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Society
 Definition
 According to Sumner and Keller: Society is a group of
individual living in cooperative efforts to win subsistence and
perpetuate the species.
 Western Mark Giddings: Society is a group of individual
living a cooperative life. Society as a group of individual
cooperates for the achievement of any object of common
interest or utility.
Finally we can say that society is the network of social
interaction in and through which we live.
Characteristics of Society
 Following are the four features/ elements of
Society which can be expressed by the word POET.
 P means Population
 O means Organization
 E means Environment
 T means Technology
 Considering the above mentioned elements Society
refers following characteristics:
 1. Demographic unit: Society usually consists of
a demographic (population) unit.
 2. Geographical boundary: Society must have a
geographical boundary in which social being live.
 3. Major group: Society is made up of
functionally differentiated major groups (which
can satisfy our needs).
 4. Similar group: Society is made up of
culturally similar groups of people.
 5. Overall functioning unit: Society must
function as overall functioning unit
 6. Separate social unit: Society must
function as a separate social unit.
Theories about the origin
and development of Society
Herbert Spencer first compared society with a
living organism.
He explained that a living organism evolves
through some successive steps, society also as an
organism evolves through some well-defined
stages.
This theory is also called the organismic theory
about the origin of society.
 Actually Herbert Spencer attempted to
transform the biological theory of
evaluation explained by Darwin into a
theory of society.
 Therefore, this theory is also called
Social Darwinism or Neo-Darwinism.
 Whiling comparing the society with the
living organism it is discovered that
1. Both society and biological organism are
subject of growth and progress,
2. Both have interdependent parts. Politics,
education, culture, group, recreation etc. are
the parts of society, whereas head, legs,
hands, eyes are the parts of living organism.
3.Both pass through regulating system. Brain,
nervous system, digestive system, reproductive
system, respiratory systems are biological
control system. On the other hand, government
is the regulating system of society.
4. Both have distributing system. Bloodcirculating system in the biological organism
and communication system is the counterpart
for the society.
 It is also found that cell is the basic unit,
tissue is the complex of cell, the organ is a
complex of tissue, person is the complex of
organs and society is the complex of persons.
 Thus, it is proved that society is the most
complex and advanced type of living
organism.
 Spencer said that society is a process of
multiplication, growth, metabolism, disease
and death.
 On the assumption of living organism, Spencer
sketched out his scheme of social evolution. He
told the human society advanced from savage
state to this civilized state passing through 03
stages:
1. Militarism
2. Feudalism
3. Industrialism
Understanding Past and
Current Societies
 Society is defined as a population of
people which shares the same geographic
territory and culture.
 In sociology this typically refers to an
entire country or community. Average
people tend to use the word society
differently than do sociologists. For
sociologists a society is defined in terms of
its functions. There are five:
1.reproduction;
2.sustenance;
3.shelter;
4.management of its membership;
5.Defense.
 There are three types of organizations:
1. Normative
Organizations
are
organizations that people join because
they perceive their goals as being socially
or morally worthwhile (IE: Greenpeace);
2.Coercive Organizations are organizations
that people typically are forced into
against their will (prison);
 3.
Utilitarian Organizations are
organizations that people typically join
because of some tangible benefit
which they expect to receive (Girl
Scouts, PTA, or a political party).
 All organizations exist in the structures
of broader society.
 Societies
have been around for many
thousands of years. Technological availability
greatly influenced the size and durability of
these societies.
 Rocks, sticks, spears, axes, bows and arrows,
darts, plows, hand tools, dowels and nails,
steam engines, electricity, factories, watches,
computer chips, and other technological
advances have greatly changed the nature of
societies over these many years.
 Early on, Hunting and Gathering Societies,
those whose economies which are based on
hunting animals and gathering vegetation, were
very common throughout the history of the
world.
 Eventually,
Horticultural and Pastoral
Societies, those characterized by domestication
of animals and the use of hand tools to cultivate
plants, developed and have also endured for
centuries.
In the last few centuries the
Agricultural Society developed.
 Agricultural Societies utilize advanced
technologies to support crops and
livestock (plow)
 Western societies became the
mainstay which enabled the Industrial
Revolution to transpire by feeding
society’s members.
 Industrial
Societies utilize machinery and
energy sources (steam engine) rather than humans
and animals for production.
 There was a time in the US when almost all the
jobs were factory, production, or otherwise labor
intensive jobs.
 Then came the computer chip which initiated
 Postindustrial Societies, where societal
production is based on creating,
processing, and storing information.
 This is the modern society we live in
today in the United States.