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WHAT IS SOCIETY |
Introduction
Sociology is the study of society. But the main question is, what is society? Many students think that society is just a group of people living together. But in Sociology, society has a different meaning. In this post, we will discuss the definition of society, evolution of society and types of society in simple language.
What is society?
According to Sociology society is not the group of people, it is the forms of interactions that takes place between two or more individuals it is known as society.
Impact of society on individual
According to Sociology an individual is nothing without a society because society teaches the individual to speak,how to behave,how to eat, how to work and even the knowledge system through which he is studying now is given by the society.
So we can say that in every aspect of life society is one step ahead of an individual.
‘‘An individual is responsible for his own actions but the actions are regulated by the society only. There can be many types of actions for example it can be bad it can be good like a person learns about thief and even learns about the robbery these things are thought to him by the society only because these actions are performed by the individuals living in the society.
So can we say that societies responsible for the action which an individual does?
It is true that societies are responsible for the actions which is performed by the individuals because the society has only created differences in the society like poor and rich.
For example poor gets very bad medical facilities where as the rich people they get very good medical facilities.
The rich can go to the private hospitals, but the poor have to go to the government hospital where the management are so poor that the person cannot survive there and eventually die.
So we can say that society responsible for the individuals actions,behaviour etc. but society teaches both good and bad and it is an individual responsibility to find difference btw those two and make a choice either good or bad.
For example the varna system-:
This system consists of four varnas
Brahman
Kshatriya
Vaishya
Shudras
Later the fifth type of system was introduced which was known as Avarna
These were the people who used to do the things like burial etc.
In this system also the society has created many indifferences we will show you how
According to this system only the brahmins can do the yagya, can teach the children, only be performed by brahmins only.
Kshatriya were asked to protect their Kingdom and to fight the enemy.
So this is also an indifference because you only think the king who is the supreme God of a Kingdom why can't he perform the rituals himself why the brahmins do so?
In sociological terms it is called as the division of labour.
Brahmins- They were supposed to guide the king in rituals.
Kings-the actual rituals were performed by the kings and where guided by the brahmins also known as Purohit.
There can also be many possible reasons
Brahmins supposed to learn the Vedas, mantras,yagya veda live in a disciplined life.
Brahmin were regarded as the most holy and disciplined person they did not eat meat and all they used to live a simple life.
Kings also used to do yagya and all like ashwamedha yagya the brahmins were only Purohit but not the performer.
Legitimacy-when the king was chosen he was supposed to have his Raj Tilak from the respected Purohit or Brahman.They supposed to perform that ritual because it was created by the people only. In the other sense we can say that it is a type of notice which the king delivers that he was the chosen king by the gods will.
Kings also performed the rituals like ashwamedha are the sacrifice of horse
So this is one type of indifference which was created by the society
We can also say that the Verna system also tells us about the occupation of the people
Brahmin-they will perform the rituals teach the children guide the king in the sense of astronomy and all
Kshatriya-They will protect the kingdom and fight the enemy.
Vaishya-this was the people who wear merchants, businessman,land owners etc.
Shudras- Farmers,artisans,shoe makers etc.
Can society survive without individual?
The simple answer is no society cannot survive without any individual.
Latest understand this concept to the help of an example
An individuals are the building blocks of a society if the building blocks are not baked properly or the building blocks are of irregular shapes and they are placed one by one to make a wall thee wall will eventually collapse this is the same thing which happens with the society.
We can take one more example
For example and individual makes a 5 story building which is very luxurious and his neighbour builds a two story building which is a very simple. Here inequality will exist among both the individuals because the inequality is determined by the hard work and choices of both the individuals. But this differences becomes inequality from the view of society because society values the rich man who is having a 5 story building and respects him more than the person who has made two story building. So the inequality is created by the individuals but is maintained by the society.
So we can say that the society does not create in equality but the building blocks which are the individuals are only there inequality creators.
You can take one more example
Student who is scoring very good marks in his exams has a very high expectation from the teacher then the student who is average or scoring the low marks.Teacher already knew that this student will do very good in the other exams also.But teacher had low expectations from the average and low scoring students. So what is the fundamental concept of scoring here so here comes the concept of inequality. Even the teacher will say that he regards all the students as well but in the terms of academic life we can say that the teacher is one of the supporter of inequality.
Is society needed in every process of life of an individual?
The simple answer is yes.
We can understand this topic with the help of an example.
If a new child is born his name his language his school even his choices is made by the parents only.
The question is, how did the parents decided that this choices are only have to be made?
They might have thought that why to send this children to school even what is the necessity to provide the children everything or we can say that what is even that necessary to bring this child in the world?
These are the questions which the people do not ask which come under the common sense?
In the sense of choices the parents could have provided the frock to the boy instead of giving him the boys dress because ultimately the dress is the school uniform only so this is the thing which comes under the gender roles.
So this choices is made by the society that the boys will only wear the boys dress and the girls will only when the girls uniform.
So these are the thing which are taught from generation to generation to every individual. That society only regulates the behaviour of an individual. Society thought both good and bad habits to the individuals but it is ultimately the choice of an individual to choose good over bad or bad over good. Individual is however restricted by the society also in some of the cases like he should not perform any burglary because the police can arrest him.
You can say that the individuals do have a free will what is regulated by the society. Today the parents who thought there children should be a doctor and engineer are not there own dreams but ultimately it is the dreams which are created by the society.
People do not see the doctor as a doctor instead they so doctor as a person earning a good amount of money.
And same as to the engineers
For example the people who are cracking the competitive exams they do so for the powers and the money not exactly to serve the people there are very less people who come into the service to serve the people but ultimately their goal is power and money.
Advantages of society
1. Society teaches an individual how to speak how to behave .
2. Society helps an individual to raise his voice against any bad practices.
3. Society teaches an individual what is good what is bad.
4. The choice of individual depends largely because the society teaches him the behaviour but the choice are of his own.
5. Society acts as a link between the government and an individual.
6. Example-: If smoking is performed by the peers of an individual he will also do the same because this is how the society shapes an individual.
You might be wondering that why that individual does that he had a choice of not to do that but the simple answer is if the large group living in the society runs after a particular thing the individual also run after that for example the large group of people living in a society the run after money power so the individual will also run after the money and power.
One example can be taken as the exam of UPSC?
There are many private jobs in India but why the large group of people they only run after the government jobs
The reason is power and money
The society has converted the mind set of the people that if you do the government job you will have the luxurious life but if you will do the private job you will have a simple life.
But this can very person to person a person doing private job can also do the side jobs like a teacher who is teaching in a private school can give tuitions to the students and earn his money.
So ultimately we cannot say that doing the government job is bad but if the people who is doing the private job they find more sources to earn from the job they are doing they can earn more than the person who is early in a government job.
We can take the example of the big businessman like Mukesh Ambani,Adani etc.
For your recognition Mukesh Ambani is a businessman he is not having government job but he is earning more than a person who is having a government job why because he has a business mind set
So we can ultimately say that society has shaped the mind of an individual that having the government job is much more precious than the people who are earning their living in private jobs.
Disadvantages of society
1. Society does maintains the inequality among people but the ultimate creator is the individuals only.
2. Individuals do have a free will but it is shaped by society.
3. If the society will not exist the cultures norms values practices will not transfer from one generation to another generation.
4. Society cannot exist without an individual.
5. The base of societies in individuals and among the individuals the basis co-operation without this the society will not exist.
For example the gender roles which is set by the society the women will look after the children and home where as the man will go outside and earn for his family.
But now things have changed very much women also go outside and earn for their family and men take care of home.
We will talk about individuals in the next blog-:
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