Society

People who interact in a

defined territory and share

culture

Visions of SocietyFour diverse perspectives on what accounts

for social change and societal evolution

• Gerhard Lenski– Society and technology

• Karl Marx– Society in conflict

• Max Weber– The power of ideas shapes society

• Emile Durkheim– How traditional and modern societies

hang together

Gerhard Lenski

• Sociocultural evolution–The changes that occur as a society gains new technology

• Societies range from simple to the technologically complex.

• Societies simple in technology tend to resemble one another.

• More technologically complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity.

Sociocultural Evolution

• Technology shapes other cultural patterns. Simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives.

• The greater amount of technology a society has within its grasp, the faster cultural change will take place.

• High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of labor.

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies1. Hunting and Gathering Society

Simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation.

From the emergence of our specie until 12,000 years ago.

use of primitive weapons as their productive technology.

Nomadic is the type of settlement. Population is about 25-40 members. Their social organization is basically family centered

and specialization is limited to age and sex and there is little social inequality.

Examples are the Pygmies of central Africa, Bushmen of Southwestern Africa, Aborigines of Australia, Semai of Malaysia and Kaska Indians of Canada.

Hunter-gatherers

Pygmies deep in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo still live in traditional mud houses but their life is changing.They say they are often the victims of discrimination by the local Bantu people, as their hunter-gatherer existence is swapped for employment as cheap labour.This village of Bakoyo, in the northern Equateur province (some 800km up the Congo River from the capital Kinshasa) has about 100 inhabitants, belonging to seven families.

No CensusPygmies are believed to be the first inhabitants of the Congolese forests. Some estimates put their population at 30,000, others say it is more like 150,000. No-one knows the exact figures, as Pygmies have never taken part in a census.They cannot afford the hunting and fishing permits sometimes required by the local authority.But they still fish in a tributary of the Congo River and sell their catch.

Husband LeftMbayo Ekota (left) is in her thirties, although she doesn’t know her exact age. She was married when she was about 15 years old, and she has four children: two boys aged nine and 12; a three-year-old daughter and a new-born baby. Two other babies have died.Mbayo’s husband has left home to look for employment in the neighboring small town of Boteka, so her brother, who lives in the next door hut, helps out.

Palm Oil Jobs

The main employer of the region is Boteka’s palm oil factory owned by British company Unilever. Most of the 1,000 employees are Pygmies, who work under supervision of their Bantu colleagues.

SlavesMbayo’s day starts with a one-kilometre walk to fetch water at a nearby river.She then works to clear a field for 30 Congolese francs (7 US cents). Her children help out too, as there is not enough money to send them to school.For the same amount of work, other people would receive 11 cents.Mbayo says Pygmies are treated like "slaves".

Track Prey

These teenagers still use ancient techniques to go hunting. They use bows, arrows and machetes and are accompanied by a small dog to track the prey. Here, they caught a small forest antelope, but they do not get to taste the meat as it is sold for money.Nowadays, in this area, the Pygmies only get to eat fruits and manioc.

Hard Labor

Theophile Mpenza (right), who owns the field, says he uses Pygmy labour because it is cheap."Only Pygmies accept to do such hard work for this pay. The work is too difficult for any Bantu to accept."Because Pygmies have never taken part in any census they are not allowed to own land.

DanceWhen Mbayo gets back home at the end of the afternoon, she cooks food and washes her children.In the evening, families meet up to discuss the daily problems and sometimes dance to the sound of drums.

Poor Health

This Pygmy community is poor and has no access to education and health care.The infant mortality rate is over 30% in the villages of this area and most parents cannot buy medicine.Pictures and words: Arnaud Zajtman

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

2. Horticultural and Pastoral SocietyHorticulture–The technology using hand tools to raise cropsPastoralism–The technology that supports the domestication

of animals Developed over 12,000-7000 years ago with decreasing

numbers after 3000 BCE Factors that contributed to the first social revolution

• Population Growth• Environmental Changes• Change in technologyHorticulturalist-slash and burn method-hoe and

digging sticks-Fertile Crescent(Jordan to Iraq).Pastoralist are also called as herding societies.

In these societies the family and kinship group remain central. The family network grew larger and the concept of kin included dead ancestors.

Economic consequences of secure food supply: Food Surplus Permanent to semi-permanent specifically to the Horticultural

societies. Involving in non food producing activities Lead to the emergence of trade Accumulation of private properties Generates greater social inequality. Practice of marriage for economic interest.

Political governance remains simple and power is usually exercised by clan leaders whose influence is based on greater wealth. There are also greater presence of warfare.

Horticultural societies gave rise to ancestor worship while pastoral societies developed beliefs system based on Gods or God as a shepherd guiding is flock.

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

3. Agrarian Society

Agriculture-Technology of large-scale farming using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources.

Developed about 5,000 years ago as plows or other energy sources (animal source) allowed for large scale food production.

Direct Result of Food Productivity (Food Surplus) Dramatic increase in population. The vast majority of

population is composed of peasants, children working along side with adults in gender differentiated tasks.

Increase the number of communities as well as the development of the first cities (Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Greece and Rome).

The invention of money change the barter system. The notion of fair exchange during the part society was replaced by the notion of profits. Artisan class Merchant class Mark the degradation of the status of women.

A feudal system develops. New class of professional entertainers (gladiators)

Families loses its significance as a distinct, political system. Politically, it marks the beginning of the structured organization called “state”. Emergence of the governing class-decline of kinship ties Emergence of the military class. Gave rise to the first formal codes of law and the

corresponding legal occupation

Proprietary theory of the State” - Rulers of the agrarian societies do not manage their empire for the common good but as a piece of property they own and can do as they please.

If agrarian societies are so unequal and exploitative, why do the people put with affairs of the state?

4. Industrial SocietyIndustrialism-The technology of producing goods using

advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery Developed in Europe 250 years ago (1750’s in Great

Britain) as energy was harnessed to drive machinery Fuel-powered machinery turned agrarian production

to agribusiness. Emergence of the steel, automobile and textile

industries.Cities contain most of the population.

Reduces importance of traditional family. Distinct religious political, economic, educational arise.

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

On the political side, industrialization brought about 2 major change: Democracy-19th century is the century of revolutions

where monarchies get overthrown and replaced with democratic regimes and political rulers are ideally supposed to exercise power on behalf of and for the benefit of society as a whole

Nation-state -The very concept of “citizen” is born of industrialization . In the agrarian era, common people were “subjects.” The concept of citizen implies membership in a nation-state that guarantees certain rights (political, civil and social) and imposes certain duties (such as respect for the law, taxation, and possible draft).

Other causes: Protestant rejection of the Church’s authority and

hierarchy; Increase in literacy and standard of living which renders

people more politically active and demanding;

Urbanization also makes people more politically sophisticated, as opposed to rural areas where people tend to lack such sophistication and tend to follow traditional authorities;

The rise of the mass media (initially, in the form of cheap daily newspapers) which increased the general level of political awareness. Of course, the rise of the mass media also produced the first media mogul who could control how much and what kind of information people were exposed to.

Although religion remains a strong institution, several new secular ideologies emerge that challenge religious and supernatural worldviews:

Republicanism – the rejection of the hereditary character of monarchies and of the proprietary view of the state;

Capitalism – the promotion of market economy as outlines by Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776;

Socialism – in its democratic form, it promotes the reform of the economic system toward more equality; in its revolutionary form, promoted by Karl Marx, it promotes the overthrow of the capitalist system;

Nationalism – a view that shifts sources of loyalty and identity from the clan or the tribe to the larger nation; it is also referred to as patriotism;

Pragmatism – a philosophical view that is non-political and just prescribes that we do what works and reject what does not;

Hedonism – a view that emphasizes the pursuit of pleasure.

5. Postindustrial Society

Post industrialism-The technology that supports an information-based society

Economic production is no longer based on industrialism and the mass production of manufactured goods. Rather postindustrial societies are based on the production, storage, and use of information which is why the post-industrial economy is often also called the Information Age.

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

This decline in industrial economy is accompanied by the rise of a service economy, such as banking and financial services, law, education, and health care. In a service economy, people sell their knowledge and expertise to others.

• Computer technology becomes an essential component of practically every aspect of people’s lives and the social structure as a whole.

• Communication technologies, such as the World Wide Web, emails as well as satellite communications, have expanded dramatically, connecting people throughout the world and such technologies gave birth to the Global Village.

we now witness a global division of labor where different regions of the world engage in different forms of production (fruits from the Caribbean area, electronic manufacturing from Southeast Asia, etc…

Politically, we witness the decline of the nation-state and the rise of global institutions, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, and of a global civil society through multiple Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace.

Karl Marx Marx characterised human history in terms of the

way in which ownership of the means of production was the most important single variable involved in the characterisation of each distinct period (or epoch) in history. He identified five major epochs: Primitive communism - characteristic of early human

history where people held everything in common. The Ancient epoch (slave society) - societies based upon

slavery where the means of production was owned and controlled by an aristocratic elite.

Feudal society - where land was the most important means of production. This was owned / controlled by an aristocratic class, the majority of people belonging to a peasant class (who had few, if any, political rights).

Capitalist society - where technological development (machinery etc.) has allowed a bourgeois class to exploit factory forms of production for their private gain. The aristocracy (landowners) have either been marginalized or co-opted into the Bourgeoisie while the majority of people are wage-labourers (they own little or no capital). The main relations of production in this epoch are between employers and employees (those who own and use capital and those who exchange their labour power for a wage). An employer does not own his / her employee in this society and various political freedoms and equalities are able to develop. He condemned capitalism for producing alienation

Alienation from the act of workingAlienation from the products of workAlienation from other workersAlienation from human potential

Communist society - where the means of production are held "in common" for the benefit of everyone in society (the dictatorship of the Proletariat). In this society class conflict is finally resolved and this represents the "end of history" since no further form of society can ever develop...

Max Weber Weber took issue with the idea that economic

relationships should be considered the most significant relationships in any society. In this respect, Weber rejected what he saw as the "crude economic determinism" of many of the Marxist writers whose work followed-on from the initial, pioneering, ideas and theories of Karl Marx.

• For Weber, questions concerning how order and change developed and managed were crucial to his sociological understanding. Weber argued for a multi-causal analysis of social change, for example, whereby any number of important variables could, in certain combinations, help to promote and manage social change. His analysis of the development of Capitalism and the role in this development of the Protestant religion

• 2 of types of societyTraditional Society – people are guided by

tradition (sentiments and beliefs passed from generation to generation).

Rational Society – people are guided by rationality (deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient means to accomplish a particular goal.Examples are the industrial revolution and capitalismCapitalism is just a legacy of CalvinismCalvinist approached life in a highly disciplined and

rational way. Central to this religion is the idea of predestination.

Religious ethic vs. working ethic

• 7 characteristics of a rational societyDistinctive social institutionsLarge-scale organizationsSpecialized tasksPersonal disciplineAwareness of timeTechnical competenceImpersonality

Emile Durkheim• Social Solidarity - the feeling that we belong

to a common society (that we have certain basic values in common with people). Solidarity is based upon such things as common culture, socialisation, basic values and norms, etc.

• b. Collective Conscience - the "external expression" of the collective will of people living in a society. This represents the social forces that help bind people together (to integrate them into the collective behaviour that is society). It can be likened to the "will" of society.

• 2 types of society

Preindustrial Society – governed by mechanical SolidarityIt means social bonds, based on shared

morality that unites members of the preindustrial society.

It springs from likeness; that is tradition operates as the social cement that binds people together thus collective conscience is so strong that the community moves quickly to punish those who challenge conventional ways of life.

Moral consensus

Modern/Industrial Society – governed by organic solidarity It means social bonds based on specialization

that unite members of the industrial society It is now based on differences among people

who find their specialized pursuits make them rely on one another for many of their daily needs.

Functional interdependenceThe technological power and greater freedom

of modern society comes at the cost of decreasing morality and rising level of anomie.

Anomie-a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.