Types
of Societies
The society we live in did not spring up
overnight; human societies have evolved slowly over many millennia. However,
throughout history, technological developments have sometimes brought about
dramatic change that has propelled human society into its next age.
Hunting
and Gathering Societies
Hunting and gathering societies survive
by hunting game and gathering edible plants. Until about 12,000 years ago, all
societies were hunting and gathering societies.
There are five basic characteristics of
hunting and gathering societies:
1. The primary institution is the family, which
decides how food is to be shared and how children are to be socialized, and
which provides for the protection of its members.
2. They tend to be small, with fewer than fifty
members.
3. They tend to be nomadic, moving to new areas
when the current food supply in a given area has been exhausted.
4. Members display a high level of
interdependence.
5. Labor division is based on sex: men hunt, and
women gather.
The first
social revolution—the domestication of plants and animals—led to the birth
of the horticultural and pastoral societies.
Twilight of the Hunter-Gatherers
Hunting and gathering societies are slowly
disappearing, as the encroachment of civilization destroys the land they depend
on. The Pygmies in Africa are one of the few remaining such societies.
Horticultural
Societies
In a horticultural society,
hand tools are used to tend crops.The first horticultural societies
sprang up about 10,000–12,000 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 plants—they 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.
Pastoral
Societies
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.
Job Specialization
As techniques for raising crops and
domesticating and breeding animals improved, societies began to produce more
food than they needed. Societies also became larger and more permanently rooted
to one location. For the first time in human history, not everyone was engaged
in the gathering or production of food. As a result, job specialization
emerged. While some people farmed or raised animals, others produced crafts,
became involved in trade, or provided such goods as farming tools or clothing.
Agricultural
Societies
The invention of the plow during the
horticultural and pastoral societies is considered the second social revolution, and
it led to the establishment of agricultural societies approximately five
thousand to six thousand years ago. Members of an agricultural or agrarian society tend crops with an animal harnessed to
a plow. The use of animals to pull a plow eventually led to the
creation of cities and formed the basic structure of most modern
societies.
The development of agricultural societies
followed this general sequence:
·
Animals
are used to pull plows.
·
Larger
areas of land can then be cultivated.
·
As the
soil is aerated during plowing, it yields more crops for longer periods of
time.
·
Productivity
increases, and as long as there is plenty of food, people do not have to move.
·
Towns
form, and then cities.
·
As crop
yields are high, it is no longer necessary for every member of the society to
engage in some form of farming, so some people begin developing other skills.
Job specialization increases.
·
Fewer
people are directly involved with the production of food, and the economy
becomes more complex.
Around this same time, the wheel was
invented, along with writing, numbers, and what we would today call the arts.
However, the invention of the steam engine—the third social revolution—was
what took humans from agricultural to industrial society.
Roots of Gender Inequality
As people moved toward domesticating animals
and using them to do work, males tended to dominate more of the workforce,
since physical strength was necessary to control animals. By the time societies
became agricultural, males all but dominated the production of food. Since
then, more prestige has been accorded to traditionally male jobs than to
traditionally female jobs, and hence, to males more than to females.
Industrial
Societies
An industrial
society uses advanced sources
of energy, rather than humans and animals, to run large machinery. Industrialization began in the
mid-1700s, when the steam engine was first used in Great Britain as a means of
running other machines. By the twentieth century, industrialized societies
had changed dramatically:
·
People
and goods traversed much longer distances because of innovations in
transportation, such as the train and the steamship.
·
Rural
areas lost population because more and more people were engaged in factory work
and had to move to the cities.
·
Fewer
people were needed in agriculture, and societies became urbanized, which means that the
majority of the population lived within commuting distance of a major city.
·
Suburbs
grew up around cities to provide city-dwellers with alternative places to live.
The twentieth century also saw the invention
of the automobile and the harnessing of electricity, leading to faster and
easier transportation, better food storage, mass communication, and much more.
Occupational specialization became even more pronounced, and a person’s
vocation became more of an identifier than his or her family ties, as was
common in nonindustrial societies.
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Sociologist Ferdinand
Tönnies divided societies
into two large categories:Gemeinschaft societies
and Gesellschaft societies. Gemeinschaft societies consist primarily of
villages in which everyone knows everyone else. Relationships are lifelong and
based on kinship. A Gesellschaft society is modernized. People have
little in common with one another, and relationships are short term and based
on self-interest, with little concern for the well-being of others.
Postindustrial
Societies
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.
Mass
Society
As industrialized societies grow and develop,
they become increasingly different from their less industrialized counterparts.
As they become larger, they evolve into large, impersonal mass societies. In a mass society, individual
achievement is valued over kinship ties, and people often feel isolated from
one another. Personal incomes are generally high, and there is great diversity
among people.
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