan upheld the reelection of Marcos, the Americans advised us
to accept the spurious results of the 1986 elections that Marcos had clearly stolen. They
advised us to fight another day. This was also what the US wanted us to do during the
impeachment trial of Estrada in 2001—not to protest and not to abandon the impeachment
process but to accept the foregone conclusion that Estrada would eventually be acquitted by
the majority in the Senate. Such is democracy, the American media told us. If we wanted to
be modern in the Western sense, a basic commitment to institutions, I think, would have
dictated a submissive course of action, in both instances.
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But we decided to be modern in an alternative way—we rejected what was wrong and
rushed headlong into the swirl of events without demanding to know beforehand how the
process would end. Perhaps the right word is “postmodern”—foreign analysis thought we had
a dangerous tendency to distrust our own institutions. In a sense they were right. In 1986, we
knew nothing about people power. We stumbled upon it as a political device lying
somewhere between elections and revolutions. Fifteen years later, we were not certain
whether we could resort to it again to oust a corrupt and incompetent president. But, by then,
uncertainties no longer fazed us.
But now we have begun to worry that we have not paid much attention to nurturing our
institutions. We worry that we may have frayed the fabric of our national life too often and
stretched the meaning of democracy beyond recognition. We look around us and we are
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distressed to see how many incompetent people and suspected criminals we have elected to
public office. Criminal syndicates roam the country with impunity. The whole nation is held
hostage by well-armed bandits styling themselves as warriors for Islam. We cannot seem to
trust the military or the police to protect us, or our courts to dispense justice, or the mass
media to tell us the truth.
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Our first task should be to understand and accept what we have become. To understand
means to take a hard look at our present situation and to identify the weakest areas of our
national life requiring the most urgent and sustained intervention. To accept means to free
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ourselves from the sentiments of past generations to stop blaming colonialism, or the betrayal
and complicity of our leaders, for our troubles as a people.
It is to believe that we are what we are today as a result of the peculiar circumstances
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of our revolution as a nation. That colonialism produced both good and bad effects. That we
must learn to preserve and build upon the good, and charge the bad to experience. Today we
have a people to feed, house, and educate. There is a whole world out there that gets more
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and more complex every day. Its presence is for us both danger and opportunity.
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Concluding Notes
What I have to do here is to outline what I think have been the main features of the
Philippine experience with modernity. I have used the heroic figure of the Overseas Filipino
Worker as an analogue for a nation has also been a story of ceaseless coping with recurrent
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problems that worsen with time. Like the OFW, we drift as a nation, we manage, and we
coast along, and miraculously survive the trial that come our way—until another major crisis
hits us. Then we summon all our faith, and draw from a heroism that we think we no longer
have. We jolt the world by the awesome risks we take, and surprise even ourselves with the
providential results we achieve by our recklessness. No wonder we are people of uncommon
faith.
But our problems are graver with every passing year. The silent crisis we live in is
more dangerous. We have not prepared ourselves for the economic storm that is shaking the
rest of the world. This is all because we tend to reserve our passion and heroism for those
dramatic moments—the people power events—rather than for the long intervals when seem
to be at rest, when nothing great seems to be happening.
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We give in to cynicism; we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the complexity of the
tasks at hand, and to be discouraged by the pettiness of out politicians. We demand so much
our government, but expect so little from the people we elect to public office. Again it is
because we don’t see the interconnection.
To be modern is not just to survive a world of continuous change; more than this, it is
to be able to exercise a measure of control over our lives. This we cannot do by being
satisfied with mere coping.
And here I go back to Berman’s reminders. To be modern is to open ourselves to the

possibilities bought about by the unending flux of innovation and obsolescence. It is to
welcome change, and to be at home in it rather than to sneer at the new from the vantage
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point of romanticized past. But to be modern is also to grow in freedom with time, to strive to
reduce our vulnerability to unsettling events and phenomena, and to discipline and form
ourselves into a confident, stable, and peaceful community.
To be premodern is to reject our hand a world that contradicts our faith, while to be
modern is to leap into it and to create new meaning and ever new lives on the back of time
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without losing sense of what it is to be human.
The formation of a new culture hospitable to social justice, democracy, and freedom
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will not come from the simple revival of indigenous values, though without any doubt we
may draw some strength from them, nor will it come from the blind imitation of Western
institutions and practices. As in the past, it will come from the imagination of those who, like
Jose Rizal, could step out of the skin of the existing culture, criticize this in relation to the
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exigencies of survival in a vastly changed would, and offer new perspectives appropriate to
the times in which they live.
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References
1. Berman, Marshall. 1988. All that is solid 2. Lavie, Smadar& Ted Swedenburg, eds 1996.
melts into air. The experience of modernity. Displacement, diaspora and geographies of
New York: Viking Penguin identity. Durham,N.C.: Duke University
Press.
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I The Case of Filipina Domestic Helpers in Singapore and Hong Kong
F. LANDA JOCANO
This paper deals with the phenomenon of “culture shock” experienced by Filipinas
working as domestic helpers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Reports of incidents of “mental
disorders”, “emotional stress,” “suicides” and many other forms of difficulties suffered by
Filipina domestics during their stay in these places often bug the newspaper headlines.
Many reasons are given why these incidents happen. The most striking ones are
psychological in nature. While this is true, this paper offers another explanation: culture
shock.
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It is misleading if one focuses attention mainly on the difficulties Filipina domestics
suffer while working in these places. There are some success stories but these seldom land
in the newspaper headlines. They only serve to fan the imagination of relatives, neighbors
and friends to come to these distant cities to seek the “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”.
Some are lucky and others are not, whichever is the outcome of their ventures, they all
encounter the same initial “shock” in the new cultural setting with which many are not
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prepared to cope.
The term “culture shock” refers to a “form of anxiety that results from an inability
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to predict the behavior of others or act appropriately in a cross-cultural situation.” This
anxiety arises because of differences in cultural ways of thinking, believing, feeling and
acting that characterize the orientations of people in different cultures. What appears to be
logical in one culture is illogical in another. And so on.
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Culture has been broadly defined as a way of life. Each group of people has “a way
of life”—whether viewed from purely economic, social, political, and religious terms. It is
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this “way of life” which makes certain traits universal and others particular. For example,
eating is universal but preparing meals are not. Shelter is universal but building houses and
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living in them are not.
Clothing is universal but constructing attires and being fashionable is not. It is the
nuances associated with these universal traits which make them unique to certain groups of
people.
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Behaviorally, culture may be further viewed as a system of symbols and meanings

people use to (I) organize their ideas, (2) interpret their experiences, (3) pass judgments or
make decisions, and (4) guide their behavior. Symbols are objects, ideas, sounds (as in
language) and acts to which observers (as well as actor) endow certain attributes and use
these attributes to represent the realities of the objects, ideas, sounds and acts.
Where attributed meanings are not congruent, difficulties in the organization and
interpretation of actions take place. A person may know how to operate a telephone but if he
cannot speak the language, like being in a foreign land, he could not reach the person he
wants to speak with. If two persons do not share the same “meaning” they give to an object,
they ultimately quarrel.
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Asian countries are said to share similar cu1tures. This is true in the surface. But
underneath the veneer of being Asian, there are nuances of lifestyles which make Asian
countries differ from each other. These nuances are the major factors which hamper the
ability of those who choose to live in other cultures to respond appropriately or to adapt
quickly to the situation (s) in the host country.
The experiences of Filipina domestics in other Asian countries support this

observation. Much of their reported sufferings are largely due to “culture shock”. How to
minimize the impact of this “shock” in their lives is one of the issues that ought to challenge
the concern of labor and civic leaders in the countries of origin and the host countries.
Methodology
The data for Singapore were obtained during fieldwork in that country in
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1985 and 1986. The ones from Hong Kong were culled from the reports of colleagues
and other writers. These data have since been updated through interviews with
Filipina domestics who have returned to the Philippines. In other words, the data for
this paper came from two sources: actual interviews in the field and secondary
reports culled from published materials. Interviews with scholars who have done similar
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fieldwork were conducted to supplement the field materials.
Filipino Migrant Labor: An Overview

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The phenomenon of Filipino migrant labor is not new. It began as early as the turn
of the 20th century, when the American plantation owners, particularly the sugar barons of
D
Hawaii, recruited thousands of young Filipinos to work in the sugar plantations. The first
batch was in 190? which consisted mainly of 20? people, mostly Tagalogs. ‘The next group
came from Cebu in 1915. From 1919 to 1940, most recruits came from the Ilocos region.
E
After the Second World War, most Filipino labor migrants were professionals:
nurses, doctors, engineers and businessmen. They went mostly to the United States, Canada
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and Europe. The migration spread over a period of more than twenty years, from 1950 to
1970.
The boom of non-professionals but skilled labor migrants took place in the 1970s.
Hundreds and thousands of Filipinos were recruited as construction workers in the Middle
D
East. Of course, there were other places like Guam, Marianas, Malaysia and Indonesia. But
the bulk was in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
Following close to the heels of Filipino construction workers were Filipinas who
were recruited to work as entertainers, hospital attendants, hotel chambermaids and
domestics. The latter were recruited mostly for Japan, Europe, Middle East, Singapore and
Hong Kong. This paper deals mainly with experiences of domestic help (DH) in Singapore
and Hong Kong. The number of Filipinas working as DH in these two cities varies. There
are no accurate statistics in that some domestic helpers do not pass government processing
agencies, like the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). They go through
private recruiting agencies. Others are directly hired.
224
Reasons for Going Abroad
The reasons domestic helpers give when asked why they opted to work abroad are
varied. Most of them however give economic reasons as the main stimulus in doing so.
They are ware of the risk associated with such venture. An informant said: “Kami ay
nagbabakasakali kumita at makaginhawa naman sa hirap ng buhay sa ating bansa.” (We
take the chance order to earn (money) in order to “breath” sufferings we experience in our
country),
While economic reasons are recognized, are other factors informants give for
abroad as domestic helpers. Among these are “bastamaka-abroad lang” (just to go abroad),
“nagtampo kaya lumayas” (ran away from home because of hurt feelings), “mayroong
iniiwasan” (to escape from something or someone), and many others.
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In other words, working as a domestic help is one of the easiest ways to avoid all
these troubles. Most of these domestic helpers are college graduates. Some are already
gainfully employed here in the Philippines. But many do not have the necessary skills to
compete in the labor market abroad, hence they accept the most readily available ones—
domestic helpers.
Cultural Shock Experiences: Some Cases
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C
Almost all researchers who studied the plight of domestic helpers abroad report that
the initial problems of them met were psycho-social in nature. Meaning “culture shock”.
They left the Philippines with high hopes, often figuring how much they would make and
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the bright future their families would enjoy upon return. However, many of them did not
quite make it. Some did. Many fortunate ones—those whose employers were diplomats,
businessmen, and “foreigners” (mostly Whites)—enjoyed comparable living and no sad
E
tales to tell. But they also had initial discomforts with the new culture. The many
unfortunate ones, on the other hand did not only have discomforts, they underwent all kinds
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of sufferings ranging from nervous breakdowns to physical abuse.
The major challenge which confronts the domestic helpers, or anyone who goes
abroad for that matter is how to cope with the problems of the new environment. The
accounts informants narrate when interviewed point to what is known in the literature as
“culture shock.” That is, the inability to cope with new ways of doing things in the new
D
environment. There are six major areas where the “shock” is most prominent: language,
food, loneliness, jealousy, sexual abuse, and cultural practices.
Language
Miscommunication is one of the major of culture shock. The inability to convey a

message or to be understood is an excruciating experience. It brings about anxiety and fear,
especially in a foreign land. Many of the problems Filipino domestic helpers encounter in
Singapore and Hong Kong emanated from language difficulties. English is spoken and
generally understood in many sectors in Singapore and Hong Kong. Young Singaporeans
225
and Hong Kong Chinese know English. But many of the older ones do not speak the
language or, at best, have very little knowledge of it.
Thus, outside of the home, the newly-arrived domestic helpers do not have any
language problem. They also do not have any language problem with the younger
employers, although many young Chinese do not have a good grasp of the language. The
problem is with the older people in-laws, parents and grandparents—who are left behind
when the younger employers go to the office.
Generally, the older people are very conservative. They are also meticulous about
household work. When the younger employers come, they complain about the performance
of the help—”Your help is lazy”. She does not know anything.
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Such complains oftentimes also anger the young employers, especially the women.
The role of older people, especially mothers and mothers-in-law cannot be overemphasized.
Not to react positively to what they say is perceived as disobedience, a very serious offense
in Chinese culture. Thus, complaints from the older people about the helps’ performance
often trigger a quarrel between the employer and the help.
Some employers hit the helps physically when angered. Others pull the hair or heap
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verbal abuse. Newspaper reports of cases of physical violence due to miscommunication are
many. Here is one: C
Elena Cruz (a pseudonym), 20, comes from Cagayan Valley. She is the eldest in a
family of seven. She was in second year high school when her parents died. She decided to
quit school and find work in order to make the family survive.
D
One day, a neighbor friend dropped by. She has just arrived from Singapore for a
vacation. She is working as a domestic helper. She narrated her wonderful experiences and
showed colored photographs to back up her stories. She also said she is earning S$300.00 a
E
month, which is equivalent to P3,000.00

EP
This excited Elena and her siblings. They asked the girl how she was able to go to
Singapore. She told about the process—go to the recruiting agency, follow up papers, and
pay the necessary fees, which amount to P8,000.00.
“After that, everything is simple,” said the friend.

D
Elena decided to go. With the help of relatives, she was able to raise the money. She
went to Manila and approached the recruitment agency that was recommended by her
friend.
Elena cannot speak good English. But she can manage a halting conversation. On
arrival in Singapore, she was fetched from the airport by the man from the agency. They
were taken to “a big house in the city.” From there, the prospective employer picked her up.
Elena’s employer is a young Chinese couple who are in a private company. At home, the
man’s older sister and mother stay with them, the flat is located on the 6th floor of a high-
rise apartment.
226
The older sister runs a good stall in the market. The older woman, in her seventies,
stays at home with the children. Both women cannot speak English. Elena does not have
problems when the young, English-speaking employers are at home. But when they are in
the office, that is when problems arise. Instructions from the older women are in Chinese.
Sign language is resorted to most of the time. But this is very difficult. Elena cannot follow
the instructions to the detail and this often angers the older women.
One noontime, the old woman instructed Elena to prepare lunch. They could not
understand each other. Elena tried to follow but everything she did was always out of place.
She tried to explain but it was useless. At the height of their misunderstanding, the women
hurled at Elena all kinds of invectives and finally slapped her. Elena did not retaliate.
In the evening, when the young employer arrived, the old woman told them that
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Elena refused to obey her. This angered the wife. She confronted Elena. The latter tried to
explain but she did not want any of this. One word led to another and they quarreled. The
employer slapped Elena and pulled her hair. When the man saw this, he helped his wife and
they took turns punishing Elena.
This incident triggered similar incidents. Elena suffered much, not because she was
O
not competent but because she could not handle the language well. She was brought by her
employer’s sister to work at the stall in the market. Again, she messed up the business
because she could not understand what the customers wanted or were talking about. Again,
she was punished for her mistake.
C
Food
D
Food is the other source of problem of adaptation among the newly arrived Filipino
domestic hclpers. Of course, Filipinos are used to Chinese food and are very flexible
E
insofar as food is concerned. However, the food preparation for ordinary household
consumption is another thing. Among the reported preparation which Filipina
domestic helpers find
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culturally intolerable is the use of porridge (Filipino lugaw) for meals among the Chinese,
and the peppery (maanghang) food among the Indians and Malaysians.
Food would not have been a “source of culture shock” if the maids are allowed to
cook their own food. Generally, they are forbidden to do so. They have to “make do” of
D
what is served in the house. Eventually the maids get adjusted but not without experiencing
difficulties along the way.
For example, most Chinese serve porridge for ordinary meals. Culturally, porridge
is served in Philippines to people who are sick or on soft. The preparation is also served as
snacks, known as goto. Porridge is not served as the regular menu for meals. However,
among the Chinese in both Singapore and Hong Kong, this is the regular meal.
Sometimes, the porridge is mixed with chicken, beef, onions and other condiments.
However, some Filipina maids report that the porridge served them “is mainly rice and
water.” To meet personal tastes, the individual may add sauce, pepper or salt.
227
Most Filipina domestics complained about practice. As one maid said: “We worked
so hard and yet we are fed with lugaw. Could you imagine eating porridge in the morning,
in and evening through the week?” When they complain about this, they are reminded, “You
are not in the Philippines. You are in Singapore (or Hong Kong, as the case may be). You
better adjust.”
Aside from Chinese food, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian food preparations are not
palatable to many Filipinas. It is “too hot for our “But that is all there is in the house and if
you do not like the preparation, then you do not have any meal at all.” Since the maids are
not allowed to cook their food separately, many survive the first few months on crackers or,
if they are fortunate to have weekends off, they buy Filipino food from snack corners and
from market places.
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Loneliness
Loneliness is the first psychological problem that hits the Filipina domestic upon
arrival in a foerign country. The warmth and attention received at home are suddenly not
O
there. She is alone. She is warned against using the telephone for calling friends. She could
not receive calls either. Even if she is not prevented from calling friends, she knows no one.
Maybe she has friends—but they are also busy and also warned against receiving calls.
C
“Loneliness is the worst enemy,” said one of the maids during an interview. “It took
me five months to overcome it. That was when I started to have friends. But before that I did
not know what to do—I can only cry.”
D
Crying is sometimes the cause of the quarrel between Filipina domestic helpers and
their employers. Shedding tears, in conservative Chinese belief, brings bad luck to the
E
family. The employers cannot understand why the maids are always crying. As one
employer complained to me: “Mr. Jocano, what shall I do with my Filipina maid? She cries
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in the morning, she cries at noon, she cries in the afternoon, she cries in the evening and she
cries before going to sleep. My husband is getting concerned because our business is having
difficulties.”
When I explained that perhaps they are lonely, the crisp reply was: “But why did
they come?” Loneliness is not so much a problem to single girls. But to married ones who
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have left their small children, it is an ordeal. “At first,” said one of the maids, “I could not
stand it. I cried almost all day long. My employers—husband and wife—were always mad
at me. When I did not have any letter from home I felt miserable. When I received letters
from home, it was also equally miserable. I did not know what to do. I hung on to my
rosary. I prayed and prayed. Slowly, my loneliness faded away as days went by and I started
to have friends.”
228
Jealousy
The third main source of conflict between the Filipino domestic helper and her
employers, particularly the wife, is jealousy. Generally, Filipinas are fashion conscious.
They love to dress themselves, complete with fashion jewelry they could afford. It is
irrelevant whether the materials used for a dress are cheap or the jewelry are imitations.
These are worn with some elegance and taste.
Except for the well-to-do, Chinese women are conservative in their taste for fashion.
Thus, when Filipina domestic helpers accompany their employers (specifically to take care
of the children) when the latter attend social gatherings, the former looks more “beautiful
than the ama.”
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This contrast makes the wife jealous. It also catches the attention of the husband and
leads to conflict. This is typified by this case.
Amelia is 24 years old. She comes from Pampanga. She has a fairly white
complexion or mestizahin, is 5’ x 4” in height, slender and with jetblack hair which she
keeps close to her shoulders. Her eyes have an oriental slant which, at a glance, make her
O
look like a Chinese. She sought employment as a maid in Singapore when she and her
boyfriend broke their engagement. C
Her employer is a middle-aged Chinese couple. The man is fifty and the woman is
forty-nine. They have four children, mostly grown-up and have their own families. Their
grandchildren live with them.
D
One day, they brought the grandchildren to a country fair. Amelia dressed for the
occasion. When they reached the fair-site, she was mistaken for Mrs. Ong, her employer.
Because of her pretty looks, the aging Mr. Ong also took a fancy at Amelia. Trouble began.
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Mrs. Ong became very jealous of Amelia that she refused to bring her out again. She also
accused Amelia of trying to seduce her husband.
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Because of jealousy, Mrs. Ong made Amelia’s life very miserable. She would make
her work more than eight hours a day, from five o’clock in the morning to two o’clock the
following morning, especially when there is a mahjong game in the house.” In addition,
Amelia was allowed to have a day off only once a month. She was not given adequate food.
She was scolded, shouted at and humiliated in front of visitors.
D
When interviewed, Amelia showed flat iron marks on her arms. She said that it was
inflicted by Ms. Ong when she did not iron the latter’s dress “as good as she expected me to
do.” There were many other physical abuses. When Amelia could not take it anymore she
ran away. She sought help at the Catholic Center in Geylang Street.
229
Summary and Conclusion
There are many other cases that document the cross-cultural problems met by
Filipinas in Singapore and Hong Kong. Data from other countries, like Malaysia and the
Middle East, are similar. Official reports from the Department of Labor and Employment
also record similar cases. Suffice it for the moment to state that most of the difficulties
Filipina domestic helpers meet abroad emanate from clash of cultural orientations.
The familiar ways of doing things in the Philippines signal different meanings
among the Chinese in Singapore and Hong Kong. Crying, for example, is not good for
business because tears “block the flow of money and wash away good luck.” Dirt must not
be swept away through the door. It brings bad luck. Several Filipinas interviewed said they
were dismissed because “the tip of the broom I’m using accidentally touched the feet of my
employer.” Doing this, “I was told by my employer that it would bring untold bad luck to
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the family.”
There are many other cross-cultural practices which cause miscommunication and
conflict between the Filipino maids and their employers. In many occasions, they cannot
understand why they are verbally abused and physically harmed. “We try our best to
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perform well, said many of them when interviewed, “but our best is not good enough. You
are not corrected so that you can learn. Basta’t sabunutan ka na lang (You are just hit).
C
Theoretically, even if Asian countries are the same Asiatic cultures, the nuances of
each country’s cultural orientation vary. This is when the problem lies in cross-cultural
encounters. Many of the Chinese beliefs and practices coincide with those of the
Philippines. Our exposure to the Spaniards and the Americans have altered many of our
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Asiatic beliefs and thus, when people coming from these two cultures interact, they
generally do not communicate well and this often brings conflicts. It is suggested, in this
connection that to enhance cross-cultural understanding between the Filipina help and their
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prospective employers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a pre-departure, cross-cultural seminar

be given as the Filipina domestic helpers. This will them on what to expect and how to
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behave so that they do not become so vulnerable to exploitation and abuse abroad. Conflicts
generated by misunderstanding at the individual level can become a problem at the inter-
country level.
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230
Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender and Inter-
J Generational Relations in Filipino Transnational Families
RHACEL SALAZAR PARREÑAS
An increasing number of Filipina migrants are mothering their children from a

distance. In order to provide for their families, they must leave them behind in the
Philippines and take advantage of the greater labor market opportunities in other countries
of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. One of the largest sources of independent female labor
migrants in the world, the Philippines has seen the formation of a growing number of
1
female-headed transnational families. These families are households with core members
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living in at least two nation-states and in which the mother works in another country while
some or all of her dependents reside in the Philippines. This article analyzes the emotional
consequences of geographical distance in female-headed transnational families and
examines the mechanisms by which mothers and children cope with them.
Without a doubt, mothering from a distance has emotional ramifications both for
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mothers who leave and children who are sent back or left behind. The pain of family
separation creates various feelings, including helplessness, regret, and guilt for mothers and
loneliness, vulnerability, and insecurity for children. How are these feelings negotiated in
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the social reproduction of the transnational family?2 Moreover, how are these feelings
influenced by gender ideologies of mothering? The practice of mothering from a distance or
“transnational mothering,” as Pierrette Hondagneu Sotelo and Ernestine Avila have called it,
ruptures the ideological foundation of the Filipino family.3 Unlike the “split households” of
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earlier Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino male migrants in the United States, the traditional
division of labor with the father in charge of production and the mother of reproduction are
contested in contemporary female-headed transnational households.4
E
This article examines gender and intergenerational relations through the lens of
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emotion. I show that socialized gender norms in the family aggravate the emotional strains
of mothers and children in transnational families and argue that the reconstitution of
mothering led by female migrants from the Philippines is stalled by traditional ideologies of
family life. I chose emotion as the central analytical principle of this article because
emotional strains are prominent characteristics of the family life of migrant Filipina
domestic workers. Moreover, these emotional strains beg to be understood systematically.
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As Arlie Hochschild has shown, emotions do not exist in a vacuum. Instead, they exist in
the context of social structures in society. As she states, “Emotion is a sense that tells about
the self-relevance of reality. We infer from it what we must have wanted or expected or how
we must have been perceiving the world. Emotion is one way to discover a buried
perspective on matters.” Regulated by “feeling rules,” emotions are determined by
ideologies,5 and in the Filipino family, as in many other families, the ideology of woman as
nurturer is a central determinant of the emotional needs and expectations of its members.6
To develop my argument, I begin by reviewing two relevant bodies of literature—one

on transnational families and the other on emotional labor. Then, I describe my research
methodology and the characteristics of my sample. To build my conceptual case, I first
discuss the structural causes of distance mothering. Second, I illustrate the emotional strains
231
engendered by the geographical distance in transnational families. Finally, I build on this by
analyzing the ways that traditional gender ideologies aggravate the intergenerational
conflicts wrought by the emotional strains of transnational family life.
Transnational Families
My discussion engages and draws from literature on the transnational family and
women’s work and emotional labor. Transnational families are neither unique to Filipino
labor migrants nor are they exclusive to present day migrants. Various studies have
documented the formation of transnational households among contemporary migrants from
the traditional sending countries of Haiti and Mexico and earlier groups of migrants in the
United States.7
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Transnational families have also been given a plethora of names such as astronaut
families, bi-national families, and split households. By referring to the families in my study
as “transnational,” I draw from recent literature that illustrates how various social fields, one
of which is the family, operate through the regular circulation of goods, resources,
individuals, and information across national borders.8
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Literature on transnational families establishes that their formation is simultaneously
a structural and cultural process. Migrants form transnational households in response to
structural forces of economic globalization and, in doing so, rely on cultural resources such
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as kin networks.9 Missing from the literature, however, is the analysis of the emotional
strains of parenting from a distance. At most, the strains of geographical separation, such as
emotional stress and the higher risk of permanent separation, are given only a cursory
glance.10 Studies have also not paid attention to intergenerational relations in these
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households.11 This article contributes to literature on transnational families by looking
more deeply into the emotional strains of separation and by considering the
perspective of children on transnational family life.
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Emotional Labor
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The discourse on social relationships in the family has, surprisingly, neglected the
emotional dimensions of family life, because emotion has often been considered “too
personal” and “treated as if it has an existence independent of the social and cultural
context.”12 To address the division of emotional work in transnational families, I turn
to literature on women’s work, particularly discussions of emotional labor.
D
Feminist scholarship has long contested the ideological construction that links women
to nurturance. Still, the ideology of women as caretakers continues to constrain the
productive labor activities of women in myriad ways including their sex segregation in jobs
resembling “wife-and-mother roles.” This is the case not only in the United States but also
in the Philippines.13 This ideology extends to the workplace in another way and that is the
greater expectation of women to provide care via emotional labor, a concept that refers to
“the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display.” 14
Emotional labor is expected in traditional female occupations such as paid domestic

work. For example, domestic workers are bound to the script of “maternalism and
deference.” 15 They are also made “proto-mothers,” expected to mother two families, their
232
16
own and that of their employers. They must provide companionship and care by acting
as confidante and giving consolation to employers. These labor demands squeeze
domestic workers of the energy and supplies needed to provide emotional care to their own
families. As one quantitative study of the links between women’s emotional labor at
home and at work concludes, the scarcity hypothesis of emotional energy applies to jobs
that involve caregiving much more than other types of jobs.17
Literature on emotional labor establishes that women are expected to nurture the
emotional well-being of people at home and at work. Confronted with geographical
distance, transnational mothers face the even greater challenge of providing emotional care
to their children. If migrant Filipina domestic workers are to remain responsible for the
emotional care of their families, children in female-headed transnational households are
prone to suffer from a “care deficit.” 18
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Methodology
This article is based primarily on open-ended interviews that I collected with female
domestic workers in Rome and Los Angeles: forty-six in Rome and twenty-six in Los
Angeles. I tape-recorded and transcribed fully each of my interviews, which were mostly
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conducted in Tagalog or Taglish (a hybrid of Tagalog and English), and then translated into
English. I based my study on these two cities because they are two main destinations of
Filipina migrants.
C
A little less than five months in Rome in 1995 and 1996 gave me ample time to
collect forty-six in-depth interviews with Filipina domestic workers. The interviews ranged
from one and one-half to three hours in length. I collected an unsystematic sample of
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research participants by using chain and snowball referrals. To diversify my sample, I
solicited research participants from various sites in the community (e.g., church, parks, and
plazas).
E
In Los Angeles, I collected a smaller sample of twenty-six in-depth interviews with

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Filipina domestic workers. These interviews range from one and one-half to three hours in
length. I collected these interviews between April and September 1996. My smaller sample
is due to the fact that, unlike their counterparts in Rome, Filipina migrants in Los Angeles
are not concentrated in the informal service sector. Another factor contributing to the
smaller sample in Los Angeles is their relatively small representation among domestic
workers. Although present in the ethnic community, Filipinas are but a minority among the
D
larger group of Latina domestics in the area.
In the field research site of Los Angeles, tapping into the community began with the
network of my mother’s friends and relatives. To diversify my sample, I posted flyers in
various ethnic enclave businesses. Two women responded to the flyers. Utilizing networks
of domestic workers, the sample of interviewees was collected unsystematically through a
snowball method. Participant observation provided a gateway to the community as I
attended meetings of Filipino labor groups, the occasional Filipino town fiestas and the
more frequent Filipino family parties, and spent time with domestic workers at their own
and at their employers’ homes.
233
My interviews with domestic workers provide a limited sample of children who grew
up in transnational households. None of the twenty-six women interviewed in Los Angeles
are second generation transnationals. Of the forty-six women interviewed in Rome, only six
were raised in transnational households. To gain the perspective of children, I supplement
my data using a variety of sources. First, I rely on ten in-depth interviews that I had
collected with children who grew up in transnational households. These interviews were
conducted in Los Angeles in November and December 1994. Second, I look at writings of
children featured in the transnational monthly “Tinig Filipino”. This magazine caters to
migrant Filipina domestic workers and circulates in at least a dozen countries. Most issues
feature articles and reprinted letters that voice the perspective of children on transnational
family life. Finally, I rely on the earlier cited survey conducted by Victoria Paz Cruz with
more than 300 children who are growing up with absentee migrant parents in the Philippines
and her attached supplementary survey of more than ninety guardians.
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The survey of 212 high school and college students with international migrant parents
and ninety with internal migrant parents living elsewhere in the Philippines measures the
social impact of migration on the family and assesses the effects of the prolonged absence of
migrant parents on children.
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Characteristics of Sample
Although there are distinguishing characteristics between my interviewees in Rome

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and Los Angeles, they also share many social characteristics. Differences between them
include regional origin and median age. Interestingly, there are more similarities between
them. First, most of them are legal residents of their respective host societies. In Italy, thirty
of forty-six interviewees have a permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay), which grants them
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temporary residency for seven years. Most of my informants are documented because Italy
has regularly granted amnesties to undocumented migrants. For example, the state awarded
them in 1987, 1990, 1995, and 1997. 20 With the legislation of the Martelli Law in
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1990, migrant Filipina domestic workers became eligible to sponsor the migration of
their families. Nonetheless, most of my interviewees have chosen not to sponsor the
migration of their children.
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In Los Angeles, fifteen of twenty-six interviewees have legal documents. Most of the
women acquired permanent legal status by marriage or the sponsorship of a wealthy
employer. Yet many have not been able to sponsor the migration of dependents, because
they have been caught in the legal bind of obtaining legal status only after their children had
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reached adult age, when they are no longer eligible for immediate family reunification.
Another similarity between my interviewees in Rome and Los Angeles is their high
level of educational attainment. Most of them have acquired some years of postsecondary
training in the Philippines. In Rome, my interviewees include twenty-three women with
college degrees, twelve with some years of college or postsecondary vocational training, and
seven women who completed high school. In Los Angeles, my interviewees include eleven
women with college diplomas, eight with some years of college or postsecondary vocational
training, and five who completed high school.
Finally, more than one-half of my interviewees are married women with children. I
was surprised to stumble upon this fact, because studies have indicated that Filipina
234
migrants are usually young and single women.21 Only five of twenty-six interviewees in
Los Angeles and less than one-half (nineteen) in Rome are never married single women.
Women with children in the Philippines constitute a greater portion of my sample:
twenty-five of forty-six in Rome and fourteen of twenty-six in Los Angeles.
The median age of interviewees suggests that the children of women in Rome are
fairly young, and in Los Angeles, the children are older. The median age of my interviewees
in Los Angeles is high at fifty-two. The youngest research participant is thirty-three, while
the oldest is sixty-eight years old. What explains the extremely high median age of domestic
workers in Los Angeles? We can surprise that younger immigrant Filipino women are not
attracted to domestic work because of its isolating nature. They can choose to avoid
domestic work, because compared with other immigrant groups, their knowledge of the
English language gives them access to other types of employment. In Rome, the median age
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of interviewees is thirty-one years old, significantly lower than my sample in Los Angeles.
Although only four women fall under the age of twenty-five, the oldest woman is sixty-six
years old.
In contrast to the trend for shorter periods of separation among Mexican migrant
families, the duration of separation among Filipina migrant domestic workers extends to
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more than two years for most families, usually encompassing the entire duration of
settlement. 22 Significantly, parents with legal documents return to the Philippines
sporadically. On average, they visit their children every four years for a period of two
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months. They attribute the infrequency of their return to the high cost of airfare and to the
fact they cannot afford to take time off work. In addition, the fear of losing their jobs
prevents them from visiting their families for an extended period of time. As they are
limited to short visits to the Philippines, traveling is seen as an excessive expense of funds
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that could otherwise be used on meeting the costs of reproducing the family.
The Structural Context of Mothering from a Distance

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The globalization of the market economy has triggered a high demand for female
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workers from developing nations, such as the Philippines, to supply low-wage service labor
in more developed nations. In postindustrial nations such as the United States and Italy, their
low-wage service labor (e.g., hotel housekeeping and domestic work) is needed by the
growing professional population in global cities, meaning new economic centers where
specialized professional services (e.g., legal, financial, accounting, and consulting services)
are concentrated. 23 In newly industrialized countries, such as Taiwan and Malaysia,
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globalization and the rise of manufacturing production has also generated a demand for low-
wage service migrant workers. Production activities in these economies have subsumed the
traditional proletariat female work force who would otherwise perform low-wage service
jobs such as domestic work. This shift in labor market concentration has generated a need
for the lower wage labor of women from neighboring countries in Asia to fill the demand
for service employment. 24
In globalization, even though the “denationalized” economy demands the low-wage

service labor of female migrants, the “renationalized” society neither wants the
responsibility for the reproductive costs of these workers nor grants them the membership
accorded by the contributions of their labor to the economic growth of receiving nations.25
The entrance of migrant Filipina domestic workers into the global economy is wrought by
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structural constraints that restrict their incorporation into receiving nations. For example,
various countries limit the term of their settlement to temporary labor contracts and deny
26
entry to their spouses and children. As a result, migrant Filipina domestic workers
with children are forced to mother from a distance.
Receiving nations curb the integration of migrant Filipina domestic workers so as to

guarantee to their economies a secure source of low-wage labor. By containing the costs of
reproduction in sending countries, wages of migrant workers can be kept to a minimum.
Moreover, by restricting the incorporation of migrants, receiving nations can secure for their
economies a supply of low-wage workers who could easily be repatriated if the economy is
slow.
Sending the message that only the production and not the reproduction of their labor
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is desired, nations such as Singapore and Malaysia prohibit the marriage or cohabitation of
migrant Filipina domestic workers with native citizens. 27 Pregnancy is furthermore
prohibited for Filipina migrants in the Middle East and Asia.28 The liberal states of the
United States and Italy are not exempt from the trend of “renationalization.” In the United
States, for example, lawmakers are entertaining the promotion of temporary labor migration
and the elimination of certain preference categories for family reunification, including the
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preference categories for adult children and parents of U.S. citizens and permanent
residents, the trend being to continue the labor provided by migrants but to discontinue
support for their reproduction. In Italy, the “guest worker” status of migrant Filipinos
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coupled with their restricted options in the labor market encourages the maintenance of
transnational households.
Only in a few countries are migrant Filipina domestic workers eligible for family
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reunification. They include Canada, the United States, and Italy. However, many structural
factors deter migrant Filipina domestic workers in these countries from sponsoring the
migration of their children. For instance, the occupational demands of domestic work make
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it difficult for them to raise their children in these host societies. In Italy, low wages force
most day workers to work long hours. In the United States, most of my research informants
are live-in domestic workers. As such, their work arrangement limits the time that they can
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devote to the care of their own families.
Consequently, as I have argued elsewhere, the increasing demand for migrant women
to alleviate the reproductive labor of the growing number of working women in
postindustrial nations has sparked the formation of an international division of reproductive
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labor. Under this system, migrant Filipina domestic workers perform the reproductive labor
of class-privileged women in industrialized countries and are forced to leave their children
behind in the Philippines. Many in turn have had to hire other women in the Philippines to
perform their own household work. In fact, many of the women in my study employ paid
domestic workers to care for their families in the Philippines. In this sense, we can see the
formation of a three-tier chain of the commodification of mothering between middle-class
women in the United States and Italy; migrant Filipina domestic workers; and Filipina
domestic workers in the Philippines who are too poor to afford the costs of emigration.
Filipina migrants leave or send children back to the Philippines in order to mediate
other structural forces of globalization, including the unequal level of economic
development between sending and receiving nations and the rise of anti-immigrant
sentiments. Negotiating the unequal development of regions in the global economy, migrant
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Filipina domestic workers mother from a distance to take advantage of the lower costs of
reproducing, feeding, housing, clothing, and educating the family in the Third World. In
doing so, they are able to provide their families with a secure middle-class lifestyle. The
lesser costs of reproduction in sending countries, such as the Philippines, enable them to
provide greater material benefits for their children, including the luxury of paid domestic
help and more comfortable housing as opposed to cramped living quarters forced by high
rents in global cities. In this way, the family can expedite its goals of accumulating savings
and property.
Migrants also form transnational households in response to the pressure of nativism in

receiving societies. Nativist grassroots organizations (e.g., Americans for Immigration
Control and Legalin Northern Italy) aimed at the further restriction and exclusion of
immigration have sprouted throughout the United States and Italy. With anti-immigrant
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sentiments brewing, migrant parents may not want to expose their children to the racial
tensions and anti-immigrant sentiments fostered by the social and cultural construction of
low-wage migrants as undesirable citizens. These structural constraints prolong the length of
family separation in migration as it may even extend to a span of a life cycle. Among my
interviewees, for example, the length of separation between mothers and their now adult
children extends to sixteen years.
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The Pain of Mothering from a Distance C
When the girl that I take care of calls her mother “Mama,” my heart jumps all the
time because my children also call me “Mama.”... I begin thinking that at this hour I should
be taking care of my very own children and not someone else’s, someone who is not related
to me in any way, shape, or form... The work that I do here is done for my family, but the
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problem is they are not close to me but are far away in the Philippines. Sometimes, you feel
the separation and you start to cry. Some days, I just start crying while I am sweeping the
floor because I am thinking about my children in the Philippines. Sometimes, when I receive
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a letter from my children telling me that they are sick, I look up out the window and ask the
Lord to look after them and make sure they get better even without me around to care after
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them. (Starts crying.) If I had wings, I would fly home to my children. Just for a moment, to
see my children and take care of their needs, help them, then fly back over here to continue
my work. (Author’s emphasis.) (Rosemarie Samaniego, widowed, Rome, migrated in 1991,
31
children are ten, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, and nineteen years old.)
Everyday Filipina domestic workers such as Rosemarie Samaniego are overwhelmed

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by feelings of helplessness: they are trapped in the painful contradiction of feeling the
distance from their families and having to depend on the material benefits of their
separation. They may long to reunite with their children but cannot, because they need their
earnings to sustain their families.
Emotional strains of transnational mothering include feelings of anxiety, helplessness,

loss, guilt, and the burden of loneliness. Mothers negotiate these emotional strains in three
central ways: the commodification of love; the repression of emotional strains; and the
rationalization of distance, that is, they use regulation communication to ease distance. In
general, individual women use all three coping mechanisms, although not always
consciously. For the most part, they justify their decision to leave their children behind in
the Philippines by highlighting the material gains of the family. And they struggle to
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maintain a semblance of family life by rationalizing distance. Although a few women
explicitly deny the emotional strains imposed by separation on their children, most women
admit to the emotional difficulties that they themselves feel.
Knowing that they have missed the growing years of children, mothers admit
experiencing loss of intimacy in transnational families. In general, a surreal timelessness is
felt during separation that is suddenly catapulted back to reality the moment the family
reunites.
When I came home, my daughters were teenagers already. (Starts crying.)

When I saw my family, I dropped my bag and asked who were my daughters. I did
not know who they were but they just kept on screaming “Inay, Inay!” [Mom,
Mom!] I asked them who was who and they said “I’m Sally and I’m Sandra.” We
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were crying. I did not know who was who. Imagine! But they were so small when I
left and there they were as teenagers... (Ermie Contado, widowed, Rome, migrated
in 1981, daughters followed her in early 1990s.)
Confronted with the absence of familiarity, transnational mothers often feel an

unsurmountable loss over their prolonged separation from their children.
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For the women in my study, this pain is usually aggravated by caretaking tasks of
domestic work. Taking care of children is not just taking care of children when, in the
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process of doing so, one cannot take care of one’s own children. This contradiction
accentuates the pain of domestic work and results in their simultaneous aversion and desire
for this job. Ruby Mercado, a domestic worker, states: “Domestic work is depressing... you
especially miss your children. I do not like taking care of other children when I could not
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take care of my own. It hurts too much.” Although a few domestic workers resolve this
tension by avoiding childcare, many also resolve it by “pouring love,” including Trinidad
Borromeo, who states, “When I take care of an elderly, I treat her like she is my own
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mother.”
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As I have noted, transnational mothers cope with the emotional tensions of mothering
from a distance by commodifying love. In the field, I often heard women say: “I buy
everything that my children need.” or “I give them everything they want.” Transnational
parents knowingly or unknowingly have the urge to overcompensate for their absence with
material goods. Ruby Mercado states:
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All the things that my children needed I gave to them and even more because
I know that I have not fulfilled my motherly duties completely. Because we were
apart (since 1983), there have been needs that I have not met. I try to hide that gap
by giving them all the material things that they desire and want. I feel guilty
because as a mother I have not been able to care for their daily needs. So, because I
am lacking in giving them maternal love, I fill that gap with many material goods…
Unable to provide her four children (now between the ages of eighteen and twenty-
six) with daily acts of caregiving, Ruby, not unlike other transnational mothers, feels
insecure about the emotional bonds in her family. As a result, she has come to rely on
commodities to establish concrete ties of familiar dependency.
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Transnational parents struggle with and do have regrets over separation, but they are
able to with stand these hardships because of the financial gains that they have achieved in
migration.
I have been lonely here. I have thought about the Philippines while I am
scrubbing and mopping that floor. You cannot help but ask yourself what are you
doing here scrubbing and being apart from your family. Then, you think about the
money and know that you have no choice but to be here. (Incarnacion Molina,
separated, Rome, migrated in 1991, two daughters in late adolescence.)
By working outside of the Philippines, parents obtain the financial resources that they
need to ensure that their children eat daily meals of meat and rice, attend college, and have
secure housing.
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Although many migrant laborers outside of the Philippines have attained some years
of post secondary education, they have not been able to achieve a “secure” middle-class
lifestyle in the Philippines. So, why do they bother to invest in their children’s college
education? The education of children is a marker of material security for migrant parents. It
is a central motivating factor for migration. As a domestic worker states, “The intelligence
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of my children would be wasted if they don’t attain a college degree, that’s why I made up
my mind and I prayed a lot that I have a chance to go abroad for the sake of my children’s
education.” 32 Parents believe that the more educated children there are in their families,
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the greater the resources of the family and the lesser the dependence of family members on
each other, which means there would be less need for a family member to work outside
of the Philippines in order to support other members of the family.
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Migrant mothers also cope with separation by repressing the emotional tensions in
transnational families. Considering that larger structural forces of globalization deny
migrant Filipina domestic workers the right to family reunification, they sometimes cannot
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afford to confront their feelings. As Dorothy Espiritu—a widowed domestic worker in Los
Angeles who left her four (now adult) children between the ages of nine and eighteen—
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explains, lingering over the painful sacrifice of separation only intensifies the emotional
hardships of providing the family with material security.
In answer to my question of whether it has been difficult not seeing her children for
twelve years, she answered:
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If you say it is hard, it is hard. You could easily be overwhelmed by the loneliness
you feel as a mother, but then you have to have the foresight to overcome that.
Without the foresight for the future of your children, then you have a harder time. If
I had not had the foresight, my children would not be as secure as they are now.
They would not have had a chance. (Pauses.) What I did was I put the loneliness
aside. I put everything aside. I put the sacrifice aside. Everything, Now, I am happy
that all of them have completed college.
Although mothers usually admit that emotional strains are en-gendered by

geographical distance, they also tend to repress them. In fact, some of my interviewees
strategically cope with physical distance by completely denying its emotional costs. It had
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primarily been mothers who had two sets of children, one in the Philippines and the other
abroad, who preferred not to discuss intergenerational relationships at all.
Despite their tendency to downplay the emotional tensions wrought by the formation
of transnational households, migrant mothers struggle to amend this loss by regularly
keeping in contact with their children in the Philippines. To fulfill their mothering role from
afar, they compress time and space and attempt to counter the physical distance in the
family via the telephone and letter writing. Most of my interviewees phone and write their
children at least once every two weeks. In doing so, they keep abreast of their children’s
activities and at the same time achieve a certain level of familiarity and intimacy. As
Patricia Baclayon of Los Angeles states: “There is nothing wrong with our relationship. I
pay a lot for the phone bill. Last month, I paid $170 and that’s two days of wages. They
write too. Last week, I received four letters.”
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Ironically, the rationalization of transnational distance in the family, while reassuring
for parents, could be stifling for children in the Philippines. At the very least, parents are
more likely to consider prolonging separation, as they are reassured that separation is
manageable and does not mean the loss of intimacy. The “power geometry” in the process
of time-space compression is elucidated by feminist geographer Doreen Massey as having
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created distinct experiences:
This point concerns not merely the issue of who moves and who doesn’t, although
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that is an important element of it; it is also about power in relation to the flows and the
movement. Different social groups [in this case mothers and children] have distinct
relationships to this anyway differentiated mobility: some people are more in charge of it
than others; some initiate flows and movement, others don’t; some are more on the
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receiving end of it than others; some are effectively imprisoned by it.” 33
In transnational families, power clearly lies with the parent, in particular the migrant
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parent. The process of time-space compression is unidirectional with children at the

receiving end. Migrant parents initiate calls as children receive them. Migrant parents remit
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money to children physically immobilized in the Philippines. Children are trapped as time-
space compression convinces parents that they have maintained close-knit ties and allows
them to keep their children waiting even longer.
From the commodification of love to the “technological” management of distance,

my interviewees have found many ways to cope with family separation. Although they ease
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the barriers that spatial distance has imposed on their families, many still feel that intimacy
can only be fully achieved with great investment in time and daily interactions in the family.
The Pain of Growing Up in Transnational Families
Regardless of household structure, whether it is nuclear, single parent, or

transnational, intergenerational conflicts frequently arise in the family. As many feminist
scholars have argued, the family is not a collective unit. Instead, the family represents an
institution with conflicting interests, priorities, and concerns for its members. In
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transnational households, intergenerational conflicts are engendered by the emotional strains
of family life.
Children also suffer from the emotional costs of geographical distance with feelings
of loneliness, insecurity, and vulnerability. They also crave greater intimacy with their
migrant parents. For example, the children in Victoria Paz Cruz’s survey offer several
reasons for their desire to reunite with their migrant parents: “I want them to share with us
in our daily life and I want our family to be complete”; “So that they will be there when we
34
need them”; and “We can share our laughters and tears.” Denied the intimacy of
daily interactions, children struggle to understand the motives behind their mothers’
decision to raise them from a distance. Unfortunately, they do not necessarily do so
successfully.
Three central conflicts plague intergenerational relationships between migrant
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mothers and the children whom they have left behind in the Philippines. First, children
disagree with their mothers that commodities are sufficient markers of love. Second, they do
not believe that their mothers recognize the sacrifices that children have made toward the
successful maintenance of the family. Finally, although they appreciate the efforts of
migrant mothers to show affection and care, they still question the extent of their efforts.
They particularly question mothers for their sporadic visits to the Philippines. As I have
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noted, most of the mothers whom I interviewed return to the Philippines infrequently, once
every four years. C
For the most part, children recognize the material gains provided by separation. The
survey of Paz Cruz, for instance, indicates that around 60 percent of children do not wish for
their parents to stop working abroad. Nonetheless, they are not as convinced as are their
mothers that financial stability is worth the emotional costs of separation. Claribelle Ignacio,
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a thirty-six year old, single, domestic worker in Rome, laments the loss of intimacy in her
family:
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My mother went to the United States and worked as a domestic worker... She
went to the States for a long time, when I was still young. I was separated from her
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for a long time but she did go home every year. She just wanted to go to the States
to be able to provide a good future for us... I can say that it is very different to be
away from the mother. Even if you have everything, I can say your family is broken.
Once the father, mother, and children no longer have communication, even if you
are materially stable, it is better to be to-gether. If a child wants material goods,
they also want maternal love. That is still important. When I was a kid, I realized
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that it is better if we stayed together and my parents carried regular day jobs... It is
best if the family stays whole, as whole as it can be.
For children left behind in the Philippines, “staying together” and keeping the family
“whole” are worth much more than achieving financial security. Children, however, can
make such sweeping claims more easily, because the material security provided by migrant
parents affords them the luxury of demanding greater emotional security; it is highly
unlikely that impoverished children would make similar demands.
A theme that resonates in the writings of children in Tinig Filipino is the calling for
the return of migrating mothers. Children usually place their argument in either or terms:
“money or family.” 35 For example, a letter written by a son reads: “Mom, come home. Even
241
if it means that I will no longer receive new toys or chocolates. Even if it means that I
won’t get new clothes anymore, just being close to you will make me happy. Dad and I
36
are so lonely here without you.” The binary construction of “money or family”
suggests that children consider these two to be mutually exclusive choices for their
mothers. It also suggests that mothers care more about money than family.
A letter written by Nina Rea Arevalo to her mother indicates that children recognize
that mothers sacrifice the intimacy of family life for the sake of their children’s material
security. Despite this fact, children like Nina still demand the return of their mothers.
They reason that the emotional gratification brought by the intimacy of everyday life
is worth more than material security:
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My dear mother:
How are you over there? Us, we’re here wishing you were with us... Mom, I was still
very young when you left me with Kuya [older brother], Ate [older sister] and Dad. I
still did not know the meaning of sadness...
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Do you know that they would cry when they read your letters? Me, I would just look
at them. I grew up actually believing that letters are supposed to be read while
crying.
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Mom, I am older now and I know how to read and write. How many Christmases
have passed since I was born? I still have not experienced this day with you with me.
I know that you love us very much and that you sacrifice and suffer being away from
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us so that you could meet our needs. That is why we love you completely and so much.
Mom, I am getting older and I need someone guiding and supporting me and that is
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you. I don’t want to be rich. Instead I want you with me, Mom. Doesn’t God say that
a family should always be together through hardships and happiness? But why are
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you far away from us?
Mom, Christmas is here again. That’s why you should come home soon. I don’t want
anything else but you with me, Mom.
Kuya and Ate read somewhere that Filipino workers in other shores are the heroes of
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our country. But Mom, come back and you will be the queen that I will be with every
day.
My wish is that you come home this coming Christmas.
Your youngest child, Nina Rea 37
The poignant letter expresses the disposition of children in transnational families:

they hunger for emotional bonds with absentee parents and wish for the intimacies of
everyday interactions.
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Children want their mothers to return to the Philippines in order to amend the
emotional distance wrought by separation. For many, such as Evelyn Binas, geographical
distance has created an irreparable gap in intergenerational relations. After graduating from
college with a degree in computer science in 1994, Evelyn joined her mother in Rome,
where they live in a room in the home of her mother’s employer. Left in the Philippines at
the age of ten with her father, brother, and sister, Evelyn still holds a deep-seated resentment
against her mother. When asked if she was close to her mother, Evelyn replied:
No. There is still a gap between us. We got used to not having a mother, even
my brother and sister in the Philippines... I was independent. I always felt that I
didn’t need someone guiding me... Even though we are [now] living together, there
is still this gap... My mother came home when I was in my second and fourth year of
high school and then fourth year of college... When my mother was home, we felt
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that our house was too crowded. We never stayed—we always went out. Whenever
she was there, we never stayed home.
Do you think that you will ever be close to your mom?
No, not really. I don’t think that I will really know how to open up to her...
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She should have gone home more frequently (author’s emphasis). In Christmas, I
hated the fact that our family was not complete and I would see other families
together. I don’t think that we needed to come here to survive as a family. I see the
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homeless surviving together in the Philippines and if they are surviving, why did my
mother have to come here? My classmates were so jealous of me because of all my
designer things. They tell me that they envy me because my mom is abroad. I tell
them: “Fine, she is abroad but we are not complete.” Since the fourth grade, this is
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the first time that I actually spent Christmas with my mother...
In contrast to other children, Evelyn asserts that she never looked forward to seeing
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her mother, yet believes that “she should have gone home more frequently.” Evelyn resents
her mother for rarely coming back to the Philippines. Although unable to express her
feelings fully, Evelyn cites the presence of a “gap” that hinders her ability to communicate
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with and relate to her mother. Bitter about her mother’s prolonged absence from her life,
Evelyn is sadly resigned to a permanent emotional rift between them.
Although the weakening of emotional links in transnational families can be eased by

the efforts of mothers to communicate with and visit their children regularly, they can also
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be tempered by the support provided by extended kin. Jane Sapin, for example, grew up
(from age six on) with her grandmother, when her mother, followed by her father after two
years, began working in Italy. Almost eighteen by the time she joined her parents and sisters
in Rome, Jane found support and security from her extended family in the Philippines:
It was not hard growing up without my parents because I grew up with my

grandmother. So it wasn’t so bad. I’m sure there was a time when there were affairs
that you should be accompanied by your parents. That’s what I missed.
…I wasn’t angry with them. At that early age, I was mature. I used to tell my
mother that it was fine that we were apart, because we were eventually going to be
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reunited… I see my mother having sacrificed for our sake so that she could support
us financially…
Even at a young age in the Philippines, Jane had already acknowledged the sacrifices
of her parents, especially her mother, and had been secure in the knowledge that her parents
sought employment abroad not just for their personal interests but also for the collective
interest of the family. In contrast to Evelyn Binas, Jane does not resent her mother for
visiting the family infrequently but in fact sees that her few visits, the first being when Jane
was already ten years old, entailed sacrifices that she undertook for the sake of her children.
The extended family provides tremendous support to transnational families. Among my
interviewees, it is mostly other relatives and not fathers who care for the children left behind
in the Philippines. Of those in Los Angeles with young dependents, seven have their
children cared for by other relatives, usually grandparents or female relatives, and five have
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them cared for by fathers. In Rome, nine women left their children with fathers and
seventeen left them with other relatives.
Even with the presence of other relatives, insecurities still arise among the children
left behind in the Philippines. Between the ages of five and ten, Cesar Gregorio, a college
student in the United States, had lived in the Philippines without either of his parents. He
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recalls growing up “feeling insecure,” because he didn’t know when he was going to see his
parents again. By bearing the insecurities generated by parental absence, children such as
Cesar sacrifice for the transnational family’s success. Thus, children also want parents to
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recognize the sacrifices that they make to keep the family intact through separation:
But I don’t blame my parents for my fate today, because they both sacrifice
just to give us our needs and I just got my part... And now, I realize that having a
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parent abroad may be a financial relief. But it also means a lot more. The overseas
contract worker suffers lots of pain. They really sacrifice a lot. But, hey, please
don’t forget that your kids also have lots of sacrifices to give, aside from growing
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up without a parent. Specifically, for those who thought that sending money is
enough and they’ve already done their responsibilities, well, think again, because
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there are more than this. Your children need your love, support, attention, and
affection. You can still be with your children although you really are not. You can
let them feel you can be their best friends. And that you’re still beside them no
matter what, because distance is not a hindrance to a better relationship... It’s not
only one person who suffers when an overseas contract worker leaves for abroad.
All his or her loved ones do. And the children are the first on the list. The whole
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family bears the aches and pains just to achieve a better future.
Childhood in transnational families does not just entail the luxury of receiving
monthly remittances and care packages but also includes the often unrecognized hardship of
receiving less “love, support, attention, and affection.”
Children recognize the efforts of their mothers to provide emotional and material care
from a far. They know that their mothers call regularly and remit funds every month.
However, they still want their mothers to return to the Philippines. This is regardless of the
efforts of mothers to maintain ties with their children. For example, both Claribelle Ignacio,
whose mother returned to the Philippines every year, and Evelyn Binas, whose mother
returned far less frequently, share the opinion that they would rather have had their mothers
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work in the Philippines. They both insist that by not returning home, their mothers failed to
recognize the emotional difficulties of the children whom they had left behind.
Based on the writings in Tinig Filipino and my interviews with children, it seems that
children are not convinced that emotional care can be completely provided by the support of
extended kin, the financial support of migrant mothers, and weekly telephone conversations.
As an eighteen year old female college student in Paz Cruz’s survey suggests, “guidance,
attention, love, and care” can only be completely given by “family togetherness”:
I will tell my friend to convince her mother not to go abroad but to look for a
profitable means of livelihood such as planting, embroidery, etc. Two years being
with the family is more worthy compared to the dollars she might earn abroad. Is it
enough to show our love in terms of wealth? I think it’s not. We need the warmth of
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love of our fellowmen, especially our parents. We need their guidance, attention,
love, and care to live happily and contented. I will make her mother realize the
value of family togetherness... If only all Filipinos aim to have a simple life, not the
luxurious one, then, there is no need to leave our country to earn more money. 39
Children seem to have this ingrained desire for their mothers to return “home,”
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suggesting that mothers are somehow at fault for working outside the Philippines. In the
next section, I further deconstruct the emotional insecurities of children so as to explain
why. My discussion shows that the tendency of children to view transnational mothering as
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an insufficient way of providing emotional care in the family emerges from socialized
expectations of traditional mothering. I argue that the intergenerational conflicts engendered
by emotional tensions in transnational households are aggravated by the traditional
ideological system of the patriarchal nuclear family.
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Emotions and Gender in Transnational Families
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The material and emotional interests in the social institution of the family are shaped
and guided by an underlying ideological system.40Ideology, according to Stuart Hall, refers
“to those images, concepts, and premises which provide the frameworks through which we
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represent, interpret, understand, and ‘make sense’ of some aspect of social existence.”41 As
a final discussion, I propose that the emotional interests of the children of migrant
Filipina domestic workers are ideologically determined. This is a springboard to further
explore the painful feelings of mothers and children in transnational households.
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I specifically wish to excavate the social category of gender and map its influence on
the emotional tensions affecting mothers and children in transnational families. In this
section, I argue that the gender division of labor in the Filipino nuclear family, with fathers
expected to economically sustain the family and mothers to reproduce family life, generates
the emotional stress in transnational families. In contrast to other Asian countries, the
Philippines has a more egalitarian gender structure. For example, the kinship system is
bilateral and women have a comparable level of educational attainment to men. Moreover,
women have a high rate of participation in the productive labor force. In fact, by 1994,
women constituted 60 percent of deployed overseas contract workers from the Philippines.43
Despite the more egalitarian gender structure in the 44
Philippines, ideological constructs of
feminine identity still follow the cult of domesticity.
245
In fact, the denial of maternal love is regarded as child abuse in the diaspora. As a
domestic worker states: “Just [by] leaving [children] in the custody of fathers or
relatives, we have already abused them. We have denied them their right of a motherly love
and care.” 45 In the Philippines, transnational households are considered
“abnormal,” called ‘broken homes,” and therefore viewed as a social and cultural tragedy.46
Transnational households are considered ‘broken” because the maintenance of this
household diverges from traditional expectations of cohabitation in the family; they do not
meet the traditional division of labor in the family, and they swerve from traditional
practices of socialization in the family. The socialization of children is expected to
come from direct parental supervision as well as from other adults, but the
geographic distance in transnational households impedes the ability of mothers to
47
provide direct supervision to their children. To downplay the formation of ‘broken
homes,” the government claims that most of their “economic heroes” are in fact
non-mothers (i.e., men or single women). It seems that it was not until the mid-1980s
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with the larger flow of female migration did the “problem” of the “broken home” turn
into a national crisis. In the early 1970s to early 1980s, when men still dominated
the flow of migration, the traditional ideological foundation of the family remained
stable. Migration did not question the division of labor in the family as husbands
continued to economically sustain family life while mothers reproduced it. The spatial
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division of labor remained unchanged with the father earning wages outside the physical
confines of the home and the mother nurturing the protective environment of this space.
The out migration of women, including many mothers, broke down this traditional
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division of labor, leaving many to wonder how one could leave fathers the primary
parent responsible for reproducing the family. Such an “abnormal” arrangement clearly
illustrates that the Filipino family is in fact now ‘broken” because it no longer fits the ideal
nuclear household model.
D
A striking image on the December 1994 cover of Tinig Filipino shows a Filipino
family surrounded with traditional holiday decor. The father, clutching a sleeping baby with
his right hand, raises the traditional Christmas lantern by the window as his other son, who
E
looks around five years old, holds on to a stuffed animal next to his older sister in her early
teens. The family portrait evokes a feeling of holiday celebration as the caption states:
“Pamilya’y Masaya Kung Sama-sama” (The family is happy when everyone is together).
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Yet, the picture is not supposed to call forth an image of celebration but directs the viewers
to think of a ‘broken family’ as a very small, highlighted subcaption strategically placed
next to the family portrait asks in Italian: “Perodov’e mamma?” (but where is mama?). The
sub-caption reminds readers that a mother, not a father, is supposed to be rocking the
children to sleep. The image is supposed to invoke a feeling of loss as the man, not the
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woman, cares for the family.
Although the prolonged absence of either a father or a mother leads to emotional

costs, including emotional distance, in the family, the transnational family of women
working outside the Philippines is often construed as more pathological. In the study of Paz
Cruz, she found that 82.8 percent of the 302 students in her survey would advise their
friends to “allow your parents to work abroad,” 48 but the breakdown of responses
actually shows that 59.5 percent would advise friends to allow their fathers to go
abroad, 19.7 percent would advise both parents, and only 3.6 percent would advise
friends’ mothers to work abroad.48 Children are clearly less comfortable growing up with
an absentee mother as only 3.6 percent of the students would advise friends to allow
their mothers to work abroad. Paz Cruz’s findings should be clarified, for most children
only seem comfortable with the idea of a father working outside the Philippines.
246
The responses given by the youth to the question of what advice they would give
friends whose parents are considering employment outside the Philippines also seem to fall
within the grid of traditional gender norms in the family.
Mother as nurturer: I’ll advise my friend not to allow her mother to go abroad. It’s
better that her father go because mothers can’t do what fathers do. Mothers are closer to
49
their children than the father. She’s always present in times of difficulties and problems.
Father as breadwinner: I’ll try to make her understand that it is the obligation of the
father to provide for the family. With the present situation of the country, it’s
understandable that the father will look for greener pastures. They want the best for their
children. I’ll tell her she’s lucky, her father is sacrificing to give them a good education and
a good home.50
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These comments clearly follow the traditional gender division of labor of the
patriarchal nuclear family. Notably, the ideological construction of the family controls not
just the opinions of children but also their feelings and emotions concerning family
separation.
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In my study, most families with young children fall under the category of one-parent
abroad transnational family. Yet based on interviews with children and writings published in
C
Tinig Filipino, children in transnational families generally claim that maternal absence has
denied them the emotional care expected of the family. Claribelle Ignacio’s earlier
comments (“if a child wants material goods, they also want maternal love,”) emphasizes the
interplay of emotions and gender. The gender expectation of mothers to provide emotional
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care and “maternal love” is what is denied of more and more children in the Philippines.
Yet, children’s feelings of emotional insecurity are only exacerbated by the belief that
mothers are the only ones fit to provide care. The question then concerns whether fathers in
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the Philippines are able to provide the “maternal love” sorely missing from their children’s
lives, if women are capable of assisting them with their ideologically prescribed role as the
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income producer. Unfortunately, fathers seem to avoid this responsibility. As I have noted,
fathers are less apt to care for their children than are other female relatives.
What happens if fathers do provide emotional care to their children? Although I do

not want to underplay the pain of children in transnational households, I question the
poignant pleas for emotional security of those whose fathers are present in their everyday
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lives. Recall Nina Rea, who reminded her mother that she left her when she was too young
to read and write: “Mom, I am getting older and I need someone guiding and supporting me
and that is you. I don’t want to be rich. Instead I want you with me, Mom.” As she asks her
mother to return to the Philippines and finally to give her the “guidance” and “support” she
has long been denied, I have to wonder what the father in the Philippines is doing. Why
does he not give the much needed support to his daughter? Why can she not turn to him for
the guidance expected of parents in the family? Is he not even trying to provide care, or does
his daughter not recognize the care that he gives to his children?
Unlike Nina Rea, Evelyn Binas recognizes that her father has nurtured and
emotionally cared for her since the fourth grade but nonetheless still fails to appreciate her
247
mother for economically sustaining the family with her earnings as a domestic worker in
Rome.
Since the fourth grade, my mother has been here in Rome. My father looked after
me... Everyone had a mother while I was the only one without one. It was only my father
around for me. Like in graduation, it would be my father putting the medals on me. I
remember my father always being there for me. During lunch, he would bring me over some
food.
Did he work?
No. He sometimes did some work. We had some land with fruits and vegetables. He
would go there to harvest... So, he would do that work but not all the time.
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Beneath her long enumeration of all the family work of her very caring father is her
silence about the contributions of her mother to the family and the underlying suggestion
that her mother failed to perform the work that she should have done. In families such as
Evelyn’s, I have to wonder if a shift and breakdown of ideological norms would lead to a
different take on the emotional costs of separation.
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In sharp contrast to Evelyn’s continued resentment of her mother, even though she
was raised by a very loving father, and in contrast to the bitter feelings children generally
C
feel about transnational mothers, is the more blasé attitude of Rodney Catorce regarding the
absence of his father throughout his childhood:
I have always thought about it, my Dad being so far away from us for more
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than ten years now. I mean, how could he? I was barely eight years old when he left
us to work abroad. He had to because he and Mom were having a hard time trying
to make both ends meet for our family... Sometimes I wonder what if Dad didn’t
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gamble his luck abroad... Well, undoubtedly, we would not have missed him that
much. He would not have missed us that much... He would have seen us grow up.
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Too bad, he was not able to. But then again, we would not be where we are now. We
would not be living in our own house... I and my brothers and sisters would not be
studying in great schools. Daddy would not have been a good provider... All these
51
considered, I am glad he did. True, he is away, but so what?
Recognizing the economic contributions of his father to the family and having been
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secure with the presence of his mother in the Philippines, Rodney did not experience a
breakdown of the traditional division of labor in the family, a fact that seems to enable him
to pose the question: “[My dad] is away, but so what?” quite easily.
The reconstitution of gender ideologies in the family would not lessen the sacrifices
of children in transnational families but would temper the pain of separation. By this I do
not mean to imply that a shift in gender ideology would eliminate the emotional difficulties
engendered by separation. Instead, I wish to suggest that children may come to appreciate
the efforts of mothers to provide material care and a reconstituted form of emotional care
from a distance. Moreover, they may begin to demand less family labor from their migrant
mothers. For instance, they would not expect mothers to be primarily responsible for both
the material and emotional care in the family. At the same time, they may achieve greater
248
emotional security from the care provided by extended kin and, for some, the fathers left
behind in the Philippines. The impassioned pleas of children for emotional care have to be
understood within its ideological framework, which surprisingly has not shifted along with
the drastic change in the gender division of labor instigated by the migration of women in so
many families.
Conclusion
Although enabling the family to maximize its earnings, the formation of female-
headed transnational households also involves an emotional upheaval in the lives of
transnational mothers and the children whom they have left behind in the Philippines. A
central paradox in the maintenance of such households is the achievement of financial
security going hand in hand with an increase in emotional insecurity, an impact that could
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however be softened by an alteration of the traditional gender ideologies in the family.
In mapping out the emotional wounds imposed by geographical distance on mothers

and children in transnational households, I do not mean to imply that these wounds can only
be healed by the return of migrating mothers. Nor do I mean to suggest that mothers are
somehow at fault for deciding to maximize their earning potential by working abroad and
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leaving children behind in the Philippines. The root causes of these wounds extend beyond
the individual female migrant to larger structural inequalities that constrain the options that
they have to provide their children with material, emotional, and moral care to the fullest.
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Various structural inequalities of globalization force them to sacrifice their emotional needs
and those of their children for the material needs of the family. These inequalities include
legal barriers preventing the migration of dependents; social stratification and the
segregation of Filipino migrant workers to informal service employment in most host
D
societies; economic globalization and the unequal level of development among nations; post
industrialization and the demand for female migrant workers; and the rise of anti-immigrant
sentiments in receiving nations.
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These emotional wounds are telling of the “stalled revolution” faced by women at the
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beginning of this millennium as they have yet to achieve full gender parity at home and at
work. 52The ideological foundation of the Filipino family has yet to experience a major
rupture even with the high rate of women’s labor force participation. The responsibility for
emotional care remains with women even in families with fathers who provide a tremendous
amount of emotional care to their children and mothers who give a great deal of material
care. It is true that feelings of pain in transnational families are fostered by separation;
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however, they are undoubtedly intensified by the failure in a great number of families to
meet the gender-based expectations of children for mothers (and not fathers) to nurture them
and also the self- imposed expectations of mothers to follow culturally and ideologically
inscribed duties in the family. As shown by the emotional tensions wrought by separation
and the greater resentment of children about transnational mothers, rather than fathers,
traditional notions of mothering haunt migrant women transnationally. Traditional views
still have a deep hold on the most basic values of the youth in the Philippines. However, we
can only hope that the “reconstitution of mothering” led by numerous female migrants from
the Philippines will eventually seep into and shift the consciousness, values, and ideologies
of the general public toward the acceptance of multiple variances of family life.
249
Notes
This article benefited from comments and suggestions shared by Arlie Hochschild, Charlotte Chiu,
Angela Gallegos, Mimi Motoyoshi, Jennifer Lee, and three anonymous readers. The University of
California President’s Office, Babilonia Wilner Foundation, and the Graduate School of University of
Wisconsin, Madison, provided support during the writing of this article.
1. See Victoria Paz Cruz, Seasonal Chinese-American Family Strategies,”

Orphans and Solo Parents: The Journal of Marriage and the Family 19
Impacts of Overseas Migration (February 1983): 35–46.
(Quezon City, Philippines: Scalabrini 5. Arlie Hochschild, The Managed
Migration Center, 1987); and Maruja Heart: Commercialization of Human
Asis, “The Overseas Employment Feeling (Berkeley: University of
Program,” in Philippine Labor California Press, 1983), 85.
PY
Migration: Impact and Policy, ed. 6. See Belinda Medina, The Filipino
Graziano Battistella and Anthony Family: A Text with Selected
Paganoni (Quezon City, Philippines: Readings (Quezon City, Philippines:
Scalabrini Migration Center, 1992), University of the Philippines Press,
68–112. 1991).
O
2. By social reproduction, I refer, as 7. For contemporary transnational
defined by Barbara Laslett and households, see Linda Basch, Nina
Johanna Brenner, to “the activities and Glick Schiller, and Christina Szanton
attitudes, behaviors and emotions, Blanc, Nations Unbound:
responsibilities and relationships
directly involved in the maintenance
C Transnational Projects, Postcolonial
Predicaments, and Deterritorialized
of life on a daily basis, and Nation-States (Langhorne, Penn.:
intergenerationally.” See Barrie Gordon & Breach Science Publishers,
Thome, “Feminism and the Family:
D
1992); Leo Chavez, Shadowed Lives:
Two Decades of Thought,” in Undocumented Immigrants in
Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist American Society (Fort Worth:
Questions, ed. Barrie Thome and Harcourt Brace College Publishers,
E
Marilyn Yalom, rev. ed. (Boston: 1992); Julia Curry, “Labor Migration
Northwestern University Press, 1992), and Familial Responsibilities:
3–30. Experiences of Mexican Women,” in
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3. For an excellent article on the Mexicanas at Work in the United

reconstitution of mothering in States, ed. Margarita Melville
transnational households, see (Houston: Mexican American Studies
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Program, University of Houston,
Ernestine Avila, “‘I’m Here, but I’m 1988), 47–63; Pierrette Hondagneu-
D
There’: The Meanings of Latina Sotelo, Gendered Transitions:

Transnational Motherhood,” Gender Mexican Experiences of Migration
and Society 11 (October 1997): 548– (Berkeley: University of California
71. For a discussion of gender Press, 1994); Michel Laguerre,
ideologies in the Philippines, see Delia “Headquarters and Subsidiaries:
Aguilar, The Feminist Challenge: Haitian Immigrant Family Households
Initial Working Principles toward in New York City,” in Minority
Reconceptualizing the Feminist Families in the United States, ed.
Movement in the Philippines (Metro Ronald Taylor (Englewood Cliffs,
Manila, Philippines: Asian Social N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1994), 47–61;
Institute, 1988). Douglas Massey et al., Return to
4. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, “Split Aztlan: The Social Process of
Household, Small Producer, and Dual International Migration from Western
Wage Earner: An Analysis of Mexico (Berkeley: University of
250
California Press, 1987); and Paz Cruz. 16. Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A.
For historical transnational house- (New York: Routledge, 1992), 106.
holds, see Glenn. 17. Wharton and Erickson.
8. See Basch, Schiller, and Blanc; and 18. Arlie Hochschild, “Ideals of Care:
Roger Rouse, “Mexican Migration and Traditional, Postmodern, Cold-
the Social Space of Postmodernism,” Modern, and Warm-Modern,” in
Diaspora 1, no. 1(1991): 8–23. Families in the United States: Kinship
9. Basch, Schiller, and Blanc; and Rhacel and Domestic Politics, ed. Karen
Salazar Parrefi.as, “New Family Hansen and Anita Ilta Garey
Forms, Old Family Values: The (Philadelphia: Temple University
Formation and Reproduction of the Press, 1998).
Filipino Transnational Family in Los 19. I looked at almost all the issues of
Angeles,” in Asian America: A Tinig Filipino published between
Multidisciplinary Reader, ed. Min October 1994 and July 1996. A few
Zhou and James V. Gatewood (New back issues prior to May 1995 had
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York: New York University Press, been unavailable.
1999). 20. The sixteen women who reported their
10. See Chavez; Curry; and Hondagneu- status as undocumented were eligible
Sotelo. to obtain a permit to stay under the
11. Exceptions to this are the articles by 1995 legislative decree, and because
Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila; and the decree had been in progress during
O
Charlene Tung, “The Cost of Caring: my research, we can safely assume
The Social Reproductive Labor of that most of these women are now
Filipina Live-in Home Health official guest workers in Italy.
(2000): 61–82.
C
Caregivers,” Frontiers 21, no. 1and 2 21. Examples of such studies include
Christine Chin, In Service and
12. Stevi Jackson, “Even Sociologists Fall Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic
in Love: An Exploration in the Workers and the Malaysian
“Modernity” Project (New York:
D
Sociology of Emotions,” Sociology
27, no. 2 (1993): 201–20; Jean Columbia University Press, 1998); and
Duncombe and Dennis Marsden, Catholic Institute for International
“Love and Intimacy: The Gender Relations, The Labour Trade: Filipino
E
Division of Emotion and ‘Emotion Migrant Workers around the Globe

Work,”’ Sociology 27, no. 2 (1993): (London: Catholic Institute for
221–24; and Amy S. Wharton and International Relations, 1987).
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Rebecca J. Erickson, “The 22. Hondagneu-Sotelo.

Consequences of Caring: Exploring 23. For excellent discussions on the labor
the Links between Women’s Job and market incorporation of migrants in
Family Emotion Work,” Sociological urban centers of globalization, see
Quarterly 36 (spring 1995): 273–96. Saskia Sassen, The Mobility and Flow
13. See Sylvia Chant and Cathy of Labor and Capital (New York:
D
Mcllwaine, Women of a Lesser Cost: Cambridge University Press, 1988),

Female Labour, Foreign Exchange, and Cities in a World Economy
and Philippine Development (London: (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge
Pluto Press, 1995); and Elizabeth Uy Press, 1994).
Eviota, The Political Economy of 24. See Chin.
Gender: Women and the Sexual 25. For a discussion of the
Division of Labour in the Philippines “denationalization” and
(London: Zed Books, 1992). “renationalization” of societies in
14. Hochschild, Managed Heart, 7. globalization, see Saskia Sassen,
15. Judith Rollins, Between Women: Losing Control? Sovereignty in an
Domestics and Their Employers Age of Globalization (New York:
(Philadelphia: Temple University Columbia University Press, 1996).
Press, 1985). 26. For instance, see Chin.
251
27. See Abigail Bakan and Daiva 1994, 28. Letter is translated from
Stasiulis, introduction to Not One of Tagalog to English.
the Family: Foreign Domestic 38. Junelyn Gonzaga, “Listen to Our
Workers in Canada, ed. Abigail Bakan Small Voices,” Tinig Filipino,
and Daiva Stasiulis (Toronto: December 1995, 13.
University of Toronto Press, 1997), 3– 39. Paz Cruz, 42.
27. 40. Hans Medick and David Warren
28. See Mary Lou Alcid, “Legal and Sabean, “Interest and Emotion in
Organizational Support Mechanisms Family Kinship Studies: A Critique of
for Foreign Domestic Workers,” in Social History and Anthropology,” in
The Trade in Domestic Workers, ed. Interest and Emotion: Essays on the
Noeleen Heyzer et al. (London: Zed Study of Family and Kinship, ed. Hans
Books, 1994), 161–77; and Pei-Chia Medick and David Warren Sabean
Lan, “Bounded Commodity in a (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University
Global Market: Migrant Workers in Press, 1984), 9–27.
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Taiwan” (paper presented at the 41. Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American
Annual Meeting of the Society for the Women and Men (Thousand Oaks,
Study of Social Problems, Chicago, 6– Calif.: Sage Publications, 1997), 12.
8 Aug. 1999). 42. See Eviota.
29. Rhacel Salazar Parreii.as, “Migrant 43. Luz Rimban, “Filipina Diaspora,” in
Filipina Domestic Workers and the Her Stories: Investigative Reports on
O
International Division of Reproductive Filipino Women in the 1990s, ed.
Labor,” Gender and Society 14 Cecile C.A. Balgos (Quezon City,
(August 2000): 560–80. Philippines: Philippine Center for
30. See the anthology edited by Juan
Perea, Immigrants Out! The New
C 44.
Investigative Journalism, 1999), 128.
Carolyn Israel-Sobritchea, “The
Nativism and the Anti-immigrant Ideology of Female Domesticity: Its
Impulse in the United States (New Impact on the Status of Filipino
D
York: New York University Press, Women,” Review of Women’s Studies
1997). 1, no. 1(1990): 26–41.
31. I use pseudonyms to protect the 45. Jocelyn Mariano, “Child Abuse and
anonymity of my informants. OCWs,” Tinig Filipino, October 1995,
E
32. Gloria Acgaoili, “Mother, Behold 26–27.

Your Child,” Tinig Filipino, May 46. Neferti Xina Tadiar, “Domestic
1995, 14. Italicized sections are Bodies of the Philippines,” Sojourn
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translated from Tagalog to English. 12, no. 2 (1997): 153–91.

33. Doreen Massey, Space, Place, and 47. See Medina for a discussion of
Gender (Minneapolis: University of cultural traditions in the Filipino
Minnesota Press, 1994), 149. family.
34. Paz Cruz, 43. 48. Paz Cruz, 38.
35. Clarita U. Aratan, “Money or Family,” 49. Ibid., 42.
D
Tinig Filipino, December 1994, 34. 50. Ibid., 40.

36. Liza Daguio, “Family Still Number 51. Rodney Catorce, “My Dad Is Away,
One,” Tinig Filipino, February 1995, So What?” Tinig Filipino, June 1995,
40. Quotation is translated from 9.
Tagalog to English. 52. Arlie Hochschild with Anne Machung,
37. Nina Rea Arevalo, “Inay, Pasko na The Second Shift (New York: Avon
Naman,” Tinig Filipino, December Books, 1989).
252
The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social Media,
K and Changing Patterns of Participation

W. LANCE BENNETT
Time magazine made two interesting choices for its much-publicized person of the
year in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In 2006, the person of the year was You.
(Congratulations!) The cover contained a mirror in which the viewer’s face appeared in place
of the more customary photos of the heads of state or world figures that have set the tone
since Time began giving the award in 1927.1The broad rationale for that surprising choice
was the awareness that individuals were increasingly on their own in changing societies, yet
empowered with proliferating social media and personalized communication technologies
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that enablea large number of ordinary people to become linked to and recognized by a large
number of others. The year 2011 marked another interesting choice as The Protester graced
the Time cover in the form of a masked and amorphous demonstrator who could have been
male or female, or come from the Arab Spring in Tahrir Square, the indignados in Madrid or
Barcelona, or any of the hundreds of Occupy camps in the United States or else where around
the world (the image turned out to be a young woman from Occupy LA).
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The focus of a great deal of social, political, and economic life in the recent era has
been up close and personal, as exemplified by an expanding number ofself-help books,
C
multiplying therapeutic talk programs, ever surprising reality TV genres with their strange
assortment of everyday people picked from obscurity to become celebrities, and,
everywhere, the consuming emphasis on personal lifestyle affordances as the building
blocks for a meaningful life. (When asked Siri—the personal valet that Apple built into my
D
iPhone—about the meaning of life, she told me that all the evidence points to chocolate.)
Among the most interesting aspects of this era of personalization has been the rise
E
of large-scale, rapidly forming political participation aimed at avariety of targets, from more
traditional parties or candidates, to direct engagement with corporations, brands, and
transnational policy forums. These mobilizations often include a multitude of issues brought
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into the same protests through a widely shared late modern ethos of diversity and
inclusiveness. The identity politics of the “new social movements “that arose after
the 1960s centered on group identity (women, minorities, immigrants, and native people)
or cause issues (anti nuclear, environmental conservation, and specific rights) still
exist, of course, but they have been joined by more heterogeneous mobilizations in
D
which diverse causes such as economic justice (fairtrade, in equality, and development),
environmental protection, and war and peace are directed at moving targets from local
to national and transnational and from government to business. The more diverse the
mobilization, the more personalized the expressions often become, typically involving
communication technologies that allow individuals to activate their loosely tied social
2
networks. There are still plenty of conventional politics based on identification
with parties, ideologies, and common causes. However, the rise of a more personalized
politics has become a notable trend.
The discussion here expands on Bennett and Segerberg (2011) and defines
personalized politics as involving varying combinations of the following conditions:
253
An ethos of diversity and inclusiveness defined by tolerance for different viewpoints
and even different issues linked across loosely bounded political networks.
The rise of crowd-sourced inclusive personal action frames (e.g. “We are the 99%”)
that lower the barriers to identification. These easily personalized frames contrast with more
conventional collective action frames (e.g. “eat the rich”) that may require more socialization
and brokerage to propagate in large numbers.
Participation is importantly channeled through often dense social networks over

which people can share their own stories and concerns—the pervasive use of social
technology enables individuals to become important catalysts of collective action processes
as they activate their own social networks.
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Personalized politics has long existed, of course, in the form of populist uprisings or
emotional bonds with charismatic leaders. The interesting difference in today’s participation
landscape is that widespread social fragmentation has produced individuation as the modal
social condition in postindustrial democracies,
3
particularly among younger generations (Beck
2006; Bennett 1998; Giddens 1991). While individuals may be at the center of their own
universes, those universes can be very large thanks to the social networking potential of
O
ubiquitous communication technologies. These often dense communication networks enable
political organization and expression that often lacks, or actively shuns, clear central leaders
and organizations. Sometimes these networks are loosely coordinated by custom Web
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platforms that provide information, media hosting, and direct interaction among activists.
Developing or adapting interactive media affordances also enables NGOs and social
movement organizations to personalize the pathways to popular engagement with their issues
(Bennett and Segerberg 2012). Even mainstream institutions such as political parties often
D
find that personalized appeals to growing ranks of independent voters can help to engage
them.
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As ideology and formal group identifications (e.g. party, union, church, or class) fade
as the mechanisms for organizing civic life (Putnam 2000), individuals increasingly code
their personal politics through personal lifestyle values (Bennett 1998; Giddens 1991). It is
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common for many of these lifestyle values to echo across the porous boundaries of product
and political advertising. Is my car environmentally friendly? Are my fashion, food, or
electronic devices worker friendly? Are my favored cause organizations or candidates
expressing my personal values, and do they understand my pain or anger? These battles for
individual emotions swirl around sustainable lifestyle initiatives among progressives, with
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much of the attention on consumer identifications that find easy outlets in corporate
campaigns against McDonalds, Monsanto, Exxon, and even Apple. Personalized politics also
extends well into more conventional issues and policy arenas, from the popular idea of a
Robin Hood Tax in Europe, to the “occupation” of institutions, people, and ideas in the
United States and elsewhere. 4 The inroads of personalized politics are by no means
happening just on the Left and the center. In many ways, the right wing has become the
default location for highly individualized discourses of personal freedom and market
deregulation, resulting in heavy discounting of public goods and common interests.
254
Different Communication Styles: Personalized Politics on the Left and Right
Many sorts of personalized collective action arise from the conservative Right. For
example, most of the postindustrial democracies have seen the rise of hybrid nationalist
movements as diverse as the Tea Party in the United States, the years of Berlusconi/Northern
League rule in Italy, and the Sweden Democrats. Similar to traditional nationalist populist
movements, these late modern hybrids invite followers to define “true citizens” as “people
like me” (e.g. a white, hard-working native-born citizen) and not those immigrants who come
to live off my hard-earned tax money. Beyond this, the nationalist hybrids invite highly
personalized forms of expression against any number of emotional targets. In this process,
personal emotion becomes self-validating. Participants can pick their own outlets for anger,
from race or sexual preference, to the many perceived government restrictions on personal
freedoms. Seeming contradictions melt away in feelings of personal entitlement, as when Tea
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Party identifiers make exceptions for government Medicare programs that benefit them
because they believe that, unlike undeserving immigrants or minorities on welfare, they have
worked hard to earn their benefits (Skocpol and Williamson 2012).
If personalized politics still exhibits some echoes of old conservative ideology, it is in

the neoliberal consensus of the recent era of globalization, in which free markets and free
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consumers were heralded as the paths to prosperity and democratic development. (It is not
surprising that Ayn Rand and von Hayek made comebacks in this era.) The conservative end
of the personalized politics spectrum is heavy with references to personal freedom and highly
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emotional reactions to attempts to adjust the social equity balance in schools, health care, or
income, which are seen as threats to that freedom. The extreme personal attacks on President
Obama that were part of the right-wing branding of the “Obamacare” health plan portrayed
him in Internet caricatures and on talk shows as both a communist and Hitler while
D
continuing to challenge the authenticity of his birth taking place in the United States. even the
place of Tea Party Patriots in the Republican Party is by no means a comfortable fit given the
levels of emotional attachment to ideas such as allowing the government to go into default
E
rather than honor its debt obligations.

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Neither evidence nor reasoned debate often sway such emotional orientations.
Indeed, conservative opposition to government efforts to regulate or find substitutes for
carbon energy use have been supported by jokes and paid experts raising doubts about
climate science itself, amplified by intensive corporate-backed propaganda attacking climate
research. Carbon energy companies poured large sums of money into think tanks,
conferences, and campaigns to fuel denial of climate change, providing a steady stream of
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material for talk shows and political candidates to sell retail to individual citizens. The result
has been a rapid erosion (most notably on the Right) of American public belief in climate
change, in human causes of climate change (from 50 percent to 34 percent between 2006 and
2010), and even in thinking that scientists generally agree about human contributions to
global warming (Pew Research Center 2010). Meanwhile, European popular support for
environmental protection policies has remained strong, suggesting grounds for interesting
comparative research.
With the notable exception of historians, scholars have not focused enough on the
long-standing American conservative and business propagandizing of corporate virtue,
market and consumer freedoms aimed at dampening the effects of more progressive forms of
consumer action or government regulation. Nor have communication scholars focused
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enough attention on the palpably different communication styles of personalized politics on
the Left and the Right. Where the Right seems uninterested in dialogue and responding to
rational or factual challenges, the Left may err in the continued pursuit of reason,
deliberation, and civility with opponents. The result is a profound political disconnect with
consequences that are worth understanding. If, indeed, the Right has adopted a strategic and
personally ingrained aversion to dialogue and deliberation, scholars should not shy away
from analyzing this just because they fear charges of bias. The Right has used charges of
liberal bias as its symbolic battering ram for several decades. Given the success of
conservative networks in using “the power of no” to turn minority publics into veto blocks on
many issues, one might consider both the political advantages of closed, nondeliberative
discourse styles as well as their antidemocratic outcomes (see Bennett 2011). The impasse
between the discourse styles of the Left and the Right has been a defining element of
contemporary personalized politics.
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Origins of Personalized Politics: Globalization and the Free Market Fetish
The roots of personalized politics in the current era can be traced broadly to social
changes related to the era of economic globalization that can be roughly bounded from the
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1970s to the global financial crisis of the early twenty-first century. There have been many
eras of globalization throughout history, each with its own kind of economic logic and impact
on societies, so there is no one-kind-fits-all model of globalization, society, and politics. The
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time of Marco Polo differed from the colonial era, which differed from the postcolonial
period of ideologically filtered globalization in the great Cold War struggle for military and
economic domination of the Third World.
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During the recent period, what has been termed a neoliberal trade regime arose to
transform global production, finance, marketing, labor, and consumption. As manufacturing
moved south, the so-called postindustrial nations of the North underwent tectonic shifts in
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national labor markets and the social and political relevance of civil society institutions (these
shifts were buffered more in some nations than in others). Changes included the
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transformation of domestic industrial sectors and careers (growth in service and information
industries and declines in union manufacturing labor), related personal instability in career
and lifestyles, and rising levels of personal stress and sense of responsibility for choices and
consequences (Beck 2006; Bennett 1998). In addition, public sectors underwent sweeping
changes as privatization and hybrid (public-private partnership) market schemes were applied
variously to education, health care, energy, transportation, and even security functions of the
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state. These changes inside nations further placed individuals in uncertain market
relationships in many areas of life: temporary labor, costly choices in public education and
health care, greater sense of risk and “precarity,” and longer periods of unemployment and
retraining between the multiple careers that often characterize the late modern biography. As
the slogan of the age goes: failure is the new success.
In short, the neoliberal economic regime not only changed the world economy, it
changed fundamental policies within nations by introducing privatization and market forces
into daily personal life. This reduced the GDP contribution of most public sectors and
enabled the rise of voracious consumer populations with more money to spend on goods that
5
were cheaper due to the use of cheap labor and natural resources in the South. Collateral
human and environmental damage became externalities in this scheme, accounting for the
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tempting prices of lifestyle goods, but deferring and displacing their true costs as perverse
“public bads” shared by the entire planet. Since much has been written about all of this
(Bennett 1998; Beck 2006; Giddens 1991), I do not go into much more background here, and
instead turn to several theoretical generalizations that may be useful for understanding the
shift to personalized politics and its relation to the rise of such offshoots as political
consumerism, Occupy, and the Tea Party-style protest networks.
During this historic period of globalization (roughly bounded from the mid-1970s to
the present), the ideals and practices of neoliberal economics became so pervasive that many
parties on the Left shifted their stances on formerly staunch domestic programs, often leading
the way in sacrificing labor protections to business-friendly trade agreements, while
privatizing other public goods and services such as education, health care, and transportation.
This led to the demise of social democrats and labor parties in such bastions as Germany,
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Sweden, and Britain, and created odd hybrid models such as the Obama and Clinton
presidencies in the United States. This bipartisan consensus on the virtues of market
deregulation (sold under the slogans of individual freedom and job creation) drove social and
economic equality values (the old foundation of many collective action frames) steadily to the
political margins. In the United States, for example, many Democratic social and economic
policies were borrowed from the Republican playbook. At the same time, Republicans were
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outflanked by increasingly conservative factions such as the Tea Party and even more stark
demands from businesses for more deregulation and lower taxation for the rich. An
individualized market culture even arose in Sweden (albeit with a hybrid embrace of the
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welfare state), where the demise of the Social Democrats for an unprecedented second time in
the elections of 2010 was crowned with the ironic campaign slogan that the Moderates (a
Center Right party) were the “true labor party.” Typical of a move toward a politics of
personal emotion was the startling rise of an ultra-right anti-immigrant party (the Sweden
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Democrats) that entered parliament in 2010.
The importance of this rightward shift for our story about the personalization of
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politics cannot be underestimated. The neoliberal mantra of personal freedom and growth
through market deregulation became the default ideology of our time, perhaps challenged
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only by the global financial crisis that spread out from the U.S. housing bubble that burst in
2008. As a result, many voters were deprived of meaningful election choices on what was
formerly known as the Left, and younger citizens often developed aversions to politics and
government altogether. Other voters came to see the Center Right as the true standard bearer
of neoliberal ideals packaged in terms of personal freedom and choice, and voted it into
office in such places as Germany, Sweden, Britain, and the United States, along with extreme
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fringe factions such as the Tea Party and the Sweden Democrats. While other reactions were
set in motion by the growing economic crisis in Europe, the notable pattern was one of
government instability and public anger rather than an embrace of clear competing ideologies
or party identifications on the Left.
An important spinoff of the diminishing choices in the formal political arena created
what Beck (2006) refers to as asubpolitics, marked by the growing attraction of large-scale
personalized politics by other means, from consumer action to mass occupations. As
explained below, these collective actions are less like conventional social movements with
leaders, organizations, and collective identity frames than they are what Micheletti (2003)
describes as individualized collective action where large numbers of people join in loosely
coordinated activities centered on more personal emotional identifications and rationales.
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Another broad enabling condition of individualized collective action is that
individuals have become fully immersed in consumer cultures and have developed a
discerning eye for their political and personal products. Whether the Left moved to the Right
due to political expedience, voter demand, or both, the individualized orientation of the
citizen-consumer further undermines the appeal of adopting collective identifications with
party, ideology, or conventional movements. As voters fell away from party identifications
(even a plurality of Swedish voters under 30 expressed no party preference by 2010), they
became hard sells and often demanded (or were cynically sold) rather crass offers such as
lower taxes and moving the welfare line further down the economic ladder to pay for them.
The consumer practices that came to define many areas of public and private life support
broad repertoires of political activity. Some of this activity is direct, as boycott and boycott
pressures have produced changes in corporate behavior, from commitments to greater
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responsibility for labor and environmental harms, to rebranding products as worker or
environment friendly or fairly traded. Some practices from the consumer culture emerged
indirectly through implicit understandings about how to use the messages and technologies of
personalized communication to share political concerns and promote them under popular
slogans such as “We are the 99%.”
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In short, just as consumerism has entered politics through branding and marketing to
independent voters, it has become an increasing focus for the less conventional politics of the
age, as activists have mounted numerous campaigns to discipline global corporations that
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they see slipping the net of national regulations. Many of these have produced notable
changes in corporate behavior and policy (e.g. Nike’s sweatshop labor problem; McDonald’s
food chain, packaging, and health problems; the environmental impact of Coca Cola’s
bottling practices; Monsanto’s Frankenstein seeds; Starbuck’s unfair trading practices in the
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coffee market; Apple examining the conditions in its Chinese factories; and on and on).
Related protests at world summits of the G8 and 20 and at the Davos World economic Forum
have become routine in the years following the Battle in Seattle that shut down the World
E
Trade Organization meeting in 1999. Other protests have been equally impressive in their
scope, as in the cases of the indignados and Occupy protesters, who have triggered
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international discussions about growing inequality and other predations of the 1 percent
against the 99 percent. These activist networks seem to be reinventing repertoires of
participation.
I use the term “reinventing” advisedly here, as it evades unproductive debates about
what is new and what is old. It may seem that there is nothing new under the sun, as the new
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economic justice protests faintly echo the early labor politics of boycotts dating from a
century ago, but unlike labor-led boycotts or buycotts, the latter-day varieties may not even
be centrally organized by labor unions, and they are often aimed at conditioning corporations
to be more responsible in factories that have spread across the globe in a race away from
domestic unionized labor. Similarly, the dense networks of indignados and Occupy protesters
that emerged following the global financial crisis in the first decade of the twenty-first
century may echo some of the economic justice demands of leftist social movements, but
without the militant ideologies, inter-organizational struggles, and conflicts over collective
identities that often occupy the center stage of movement participation (the endless meetings
of the Occupy or indignado general assemblies are of course another matter). Rather than
spill too much ink here worrying about just what criteria satisfy the standards of “new,” I
focus on a collection of interesting differences that seem to be at the very least changing the
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way in which some of this personalized participation is organized, even as other
characteristics may display some continuities.
Scholars are beginning to explore hybrid forms of participation that emerge outside
of conventional institutional structures. As noted above, Micheletti (2003) and Stolle and
Micheletti (forthcoming) analyze forms of individualized collective action that characterize
new patterns of political consumerism that take aim at corporations and other economic
targets with behaviors that are often anchored more in personal or local logics and, perhaps,
only loosely directed by movements or advocacy organizations. Bimber, Flanagin, and Stohl
(2012) have also found that the relationships between individuals and civic organizations are
becoming more entrepreneurial and less centrally manageable, resulting in changes in the
way communication is involved in organizing collectivities.
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Bennett and Segerberg (2012) have identified a logic of connective action that
explains how individuals avoid self-interest or free rider obstacles to joining contentious
politics because they can engage via intrinsically motivating personal expression that can be
shared across social networks that, in turn, link people to larger protest networks. Some of
those networks may have NGOs or other organizations embedded within them, but they are
often in background roles facilitating personalized engagement rather than managing
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conventional collective action with its issues of divided group identities, ideological splits,
and resource struggles. As Castells (1996) pointed out, these collectivities are better
understood as fine-grained, multilayered networks rather than as hierarchical coalitions of
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organizations. In this network view, communication becomes an organizational process that
goes well beyond the exchange of messages.
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Communication and the Organization of Personalized Politics
The “me generation,” which was reflected on Time’s mirrored cover announcing that
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You were person of the year, seemed to come of age at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Yet the cries of late-twentieth-century critics about mass narcissism and the degradation of
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public life seemed not fully consistent with the growth of dense and often intersecting social
networks through which individuals join with others to share ideas, music, games, code, peer
product ratings, and political protests. There is little to gain from sweeping generalizations
about the (alternately) cheerful or gloomy prospects for a political future based on
(alternately) isolated and polarized, or loosely tied and easily, connected individuals. These
debates abound and seldom shed light on more complex underlying realities. I cautiously
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embrace the views of Benkler (2007) and propose that although the Internet is vast and full of
seemingly isolated nodes and long tails, communication technologies can activate the “small
world” phenomena through which distant people are in remarkably close reach. In short,
communication technologies may put individuals at the center of their own networks, but the
reach of those networks often enables the coproduction and distribution of multimedia
content with a surprisingly large number of others. Political participation in this picture
comes in the form of recombinant digitally networked action (RDNA) that reflects the
flexible, large-scale, and surprisingly stable networks that are engaging many arenas and
targets of power (see Bennett and Segerberg 2012).
As noted above, Castells (1996) argued early on that social and political networks
were becoming the loci of power in society, replacing hierarchical social and political
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institutions. Whether and under what conditions such sweeping power shifts may have
become decisive remain complex empirical questions. There are still plenty of old-fashioned
institutions wielding power, and the last time I checked, the state (along with its newly grown
transnational arms) seemed alive and well. However, it also seems clear that loosely
organized large-scale networks as diverse as al Qaeda, Occupy, indignados, and media file
sharers have become fixtures on the political landscape that increasingly pose challenges to
states and related dominant cultural, political, and economic regimes.
When conventional political institutions seem on the verge of acting against the
interests of diverse and seemingly isolated populations, the social networked communication
of digitally networked activism (DNA) can produce surprising results. In early 2012, for
example, the U.S. Congress was poised to vote on a pair of invasive antipiracy bills. The
legislation was backed by “old media” companies and raised the specter of filtering the
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Internet and turning online companies into police agencies. Wikipedia and Google led a
protest involving hundreds of other sites that directed millions of diverse individuals to
contact their representatives. This twenty-four-hour protest forced sponsors to withdraw the
legislation and backers to regroup. Typical of many rapid collective action formations in this
era, there was no clear collective frame to mobilize individuals. Rather, individuals were
offered a rainbow of reasons to act (bad for business, threat to innovation, job killer, invasion
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of privacy, national security threat, vulnerabilities to the Internet, and so on). The common
thread was a loose call to prevent government censorship of entities ranging from the entire
Internet, to the safety of personal communication, to the independence of favorite sites
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(Google and Wired featured black redaction bars across their pages). Such inclusive and
easily personalized action frames and ubiquitous mechanisms for technology-enabled
participation increasingly dot the political landscape (earl and Kimport 2011). Sometimes
these mobilizations are explicitly triggered by appeals to lifestyle consumer values and
D
accompanied by branded communication, and sometimes, they address more general
economic foundations of society as expressed in terms of justice and fairness.
E
Reactions to these kinds of participation often entail puzzlement on the part of

observers who have trouble fathoming their political logic. Journalists, for example, have
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persisted in asking the diverse members of many of these protests what their common
position or demand is, or who their leaders are. At the same time, the earnest individualism,
the easily embraceable personal action frames, and the often remarkable scale of many of
these protests made them hard to dismiss. Many of these protests have received more positive
press coverage (Bennett and Segerberg 2011) than is typically associated with social
movements confronting governments with more challenging or extreme ideological collective
D
action frames (Gitlin 1980). At the same time, operating outside of conventional norms and
rituals (whether those attached to government or to social movement repertoires) gives these
protests something of a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethos.
DIY Politics: Understanding emerging Forms of Participation
Thorson (2012) has observed that shifts in the citizenship orientations of younger
generations have been noted by many observers (including this author).
However, a missing element of various analyses of the citizenship shift is a

compelling documentation of the norm set for the next era of variously termed citizenship.
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Modern era dutiful citizens were urged by educators, politicians, civic leaders, and other
authorities to follow the news, join community organizations, and, above all, vote. By
contrast, the younger generations breaking away from these norms in the current era of
personalized politics have few clear guidelines to follow in fashioning a public life. Part of
the gap is surely due to the fact that civic authorities continue to be drawn from older
generations who practice dutiful civic virtues and who understandably think they work just
fine. Despite continuing efforts of institutional authorities to press dutiful practices and ideals
on younger generations, they are increasingly unlikely to find receptive audiences. While
older citizens may lament the trouble with youth today, young people are forging ahead in
many areas of politics and making it up as they go along (often with mixed results).
Many of the large-scale examples of individualized collective action that dot the
political landscape surely draw on repertoires of action from the past, as in the ways in which
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Occupy protesters or indignados organized their general assemblies using consensus
procedures and a host of direct democracy practices that have been handed down from past
protest repertoires. At the same time, the protests displayed openness to individual-level
innovation aided by clear avoidance of formal organization, leaders, collective identifications,
divisive ideology, or hierarchy. Also characteristic of the open communication architecture of
the Occupy protests were the dense and highly personalized media networks used to maintain
O
connections and coordinate activities. Moving beyond off-the-shelf communication
technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, Occupy technology developers sought to build
idea generators, take-action platforms, and a “global square” virtual commons.
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There are open questions about where and how new norms guiding participation will
emerge from the profusion of self-actualizing, digitally mediated DIY politics. Will norms
emerge from reforming existing institutions, from changing school civics curricula, or from
D
grassroots success models? Research is needed to chart these pathways. There may even be
an argument for DIY as a more or less permanent adaptive response to complexities of late-
modern politics: given the numbers and types of moving political targets that citizens must
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engage to register their concerns, a DIY ethos may prove the most flexible orientation.
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Can these personalized forms of collective action achieve the levels of focus and
sustainability that have typically been required for social movements to press their demands
successfully? This question may be too broad in scope to yield easy or definitive answers.
Recent history suggests a mixed record. As noted in the sections below, there have been
impressive gains in terms of deposing regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, or raising long-ignored
questions of inequality among elites and in the American press. At the same time, there have
D
been repeated setbacks at climate conferences and in various areas of reforming trade
regimes. Whether classic social movement organization would have produced better
outcomes is debatable, given the disproportionate influence of business and free market
values that continued to dominate formal political debate even in the midst of global financial
and environmental crises. The next two sections offer ways of thinking about the impact of
these personalized forms of connective action.
The Upside: Shaping the Political Agenda
As globalization created divisions between poorly compensated producers in the

South and increasingly well-appointed consumers in the North, activists successfully raised
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questions about whether one’s fashion statement came at the expense of exploited sweatshop
workers or coffee growers squeezed to bare subsistence by global commodity markets. In
many ways, consumer activism has put corporations on alert that their brands are in danger
(Klein 1999). These consumer mobilizations do not even require mass awareness or radical
conversions to succeed. A combination of creative protest strategies and timely information
delivered to journalists (e.g. arrests of union organizers, suicides at plants, or working
conditions at foreign sites of production) can hold the brands hostage in the press, making
corporations at least begin to address social responsibility issues (Bennett and Lagos 2007;
Stolle and Micheletti forthcoming).
Looking more generally beyond explicit consumer action, there have also been clear
impacts from the broad DNA uprisings against corrupt authoritarian regimes of the Middle
East, and against the inequities that produced the financial crisis in which taxpayers in the
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OECD democracies suffered austerity to save the banks. Spurred by the economic downturns
of a global finance crisis that had the world on the brink of economic depression, protesters
raised questions about inequality and the false promises of deregulated markets. These
underlying issues stemming from the indignado and Occupy protests circulated widely in
many societies, leading to changes in national conversations and political agendas.
O
These shifts in national discourses were major accomplishments coming from loosely
organized protests that are not easy to classify as social movements, since they lacked central
coordination, collective identity frames, and focused political demands. Indeed, emerging
C
patterns of political activism such as Occupy were dispersed, decentered, weakly coordinated,
and pegged to inclusive personal identity frames such as “We are the 99%,” which became a
mantra of the protests and media discourses about them. One palpable correlate of such
inclusive participation networks was more favorable press coverage than many radical social
D
movements typically receive. In part, this is because inclusive “everyperson” personal action
frames such as “the 99%” are easier to report favorably than exclusive collective action
frames defining narrower social identity groups against the established order. In addition, it
E
was clear that many journalists and commentators had long recognized the growth of
inequality as the big untold story of the era that few officials wanted to touch politically. Now
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it could be reported as a real problem, and politicians could discuss it.
The elites who began to address formerly marginalized topics such as inequality and
fairness did not necessarily endorse or always even acknowledge the protesters. The press
coverage offered a bridging device to make reference to topics that were now in wide public
circulation. In Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, and Davos, leaders made cautious
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suggestions about adjusting the distribution of economic gains so that people in societies
might better benefit from capitalism. Some of these discussions on the Left were framed in
terms of restoring fairness values in societies where economic power had leveraged the
political game too far in favor of the rich. Some on the Right expressed more pragmatic
concerns that too much inequality could kill the consumer capacity on which economic
growth depends. It is hard to imagine this range of discourse emerging without the pressure
of dense personalized protest networks that now had their own media systems that intersected
with conventional media audiences and enabled content to flow across vast networks. Images
and memes, such as the 1 percent versus 99 percent, traveled through most every
communication channel in the OECD democracies and beyond.
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In the United States, the inequality discourse quickly took on a life of its own,
creating a media bridge for supporting voices such as labor unions and progressive members
of Congress who were wary of becoming too closely identified with the protesters.
eventually, even Barack Obama signaled a shift in his concessionary political style by raising
questions of fairness and equity, sparking a frustrated support base, and making inroads into
parts of the middle electorate. In other nations, leaders from the Center Right such as Merkel
in Germany and Sarkozy in France spoke in favor of a Robin Hood Tax on financial
transactions aimed at limiting the volume of unproductive speculation in world economies
and adjusting inequities in relations between rich and poor at home and abroad. While the
economic crisis no doubt provided the political opportunity for these ideas to emerge in high
places, the pressures from below undoubtedly helped them along. 6
It was under the cover of the growing press coverage on inequality and the excesses
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of the 1 percent that Obama delivered a game-changing speech channeling Teddy Roosevelt
in Osawatomie, Kansas on December 6, 2011. The speech, along with a 60 Minutes interview
that week, offered a number of trial balloons testing themes for his presidential campaign.
Among these ideas was an elliptical reference to the grand 1 percent versus 99 percent meme
of the Occupy protests: “I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we’re greater
together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a
O
fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. These
aren’t Democratic values or Republican values. These aren’t 1% values or 99% values.
They’re American values. And we have to reclaim them” (Washington Post 2011). These
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ideas resonated with his base and beyond, and triggered a large volume of press coverage and
commentary. Obama further amplified the fairness and inequality themes, and added the idea
of economic sustainability, in the 2012 State of the Union Address titled “A Nation Built to
Last.” Many observers took that speech as a preview of his 2012 election stump speech.
D
Using Silobreaker, I conducted semantic network analyses of all media with online
presences, which enabled me to track co-occurrences of the terms inequality and occupy,
E
along with other terms chained to them. I followed these semantic networks from before the
first Occupy protests in September 2011, through the writing of this article in February 2012.
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even as late as November 2011, semantic network maps showed that the terms most closely
associated with occupy and inequality were Adbusters (the magazine that triggered the
occupations with a blog post that went viral); taxes; and, at some remove, a conservative
oppositional cluster that included Tea Party, Tea Party Movement, Paul Ryan, and
Republican Party. The Democratic Party, unions, the White House, Obama administration,
and Obama did not even register their coappearance in any substantial volume beside the
D
high-volume discourses (numbering in the thousands of news and blog items per month)
surrounding the central terms occupy and inequality. In the early period of the protests
(September 17 to mid-October 2011), the inequality story was closely attached to the protests.
By November, inequality had taken on a life of its own, though it was still boosted by various
occupy activities that received coverage. Until the story took on a life of its own, a cautious
liberal political elite stayed away from protest discourse. The occupy protesters continued to
take their economic concerns directly to the politicians, as Obama and the Democratic Party
were “occupied” by protests outside of venues where they courted big donors including the
Wall Street bankers they had just bailed out.
Figure 1 shows that by early 2012 there were many interwoven narratives in the
media. There was still a baseline of news stories and blogs containing both the occupy and
263
inequality frames, but even larger volumes of stories focused on the two frames separately.
This enabled elite discourse strategies of the sort developed by Obama to appropriate the idea
of inequality and economic justice without becoming directly associated with their protest
messengers. When Obama delivered his Kansas speech on December 6, he immediately
moved into the center of the semantic inequality space (along with Teddy Roosevelt,
Osawatomie, and White House). For a few days, Obama even displaced Occupy Wall Street
7
from its near exclusive position at the center of the inequality discourse space in the media.
By the time of the 2012 State of the Union Address, Obama meshed easily with the inequality
discourse space, taking periodic ownership of an idea that now had a life of its own, while
still reflecting its original association with Occupy. Figure 1 shows the way in which U.S.
news and commentary disproportionately associated Obama with the term inequality in media
coverage of his January 24 presidential address. The longer-term media trends before and
after the speech show how inequality and occupy tracked each other closely but occupied
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separate story lines, while media items containing both terms (together in the same
paragraphs or prominently featured by placement and word count in the items) were smaller
in volume, but also tracked the two dominant story lines.
FIGURe 1: Frequency of Co-Occurring Terms in Online News and Blogs between January
16 and February 16, 2012
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C
E D
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SOURCE: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/258125311_fig1_FIGURe-1-Frequency-of-
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Co-Occurring-Terms-in-Online-News-and-Blogs-between-January-16-and
NOTE: Obama’s State of the Union address occurred on January 24.
264
FIGURe 2: The Discourse Space Surrounding the Term Inequality in U.S. Online Media
(News and Blogs) from January 18 to February 18, 2012
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SOURCE: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/258125311_fig2_FIGURe-2-The-Discourse-
O
Space-Surrounding-the-Term-Inequality-in-US-Online-Media-News
NOTE: Total items: 3,833. News (including commentary and editorials): 3,441; blogs: 381;
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miscellaneous: 11.
When this pattern of inequality, as a focus of national media attention, matured in

early 2012, a number of prominent voices became associated with the inequality discussion.
D
Figure 2 shows a semantic network map of U.S. news and blogs based on the association
patterns of terms surrounding inequality (and filtered for relevance of those uses of inequality
to the terms occupy or occupy movement) in online media sites for the period January 18 to
E
February18, 2012. The closer another term is to inequality, the more items featuring that term
also use the term inequality. Path distances represent chains of co-occurrence among
documents. More distant items are less relevant to the central discourse, although they are
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directly related to the terms along the paths leading to the central terms.
Inequality discourse was suddenly everywhere. It spiked whenever Occupy protests

popped up surrounding elite gatherings (at least whenever police clashes did not dominate the
stories). There were even reports of hand-wringing among elites at the 2012 World economic
D
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where forum organizers offered Occupy protesters an ersatz
headquarters outside the main conference venue. Some masters of the financial universe
fretted about the growth of inequality undermining popular faith in capitalism itself. Others
worried that shrinking consumer income might stall the growth engine that powered sales,
profits, and jobs. The icon of late-modern capitalism, Bill Gates, delivered a speech at Davos
titled “A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century.” And the CEO of the World
economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, issued this remarkable comment that the New York Times
deemed fit for an occupier: Whether or not capitalism would be reformed to please many of
the Occupy protesters, it is remarkable that they were able to change the economic
conversation in such a short time, using such highly personalized networking organizations.
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The Downside: Too Little Power, Too Many Problems
For all of the signs that the DNA of personalized politics has had an impact on public
discourses, from corporate social responsibility to economic and environmental justice, there
are also signs that significant structural policy changes are slow to materialize. Corporations
and elites may be signaling greater responsibility for the injustices inflicted on workers,
taxpayers, or the environment, but underlying change is harder to produce. The shift to
fundamentally different models of markets, resource use, energy production, or growth (much
less rethinking capitalism itself) seems at best a distant ideal rather than a real political
possibility.
Critical observers contend that there is little political will on display when
governments keep investing in solutions likely to make things worse in the long run to shore
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up ever more precarious arrangements in the short run. Even the leading economists on the
Left such as Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz are basically unreconstructed Keynesians who
simply have different ideas about how to stimulate growth. Most official analyses underlying
the narrow spectrum of policy options tend to spin away fundamental causes and
contradictions. Whether coming from the economists in the Obama administration or the
OECD, key reports have concluded that neither the global trade regime nor the outsourcing of
O
good jobs contributed to the chronic rise of inequality or the acute difficulties in pulling out
of the world economic crisis. The politically safe analyses pointed to seemingly derivative
factors such as technological change and the deregulation of job markets (Pfanner 2012).
C
And so, growth remains the god term of our time, and only growth is touted inside
the circles of power as the solution to humanity’s ills. Yet growth and its attendant
externalities of resource depletion and environmental damage are also clearly associated with
D
the host of current political ills. Following from this, one criticism of consumer politics and
other contemporary lifestyle participation forms is that the goals are often not aimed at
slowing consumption but at making it a bit friendlier to workers and the environment. It is
E
easy to see why many activists shy away from a fuller embrace of sustainable societies as
their political goal. The brand of consumer politics dedicated to minimizing consumer
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lifestyles (sometimes known as voluntary simplicity) is hard to make attractive to citizen-

consumers who think their lifestyles require continual outfitting and upgrading.
If majorities of publics lack the will to make voluntary radical changes, the lack of
will among their leaders is compounded many times over. Without leadership, publics are not
likely to feel comfortable undergoing the sacrifices necessary to change current economic
D
models. Given their close proximity to big business and its foreshortened “profit or die” time
horizon, it is hardly surprising that most political elites, even on the Left, are far removed
from being able to fundamentally change course. As a result, they continue to go through the
motions at summits with little will to overcome collective inertia. For example, the annual
UN climate summits following the Kyoto Treaty have resulted in one disappointment after
another for activists. Similarly, the frustrated hopes for harnessing banks and financial
systems are painful reminders about how much power those institutions wield over those who
would regulate them.
The ironic situation is that the whole system of relations involving environment,
energy, and economy seems tied to clearly understood human practices, but their evolved
complexities may be beyond human capacity to change. It is not clear whether these problems
266
should be cast as failures of the political challengers (whether conventional social movements
or DNA connectives) or as measures of the magnitude of the problems themselves, and of the
power imbalances that sway decision-makers.
Conclusion
Social fragmentation and the decline of group loyalties have given rise to an era of
personalized politics in which individual expression displaces collective action frames in the
embrace of political causes. The rise of personalized forms of political participation is
perhaps the defining change in the political culture of our era. This trend can be spotted in the
rise of large-scale, rapidly forming political participation aimed at a variety of targets,
ranging from parties and candidates, to corporations, brands, and transnational organizations.
The group-based “identity politics” of the “new social movements” that arose after the 1960s
PY
still exist, but the recent period has seen more diverse mobilizations in which individuals are
mobilized around personal lifestyle values to engage with multiple causes such as economic
justice (fair trade, inequality, and development policies), environmental protection, and
worker and human rights. This large-scale individualized collective action is often
coordinated through digital media technologies, sometimes with political organizations
playing an enabling role, and sometimes with crowds using layers of social media to
O
coordinate action.
Some of these politics have specific consumerist styles, as in the many expressions of
C
concern about the social or environmental realities beyond the brand image of popular
products. Beyond consumer and lifestyle actions, large individualized collectivities have also
emerged around broader political agendas with the help of various social and digital media.
The so-called Arab Spring and various uprisings in Europe and the United States following
D
the world financial crisis suggest more general political capacities of individualized collective
action. Protest formations, such as the indignados in Spain and Occupy protests in the United
States and elsewhere, have focused attention on failings of the pervasive neoliberal economic
E
regime that became politically dominant during the recent era of globalization. Not only have
these protests triggered debate in the mass media, but public discussion space has opened to a
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range of critics who argue that the neoliberal regime is headed for an inevitable and painful
meltdown that may force the adoption of more sustainable practices (Gilding 2011;
Martenson 2011). In the meantime, it seems a positive sign that some politicians, including
the long-conciliatory Barack Obama, began to talk about sustainability, while captains of
industry such as Bill Gates called for new variants on capitalism. These shifts in discourse
and perceptions are clearly related to opportunities seized by contemporary activists. If the
D
crisis and accompanying protests pointed out the flaws of the dominant political and
economic regimes, the political remedies were not as immediately obvious. Conventional
solutions such as pressuring partiesor forming new ones may not make much difference when
innovative choices seem limited by crisis conditions. Thus, it may be unreasonable to fault
connective action formations and their loosely tied communication-based organization for
lack of more fundamental change. Many of the issues in the globalized polity have long been
the focus of more conventionally organized challengers, from unions to social movements,
with no better results. What seems clear is that the DNA of personalized politics has
succeeded more than many other forms of protests in occupying the contemporary political
discourse space.
267
Notes
1. The first winner was Charles A. GDP. Some estimates of the contribution
Lindbergh in 1927, and others have of the consumer economy to GDP were
included Mohandas Ghandi, Franklin even higher. The global economic crash
Roosevelt (twice), Hitler, Stalin, De and its surrounding energy and
Gaulle, Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., environmental issues may well mark the
Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, along end of an economic era.
with astronauts, scientists, popes, and 6. It should be noted that this economic
business leaders. justice agenda had long been advocated
2. While this ethos of diversity and by a broad spectrum of collective action,
inclusiveness seems to have fueled including conventional social movements
greater volumes of personalized politics and hybrid NGO advocacy networks that
on the Left, there are interesting engaged large publics. Yet the more
examples on the Right as well, such as personalized “connective action”
PY
the Tea Party, which gathered a broad networks somehow seized the opportunity
spectrum of discontent under its and raised the level of discussion. A
antigovernment action frame. The ways more complete overview of how
in which the boundaries of political personalized participation fits into larger
sentiment may be policed differently by schemes of collective action is presented
these loose-tied Left- or Right-leaning
O
in Bennett and Segerberg (2011).
networks is an interesting empirical
question. 7. Based on Silobreaker searches on
3. Individuation may also be associated November 20, 2011, and December 8,
with many authoritarian states that have
undermined civil society and thus help to
C 2011, for the co-occurrence of inequality
and occupy and third term co-
account for the rise of digitally occurrences in all U.S. news and blogs
networked uprisings in Egypt and online.
8.
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elsewhere. Silobreaker enables terms, such as
4. In the case of the Robin Hood Tax, the inequality, that may have many other
campaign featured Google maps dotted uses in other contexts to be filtered by
with tiny Robin Hood caps across the relevance in association with other terms
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British landscape. Clicking on a cap (in this case, occupy). The relevance
revealed personal testimonials about why algorithms represent prominence of
an individual supported the tax. The placement of terms in documents,
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Occupy protests quickly adopted the frequency of co-occurrence, and paths of

slogan of “We are the 99%,” which coassociation with other terms.
began on a Tumbler micro-blog where 9. The appearance of Charles Murray and
individuals took desktop photos of James Q. Wilson here reflects the buzz
themselves holding up a short account of surrounding Murray’s controversial and
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their personal challenges in the 99 just-published book arguing that

percent. inequality is not a structural economic
5. Before the economic crash of 2008, U.S. problem involving power and advantage
consumer spending on goods and in the economic game but more the result
services accounted for more than 60 of the degradation of family values
percent of jobs and a similar amount of among low-income Americans.
268
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L Making Claims in Contentious Politics
CHARLES TILLY & SIDNEY TARROW
Making Claims
When a young English divinity student named Thomas Clarkson won a Latin Prize
with an essay on slavery at Cambridge in 1785, neither he nor his listeners imagined the
effect it would have on slavery in the British Empire. But as he sat down at the side of the
road on his way to Londonto take up a career as a Protestant minister, Clarkson reflected that
if the horrors he had uncovered about slavery were true, “it was time some person should see
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these calamities to their end” (Hochschild 2005: 89). Clarkson turned out to be that person.
Together with a small band of antislavery advocates, he became the world’s first modern
social movement organizer. He wrote thousands of letters, organized petition drives, and
helped to launch the world’s first successful transnational movement. That movement
eventually ended the vicious violence of the slave trade and led to the abolition of slavery
O
around the Atlantic. It allowed English reformers to claim moral superiority over the newly
independent but slaveholding United States. The antislavery movement went through many
phases, suffered reversals during the repressive years of the Napoleonic wars, and required a
C
savage civil war to end slaveryin the United States. But it joined religious evangelicalism, the
politicalemancipation of Catholics, and parliamentary reform to create thepattern of modern
social movements in eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuryEngland.The movement that Clarkson
and his friends started looks decorousand even conservative to us today. But they made their
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claims much associal movements still do. They stimulated the formation of committees, took
out newspaper ads, encouraged the deposing of petitions, gathered evidence, and laid it
before the House of Commons. Although the word boycott itself would not enter the language
E
for another century, they organized what was in effect a boycott of slave-produced sugar.
Britain’s antislavery activists also shocked the nation’s conscience by displaying instruments
of torture the slave owners used. In the process, they forged alliances with parliamentary and
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literary opponents of slavery such as William Wilberforce and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
They even sent Clarks onto help antislavery forces in France during the brief period when
French republicans were interpreting the Rights of Man to include people of color (Drescher
1991). It took almost twenty years for Britain’s antislavery campaign to bring the Atlantic
slave trade to an end and another three decades for slavery toend in Britain’s colonies. But
D
less than a year after Clarkson and the committeebegan their campaign, “Britons were
challenging slavery in Londondebating societies, in provincial pubs, and across dinner tables
throughoutthe country” (Hochschild 2005: 213). In the newly independent UnitedStates,
opponents of the slave trade would eventually persuade Congressto make the trade illegal,
and it took a civil war to end slavery in the South.
Clarkson, his allies, his enemies, and public authorities on both sides of the Atlantic
were building a social movement.We could tell many different stories about antislavery. We
could treat it as a moral tale showing what determination can accomplish in the face of
difficult odds. We could think about it as an application of enlightened values, as an
expression of religious zeal, or as English capitalists’ attempt to promote free labor and free
trade. We could see it as an early example of a transnational social movement, a phenomenon
270
that has become important in this age of globalization. Different observers of European and
American antislavery campaigns have told all these tales, and more. Here we treat it as a
dramatic example of contentious politics, of people struggling with each other over which
political program will prevail. For another dramatic episode of contentious politics, fast-
forward 228 years to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
THE UKRAINIAN FALL
In November 2013, a protest movement erupted against President Viktor

Yanukovych’s decision to cancel a long-planned agreement between his economically-
strapped country and the European Union (EU). Yanukovych had been persuaded—his
enemies would say “bought”—by Russian President Vladimir Putin to draw back from
Europe by the inducement of a $15 billion loan if his country joined a Russian-led trade
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group. European leaders responded that if Yanukovych accepted the Russian offer, all bets
were off for a Ukrainian link to the EU. Western Ukrainians—including most of the residents
of the country’s capital, Kiev—were outraged by Yanukovych’s move. Protesters in Kiev
soon occupied the “Maidan”—the city’s central square—evoking the country’s “Orange
Revolution” of 2002 (Beissinger 2011). They called first for Ukraine’s association with
Europe, then for an end to corruption, and increasingly for the President to resign.Those
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protests were largely peaceful, and they soon “turned violent”—that is to say, the regime’s
riot police turned on them, killing eighty-four protesters and arresting hundreds more.
Outrage at the regime’s overreaction spread around the country and across Europe, and the
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Maidan occupation fell into a pattern of barricade building, police charges, occupation of
government buildings, speeches by opposition politicians, and government warnings of
fascist infiltration. What had begun as a largely peaceful protest movement rapidly
militarized, with groups of young “hundreds” donning helmets and gas masks and carrying
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improvised shields against the increasingly ineffective, but no less brutal, police. As the
confrontations escalated, international actors mobilized on oneside or another. In the West,
French, German and Polish envoys tried to forge a compromise that would save
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Yanukovych’s face but give the protesters the link to the EU they wanted; in the East,
Russian President Putin offered Ukraine a down payment on his promised loan and urged him
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to continue to stand fast against the protesters. The Russians then grudgingly agreed to the
Europeans’ compromise proposal, but suddenly, as quickly as he had cancelled the original
EU association deal, Yanukovych disappeared, only to reappear in the Russian Federation,
claiming to have been overthrown by a coup d’état. (It later turned out that he had been
abandoned by both army units and the special police forces on whichhe depended for his
survival). While the Maidan occupiers cheered jubilantly, opposition politiciansset up an
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unelected provisional government, and accused Yanukovych ofmass killing, threatening to

take him to the International Criminal Court. In Washington, President Obama and Secretary
of State Kerry cheered the advent of the provisional government, while in Brussels, EU
Foreign commissioner Catherine Ashton spoke cautiously of a major injection of cash to
bolster the country’s economy. But talk of internal democracy and external bailout was soon
eclipsed by what happened in the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine between February 28 and
March 2. (See map, figure 1.1.)
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O
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Figure 1.1 Ukraine, Crimea, and the Kerch Connection to Russia (photo by Lonely Plantet /
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Getty Images)
E
On those days, “little green men” in uniform began to appear at keypoints in the Crimea, an
area that had been part of Russia since the timeof Catherine the Great but was handed to
Ukraine by Communist Party chief Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, when the region was still part
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of the of Soviet Union. The peninsula was heavily peopled by Russian speakers and was the
home of the Russian Black Sea fleet. Slowly, at first, and then increasinglyinsistently,
Russian armed forces surrounded Ukrainian military facilities in the region, took over its
Parliament, and the Kerch ferry crossing between the Crimea and Russia. Their identity
became clear when Sergey Aksyonov, the newly-appointed Prime Minister of the Crimea,
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called for Russian intervention to protect the region’s citizens against armed attacks. Russian
armored vehicles soon rolled across the border as the Russian Duma declared it the country’s
duty to protect Russian speaking civilians from attacks it claimed were coming from
“fascists, nationalists, and anti-Semites” directed from Kiev. A full-scale military
intervention, allied with internal pro-Russian demonstrations, was underway. And, in a
plebiscite on March 16, a large majority of Crimean voters supported Crimea’s attachment to
Russia. In the wake of these events, western observers saw the Russian takeover as the start
of the worst foreign policy crisis since the Cold War. In Brussels, the EU and NATO
fulminated that the attack violated Russia’s commitment to respect Ukraine’s territorial
integrity. In Washington, President Obama launched a devastating series of economic
sanctions, while in Moscow the Kremlin propaganda machine revved up patriotic fervor to
support the annexation. But more was still to come: For no sooner was the Crimean peninsula
detached from Ukraine than war broke out between pro-Russian militants in the East of the
272
counry, aided by Russian troops, against the near-helpless agents of the Ukrainian state.
Soldiers without insignias took over government buildings in twelve southeastern cities of
Ukraine. They were helped by the inability of the new Ukrainian government to mount an
effective response to their pressures and by the presence of 40,000 Russian troops, backed by
a propaganda campaign beamed in from Moscow. A wave of domestic contention against a
weak and corrupt state had brought the collapse of a government, an internal
countermovement, and a partial military takeover by a neighboring state joined to a
nationalist rebellion.
CONTENTIOUS POLITICS
What do the campaign against the slave trade in eighteenth-century England and the
partial breakup and civil war in Ukraine in 2014 have in common? Although we can identify
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many differences, these were both episodes of what we call contentious politics. In both,
actors made claims on authorities, used public performances to do so, drew on inherited
forms of collective action (our term for this is repertoires) and invented new ones, forged
alliances with influential members of their respective polities, took advantage of existing
political regime opportunities and made new ones,and used a combination of institutional and
extrainstitutional routines to advance their claims.
O
Contentious politics involves interactions in which actors make claims bearing on
other actors’ interests, leading to coordinated efforts on behalf of shared interests or
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programs, in which governments are involved as targets, initiators of claims, or third parties.
Contentious politics thus brings together three familiar features of social life: contention,
collective action, and politics.
D
Contention involves making claims that bear on someone else’s interests. In everyday
life, contention ranges from small matters such as which television show we should watch
tonight to bigger questions such as whether your sister Sue should marry the man she is
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dating. But it also takes place in football matches, rival advertising campaigns, and struggles
between cantankerous patients and irritable doctors. In the simplest version of contention, one
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party makes claims on another. The parties are often persons, but one or the other can also be
agroup or even an institution; you can make a claim on your school or file a claim on the
government for unemployment benefits. In the elementary version, we can think of one party
as a subject (the maker of a claim) and the other as an object (the receiver of a claim). Claims
always involve at least one subject’s reaching visibly toward at least one object. You
(subject) may ask a friend (object) to pay back the money he borrowed from you yesterday.
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But claims range from timid requests to strident demands to direct attacks, just so long as
they would, if realized, somehow affect the object’s well-being, the object’s interests. Often
three or more parties are involved, as when you demand that your friend pay you back the
money he was about to hand over to another creditor. Contention always brings together
subjects, objects, and claims.
Collective action means coordinating efforts on behalf of shared interests or

programs. Football teams engage in collective action, but so do churches, voluntary
associations, and neighbors who clear weeds from a vacant lot. When you go to school or to
work for a big company, you enter an organization that is carrying on collective action. But
most of the collective action involved occurs with no significant contention and no
273
government involvement. The bulk of collective action takes place outside contentious
politics.
Most contention also occurs outside politics. We enter the realm of politics when we
interact with agents of governments, either dealing with them directly or engaging in
activities bearing on governmental rights, regulations, and interests. Politics likewise ranges
from fairly routine matters such as applying for a driver’s license to momentous questions
such as whether the country should go to war. But most of politics involves little or no
contention. Most of the time, people register for benefits, answer census takers, cash
government checks, or show their passports to immigration officers without making
significant claims on other people.The presence or absence of governments in contention
makes a difference for three big reasons. First, people who control governments gain
advantages over people who don’t. Even where the government is weak, controlling it gives
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you the means of collecting taxes, distributing resources, and regulating other people’s
behavior. As a result, political contention puts at risk, however slightly, the advantages of
those who currently enjoy governmental power. Second, governments always make rules
governing contention: who can make what collective claims, by what means, with what
outcomes. Even weak governments have some influence over the prevailing forms of claim
making, and they resist anyone else’s building up competitive centers of power within their
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territories. Third, governments control substantial coercive means: armies, police forces,
courts, prisons, and the like. The availability of governmental coercion gives an edge to
political contention that rarely exists outside the political arena. In political contention, large-
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scale violence always remains a possibility, however faint. Contention connected to
governments does resemble contention in families, sports, churches, and businesses in some
regards. We will sometimes call attention to those parallels. But we single out government-
connected contention because it has these distinctive properties.
D
Let us immediately rule out a few possible misunderstandings. Restriction of
contentious politics to claim making that somehow involves governments by no means
E
implies that governments must figure as the makers or receivers of contentious claims. On the
contrary, as the book proceeds, we will encounter a wide range of contention in which
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nongovernmental actors are pitted against each other and make claims on religious,
economic, ethnic, or other nongovernmental holders of power. Remember the story with
which this chapter began? In both England and America, antislavery activists directed their
claims first against slaveholders and only then against governments, which were drawn into
the action because they either supported or opposed slavery and only they could resolve the
legal and physical conflicts that slavery fostered. As you move through the book, you will
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read sustained discussions of many such conflicts: American campus activism against South
Africa’s apartheid in the 1980s; changes in the repertoire of contention in theUnited States
since the 1960s and in Argentina before and after the dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s; the
rebellion of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, in the 1990s; nationalist and
democratization protests in the breakup of the former Soviet Union; transformations of
American women’s lives by participation in feminist organizations; lethal conflicts in
Northern Ireland and Sudan, and the revolution in Nicaragua; the transnational “Global
Justice” movement and transnational Islamism; the struggle for marriage equality in the
United States and the tumultuous Arab Spring that are ongoing as this book goes to press. All
of these conflicts eventually drew governments—local or national—into the action, as did our
initial story of the struggle against slavery in England. But they began by pitting
nongovernmental actors against each other. Let us be clear. We do not deny that processes
274
much like those occurring in contentious politics also occur in nonpolitical settings. That is
actually the point of distinguishing collective action and contention from politics. We also do
not deny that some forms of contention—such as religious movements—aim primarily at
internal change within individuals. But even these frequently come into contact with
governments—for example, when evangelical Christians attempt to incorporate religious
values into the public school curriculum. Finally, sometimes a corporationthat runs a
company town, an international military force such as NATO, or an international institution
such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization behaves much like a
government. Those cases come close enough to our definition of contentious politics for this
book to include them. Still, we focus our attention on the convergence of collective action,
contention, and politics because the area of their overlap has distinctive—and potentially
dangerous—properties.
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Figure 1.2 shows how contention, collective action, and politics converge in contentious
politics. Many scholars would draw different boundaries—for example, by treating collective
action as the fundamental process. In that view, such episodes as antislavery in Britain and
the conflicts in Ukraine in 2013–2014 qualify simply as special instances of collective action.
Others define politics as consisting of struggles for power however and wherever they occur.
They thus take in all of contentious politics, add to it struggles outside the range of
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government, but treat routine political transactions as something else. In this line of thought,
many analysts distinguish between real politics—our contentious politics plus similar
struggles outside political arenas—and public administration.
C
D
Contention Politics
E
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D
Collective Action
Contentious Politics
Figure 1.2: Components of Contentious Politics
275
Many students of the subject use the term social movement to covermost or all of the
overlap between contention and collective action,whether it happens in politics or some other
arena. The same analystsoften extend the term social movement to what we will call social
movementbases: the social background, organizational resources, and cultural frameworks of
contention and collective action. Our book provides plentyof evidence about social
movements. But we recommend resisting expansion of the term to embrace most or all of
contentious politics, its social bases, and its cultural contexts. Such an expansion has several
drawbacks. First, it hampers comparison across different types of contention by collecting
them under the same label. Second, if different forms of contention all count as social
movements, that expansion makes it difficult to examine transitions among them.
Third, it obscures a fundamental fact: that social movements are a historical—and

not a universal—category. As our story of British antislavery shows, the social movement as
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we know it took shape about two centuries ago, and it only became widely available as a
means of popular claimmaking during the twentieth century (Tilly and Wood 2009). It
emerged through episodes such as antislavery, found its feet in the early nineteenth century
through labor and other struggles, and eventually became a staple of popular politics across
the world’s less authoritarian regimes during the twentieth century. American civil rights
activism formed a social movement; so did the movement for same-sex marriage, which ends
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this book. What qualifies as a social movement? We define a movement as a sustained
campaign of claim making, using repeated performances that advertise the claim, based on
organizations, networks, traditions, and solidarities that sustain these activities. But most
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forms of contentious politics are not social movements. Social movements combine (1)
sustained campaigns of claim making; (2) an array of public performances including
marches, rallies, demonstrations, creation of specialized associations, public meetings, public
statements, petitions, letter writing, and lobbying; (3) repeated public displays of worthiness,
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unity, numbers, and commitment by such means as wearing colors, marching in disciplined
ranks, sporting badges that advertise the cause, displaying signs, chanting slogans, and
picketing public buildings. They draw on (4) the organizations, networks, traditions, and
E
solidarities that sustain these activities—social movement bases. As familiar as it has become
to citizens of Western countries, this combination of campaigns, performances, and displays
EP
only took shape a few hundred years ago, and it is still rare or nonexistent through much of
the contemporary world. The recent explosion of digital activism may even be making social
movements obsolete. As seen in the Poland’s Solidarity movement and the American
women’s movement, the combinations of public displays of worthiness, unity, numbers, and
commitment produced significantly less violent confrontation than the three forms of lethal
conflict: ethnic religious strife, civil wars, and revolutions. Social movement politics and
D
lethal conflicts often co-occur and intersect in the same places.
CONTENTIOUS INTERACTION
Our two landmark episodes—British antislavery and the Ukrainian-Russian conflicts

from 2013 on reveal intersections among contention, politics, and collective action. Though
buffeted by the varying winds of reaction and reform, antislavery was a true social
movement. Over a period of more than thirty years, its participants sustained a powerful
campaign of contentious politics both within and against Britain’s political institutions. The
Ukrainian conflict ranged from a short-term movement coalition comprising masses in the
streets and opposition leaders, to an armed struggle between militants and their state
opponents with the backing of a foreign power. It led to the full-scale conflict between Russia
276
and Ukraine, with the backing of its western supporters, that continues as this book goes to
press. When contention, politics, and collective action get together, something distinctive
happens: power, shared interests, and government policy come into play. Claims become
collective, which means they depend on some sort of coordination among the people making
the claims. They also become political, at least by assuming the presence of governments as
monitors, guarantors, or regulators of collective claim making and often more directly as
subjects or objects of claims. In those circumstances, we will speak about groups that
sometimes make claims as political actors. We will call the collective names that they give
themselves or that other people give them—those workers, we citizens, us women, and so
on—their political identities. People often make collective claims on governments, and
governments make claims on whole categories of people. Governments also involve
themselves in how people outside government make claims on each other. Sometimes they
facilitate contention by opening opportunities for challengers but sometimes they suppress it:
PY
Lawmakers make laws banning some kinds of assemblies, police arrest unruly demonstrators,
judges try people for seditious claims, and officials intervene when their clients or
constituents are fighting collectively. The intersection of contention, politics, and collective
action contains events ranging from local ethnic competitionto great revolutions.This book
looks hard and systematically at that intersection. It lays out a simple set of tools for
describing and explaining contentious politics in all its varieties. The tools consist of concepts
O
and of causal connections among the phenomena singled out by those concepts. We make a
rough distinction between description and explanation. Description consists of specifying
what special properties and variations in contention deserve serious attention. Explanation
C
entails showing what produces those special properties and variations. The distinction
between description and explanation remains rough; sometimes one special property or brand
of variation helps to explain another. When we compare Ukraine’s quasi-revolution with
other mobilizations against authoritarian regimes, we actually move toward explanation by
D
identifying relevant differences among the regimes and their oppositions.
As Doug McAdam (1999) writes, “a viable model of the individual must take full
E
account of the fundamentally social/relational nature of human existence”(xiii). Some

students of contention give primary attention to itssocial bases—for example, to social
EP
networks, organizations, cultural predispositions,and the political and ideological traditions

that nourish contention.While we give ample space to these bases of contention, we are
primarily concerned with the mechanisms and processes that involve challengers with their
targets, public authorities, and third parties like the media and the public in sequences of
interaction. For example, whenwe turn to social movements, we focus on the mechanisms
and processes that transform the bases of contention into social movement campaigns. Putting
D
these elements together will help us to resolve a fundamental paradox of contentious politics:
its recurring combination of variations and regularities. Contentious politics features
enormous variation in its issues, actors, interactions, claims, sequences, and outcomes from
time to time and place to place. But it also displays great regularities in the ways that
contention unfolds. We will see how similar mechanisms and processes produce distinctive
political trajectories and outcomes depending on their combinations and on the social bases
and political contexts in which they operate. We can begin to capture some of the recurrent,
historically embedded character of contentious politics by means of two related theatrical
metaphors and a military one: performances, repertoires, and campaigns.
• Contentious performances are relatively familiar and standardized waysin which one set of
political actors makes collective claims on someother set of political actors. Among other
277
performances, participantsin Ukraine’s protest movement against President Yanukovych
usedmass demonstrations as visible, effective performances.
• Contentious repertoires are arrays of performances that are currently known and available
within some set of political actors. England’s antislavery activists helped to invent the
demonstration as a political performance, but they also drew on petitions, lobbying, press
releases, public meetings, and a number of other performances. Ukraine’s Maidan protesters
assembled in a public place, but they also built a tent city, defended it with shields against
police repression, and attacked government buildings until the President and his entourage
fled thecountry.
• Contentious campaigns are combinations of performances that “focus on a particular policy

and usually disassemble when that policy is implemented or overturned” (Almeida 2014: 6).
Observers sometimes refer to such campaigns as “movements,” but in many cases they
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involve arrays of actors, including movements, interest groups, political parties, the media,
interested onlookers, and state agents.
CLAIM MAKING AS PERFORMANCE
O
Once we look closely at collective making of claims, we see that particular instances
improvise on shared scripts. Presentation of a petition, taking a hostage, or mounting a
demonstration constitutes a performance that links at least two actors, a claimant, and an
C
object of claims. Innovation occurs incessantly on the small scale, but effective claims
depend on a recognizable relation to their setting, on relations between the parties, and on
previous uses of the claim-making form. Performances evolve over time. Consider how
Clarkson and his colleagues used petitions to inundate Parliament with antislavery demands.
D
One of the most traditional forms of making claims, petitions originally came from individual
petitioners seeking benefits for themselves. They bowed before their lords to request personal
exemption from military service or lowering of their excise tax. The British antislavery group
E
turned the petition into an instrument for mass claim making, accumulating thousands of
signatures on petitions to demand redress for others. This was the origin of the on-line
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petition of today. Now think of the massing of protesters in the streets of Kiev in 2013. In the
1830s, British Chartists adopted the mass demonstration, then anew form, as they demanded
political rights for working people (Thompson 1984). In the mid-nineteenth century, during
what we remember as the 1848 revolution, such demonstrations traversed Europe on the part
of workers, nationalists, middle-class reformers, and revolutionary socialists. That led to a
known change in the repertoire of contention: By 2013, Ukrainians knew exactly how to
D
organize demonstrations that would challenge the rules, reinforce their own solidarity, and
gain international support. All forms of contention rest on performances, but performances
range from direct assaults on others to theatricals staged for nearby or distant audiences
(Taylor and Van Dyke 2004: 271; Tarrow 2011). In the eighteenth century, people mainly
engaged in performances that were specific to their particular claims, such as seizing grain,
invading landlords’ fields, barricading their streets, and pulling down wrongdoers’ houses
(Tilly 2005). Think of the Boston colonists who attacked the home of an official charged with
collecting the hated stamp tax in 1765, or of those who dumped tea into Boston Harbor in
1775. Both groups were engaging in particular performances. But by the twentieth century,
many contentious performances had spread around the world and become what we call
modular: performances that could be adopted and adapted across a wide range of conflicts
and sites of contention by a broad range of actors. Think again of the protest demonstration. It
278
grew out of—and at first resembled—the religious procession to a place of worship. It turned
contentious as demonstrators moved from a place of assembly to a site from which they could
confront the targets of their claims. Later, it became the central form of action, mounted
routinely to demonstrate a claim before the public. With the diffusion of mass media, that
public expanded from neighbors who witnessed a demonstration passing beneath their
windows to a wider range of citizens who could watch it on their television sets. By the
twentieth century, it had become the major conventional form of contention used by
claimmakers across the world. By the early twenty-first century, as we will see, marchers
protesting for free speech in Paris knew how to organize a demonstration and what they did
not know, they quickly learned from social media. More recently, reaching people through
the Internet has become a favored means of mobilization. For example, “hactivism,” the
practice of infiltrating the computer of a transnational firm or a government to disrupt its
routines, is becoming more and more common (Samuels 2004). So far the Internet’s major
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role in contentious politics has been either (1) to assemble people in demonstrations at one
site or (2)to coordinate demonstrations in many sites across a broad range of territory; and it
may also be emerging (3) as a form of “connective action”itself (Bennett and Segerberg
2013). A good example of the Internet’s firstsort of use was the 1999 Seattle demonstration
against the World Trade Organization. A major example of the second was the coordination
of demonstrations across the globe against the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. An
O
example of the third was the “Occupy” movement of 2011–2012, which existed “online” as
much as “offline.” None of these has done away with the classical set of contentious politics
performances but they have progressively increased the ability of organizers to expand their
C
reach. The petition, the demonstration, and the Internet-based call to action have become
modular performances, generic forms that can be adapted to a variety of local and social
circumstances. The advantage of such modular performances is their dual generality and
specificity. Seen generically, they have features that adapt to a wide variety of circumstances
D
and have meaning to a wide variety of potential participants and audiences. American
students demonstrate on collegecampuses, French farmers demonstrate outside the prefecture,
Israeli settlers demonstrate beside the Wailing Wall, and Hong Kong democracy protesters
E
demonstrate in Hong Kong’s business district—all are usingsome variant of the same
modular performance. But seen in particular circumstances, demonstrations offer a variety
EP
offacets that can be attached to local knowledge. Skillful organizers adapt the generic form to
local circumstances, embedding a modular form such as the demonstration in the languages,
symbols, and practices that make them compelling in those circumstances. Of course, not all
contentious performances are as orderly, theatrical, and peaceful as the demonstration. Take
the confrontational forms of contentious politics that exploded in Western Europe and the
United States during the 1960s. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and theUnited
D
States had dominated the early 1950s, restricting protest in generaland confrontational protest
in particular. But the African American awakenings of the mid-1950s and the 1960s, the
student and antiwar movements of the late 1960s, the women’s and gay rights movements of
the 1970s, the peace and environmental movements of the 1980s, the collapse of communism
at the end of that decade, and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2010–2012 expanded all kinds
of protest and particularly of confrontational and violent forms of contention. Now think of
how young protesters after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri burned and
overturned cars when a grand jury absolved a police officer of using unnecessary force. They
were using a performance that had become a standard part of the American urban repertoire
that emerged in the riots of the mid-1960s against police violence. These two generations of
protesters were not connected to each other but the performance of burning cars during social
unrest became a standard part of the American repertoire. Finally, think of the occupation of
279
public space organized by the “Occupy” movement in the United States and the “Indignation”
protesters in Europe in response to the Great Recession of 2008–2013; they picked up on a
performance that goes back to the nineteenth century and reached its peak in the sit-in
protests of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war era of the 1960s. The same performance with
more profound implications was used by the occupants of Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011,
when they launched a revolutionary message that spread across the Middle East and North
Africa. Dieter Rucht has provided us with a running portrait tracing how different forms of
contentious politics converged in one archetypical European country, Germany, over this
period. Rucht and his colleagues examined contention from major newspapers for the years
1950–1988 for West Germany and for both halves of Germany over the following decade
(2005). His findings show a dramatic increase in the numbers of protests in the 1960s and
smaller, but still substantial, increases over the next three decades. Protests rose from a low of
just over 1,100 in the 1950s toover 4,000 in the 1990s. Not only that: The mix of
PY
conventional, confrontational, and violent activities changed dramatically between the
beginning of the West German Republic and the end of the century. Although no linear trend
appeared in the proportion of “demonstrative”protests (about 50 percent at the beginning and
at the end of the period), a net decline occurred in the percentage of routine expressions of
claims, what Rucht calls procedural protests and appeals. In contrast, Rucht’s evidence shows
increases in the proportion of “confrontational” protests in the 1980s and of “violent
O
encounters” in the 1990s. The declines correspond largely to the tactics of the peace
movement, while the later increases in violence reflect the rise of right-wing anti-immigrant
groups and of the absorption of East Germany. Figure 1.3 summarizes these data for West
C
Germany through 1988 and for the expanded country between 1989 and 1990.
E D
EP
D
Figure 1.3: Protest Events in Germany, 1950–1990

Source: Data provided by Dieter Rucht.
280
Sources Of Repertoire Change
This takes us to the factors that bring about changes in repertoires. Wecan distinguish
two major kinds of process in repertoire change: the effects of periods of rapid political
change and the outcome of incrementally changing structural factors. The first are more
dramatic, sometimes produce lasting change, but are more easily routinized and repressed as
authorities regain control of contention. Incremental changes are less dramatic, depend on
factors that evolve more slowly, but can be more enduring. With respect to periods of rapid
political change, during major cycles of contention, the ordinary preference for familiar
claim-making routines dissolves in spurts of innovation. American civil rights activists did
not simply use the decorous old social movement forms they inherited but deliberately
disrupted existing routines. Periods of rapid political change produce sequences of innovation
in repertoires, and successive innovations largely account for the ebb and flow of movement
PY
activity (Kriesi etal. 1995; McAdam 1983). During such times of rapid political change, we
find both actions andreactions. As each new round of claim making begins to threaten the
interestsof (or provide new opportunities for) political actors who had previouslyremained
inactive, a spiral of contention ensues. Social movementsengender countermovements.
Challengers’ allies appear andretreat. The state, at first thrown off balance by new forms of
contention,eventually reacts and in some cases turns to repression. The extremecase arrives in
O
a revolutionary situation: a deep split in control ofcoercive means. During a revolutionary
situation, every actor’s interest isat risk, and many actors therefore mobilize for action. We
saw exactly thatshift in the Ukrainian conflicts of 2013–2014. As we will argue, the major
C
constraints and incentives for contentious politics are political opportunity structures, and
most of these are local and national. But we think it is important to look beyond the nation-
state at processes such as the shift of some kinds of contention to international institutions,
the framing of local issues as the results of global problems, and the formation of
D
transnational networks and movement coalitions. A recent major change is globalization, the
increasing economic integration of the planet.
E
In contrast to the effects of periods of rapid change, incrementalchanges in

repertoires are less dramatic, but more decisive in the long run. The major causes of
EP
incremental change sort into three main categories:
• Connections between claim making and everyday social organization. For example,
mothers bereft of bread for their children gather around the granary whose owner they
suspect of hoarding flour. Land-poor peasants who believe that the landlord stole their land
sometimes occupy it. And workers, whose one effective tool is the fact that their labor is
D
necessary to make the wheels of production turn, strike to prevent employers from the
successful pursuit of profit.
• Cumulative creation of a signaling system by contention itself. For example, over the past
two centuries, French claim makers have drawn on a dense experience with contention. Three
major revolutions, a revolutionary commune, more than a hundred years of strikes,
barricades, marches, and demonstrations all lie under the surface of French contention today,
to be drawn on, innovated upon, and replayed in endless permutations (Tartakowsky 2005;
Tilly 1986).
• Operation of the regime as such. Regimes sort performances into prescribed, tolerated, and
forbidden categories, dispensing threats and penalties to claimants who move onto forbidden
281
ground. When Clarkson and his colleagues perfected the petition into a tool of mass
mobilization, they did so in the context of a parliamentary regime that had recognized
petitions as legitimate forms of collective action for centuries. But when French radicalism
and Napoleonic arms were threatening Britain, reformers paid the penalty with imprisonment
and worse. Repertoires draw on the identities, social ties, and organizational forms that
constitute everyday social life. From those identities, social ties, and organizational forms
emerge both the collective claims that people makeand the means they have for making
claims. In the course of contendingor watching others contend, people learn the interactions
that can make apolitical difference as well as the locally shared meanings of those
interactions. The changing interaction of everyday social organization, cumulative experience
with contention, and regime intervention produces incremental alterations in contentious
performances. At any given moment, however, that interaction promotes clustering of claim
making in a limited number of recognizable performances, a repertoire. Repertoires are the
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source of tactical performances that combine inprotest campaigns. Campaigns can combine
strikes, rallies, protest marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and obstructions. “Opposition groups or
temporary alliances often piece together campaigns with a unifying set of slogans and
specified goals” (Almeida 2014: 6). They sometimes plan organized violence, but, more
typically, when violence occurs it is as the result of the interaction of protesters and the
“forces of order.” Where social movements are sustained. campaigns blend into longer
O
sequences of contention, but where movements are weak—as inmuch of the Global South—
campaigns tend to end when a particular policy is implemented or overturned.
C
What’s Coming
The comparison of eighteenth century British antislavery with Ukrainian conflicts

from 2013 on sent us on a fresh path across bumpy terrain. We have seen how contention,
D
collective action, and politics overlap in contentious politics: interactive, collective making of
claims that bear on other people’s interests and involve governments as claimants, objects of
claims, or third parties. Social movements qualify as a form of contentious politics, but so do
E
revolutions, civil wars, and a wide variety of other struggles this book takes up. In all these
forms of contention, distinctive claim-making performances and repertoires vary from setting
EP
to setting and regime to regime. Some of those performances are modular; as with the street
demonstration, they transfer easily from setting to setting and regime to regime. They build
on social bases belonging to the setting or regime. America’s changing contentious politics
since 1955, for example, often involved some widely recognizable performances such as
street demonstrations. But participants, claims, objects of claims, and forms all grew from
particular features of the changing American regime. To explain change and variation in
D
repertoires, we must look at the current pace of political change in the regime at hand,
identify incremental changes inthe regime’s social structure, then figure out how the two
affect everyday social organization, people’s cumulative experience with contention, and
current operation of the regime. With those elements in place, we begin the adventure of
explaining change and variation in the forms, participants, issues, objects, and outcomes of
contentious politics.
282

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This learning resource was collaboratively developed and

Department of Education at action@deped.gov.ph.

We value your feedback and recommendations.

Development Team of the UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

Management Team of the UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

Printed in the Philippines by ____________

Chapter 1: Introducing Culture, Society, and Politics ………………………….. 1

Chapter 3: Becoming a Member of Society ……………………………………. 48

Lesson 3: Human Dignity, Rights, and the Common Good …………………... 59

Chapter 4: Organizing Society ………………………………………………….. 66

Lesson 1: Exploring Groups Within Society ………………………………….. 68

Chapter 5: Ranking Groups in Society ………………………………………… 81

Lesson 1: Social and Political Stratification ………………………………….. 82

Chapter 6: Making Society Better …………………………………………….... 99

Additional Readings …………………………………………………………….. 127

CONTENT PERFORMANCE LEARNING

Marriage rules cross-culturally and prestige

e. Separation of church and state elections practices)

LEGEND SAMPLE DOMAIN/ COMPONENT CODE

Learning Area and Starting points for the understanding of culture

Chapter 1 provides some conceptual handles for understanding everyday experiences

compromise, and power.

1. How is culture, society, and politics manifested in everyday life?

A. Starting points for the understanding of culture, society, and politics

1. Sharing of social and cultural backgrounds of students as acting subjects

1. Society as a group of people sharing a common culture

The learners demonstrate an understanding of:

3. The rationale for studying anthropology, political science, and sociology

A. Starting points for the understanding of culture, society, and politics

1. Articulate observations on human cultural variation, social differences, social

B. Defining Culture and Society from the perspectives of Anthropology and

Lesson 1. Making Sense of Our Everyday Experiences

2. Amid these variations, why do we see similarities among societies?

aspects of human existence. In the discipline of anthropology, these diverse but

method that entails lengthy fieldwork or immersion in a specific social setting.

more grounded, insightful, and deeper understanding of our common humanity.

Material: Mills, C. Wright. (1959). “The Promise,” The Sociological Imagination.

sociology is the sociological perspective, a special point of view of sociology that

Activity 3. Turning personal problems into social problems

Democratic Ideals and Realities. Quezon City: Ateneo University Press.

Activity 4. Who Said What?

1. A human being is a political animal.

Activity 5. Trace the relationships

encompasses the meaningful processes and products of these social interactions.

Use the diagram to show how a person

culture as learned, symbolic, integrated, shared, and all encompassing (Tylor

traits of society are passed on to younger members in the process of growing

harness resources on flatlands or high up in the mountains while others

same way that culture shapes how people reshape nature.

Sociological Approaches to the Study of Society

Sociologists use three theoretical approaches: the structural-functional approach, the

social-conflict approach, and the symbolic-interaction approach. A theoretical

It should be noted that the Structural-Functional and Social-Conflict Approaches have

whole. In contrast, the Symbolic-Interaction Approach uses a micro-level orientation,

Activity 7. My Political Thought

Process Questions for Activities 8 and 9

cultural values and traits?

Below are the rules for MSPDP competitions in brief: