L6

• Mehmet Murat ildan: 'When animals behave like humans or when humans behave like animals, don't be surprised because in every animal there is a human and in every human there is an animal!'
• Society is not limited to human society - there are animal societies
• Basic elements of society

  • Likeness or Similarity
  • Difference
  • Interdependence
  • Cooperation
  • Organization
  • Social Control
• Likeness or Similarity


  An essential pre-requisite of society. Society means likeness. It exists among the like-beings, like-bodied and like-minded. It provides comfort and causes various institutions and associations to exist and continue.
• Difference


  Society also involves differences. Differences within the society are not excluded. Mere similarity or likeness will bring human society very close to animal society. The essence of society depends as much on difference as on likenesses.
• Interdependence


  It is not possible for individuals in a society to satisfy its needs in isolation. The individual needs society because its nature compels them to live in it. The individual cannot cut adrift from society.
• Cooperation


  Society implies cooperation. Cooperation may be direct or indirect and it plays a vital role in every society. Society cannot exist without cooperation. No society can be healthy and prosperous without cooperation.
• Organization


  Society has its own individual and unique organization. It is the division of some kind or other which marks this organization. Society always requires an organization for its formation.
• Social Control


  Society has its own ways and means of controlling the behavior of its members. Cooperation exists in society. But side by side competitions, conflicts, tensions, revolts and suppressions are also there. They appear and reappear off and on. They are to be controlled.
• Biological differences between animal and human societies

  • Physical structure of the members
  • Mental Capacity
  • Capacity to Stand Straight
  • Memory
• Physical structure of the members

  The physical structure of the members of human society is more or less similar but we find many differences in the physical bodily structure of the members of animal society (ecomorphs).
• Mental Capacity


  The mind of men is more developed than the mind of animals. Although the animals are seen building fine nests and doing wonderful jobs, yet it has been established that the mind of even the cleverest animal is only one third in its cubic capacity than that of the man.
• Capacity to Stand Straight


  The members of human society can stand straight on their legs and can use their hands freely. On the other hand, the animals cannot so stand and use the hands the way men use them.
• Memory


  The capacity of memory also creates a difference between the animal and human society. Man can remember past facts and can thereby improve upon his past mistakes. He can find a solution to a complicated problem through mutual discussion. On the other hand, the animals are deprived of such capacity which makes their society structurally very different from the human society.
• Socio-cultural differences between animal and human societies

  • Human Society is a society of civilized and cultured beings
  • Animal Society is based on instincts
  • Social Awareness
  • Mode of Organization
  • Absence of Symbolic Communication
• Human Society is a society of civilized and cultured beings


  It satisfies not only the physical but also the cultural needs of man. It is a higher stage of society in which men behave towards one another in ways determined by the laws of the land and are clearly conscious of the social awareness and social contact that exist among them as members of society.
• Animal Society is based on instincts


  Animal society is mainly based on instincts or reflex behavior, whereas human society is based on reason or rational behavior. There are no rights and duties in animal society. Every animal lives upon his physical powers whereas human society has a system of law and order.
• Social Awareness


  The animals live in society but are not conscious of it. The degree of social awareness is extremely dim. They lack the ability to perceive logical relations between things and the power of integrating (not merely associating) various order of things through mental synthesis. The division of labor in animals are not learned, it is based upon biological specialization. Their societies are the sole result of biological evolution, rather than social evolution. The way in which animals perform their work is quasi-mechanical and stereo-typed whereas the work of man, even if it is inferior, is done with forethought and understanding.
• Mode of Organization


  The animal modes of organization are relatively fixed and rigid, whereas the human modes are flexible and adaptable. Man is not predisposed to live together as the bees and ants are. He is capable of developing complex modes of organization and changes them as the needs change. In human society we find institution of marriage to regulate the sex behavior of men and women but in animal society marriage is non-existent.
• Absence of Symbolic Communication


  The animal society is a society of beings who lack intelligence, reason, culture and stay on the same level despite the advance of thousands of years. It is based upon instinct. Being incapable of symbolic communication, the animals are incapable of transmitting their culture to the next generation. Each generation of animals has to acquire the same knowledge and attitudes all over again through its own actual participation. The animals never develop anything approximating to true language. Such germs of language as the animals possess remain but rudimentary; man alone has developed them into the wonderful outgrowth of speech. Were the animals to do the same, they would become men. The fact, therefore, remains that no animal has ever raised himself to the level of articulate speaking man.