Social structures Flashcards
Society
Live in the same delineated area and for the most part have the same culture
Social structures
Organizational systems within society that center around
characteristic, definable patterns of relationship between people and institutions
Functionalism
Study of every part of society and how they all function
Early functionalist view society as an organism with each part working together for the good of the whole, and each party matters ultimately in the good of the whole
Function
Benefits created by a person or entity’s actions
Dysfunction
Negative or harmful effects brought by a person or entity’s actions
Manifest functions
Functions with intended consequences
Latent functions
Functions with unintended consequences
Conflict theory
That people and different groups are constantly in conflict as they are competing for different goods and resources
Scarcity creates this conflict
“Resources” include material, social and political
Societal structures further protect resources by keeping the same people in power and preventing others from advancing (maintain social order)
Symbolic interactionism
Study of way people interact through the shared understanding of symbols
Symbols
Anything to which we attach meaning
Can be words, gestures, body language, sounds
Social constructionism
How people in a society develop jointly constructed understandings of the world
Social constructs
The result of societies agreeing upon the significance of something
For example, gender, money, honor, justice, etc. these things have no inherent “worth”, but we have decided they do in our society
Education
Process of giving or receiving formal instruction
However, has many latent functions, including socialization, giving of status from achievement of degree, stimulation of students
Family
Related in some significant way, either by blood, adoption, marriage, law, or have some degree of responsibility in relation to each other
Function like small units of society
Egalitarian family
When both parents have equal power
Patriarchy
Men have the most authority
Matriarchy
Women have the most authority
Kinship
Less to blood relationship and more who we consider belonging to our family
Ex: family friends who have been around for so long we call “aunt”
Kin
Can also refer to people who are actually “of kin” by blood
When group is derived equally from parents, referred as bilateral descent
When derived more from either paternal or maternal, called patrilineal or matrilineal respectively
Religion
Patterns of beliefs, practices, organizational forms that seem to a dress the meaning of life while creating a sense of community
Four type of religious organizations: churches, sects, state religion, cults
Churches
Thoroughly integrated in society
Interested in the mundane and daily in addition to the sacred and holy
Typically organized by a codified set of rules
People allowed to join later in life, although many are born into a certain church
Sects
Religious organizations noticing not integrated into society
Split from larger more defined religious organizations
Members born into sect or else must convert
Extreme: may withdraw from society and practice beliefs in a more controlled setting
Example: Mormonism
State religion
Religious organization that includes most members of a society and is officially recognized
Sometimes doesn’t tolerate other religions
Not necessarily a theocracy
Theocracy
The government is run by religious figures and is based on religious principles
