Topic 2 Societies.doc

Topic 2. Contemporary

Societies

1. Why do human societies exist?

Human nature is gregarious. This means that human beings do not live on their

own, but they need to live in a community in order to cooperate, to protect themselves

and to improve their quality of life. These associations form societies.

This tendency comes from our hominid ancestors. They were not especially well

endowed with physical abilities: they were not as fast, as strong, nor as resilient as other

species.

It was thus intelligence that allowed

our ancestors to survive. But intelligence

needs learning, and living within a social

group was the best way to learn what was

needed to survive.

This is particularly true since

hominids, including present human beings,

are the species with least instinctive

behaviour at birth.

The first forms of association were

families, clans and tribes. These were small associations based on the direct knowledge

of their members.

Afterwards, larger associations were formed: villages, cities, states and empires.

With them came private property, laws, administration and taxes, in order to regulate

these forms of association.

By then social and economic inequalities appeared, due to differences in the

social functions performed by each person

Societies became then hierarchical: some people were the richest and most

influential, usually those who monopolized the political power, while the vast majority

were committed to working for the material sustenance of the society.

From those times, societies have evolved quite a lot, but the basic inequalities of

wealth, political power, education and cultural knowledge have lasted until the present

day.

Nowadays, education and knowledge are the basic means to overcome these

inequalities.

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Work in groups to describe and comment other societies different from

the western ones: Muslim, Indian, Chinese....

Think about what is scholar education useful for.

2. Social organisation

To understand how societies are organised, we try to identify different groups in

it. A social group is a number of individuals who share different features or identifies

themselves as part of that group. From this point of view, is easy to understand that

many groups may be distinguished. But we specially identify two major ones: primary

and secondary.

In primary groups there are strong links among the people who belong to them.

An example of this is families and religious communities.

In secondary groups it is just some shared activities or interests that bind them

together. For instance, political parties or sport clubs.

Therefore, the difference between them is simply the stronger or weaker links

that keep the members together.

Diversity in societies is a term referred to the different kinds of people we can

find in them. That is to say, if most people belong to the same social groups or there are

great differences—cultural, religious, political...—among them.

In modern societies, diversity is becoming more and more usual. In Spain, for

example, it is quite common to find people from other countries and cultures. In other

countries with even a longer tradition of immigration

diversity is even wider. That is the case of the United

States, a country formed on the basis of Native

Americans, European immigrants and African slaves

carried along several centuries. When social diversity

is so widespread that is an essential characteristic of a

given society we talk of multicultural society.

3. Types of society

The most common classification of societies as a whole divide them between

hierarchical or closed societies and dynamic or open societies.

In the first case, there is an organisation of society based mainly on birth, that is

to say, the position an individual occupies in society depends on his or her family

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origin, and there are few

opportunities to change

that position. An example

of this is feudal societies.

In the second case,

everyone is supposed to

have the same rights and

obligations. Social

differences can be

overcome in different

ways at least in theory. But

in fact, there are several difficulties to make this possible: influences, family wealth,

knowledge…, tend in practice to make people transmit to their descendants the position

they hold in society. This is the case of modern western societies.

4. Discrimination and conflict

Not everybody agrees with multiculturalism. Some people hold that

multiculturalism means that local cultures will disappear in the future. This is why those

who belong to ethnic, cultural or religious minorities are sometimes denied the same

rights that majorities enjoy. This is what is called discrimination. Discrimination often

leads to conflict,

because those who are

considered “inferior”

try at any moment to

reach or conquer the

same rights the rest of

the population has.

Violence then may

arise when conflicts

are not guided through negotiations and other peaceful means, even reaching war.

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5. Cultures around the world

Different cultures or civilisations have developed throughout the centuries.

Some of them have already disappeared, but some of them have evolved until present

times, when four main cultures may be distinguished. These cultures are:

Western societies. They are predominant in Europe, America and

Oceania, though they share space and population with other cultures in

the two last cases. For instance, indigenous people in New Zealand,

Australia, Chile, Peru… These cultures are mainly defined by Christian

religions and Greek, Roman and Germanic cultural heritage. In recent

times religious beliefs have lost much of its importance and influence of

past centuries, becoming much more secular societies. As a result, many

people declare not to have religious beliefs. On the other hand,

migrations have caused an important degree of mixture of cultures in

recent times.

Muslim societies. They are extended through North Africa and the

Middle East. Their common feature is religion (Islam) and to a lesser

extent language (Arab). However, Islam is divided in two main branches,

Sunni (Western Islam) and Shiite (Eastern Islam)

Eastern (Oriental) societies. They are quite diverse in more than one

sense, having some of them little in common. Many different languages,

cultural traditions and religions are followed in the Eastern part of Asia,

including China, Korea, India, Japan and Indonesia. In the case of

religion, Buddhism and Hinduism are two with the greatest number of

believers.

African societies. These societies are extended in Africa, South of the

Sahara desert. Tribal organizations are common, and religions are closely

connected with nature (shamanism). Languages are also from different

branches.

a) Paint in different colours the main four types of society mentioned in the next

page map

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6. European and Spanish societies

Europe is the core of Western civilization, the starting point from where it

expanded throughout the world since 15th century onwards by means of conquest and

colonization of other lands and peoples.

In general terms European population is characterised by aging: Europeans are

getting elder over time. As we have seen in population pyramids, the usual European

one is regressive, with a base that is narrower than the top. This is caused by the limited

number of births (low birth rate) and a long life expectancy (81.7 years in the case of

Spain)

European society is widely multicultural. Immigration has caused that in

European cities can be found examples of many different languages, religions and

traditions coming

from the rest of the

continents. In spite

of this, it is also true

that sometimes

immigrants have

difficulties to

become full part of

their local societies,

giving way to the formation of ghettos (isolated quarters with a high percentage of

dwellers from abroad, usually plagued with job scarcity, schooling and health care

problems, high crime rates…). In Spain, the integration of foreigners is more thoroughly

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achieved than in other countries, specially taking into account the high percentage they

represent over the whole population of the country (12%)

European families are becoming more diverse than it was common in the past.

The traditional nuclear family composed of a heterosexual couple and their descendants

is no longer the only model of family. Single-parent households or homosexual families

are becoming more common in recent times.

In Northern Europe it’s common that both parents work outside home. In the

Southern part of the continent this is less frequent because of unemployment and

cultural traditions that tend to make of wives homemakers. There is also a huge

difference between Northern and Southern Europe regarding the age at which young

people leave home. In the former, it is not much later than 18 years old while in

countries such as Spain it can be delayed well into the twenties or even later.

7. Inequality and conflict in Western society

Inequalities and discrimination are widespread in Western societies in different

aspects, notwithstanding legislation and declaration of intentions of politicians and

institutional spokespersons.

- Economic inequality, that is, the differences of income among individuals

has been the

basis of

Western

societies from

the very

beginning of

their

formation. In

the last years

in Spain it

has been boosted as a result of the economic crisis, which has extraordinarily

widened the breach between poor and rich people.

- Cultural inequality is caused by unequal access to education due to poverty,

lack of public funding of schools or other reasons that causes the

marginalisation of certain minorities. This is the case of gypsies in Spain.

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- Physical conditions make some people not to be able to exert all the rights

granted to the majority of individuals, for instance the physically or mentally

handicapped persons.

- Sex is a frequent cause of discrimination in salaries. Often can be heard

denounces of women receiving a lower pay even though they occupy the

same posts than men. Another forms of discrimination based on sex are the

cases of abused women.

- Age is a cause of discrimination for instance when children are induced or

forced to work in spite of being forbidden below (usually in Europe) 16

years old. Also when elder people need to work although they are in age of

being retired.

In order to correct these

inequalities and forms of discrimination

people organize themselves in several

forms: trade unions, political parties,

women and neighbourhood

associations… that put pressure on

politicians and take action in order to

have laws passed that allow reaching

their goals. Also, Non-Governmental Organizations

(NGO’s) help in limiting the consequences of the

worst forms of discrimination.

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