G-E-T P-A-S-T Your Guide to Capturing People in a Place in Time! ■ G - Geography and environment ■ E-Economic System ■ T-Technology ■ P-Political System ■ A-Arts, Ideas and Religious System ■ S-Social Structures ■ T-Transfers

Why might these categories be important to social scientists? ■ Geography ■ Economy ■ Technology ■ Government/Political Systems ■ Arts, Ideas & Religious Systems ■ Social Structures ■ Transfers

Every society must accomplish the following: ■ Adapt to their natural surroundings ■ Adapt biologically to ecosystems and reproduce ■ Develop tools and shelter ■ Organize human labor to produce goods ■ Organize individuals into working groups ■ Develop a way of making collective decisions to govern ■ Develop knowledge, belief systems and values

What are the ways in which these categories would define and/or affect a society? ■ Geography ■ Economy ■ Technology ■ Government/Political Systems ■ Arts, Ideas & Religious Systems ■ Social Structures ■ Transfers

Geography ■ The study of the natural setting of a society ■ Includes features of the land and climate ■ Geographical features can change over time and necessitate changes in society

Economy ■ The means and methods that a society uses for the production and distribution of goods and services ■ Societies do not need to have money to have an economy

Technology ■ Sum total of the ways humans devise for manipulating themselves and their natural environment early tools to sophisticated computers ■ Consists of tools and knowledge specific to certain tasks ■ Technology transfer and exchange are important forms of interaction between societies

Political Systems ■ The sum total of the ways in which many societies delegate the authority to make collective decisions and the power to enforce those decisions. Includes not just formal loci of power, but informal (e.g., interest groups). ■ Some types of government: ■ Monarchy = one person rules ■ Oligarchy = a few people rule ■ Democracy = many people rule ■ Theocracy = government by religious leaders ■ Aristocracy = government based on family status ■ Plutocracy = based on wealth

Arts, Ideas, Religion ■ All the things a society passes on from generation to generation or the “collective mind” of a society = culture ■ Also includes shared values and beliefs ■ Includes art, religion, philosophy and literature as well as day-to-day knowledge ■ “High” or “Elite” culture vs. “Popular” culture

Social Structure ■ Organization of individual society members into groups and categories ■ Examples include families, clans and classes ■ Includes how societies view gender differences, age differences and economic differences ■ Affects how societies view marriage, family relationships, inheritance, social etiquette and child rearing

Transfer ■ The transfer of beliefs, structures, institutions, technologies, diseases, etc. between civilizations. ■ Example: cultural diffusion

GET PAST McDonald’s In a notebook, apply GET PAST to McDonald’s. How could social scientists study McDonald’s using each category of GET PAST?

Fight! Fight! Fight! Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You’ve asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight what they saw so you can figure out who started it. Unfortunately, you have received many different accounts that disagree about who started the fight, who was involved, and when it started. It’s important to remember that NO ONE is lying. Answer the following questions: 1.How could there be different stories of the event if no one is lying? 2.Who are the different people who might have seen this fight? (Example: friends of those involved; people who don’t know the kids who were fighting; those who were fighting; teachers; students.) 3.What might make one person’s story more believable than another person’s?

FACT: a belief generally held to be true (the sky is blue) INFERENCE/INTERPRETATION: an educated guess based on gathered facts BIAS: prejudice in favor of or against a thing, person, or group compared with another FRAME OF REFERENCE: A structure of values, customs or views, which an individual or group uses to evaluate information or form opinions

Primary Vs Secondary Sources PRIMARY SOURCE: A primary source is a document, speech, or other sort of evidence created during the time under study. Primary sources offer an inside view of a particular event. SECONDARY SOURCE: Secondary sources provide interpretation and analysis of primary sources. Secondary sources are one step removed from the original event.

Exit Ticket Write down one example of a fact (not mentioned by Mr. Bochnak or from the lunchroom fight) Write down one example of an interpretation (not mentioned by Mr. Bochnak or the lunchroom fight) Why does every form of communication contain bias?