MODULE 5

HOW SOCIETY IS ORGANIZED

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
• Traces kinship ties and social networks;
• Describe the organized nature of social life and rules governing behavior.

DISCUSSION
THE HUMAN SOCIETY
HUMAN SOCIETY is a group of
people involved in persistent social
interaction, or a large social grouping having
the same geographical or social territory,
typically subject to the same political
authority and dominant cultural
expectations. Human society are
characterized by patterns of relationships
(social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions.

KINSHIP IN HUMAN SOCIETY

KINSHIP is the web of social relationships that
form an important part of the lives of most
humans in most societies, although its exact
meanings even within this discipline are often
debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox states that
“the study of kinship is the study of what man
does with these basic facts of life – mating,
gestation, parenthood socialization, siblingship,
etc.”
Kinship can refer both to the patterns of social
relationships themselves, or it can refer to the
study of the patterns of social relationships in one
or more human cultures (i.e. kinship studies). Kinship patterns may be considered to
include people related by both descents – i.e. social relations during development – and
by marriage. Kinship can also refers to a principle by which individuals or groups of
individuals are organized into social groups, roles, categories and genealogy by means
of kinship terminologies. Family relations can be represented concretely or abstractly by
degrees of relationship. A relationship may be relative or reflect an absolute. Degrees of
relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY GROUPS

PRIMARY GROUPS
Charles Cooley (Sociologist) –
“Social Organization: A Study of the
Larger Mind.” It is typically a small
social group whose members share
close, personal, enduring relationships.
Examples: family, childhood friends,
and highly influential social groups.
Primary groups plays an important role
in the development of personal identity.
A primary group is a group in which one
exchanges implicit item, such as love, caring, concern, animosity, support, etc. Examples:
family groups, love relationships, crisis support groups, church groups, etc.

SECONDARY GROUPS
People in secondary group
interact in a less personal level
than in primary group, and
their relationships are
temporary rather than long
lasting.
Secondary groups are
groups in which one
exchanges explicit
commodities, such as labor for
wages, services for payments, etc. Examples of these would be employment, vendor-to-
client relationships, etc.
INGROUPS AND OUTGROUPS
• In-group is a social group to
which a person psychologically
identifies as being a member.
• Outgroup is a social group with
which an individual does not
identify.
• Henri Tajfel and colleagues
• Social Identity Theory
• Tajfel and colleagues found that
people can form self-
preferencing in-groups within a
matter of minutes and that such
groups can form even on the basis of seemingly trivial characteristics (minimal group
paradigm).

REFERENCE GROUP
Any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their
own behavior a reference group. It act as a frame of reference to which people always
refer to evaluate their achievements, their role performance, aspirations, and ambitions.

ROLE IN SOCIAL GROUPS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

SOCIAL ROLES
Members must have roles in a group. Individual
or personal roles are different from social roles.
When an individual belongs to a group, that
individual has to perform his social role—not
personal role. He must perform his assigned role
according to the group’s norms. Performance of the
roles depends on the cohesiveness of the members.
Cohesiveness of members in a group is measured
in four ways:
1. Number of friends
2. Morale of the members
 3. Sense of belongingness
4. Commitment of the members

INSTITUTIONS
Institutions provide framework of continuity and predictability that allows people to
more accurately plan their activities. Institutions help us interact with each other by
imposing a sense of stability and order onto the initially chaotic jumble life.

SOCIAL NETWORK
This is an element of social
interaction in which a web of
relationships exists among people,
directly or indirectly.
A student may have several
networks such as his classmates,
peer groups or barkada, with his
teachers, members of the faculty, the
library personnel, the sales personnel
in the bookstore where he buys his
books, in the gym with athletes, in the
church where he performs his
religious duties, and others. The first
social network is the family and
others relatives.

FUNCTIONS:
• They help individuals develop opinions, choices, and point of views.
• They serve as primary source of information on any activity and concerns of the
individual.
• They may influence the personality of the people.
• They provide opportunities and control to one’s behavior.
• They provide individuals with an important source of companionship.
• They provide an important opportunity for economic transactions such as sharing
of tangible and intangible resources, gift giving etc.
• They also provide rules for distributing society’s resources. Whenever resource
control is allocated equally, the distribution rule becomes the basis of social
stratification.