1

Society
Meaning of Society
This term has been derived from a Latin word 'socious' that means association or
companionship. Thus society means 'A larger group of individuals, who are associative with
each other'.
Definition of Society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social
group sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political
authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Prof Wright: It is a system of relationships that exists among the individuals of the groups.
Wallerstein, an American sociologist b. 1930, in his World Systems Analysis (1974) writes:
“No concept is more pervasive in modem social science than society, and no concept is used
more automatically and unreflectively than society, despite the countless pages devoted to its
definition.”

Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) , an American sociologist (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences,

1934) wrote: “Society—may be regarded as the most general term referring to the whole
complex of relations of man to his fellows.”

Linton: Any group of people who have lived and worked together long enough to get
themselves organized and to think of themselves as a social unit with well defined limits".

A.W. Green, an American sociolgist says: It is the largest group in which individual have
relationships.
Maclver: It is a web of social relationship, which is always changing. Robert Maclver was a
Scottish sociologist 1882-1950)
Page (1910-1992),American sociologist, later on defined it in his new book Society: An
Introductory Analysis (1949) thus: “It (society) is a system of usages and procedures, of
authority and mutual aid, of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behaviour
and of liberties. This ever changing, complex system we call society.” For Maclver and Page,
society is an abstract entity as they write, “We may see the people but cannot see society or
social structure but only its external aspects … society is distinct from physical reality”.
Adam Smith: Society is an artificial device of Natural economy.

Characteristics of Society -

Following are the characteristics of society.

1. -Larges human group: society is a largest human group.

2. Source of satisfaction of group needs: It satisfies the needs of its members.
3. Sense of belonging and association: One of the characteristic of society is having
sense of belonging and cooperation. It is more or less permanent association
4. Social relationships intrinsic: It is abstract (Because social relationships can be felt
and imagined and cannot be seen).
5. Interdependence: Everyone in society is dependent upon every other member.
6. Division of Labour: It should be organized i.e. will be having division of labor.
7. Similarities and differences: It will be having likeness and differences. Due to these
differences, variety in human behaviors and division of labor and specialization of
roles is there.
 2

8. Social consciousness: "There is consciousness of kind." Among the members of

society.
9. State of Flux or change: It is always changing.
10. Availability of means of survival: It has its own means to survive.
11. It is a self-sufficient social system.
12. Lasts longer than groups and other communities: It lasts for a longer period of
time than groups and communities.
13. Possessing Institutional Characters: It will form a social structure through social
institutions i.e. family, education economic, political and religious institutions.
These basic five institutions are found in all societies of the world.
14. Possessing and belonging to unique culture: One of the characteristic of society
has its own culture.
15. Socialization: Its chief quality is process of socialization that enrich social
experience and learning of individuals members making their survival possible.
16. Cooperation and conflict in society:
17. Cooperation, competition and conflict are universal elements in human life.
Society is based on cooper-ation but because of internal differences, there is conflict
also among its members. This is why, Maclver and Page observed that “society is
cooperation crossed by conflict”. We know from our own experience that a person
would be handicapped, showed down, and feels frustrated if he is expected to do
every­thing alone, without the aid of others. “Cooperation is most elementary
process of social life without which society is impos­sible” (Gisbert, 1957).Though
cooperation is essential for the constitution of society but modem conflict theorists
(such as Marx) have highlighted the role of conflict in society. If there is no conflict,
even in small measure, society may become stagnant and people may become inert
and inactive. However, the expression of disagreement in the form of conflict must
always be held within tolerable bounds.
18. Society is a process and not a product:“Society exists only as a time sequence. It is
becoming, not a being; a process and not a product” (Maclver and Page, 1956). In
other words, as soon as the process ceases, the product disappears. The product of a
machine endures after the machine has been scrapped. To some extent the same is
true not only of material relics of man’s past culture but even of his immaterial
cultural achievements.

Culture is the collection of beliefs, assumptions and values that people from a certain
cultural background share.

Socialization is the process of transmitting these beliefs, assumptions and values from one
generation of people to the next. Through the process of socialization, we are learning the
wisdom that the generations before us have acquired about all different aspects of life,
whether that is how to construct a house, or how to build positive relationships, or what the
best way is to make a noodle soup. Without the process of socialization, culture wouldn’t
exist. Culture can only exist if a transmission of ideas among people is possible. That can
happen through any means - whether that is by watching television, by observing other
people’s behavior , or by listening to your teacher.Without the process of socialization, every
person would basically live in a vacuum. Everybody would live in their own world. Just
imagine that Albert Einstein had grown up in the desert. Would he have invented the theory
 3

of relativity under those circumstances? I doubt it very much. We rely on the information, the
ideas, the knowledge and the beliefs of the people around us. And they again have acquired
that knowledge from generations of the past. Essentially, our society today is operating on all
the wisdom that has been gathering throughout all of mankind’s history. And all of it is
possible because of the process of socialization.

COMMUNITY

late 14c., "a number of people associated together by the fact of residence in the same
locality," also "the common people" (not the rulers or the clergy), from Old French
comunité "community, commonness, everybody" (Modern French communauté), from
Latin communitatem (nominative communitas) "community, society, fellowship,
friendly intercourse; courtesy, condescension, affability," from communis "common, public,
general, shared by all or many" .

“A community may be thought of as the total organisation of social life within a limited
area.”

Ogburn and Nimkoff

A society that inhabits a definite geographic area is known as a community”

Community has three Dimensions:

1. Geographical: Communities are settlements, they can usually be located on maps.

2. Psychological : The people of an ideal community share a common culture: a

common set of beliefs, values and norms.

3. Organisational: Societies and institutions within them are collections of norms and roles
that govern and channel social interaction. Community members are expected to be familiar
with the entire system of norms and roles.

Elements of Community

1. Territory: The group of people forms a community when it begins to reside in a definite
locality. A community always occupies a territorial area. The area need not be fixed forever.

2. We-Feeling of being collective – feeling means that members of a community have a

feeling of belonging together, , it also refers of the awareness gives them a degree of
toleration about others’ sentiments.

3. Commonness of culture: Community means people sharing a common norms, values and
goals way of life that can be different from mainstream society. As a result of collective
participation in the affairs and the prevalent mode of life in the community, there grows a
sense of mutual identifications of hopes and aspirations among members.
 4

4. Ideology: The members of community share a common ideology.

5. Organizational Nature: The people of community share high social solidarity and similar
interests. Representing a group of pople. Threat to its interests quickly paves the way for its
mobilization.

Functionalist View: How Society Affects the Individual?

What is the relation between individual and society? Functionalists regard the individual as
formed by society through the influence of such institutions as the family, school and
workplace. Early sociologists such as Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim and even Karl Marx
were functionalists, examined society as existing apart from the individual. For Durkheim,
society is reality; it is first in origin and importance to the individual. Durkheim’s
keen discussion of the collective consciousness showed the ways in which social interactions
and relationships and ultimately society influence the individual’s attitudes, ideas and
sentiments. He utilized his theory of “collective representation” in explaining the phenomena
of religion, suicide and the concept of social solidarity. In contrast to Auguste Comte (known
as father of sociology), who regarded the individual as a mere abstraction, a
somewhat more substantial position by Durkheim held that the individual was the recipient of
group influence and social heritage. In sociological circle, this was the “burning question”
(individual v/s society) of the day.
How society is important in the formation of individual’s personality is clearly reflected in
the cases of isolated and feral children (children who were raised in the company of animals
such as bears and wolves). The studies of feral children, referred to earlier, have clearly
demonstrated the importance of social interaction and human association in the development
of personality.

FERAL CHILD

A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young
age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially,
of human language.

Dina Sanichar, the Indian Wolf Boy

Date found: 1867 Age when found: 6 Location: Sekandra, India Years in the wild:
6 Animals: wolves

He initially exhibited all the habits of a wild animal, tearing off clothes and eating
food from the ground. He was eventually weaned off raw meat onto cooked, but
never did learn to speak. He apparently became addicted to tobacco. Dina
Sanichar died in 1895.

. Kamala and Amala, the Wolf Girls of Midnapore

Date found: 1920 Age when found: 8 (Kamala), 1.5 (Amala) Location: Midnapore, India

Years in the wild: 8, 1 Animals: wolves

The wolf girls were about 18 months (Amala) and eight years old (Kamala) when they were
found together in a wolves’ den. However, it is believed that they were not sisters, but were
 5

abandoned — or taken by wolves — some years apart. Reverend Joseph Singh, a missionary
in charge of an orphanage in Northern India, heard of two ghostly spirit figures seen
accompanying a band of wolves near Midnapore in the Bengal jungle. The girls seemed to
have no trace of humanness in the way they acted and thought. It was as if they had the minds
of wolves. They tore off any clothes put on them and would only eat raw meat.

Daniel, The Andes Goat Boy Date found: 1990

Age when found: 12 Location: Andes, Perú

Years in the wild: 8

Animals: goats

The Andes Goat-Boy was found in the Andes, Peru, in 1990, and was said to have been
raised by goats for eight years. He is supposed to have survived by drinking their milk, and
eating roots and berries. Being in wild, he developed the obvious feral characteristics. He
tended to walk with all his 4 limbs, his hands and feet were hardened due to scar formation
that acted like his hoofs. He could communicate with goats and could not learn human
language.
 6

Social & Cultural Evolution of Society

Society is the child of evolution. Today, in the 21 st century, we see a society more advanced
and developed than ever before. Behind this contemporary phase, there is history of
evolutionary phases of social and cultural development each marked with different features.
Although humans have established many types of societies throughout history, sociologists
and anthropologists (experts who study early and tribal cultures) usually refer to six basic
types of societies, each defined by its level of technology.

Social and Cultural Evolutionary Phases of Society

The most appropriate and cherished work of socio-cultural evolution of society is based on
the study of primary means of subsistence. Taking these means as the focal point, sociologists
have studies six major evolutionary phases of society which are explained characteristically
below;

A. Hunting & Gathering Society

The members of hunting and gathering societies primarily survive by hunting animals,
fishing, and gathering plants. The vast majority of these societies existed in the past, with
only a few (perhaps a million people total) living today on the verge of extinction.

To survive, early human societies completely depended upon their immediate environment.
When the animals left the area, the plants died, or the rivers dried up, the society had to
relocate to an area where resources were plentiful. Consequently, hunting and gathering
societies, which were typically small, were quite mobile. In some cases, where resources in a
locale were extraordinarily plentiful, small villages might form. But most hunting and
gathering societies were nomadic, moving constantly in search of food and water.

Individuals of this society used to find their subsistence on hunting the animals and gathering
food from forest plants. This society being the earliest one was marked with following
characteristics;
 Mobile and Fluid
 Consist of Nomadic People or Wanderers
 Low population density
 Division of labor was present
 Lack of surplus food
 Continuous struggle to seek food

Labor in hunting and gathering societies was divided equally among members. Because of
the mobile nature of the society, these societies stored little in the form of surplus goods.
Therefore, anyone who could hunt, fish, or gather fruits and vegetables did so. These
societies probably also had at least some division of labor based on gender. Males probably
traveled long distances to hunt and capture larger animals. Females hunted smaller animals,
gathered plants, made clothing, protected and raised children, and helped the males to protect
the community from rival groups.
 7

Hunting and gathering societies were also tribal. Members shared an ancestral heritage and a
common set of traditions and rituals. They also sacrificed their individuality for the sake of
the larger tribal culture.

B. Pastoral or Herding & Advance Herding Society

Members of pastoral societies, which first emerged 12,000 years ago, pasture animals for
food and transportation. Pastoral societies still exist today, primarily in the desert lands of
North Africa where horticulture and manufacturing are not possible.

Domesticating animals allows for a more manageable food supply than do hunting and
gathering. Hence, pastoral societies are able to produce a surplus of goods, which makes
storing food for future use a possibility. With storage comes the desire to develop settlements
that permit the society to remain in a single place for longer periods of time. And with
stability comes the trade of surplus goods between neighboring pastoral communities.

Pastoral societies allow certain of its members (those who are not domesticating animals) to
engage in nonsurvival activities. Traders, healers, spiritual leaders, craftspeople, and people
with other specialty professions appear.

Individuals living in this society were dependent upon the herding of farm animals.
Domesticated livestock was their primary means subsistence. This society carried following
features;
 Nomadic people who used to move in search for fresh pastures for animals
 Division of labor was present
 Food was adequate as along with hunting and gathering, herding became their source
 Greater population density than in the previous society
As far as the society of advance herding is concerned, it developed with the introduction of
modern mechanized methods of herding.

C. Horticultural Society

Unlike pastoral societies that rely on domesticating animals, horticultural societies rely on
cultivating fruits, vegetables, and plants. These societies first appeared in different parts of
the planet about the same time as pastoral societies. Like hunting and gathering societies,
horticultural societies had to be mobile. Depletion of the land's resources or dwindling water
supplies, for example, forced the people to leave. Horticultural societies occasionally
produced a surplus, which permitted storage as well as the emergence of other professions
not related to the survival of the society.
At this evolutionary phase of society, individuals begin to find resources of subsistence in
cultivation of crops with the help of hand tools. This society was marked with following
characteristics:
 Larger population density
 Establishment of rural life
 Surplus food
 8

 Work in fields
 Division of labor
 Settled and non-nomadic society
D. Agrarian Society
Agricultural societies use technological advances to cultivate crops (especially grains like
wheat, rice, corn, and barley) over a large area. Sociologists use the phrase Agricultural
Revolution to refer to the technological changes that occurred as long as 8,500 years ago that
led to cultivating crops and raising farm animals. Increases in food supplies then led to larger
populations than in earlier communities. This meant a greater surplus, which resulted in
towns that became centers of trade supporting various rulers, educators, craftspeople,
merchants, and religious leaders who did not have to worry about locating nourishment.

Greater degrees of social stratification appeared in agricultural societies. For example,

women previously had higher social status because they shared labor more equally with men.
In hunting and gathering societies, women even gathered more food than men. But as food
stores improved and women took on lesser roles in providing food for the family, they
became more subordinate to men.

As villages and towns expanded into neighboring areas, conflicts with other communities
inevitably occurred. Farmers provided warriors with food in exchange for protection against
invasion by enemies. A system of rulers with high social status also appeared.
This nobility organized warriors to protect the society from invasion. In this way, the nobility
managed to extract goods from the “lesser” persons of society.

Feudal societies

From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land.
Unlike today's farmers, vassals under feudalism were bound to cultivating their lord's land. In
exchange for military protection, the lords exploited the peasants into providing food, crops,
crafts, homage, and other services to the owner of the land. The caste system of feudalism
was often multigenerational; the families of peasants may have cultivated their lord's land for
generations.

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, a new economic system emerged that began to replace
feudalism. Capitalism is marked by open competition in a free market, in which the means
of production are privately owned. Europe's exploration of the Americas served as one
impetus for the development of capitalism. The introduction of foreign metals, silks, and
spices stimulated great commercial activity in Europe.

Horticultural society transformed into agrarian society with the introduction of agriculture as
a profession. In this society following characteristics were obvious:

 Use of modern tools for agriculture

 Introduction of money crops
 Agriculture adopted as a profession
 Surplus crop production
 Accumulation of excessive crops
 Sale of crops
 Greater population density
 9

E. Industrial Society
Industrial societies are based on using machines (particularly fuel‐driven ones) to produce
goods. Sociologists refer to the period during the 18th century when the production of goods
in mechanized factories began as the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution
appeared first in Britain, and then quickly spread to the rest of the world.

As productivity increased, means of transportation improved to better facilitate the transfer of

products from place to place. Great wealth was attained by the few who owned factories, and
the “masses” found jobs working in the factories.

Industrialization brought about changes in almost every aspect of society. As factories

became the center of work, “home cottages” as the usual workplace became less prevalent, as
did the family's role in providing vocational training and education. Public education via
schools and eventually the mass media became the norm. People's life expectancy increased
as their health improved. Political institutions changed into modern models of governance.
Cultural diversity increased, as did social mobility. Large cities emerged as places to find
jobs in factories. Social power moved into the hands of business elites and governmental
officials, leading to struggles between industrialists and workers. Labor unions and welfare
organizations formed in response to these disputes and concerns over workers' welfare,
including children who toiled in factories. Rapid changes in industrial technology also
continued, especially the production of larger machines and faster means of transportation.
The Industrial Revolution also saw to the development of bureaucratic forms of
organization, complete with written rules, job descriptions, impersonal positions, and
hierarchical methods of management.

With the industrial revolution the society began the phase of rapid transformation.
Establishing industry which aimed at larger mechanized production was marked with
following features;

 Institution of profit
 Production
 Laborers and wages concept
 Working hours and idea of jobs
 More than required food was available
 Industrial revolutions in Europe in 18th and 19th centuries
F.PostModern Society

Postindustrial societies
Sociologists note that with the advent of the computer microchip, the world is witnessing a
technological revolution. This revolution is creating a postindustrial society based on
information, knowledge, and the selling of services. That is, rather than being driven by the
factory production of goods, society is being shaped by the human mind, aided by computer
technology. Although factories will always exist, the key to wealth and power seems to lie in
the ability to generate, store, manipulate, and sell information.

Sociologists speculate about the characteristics of postindustrial society in the near future.
They predict increased levels of education and training, consumerism, availability of goods,
and social mobility. While they hope for a decline in inequality as technical skills and
“know‐how” begin to determine class rather than the ownership of property, sociologists are
 10

also concerned about potential social divisions based on those who have appropriate
education and those who do not. Sociologists believe society will become more concerned
with the welfare of all members of society. They hope postindustrial society will be less
characterized by social conflict, as everyone works together to solve society's problems
through science.

After the industrial revolutions the means of subsistence changed and society faced a boost in
advancement. Post Modern society became obvious with rise of following prospects;
 Service oriented work
 Large scale production
 Age of information technology
 Concepts of knowledge and Creativity
 Extensive mechanization in society
 Population boom
 Vast urban centers
Conclusion
Society is mobile. It has transformed shape from in different phases of its evolution. Societal
development is in fact a concept subject to the advancement of individual both intellectually
and materially. Social development is a natural process monitored by human actions.
11