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Understanding Social Institutions

Question
CBSEENSO11022763

Discuss how there social institutions interact with eachother. You can start the discussion from yourself as a senior school student. And move on to how you are shaped by different social institutions. Are you entirely controlled or can you also restist and redefine social institutions ?

Solution
Interaction of Social institutions with each other:

(i) Introduction : There are social institutions (in every society) that constrain and control, punish and reward. They could be ‘macro’ ones like the family marriage kinship. They could be micra ones likepolitics, economics,religion and education.

(ii) Meaning : In the broadest sense, an institution is something that works according to rules established or at least acknowledged by or law by custom. And whose regular and continuous operation cannot be understood without taking those rules into account.

(iii) Nature : (a) Social institutions impose constraints on individuals. They also provide him/ her with opportunities.

(b) An institution can also be viewed as an end in itself. Indeed people have viewed the family, religion, state or even education as an end in itself.

Forms of understanding of Social Institutions : These are different forms of understanding of social institutions.

(a) A functionalist view understands social institutions as a complex set of social norms, beliefs, values and role relationship that arise in response to the needs of society. Social institutions exist to satisfy social needs. Accordingly we find informal and formal social institutions in societies. Institutions such as family and religion are examples of informal social institutions while law and formal education are formal social institutions.

(b) A conflict view holds that all individuals are not placed equally in society. All social institutions whether familial, religions political, economic, legal or educational will operate in the interest of the dominant sections of society be it class, caste, tribe or gender.

(c) The dominant social section not only dominates political and economic institutions but also ensures that the ruling class ideas become the ruling ideas of a society. This is very different from the idea that there are general needs of a society.

Family as social institution : (i) No other social institution appears more universal and unchanging as we find family as a social intitution. According to the functionalists the family performs important tasks.

(ii) Which contribute to society's basic needs and helps perpetunate social order. The functionalist perspective argues that modern industrial societies function best if woman look after the family and men earn the family livelihood.

(iii) However, practically we find that the nuclear family is seen as the unit best equipped to handle the demands of industrial society by the functionalists. In such a family one adult can work outside the home while the second adult cares for the home and children.

(iv) In practical terms, this specialisation of roles within the nuclear family involves the husband adopting the ‘Instrumental’ role as bleadustmer and the wife assuming the ‘affective’, emotional role in domestic setting.This vision is questionable not just because it is gender unfeest but because empirical studies across cultures and history show that it is untrue. In modern society, in certain field of economy (such as the garment export), women form a large part of the labour force such a separation also suggests that men are necessarily the heads of households.

The Institution of Marriage :

(i) Historically marriage has been found to exist in a wide variety of forms in different societies. It has also been found to perform different functions. Indeed, the manner in which marriage partners are arranged reveal an astonishing variety of modes and customs.

(ii) We have two forms of marriage namely monogamy and polygamy Monogamy restricts the individual to one spouse at a time. Under this system, at any given time a man can have only one wife and a woman can have only one husband. Even were polygamy is permitted in actual practice, monogamy is more widely prevalent.

(iii) In some societies, the decisions regarding mate selection are made by parents/relatives. In some other societies individuals are relatively free to choose their own mates.

(iv) Forms of marriage based on rules governing eligibility/one ligibility of mates is classified as endogamy and exogamy.

(v) Endogamy requires an individual to marry within a culturally defined group of which he or she is already a member, as for example, caste. Exogamy, the revese of endogamy requires the individual to marry. Outside of his/her own group.

(vi) Endogany and exogamy are in reference to certain kinship units, such as class, caste and racial, ethical or religious groupings.

Kinship as a Social Institution : (i) Kinship ties are connections between individuals, established either through marriage or through the lines of descent that connect blood relatives (mothers, fathers, siblings, offspring, etc.)

Marriage can be defined as a socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between two adult individuals. When two people marry, they become kin to one another. The marriage bond also, however, connects together a wider range of people. Parents, brothers, sisters and other blood relatives become relatives of the partner through marriage.

(ii) The family of birth is called family of orientation and the family in which a person is matured is called the family of procretion.

(iii) The kin who are related through “blood” are called consanguinal kin while the kin who are related through marriage are called afflnes.

Politics as a Social Institutions: Political institutions are concerned with the distribution of power in society. Two concepst, which are critical to the understanding of political institutions are power and authority.

Power is the ability of individuals or groups to carry out their will even when opposed by others. An individual or group does not hold power in isolation, they hold it in relation to others.

This motion of power is fairly inclusive and extands from family elders assigning domestic duties to their children to principals enforcing discipline in school, from the general manager of a factory distributing work among the executives to political leaders regulating programmes of their parties. The principal has power to maintain discipline in school.

But how is power applied to achieve its aims ? Answer to this question could be found with reference to a related concept of ‘authority’. Power is exercised through authority. Authority is that former of power which is accepted as legitimate, that is, us right and just. It is institutional because it is based on legitimacy. People in general accept the power of these in authority as they consider their control to be fair and justified.