Society

pe ople in gene ra l th ou ght of as li ving tog eth er in o rganized communi tie s

wi th sha red l aws, trad ition s, and val ues

: th e pe ople of a par ti cu lar coun tr y, area , ti me, etc., th ou ght of

e spe cial ly a s an o rgani zed communi ty

pe ople who a re fa sh ion able and weal thy

culture

the belie fs, cu sto ms, ar ts, etc., o f a pa r ti cula r so ci ety, g rou p,
pla ce , o r ti me

: a par ticula r so ciety th at has its own bel iefs, ways of li fe , ar t, etc.

: a way of th in king , be havin g, or wo rking th at exi sts in a pla ce o r

o rgani zation (su ch as a bu sine ss)

Values
a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.

Ethnocentrism

having or based on the idea that your own group or culture is better or more important
than others

cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological
innovations, and that social problems and conflicts are caused by thislag.

culture shock
1. the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected
to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.
Xenocentrism is the preference for the products, styles, or ideas of someone else's culture
rather than of one's own. The concept is considered a subjective view[clarification needed] of cultural
relativism.

assimilate
take in (information, ideas, or culture) and understand fully.

The Universal Culture Pattern

In the interplay of men and women with their environment and fellow beings, certain
fundamental needs are always present. Six needs, common to people at all times and
in all places, form the basis of a universal culture pattern and deserve to be
enumerated.

1. The need to make a living. Men and women must have food, shelter, clothing, and
the means to provide for their offsprings survival.

2. The need for law and order. From earliest times, communities have had to keep
peace among their members, defend themselves from external attack, and protect
community assets.

3. The need for social organization. For people to make a living, raise families, and
maintain law and order, a social structure is essential. Views about the relative
importance of the group and the individual within it may vary with any such social
structure.

4. The need for knowledge and learning. Since earliest times, humankind has
transmitted knowledge acquired through experience, first orally and then by means of
writing systems. As societies grow more complex, there is increasing need to
preserve knowledge and transmit it through education to as many people as possible.

5. The need for self-expression. People have responded creatively to their

environment even before the days when they decorated on the walls of Paleolithic
caves with paintings of the animals they hunted. The arts appear to have a lineage as
old as human experience.
 6. The need for religious expression. Equally important is humanitys attempt to
answer the why of its existence. What primitive peoples considered supernatural in
their environment could often, at a later time, be explained by science in terms of
natural phenomena. Yet today, no less than in archaic times, men and women
continue to search for answers to the ultimate questions of existence.

folkways
fkwz/
noun
1. the traditional behavior or way of life of a particular community or group of
people.

Social norms or mores are the rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or
society. People who do not follow these norms may be shunned or suffer some kind of
consequence.

law
l/

noun
1. the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as
regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

Social institutions are a system of behavioral and relationship patterns that are densely
interwoven and enduring, and function across an entire society. They order and structure the
behavior of individuals by means of their normative character.

noun. A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze. Origin
of fad. Possibly from fidfad, fussy person, fussy, from fiddle-faddle.

subculture
 sbklCHr/

noun
1. a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at
variance with those of the larger culture.

Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, as in the
global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural decay. The phrase cultural
diversity can also refer to having different cultures respect each other's differences. The phrase
"cultural diversity" is also sometimes used to mean the variety of humansocieties or cultures in a
specific region, or in the world as a whole. Globalization is often said to have a negative effect on the
world's cultural diversity.

mores
mrz/
noun
1. the essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a community.

acculturation. 1 : cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or

borrowing traits from another culture; also : a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged
contact. 2 : the process by which a human being acquires the culture of a particular society from
infancy.

Different Types of Societies and Their Major Characteristics

2 Yant

To simple begin, society is the whole of many individuals who live in a certain domain, and behave
according to existing culture and morality. Culture and morality differ in terms of social status and
favorably these status are universal. The classification starts with hunter-gatherer society and
finishes with postindustrial society and in between there is the process of development of human
beings as a society. First four types, historically, are known aspreindustrial societies in terms of social
structure, cultural accumulation and the level of their technologies, the last two types were shaped
after the industrial revolution.

1. Foraging Societies
When human beings did not know how to dominate land and domesticate the animals, they had to
live together, share work, use fresh water carefully and also migrate gregariously if anything went
wrong, for example, if rivers dried up or they run out of animals. Usually men were hunters and
women were gatherers in those societies and this caused matriarchy because men were always in
danger during hunting and generally hunter members returned home -cave- with limited numbers.
Labour in hunting and gathering societies was divided equally among the members because they

were so small and mobile. There was not any

political organization compared to understanding of todays diplomacy but their decision making
body included every person who live in the society and equality conducted it. Certainly some
foraging societies have their own tribal leaders but even the leader could not decide anything about
tribe, everything in those societies was decided by all members. Their technologies were almost
nothing in comparison with today but they could do what they needed, hunting big and small animals
and using their hides in order to make cloths and gathering plants. Somehow they learned cultivation
and they did not need to relocate anymore and they were divided into two parts as animal
domesticators and plant cultivators. Both of them started to live in a certain domain.
2. Pastoral Societies
In this type of societies, approximately 12,000 years ago, people lived in a certain place and started
to pasture animals for transportation and permanent food. Those types of societies still exist in
Somalia, Ethiopia and North Africa countries where horticulture and manufacturing are not
possible (Samatar, 1989: 35), hunter-gatherer society did domesticate animals because they realized
that using animals wool, milk, and fertility was more beneficial than hunting and wasting them.
Consequently, not only trade had started, but also non-survival class had aroused such as the
spiritual leaders, healers, traders, craftspeople. This new formation held society together in a certain
domain and nomadic did not migrate so far, circulate around the pasture primitive version of urban-
and also difference of people came out for the first time; the nomadic and settled people. These are
the first forms of people who live in rural and urban areas. Moreover, as they had to domesticate
animals and use them, people need some tools and they invented what they needed. By this means
technology developed rapidly. Trade improved easily and differences between nomadic and settled
people grew up, consequently concept of social inequality started to appear compared to hunter-
gatherer societies.
3. Horticultural Societies
Similar to pastoral societies, horticultural societies first appeared 10,000 to 12,000 years ago but
these societies cultivated vegetables, fruits and plants. Depletion of the lands resources or dwindling
water supplies, for instance, forced the people to leave. Since, they were mobile and small like
hunter-gatherer societies; there was not a non-survival class and not trade as well. Division of labour
continued, social structures did not develop and because of this, horticultural societies did not differ
from foraging societies. They could not develop because agricultural materials invented about 8,000
years ago and they could not relocate rivers and water sources, their plants dried up. It is easily
realized that why development of technology is so important and how it affects to shape societies, at
the same time in the other parts of the world, people could invent and develop what they needed but
for agriculture, technology was not enough.
4. Agricultural Societies
What cause horticultural societies to extinguish, were the late agricultural inventions around the
8,000s. With the new inventions, food supplies increased and people settled together. Population
grew up rapidly, villages came up and farmers, land owners and also warriors who protect farms in
exchange for food against enemies aroused firstly. In these societies, social inequality solidly showed
itself. A rigid caste system developed; slavery and ownership started to be too different concepts in
those lives. Caste system developed the differentiation between the elite and agricultural labourers
including slaves. Lands started to be so important, especially from ninth to fifteenth centuries, after
the understanding of feudalism developed, every small land owners saw themselves as kings and
owners of people who live for them as well. Concept of social classes spread through the Europe
and not only land owners, but also religious leaders did not have to try to survive because workers
had to give them everything that they had. Art, literature and philosophy were in religious leaders
hands because of this, time of feudalism is known as the dark ages. Due to existing monarchy,
owners set up their own rules in their lands and each lord led the society with different rules and all
of them depended on the King. This stratification prevented slaves from rebellion, workers were
sweated and classes and inequalities in Europe continued until the industrial revolution.
5. Industrial Societies
With usage of the steam power, human beings started to use machines and advanced technologies
to produce and distribute goods and services. Industrial revolution process began in Britain and then
spread through Europe and to the rest of the world, industrial societies started to develop. The
growth of technologies led to advances in farming techniques, so slavery lost its significance,
economy developed quickly and understanding of social charity and governments aids grew up.
Feudal social classes removed but then societies divided into two parts as workers and non-workers.
Karl Marx explained that non-workers are composing capitalist class and they hold all money and
also set up rules. Considering this explanation, it is easily understood that non-workers are the same
with non-survivors like lords and religious leaders in preindustrial societies. Thus, the industrial
revolution brought only the slavery extinction and there is only worker class. Learning from previous
mistakes rulers gave more opportunities for social mobility and also gave more rights than they gave
to the slaves. With changes in social inequalities people started to want their rights and freedom as
citizens and then kingdoms and autocracy lost their power on citizens. Democracy seemed more
beneficial and necessary with French and American Revolutions, nationality became more important
and so, citizens won their rights and classes existed as just economic differences. Politically
everyone seemed equal but, of course, inequalities between money owners and sellers of their own
labours to survive, unstoppably increased. Villages lost their significance and towns became places
where occupation opportunities were supplied.
6. Postindustrial Societies
The countries that the industrial revolution began, -Britain, France, the USA and Japan- now became
the postindustrial countries. These countries are users of advance technologies like developed
computers, satellites, microchips. In short, those societies are affected by the technologies at first
hand. In comparison with horticultural societies, it can be easily understood that how technology is
important to shape and characterize a society. If you want to build new sociology, read about
technology. If you want to build new technology, read about sociology. If you want to Since they are
trailblazers of technologies, they are now holding all worlds economy in their hands. There is not
rural and urban areas difference as well as people who are economically at the top and middle.
According to common view, in those societies, there is neither social inequality nor classification.
People won their own freedom by working hard, if there are any differences or discrimination, this is
caused by capitalist and global world, not the governments mistakes. 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 begins to determine class rather than the ownership of
property, sociologists are 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 societys problems through
science. (Andersen & Taylor, 2006: 118)

To conclude, in
history, there have been very different societies in terms of their level of development, levels of
inequality, political organizations and cultural factors but only those six types explain easily which
stages we passed. Moreover, in todays world almost all types of societies exist but each of them
approaches through postindustrial society even if they are not. From this research paper, it is proved
that how technology is important in shaping and characterizing society among the economy, social
inequalities and classes.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

Culture has five basic characteristics: It is learned, shared, based on symbols,

integrated, and dynamic. All cultures share these basic features.
 Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not inherit it. Much of learning
culture is unconscious. We learn culture from families, peers, institutions, and
media. The process of learning culture is known as enculturation. While all
humans have basic biological needs such as food, sleep, and sex, the way we
fulfill those needs varies cross-culturally.

Culture is shared. Because we share culture with other members of our group,
we are able to act in socially appropriate ways as well as predict how others
will act. Despite the shared nature of culture, that doesnt mean that culture is
homogenous (the same). The multiple cultural worlds that exist in any society
are discussed in detail below.

Culture is based on symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something

else. Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. They only have meaning
when people in a culture agree on their use. Language, money and art are all
symbols. Language is the most important symbolic component of culture.

Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or the various parts of a culture

being interconnected. All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to
truly understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few.

Culture is dynamic. This simply means that cultures interact and change.
Because most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they exchange ideas
and symbols. All cultures change, otherwise, they would have problems
adapting to changing environments. And because cultures are integrated, if one
component in the system changes, it is likely that the entire system must adjust.

five components of culture

Language is used for communication. It can be written or spoken. Even when a culture
uses the same basic language as another culture, differences in terminology and
inflection create new meanings.
Values help define acceptable behavior within the society. Values can be different for
each group to which a person belongs. For example, it may be acceptable in the family
group to eat certain foods that are not accepted within the religious group a person
chooses.

Beliefs fulfill the spiritual needs of a culture. A whole culture can be based on one set of
beliefs, yet a larger cultural group may have many different sets of beliefs.

Norms are the rules, mores and traditions within a culture. As a group develops laws
and regulations, norms change. A law that was necessary 100 years ago may not be
needed in modern times.

Technological advances also change the way cultures behave. Traditions are norms that
a culture holds onto once the norms are no longer common. Wearing certain clothing for
a holiday is an example of a norm that has become a tradition.