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A Society is a grouping of individuals characterized by common interests that may have distinctive culture and institutions, or, more broadly, an economic, social and industrial infrastructure in which a varied multitude of people or peoples are a part. In Sociology, a group can be defined as two or more Humans that interact with one another accept expectations and obligations as members of the group and share a As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Institutions are structures and mechanisms of Social order and Cooperation governing the Behavior of a Set of Individuals Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society may be a particular people, such as the Saxons, a nation state, such as Bhutan, or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The Saxons or Saxon people were a Confederation of Old Germanic tribes. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy The Kingdom of Bhutan (buːˈtɑːn is a Landlocked nation in South Asia. Western culture (sometimes equated with Western Civilization) are terms which are used to refer to Cultures of European origin

The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purpose

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Origin and usage

The English word "society" emerged in the 15th century and is derived from the French société. An organization (or organisation &mdash see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals which controls its own performance and A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group 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. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. " 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 contrast to the State, i. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. 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 usedto mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Social structure is a term frequently used in Sociology and Social theory — yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised (Abercrombie et al Society is sometimes contrasted with culture. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic For example, Clifford Geertz has suggested that society is the actual arrangement of social relations while culture is made up of beliefs and symbolic forms.

According to sociologist Richard Jenkins, the term addresses a number of important existential issues facing people:

  1. 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. "The world " is a proper noun for the planet Earth envisioned from an Anthropocentric or Human Worldview, as a place Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus e. , society).
  2. 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.
  3. Collectives often endure beyond the lifespan of individual members.
  4. The human condition has always meant going beyond the evidence of our senses; every aspect of our lives is tied to the collective. [2]


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. Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski (born August 13, 1924 in Washington DC) is an American Sociologist known for contributions to the Sociology of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" [3] and now (6) virtual. 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. Elman Rogers Service (1915 — 1996 was a cultural anthropologist. Social inequality refers to a lack of Social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal Social status. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. This system of classification contains four categories:

In addition to this there are:

Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more-complex forms of organization and control. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic An organization (or organisation &mdash see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals which controls its own performance and This cultural evolution has a profound effect on patterns of community. Sociocultural evolution(ism is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and Social evolution, describing how Cultures and societies Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal foodstocks to become agrarian villages. The Neolithic Revolution was the first Agricultural revolution &mdashthe transition from hunting and gathering communities and bands to Agriculture and Villages grew to become towns and cities. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states. A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy [4]

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). Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual Human 's Beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own Culture.

Characteristics of society

The following three components are common to all definitions of society:

Each of these will be explored further in the following sections.

Social networks

Main article: Social network

Social networks are maps of the relationships between people. A social network is a Social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency such as Structural features such as proximity, frequency of contact and type of relationship (e. g. , relative, friend, colleague) define various social networks.

Organization of society

Main article: Social organization

Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. Social organization or social institution, refers to a group of Social positions connected by Social relations performing a Social role. Subsistence is the food necessary to sustain life The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering 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. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of Agriculture concerned with the raising of Livestock. Horticulture is the art and science of plant cultivation Horticulturists (or horticuluralists) work and conduct research in the fields of Plant propagation Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture A Civilization is a society in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements Some consider industrial and post-industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies. For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" A post-industrial society is a society in which an economic transition has occurred from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy, a diffusion

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. scapegoat was a Goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in Judaism during the times Social norms have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values beliefs attitudes and behaviors Mechanisms such as gift-giving and scapegoating, which may be seen in various types of human groupings, tend to be institutionalized within a society. In Cultural anthropology and Sociology, reciprocity is a way of defining people's informal Exchange of goods and labour; that Institutions are structures and mechanisms of Social order and Cooperation governing the Behavior of a Set of Individuals Social evolution as a phenomenon carries 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. Recognition (re+ Cognition) is a process that occurs in Thinking when some event, Process, Pattern, or object recurrs 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. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions In order of increasing size and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. A band society is the simplest form of human Society. A band generally consists of a small kin group no larger than an Extended family or Clan. A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally consists of a Social group existing before the development of or outside of States Many anthropologists use A chiefdom is a type of complex society of varying degrees of centralization that is led by an individual known as a chief. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. These structures may have varying degrees of political power, depending on the cultural geographical, and historical environments that these societies must contend with. Political power ( Imperium in Latin is a type of power held by a group in a Society which allows administration of some or all of Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology 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}. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology 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). Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt

Shared belief or common goal

People 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). Secret society is a term used to describe a variety of organizations

Some academic, learned and scholarly associations describe themselves as societies (for example, the American Mathematical Society). A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group The American Mathematical Society (AMS is an association of professional Mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship which 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. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates In science, they range in size to include national scientific societies (i. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding e. , the Royal Society) to regional natural history societies. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 Academic societies may have interest in a wide range of subjects, including the arts, humanities and science. The arts is a broad subdivision of Culture, composed of many expressive disciplines. The humanities are academic disciplines which study the Human condition, using methods that are primarily Analytic, Critical, or Speculative Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding

In some countries (for example the United States and France), the term "society" is used in commerce to denote a partnership between investors or the start of a business. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer See Investor AB for the Swedish investment company An investor is any party that makes an Investment. A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to 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). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A mutual, mutual organization, or mutual society is an Organization (which is often but not always a company or Business) based A friendly society (sometimes called a mutual society, benevolent society or fraternal organization) is a mutual association for insurance-like A building society is a financial institution owned by its members, that offers banking and other Financial services, especially mortgage lending In Latin America, the term society may 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. For the art organization see Société Anonyme (art SA generally designates Corporations in various countries mostly those employing The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. A. de C. V. or S. A. de R. L. , indicating the level of commitment of capital and the responsibilities from each member towards their own association and towards the society in general and supervised by the corresponding jurisdictional civil and judicial authorities.

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. An entity is something that has a distinct separate Existence, though it need not be a material existence 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. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation altuˡseʁ ( October 16, 1918 – October 22, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. Ernesto Laclau (b1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist. Slavoj Žižek (ˈslavoj ˈʒiʒɛk (born 21 March 1949) is a Post-Marxist Sociologist, Philosopher, and Cultural critic An ideology is a set of beliefs aims and Ideas especially in politics 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. Social relation can refer to a multitude of Social interactions regulated by Social norms between two or more people with each having a Social position Methodological individualism is a philosophical method aimed at explaining and understanding broad society-wide developments as the aggregation of decisions by individuals

In 1987 Margaret Thatcher famously said "There is no such thing as society". Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Margaret Hilda Thatcher Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925 [5]

Notes

  1. ^ [1] Franz Oppenheimer, The State.
  2. ^ Jenkins, R. 2002. Foundations of Sociology.
  3. ^ Lenski, G. 1974. Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology.
  4. ^ Effland, R. 1998. The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations.
  5. ^ There is no such thing as society - Margaret Thatcher

Society might be more accurately framed in terms of "a population of humans" instead of "a group of people" or "a grouping of individuals".

References

External links

Dictionary

society

-noun

  1. (countable) A long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms.
  2. (countable) A group of people who meet from time to time to engage in a common interest.
  3. (countable) The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.
  4. (uncountable) The people of one’s country or community taken as a whole.
  5. (uncountable) high society.
  6. (law) A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act a common goal.
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