ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIETY

• POPULATION

  ● Without a group of people, no society

  could be formed.

  ● Refers not to a group of people but to the

  system of social relationships
• Likeness - is the most important characteristic of society
• According to MACIVER: society means likeness

  ○ Without likeness, there could be

  no mutual recognition of

  “belonging together” (no society)
• Differences -

  according to MACIVER: “Primary likeness and

  secondary differences create the greatest

  of all institutions - division of labor.”

  • Complementary to social relationship
  • If people were alike in all aspects, society

  could not be formed there would be little

  reciprocity, and relationships become

  limite
• INTERDEPENDENCE

  ● It is visible in every aspect of present-day

  society

  ● ARISTOTLE: “Man is a social animal” - as

  a social animal he is dependent on others
• COOPERATION AND CONFLICT

  according to MACIVER: “Society is co-operation

  crossed by conflict”
• Cooperation and conflict

  • People can’t maintain a happy

  life without cooperation

  • Avoids mutual destructiveness
• AS A NETWORK OR WEB OF SOCIAL

  Relationships

  according to MACIVER, society is a Network of social relationship
• PERMANENT NATURE

  ● It is not a temporary organization of

  individuals.

  ● Society continues to exist even after the death of the individual members
• SOCIETY IS ABSTRACT

  • “Society in essence means a state or condition, a relationship and is, therefore, necessarily an abstraction.
  • Society consists of customs, traditions, folkways, mores, and culture which are also abstract
• SOCIETY IS DYNAMIC

  ● The very nature of society is dynamic and

  changeable

  ● No society is static, every society

  changes and changes continuously

  ● Old customs, traditions, folkways, mores,

  values, and institutions have changed and

  new customs and values take place.
• COMPREHENSIVE CULTURE

  ● Each society has its own culture which distinguishes it from others

  • it fulfills the necessities of social life and is culturally self-sufficient