Types of Societies

What is a Society?

• Society: people living within defined territorial borders.

• a society meets its members’ needs for

• food

• shelter

• not all societies are the same, they have developed since prehistory, and develop to this day.

Hunting and Gathering

Hunting and Gathering

• People survive by hunting animals and gathering edible foods.

• Usually these people are nomadic

• they do not have permanent homes.

• Their societies tend to be small, less than 50 people.

• Members tend to share their possessions

Hunting and Gathering

• Generosity and hospitality are valued

• “Play nice, or you’re on your own.”

• There is usually no clear leader

• Genders have clearly defined roles:

• Men hunt

• women gather and watch the children

• This society has more leisure time than any other

Horticultural Society

• This society feeds its people by planting crops.

• The shift from H&G to Horticulture was known as the agricultural revolution.

• Planting crops can support many more people.

Horticultural Society

• This society gives rise to large families

• more family members means more people to help grow food

• The family is very important.

• Communities can grow up to two thousand people.

• People do not have to move as often.

• The work is very hard.

Pastoral Society

• Pastoral societies herd animals for food and materials.

• Those in a horticultural society may have domesticated animals, but they do not depend on them for food like pastoralists.

• They herd animals that can provide milk and meat.

• Cattle, Camels, Goats, Sheep

• They typically engage in trade with others to obtain grain to feed their herds.

Pastoral Society

• Men are responsible for the herds

• That puts them in charge of the food

• Women have a low status in these societies

• Surplus food means that inequality can occur

• some will have more than others

Pastoralist Society

• Because the food is taken care of by a few members of the community, more people are free to try other things like making non-food items

• pottery, clothing, weaponry

• These non-food items encourage trade.

• The Family unit is the primary guiding force in this society.

Agricultural Society

• These are like a combination between pastoralism and horticultural societies

• Agricultural societies use plows and animals in order to make farming more efficient.

• Plows destroy and bury weeds, while digging up nutrient-rich soils that are deeper under ground.

• Their crops can then grow more effectively.

• Agricultural Societies produce a lot of food!

Agricultural Societies

Agricultural Societies

• Tremendous amounts of food can be produced by relatively few people.

• Those not engaged in food production can study, and engage in more advanced work.

• politics

• medicine

• music or art

• Metal work

• More food means that cities can grow

• Government begins to take over as the guiding force in agricultural societies

Denpasar, Bali

• Societies like this exist today. Just because agriculture is their primary, does not mean that they do not build cities. This is Denpasar, Bali.

Industrial Society

• With the invention of machinery, people could make goods more efficiently.

• Machines need people to run them

• People can generally make more money in factories than in the field planting crops.

• When more people are working in factories in the city than in rural areas producing food, you have an Industrial Society.

Industrial Society

• Marked by People moving to cities to find work. This is called Urbanization.

• Work is performed by machines, people are there to run the machines. This is called Mechanization

• The Job skills needed in an industrialized society require more education.

• School becomes very important.

Industrialized Societies

• Two Sociologists were interested in Industrialized Societies. The first was Ferdinand Tönnies.

• Ferdinand Tönnies divided preindustrial and industrialized societies

• Gemeinschaft: communities

• Gesellschaft: society

Gemeinschaft

• German for Communities

• Characterized by:

• Tradition

• kinship

• intimate relationships

• close friendships

Gesellschaft

• German for Societies

• Characterized by:

• Weak Family ties

• competition

• less personal relationships

• The second sociologist was Emile Durkheim

• He divided societies by social solidarity

• the degree to which a society is unified

Social Solidarity

• Mechanical Solidarity

• if division of labor is simple (most people doing the same type of work) they develop mechanical solidarity

• They tend to think and act alike, and value conformity.

• They place the group above the individual, and emphasize tradition and family

Organic Solidarity

• In a more advanced or industrialized society, there are a variety of jobs that must be done.

• There are workers, police, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers.

• Everyone relies on the others, so there is a great deal of interdependence.

• Social Unity is achieved through complex, specialized statuses that make the society interdependent.

Postindustrial Society

• Postindustrial Society is where society makes a switch

• producing goods through manufacturing

Services and Information

Postindustrial Society

• Sociologist Daniel Bell Identified five major features:

Five Features of Post Industrial Society

• Most of Labor force is employed in services rather than manufacturing or agriculture

• White collar work replaces most blue collar work.

• Technical Knowledge is the key organizing feature

• Technological change is planned and assessed

• Reliance on computer modeling.