Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society.
A Society is a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture.
A Culture includes the group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms and artifacts.
Community : The term community is one of the most elusive and vague in sociology and is by now largely without specific meaning. At the minimum it refers to a collection of people in a geographical area. Three other elements may also be present in any usage.
(1) Communities may be thought of as collections of people with a particular social structure; there are, therefore, collections which are not communities. Such a notion often equates community with rural or pre-industrial society and may, in addition, treat urban or industrial society as positively destructive.
(2) A sense of belonging or community spirit.
(3) All the daily activities of a community, work and non work, take place within the geographical area, which is self contained.
Social Groups
A social group consists of two or more people who interact with one another and who recognize themselves as a distinct social unit. The definition is simple enough, but it has significant implications. Frequent interaction leads people to share values and beliefs. This similarity and the interaction cause them to identify with one another. Identification and attachment, in turn, stimulate more frequent and intense interaction. Each group maintains solidarity with all to other groups and other types of social systems.
Groups are among the most stable and enduring of social units. They are important both to their members and to the society at large. Through encouraging regular and predictable behavior, groups form the foundation upon which society rests. Thus, a family, a village, a political party a trade union is all social groups. These, it should be noted are different from social classes, status groups or crowds, which not only lack structure but whose members are less aware or even unaware of the existence of the group. These have been called quasi-groups or groupings. Nevertheless, the distinction between social groups and quasi-groups is fluid and variable since quasi-groups very often give rise to social groups, as for example, social classes give rise to political parties.
Primary Groups | Secondary Group
If all groups are important to their members and to society, some groups are more important than others. Early in the twentieth century, Charles H. Cooley gave the name, primary groups, to those groups that he said are characterized by intimate face-to-face association and those are fundamental in the development and continued adjustment of their members. He identified three basic primary groups, the family, the child’s play group, and the neighborhoods or community among adults.
A primary group is typically a small social group(small-scale society) whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships. These groups are marked by members’ concern for one another, in shared activities and culture. Examples include family, childhood friends, and highly influential social groups
Secondary groups, characterized by anonymous, impersonal, and instrumental relationships, have become much more numerous. People move frequently, often from one section of the country to another and they change from established relationships and promoting widespread loneliness.
Institutions
A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term “institution” very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many other things as institutions.
Sociologists often reserve the term “institution” to describe normative systems that operate in five basic areas of life, which may be designated as the primary institutions. (1)In determining Kinship; (2)in providing for the legitimate use of power; (3)in regulating the distribution of goods and services; ( (4)in transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next; and (5)in regulating our relation to the supernatural.
In shorthand form, or as concepts, these five basic institutions are called the family, government, economy, education and religion.
All social group posses Institution
Classification of Institutions
Institutions are classified into (i)Primary institutions (ii)Secondary institutions.
As societies grew in size and complexity, institutions became progressive and more differentiated. Accordingly, a large number of institutions are evolved to cater to the secondary needs of people. They may be called secondary institutions.
The secondary institutions of •Economics are property, trading, credit, banking etc. •Religion are church, temple, mosque, totem, taboo etc. •Education are school, college, university etc. •Government are interest groups, party system, democracy etc.
Sumner classification of institutions are :
•the crescive institutions
•the enacted institutions.
Those that evolved or developed naturally, unconsciously and even spontaneously are called by him cursive. Those institutions that are consciously and purposefully and in a planned way established are referred to by him as enacted.
Family
A family is the most primary institution and family and marriage are the most pervasive social institution. The sex relationship is the most primary and an essential foundation of relationship. In a family there is a sense of belongingness. The institution of family rests on the “consciousness of kind” Virtually everyone, in all societies, is brought up in a family which is the first nursery of socialisation and education.
There is a great variation in the family and marriage patterns across different cultures. The social web of family institution gets extended with its vast connection with other kin, whom one is permitted to marry.
And the family relationships are recognised within wider kinship groups. Sociologists and Anthropologists identify those families as nuclear families which consists of wife and husband living together in a household with their own or adopted offsprings. The extended family (Joint Family) may be a group of a few generations living within the same dwelling unit. It may include grand parents and great grand parents, bothers and their wives. sisters and their husbands, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews
A family in which a person is born is called the family of orientation and the family in which a person enters as an adult and within a new generation of children is brought up is called a family of procreation. There is another dimension of family.
When the bridegroom moves to live with bride’s parents, it is called matrilocal family. Contrary to this, when bride moves to live with bridegrooms family it is called patrilocal family.
A matrifocal family structure is one where mothers head families and fathers play a less important role in the home and in bringing up children. Opposite to this in patrifocal family is headed and centred on Father or Patriarch.
Monogamy : The family where an individual male marries ii single female is called a monogamous marriage. But polygamy is a type of marriage which allows a husband or wife to have more than one spouse. Polygamy is of two kinds-polygyny and polyandry.
In polygyny a man marries more than one women
polyandry in which a woman may have more than one husband.
Government
A Government is an institution entrusted with making and enforcing the rules of a society as well as with regulating relations with other societies. In order to be considered a government, a ruling body must be recognized as such by the people it purports to govern. A person or group that considers itself the leading body of a society has no power if the members of the society do not recognize the person or group as such.
Types of Governments
Most of the world’s governments fall into one of four categories: monarchy, democracy, authoritarianism, or totalitarianism.
Religion
Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns.
Religion is a social institution because it includes beliefs and practices that serve the needs of society. Religion is also an example of a cultural universal because it is found in all societies in one form or another.
Barkan and Greenwood 2003 says
Religious experience refers to the conviction or sensation that one is connected to “the divine.” This type of communion might be experienced when people are praying or meditating.
Religious beliefs are specific ideas that members of a particular faith hold to be true, such as that Bharmaji has create world Vishuji run the world etc., or believing in reincarnation. Another illustration of religious beliefs is that different religions adhere to certain stories of world creation.
Religious rituals are behaviours or practices that are either required or expected of the members of a particular group, such as Aarti, Abhishek etc.
Social norm
The social norm, or simply “norm,” is arguably the most important concept in sociology.
Sociologists believe that norms govern our lives by giving us implicit and explicit guidance on what to think and believe, how to behave, and how to interact with others.
We learn norms in a variety of settings and from various people, including our family, our teachers and peers at school, and members of the media. There are four key types of norms, with differing levels of scope and reach, significance and importance, and methods of enforcement. These norms are, in order of increasing significance, 1.Folkways 2.Mores 3.Taboos 4.Laws
1. Folkways
William Graham Sumner (1906) says Folkways are norms that stem from and organize casual interactions, and emerge out of repetition and routines. We engage in them to satisfy our daily needs, and they are most often unconscious in operation, though they are quite useful for the ordered functioning of society.
2 Mores
Mores are more strict than folkways, as they determine what is considered moral and ethical behavior; they structure the difference between right and wrong. People feel strongly about mores, and violating them typically results in disapproval or ostracizing. As such, mores exact a greater coercive force in shaping our values, beliefs, behavior, and interactions than do folkways.
Religious doctrines are an example of mores that govern social behavior.
3. Taboos
A taboo is a very strong negative norm; it is a prohibition of certain behavior that is so strict that violating it results in extreme disgust and even expulsion from the group or society. Often times the violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in that society. For instance, in some Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo because the pig is considered unclean. At the more extreme end, incest and cannibalism are both considered taboos in most places. (Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food.)
4. Laws
A law is a norm that is formally inscribed at the state or federal level and is enforced by police or other government agents. Laws exist to discourage behavior that would typically result in injury or harm to another person, including violations of property rights. Those who enforce laws have been given legal right by a government to control behavior for the good of society at large. When someone violates a law, a state authority will impose a sanction, which can be as light as a payable fine or as severe as imprisonment.
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