2.gned 10 - Read-Society
2.gned 10 - Read-Society
2.gned 10 - Read-Society
However, society and culture are similar concepts, but their scopes are different.
A society is a complex whole with interdependent parts, while culture is an attribute
characteristic of a community, the complex web of shifting patterns that link individuals
together. For example, Clifford Geertz has suggested that "society" is the actual
arrangement of social relations while "culture" consists of beliefs and symbolic
forms. Edward Burnett Tylor wrote in 1871 that "culture or civilization, taken in its wide
ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society."
In the study of 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.
C. Types of Society
The fundamental unit of human society is the family. Margaret Mead (1965),
based on her anthropological research, affirmed the centrality of the family in human
society. The following are prominent or COMMON TYPES of society:
1. Band
A band society is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists
of a small kinship group, often no larger than an extended family or small clan. Bands
have very informal leadership; the older members of the band generally are looked to for
guidance and advice, but there are none of the written laws and law enforcement like that
seen in more complex societies. Band customs are almost always transmitted orally.
Formal social institutions are few or non-existent. Religion is generally based on family
tradition, individual experience, or counsel from a shaman. Bands are distinguished from
tribes in that tribes are generally larger, consisting of many families. Tribes have more
social institutions and clearly defined leadership such as a "chief," or "elder." Tribes are
also more permanent than bands; a band can cease to exist if only a small group walks
out. Many tribes are in fact sub-divided into bands, in the United States, for example,
many Native American tribes are made up of official bands living in specific locations.
2. Clan
3. Tribe
"contemporary" tribes can only be understood in terms of their relationship to states. The
term is often loosely used to refer to any non-Western or indigenous society.
For various reasons, the term "tribe" fell into disfavor in the latter part of the
twentieth century. For many anthropologists, when the term was clearly defined it
became an "ideal" concept, with no basis in reality. Thus, it was replaced with the
designation "ethnic group," which defines a group of people of common ancestry and
language, shared cultural history, and an identifiable territory. Nevertheless, the term
tribe is still in common use and the term used for recognized Native
American governments in the United States.
4. Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a human population whose members identify with each other,
usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or lineage. Ethnic groups are also
usually united by common cultural, behavioural, linguistic, or religious practices. In this
sense, an ethnic group is also a cultural community. This term is preferred over tribe, as it
overcame the negative connotations that the term tribe had acquired under colonialism.
and archaeologists to be a relatively unstable form of social organization. They are prone
to cycles of collapse and renewal, in which tribal units band together, expand in power,
fragment through some form of social stress, and band together again.
6. State
periods in human history are those in which humanity organized itself in small
independent centers. However, these small creative groupings usually survived for only
short periods of time because they lacked the size and strength to defend themselves
against the onslaught of larger social entities. Thus, they inevitably gave way to larger
organizations of society, the empire and eventually the nation-state. Today,
only Singapore, Monaco, and Vatican City arguably remain autonomous city-states.
It is presumed that thousands of years ago people lived in isolation and their only
problems were the basic necessities to live such as food, water and shelter. Every person
then has neither companion nor friends which whom they can relate to and that their
existence is a mere survival.
Soon after, families have emerged as an isolated organization of people dependent
on each other for survival and subsistence. In order to live, they found certain roles to
fulfill and to accomplish. The family groups live together in a nomadic life, occupying
one place after the other to nurture their needs and wants. But later on, nomadic life
became a burden because the enlargement of the families slowed down their mobility,
and so a new way of life was introduced.
This new initiated way of life has later led families to settle down and learned the
value of having their own territory. Hence, bringing to the birth we called now a
SOCIETY.
2. Political
A system was established as necessary measure for their protection. Leaders were
selected and social norms were imposed, upon which division of roles, and
responsibilities were assigned.
With that, certain rules and norms of conduct were respected and upheld while
social hierarchies were modeled as well.
3. Economical
People on the other hand are undeniably, must produce to address and sustain
essential needs of the now and next generation. This is to provide means and ways to
sustain man’s basic and material needs to live. Hence, the acceleration for production is
imperative to answer the increasing demand of man in society.