Definition of Society

• A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact

with one another, and who share a common culture is what
sociologists call a society.
• On a broader scale, society consists of the people and institutions
around us, our shared beliefs, and our cultural ideas. Typically, more-
advanced societies also share a political authority.

• The term society is derived from a Latin word socius. The term
directly means association, togetherness, gregariousness, or simply
group life.
Features of a Society
• Society may be regarded as the largest and the most complex social
group that sociologists study.
• The most important thing about a society is that its members share
common and distinct culture. This sets it apart from the other population
groups.
• A society also has a definite, limited space or territory. The populations
that make up a given society are thus locatable in a definite geographical
area. The people consider that area as their own.
• The people who make up a society have the feeling of identity and
belongingness. There is also the feeling of oneness. Such identity feeling
emanates from the routinized pattern of social interaction that exists
among the people and the various groups that make up the society.
Features of a Society
• Members of a society are considered to have a common origin and
common historical experience. They feel that they have a common
destiny.
• Members of a society may also speak a common mother tongue or a
major language that may serve as a national heritage.
• A society is autonomous and independent in the sense that it has all
the necessary social institutions and organizational arrangements to
sustain the system.
• However, a society is not an island, in the sense that societies are
interdependent. There have always been inter– societal relations.
People interact socially, economically and politically.
Features of a Society
• It is important to note that the above features of a society are by no
means exhaustive and they may not apply to all societies.
• The level of a society’s economic and technological development, the
type of economic or livelihood system a society is engaged in, etc.
may create some variations among societies in terms of these basic
features.
Categories of Societies
• Sociologists classify societies into various categories depending on
certain criteria.
• Sociologists generally classify societies along a spectrum of their level
of industrialization—from preindustrial to industrial to postindustrial.
1. Preindustrial Societies: Before the Industrial Revolution and the
widespread use of machines, societies were small, rural, and
dependent largely on local resources. Economic production was limited
to the amount of labor a human being could provide, and there were
few specialized occupations. The very first occupation was that of
hunter-gatherer.
Categories of Societies
• Hunter-Gatherer: Hunter-gatherer societies demonstrate the strongest
dependence on the environment of the various types of preindustrial
societies. As the basic structure of human society until about 10,000–12,000
years ago, these groups were based around kinship or tribes.
• Hunter-gatherers relied on their surroundings for survival—they hunted wild
animals and foraged for uncultivated plants for food. When resources
became scarce, the group moved to a new area to find sustenance, meaning
they were nomadic.
• These societies were common until several hundred years ago, but today
only a few hundred remain in existence, such as indigenous Australian tribes
sometimes referred to as “aborigines,” or the Bambuti, a group of pygmy
Hunter-gatherers residing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. hunter-
gatherer groups are quickly disappearing as the world’s population explodes.
Categories of Societies
• Pastoral: Changing conditions and adaptations led some societies to rely on
the domestication of animals where circumstances permitted.
• Roughly 7,500 years ago, human societies began to recognize their ability to
tame and breed animals and to grow and cultivate their own plants. Pastoral
societies, such as the Maasai villagers, rely on the domestication of animals
as a resource for survival.
• Unlike earlier hunter-gatherers who depended entirely on existing resources
to stay alive, pastoral groups were able to breed livestock for food, clothing,
and transportation, and they created a surplus of goods.
• Herding, or pastoral societies remained nomadic because they were forced
to follow their animals to fresh feeding grounds. Around the time that
pastoral societies emerged, specialized occupations began to develop, and
societies commenced trading with local groups.
Categories of Societies
• Horticultural: Horticultural societies formed in areas where rainfall and other conditions
allowed them to grow stable crops. They were similar to hunter-gatherers in that they
largely depended on the environment for survival, but since they didn’t have to abandon
their location to follow resources, they were able to start permanent settlements. This
created more stability and more material goods and became the basis for the first revolution
in human survival.
• Agricultural: Agricultural societies relied on permanent tools for survival. Around 3000 B.C.,
an explosion of new technology known as the agricultural revolution made farming possible
—and profitable. Farmers learned to rotate the types of crops grown on their fields and to
reuse waste products such as fertilizer, which led to better harvests and bigger surpluses of
food. New tools for digging and harvesting were made of metal, and this made them more
effective and longer lasting. Human settlements grew into towns and cities, and particularly
bountiful regions became centers of trade and commerce. This is also the age in which
people had the time and comfort to engage in more contemplative and thoughtful activities,
such as music, poetry, and philosophy. This period became referred to as the “dawn of
civilization” by some because of the development of leisure and humanities.
Categories of Societies
• Feudal: The ninth century gave rise to feudal societies. These societies
contained a strict hierarchical system of power based around land
ownership and protection. The nobility, known as lords, placed vassals
in charge of pieces of land. In return for the resources that the land
provided, vassals promised to fight for their lords.
• These individual pieces of land, known as fiefdoms, were cultivated by
the lower class. In return for maintaining the land, peasants were
guaranteed a place to live and protection from outside enemies.

• Power was handed down through family lines, with peasant families
serving lords for generations and generations.
Categories of Societies
2. Industrial Society: In the eighteenth century, Europe experienced a
dramatic rise in technological invention, ushering in an era known as
the Industrial Revolution.
• What made this period remarkable was the number of new inventions
that influenced people’s daily lives. Within a generation, tasks that
had until this point required months of labor became achievable in a
matter of days.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, work was largely person- or animal-
based, and relied on human workers or horses to power mills and
drive pumps.
Categories of Societies
• One of the results of increased productivity and technology was the rise
of urban centers.
• It was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of the Industrial
Revolution that sociology was born. Life was changing quickly and the
long-established traditions of the agricultural eras did not apply to life in
the larger cities. Families such as the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts
became the new power players and used their influence in business to
control aspects of government as well.
• Although the introduction of new technology at the end of the
nineteenth century ended the industrial age, much of our social
structure and social ideas—like family, childhood, and time
standardization—have a basis in industrial society.
Categories of Societies
3. Postindustrial Society: Information societies, sometimes known as postindustrial or
digital societies, are a recent development. Unlike industrial societies that are rooted in
the production of material goods, information societies are based on the production of
information and services.
• Digital technology is the steam engine of information societies, and computer moguls
such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are its John D. Rockefellers and Cornelius Vanderbilts.
Since the economy of information societies is driven by knowledge and not material
goods, power lies with those in charge of storing and distributing information.
• Members of a postindustrial society are likely to be employed as sellers of services—
software programmers or business consultants, for example—instead of producers of
goods.
• Social classes are divided by access to education, since without technical skills, people in
an information society lack the means for success.
Definition of Culture
• The concept of culture is one of the most widely used notions in
sociology.
• It refers to the whole ways of life of the members of a society. It
includes what they dress, their marriage customs and family life, art,
and patterns of work, religious ceremonies, leisure pursuits, and so
forth.
• It also includes the material goods they produce: bows and arrows,
factories and machines, computers, books, buildings, airplanes, etc.
• Culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society
represents the people who share those beliefs and practices. Neither
society nor culture could exist without the other.
Elements of Culture
• Culture includes within itself elements that make up the essence of a
society or a social group. The major ones include: Symbols, values,
norms, and language.
1. Symbols: Symbols are the central components of culture. Symbols
refer to anything to which people attach meaning and which they use
to communicate with others. Symbols such as gestures, signs, objects,
signals, and words help people understand the world. They provide
clues to understanding experiences by conveying recognizable
meanings that are shared by societies.
Elements of Culture
2. Language: Language, specifically defined as a system of verbal and in
many cases written symbols with rules about how those symbols can be
strung together to convey more complex meanings, is the distinctive capacity
and possession of humans; it is a key element of culture. Culture
encompasses language, and through language, culture is communicated and
transmitted.
3. Values: Values are essential elements of non-material culture. They may
be defined as general abstract guidelines for our lives, decisions, goals,
choices, and actions. Values are shared and are learned in group. They can
be positive or negative. For example, honesty, truth telling, respect for
others, hospitality, helping those in need, etc. are positive values. Examples
of negative values include theft, indecency, disrespect, dishonesty,
falsehood, frugality, etc.
Elements of Culture
4. Norms: Norms are also essential elements of culture. They are
implicit principles for social life, relationship and interaction. Norms are
derived from values. That means, for every specific norm, there is a
general value that determines its content.
• Norms define how to behave in accordance with what a society has
defined as good, right, and important, and most members of the
society adhere to them.
• Formal norms are established, written rules. They are behaviors
worked out and agreed upon in order to suit and serve the most
people. Informal norms are casual behaviors that are generally and
widely conformed to.
Elements of Culture
• Norms may be further classified as either mores or folkways.
• Mores are norms that embody the moral views and principles of a
group. Violating them can have serious consequences. The strongest
norms are regarded as the formal laws of a society or a group. Formal
laws are written and codified social norms. The other kinds of mores
are called conventions.
• Conventions are established rules governing behavior; they are
generally accepted ideals by the society. Conventions may also be
regarded as written and signed agreements between nations to
govern the behaviors of individuals, groups and nations.
Elements of Culture
• Folkways: folkways are norms without any moral underpinnings. Are
the ways of life developed by a group of people. They are detailed and
minor instructions, traditions or rules for day-to-day life that help us
function effectively and smoothly as members of a group.
• They are not enforced by law, but by informal social control. They are
not held to be important or obligatory as mores, or moral standards,
and their violation is not as such severely sanctioned.
Elements of Culture
• Folkways in turn may be divided into two sub-types: fashion and
custom.
• Fashion: Is a form of behavior, type of folkways that is socially
approved at a given time but subject to periodic change.
• Custom: Is a folkway or form of social behavior that, having persisted
a long period of time, has become traditional and well established in a
society and has received some degree of formal recognition. Custom
is a pattern of action shared by most or all members of a society.
• Fashion and customs can be differentiated in that while custom
changes at slower rate, fashion changes at a faster rate.