Portal:Society
The Society Portal
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent of members. In the social sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.
Societies construct patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or speech as acceptable or unacceptable. These patterns of behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. Societies, and their norms, undergo gradual and perpetual changes.
Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology, and also applied to distinctive subsections of a larger society.
More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society may be illustrated as an economic, social, industrial or cultural infrastructure, made up of, yet distinct from, a varied collection of individuals. In this regard society can mean the objective relationships people have with the material world and with other people, rather than "other people" beyond the individual and their familiar social environment. (Full article...)
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Extermination of Evil is a set of five paintings believed to have been created in the 12th century, depicting traditional Asian deities banishing evil. The paintings are collectively listed as a National Treasure of Japan and held at the Nara National Museum. Clockwise, from top left: Sendan Kendatsuba, Shinchū, Bishamonten, Tenkeisei, and Shōki.
Did you know...
- ... that according to Russian sociologist Daria Khaltourina, Protestantism positively influenced the capitalist development of social systems through the promotion of literacy and Bible reading?
- ... that Rhodesian soccer captain Bobby Chalmers, a white man, was assisted in his leadership of the mostly black national team by his proficiency in both Ndebele and Shona?
- ... that following the 2011 Libyan civil war, many Tuareg fighters (pictured) for the defeated government became members of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, seeking an independent Azawad?
Anniversaries this month
- 4 April 1930 - Foundation of the American Rocket Society, originally named the American Interplanetary Society
- 13 April 1564 - Pope Pius IV approved the Society of the Holy Name
- 19 April 1866 - First anti-cruelty law was passed since the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Brooklyn chapter pictured)
- 22 April 2008 - IEEE Power Engineering Society changed its name to IEEE Power & Energy Society
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