Young people interacting within an
ethnically diverse society.
A society is a grouping of individuals
which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions. Members of a society may be from different ethnic
groups. A society may be a particular people, such as the Nuer, a nation state, such as Switzerland, or a broader cultural group, such
as Western society.
The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political,
patriotic, or other purposes.
Origin and usage
The English word "society" emerged in the 15th century and is derived from the French
société. The French word, in turn, had its origin in the Latin societas, a "friendly
association with others," from socius meaning "companion, associate, comrade or business partner." The Latin word was
derived from the Greek socus locus, meaning locally social, and implied a social contract between members of the community.
Implicit in the meaning of society is that its members share some mutual concern or interest, a common objective or common
characteristics
In political science, the term is often used to mean the totality of human relationships, generally in conimtrast to
the State, i.e., the apparatus of rule or government within a territory:
I mean by it [the State] that summation of privileges and dominating positions which are brought into being by extra-economic
power... I mean by Society, the totality of concepts of all purely natural relations and institutions between man and man...
– [1]
In the social sciences such as sociology,
society has been used [citation needed]to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group.
According sociologist Richard Jenkins, the term addresses a number of important existential issues facing people:
- How humans think and exchange information – the sensory world makes up only a fraction of human experience. In order to
understand the world, we have to conceive of human interaction in the abstract (i.e., society).
- Many phenomena cannot be reduced to individual behavior – to explain certain conditions, a view of something "greater than
the sum of its parts" is needed.
- Collectives often endure beyond the lifespan of individual members.
- The human condition has always meant going beyond the evidence of our senses; every aspect of our lives is tied to the
collective. [2]
Evolution of societies
According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, a critical novelty in human society,
compared humans closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed by the males, which were unaware of their "father" connection.[3][4]
Gerhard Lenski, a sociologist,
differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication and economy: (1) hunters and gatherers, (2) simple
agricultural, (3) advanced agricultural, (4) industrial.[5]
This is somewhat similar to the system earlier developed by anthropologists
Morton H. Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service,
an integration theorist, who have produced a system of classification for societies in all human cultures based on the evolution
of social inequality and the role of the state. This system of
classification contains four categories:
- Hunter-gatherer bands, which are generally egalitarian.
- Tribal societies in which there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige.
- Stratified structures led by chieftains.
- Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional
governments.
- Humanity, mankind, that upon which rest all the elements of society, including
society's beliefs.
Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more-complex forms of organization and control. This cultural evolution has a
profound effect on patterns of community. Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal foodstocks to become agrarian villages. Villages grew to become towns and cities. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states.[6]
Today, anthropologists and many social scientists vigorously oppose the notion of cultural evolution and rigid "stages" such
as these. In fact, much anthropological data has suggested that complexity (civilization, population growth and density,
specialization, etc.) does not always take the form of hierarchical social organization or stratification.
Also, cultural relativism as a widespread approach/ethic has largely replaced
notions of "primitive," better/worse, or "progress" in relation to cultures (including their material culture/technology and
social organization).
Characteristics of society
The following three components are common to all definitions of society:
- Social networks
- Criteria for membership, and
- Characteristic patterns of organization
Each of these will be explored further in the following sections.
Social networks
-
Social networks are maps of the relationships between people. Structural features such as proximity, frequency of contact and
type of relationship (e.g., relative, friend, colleague) define various social networks.
Organization of society
-
Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. As noted in the section on "Evolution of
societies", above, social scientists identify hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic
pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming
societies, and intensive agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider industrial and post-industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural
societies.
One common theme for societies in general is that they serve to aid individuals in a time of crisis. Traditionally, when an
individual requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, members of that society will rally others to render
aid, in some form—symbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional, financial, medical, or religious. Many societies will
distribute largess, at the behest of some individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen
in all known cultures; typically, prestige accrues to the generous individual or group. Conversely, members of a society may also
shun or scapegoat members of the society who violate its norms. Mechanisms such as gift-giving and
scapegoating, which may be seen in various types of human groupings, tend to be institutionalized within a society. Social evolution as a phenomena carrier with itself certain elements
that could be detrimental to the population it serves.
Some societies will bestow status on an individual or group of people, when that individual or group performs an admired or
desired action. This type of recognition is bestowed by members of that society on the
individual or group in the form of a name, title, manner of dress, or monetary reward. Males, in many societies, are particularly
susceptible to this type of action and subsequent reward, even at the risk of their lives. Action by an individual or larger
group in behalf of some cultural ideal is seen in all societies. The phenomena of community action, shunning, scapegoating,
generosity, and shared risk and reward occur in subsistence-based societies and in more technology-based civilizations.
Societies may also be organized according to their political structure. In order of
increasing size and complexity, there are bands, tribes,
chiefdoms, and state societies. These structures may have
varying degrees of political power, depending on the cultural geographical, and historical
environments that these societies must contend with. Thus, a more isolated society with the same level of technology and culture
as other societies is more likely to survive than one in closer proximity to others that may encroach on their resources
(see history for examples}. A society that is unable to offer an effective response to
other societies it competes with will usually be subsumed into the culture of the competing society (see technology for examples).
Shared belief or common goal
Peoples of many nations united by common political and cultural traditions, beliefs, or values are sometimes also said to be a
society (such as Judeo-Christian, Eastern, and Western). When used in this context, the term is employed as a means of
contrasting two or more "societies" whose members represent alternative conflicting and competing worldviews (see
Secret Societies).
Some academic, learned and scholarly associations describe themselves as societies (for example, the American Society of Mathematics. More commonly, professional organizations often refer to themselves as
societies (e.g., the American Society of Civil Engineers,
American Chemical Society). In the United
Kingdom and the United States, learned societies are normally nonprofit and have charitable status. In science, they range in size to include
national scientific societies (i.e., the Royal
Society) to regional natural history societies. Academic societies may have interest in a wide range of subjects,
including the arts, humanities and science.
In some countries (for example the United States and France), the term "society" is used in commerce to denote a partnership between
investors or to start a business. In the United Kingdom, partnerships are not called societies, but cooperatives or mutuals are often known as societies (such as
friendly societies and building societies).
In Latin America, the term society may also be used in commerce denoting a partnership
between investors, or anonymous investors; for example: "Proveedor Industrial Anahuac S.A." where S.A. stands for Anonymous Society (Sociedad Anónima); however in Mexico in other type of partnership it would be declared as S.A. de C.V.
Ontology
As a related note, there is still an ongoing debate in sociological and anthropological circles as to whether there exists an
entity we could call society. Some Marxist theorists, like
Louis Althusser, Ernesto Laclau and
Slavoj Zizek, have argued that society is nothing more than an effect of the ruling
ideology of a certain class system, and shouldn't be used as a sociological notion. Marx's
concept of society as the sum total of social relations among members of a community
contrasts with interpretations from the perspective of methodological
individualism where society is simply the sum total of individuals in a territory.
See also
Notes
References
External links
be-x-old:Грамадзтваzh-yue:社會
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