Types of Societies

Pre-class societies, Asiatic societies, Ancient Societies, Feudal Societies, Capitalists Societies, Democratic Societies

What are the 6 (six) different types of societies according to economic and material system?

Simple Societies, Compound Societies, Doubly Compound Societies, Militant Societies, Industrial Societies, Post-Industrial Societies

What are the 6 (six) different types of societies according to evolutionary view?

Food Gathering Societies, Horticultural Societies, Pastoral Societies, Agricultural Societies, Industrial Societies, Post-Industrial Societies or Information Societies

What are the 6 (six) different types of societies according to people’s substinence?

Pre-class Societies

They are characterized by communal ownership of property and division of labor. Examples of these societies are earliest clans and tribes.

Asiatic Societies

The people are economically self-sufficient but their leaders are despotic and powerful.

Ancient Societies

These are characterized by private land ownership. The rich (those who haves) owned big tract of private properties while the poor (those who-have-nots) worked as laborers. Thus, wealth is limited to a few people.

Feudal Societies

The aristocrats (feudal lords) owned the wealth of the country due to their ownership of big tracts of lands. The peasants worked on the lands of the feudal lords with only few benefits received by them. However, these types of societies collapsed due to the rise of cities and metropolis as a result of the rise of trades and industries.

Capitalists Societies

These societies existed in societies where two classes of people appeared. The bourgeoise (property owners) who owned the capital and the means of production and the ploretariat (the laborers or workers) who are compelled to work for the capitalists or sell their small properties to the capitalists.

Democratic Societies

These societies are characterized by free enterprise where people are free to engage in any lawful business for profit or gain. People had to work on their own livelihood according to what the law mandates.

Simple Societies

These were predominantly small, nomadic and leadership is unstable. The people had no specialization of skills, thus they lived in a simple life.

Compound Societies

Two or more simple societies merged to form a new and bigger society. These societies tended to be predominantly settled agricultural societies and tended to be characterized by a division of four or five social classes.

Doubly Compound Societies

These are completely integrated, more definite in political and religious structure and more complex division of labor. Considerable progress in infrastructure and knowledge in arts had taken place.

Militant Societies

These are characterized by the following: (a) the existence of military organization and military rank; (b) individual lives and private possessions are at the disposal of the State; and (c) individual activities such as recreation, movements, satisfaction of biological needs, and production of goods are totally regulated by the State. In other words, individuals exist to serve the State.

Industrial Societies

These societies are characterized by the following: (a) people elect their representatives to protect their individual initiatives; (b) freedom of belief, religion, production of industrial goods exist; (c) disputes and grievances are settled through peaceful arbitration; and (d) business organizations appear where cooperative efforts between management and labor are based on contractual agreement. In other words, individual freedom, rights and initiatives are being protected.

Post-Industrial Societies

These are characterized by: (a) spread of computer machines and existence of information and communication; (b) inventions and discoveries in medicines, agriculture, business whether in physical and natural sciences emerged; and (c) pollution, diseases, calamities are prevalent as a result of the use of advanced technology.

Food Gathering Societies

(more than 16, 000 years ago) – The people survived from day to day through hunting larger animals, collecting shellfish and vegetable gathering. Their tools were made of stones, wood and bones.

Horticultural Societies

(12, 000 to 15, 000 years ago) - The people planted seeds as a means of production for subsistence.

Pastoral Societies

Most of the people are nomadic who follow their herds in quest of animals for food and clothing to satisfy their needs. they raised animals to provide milk, fur and blood for protein. These societies typically are relatively small, wandering communities organized along male-centered kinship groups.

Agricultural Societies

In the early agricultural societies, people used plow than hoe in food production. By the use of plow, it turns the topsoil deeper allowing for better aerating and fertilizing thus improving better yield when harvested. Irrigation farming was introduced which resulted to a larger yield of production that can even feed large number of people who did not know how to produce food by themselves.

Industrial Societies

These societies began in the 18th century during the Industrial Revolution and gained momentum by the turn of the 19thcentury. This period is characterized by the use of machines as means of food production. Mass production of guns, invention of steam locomotives and large production of steel, and well-coordinated labor force took place. Thus, the people began to be highly skilled and highly diversified in their occupation.

Post-Industrial Societies or Information Societies

Information and communication technology is the hallmark of these modern societies. These are characterized by the spread of computer technology, advances in this technology are made by highly-trained computer specialists who work to increase the capabilities of computers and internet. The use of modern technology gave rise to several technological problems such as pollution, lung illness, skin problems and other.