• A Group: people who interact with one another and who think of themselves as belonging together

• A society is the largest and most complex group that sociologists study (people who share a culture and a territory

→ The sociological principle is that the type of society we live in is the fundamental reason for why we become who we are. (our society is one which gives us our identity)

• Hunting and Gathering Societies: these societies depend on hunting animals and gathering plants

→ Usually, men hunt and women gather

→ Groups are small, consisting of 25-40 members

• Shaman: an individual thought to be able to influence spiritual forces and help obtain food. these groups are Nomadic: they move from one location to another

→ due to diseases, the children in these groups usually have a small percentage of survival

• They are also Egalitarian: believe that people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities

→ they do not have a ruler, as they do not need to work to store material possessions

• Pastoral and Horticultural Societies: some groups found out that they could tame and breed animals that they hunted, and others discovered that they could cultivate plants. Therefore, the hunting and gathering societies branches into two directions

1. Pastoral (or Herding) societies: societies are based on the pasturing of animals. They are groups that have a disproportionate subsistence emphasis on herding domesticated livestock.

2. Horticulture (or gardening) societies: societies which are based on the cultivation of plants by the use of hand tools. It is the science and art of producing edible fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and ornamental plants, improving and commercialising them.

→ The domestication of animals and plants is the first social revolution, as a dependable food supply allows groups to grow larger. The division of labour developed.

What is the Social Revolution?

• Social Revolution: way of passing from a socioeconomic formation that has become historically obsolete to a more progressive one

→ A radical qualitative change in the entire socioeconomic structure of society

→ As groups began possessing a surplus of objects, trade was stimulated

• Social inequality: because some families (or clans) acquired more goods than others

→ This led to wars, feuds, and slavery

→ Wealth became more concentrated as individuals passed their possessions down to their descendants. So did power, which led to individuals becoming chiefs

• Agricultural societies: invention of the plough about five or six thousand years ago, which changed social order. These methods were far more efficient than ancient tools

In these societies, people developed cities and “culture”:

1. Culture: activities such as philosophy, art, music, literature and architecture

2. Dawn of Civilisation: when fundamental inventions occurred, such as the wheel and language (writing and numbers).

→ When people gained control of the growing surplus of resources in agricultural societies, inequality became a fundamental feature of life in a society

• Industrial Societies: Began in Great Britain in 1756 when the steam engine was first used

• Industrial Society: when goods are produced by machines powered by fuels instead of the force of humans and animals.

→ Defined by Herbert Blumer

→ The steam engine was a push towards social inequality, workers had few legal rights, they could not unionise or have the right to safe working conditions

• Postindustrial (information) societies: one that has transitioned from an economy of goods to an economy of services and has increased the rate of innovation and invention of new technologies and explored their application

→ Its basic components is information

• Unlike factory workers, these individuals did not produce anything, rather, they transmit or apply information to provide services that others are willing to pay for

→ Example: teachers passing knowledge to students, lawyers selling their specialised understanding of law, doctors providing their expertise…

Biotech Societies: Is a New Type of Society Emerging?

• Biotech Society: is a society whose economy increasingly centres on applying and altering genetic structures (both plants and animals to produce food, medicine, and materials

→ examples: organ transplant, artificial insemination, genetic insemination, genetic screening/engineering, cloning

• Human cloning: is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human

• Artificial Human Cloning: reproduction of human cells and tissue