Carzon, Monique Angelica

C.
1. WHAT IS A SOCIETY?
A society is a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture. The term
society has been derived from the Latin word socious that means association or
companionship. Thus society means: A larger group of individuals, who are associative
of each other. A Society is a large grouping that shares the same territory and is subject
to the same political authority dominant cultural expectations.
Societies are systems of relationships between people which consist of members that
share some sense of common identity and be small (like a family) or large (like a nationstate),shared culture is important in holding a society together.

2. DISCUSS THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FEATURES OF SOCIETY.

a.) Horticultural
-Horticultural societies are societies in which people plant crops in small gardens for
subsistence rather than depending on available foods. This planting occurs without the
use of plows or more advanced technology. Horticultural societies are preindustrial
societies. Horticultural societies must be located in areas with conditions suitable for
growing crops reliably. Areas that are too cold or lack sufficient rainfall could not support
such societies. Horticultural societies made it possible to establish permanent
settlements.
-In a horticultural society, hand tools are used to tend crops.The first horticultural
societies sprang up about 10,00012,000 years ago in the most fertile areas of the
Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The tools they used were simple: sticks or hoe-like
instruments used to punch holes in the ground so that crops could be planted. With the
advent of horticultural machinery, people no longer had to depend on the gathering of
edible plantsthey could now grow their own food. They no longer had to leave an area
when the food supply was exhausted, as they could stay in one place until the soil was
depleted.

b.) Pastoral
-A pastoral society relies on the domestication and breeding of animals for food.Some
geographic regions, such as the desert regions of North Africa, cannot support crops, so
these societies learned how to domesticate and breed animals. The members of a
pastoral society must move only when the grazing land ceases to be usable. Many
pastoral societies still exist in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.
-Pastoral societies are able to produce a surplus of goods, which makes storing food for
future use a possibility. With storage comes the desire to develop settlements that

permit the society to remain in a single place for longer periods of time. And with
stability comes the trade of surplus goods between neighboring pastoral
communities.Pastoral societies allow certain of its members (those who are not
domesticating animals) to engage in nonsurvival activities. Traders, healers, spiritual
leaders, craftspeople, and people with other specialty professions appear.
c.) Urbanized
-Urban society is a modern civilization that is based on city life in metropolitan areas. It
is individualized, rather than integrated like folk society.
-A society that is typical of modern industrial civilization and heterogeneous in cultural
tradition, that emphasizes secular values, and that is individualized rather than
integrated contrasted with folk society.
Features of urban society
i.

The urban society is heterogeneous known for its diversity and complexity.

ii.

It is dominated by secondary relations.

iii.

Formal means of social control such as law, legislation, police, and court are
needed in addition to the informal means for regulating the behavior of the
people.

iv.

The urban society is mobile and open. It provides more chances for social
mobility. The status is achieved than ascribed.

v.

Occupations are more specialized. There is widespread division of labor and

specialization opportunities for pursuing occupations are numerous.

vi.

Family is said to be unstable. More than the family individual is given

importance. Joint families are comparatively less in number.

vii.

People are more class -conscious and progressive .They welcome changes. They
are exposed to the modern developments in the fields of science and technology.

viii.

Urban community is a complex multigroup society.

ix.

The urban community replaced consensus by dissensus.The social organization

is atomistic and illdefined.It is characterized by disorganization, mental illness
and anomie.

x.

Mass education is widespread in the city increasing democratization of the

organizations and institutions demand formal education.

d.) Rural
-Rural society, society in which there is a low ratio of inhabitants to open land and in
which the most important economic activities are the production of foodstuffs, fibres,
and raw materials. Such areas are difficult to define with greater precision, for, although
in nonindustrialized nations the transition from city to countryside is usually abrupt, it is
gradual in industrialized societies, making it difficult to pinpoint the boundaries of rural
places. A second, related problem is that governments do not use the same statistical
criteria for rural and urban populations; in Japan, for instance, any cluster of fewer than
30,000 people is considered rural, whereas in Albania a group of more than 400
inhabitants is regarded as an urban population.

Main Features Of Rural Society

Village is a communityThe village satisfies all their needs in the village. They have a sense of unity and a
feeling of amiability towards each other.
Village is a institutionThe development of villages is influenced considerably by the life of the village. In this
way village is a primary institution.
ReligiosityFaith in religion and universal power is found in the life of the villages.
The major occupation is agriculture which involves dependence on nature. Farmers
worship forces of nature. The life of the village is the joint family system.
Family has a strict control and administrative powers over the individual. All the
members of the family share the burden of the family occupation. In this way of working
together the villagers maintain sense of cooperation among themselves. In the life of
the villagers group feeling occupies an important place. They respect the judgment and
obey the orders of their elders and the panchayats.Society, caste and panchayat have
control over the individual.

e.) Highly-Urbanized
-are societies dominated by information, services, and high technology more than the
production of goods. Advanced industrial societies are now seeing a shift toward an
increase in service sectors over manufacturing and production. The U.S. is the first
country to have over half of its work force employed in service industries. Service

industries include government, research, education, health, sales, law, banking, and so
on. It is still too early to identify and understand all the ramifications this new kind of
society will have for social life. In fact, even the phrase "postindustrial" belies the fact
that we don't yet quite know what will follow industrial societies or the forms they will
take
The Industrial Revolution transformed Western societies in many unexpected ways. All
the machines and inventions for producing and transporting goods reduced the need for
human labor so much that the economy transformed again, from an industrial to a
postindustrial economy.
A postindustrial society, the type of society that has developed over the past few
decades, features an economy based on services and technology, not production. There
are three major characteristics of a postindustrial economy:
1.

Focus on ideas: Tangible goods no longer drive the economy.

2.

Need for higher education: Factory work does not require advanced training,
and the new focus on information and technology means that people must pursue
greater education.

3.

Shift in workplace from cities to homes: New communications technology

allows work to be performed from a variety of locations.

3. WHAT IS AN INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR? DISCUSS THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL

APPROACH
-Individual behavior means some concrete action by a person.
The behavior of an individual is influenced by various factors, some of the factors lie
within himself like his instincts, personality traits, internal feelings etc.. While some lie
outside him comprising the external environment of which he is part.
Factors influencing individual behavior

Ability

Perception

Motivation

Socio-cultural factors

Organizational factors

Personal factors

Environmental factors

A sociological approach to self and identity begins with the assumption that there is a
reciprocal
relationship between the self and society (Stryker, 1980). The self influences society
through the actions
of individuals thereby creating groups, organizations, networks, and institutions. And,
reciprocally,
society influences the self through its shared language and meanings that enable a
person to take the role
of the other, engage in social interaction, and reflect upon oneself as an object.