Introducing Sociology Chapter 1 Sociology And Society

Due to the logical similarities with Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Herbert Spencer's views on evolution of societies were known as social Darwinism.

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One of the key factor for society existence and sustenance is the acceptance of society by it's members and other entities.

(i) Auguste comte (of France) is called the father of sociology because he coined the sociology 1830, for that branch of science which studied human behaviour. Before his life time and during his life time most of the issue and concern of this discipline also date back to a time when European societies was undergoing greatly changes in that period (approximately 18 and 19th century) with the advant of industrialisation and capitalism.

(ii) Without the study of origin and growth of sociology we can not understand several personnel as well as social issue. For example. In 18th and 19th century due to industrialisation several problem raise before people and government. Urbanisation or factory production are concerned to all modern society. No doubt these specific feature different. For example the problem of Urbanisation and factory production of India nay be different from advance western or European country. Indian society visit colonial parts and various diversities is different from the social setup of Britain or France. The people of India can know their problems or issues after the study of sociology because sociology of India reflects origin and growth of different individual or social problems.

(iii) Indians are closely linked to the history of British capitalism and colonalism. Capitalism is the west centailed a worldwide expansion. No doubt colonialism was essential part of modern capitaism and industrialisation. The writings of western sociologist on capitalism and other aspects of modern society are therefore relevent for urderstanding social change in India.

(iv) Sociology in India also had to deal with western writings and ideas about Indian society that were not always correct. These ideas were expressed both in the accounts of colonial officials as well as western scholars. For many of them Indian society was xontsant to western society. We take just one example here, the way the Indian village was understood and portrayed as unchanging.

(v) Further more social anthropology in India moved gradually from a preoccupation with the study of 'primitive people' to the study of peasants, ethinic groups. Social clases, aspects and features of ancient civilisations, and modern industrial societies. No rigid divide exists between sociology and social anthropology in India, a characteristics feature of the two subjects in many western countries. Perhaphs the very diversity of the modern and traditional, of the village and the metropolitan in India account for this

(ii) Common sense or knowledge does not always or even generally lead to spectacular results. But meaningful and unsuspected connections can be reached only by shifting through masses of connections. Great advances in sociological knowledge have been made, generally incrementally and only rarely by a dymatic breakthrough.

(iii) Sociology cannot be substitued by common sense. Common sense is unreflective since it does not questions its own origins. Or in other words it does not ask it-self. Why do I hold this view ? The Sociologist must be r eady to ask of any of our beliefs, about our-selvess-no matter how cherished- 'is this really so ?'

(iv) Both the systematic and questioning approach of sociology is derived from a broader tradition of scientific form a broader tradition of scientific investigation. This emphasis on scientific procedures can be undersitood only if we go back in time. And understand the context or social situation within which the sociological perspective emerged as sociology was greatly influenced by the great development in modern science.

(i) Sociology is one age group of social sciences, which also includes authropology, economics political science and history.

(ii) The division among various sociail sciences are not clearent, and all share a certain range of common interest, concepts and methods, Today there is greater gave and take among all disciplines because most subjects rela ted with social sciences are interrelated and upto some extent interdependent also.

(iii) Socilogy and Economics : (a) The sociological approach looks at economic behaviour in a broarder context of social norms, values, practices and interest. The coporate sectors managers are aware of this. The? large

investment in the advertisment industry is directly linked to the need to re-shape lifestyles and consumption patterns.

(b) The define scope of economics has helped in facilating its development as a highly focused, coherent discipline, Sociologists often entry every the economists for the precision of their technology and the exactness of their measures. And the ability to traslate the results of their theortical work into practical suggestion having measure implication for public policy. Yet economists predictive ability often suffer precirely because of their neglect of individual behaviour, cultural norms and institutional resistance which sociologists study.

(c) Sociology unlike economics usually does not provide technical solutions. But it encourages a questioning and critical perspective. This helps questioning of basic assumptions. Recent trends have been seen a resurgence of economic sociology perhaps because of both this wider and critical perspective of sociology.

(d) Sociology provides clearer or more adequate understanding of a social situation than existed before. This can be either on the level of factual knowledge, or through gaining an improved group of why something is happening (in other words, by means of theoretical understanding).

Sociology and Political Science :

(a) Sociology is devoted to the study of all aspects of society, where as conventional political science restricted it self mainly to the study of power as embodied in formal organisation.

(b) Sociology stresses the interrelation ships between sets of institutions including government, where as political science tends to turn attention towards the processess within the government.

(c) Sociology long shared similar interests of research with political science. Sociologists like Max Weber worked in what can be termed as political sociology. The focus of political sociology has been increasingly on the actual study of political behaviour.

Sociology and History:

(a) Historians almost as a rule study the past, sociologists are more interested in the contemporary or recent past.

(b) History studies concreate detail while the sociologist is more likely to abstract from concrete reality, categorise and generalise.

(c) Conventional history has been about the history of kings and war. The history of less glamorous or exciting events or changes in land relations or gender relations within the family have traditionally been less studied by historians but formed the core area of the sociologist interest.

(d) Today however history is far more sociological and social history is the stuff of history. It looks at social patterns, gender relations, mores, customs and important institutions other than the acts of rulers, wars and monarchy.

Sociology and Psychology:

(a) Psychology is often defined as the science of behaviour. It involves itself primarily with the individual. It is interested in her/his intelligence and learning, motivations and memory, nervous system and reaction time, hopes and fears. Social psychology, which serves as a bridge between psychology and sociology, maintains a primary interest in the individual but concerns itself with the way in which the individual behaves in social groups, collectively with other individuals.

(b) Sociology attempts to understand behaviour as it is organised in society, that is the way in which personality is shaped by different aspects or society. For instance, economic and political system, their family and kingship structure, their culture, norms and values.

Sociology and Social Anthropology :

(a) Anthropology is most countries in corporates archaeology, physical anthropology, cultural history, many branches of lingnistics and the study of all aspects of life in 'Simple Societies'. Our concern here is with social anthropology and cultural anthropology for it is that which is close to the study of sociology.

(b) The anthropologists of the past documented the details of simple societies appartently in a neutral scientific fashion. In

practice they were constantly comparing those societies with the model of the western modern societies as a benchmark.

(c) Other changes have also redefined the nature of sociology and social anthropology. Modernity as we saw led to a process whereby the smallest village was impacted by global processes. The most obvious example is colonialism. The most remote village of India under British colonialism saw its land laws and administration change, its revenue extraction alter, its manufacturing industries collapse.

(d) Today the distinction between a simple society and a complex one itself needs major rethinking. India itself is a complex mix of tradition and modernity of the village and the city, of caste and tribe, of class and community. Villages nestle right in the heart of the capital city of Delhi. Call centres serve European and American clients from different towns of the country.

a. Sociology
b. Anthropology
c. Economics
d. Political Science

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(ii) Management

(i) Here the emphasis is on the way in which people continuously interact with one another. The key terms are ‘negotiations’ self other, reflexivity the implication being that society is constituted and reconstituted in social interaction.

(ii) Society is a continuous process. It goes on in a natural way. Society is not imposed upon people rather it is accepted by participants.

(ii) Social fact is a social phenomenon, which makes a man to act in a given situations following certain norms.

(ii) Sociology is derived out of two Latin root words socils meaning companion or association, and logos meaning science.

(iii) There is a general agreement that sociology is the science of human society and of social relations, social groups and social change.

(iv) It is one of the several social sciences others being social anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, human geography, public administration, mass communication etc.

(v) Hobhouse explained how sociology studied the interaction of human minds.

(vi) However, Emile Durkheim was more precise he said that sociology is a study of collective representation. All our thinking, feeling and doing constitute social facts.

(vii) Social fact, according to Emile Durkheim is exterior to human mind and it puts constraints on human behaviour.

(viii) Emile Durkheim says that all that which is a social fact constitutes the subject matter of the study of sociology.

(ix) Max Weber defined sociology differently. He said that human activities are oriented towards some action, which fulfills some goals individuals in the society are busy in action for obtaining of decided or given objectives or interests.

(x) Actions, according to Max Webber, constitute the subject matter of sociology. Since every social activity is directed at some other person, sociology studies the interaction system which shape social institutions, like polity, the hospital and bureaucracy.

He suggested first of all that sociologists should use the tools of research developed by natural sciences. He developed a rational approach (scientific method) to the study of society based on observations and experiments.

(ii) Industrial Revolution (1740-1850) acce***rated the process of urbanization. Urbanization in its turn created problems of housing and slum dwelling. Creation of industries resulted in conflicts between owners and factory workers.

(iii) French revolution led Europeans to rethinking about the form of government and practice of democracy.

(iv) In short we can say that in Europe changes were all around in economy, polity and commounity living. Sociology took birth in such a climate of industrialization, urbanisation and capatalism.

(i) To study social structure and social change.

(ii) To improve people's understanding of breakdowns and rerrangements of social structures.

(iii) The knowledge gained through a scientific approach should be used to plan sociey’s welfare.

(iv) To provide opportunities for study of institution or organisations like politics, family religion, social contorl, and industry or work, associations, communities, division of labour social differentiation of stratification, sociology of knowlege, art and aesthetics.

(v) Philosophers like Karl Marx urge that real objective of the sociology is to help the people to unite the working class against the capitalists and to create a classless society from a class struggle, so that the society can became exploitationless.

(ii) To satisfy their basic eagernes about the universe, the humans developed science in due course of time systematic methods were employed to understand the natural world.

(ii) No doubt a concrete society consists of perons (members) having different statuses. But no individual can fulfil all his requirements without society. Some have to produce food, others have to weave clothes, some have to erect houses, and so on so forth.

(iii) If a man is united to fulfil his needs, he is also at war with others in certain other context. Thus, in a society there is consensus on the tasks to be performed for survival but there is also competition / conflict to have greater share in available resources which are scarce.

(ii) Further more, human cannot escape the effect of biological inheritance any more than the bees can. Just as the biological inhertances of the bees determines their physical needs, behaviour - patterns, learning and communicating - capacities, likewise, human society is also tied to man's biological inheritance.

(iii) Because of dependence upon learned normative behaviour a new survival need emerges, the continuation of the social system itself.

(iv) The prerequisite for the continuance of human society must also be met through learned normative behaviour.

(v) We see this operating mainly in the society's patterned ways of socializing the young (enabling them to acquire their group's values and behaviour patterns).

(vi) However, we should bear in mind that in one sense society's one major characteristic is independence also. It is not a subgroup of any other. We may define 'society' as such as a permanent, self-contained and an integrated group.

(i) I am a poor person having a large family of six members.

(ii) My elder daughter and sons are respectively of twenty four and twenty two years both are unemployed.

(iii) My friend is a business man but he is having in shop-non-commercial or residential area. He has got a notice from the higher authorities that shop will be sealed and later on demolished

(iv) My wife is suffering from some serious diseases.

(v) My parents are very old.

I have offered financial help to my friend to purchase a shop in commercial area. I have advistd him that he should take some loan from a bank and first of all he should purchase a shop in an authorised complex. I have told him that my son with join him in business if he desire so because my friend is issueless. He was accepted my offer. I have told him that if he accept my offer my son will also get employment and one of my problem will be solved.

My daughter has made up her mind to go to U.S.A. because she is a computer engineer and after her marriage with a fellow of United State he will go there.

My wife is going daily to Yoga classes of Guru Ram Dev. The Yoga teacher has promise that my wife will be O.K. after a regular practice of Yoga for two months or so.

My parents are old one. I, my son and my friends is paying ful attention to attend them regularly

(i) Auguste comte (of France) is called the father of sociology because he coined the sociology 1830, for that branch of science which studied human behaviour. Before his life time and during his life time most of the issue and concern of this discipline also date back to a time when European societies was undergoing greatly changes in that period (approximately 18 and 19th century) with the advant of industrialisation and capitalism.

(ii) Without the study of origin and growth of sociology we can not understand several personnel as well as social issue. For example. In 18th and 19th century due to industrialisation several problem raise before people and government. Urbanisation or factory production are concerned to all modern society. No doubt these specific feature different. For example the problem of Urbanisation and factory production of India nay be different from advance western or European country. Indian society visit colonial parts and various diversities is different from the social setup of Britain or France. The people of India can know their problems or issues after the study of sociology because sociology of India reflects origin and growth of different individual or social problems.

(iii) Indians are closely linked to the history of British capitalism and colonalism. Capitalism is the west centailed a worldwide expansion. No doubt colonialism was essential part of modern capitaism and industrialisation. The writings of western sociologist on capitalism and other aspects of modern society are therefore relevent for urderstanding social change in India.

(iv) Sociology in India also had to deal with western writings and ideas about Indian society that were not always correct. These ideas were expressed both in the accounts of colonial officials as well as western scholars. For many of them Indian society was xontsant to western society. We take just one example here, the way the Indian village was understood and portrayed as unchanging.

(v) Further more social anthropology in India moved gradually from a preoccupation with the study of 'primitive people' to the study of peasants, ethinic groups. Social clases, aspects and features of ancient civilisations, and modern industrial societies. No rigid divide exists between sociology and social anthropology in India, a characteristics feature of the two subjects in many western countries. Perhaphs the very diversity of the modern and traditional, of the village and the metropolitan in India account for this.

Different aspects of society: The following five view points may be noted on conceptualization of the term society :

(i) Society is a structure. In other words it is a recognizable by network of interrelating institutions.

(ii) Society keeps itself alive by process of reproduction of its members in their own forms.

(iii) Society always shows its contradictions. For example a capitalistic society always shows conradictions through m ode of production.

(iv) Every society has its own culture. Cultures of several societies inter—change or exchange their norms, traditions, values with the passage of time and advancement of science and technology. This process may be quick or slow.

(v) Society is always in processes. Its member continuously Interact with one another.

How is society different from our common sense understanding ?

(i) Society is different from common sense understanding. The common sense explanations are generally based on what may be called naturalistic and / or individualistic explanation. A naturalistic explantation for behaviour rests

on the assumption that one can really identify 'natural' reasons for behaviour.

(ii) Common sense or knowledge does not always or even generally lead to spectacular results. But meaningful and unsuspected connections can be reached only by shifting through masses of connections. Great advances in sociological knowledge have been made, generally incrementally and only rarely by a dymatic breakthrough.

(iii) Sociology cannot be substitued by common sense. Common sense is unreflective since it does not questions its own origins. Or in other words it does not ask it-self. Why do I hold this view ? The Sociologist must be ready to ask of any of our beliefs, about our-selves–no matter how cherished- “is this really so ?”

(iv) Both the systematic and questioning approach of sociology is derived from a broader tradition of scientific form a broader tradition of scientific investigation. This emphasis on scientific procedures can be undersitood only if we go back in time. And understand the context or social situation within which the sociological perspective emerged as sociology was greatly influenced by the great development in modern science.

(i) Society is common between sociology and history.

(ii) Both are social science disciplines.

(iii) Sociology and history both are concerned with human activities and events.

(iv) History is concerned primarily with the record of the past. The historians want to describe, as accurately as possible, what actually happened to man during a given time. The socialogists use, to all intents and purposes the same record to the past.

(v) Apart from philosophy today the historian is considerbly depending upon sociological concepts and narrations. We conway that modern historiography and modern sociology have been influenced by each other.

Differences between Sociology and History :

(i) Sociology is concerned with the present and in some extent with future, History studies the past.

(ii) Sociologist borrow from historical sources and sociological analysis and vice-versa. The Sociologists use, to all intants and purposes, the same record of the past.

(iii) Generally, we may say that history occupies it self with the differences in similar events and sociology deals with teh similarities in different events.

(iv) Historians generally restrict themselves to the study of the past, from the more recent to the remotest one. Sociologist shows interest in the contemporary scence or the recent past.

(v) In short we may say that, sociology and history may be distinguished. The former generalized about society, the latter is a particularizing or individualzing discipline. Sociology in an analytical discipline whereas history is a descriptive discipline.

(vi) Sociology emphasizers on the regular and the recurrent whereas history investigates the unique and the individual.

(vii) An event that has occurred only once in the human past is of no sociological importance unless it can be related to a pattern of events that repeats itself generation after generation, historical period after historical period and human group after human group. If the past is concerned of as a continuous cloth unrolling through the centuries, history is interested in the individual threads and strands that made it up : sociology analysis the patterns that human society exhibits.

(ii) Most notable among these thinkers have been (a) Auguste comte (1798-1857) (b) Herbert

Spencer (1820-1903) (c) Karl Marx (1818-1883), Emil Durkheim (1858-1917) and (v) Max Weber (1864-1920). All these pioneers came from other disciplines.

(iii) (a) Auguste comte was a philosopher (b) Herbert spencer had a background in natural history and he was influenced by Charles Darwin's theory o evolution (c) Emile Durkheim was a rabbi (Jewish Priest) (d) Max Weber was trained in legal and economic history (e) Karl Marx had dual interest in abstract philosophy and in concrete reality of his times. However, it is a fact that Karl Marx did not pursue an academic career and never claimed to be a sociologist. It is true that influence of Karl Marx spread to various branches of knowledge and so many people became followers of his ideology, which became popular as Marxism or scientific socialism in history.

Sociology is a scientific discipline. It is a science in the sense that it invalues objectives and systematic methods of investigation and evalution of social reality in the light of empirical evidence and interpretation.

Sociology cannot be directly modelled on the patterns of natural sciences, because human behaviour is different from the world of nature.

Scope of Sociology:

(i) Sociology is a systematic and objective study of social life, which is created by a variety of interactions between individuals and groups. When similar behaviour is repeated in a given situation it becomes a norm or an institution.

(ii) People in different statues and performing different roles, interact with other people formally or informally. All these repetitive actons are part of the culture of a given group and define the social organisation. Sociologists study individual's actions in different social relationships such as between husband and wife, teacher and student, buyer and seller, they also study different social processes such as child rearing. Co-operation, competition, conflict, and migration etc. and they study different organisation and groups. For examples family, caste, associations and state, etc.

(iii) Sociologist, therefore, in the study of social life as a whole. It has a wide range of concerns and interests. It seeks to provide classifications and forms of social relationships, institutions and associations realating to social, economic, moral, religions and political aspects of human life.

(iv) Following are four main aspects of society that are the core subject matter of sociology :

(a) Culture : Culture is the totality of learned and socially transmitted behaviour from one generation to the next. It includes symbols, signs and language, besides religion, rituals, beliefs and artefacts.

(b) Social Organisation : The term 'social organisation' refers to interdependence of different aspects of society. This is an essential characteristic of all enduring social entities, such as groups, communities, and collectivities. Currently, social organisation is used to refer to the interdependence of parts of in-groups of all sizes, form a clique of workers in hospitals, and factories to large scale societies and organisations.

(c) Social Institutions : A social institution is a procedure, practice and an instrument, hence an ensemble of a variety of customs and habits accumulated over a period of time.

In every society, people form social institutions to meet their basic needs of survival.

Institutions are tools and instruments of human transactions. These are stable clusters of roles, values and norms.

(d) Social Structure : It is a pattern of inter-relations between individuals. Every society has a social structure, a complex of main groups, institutions and arrangements. Relating to status and power.

It is said by some scholars that the study of social structure is comparable to the study of human anatomy and that of social organisation to that of physiology. But that is only a partial and not a complete analogy.

1. Sociology in India has grown through an encounter with the Western philosophical and scientific traditions.

2. Sociology in our country has also been deeply influenced by the numerous internal processes, which signify the passage of India, from a colony of the British to the status of an independent Democratic Republic.

3. As in Europe, the pioneers (or founder fathers) of Indian Sociology were also practitioners of other academic specialities.

4. The teaching of sociology started in the Department of Political Economy and Political Philosophy of the Calcutta University in 1908 when two papers in that subject were offered.

5. A full - fledged department of sociology was established in Calcutta University only in 1976. During the beginning years sociology courses were taught in the departments of economics, political science, human geography and anthropology in Calcutta University.

6. The pioneers of sociology in Calcutta (Now Kolkata) were philosopher - cum - administrator. Brajendra Nath Seal (1864-1938) economic historian Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1885-1949) anthropologist K.P Chattopadhyay (1893-1963) and human geographer Nirmal Kumar Bose (1901-1972).

7. The first department of sociology and civics was, however, established in the Bombay (now Mumbai) University, as part of the Bombay school of Economics in 1919, although a course in sociology was introduced in 1914 for the post graduate students of economics.

8. The separate department began functioning from 1919 in Bombay University which was headed by a New Zealander Patrick Geddes. He was a town planner and human geographer. He was later joined by G.S. Ghurye who started as an Indologist but later worked for his Ph. D. in Social Anthropology at Cambridg University.

9. However, some new information regarding growth of Sociology in India has also come to light. It is said that before Patric Geddes there was a freedom fighter named Shyamji Krishna Verma, who was a political revolutioary. As a freedom fighter he had a great interest in understanding and analysing Indian society, but was soon forced by the British authority to leave India.

10. During his exile in Europe, Shyamji Krishna Verma happened to meet Auguste Comte, the founder of sociology. Later he also had a chance to meet Herbert Spencer another founder of sociology in Europe. In consultation with Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, Shyamji Krishna Verma brought out a Journal, but it did not continue for long.

11. When in 1922, Professor Radha Kamal Mukherjee moved from Calcutta to Lucknow University to teach Economics, he introduced Sociology as one of the courses. He even hired Dr. D.N. Majumdar, a trained anthropologist, as lecturer in Primitive Economics. In this way, the Department of Economics in Lucknow University intorduced teachnig of both Sociology and social anthropology, and some important work also done by D. P. Mukherjee and A.K. Saran in this department.

12. As time passed Lucknow University created separate departments of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work. It is from these three centres - Culcutta, Bombay and Lucknow - that the first generation of sociologists were produced who then contributed both through teaching and research to the growth of Indian Sociology.

13. The most eminent names in the field of Sociology are those of M.N. Srinivas, K.M. Kapadia, Irawati Karve, D.N. Majumdar, S.C. Dube, A.R. Desai, etc.

(i) First of Auguste Comte (1798-1857) gave the discipline its name, calling it sociology or the science of human association.

(ii) Hobhouse explained how sociology studied the interaction of human minds.

(iii) Park and Burgess said sociology is the science of collective behaviour.

(iv) Emile Durkheim said that sociology is the study of collective representation. All our thinking, feeling and doing constitute social facts. Social fact, according to Emile Durkheim, is exterior to human mind and it put constraints or human behaviour. He says that all that which is a social fact constitutes the suggest matter of the study of sociology.

(v) Max weber : He has defined sociology differently. He said that human activities are oriented towards some action, which fulfils some objectives. Individuals in the society engage in actions for realization of given goals/interests.

Actions, according to Max Weber, constitute the subject matter of sociology. Since every social action is directed at some other person, sociology studies the interaction systems, which shape social institutions, like polity, the hospital and bureaucracy.

II. Scientific Nature of Sociology:

(i) Sociology is a scientific discipline. It is a science in the sense that involves objective and systematic methods of investigation and evaluation of social reality in the light of empirical evidence and interpretation.

(ii) However, it is also a fact that sociology cannot be directly modelled on the patterns of natural sciences, because human behaviour is different from the world of nature.

(iii) Among other differences the subject matter of natural science is relatively static and unchanging whereas human behaviour, the subject matter of sociology, is flexible and dynamic.

(iv) The founder fathers of sociology were concerned with the study of social order and change. They also desired to model the science of society or sociology as exact a discipline as natural sciences.

(v) No doubt sociology is a science because it fulfils the basic requirements of objective and rational knowledge of social reality.

(i) Areas of Studies : (a) Political Science studies political institutions such as state, government, political parties, executive, legislative and judicial institutions. Political Science also studies the behaviour of the people in power. In this way, we can say that the concept of power is very significant.

(b) Political Science can be defined as a study of Power. Power is the ability of a person or group to control and influence the behaviour of others despte their resistance.

(c) 'Authority' refers to power vested in given persons through institutions such as office, rank, elections, etc.

(d) Sociology also studies power in terms of its social contexts. In other words, the process which enable a man or a group to wield power and exercise dominance in society represent or constitute power - are the focal point of study in sociology.

(e) In a way we can say that the stratification of society in terms of power by different groups, castes, classes and tribal groups becomes the basis of sociological analysis.

(ii) The interface of Political Science and Sociology can be termed as political sociology. Political sociology, in fact, acts as a bridge between political science and sociology.

(iii) Sociology is devoted to the study of social aspects of society, whereas political science restricts itself mainly to the study of power as embodied in formal organisations.

(iv) Sociology emphasizes upon the inter relations between institutions such as state, government, political parties, whereas political science focuses its attention of the governmental processes.

(v) Nevertheless, political sociology has for long shared with political science, many of the common interests and a very similar style.

(vi) If we look at the relationship between political science and sociology in India, Caste has been studied as a resource/infrastructure to have access to power at the time of elections. How caste becomes an interest group and an instrument of mobilization ? This has brought sociology close to Political Science in particular.

II. Major Characteristics of Society : Despite the variations in our understanding of society, the fact remains that it is central concept in sociology.

Characterization of society can be provided in terms of certain traits.

Harry M. Johnson enlists the following characteristics : (i) Definite territory, (ii) Progency, (iii) Culture and, (iv) Independence

A brief description of each trait is given below :

1. Definite Territory : (a) A society is a territorial group. Some nomadic societies move about within a much larger territory than they occupy at any one time, but they regard the whole range as 'their' country.

(b) There are of course, territorial groups within societies, for instance, claus, neighbourhoods, political outfits, cities, countries, etc.

2. Progency : (a) Members form every society. They are recruited in different ways also. But in a large number, the members of a society come by means of human reproduction within the group of people.

(b) Several societies also obtain members by adoption, enslavement, conquest or immigration. But reproduction within the group itself remains a fundamental source of new members, in fact progency is the most important trait of society.

3. Culture : (a) A Society has a 'Comprehensive' culture in the sense that it is culturally self-sufficeint. For instance, a society can carry on trade with other societies, but the cultural patterns involved in the trade are a part of the culture of the society itself.

The means of payment and the forms of contracts are cultrually patterned.

(b) A comprehensive culture can have sub-cultures as well. For example we can

take the case of our own country. The Indian people have a comprehensive culture which gives them an identity. We have a common culture, a family system, a set of religious communities, linguistic entities, vilage communities, and above all history of shared pains and pleasures. The sub-cultures are, for instance, Rajasthan culture, Punjabi culture, Assami culture, etc.

(c) Bear in mind each sub-culture is characterised by its respective characteristics. For good mutual relations and harmony we should not try to disturb any sub-culture.

4. Independence : The fourth and last trait of society is independence. It refers that a further characteristic of a society is that it is a sub-group of any other. We may define 'Society' as such as permanent self contained and an integrated group.

(a) Animal Society : Among animals, society is to thrive over a time. Its members most behave in ways which will enable them (i) To meet their own physical needs in terms of their kind, and (ii) to integrate their activities (including whatever division of labour exists, whether it be simple or complex).

To meet above three minimum requirements for survival, animals depend largely upon institutional learning and communication.

(b) Human Society : (i) Turning to a human society, we recognise that for continued existence it also meets the same sort of basic conditions as required in an animal society.

(ii) Human cannot escape the effect of biological inheritance any more than the bees can.

(iii) Just as the biological inheritance of the bees determines their physical needs, behaviour - patterns, learning and communicating -capacities, likewise, human society is also tied to man's biological inheritance.

However it is this very biological inheritance which makes possible the enormous differences between human beings and animals.

(iv) Particularly to be stressed are man's infinitely greater learning, remembering and abstracting capacities - and his infinitely greater communicating capacities. Because of these capacities, we find man meeting his minimum social, survival needs, primarily through learned behaviour which does not come ready-made but it invented and transmitted through communitions.

(v) This meeting of the basic conditions of continued existence by means of learned

normative behaviour rather than primarily by hereditary mechanism constitutes the major differences between human and animal societies.

(vi) It follows that because of this dependence upon learned, normative behaviour, a new survival need emerges. The continuation of social system itself. This prerequistite for the continuance of a human socity must also be met through learned, normative behaviour. (vii) We see this (referred in previous paragraph) operating mainly in the society's patterned ways of socializing the young (enabling them to acquire their group's values and behaviour patterns) -Gemeinschaft (Community) and, Gesellschaft (Society).

A.

A.

A.

B.

A.

D.

A.

A.

B.

A.

A.

A.

A.

A.

A.

A.

B.

4. Introducting sociology, , alities and Inequalities among societies,

4. Introducting sociology,