What we have learnt from chapter – 1 ?

 We use very often certain words like –

society, association, institution, social
organization, values etc. in our study of
society. These are not merely words, they
are concepts.
 Every science has its own terms or
concepts. These terms help the student
to understand it more clearly.
 The term “ society” is the most fundamental
one in Sociology.
 The term "society" came from the Latin word
societas, which in turn was derived from the
noun socius ("comrade, friend, ally"; adjectival
form socialis) used to describe a bond or
interaction between parties that are friendly, or
at least civil. Without an article, the term can
refer to the entirety of humanity (also: "society
in general", "society at large", etc.), although
those who are unfriendly or uncivil to the
remainder of society in this sense may be
deemed to be "antisocial".
 Adam Smith wrote that a society "may subsist among
different men, as among different merchants, from a
sense of its utility without any mutual love or affection,
if only they refrain from doing injury to each other.“

 Society, in general, addresses the fact that an

individual has rather limited means as an
autonomous unit. The great apes have always been
more (Bonobo, Homo, Pan) or less (Gorilla, Pongo)
social animals, so Robinson Crusoe-like situations are
either fictions or unusual corner cases to the ubiquity
of social context for humans, who fall between
presocial and eusocial in the spectrum of animal
ethology.
 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 (categorization of
duties and responsibilities).
 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.
 Societies are social groups that differ
according to subsistence strategies, the ways
that humans use technology to provide needs
for themselves. Although humans have
established many types of societies throughout
history, anthropologists tend to classify different
societies according to the degree to which
different groups within a society have unequal
access to advantages such as resources,
prestige, or power.
 Sociologists place societies in three broad
categories: pre-industrial, industrial, and
postindustrial.
 In a pre-industrial society, food production,
which is carried out through the use of
human and animal labor, is the main
economic activity. These societies can be
subdivided according to their level of
technology and their method of producing
food. These subdivisions are hunting and
gathering, pastoral, horticultural,
agricultural, and feudal.
 The main form of food production in such
societies is the daily collection of wild plants
and the hunting of wild animals. Hunter-
gatherers move around constantly in search of
food. As a result, they do not build permanent
villages or create a wide variety of artifacts,
and usually only form small groups such as
bands and tribes. However, some hunting and
gathering societies in areas with abundant
resources (such as the Tlingit) lived in larger
groups and formed complex hierarchical social
structures such as chiefdoms. The need for
mobility also limits the size of these societies.
 Pastoralism is a slightly more efficient form of
subsistence. Rather than searching for food on
a daily basis, members of a pastoral society
rely on domesticated herd animals to meet
their food needs. Pastoralists live a nomadic
life, moving their herds from one pasture to
another. Because their food supply is far more
reliable, pastoral societies can support larger
populations. Since there are food surpluses,
fewer people are needed to produce food. As
a result, the division of labor (the specialization
by individuals or groups in the performance of
specific economic activities) becomes more
complex.
 Fruits and vegetables grown in garden plots
that have been cleared from the jungle or
forest provide the main source of food in a
horticultural society. These societies have a
level of technology and complexity similar to
pastoral societies. Some horticultural groups
use the slash-and-burn method to raise crops.
The wild vegetation is cut and burned, and
ashes are used as fertilizers. Horticulturists use
human labor and simple tools to cultivate the
land for one or more seasons. When the land
becomes barren, horticulturists clear a new
plot and leave the old plot to revert to its
natural state.
 Agrarian societies use agricultural
technological advances to cultivate crops
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.
 Society consists of people

 Mutual Interaction and Mutual Awareness

 Society depends on Likeness

 Society rests on Differences

 Co-operation and Division of Labor

 Society Implies Interdependence also

 Society is Dynamic

 Social Control

 Culture

 Gregarious Instinct
 DEFINITION :

 Not only is the concept of a community a "construct"

(model), it is a "sociological construct." It is a set of
interactions, human behaviour that have meaning
and expectations between its members. Not just
action, but actions based on shared expectations,
values, beliefs and meanings between individuals.
 To understand how a community operates, and how
it changes, it is necessary to learn a little bit about
sociology the science. The mobilizer is an applied
scientist; social scientist. While a pure scientist is
interested in how things work, the applied scientist is
interested in taking that knowledge and getting
useful results.
 (i) LOCALITY :

A community is a territorial group. It

always occupies some geographic area.
Locality is the physical basis of
community. Even the wandering tribe or
a nomad community, for example, has a
locality , though changing habitation.
 Locality alone can’t make a group, a
community. Sometimes, people residing
in the same area may not have any
contacts and communications.
 For example, people living in different
extensions of a city may lack sufficient
social contacts.
 STABILITY :

 A community has not only community

and locality sentiment, but also has
stability. It is not a temporary group like a
crowd or a mob. It is relatively stable. It
includes a permanent group life in a
definite place.
 NATURALNESS :

Communities normally become

established in a natural way. They are
not deliberately created. They are not
made or created by an act of will or by
planned efforts. Individuals become its
members by birth itself.
 SIZE OF THE COMMUNITY :
Community involves the idea of size. A
community may be big or small. A small
community may be included in a wider
community.
 A city and a village may be included in
a wider community called the district.
 REGULATION OF RELATIONS :
Every community develops in course of
time, a system of traditions, customs,
morals, practices, a bundle of rules and
regulations to regulate the relations of its
members.
 The sense of what they have in common
memories and traditions , customs and
institutions shapes and defines the
general need of man to live together.
 DEFINITION :

An association is “an organization

deliberately formed for the collective
pursuit of some interest , or a set of
interests which its members share.”
--- R. M. MacIver
 Association – a Human Group
 Common interest or interests
 Co-operative spirit
 Organization
 Regulation of Relations
 Association as Agencies
 Durability of Associations
 DEFINITION :

According to Ginsberg, institutions “ may

be described as recognized and
established usages governing the
relations between individuals and
groups.”
 Social in Nature
 Universality
 Institutions are standardized norms
 Institutions as means of satisfying needs
 Institutions are the controlling
mechanisms
 Relatively permanent
 Abstract in nature
 Oral and written traditions
 Institutions Cater to the satisfaction of
needs
 Institutions control human behavior
 Institutions simply actions for the
individual
 Assign roles and statuses
 Unity and Uniformity
 Manifest functions of institutions
 Negative functions