Society

People who interact in a defined territory and share

culture

Visions of SocietyFour diverse perspectives on what accounts

for social change and societal evolution

• Gerhard Lenski– Society and technology

• Karl Marx– Society in conflict

• Max Weber– The power of ideas shapes society

• Emile Durkheim– How traditional and modern societies

hang together

Gerhard Lenski

• Sociocultural evolution–The changes that occur as a society gains new technology

• Societies range from simple to the technologically complex.

• Societies simple in technology tend to resemble one another.

• More technologically complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity.

Sociocultural Evolution

• Technology shapes other cultural patterns. Simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives.

• The greater amount of technology a society has within its grasp, the faster cultural change will take place.

• High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of labor.

Global Map 4.1High Technology in Global Perspective

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies• Hunting and gathering

– The use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation

• Horticultural and pastoral– Horticulture–The use of hand tools to raise crops– Pastoralism–The domestication of animals

• Agriculture/Agrarian– Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or

more powerful energy sources

• Industrialism– The production of goods using advanced sources of energy to

drive large machinery

• Postindustrialism– The production of information using computer technology

Hunting and gathering Earliest and simplest of all

societies on earth Nomadic Have only a dozen or so

members Built around family Consider men and women to

be equals http://

www.papuatrekking.com/Korowai_Kombai.html

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

Horticultural and Pastoral

• More food so more people into the hundreds

• Greater specialization of work• Increasing presence of social

inequality• Developed over 12,000 years

ago as people raised animals instead of hunting them and created hand tools for crop raising

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

Agrarian• Developed about 5,000

years ago as plows or other energy sources allowed for large scale food prod.

• Expanded into empires• Greater specialization

with distinct occupations• Extreme social inequality• Women start to lose

importance

Industrial

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

• Developed in Europe 250 years ago as energy was harnessed to drive machinery

• Provides modern conveniences and advanced comm. and tech.

• Moves work from home to factory

• Reduces importance of trad. Family

• Raises living standard

Post-Industrial• The most recent state of tech.

Advancement that caters to an inform.-based economy

• Shift from heavy industries to computers and information systems

• Requires people with information-skills; i.e. comp. Programmers

• Driving force behind the Information Revolution, flow of info. that caters to the emerging global culture

Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies

Is Society Improving?

Are Societies Improving?

• Gerhard Lenski: Modern technology offers expanded human choice, but leaves us with new sets of dangers.

• Karl Marx: Social conflict would only end once production of goods and services were taken out of the hands of the capitalists and placed into the hands of all people.

Are Societies Improving?

• Max Weber: Saw socialism as a greater evil than capitalism, as large, alienating bureaucracies would gain even more control over people.

• Emile Durkheim: Optimistic about modernity and the possibility of more freedom for individuals, but concerned about the dangers of anomic feelings.