society

Introduction:

The society in which we live determines everything from the food we eat to the choices we make. The word society comes from the latin root socius, meaning “companion” or “being with others.” A society consists of people who share a territory, who interact with each other, and who share a culture. Some societies are, in fact, groups of people united by friendship or common interests. Our respective societies teach us how to behave, what to believe, and how we’ll be punished if we don’t follow the laws or customs in place.

Sociologists study the way people learn about their own society’s cultures and how they discover their place within those cultures. They also examine the ways in which people from differing cultures interact and sometimes clash—and how mutual understanding and respect might be reached.

Description:

Man form a society, because he cannot do without it. When some persons come in contact with others, and for protecting their interests indulge in natural give and take, they form a society. A group of persons alone cannot be called a society.

For a society it is necessary that its members feel a sense of unity and mutual relationship. When various persons of a community feel interested in each other and consider themselves bound with some feelings, they find themselves in a society. There is no limit to the dimension of a society. Within its size there may be only two persons or all the persons of the entire world. Within a big society there may be several small units and a certain person may be a member of several societies.

In the world society there are several nations, within a nation there are several provinces, within a province there are many cities, in a district several villages, in cities several mohallas, associations, committees and many other social units.A society has its own ideals. Every member considers his duty to safeguard them. The organization of a society is such that its members may look after the social interests along with protecting their own individual personalities.

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A person being a medical doctor, an engineer, a teacher or a musician can observe the social ideals in his particular Field of activity. The purpose of a society is quite comprehensive and permanent. It includes all the aspects of an individual’s life. Society is defined in various ways and the various definitions may be quite appropriate in their particular contexts. In this chapter by the term ‘society’ we shall understand a group of individuals of a particular geographical entity which shares some common experiences and follow a certain culture.

For the interest of all concerned this community recognizes some institutions and some local unity some consciousness is always present in it. For the fulfillment of some social purpose this group works as a unit.

Society is neither an agglomeration of men, women and children nor their coming together to achieve an object with an eye on their eventual disagreement. In sociology, the term society refers not to a group of people but to the complex pattern of the norms of interaction that arise among them.

It is according to Maclver and Page, “a system of usage and procedures, authority and mutual aid, of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behaviour and of liberties. Society involves the whole gamut of relations. It is structural and functional arrangement. From structural point of view it concerns role, status, norms, values, institutions.

Functionally, society may be defined as a complex of groups in reciprocal relationships interacting upon one another, enabling each person to achieve the fulfillment of life. Further society may be viewed dynamically. Society may be viewed as the process of stimulus response relationship which result in interaction, communication and consensus.

Nature of Society:

(1) Society is abstract:

Society may be visualised as the behaviour of human beings and the consequent problems of relationships and adjustments that arise. According to Renter, “Society is an abstract term that connotes the complex of interrelations that exist between and among the members of the group. In this way, society exists wherever there are good or bad, proper or improper relationships between human beings. These social relationships are not evident, they do not have any concrete from, hence society is abstract.

(2) Physical element in social relationship:

According to Maclver and Giddings and some other sociologists, social relationships invariably possess a psychical element, which takes the form of awareness of another’s presence, common objective or common interest etc.

There is neither any society nor any social relationship, without this realisation. Society exists only where social beings behave towards one another in a manner determined by recognition of each other. Only those relationships which are so determined are social. Social relationship differ from relations between other objects, only by virtue of this psychic element. They have in them an element of emotion and feeling, urges, sympathy and sentiments.