Encyclopedia
A
society is a grouping of individuals, which is characterised by common interest and may have distinctive
culture and institutions.
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." 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.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..."
In the
social sciences society has been used 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 to 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 .
- 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.
Evolution of societies
Gerhard Lenski, a
sociologist, differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication and economy: hunters and gatherers, simple agricultural, advanced agricultural, industrial. 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 chieftain
[i]
[i]
...
s.
- Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.
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.
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 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.
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
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 . 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 .
Some
academic, learned and scholarly associations describe themselves as
societiesIn some countries , 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 . 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 ; 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
- from the OED.
- from East Carolina University.
-
- Effland, R. 1998. Mesa Community College.
- Jenkins, R. 2002. Foundations of Sociology. London: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-96050-5.
- Lenski, G. 1974. Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc.
- Raymond Williams, "Society", in: Williams, Key Words: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Fontana, 1976.
