Religion

Aspects of Religion

• Religion: a social institution involving beliefs and practices based on recognizing the sacred.

• Profane: included as an ordinary element of everyday life.

• Sacred: set apart as extraordinary, inspiring awe and reverence.

• Ritual: formal, ceremonial behavior.

• Faith:  belief based on personal conviction rather than on scientific evidence.

• Totem: an object in the natural world collectively defined as sacred.

Function of Religion

• These are three major functions of religion in society:

  • Establishing social cohesion

  • Promoting social control

  • Providing meaning and purpose

Types of Groups

• Church: a type of organization that is well integrated into the larger society.

• Sect: a type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society.

• Cult: a religious organization that is largely outside a society’s cultural traditions.

Types of Worship

• Animism: the belief that elements of the natural world are conscious life forms that affect humanity.

• Monotheism: belief in a single divine power.

• Polytheism: belief in many gods.

Basic Terms

• Religiosity: the importance of religion in a person’s life.

• Secularization: the historical decline in the importance of supernatural and sacred.

• Civil Religion: a quasi-religious loyalty linking individuals in a basically secular society.

• Fundamentalism: a conservative religious doctrine that opposes intellectualism and worldly accommodation in favor of restoring traditional otherworldly religion.

Fundamentalist Ideas

• Take the word of sacred texts literally.

• Reject religious pluralism.

• Pursue the personal experience of God’s presence.

• Oppose secular humanism.

• Endorse conservative political goals.

Major World Religions

• Christianity

• Islam

• Judaism

• Hinduism

• Buddhism

• Confucianism

Population, Urbanization, & the Environment

Population Terminology

• Demography - the study of the human population.

• Demographic Transition Theory - A thesis that links population patterns to a society’s level of technological development.

• Fertility - The incidence of childbearing in a country’s population.

• Crude Birth Rate - The number of live births in a given year for every 1,000 people in a population.

• Mortality - The incidence of death in a country’s population.

• Crude Death Rate - The number of deaths in a given year for every 1,000 people in a population.

• Life Expectancy - The average lifespan of a country’s population.

• Sex Ratio - The number of males for every 100 females in a nation’s population.

• Age-Sex Pyramid - a graphic representation of the ages and sex of a population.
  

Migration

• Migration and immigration are major, controversial topics in our society.

• Migration - The movement of people into and out of a specific territory.

Urbanization Terminology

• Urbanization - The concentration of population into cities.

• Metropolis - A large city that socially and economically dominates an urban area.

• Suburbs - Urban areas beyond the political boundaries of a city.

• Megalopolis - A vast urban region containing a number of cities and their surrounding suburbs.

Gemeinschaft V. Gesellschaft

• Gemeinschaft - A type of social organization in which people are closely tied by kinship and tradition.

• Gesellschaft - A type of social organization in which people come together only on the basis of individual self-interest.

Environment Terminology

• Ecology - The study of the interaction of living organisms and the natural environment.

  • Urban Ecology - The study of the link between the physical and social dimensions of cities.

• Natural Environment - Earth’s surface and atmosphere, including living organisms, air, water, soil, and other resources necessary to sustain life.

• Ecosystem - A system comprised of the interaction of all living organisms and their natural environment.

• Environmental Deficit - Profound long-term harm to the natural environment caused by humanity’s focus on short-term material influence.

Issues on Humans and The Environment

• Environmental Sexism - Environmental patterns that place girls and women at a disadvantage and threaten their well-being.

• Environmental Racism - patterns of development that expose poor people, especially people of color, to environmental hazards.

• Ecologically Sustainable Culture - A way of life that meets the needs of the present generation without threatening the environmental legacy of future generations.

Health

• Health - a state of complete, physical, mental, and social well-being.

• Social Epidemiology - the study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society’s population.

• Medicine - the social institution that focuses on fighting disease and improving health.
  

Society’s Impact on Health

1. Cultural patterns define health.

2. Cultural standards of health change over time.

3. A society’s technology affects people’s health.

4. Social inequality affects people’s health.

Social Status Impacts on Health

• Age

• Class

• Gender

• Race

Other Social Impacts on Health

• Smoking cigarettes and vaping

• Eating Disorders - a physical and mental disorder that involves intense dieting or other unhealthy methods of weight control driven by the desire to be very thin.

• Obesity

• Opioid Epidemic

• Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

• Ethical Issues around Death

Holistic Care

• Holistic Medicine - an approach to healthcare that emphasizes the prevention of illness and takes into account a person’s entire physical and social environment.

• The foundations of holistic healthcare are:

  • Treat patients as people.

  • Encourage responsibility, not dependency.

  • Provide personal treatment.

Health Insurance

• Socialized Medicine - A medical care system in which the government owns and operates most medical facilities and employs most physicians.

• Direct-free System - A medical care system in which patients pay directly for the services of physicians and hospitals.

• Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) - organizations that provide comprehensive medical care to subscribers for a fixed fee.

Details of Obamacare (Affordable Healthcare Act)

• All families will pay an insurance tax

• All families are required to pay insurance

• People who do not buy health insurance face penalties

• Parents can use their healthcare insurance plan for their children - up to age 26

• Insurance companies cannot refuse coverage to any age due to preexisting conditions

Education

Terms

• Education: The social institution through which a society provides its members with important knowledge, involving basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values

• Schooling: formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers

Functions of Schooling

• Socialization

• Cultural Innovation

• Social Integration

• Social Placement

• Latent functions: childcare, occupying time, fostering romantic relationships, and networking

Social Conflict and Schooling

• School Tracking: assigning students to different types of educational programs

• Inequality among Schools

• Access to higher education

Problems in Schooling

• Discipline and Violence

• Student Passivity

• Bureaucracy

  • Rigid Uniformity

  • Numerical Ratings

  • Rigid Expectations

  • Specialization

  • Little Individual Responsibility

• Academic Standards

  • Functional Illiteracy: a lack of the reading and writing skills needed for everyday living

• Dropping Out

• Grade Inflation

Issues in the US Educational System

• School Choice

• Common Core

• Homeschooling

• Schooling people with disabilities

• Teacher shortage