Sociology Chapter 3 - Human Societies

Social Groups

population of people who share a common culture; group members value cultural commonalities

Nation

social groups sharing a common culture that transcends multiple political borders

States

political societies with recognized borders and government institutions that provide social organizations

Phase 1 of Social Evolution

Hunting and gathering societies; primitive education and technology, generally small populations due to limited food supplies

Nomadic Lifestyles

• dependent on how the food moves

• everyone's role / division of labor revolved around providing food

Communal Lifestyle

everything is shared equally within the group

Horticultural Revolution

• domestication of plants →fields

• special tools for harvesting, cultivating, and storing crops

• key invention → steel plow

Pastoral Revolution

• domestication of animals

• breeding / raising animals for food and labor

Agricultural Revolution

• domestication of plants and animals created a stable and renewable food

• permanent settlements

• resulted in a food surplus

Agrarian Societies

• surplus in food led to less food jobs = diversified labor force

  • craftsmen, blacksmiths, merchants, soldiers

• development of cities

• wealth and status became no longer equal

• a stratified class system evolved

Cities

Concentrated populations that don’t produce food on their own; cultural and education centers for exchange of new ideas and technology

Commerce

economic exchange of goods and services

Industrial Revolution

• mechanization of machines beyond animal power

• key inventions → steam engines

• no longer needed animals for machinery

Effects of Industrial Revolution

• mass production

• transportation brought people closer

• industrialized economies

• urban population migration

Industrial Societies

• small mills → large factories

• employing thousands of people

• factory jobs caused urban migration

• attracted immigrants from foreign nationalities

Costs of the Industrial Revolution

• horrid / dangerous working conditions

• traditional family structures fractured

• increased social inequality gap

Class Conflicts

developed between wealthy and people who are oppressed by it

Info-tech Revolution

• technology no longer focused on manufacturing but rather on communication

• key invention → microchip processor

Sociological Effects of Info-tech Revolution

• commerce more efficient

• global communication

• advanced military

Post Industrial Societies

move away from manufacturing economy to a service economy

Service Economy

characterized by massive, multi-national corporations, not labor intensive factories

Trends of How Societies Evolve

• become less altruistic

• less emphasis on religion, or governmental religious institutions and theocratic governments

• education, science, and tech prioritized

Social Stratification

• a societies categorization of its people layered into a class structure

• can be based off of wealth, power, family, etc.

• wealth and power is not shared equally among classes

Functional Integration Theory

• as society develops, specific social roles are formed for all it’s members to fill

• most qualified members fill the most important roles

• all group members are content with their role

Conflict Theory

• empowered class obtained their power by exploiting the lower class

• elite will want to preserve their power

Karl Marx

• He observed economic disparity grow between wealthy classes and the underprivileged

• predicted conflict to be inevitable as class structure became less equal

Bourgeoisie

• empowered wealthy class

• aristocracy

• owned means of production

Proletariat

• exploited, un-united working class

• composes an overwhelming majority of society’s population

Marxist Class Conflict Theory

• Social change could only occur through military revolution

1. Proletariat must unite

2. Through revolution, overthrow Bourgeoisie

3. Redistribute the society’s wealth and resources

Communism

political and economic ideology advocating for a classless society by having the government control everything

Anarchy

a social state of chaos and disorder resulting from an absence of government law and/or political institutions

Herbert Spencer

• social darwinism

• he said that conflicts occur between people who want change and those who don’t

Emile Durkheim

• statistician

• created a formula of social behavior

• social integration - unified, patriots, measure of civic unity

• anomie - condition in a society where people become detached and break from the social norms and values

Max Weber

• conflict of religious indifferences

Status

a system of social ranking that defines a class structure

Status Symbol

• material and symbolic characteristics that identity individuals or groups to their social class

Ascribed Status

born into your status, by family

Achieved Status

self obtained status based upon ones own merits and efforts

Social Mobility

the degree to which an individual or group can move up or down social statuses

Static Mobility

little opportunity to move in a society

Fluid Mobility

ample opportunity to move up or down in a society

Cultural Mobility

status ranking of various ethnic groups and subcultures

Intergenerational Mobility

achieved works and efforts of an individual to advance the status of their future generations