Society

The term society (from the Latin societas) refers to a polysemic concept that designates a particular type of grouping of individuals that occurs both among humans (human society or human societies, in the plural) as between some animals (animal societies).

In both cases, the relationship established between individuals goes beyond the method of genetic transmission and implies a certain degree of communication and cooperation, which at a higher level (when the persistence and generational transmission of knowledge and behaviors by the learning) can be described as "culture".

Societies build patterns of behavior by considering certain actions or speeches as acceptable or unacceptable. These patterns of behavior within a given society are known as social norms. Societies and their norms undergo gradual and perpetual changes.

To the extent that it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that are otherwise difficult individually. In this way, both individual and societal (common) benefits can be distinguished or, in many cases, an overlap can be found. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a larger, dominant society. This is sometimes known as a subculture, a term that is widely used within criminology and also applied to distinctive subsections of a larger society.

More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society can be illustrated as an economic, social, industrial, or cultural infrastructure made up of, but distinct from, a diverse collection of individuals. In this sense, society can mean the objective relationships that people have with the material world and with other people, rather than "other people" beyond the individual and her familiar social environment.

Etymology and usage

Half section of the version of the South Century Song dynastyXII of The Night Revels of Han Xizai original of Gu Hongzhong in the centuryX. The painting portrays servants, musicians, monks, children, guests and hosts, all in a single social environment. It serves as an in-depth look at the Chinese social structure of the time.

The term "society" comes from 12th century French société (meaning 'company') This in turn came from the Latin word societas, which in turn derived from the noun socius ("comrade, friend, ally"; adjectival form socialis) used to describe a bond or interaction between parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can refer to the whole of humanity (also: "society in general", "society as a whole", etc.), although those who are unfriendly or uncivil with the rest of society in this sense they can be considered "antisocial". In the 1630s it was used to refer to "people united by neighborliness and acquaintance, aware that they live together in an orderly community". -variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">XVIII the Scottish economist, Adam Smith taught that a society "can subsist between different men, as between different merchants, from the sense of their utility without any love or affection for each other, if only they refrain from harming each other. &#3. 4;

Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals delineated by the limits of functional interdependence, possibly encompassing characteristics such as national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language, or hierarchical structure.

Conceptions

Society, in general, deals with the fact that an individual has rather limited means as an "autonomous unit." The great apes have always been more (Bonobo, Homo, Pan) or less (Gorilla, I put) social animals, so Robinson Crusoe-like situations are fictions or isolated cases to the ubiquity of social context for humans, which fall between presociality and eusociality on the spectrum of ethology animal.

Cultural relativism as a pervasive approach or ethic has largely replaced notions of "primitive," better/worse, or "progress" in relation to cultures (including their material culture/technology and social organization).

According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, a critical novelty in society, in contrast to humanity's closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed by males, which would presumably be absent in our older relatives. close relatives for whom paternity is not generally determinable.

In Political Science

Societies can also be structured politically. In order of greatest size and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. These structures can have different degrees of political power, depending on the cultural, geographical and historical environment that these societies must face. Thus, a more isolated society, with the same technological and cultural level as other societies, is more likely to survive than one that is close to others that may invade its resources. A society that is unable to offer an effective response to other societies with which it competes often becomes subsumed in the culture of the competing society.

In sociology

The social group allows its members to benefit in ways that otherwise would not be possible individually. In this way, individual and social objectives (common) can be distinguished and considered. Ethology of the ant (formicidae).

Sociologist Peter L. Berger defines society as "...a human product, and nothing more than a human product, which nevertheless continually acts on its producers". According to him, society was created by humans, but this creation turns and creates or shapes humans every day.

Social Ethology Canis lupus

Sociologist Gerhard Lenski differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy: (1) hunter-gatherers, (2) simple agricultural, (3) advanced agricultural, (4) industrial, and (5) special (for example, fishing or maritime societies) This system is similar to that previously developed by anthropologists Morton H. Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, who have developed a system of classifying societies of all human cultures based on the evolution of social inequality and the role of the State. This classification system contains four categories:

• Hunter-gatherers bands (categorization of duties and responsibilities). Then came the agricultural society.
• Tribal societies in which there are some limited cases of rank and social prestige.
• Stratified structures led by caciques.
• Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized and institutional governments.

In addition to this there are:

• Humanity, the human gender, on which all elements of society rest, including the beliefs of society.
• Virtual society, an online identity-based society, which evolves into the era of information.

Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more complex forms of organization and control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect on models of community. Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal food reserves to become farming villages. Villages became towns and cities. Cities became city-states and nation-states.

Many societies distribute generosity at the behest of some individual or a larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all known cultures; normally, the generous individual or group acquires prestige. Conversely, members of a society may also reject or scapegoat members of the society who violate their norms. Mechanisms such as gift-giving, joking relationships, and the search for "scapegoats," which can be observed in various types of human groupings, tend to become institutionalized within a society. Social evolution as a phenomenon carries certain elements that can be detrimental to the population it serves.

Some societies grant status to an individual or group of people when that individual or group performs an admired or desired action. This type of recognition is given in the form of a name, title, dress code, or monetary reward. In many societies, the status of adult male or female is subject to such a ritual or process. Altruistic action in the interest of the larger group is observed in virtually all societies. The phenomenon of community action, rejection, scapegoating, generosity, risk sharing, and reward is common to many forms of society.

Types

Societies are social groups differentiated by subsistence strategies, the ways humans use technology to meet their needs. Although humans have established many types of societies throughout history, anthropologists tend to classify different societies based on the degree to which different groups in a society have unequal access to advantages such as resources, prestige, or power.. Virtually all societies have developed some degree of inequality among their inhabitants through the process of social stratification, the division of members of a society into levels of unequal wealth, prestige, or power. Sociologists classify societies into three broad categories: pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial.

Pre-industrial

In a pre-industrial society, food production, which is carried out through the use of human and animal labor, is the main economic activity. These societies can be subdivided according to their technological level and their method of food production. These subdivisions are hunting and gathering, herding, horticulture, agriculture, and feudalism.

Hunting and Gathering

Pueblo San in Botswana lighting a fire by hand

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The main form of food production in these societies is the daily gathering of wild plants and the hunting of wild animals. Hunter-gatherers are constantly on the move in search of food. Therefore, they do not build permanent villages or create a wide variety of artifacts, and usually only form small groups such as bands and tribes. However, some hunter-gatherer societies in resource-rich areas (such as the Tlingit peoples) lived in larger groups and formed complex hierarchical social structures, such as chiefdoms. The need for mobility also limits the size of these societies. They are usually made up of less than 60 people and rarely exceed one hundred. The statuses within the tribe are relatively equal and decisions are made by general agreement. The ties that unite the tribe are more complex than those of the bands. Leadership is personal - charismatic - and is only used for special purposes in tribal society. There are no political positions that contain real power, and a boss is simply a person of influence, a kind of adviser; therefore, tribal consolidations for collective action are non-governmental. The family is the main social unit, and most of its members are related by birth or marriage. This type of organization requires the family to carry out most of the social functions, including production and education.

Pastoral

Grazing is a slightly more efficient form of subsistence. Instead of foraging for food on a daily basis, members of a pastoral society rely on domesticated herd animals for their dietary needs. Shepherds lead a nomadic life, moving their herds from one pasture to another. Since their food supply is much more reliable, pastoral societies can support larger populations. Since there is a surplus of food, fewer people are needed to produce it. As a result, the division of labor (the specialization of individuals or groups in carrying out specific economic activities) becomes more complex. For example, some people become craftsmen, producing tools, weapons, and jewelry, among other valuable items. The production of goods encourages trade. This trade helps create inequality, as some families acquire more goods than others. These families often gain power through their greater wealth. The transmission of property from one generation to the next helps to centralize wealth and power. Over time, hereditary chiefdoms arose, the typical form of government in pastoral societies.

Horticulture

Fruits and vegetables grown in orchards that have been cleared of jungle or forest provide the main source of food in a horticultural society. These societies have a level of technology and complexity similar to that of pastoralist societies. Some horticultural groups use the slash-and-burn method of cultivating. Wild vegetation is cut and burned, and the ashes are used as compost. Gardeners use labor and simple tools to cultivate the land for one or more seasons. When the land becomes barren, horticulturists clear a new plot and let the old one return to its natural state. They may return to the original ground several years later and start the process all over again. By rotating their plots, growers can stay in one area for quite a long period of time. This allows them to build semi-permanent or permanent villages. The size of a village's population depends on the amount of land available for agriculture; thus, the villages can have from 30 people up to 2000.

As in pastoralist societies, surplus food gives rise to a more complex division of labor. Specialized roles in horticultural societies include artisans, shamans (religious leaders), and merchants. This role specialization allows people to create a wide variety of artifacts. As in pastoral societies, food surpluses can give rise to inequalities of wealth and power within horticultural political systems, developed due to the settled nature of horticultural life.

Agrarian

Blowed with oxen in the centuryXV.

Agrarian societies use agricultural technological advances to farm over a large area. Sociologists use the term agricultural revolution to refer to the technological changes that occurred as early as 8,500 years ago that led to farming and raising farm animals. Increased food supplies then led to larger populations than in previous communities. This meant a greater surplus, giving rise to cities that became centers of commerce that supported various rulers, educators, artisans, merchants, and religious leaders who did not have to worry about locating food.

In agrarian societies, higher degrees of social stratification appeared. For example, women used to have a higher social status because they shared work more equally with men. In hunting and gathering societies, women even gathered more food than men. However, as food stores improved and women assumed a less important role in providing food for the family, they became increasingly subservient to men. As villages and towns expanded into neighboring areas, conflicts with other communities were inevitable. Farmers provided warriors with food in exchange to protect themselves from encroaching enemies. A system of rulers with high social status also appeared. This nobility organized the warriors to protect society from invasions. In this way, the nobility managed to extract assets from the "minor" of the society.

A clergyman, knight and peasant in a medieval miniature; an example of feudal societies.

Feudal

Feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land. Unlike today's farmers, the vassals of feudalism were obliged to cultivate their lord's land. In exchange for military protection, the lords exploited the peasants to provide food, crops, crafts, homage, and other services to the landlord. The estate system of the kingdom of feudalism was often multigenerational; peasant families might have farmed their lord's land for generations.

Industrial

Between the 15th and XVI a new economic system emerged that began to replace feudalism. Capitalism is characterized by open competition in a free market, in which the means of production are privately owned. European exploration of the Americas served as the impetus for the development of capitalism. The introduction of foreign metals, silks, and spices stimulated great commercial activity in European societies.

Industrial societies rely heavily on fuel-powered machines for the production of goods. This produced further spectacular increases in efficiency. The increased efficiency of production of the industrial revolution produced an even larger surplus than before. Now the surplus was not only agricultural products, but also manufactured products. This increased surplus caused all of the previously discussed changes in the domestication revolution to be even more pronounced.

Once again, the population skyrockets. Increased productivity made more goods available to everyone. However, inequality became even greater than before. The breakdown of feudal societies based on agriculture caused many people to leave the land and seek employment in the cities. This created a large surplus of labor and provided the capitalists with many workers who could be hired for extremely low wages.

Post-industrial

Post-industrial societies are societies dominated by information, services and high technology rather than the production of goods. In advanced industrial societies there is a shift towards an increase in service sectors over manufacturing and production. The United States is the first country to have more than half of its active population employed in the service industries. Service industries include government, research, education, healthcare, sales, law, and banking.

Animal Societies

When studying animal societies, ethology is concerned with the study of behavior, instinct and relationships with the environment, as well as the discovery of the patterns that guide the innate or learned activity of the different social animal species.

Among the types of animal societies, the highest level of social organization is eusociality, present in some groups of insects, such as ants, termites and some species of bees; and in vertebrates such as the naked mole-rat.

The term society is used interchangeably to refer to communities of animals (ants, bees, moles, primates, etc.) and of human beings. The essential difference between animal and human societies is, beyond its complexity, the presence of culture as a distinctive feature of all human society. However, the study of the behavior of certain chimpanzee communities has made it possible to identify the transmission and even the innovation of traits that have been defined as "cultural".

Human Society

Although often used as synonyms, culture and society are different concepts: society refers to the grouping of people, while culture refers to all their production and activity transmitted from generation to generation throughout history, including customs, languages, beliefs and religions, art, science, food, relationships, etc.

The cultural diversity that exists between the different societies of the world is due to the cultural differentiation that humanity has experienced throughout history, mainly due to territorial factors, that is, the isolation and interaction between different societies.

By definition, human societies are population entities. Within the population there is a relationship between the subjects and the environment; both carry out activities in common and this is what gives them their own identity. Otherwise, every society can be understood as a chain of knowledge between various spheres: economic, political, cultural, sports and entertainment.

The inhabitants, the environment and the projects or social practices are part of a culture, but there are other aspects that help to broaden the concept of society and the most interesting and that has made communication develop constantly is the new era of information, that is, the technology achieved in the means of production, from a primitive society with simple specialized hunting technology —very few artifacts— to a modern society with complex technology —very many artifacts— practically in all specialties. These states of civilization will include the style of life and its level of quality which, likewise, will be simple and of comparatively low quality in primitive society, and complex or sophisticated of comparatively high quality in industrial society.

Also, it is important to highlight that society is made up of cultural industries. That is to say, the industry is a fundamental term to improve the process of socio-cultural formation of any territory, this concept arose from the Industrial Revolution, and from this it is understood that it was the stage of production that was carried out in society. to the extent that the human being produced more knowledge and exploited it in the community.

In society, the subject can analyze, interpret and understand everything that surrounds him through the symbolic representations that exist in the community. That is, the symbols are essential for the social and cultural analysis of the space in which the human being is found and from the symbolic explanation of the objects a global perception of the world can be acquired.

Finally, the mass society (society) is made up of various cultures and each one has its own foundations and ideologies that make the human being unique and different from the others.

Organization of Humane Society

Human society was formed with the very appearance of the human being. In prehistory, society was organized more horizontally. Little by little hierarchies were established, where the boss used to be the wisest or the strongest. It was not until Greek times when this absolutist trend of power changed, giving way to democracy, as a social system where citizens, leaving outside the children, the women and the slaves, they could choose and be chosen to occupy the power. But it was not until 1789 with the French Revolution when the trend of society changed radically, achieving a boost to democracy in European countries and later throughout the world.

Evolution of societies

The sociologist Gerhard Lenski differentiates the organization of societies based on their level of technology, communication and economy:

1. Hunting and gathering.
2. Simple farming.
3. Advanced agriculture.
4. Industrial.
5. Special (e.g., fishing or maritime societies).

This system is similar to an earlier one developed by anthropologists Morton H. Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, who have established a classification system for societies in all human cultures, based in the evolution of social inequality and the role of the State. This classification system includes four categories:

• Hunter-gatherer bands (small groups below 100 individuals, categorization of duties and responsibilities).
• Tribal societies (a few hundred, with some cases of social rank and prestige, include several communities bound by blood ties).
• Stratified structures or cacyclazgos (approximately between 5,000 and 0,000 individuals, greater difference in rank, led by tribal chiefs, warlords or clan chiefs).
• Civilizations (complex and organized social hierarchies, institutional governments).

Additionally:

• Humanity, upon which all elements of society rest, including their beliefs.
• Virtual society, based on its online identity, is evolving in the era of information.

Over time, some cultures have evolved toward more complex forms of organization and control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect on community patterns. The hunter-gatherer tribes settled around the food reserves of each season and came to establish agrarian villages. Later, the villages grew into towns and cities. Cities became city-states and nation-states.

"Evolutionary psychology argues that many of our current social and psychological characteristics were shaped during the long pre-agricultural era. Our brain and mind are adapted to a life of hunting and gathering. Our eating habits, our conflicts, and our sexuality are the result of the way our hunter-gatherer mind interacts with our current post-industrial environment, with its megacities, airplanes, telephones, and computers. The new environment provides us with more material resources and a longer life, but sometimes it makes us feel depressed and pressured. To understand why we need to better understand the hunter-gatherer world that shaped us, the world we subconsciously still inhabit."

Types of companies

Legal and economic partnerships

In the legal and economic field, a company is one by which two or more people agree to make contributions (kind, money or industry), with the aim of proportionally sharing the profits or bearing in the same proportion the losses. In this case, the group of people to carry out private activities, generally commercial, is called a company. Its members are called partners.

The broad concept of society, as opposed to the traditional concept, understands that this sharing of goods, this structure created between two or more people, may not be essentially intended to obtain a profit, this spirit not being an essential element of the aforementioned contract, since there are "Company" in economic concepts is a synonym of company or corporation, and especially in legal-economic contexts, of figure or legal person:

• Commercial society.
• Company anonymous.
• Limited company.
• Cooperative society.
• Society in Comandita.

See also:

• Civil Society (Right).
• Association (Right) (not to be confused with the right of association, one of the political rights).

Scientific societies

A scientific society is an association of scholars from a branch of knowledge or science in general, which allows them to meet, present the results of their research, compare them with those of their colleagues, specialists in the same domains of knowledge, usually in order to disseminate their work through a specialized scientific publication.