Introduction to Sociology

CONTENT Chapter 1

: Origin, Nature and Scope of Sociology

Chapter 2

: Relationship with other Social Sciences

Chapter 3

: Society

Chapter 4

: Social Groups

Chapter 5

: Social Control

Chapter 6

: Culture

Chapter 7

: Marriage, Family and Kinship

Chapter 8

: Economic Institutions

Chapter 9

: Political Institutions

Chapter 10

: Religion and Culture

Chapter 11

: Education

Chapter 12

: Culture, Society and Personality

Chapter 13

: Individual and Socialization

Chapter 14

: Culture and Personality Formation

Chapter 15

: Methods of Research

Chapter 16

: Techniques of Data Collection

CHAPTER 1

Origin, Natur Naturee and Sc ope of Soc iology A French French philosopher philosopher named Auguste Auguste Comte coined, the word ‘Sociology’ in 1838, for that branch of science which studied human behaviour. In fact, he created a hierarchy of sciences in which he put sociology at the top. He argued that sciences dealing with simple phenomena were first to arrive. Since sociology deals with the most complex phenomena of social behaviour, behaviour, it is a recent addition addition to the sciences. Sociology is derived out of two Latin root-words s o c i u s meaning companion or association, and logos meaning science. There is a general agreement that Sociology is the science of human society and of social relations, social groups and social change. It is one of the several social sciences — others being social anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, human geography, public administration, mass communication etc. Like these other social science disciplines, sociology has also contributed to the growth of applied social sciences such as business administration, management etc. While there is no dearth of writings on the nature of society and even

descriptions of actual societies in previous centuries, the era of scientific studies of society and social groups began only only in the nineteenth nineteenth century. Those Tho se writi wr itings ngs are ar e phil p hiloso osophi phical cal or literary. Surely, they are sociologically relevant, but they are not sociological, as they are not based on scientific research. In his book A n I n v i t a t i o n t o S oc oc i ol ol o g y : A H u m a n i s t i c P er er s p e c t i v e , Peter Berger describes a sociologist as “someone concerned with understanding society in a disciplined way. Th e na t u r e of t h is di sc i pl i ne i s scientific. This means that what the sociologist finds and says about the social phenomena the studies occur within a certain certain rather rather strictly strictly defined defined frame of reference…As a scientist, the sociologist tries to be objective, to control his personal preferences and prejudices, to perceive clearly rather than to judge normatively”. Sociology is, thus, different from literature or journalism journ alism.. Poets Poe ts and a nd novelist no velistss also al so describe society, but they can take liberties with facts. What makes their writin wri tings gs attrac att ractiv tivee are a re the flight fli ghtss of o f their fancy. Similarly, journalists do report on events occurring in society but the demand for meeting deadline

CHAPTER 1

Origin, Natur Naturee and Sc ope of Soc iology A French French philosopher philosopher named Auguste Auguste Comte coined, the word ‘Sociology’ in 1838, for that branch of science which studied human behaviour. In fact, he created a hierarchy of sciences in which he put sociology at the top. He argued that sciences dealing with simple phenomena were first to arrive. Since sociology deals with the most complex phenomena of social behaviour, behaviour, it is a recent addition addition to the sciences. Sociology is derived out of two Latin root-words s o c i u s meaning companion or association, and logos meaning science. There is a general agreement that Sociology is the science of human society and of social relations, social groups and social change. It is one of the several social sciences — others being social anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, human geography, public administration, mass communication etc. Like these other social science disciplines, sociology has also contributed to the growth of applied social sciences such as business administration, management etc. While there is no dearth of writings on the nature of society and even

descriptions of actual societies in previous centuries, the era of scientific studies of society and social groups began only only in the nineteenth nineteenth century. Those Tho se writi wr itings ngs are ar e phil p hiloso osophi phical cal or literary. Surely, they are sociologically relevant, but they are not sociological, as they are not based on scientific research. In his book A n I n v i t a t i o n t o S oc oc i ol ol o g y : A H u m a n i s t i c P er er s p e c t i v e , Peter Berger describes a sociologist as “someone concerned with understanding society in a disciplined way. Th e na t u r e of t h is di sc i pl i ne i s scientific. This means that what the sociologist finds and says about the social phenomena the studies occur within a certain certain rather rather strictly strictly defined defined frame of reference…As a scientist, the sociologist tries to be objective, to control his personal preferences and prejudices, to perceive clearly rather than to judge normatively”. Sociology is, thus, different from literature or journalism journ alism.. Poets Poe ts and a nd novelist no velistss also al so describe society, but they can take liberties with facts. What makes their writin wri tings gs attrac att ractiv tivee are a re the flight fli ghtss of o f their fancy. Similarly, journalists do report on events occurring in society but the demand for meeting deadline

2

INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY

leaves them with little time to double check their findings; they do not feel obliged to use scientific methods of data collection. The same subject matter can be seen from a variety variety of perspectives. That That is why there there is differ differenc encee in the way an economist, a political scientist, a social worker and a sociologist looks at the social phenomena. It is the approach that distinguishes sociology from other sciences — natural and social. Sociologists approach human society as a system of interactions bet b et w ee n i n di vi du a l s , b e t w e e n individuals and groups, and between different groups. A sociologist sociologist is generally generally concerned concerned about questions such as : What binds the people together? What are the processes that keep people as a social entity? How does society survive? How does it change? What causes death of social groups within a society? When do societies cease to exist? ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY

As earlier said the science of Sociology was wa s born bo rn in Nine Ni nete teen enth th cent ce ntur uryy in Europe. Enlightenment, industrial revolution, and French revolution initiated a process of thinking about society, particularly the consequences of revolutionary happenings. Industrial revolution accelerated the process of urbanization. urbanizat ion. Urbanisation, in its turn, created problems of housing and slum dwellings. Creation of industries resulted in conflicts between owners and factory workers. French revolution led to rethinking about the form of government and

practice of democracy. Thus, changes were all around in economy, polity and community living. Thus industrialization, urbanization and capitalism and the attendant consequences began beg an transf tra nsform orming ing the societ soc ieties ies of Europe. Sociology took birth in such a climate. Its sister discipline, A n t h r o p o l o g y , also took birth simultaneously. As a result of Industrial revolution societies of Europe came in contact with nonEuropean cultures in Asia, Africa, America Amer ica and the island isla nd countr co untries ies in in the Pacific and the Caribbean. While sociologists began studying their own societies, anthropologists anthropologists went to faroff places to study the primitive tribal communities as societies distinct from the Western societies. Anthropology defined as the scientific study of human being, became the study of o t h e r cultures. Thus, both sociology and social anthropology study human society. What separated them initially was the type of society being studied : sociologists studying their own society and anthropologists studying other, mainly tribal societies. This distinction is now being disregarded. Th T h o s e w h o d e a l t w i t h t h e s e problems are considered as the founding fathers of sociology because they were seriously concerned with these problems in a systematic way. Most notable among these thinkers have been Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber. All these pioneers came from other disciplines. Comte

TECHNIQUES OF DATA COLLECTION

was a philosopher, Herbert Spencer had a background in natural history and was influenced by Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Durkheim was a rabbi (Jewish priest), Weber was trained in legal and economic history and Karl Marx had dual interest in abstract philosophy and in concrete reality of his times but did not pursue an academic career and never claimed to be a sociologist, in fact, his influence spread to various branches of knowledge and many became followers of his ideology. Sociology in India has grown through an encounter with the Western philosophical and scientific traditions. Nevertheless, sociology in India has also been deeply influenced by the numerous internal processes, which signify the passage of India from a colony of the British to the status of an Independent Republic. As elsewhere, the pioneers of Indian sociology were also practitioners of other academic specialities. Teaching of sociology began in the Department of Political Economy and Political Philosophy of the Calcutta University in 1908 when two papers in that subject were offered. Although a fullfledged department of sociology was established in Calcutta University only in 1976, sociology courses were taught in the departments of economics, political science, human geography and anthropology. The pioneers of sociology in Calcutta (now Kolkata) were philosopher-cum-administrator Brajendra Nath Seal (1864-1938),

3

economic historian Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887-1949), anthropologist K.P. Chattopadhyay (1897-1963) and human geographer Nirmal Kumar Bose (1901-1972). The first department of sociology and civics was, however, set up in the Bombay University, as part of the Bombay School of Economics in 1919, although a course in sociology was introduced in 1914 for the post graduate students of economics. The separate department started functioning from 1919 in that University which was headed by a New Zealander Patrick Geddes. Geddes was a town planner and human geographer. He was later joined by G.S. Ghurye who began as an Indologist but later worked for his Ph.D. in social anthropology at Cambridge University. However, some new information has also come to light. It is said that prior to Patric Geddes, there was a freedom fighter, named Shyamji Krishna Verma, who was a political revolutionar y. As a freedom fighter, he had a great interest in understanding and analysing Indian society, but was soon compelled by the British to leave India. During his exile in Europe, he met another founder of Sociology in Europe. In consultation with the Comte and Spencer, Verma brought out a Journal,titled ‘Indian Socialogist’ but it did not continue for long. Wh en , in 19 21 , Pr of es so r Radhakamal Mukerjee moved from Calcutta to Lucknow University to teach

4

Economics, he introduced sociology as one of the courses. He even appointed Dr. D.N. Majumdar, a trained anthropologist, as lecturer in Primitive Economics. Thus, the Department of Economics in Lucknow University introduced teaching of both sociology and social anthropology, and some significant work was done by D.P. Mukherjee and A.K. Saran in this department. Later the University created separate departments of sociology, anthropology and social work. It is from these three centres – Calcutta, Bombay and Lucknow – that the first generation of sociologists were produced who then contributed both through teaching and research to the growth of Indian sociology. The most eminent names in the field of sociology are those of M.N. Srinivas, K.M. Kapadia, Irawati Karve, D.N. Majumdar, S.C. Dube, A.R. Desai, etc. What is Sociology

Auguste Comte was the pioneer in using the word ‘Sociology’ to refer to the ‘science of human groups’. The word ‘Sociology’ was derived from the Latin word ‘Socious’ (association), and the Greek word ‘logus’ (theory), denoting, the theory or science of human group or society. Comte wished to establish a science of society that would help to reveal social laws, which he believed controlled development and change. Augus te Com te de alt wit h th e problem of defining sciology as a discipline and delineating its nature. The later sociologists also focused elaborately on the meaning of sociology.


Hobhouse explained how sociology studied the ‘interaction of human minds’. Park and Burgess said that ‘sociology is the science of collective behaviour’. However, Emile Durkheim was more precise; he said that ‘sociology is a study of collective representation’. All our thinking, feeling and doing constitute social facts. Social fact, according to Durkheim, is exterior to human mind and it put constraints on human behaviour. For instance, when we go to a bank, without any thinking we stand in a queue in front of the counter. Standing in the queue is not an action of our mind. It is the way of transacting in the bank, without much thought and deliberate effort. However, we know that if we did not stand in the queue and rush to the counter, others in the queue would object to our nonadherence to the norm. Thus, the practice of standing in the queue exercse a constraint on us; and demands conformity from us. Durkheim says that all that which is a social fact constitutes the subject matter of the study of sociology. Max Weber defined sociology differently. He said that human activities are oriented towards some action, which fulfils some objectives. Individuals in the society engage in actions for realization of given goals/interests. Social actions, according to Max Weber, constitute the subject matter of sociology. Since every social action is directed at some other person, sociology studies the interaction systems, which shape social institutions, like polity, the hospital and bureaucracy.


The Sociological Perspec tive

In the history of sociology two major concerns all have been : (1) A precise definition and scope of sociology as a discipline, and (2) an appropriate methodology for the study of society. Beginning from Auguste Comte to the present-day sociologists all have been trying to work out on acceptable definition of sociology. However, it can be said that the prime aim of sociology is to study social relationships at both normative and empirical levels. Sociology also analyses and explains social continuity and change. This, in nutshell, is the crux of a sociological perspective, on which we now proceed to consider the views of Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber. Auguste Comte

(1798-1857)

Born in France in 1798, Comte was influenced by the social and political turmoil following the French Revolution of 1789. In his writings, he directly attacked the non-scientific basis of Enlightenment, which had dominated French thought before the Revolution. Auguste Comte is referred as the father of sociology. He suggested that sociologists should use the tools of research developed by natural sciences. He developed a rational approach (scientific method) to the study of society based on observations and experiments. Comte argued that the methodology of physics might be applied the study of society. This approach is popularly known as p o s i t i v i s m . Positivism is a

5

method of scientific inquiry and it calls for empirical research rather than armchair theorising. Empiricism implies understanding of experience. Positivism rejects speculative/conjectural analysis of social reality. Central to Comte’s positivistic sociology were two key concepts : social statics (social structure) and s o c i a l dynamics (social change). The term social statics refers to relationships among social institutions. In Comte’s view, parts of a society are connected to one another in a harmonious manner much like the parts of a biological organism. Although Comte believed that societies are marked by a great degree of order, yet he was also interested in the study of social dynamics (processes of social change). Comte be lie ved tha t the st udy of so ci al dynamics could lead to reform in society. It would improve our understanding of breakdowns and rearrangements of social structures. Comte also believed in the possibility of formulating laws of society like the laws of physics. He argued that in all societies, ideas and beliefs about the world move through three inevitable, step-by-step, evolutionary stages. This is known as the law of three stages. First is the t h e o l o g i ca l s t a g e in which explanations are supernatural. Second is t h e m e t a p h y s i c a l s t a g e in which explanations are not supernatural, but are based on traditions, intuition and guesswork and are not supported by evidence. Third is the positive stage in whi ch ex pl ana tion s are ba se d on observed facts and on logical reasoning.

6

Comte’s treatise on the P os i t i v i s t Philosophy provides a comprehensive analysis of this thesis. In Auguste Comte, we see the beginnings of two themes, which run throughout the evolution of sociology. One is a concern for the application of scientific methods (positivism) to the study of society. The other is the practical application of science (experimentation or empiricism) to social reform. Comte believed that the knowledge gained through a scientific approach could be used to plan society’s welfare.


conduct any scientific studies, but simply developed ideas about society. The fields of sociology, according to Spencer, are family, politics, religion, social control, and industry or work. In addition, Spencer explicitly advocated for the study of associations, communities, division of labour, social differentiation or stratification, sociology of knowledge, sociology of science and the study of art and aesthetics. Karl Marx

(1818-1883)

Karl Marx, a German philosopher and activist, influenced Sociology and has left a distinct mark on the thinking Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) humanity. Marx thought that people Herbert Spencer, a British national, has should take active steps to change been a stro ng infl uence in Br it ish society. He advocated Praxis i.e. practice sociology and social anthropology. to find solutions to human problems. Parallel to Darwin’s T h e o r y o f According to him, forces of production E v o l u t i o n , developed in his O r i g i n o f and relations of production are basis to Species, Spencer developed a theory of the understand all structures including Society. He found Darwin’s theories of religion, art and state, etc. Marx talked of N a t u r a l S el e ct i o n and S u r v i v a l o f t h e dia lectical ma terialism to explain change Fittest , useful in elaborating a unified as a historical phenomenon. He theory of social life. His theory of social suggested that the course of change evolution holds that all societies implies thesis , antithesis and synthesis change from simple to complex in the material world. According to Marx, through natural processes. This led the history of all the hitherto societies is him to oppose all forms of the history of class struggle. Marx always governmental control of social life. thought of transformation of the capitalist Because of the logical similarities with world into a socialist world where the Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, owners of the means of production would Spencer’s views on evolution of not be able to exploit the workers. The societies became known as S o c i a l struggle between the bourgeoisie or the D a r w i n i s m . capitalists and the p r o l e t a r i a t or the Like Comte, Spencer was more of a working classes, Marx believed, can end social philosopher than a sociologist. Also only when members of the working class like Comte, Spencer himself did not unite to revolt against the bourgeoisie. A


7

classless society will emerge from such a objective and systematic methods of investigation and evaluation of social struggle. reality in the light of empirical evidence and interpretation. But it Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) cannot be directly modelled on the Émile Durkheim, a French national, patterns of natural sciences, because was both a social theorist and a human behaviour is different from the researcher. He was especially interested wor ld of nat ure. Amo ng ot he r in the study of social organization. differences, the subject matter of Durkheim stressed upon the natural sciences is relatively static importance of broadly shared moral and unchanging whereas human values and collective reprentations. His be ha vi ou r, the su bj ect mat ter of views were considered radical. Today, sociology, is flexible and dynamic. he is perhaps best remembered for his The founders of sociology were emphasis on research methods and use concerned with the study of social of statistics. For Durkheim, social fact order and change. They also wanted to was a key concept. His main fields of model the science of society or works were — social fact, suicide, sociology as the natural sciences. religion and social order. Max Weber

(1864-1920)

Max Weber, a German, was an economist, and a historian. He was one of the most prominent social thinkers of the late nineteenth century. He defined sociology as “a science, wh ic h at te mp ts th e in te rp re ta ti ve understanding of social action in order, thereby, to arrive at a causal explanation of its cause and effects”. In his work on the M e t h o d o l o g y o f S o c i a l S c i en c e s Weber observed that sociology as a discipline should adopt the method of understanding (Verstehen in German language), i.e. social actions should be understood in terms of the meanings, which the actor gives to his/her actions.

Na t u ra l S c i e n c e v e r s u s t h e S o c i a l Science

All social sciences deal with human being individual as a member of human group. Focus in social/human sciences is on the study of individual whose activities are oriented toward other members of the society who may belong to the same or different groups or collectivities. Natural sciences are concerned with the study of natural phenomena namely, plants, gases and animals etc. Observation and experimentation are basic methods of study in natural sciences. Scientific temper in the study of natural sciences inspires social sciences to strive for objectivity and value-neutrality. The methodology of natural sciences is Nature of Sociology positivistic, i.e. to understand reality Sociology is a scientific discipline. It is a wit ho ut su bj ec tive bi ase s. So ci al science in the sense that it involves scientists have also applied positivism to

8

understand social reality by eliminating personal and subjective preferences and biases. It may still be relevant to ask the question : What is science? What is scientific method? Science refers to the application of objective methods of investigation, reasoning and logic to develop a body of knowledge about given phenomena. There are three goals of science. The first is to e x p l a i n why something happens. The second is to make generalisations , that is, to go beyond the individual cases and make statements that apply to a collectivity. The third is to predict , to specify, what will happen in future, in the light of the available stock of knowledge. Thus, science is a body of verified knowledge about physical or social reality. Scientific method is viewed as a device for using specific rules to acquire knowledge, to test hypotheses, and to analyse data to produce new explanations. Science produces objective and accurate information and develops understanding of the natural world. The logical, rational, efficient, and effective way of collecting, organising and interpreting facts is called scientific method. It consists of a series of steps, whi ch a res ea rc he r fo ll ow s wh il e carrying out research. Science is a way of thinking, objectively and impartially, whi le st udy in g gi ve n ph en om en a natural or social. Scientific method ensures considerable realisation of this objective as it puts checks on the likely biases in research analysis. Sociology is a science because it


fulfils the basic requirements of objective and rational knowledge of social reality. Even then, the difference between the natural sciences and sociology needs to be st ated . Whe rea s, the na tural phenomena can be put under controlled observation it may not be possible to do the same regarding the subject matter of sociology. This is because all social phenomena and social institutions like family, marriage, caste, etc are constantly changing even while they are being studied. In sociological research, it is difficult to be completely value-free. Moreover, the research situation itself becomes a social situation where the researcher confronts another human being and gets involved in a process of interaction. This makes it difficult to be objective. Good social scientists keep these limitations in mind and try to be as objective as possible. For that purpose, different research tools are used, and data are checked and crosschecked. To sum up, it may be said that any discipline is considered to be scientific whe n it is em pi ric al, the oret ic al, cumulative, and value-neutral. Against this yardstick, let us examine the status of sociology as a science : (i ) E m p i r i ci sm : Empiricism means understanding based on experience. Generalisations are drawn on the basis of observation and r e a s o n i n g , and not on supernatural/speculative revelations. All aspects of sociological knowledge are subject to evaluation made about social behaviour and are put to test for


(i i )

(i i i )

(i v )

empirical evidence. T h e o r y : Th eo ry is ce nt ra l to sociology. Though, there are va ri ous mean ings of th e word ‘theory’. It is agreed that theory is a grand or master idea. Its foundation is both logical and empirical. If the logic is not sustained by empirical evidence, obviously, the theory becomes only a speculative formulation. In other words, there is a close relationship between theory and facts. Theory attempts to summarize complex observations in abstract logically interconnected terms, which purport to explain causal relationships. Its main aim is to interpret and to interrelate sociological data in order to explain the nature of social phenomena and to produce hypotheses whose final validity can be checked by further empirical research. Cu m u l a t i v e k n o w l ed g e : Like all other sciences, sociology is also non-dogmatic. Its knowledge propositions are subject to systematic examination. Thus, sociology is cumulative, because its theories are built upon one another, extending and refining the older ones and producing new ones. As such, theoretical integration becomes a goal in the construction of sociological formulations. V a l u e -n e u t r a l i t y : In a broad sense, sociology is not a prescriptive/proscriptive science. Sociology does not prescribe particular values/ethics as good or

9

bad. It addresses issues. Study of human relations is the prime consideration in sociology. In this context, Morris Ginsberg observes that ethical problems should be dealt with neutrality. Objectivity and rationality based on a thorough knowledge of a situation alone can ensure scientific status to the discipline of sociology. The goal of scientific research is to acquire objective knowledge, free of bias and prejudice. This is why sociologists follow the path of natural scientists while studying social phenomena. The emphasis on quantification in social research is given to ensure “exactness” to the extent possible. SCOPE OF S OCIOLOGY

Sociology is a systematic and objective study of social life, which is created by a va rie ty of in ter ac tio ns bet we en individuals and groups. When similar behaviour is repeated in given situations it becomes a norm or an institution. People in different status and performing different roles, interact with other people formally or informally. All these repetitive actions are part of the culture of a given group, and define the social organisati on. Sociologists study individual’s actions in different social relationships such as between husband and wife, teacher and student, buyer and seller; they also study various social processes such as co-operation, competition, conflict, migration and child rearing etc.; and they study various groups and organisations (family, caste,

10

association and state). Sociology, therefore, is the study of social life as a whole. It has a wide range of concerns and interests. It seeks to provide classifications and forms of social relationships, institutions and associations, related to economic, political, moral, religious and social aspects of human life. Let us briefly explain the various aspects of society that are the subject matter of sociology : 1 . S o c ia l Org an i s at i o n

The term ‘social organisation’ refers to interdependence of different aspects of society; and this is an essential characteristic of all enduring social entities, such as groups, communities, and collectivities. Herbert Spencer used the term ‘social organisation’ to refer to the interrelations (integration and differentiation) of the economic, political and other divisions of society. Emile Durkheim implies by social organisation almost exclusively, social integration and regulation through consensus about morals and values. Currently, social organisation is used to refer to the interdependence of parts of in-groups of all sizes, from a clique of workers in hospitals, and factories to large-scale societies and organisations. 2 . S oc ia l S tru ct ur

Social structure refers to the pattern of interrelations between individuals. Every society has a social structure, a complex of major institutions, groups, and arrangements, relating to status


and power. It is said that the study of social structure is comparable to the study of human anatomy and that of social organisation to that of physiology. But this is only a partial and not a complete analogy. 3 . S oc i al In s t it u ti on s

A social institution is a procedure, practice and an instrument, hence an ensemble of a variety of customs and habits accumulated over a period of time. According to Malnowskiwork in every society, people create social institutions to meet their basic needs of survival. Institutions are instruments and tools of human transactions. An institution is, thus, a stable cluster of norms, values and roles. 4 . Cult ure

Culture is the totality of learned and socially transmitted behaviour from one generation to the next. It includes symbols, signs and language, besides religion, rituals, beliefs and artefacts. In fact, culture is a guiding force in everyday life. It is the culture that distinguishes one society from the other. Elements of one culture may migrate to another culture, but they get properly assimilated in the receiving culture, and are at times given a different meaning or role. In that sense, each society has a culture that is historically derived and passed on from one generation to another and constantly enriched by those who live it. In subsequent chapters these aspects of society will be explained in greater details.


11 GLOSSARY

ANOMIE . a

state of normlessness in society According to Durkheim. The loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behaviour has become ineffective. B OURGEOISIE . Marx’s term for capitalist, those who own the means of production. CULTURE. It is a totality of learned behaviour in a society that is transmitted from one generation to another. E MPIRICISM. It means understanding of experience based on observation and reasoning not on supernatural/speculative. GENERALISATION . To go beyond individual cases and make statements that apply to a collectivity. IDEAL TYPE. It is a yardstick, a model that serves as a measuring rod against which actual cases can be evaluated. O BJECTIVITY. Total neutrality. P OSITIVISM. It amounts to rejection of speculative/conjectural analysis of social reality. P RAXIS . Practice to find solution of human problems. P ROLETARIAT . Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production. S CIENCE . It is a way of thinking objectively and impartially while studying given phenomena. S OCIAL DYNAMICS . It means mobility or social change in the society. S OCIAL EVOLUTION . A theory of evolution of human societies inspired by Charles Darwin and propounded by Herbert Spencer. S OCIAL FACT . Durkheim’s term for the patterns of behaviour that characterise a social group. S OCIAL INSTITUTIONS . It is stable cluster of norms, values and roles. S OCIAL INTEGRATION . The degree to which people feel a part of social groups. S OCIAL ORGANISATION. It refers to interdependence of different aspects of society such as groups, communities and collectivities. S OCIAL STATICS . It refers to relationships among social institutions. S OCIAL STRUCTURE . It is complex of institutions, groups and arrangements relating to status and power. S OCIOLOGY. It is a scientific study of society and human beahviour. T H E O R Y . Summarise complex observations in abstract logically interconnected terms, which purport to explain causal relationships. VALUE NEUTRALITY. The view that personal values of the scholar should not

12


influence social research. VERSTEHEN. A German word for “understanding” or “insight”. Weber used this to suggest that sociologists should take into account people’s emotions, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

What is meant by Sociology? What is the distinctiveness of the sociological perspective? Why is Auguste Comte called the father of Sociology? Distinguish between theological, metaphysical and positivistic stage. What was Émile Durkheim’s prime concern in Sociology? What is the Spencer’s view on the evolution of society? What is sociology? Discuss scientific nature of sociology. Explain various perspectives in sociology. Discuss the nature and scope of sociology. SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Berger, Peter, An Invitation to Sociology : A Hu man istic Perspective, double day New York, 1965. 2. Bottomore, T.B., Sociology : A Guid e to Problems an d Litera ture, Blackie and Sons Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 1978. 3. Davis, Kingsley, Hu ma n Society , The Macmillan Company, New York, 1970. 4. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, Polity press in association with Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1994. 5. Inkles, Alex, W h a t i s S o ci o l og y : A n I n t r o d u c t i o n t o t h e d i s c i p l i n e a n d Profession, Printice-Hall of India, Private Ltd., New Delhi, 1977. 6. Johnson, H.M., S oc i ol o g y : A S y s t e m a t i c I n t r o d u c t i on , Allied Publishers, Mumbai, 1970.


13

CHAPTER 2

Relationship with other Social Sciences Sociology and other Social Scienc es

Toda y t he humans have an intense desire to unravel the mysteries around them. People in ancient times also attempted to understand the world around them. Their explanations, however, were not based only on observations, but were mixed with magic and superstition as well. It was, however, a metaphysical explanation. To sa ti sf y th ei r ba si c cu ri os it y about the world, the humans developed science in due course at time. Systematic methods were employed to understand the natural world. Knowledge about the world was thus obtained by scientific methods. Sociology, the study of society and human behaviour, applies scientific methods, namely, observation and statistical enumeration. A useful way of comparing these sciences and of gaining a better understanding of sociology is to divide them into natural and social sciences as mentioned in the preceding chapter. Natural sciences are divided into different branches such as physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Social sciences are, for example, anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology. The division

of social sciences goes further. For instance, anthropology is classified into physical, social, cultural and applied anthropology. Likewise economics is divided into micro and macro economics. Similarly, sociology has its own divisions such as rural sociology, urban sociology, political sociology, industrial sociology, etc. Actually, the subdivisions in sociology are specific specialisations. Each subdivision has a focus on particular theme or issue. Here we may explore the relationship of sociology with other social sciences, mainly with history, economics and political science. We find that some aspects are common to all the social sciences and some are specific to particular disciplines. However, all social sciences are basically mental and cultural sciences, because they deal with human beings vis-à-vis their normative orientations and structural aspects, such as occupation, income, education, office rank, etc. Relationship betwee n Sociology and History

The historical dimension of sociological understanding are indeed basic. We can

14

only grasp the distinctive nature of the world today if we are able to compare sociology (present) with history (past). Sociologists must hold up the past to understand the present. What is common between sociology and history is the society. Sociology is concerned with the present and to some extent with future. History studies the past. The present society cannot be analysed without reference to the past society; and it is here that these are related to each other. This has given rise to a special kind of sociology and history and/or historical sociology. According to this, sociological analysis is based on historical data. This is primarily done by the use of primary sources available in archives or by the use of written history. The relationship between sociology and history is plagued with controversies relating to methodological issues. In this respect, one may refer to E.H. Carr who in the early 1960s argued that the more sociological history becomes historical sociology, it is better for both. As a matter of fact, sociology and history should have two-way traffic. The view expressed by Carr has been contested. It is said that history is quite varied. For example, one can refer to economic history, political history, social history and so on. In the same way, sociology also has a varied form. It is futile to prolong this debate. The only thing, which we must emphasise is that the sociologists should borrow from historical sources for sociological analysis and vice-versa. Let us consider the relationship between sociology and history. Both are


social science disciplines and both are concerned with human activities and events. The sociologist uses, to all intents and purposes the same record to the past; he is interested in events only in so far as they exemplify social processes. These processes are resulting from interaction and association of individuals in various situations and under various conditions, that is, one is not interested in events as such but one’s interest is in the patterns that they exhibit. The historian interests himself in the particular character of events over a period of time. The sociologist is interested in the regular and the recurrent social phenomena. Generally, we may say that history occupies itself with the differences in similar events and sociology deals with the similarities in different events. Today apart from philosophy the historian is considerably depended upon sociological concepts and narratives. We can say that modern historiography and modern sociology have been influenced by each other. History is concerned primarily with the record of the past. The historian wants to describe, as accura tely as possible, what actually happened to human being during a given epoch, especially from the period when one began to live in cities, and to have, in effect, a civilisation. Thus, the historian presents an accurate description of events, which one, then, relates to one another in a time sequence so that one can have a continuous story from the past to the present. Human being is not


satisfied, however, with mere description; one also seeks to learn the causes of these events, to understand the past not only how it has been but also how it came to be. Nevertheless human beings are interested in events for their own sake. They want to know everything about human existence over a period of time. History seeks to establish the sequence in which events occur; it is the arrangement of social events in time. Sociologist is concerned with relationship between events occurring more or less at the same time. Historians generally restrict themselves to the study of the past, from the more recent to the remotest one. Sociologist shows interest in the contemporary scene or the recent past. Historian, with the notable exception of philosopher of history, as a rule, is content to know how things actually happen. Sociologist seeks to know the inter-relations between events with a view to propose causal sequences. The historian prides himself on the explicitness and concreteness of details. The sociologist abstracts from concrete reality; and then categorises and generalises about the observed phenomena. From the historian’s perspective, the sociological process of abstraction is viewed as a sort of distortion. In summary, then, sociology and history may be distinguished. The former generalises about society; the latter is a particularising or individualising discipline. Sociology is an analytical discipline where as history is a

15

descriptive discipline. Sociology emphasises on the regular and the current where as history investigates the unique and the individual. An event that has occurred only once in the human past is of no sociological significance unless it can be related to a pattern of events that repeats itself generation after generation, historical period after historical period and human group after human group. If the past is conceived of as a continuous cloth unrolling through the centuries, history is interested in the individual threads and strands that make it up; sociology analyses the patterns that human society exhibits. Relationship betwee n Sociology and Economics

Economics investigates all the phenomena relating to production, consumption exchange, and distribution. Thus, economics deals wi th the man age me nt of ma te ria l goods and services among the members of a society. What goods are produced at what rate and at what cost; and how those goods are distributed are the basic concerns of the discipline of economics. Choices of consumers also determine production. Hence, this aspect has also gained significance in economic studies. Thus, the economist concentrates on the study of economic behaviour of the people, while the sociologist is interested in the study of sociology of economic life, such as income, occupation, consumption patterns and styles of life etc.

16


The sociologist critically examines transformation of mechanical (simple) the limitation of economic theory and society into organic (complex) society makes contribution to the study of was not for large scale production but economic phenomena. On the other side, it was a need of the society itself. the economist seems to have become Increased population, differentiated weary of the frequency with which the needs and rules and regulations phrase ‘other things necessitate division of labour. be ing eq ual’ rec urs in ec on omi c Economics and sociology have a twoanalysis. Some economists go beyond way relationship in general. There is description (which forms a large part of much give and take between the two. For most economic textbooks) of a small instance, anthropologists have number of simple presuppositions described the exchange theory in terms about human behaviour. of marriage relations drawing from the It is the emphasis on particular property system. The origin of caste has aspect that distinguishes sociology also been analysed in terms of economic from economics. For instance, Adam division of labour reflected through S m i t h , a f o r e m o s t e c o n o m i s t , j a j m a n i system. Thus, the relations explained that division of labour in between economics and sociology are society came when there was need to deep rooted. have mass production. Adam Smith argued that if there had to be more R e l at i o n s h i p b e t w e e n P o l i t i c a l production, division in society had to S c i e n c e a n d S o c i o l o gy come. For example, he says that the Political science studies political m a n u f a c t u r i n g o f p i n i n c r e a s e d institutions such as the state, tremendously if there was division of government, political parties, labour in its manufacture. He found executive, legislative and judicial that a single worker in a factory could institutions. Political science also produce 40,000 pins in a day, if the studies behaviour of the people in wh ol e ma nu fa ct ur in g un it pa ss ed power. Thus, the concept of power is through several hands. Thus, for him important. Political science can be the division of labour in the society defined as a study of power. Power is was required for mass producti on. the ability of a person or a group to This was his economic perspective : control and influence the behaviour of m o r e d i v i s i o n o f l a b o u r a n d i n others despite their resistance. c o n s e q u e n c e m o r e p r o d u c t i o n . ‘Authority’ refers to the power vested in D i v i s i o n o f l a b o u r b r i n g s a b o u t given persons through institutions differentiation and social ranking in such as office, rank, elections, etc. Sociology also studies power in terms of differential wages and rewards. However, Emile Durkheim terms of its social contexts. In other took a different view on division of words, the processes which enable a labour. He argued t h a t man or a group to wield power and


17

exercise dominance in society represent or constitute power — are the focal point of study in sociology. Thus, the stratification of society in terms of power by different groups, castes, classes and tribal groups becomes the ba si s of so ciol og ic al an al ys is . The interface of political science and sociology can be termed as political sociology. Political sociology, in fact, acts as a bridge between political science and sociology. Sociology is devoted to the study of social aspects of society, whereas political science restricts itself mainly to the study of power as embo died in formal organisations. Sociology stresses upon the inter-relations between institut ions such as sta te, government, political parties, where as political science focuses its attention on the governmental processes. Nevertheless, political sociology has for long shared with political science, many of the common interests and a very similar style. If we look at the relationship between political science and sociology in India, caste has been studied as a resource/

infrastructure to have access to power at the time of elections. How does caste become an in te rest gr ou p and an instrument of mobilisation? This has brought sociology close to political science in particular. Being a social science, sociology shares a wide variety of commonality wit h othe r so ci al sc ie nce s. Th is commonality is because of the fact that in order to build a theoretical framework for the society ‘as a whole man’ has to be studied in totality. The commonalities are in terms of data and method but there are differences also in the approach of study and in the perspectives adopted for study. Sociology has many similarities with other social sciences. It is concerned with history, economics and political science as it studies the bearing of the present on the past, political and economic aspects of social life. Sociology also studies the impact of historical events, state, government and economy on social life of the people. Despite this two-way relationship, sociology has its distinct nature and scope of study as discussed in the preceding chapter.

GLOSSARY E CONOMICS . It deals with the production and distribution of material goods and

services among the members of the society. H ISTORY. This is concerned primarily with record of past. History seeks to

establish the sequence in which events occurred. studies the political institution such as the states, legislative, executive and bureaucracy.

P OLITICAL

SCIENCE . This

S OCIOLOGY . It is the scientific study of social structure, social relationship, social

interaction, etc.

18


EXCERCISES

1. State the similarities and differences between Sociology and History. 2. Explain the relationship between Sociology and Economics. 3. Discuss the relationship between Sociology and Political Science.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Bierstedt, Robert, The Social Order , Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., Mumbai, 1970. 2. Bottomore, T.B., Sociology : A Guide to Problems and Literature , Blackie and Son Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 1978. 3. Carr, E.H., W h a t i s H i s t or y ? Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1961. 4. Inkeles, Alex, W h a t i s S o ci o l og y : A n I n t r o d u c t i on t o t h e D i s c i p l i n e a n d Profession , Prentice-Hall of India Private Ltd., New Delhi, 1977. 5. Ginsberg, M., H i s t o r y a n d S oc i ol o g y in E s s a y s i n S o ci o l o gy a n d S o c i a l Philosophy, Heinemann, London, 1957.


19

CHAPTER 3

Society We all live in society and are bound together through certain norms, values, customs and practices. We very of te n sa y th at we belo ng to a society, and as members we share, certain traditions, historical experiences — pains and pleasures which have been transmitted to us by the preceding generations. Even an Indian living, for example, in England or New York, shares our common traditions and norms. At the same time, we find that the people of Kerala or Assam though have their respective language, life-style etc. identify themselves as members of Indian society as well. This raises the important question : What makes a society? ‘Society’ is the very subjectmatter of sociology. It must be said in the beginning itself that the definition of society is quite technical. It refers to a network of social relationships. A layman’s use of the term is vague, but it is pragmatic for the user. We very often talk about Co-operative Society, a Maharashtrian Society, a Tribal Society, Arya Samaj Society etc. The popular usage of the term ‘society’ is thus not technical. Auguste Comte defined sociology as a discipline dealing with scientific study

of society. According to Durkheim social facts constitute human society. A social fact is a social phenomenon, which makes a man act in a given situation following certain norms. Whi ch ev er way we may de fin e society, one thing is certain, that society, consists of persons (members) having different statuses. In abstract terms, society refers to a web of social relationships. No individual can fulfil all his requirements without society. Some have to produce food, others have to weave clothes, some have to erect houses, and so on so forth. If human being have fulfill their needs, they have to compete with others in different context. Thus, in a society there is consensus on the tasks to be performed for survival but there is also competition/conflict to have greater share in available resources which are scarce. Before we make an attempt to define the term society, we may compare human society with animal society. Am ong an im al s, if so ciet y is to thrive over a time; its members must behave in ways which will enable them (i) to meet their own physical needs in terms of their environment, (ii) to reproduce their kind, and (iii) to

20

integrate their activities (including what ever division of labour exists, whether it be simple or complex). To meet these minimum requirements for survival, animals depend largely upon instinctual learning and communication. Tu rni ng to hu ma n so ci et y, we recognise that for continued existence it also meets the same sort of basic conditions as required in an animal society. Furthermore, humans cannot escape the effect of biological inheritance any more than the bees can. Just as the biological inheritance of the bees determines their physical needs, beha vi ou r- pa tt er ns , le ar ni ng , an d communicating-capacities, likewise, human society is also tied to human being’s biological inheritance. However, it is this very biological inheritance which makes possible the enormous difference between human beings and animals. Particularly to be emphasised are human being’s infinitely greater learning, remembering and abstracting capacities — and their infinitely greater communicating capacities. Because of these capacities, we find human being meeting their minimum societal, survival needs primarily through learned behaviour which does not come ready-made but is invented and transmitted through communication. This meeting of the basic conditions of continued existence by means of learned, normative behavi our rat her tha n primaril y by hereditary mechanisms constitutes


the major difference between human and animal societies. It follows that because of this dependence upon learned, normative behaviour, a new survival need emerges: the continuation of the social system itself. This prerequisite for the continuance of a human society must also be met through learned, normative behaviour. We see this operating chiefly in the society’s patterned ways of socialising the young ( enabling them to acquire their group’s values and behaviour patterns). G e m e i n s c h a f t (community) and ( Society) Gesellschaft In his book on community and association, Tonnies explains the meaning of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. All intimate, private and Gemenschaft refers to a small, face-to faces society where most purple know each other one of community based on shared concerns. Geselschaft on the other hand refers to a more impersand largest unit, that tonnies called society, there the mod of integrasion is through impersonal and formal means. Rural life is characterised by Gemeinschaft relations. It is the lasting and genuine form of collective living. In contrasts to Gemeinschaft, Gesellschaft is transitory and formal. Accordingly, Gemeinschaft understood as a living organism and Gesellschaft as a mechanical can aggregate and artifact. What is Societ y

Technically, society does involve more than one individual. A single individual


does not make a society. But a individual simply is not a biological creature. Human being has a culture, a mind-set, a history; and human being is related to a large number of people in different situations. Today the meaning of society has received new definition. We would here refer to the definition of society. According to MacIver and Page society is the web of social relationships. But society besides structure is also a process, an ever changing entity. A society is a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a particular territorial area and feel themselves a unified and distinct entity. But such a conceptualisation of society seems to be simplistic. There are sociologists who use the term society in a very limited sense. For instance, Durkheim treats society as a reality in its own right. There are a few other sociologists who prefer to drop the concept of society and instead have replaced it by other concepts. The Marxist theoretician Louis Althusser, for example, has suggested the “social formation: a combination of three levels of relationships (economic, ideological, and political) which can have varying connections with each other”. Anthony Giddens, on the other hand, prefers to replace the concept of society by concept of social system. It includes institutions, which may or may not be limited by national boundaries. Despite the variations in our understanding of society, the fact remains that it is a central concept in sociology. Characterisation of society

21

can be provided in terms of certain traits. Harry M. Johnson enlists the following characteristics: (1) definite territory, (2)progeny, (3) culture, and (4) independence. 1 . D ef i n it e Ter r i tor y : A society is a territorial group. Some nomadic societies move about within a much larger territory than they occupy at any one time, but they regard the whole range as “their” country. Ther e are, of course, t erritorial groups within societies, for example, clans, neighbour-hoods, political outfits, cities, countries, etc. 2 . Pr ogen y : Members of a society are recruited, in large part, by means of human reproduction within the group. Many societies also obtain members by adoption, enslave-ment, conquest or immigration, but reproduction within the group itself remains a fundamental source of new members. 3 . C u l t u r e : A society has a “comprehensive” culture in the sense that it is culturally selfsufficient. For example, a society may carry on trade with other societies, but the cultural patterns involved in the trade are a part of the culture of the society itself. The means of payment and the forms of contracts are culturally patterned. A comprehensive culture may have subcultures as well. In case of India people have a comprehensive culture which gives them an

22

identity. We have a common culture, a family system, a set of religious communities, linguistic entities, village communities, and above all a history of shared pains and pleasures. The sub-cultures are, for example, Assami, Punjabi, Rajasthani cultures, etc. each subculture is also characterised by its respective characteristics. 4 . I n d ep en d e n c e : A further characteristic of a society is that it is not a subgroup of any other. We may define “society” as such as a permanent, self-contained and integrated group. Conce ptualising Society

The following view points may be noted on conceptualisaton of the term society: 1 . Soci et y a s S t ru ct u r e : In order to concretise society, it is defined as a structure, that is, a recognisable network of interrelating institutions. The word ‘recognisable’ is crucial in this context, because it suggests that the way in which societies differ from one another depends on the manner in which their particular institutions are interconnected. The notion 2 . S oci et y a s R ec u r r en c e : that societies are structured depends upon their reproduction over time. In this respect the term ‘institution’ is crucial. Institutionalised forms of social conduct refer to modes of belief and behaviour that occur and recur or are socially reproduced. Hence,


although Indian society is continuously changing we can recognise its main features as they are reproduced in institutionalised forms. 3 . S oci et y a s C on t r a d i c ti on : While we may subscri be to the argument that society is both structured and reproduced, it could be claimed that this does not tell us why and how it is structured and reproduced. Marx provides us the basis of understanding how particular social formations arise and correspond with particular modes of production. In this sense, society is not a static or peacefully evolving structure, but is conceived of as the tentative solution to the conflicts arising out of antagonistic social relations of production. Thus, capitalist society is always in the process of being transformed by the tensions and contradictions implicit in the mode of production. 4 . S oci et y a s C u l t u r e : Frequently, social scientists emphasise the cultural aspect of social relationships. In doing so, they see society as being made possible by the shared understanding of its members. Because human beings exist in a linguistic and symbolic universe, which they themselves have constructed, the temptation is to construe society as highly complex symbolic and communication system. Weber and Parsons emphasise that this


23

stress on culture is associated with the notion that ideas and values underpin society. In this respect, one of the perennial problems of social analysis is the analytical distinction between culture and society. It seems highly improbable that such a distinction is valid, except for heuristic purposes. 5 . S oci et y a s P r oc es s : Here the emphasis is on the way in which people continuously interact with one another. The key terms are ‘negotiation’, ‘self-other’, ‘reflexivity’

— the implication being that society is constituted and reconstituted in social interaction. Society is not imposed upon people, rather it is accepted by participants. All the explanations have implicit or explicit assumptions about human nature. However, the opposition between i ndividu al and society still remains a bothersome points in sociological analysis. Our analysis of the term ‘society’ brings out the debate relating to this contentions relationship between individual and society.

GLOSSARY D IVISION

OF LABOUR . Distribution

of work among the people according to their

skill and competence. GEMEINSCHAFT . A type of society in which everyone knows everyone and people

share a sense of togetherness. GESELLSCHAFT. A type of society which is dominated by impersonal relationship,

individual accomplishment and self-interest. SOLIDARITY . A collective consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks.

MECHANICAL

SOLIDARITY. A collective consciousness based on the inter-dependence brought about by division of labour.

ORGANIC

P ROGENY. Members of a society are recruited, in large part, by means of human

reproduction within the group. S OCIETY. Society is a web of social relationships. Or society is a group of people

who share a common culture, occupy a particular territorial area and feel themselves a unified and distinct entity. S OCIAL

COHESION. The

degree to which members of a group or society feel united by shared values and other social bonds.

EXERCISES

1. Explain society as a process. 2. Does society exist independently?

24


3. 4. 5. 6.

Define society. Discuss its major characteristics. Distinguish between animal and human society. Explain the meaning of the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. How do you conceptualise society?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Davis, Kingsley, Hu ma n Society , The Macmillan Company, New York, 1970. 2. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1994. 3. Johnsons, H.M., Sociology: A Sy stematic Int roduction, Allied Publishers, New Delhi, 1970. 4. MacIver, R.M. and Charles H. Page, Society: An Introd uctory A naly sis, The Macmillan Co. India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, 1974.


25

CHAPTER 4

Social Groups Sociology is the study of social relations. It is primarily concerned with social groups. A person cannot be social by himself/herself unless he/ she has previously lived with others. Person’s life is to an enormous extent a group life. The groups we belong to are not all of equal importance to us. Some groups tend to influence many aspects of our lives and bring us into personal and familiar association with others. Acc ord ing to Sus an A. Wheelm an’s perspective: “groups are very real... Groups influence our thoughts and behaviour even when we are alone... Groups expand or limit our personal choices and even the contents of our minds... Forces that are so powerful cannot be ignored or denied”. Before we loo k at the nat ure an d classification of groups, we should know how groups arise. Formation of Group

We need first to know why and how groups are formed. As a simple statement, groups are formed in order to satisfy human needs. Human being’s basic need is his/her survival, and the family is an illustration of such a group, which serves to meet this need,

without the help of others the human infant would perish. Groups also provide many activities, which would not be possible by a lone individual. It takes twenty-two individuals to play football, and it takes many thousands to support a fair. We derive such satisfaction from groups that group affiliation itself becomes precious to us. We want to feel that we belong to certain groups and that these groups accept us. In this way, groups provide us with security and fellowship. However, formation of a group depends upon specific purpose. Definition of Group

Groups are the essence of life in society. In our own society we often use the word “group” which refers to such diverse collectivities as the family, the crowd or the social class, informal cliques or vast communities. These also refer to the members of races or religions or occupations, or to this or that division of sex or age or intelligence or temperament. We bs te r’ s (N in th Ne w Co ll eg ia te ) Dictionary (1989) defines group as “a number of individuals assembled together or having some unifying relationship”. In contrast Luft (1984)

26

defines group as a living system, self regulating through shared perception and interaction, sensing feedback and through interchange with the environment. Each group has unique wholeness qualities that becom e patterned by way of members’ thinking, feeling and communicating, into structured subsystems. A group maintains its balance by progressively changing its rules and gu idelines continuously. If we were to bring out some of the major characteristics of group on the basis of def initions given above we wou ld sa y tha t a gro up has the following elements: 1. No single person can constitute a group. There must be a number of individuals to form a group. Family, caste, kin, class are examples of a group. 2. Membership of a group is either formal or informal. 3. There is a shared sense of unity among the members of a group. 4. There is more or less stable pattern of relationship among members of a group. Nature of Social Group


aggregate, as are all males over six feet tall. To use Erving Goffman’s phrase, aggregates are gatherings of people in unfocused interaction with one another. Of course, within aggregates various kinds of group relationships may usually be found. However, unlike members of a group, the individuals who make up an aggregate neither interact with one another nor take one another into account. Another is social category, which is a statistical grouping – people classified together on the basis of a particular characteristic they share, such as having the same level of income or being in the same occupation. Social categories are quite frequently and regularly employed in sociological research. For instance, if we are interested in caste relations in India, we might need to analyse difference in average earning between lower cast es and upper castes, regarding them as two distinct statistical categories. To sum up, therefore, social group consists of individuals who interact wit h each other on a reg ula r basis. Further, members of a group expect a certain type of behaviour from one another. Also groups differ in size, ranging from intimate associations, like a family to large collectivities such as a sports club.

The concept of group is different from other related concepts. We would here differentiate it from aggregate and social category. Aggregates are simply collection of people who are in the same place at the same time, but share Types of Soc ial Group no definite connection with one another. For example, all college All groups are not alike. One can see females who wear glasses are an differences among various groups


27

based on size, proximity, complexity, membership, goal and means. Some groups like family are small in size others like a political party may be very big. Groups may be divided into primary, secondary, in-groups, out-groups member-ship, non-membership, formal, informal, etc. On the basis of individual’s orientation in relation to a group, the concept of reference-group has also taken shape in sociology. Groups differ from one another in terms of their size, nature, objective and life-span. Sociologists have made an elaborate exercise to classify the groups. We give below some of the major classifications adopted by sociologists:

primary in several senses, but chiefly in that they are fundamental in forming the social nature and ideals of the nature. The result of the intimate association, psychologically, is a certain fusion of individuality in a common hold.” Cooley specified five basic characteristics of primary groups: 1. Face-to-face association 2. the unspecialised character of association 3. relative permanence 4. limited size and limited membership, and 5. intimacy among the members. Primary groups are generally small and intimate as in family and peer groups where individuals have direct 1 . P ri m a ry a n d S e c o n d a ry Gro u p s contact. Members of the primary group In the classification of human groups, interact and have concern for each one of the broadest and most other. Charles H. Cooley believes that fundamental distinction is that membership in primary group is the between small and intimate groups on essential link between the individual the one hand, and large and and society. It is these links that create impersonal groups, on the other. The the co-operation that characterise origin of primary and secondary group society. In pre-industrial societies, conceptialisation is traced back to the almost all social life took place in the work of Charles H. Cooley (1909). context of primary groups such as kinship network as in some village Pr i m a r y G r o u p groups in India. I n h i s b o o k S oc i a l o r g a n i s a t i o n , Cooley used the term primary group to refer to small associations of people connected by ties of emotional feelings. The family is an example of primary group. As Cooley puts it: “By primary groups I mean those characterised by intimate face-to-face association and cooperation. They are

S ec o n d a r y G r o u p

The secondar y groups ar e ju st the opposite of primary group. Impresonal, formal and indirect relationships exists among the members of secondary groups. The relationship among the members of club, professional group, political party

28

or trade unions come under the category of secondary groups. These relationships are based on mutual interest. The basis of these relationships are located in utility or common interests. A Secondary group is a number of people who meet regularly, but their relationships are mainly impersonal. Individuals in secondary group do not have intimate contact with each other, and normally come together for specific practical purposes only. A committee or club is a good example of a secondary group. Of course, in actual social situations, the distinction be twe en pr im ary and se co nd ary groups is not clear-cut. People who regularly attend committee meetings together, for example, might become very friendly and spend time with one another informally. Secondary groups are usually formal groups where special roles are required of members and where total personalities of individuals may not be brought int o play. In such g roups, goals are more specific and organisations more structured than in primary groups; also there is lesser intimacy and personal interaction than in primary groups. Secondary groups are generally regulated by a set of formal rules; there is a formal authority set up with designated power and sharp division of labour. Within the orbit of secondary groups, it may also be possible to form primary groups. For example, in a football team, two players may develop an intimate friendship. The focus of their interaction


may widen to include their entire selves. Thus, secondary group has following characteristics: 1. formal relationships 2. lack of intimacy, and 3. unlimited size. In short, the primary group is a personal group, the secondary group an impersonal one; we have personal relations with members of the primary group and impersonal relations with members of secondary group. The relations we have with members of our primary groups are ‘personal’ and ‘intrinsic’; those we have in our secondary groups are ‘categoric’ and ‘extrinsic’. In the primary group, in other words, we evaluate people intrinsically in terms of their personal characteristics, whereas in the secondary group we evaluate them extrinsically in terms of the social categories, or statuses, they occupy. ‘We feeling’ related with primary group and ‘they feeling’ related with secondary group. 2 . In -Gro u p a n d Ou t -Gro u p

In Folkw ays, William Graham Sumner (1906) described social groups in two ways: In-group and out-group : In-group and out-group are found in all societies. ‘ In-group’ are ‘we-group.’ The contrasting ‘out-group’ are ‘they-group’ or ‘othersgroup.’ These groups have become a regular feature of modern sociological literature. For any individual ‘In-group’ is the group to which he/she belongs whe rea s ‘ou t-g rou p’ is on e to which other than ‘him/her’ belong. Ingroups and out-groups are of no


specific size and may indeed be highly variable. The groups with which the individual identifies himself/herself are h is / h er in-groups: family, tribe, sex, college, or occupation by virtue of one’s awareness of likeness or conscious-ness of kind. Thus, in-group is a circle of people to which he or she belongs. Ingroup conveys a feeling of ‘we’, a sense of unity. The groups with which the individual identifies himself/herself are his/her in-groups. An in-group acquires its consciousness of being from the exclusion of some persons as well as from the inclusion of other persons. An in-group may be as small as a family or as large as a society itself. And the outgroup, then, is simply everybody who is not in the family or not in the in-group, as the case may be. In contrast, an out-group is a circle of people to which an individual feels no sense of belonging. Out-groups convey a feeling of ‘they’ or ‘those others’. For example, a tiller of the soil in India views his/her landlord as ‘outgroup’. It follows that out-group is defined by the individual with relation to the in-group, usually expressed in the contrast between ‘we’ and ‘they’ or ‘other.’ An in-group is simply the ‘we group’, an out-group, the ‘theygroup’. The in-group includes ourselves and anybody we happen to mean when we use the pronoun ‘we’. The out- group, by su bt ra ct ion, includes everybody else or, as we may somewhat paradoxically say, everybody who is excluded when we use the word ‘we’. In-group attitudes, as we have seen,

29

usually contain some element of sympathy and always a sense of attachment to the members of the group. Out-group attitudes are always marked by a sense of difference and frequently, though not always, by some degree of antagonism. The latter varies from the mild antipathy of, say, fraternity members towards the ‘unorganised’ college students to such powerful aversions as those engendered by the culturally imposed higher caste-lower caste line in a theoretically democratic society. Every social group is an in-group for its members – the concept applies equally to the smallest clique and the largest aggregation of individuals so long as they are aware of their identity. Systematic study requires that we distinguish between the broad types of grouping that permeate the social structure. One such type is the primary group, the intimate face-to-face collectivity. A contrasting type is the large-scale association, the great impersonal organisation of individual. These two types to which we devote the remainder of this chapter are found in all complex societies, though their concrete manifestations assume a variety of forms. 3 . F o rm a l an d In f o rm a l Gro u p s

Groups are classified as formal and informal. The formal group tends to be either large or a part of a large organisation. An army and a labour union is the example of formal group. A formal group always has a normative,

30


hierarchical structure or status system. Formal groups are usually compared with informal groups. A group without formally stated group rules, goals or leaders is called informal group. It is typically small; and often; casually and spontaneously formed. Interaction is based on common interests and intimate conduct. Informal groups may or may not have strong group norms, and adherence to group norms rests on personal loyalty rather than on explicit group rules. Children’s play groups and gangs, as well as collegues (which might be formed wi th in a fo rm al orga nisa ti on), ar e examples of informal groups. Informal group is a social unit which has all g r o u p characteristics. They have established system of interpersonal relations, joint activities, the feeling of belonging to a group but they lack any legal s t a t u s . Brought together by common interests lying outside the professional field, informal groups exist in the form of clubs, sports sections, societies, etc. Informal groups united by professional interests often function as c o l l e c t i v i t i e s of creative workers (e.g. the so-called invisible colleges-informal associations of

scientists employed by different organisations but maintaining contacts with colleagues researching into the same set of problems). Members of all informal groups are united by friendly feelings, mutual liking, emotional attractions, understanding and respect, which frequently exert a beneficial influence on relati onship within the groups. The term informal group and primary , although occasionally used group synonymously and interchangeably, should be distinguished from each other. As opposed to an informal group, a primary group may be highly structured by traditional roles (as in the patriarchal family), or by bureaucratic organisation (as a military platoon). Such a group is not properly an informal group, even though its formal structure may be modified by a spontaneous and informal arrangement. An informal group does not have standardised and rationalised group-goals, especially those imposed from outside. Its normative structure is a product of face-to-face interaction and is sustained by the close personal relations among the members.

GLOSSARY A G G R E G A T E . An ag gr eg at e is a co ll ec ti on of pe op le wh o ha ve si mi la r

characteristics, without necessarily having a personal relationship with one another. IN- GROUP. Group toward which one feels loyalty. OUT -GROUP . Group toward which one feels antagonism. P RIMARY- GROUP . A group characterised by intimate , long term, face-to-face

association and co-operation.


31

GROUP. As contrasted with a primary group, it is a larger, relatively temporary, more anonymous, formal and impersonal group based on some specific interest or activity, whose members are likely to interact on the basis of specific roles.

S ECONDARY

S MALL

GROUP . A

group small enough for every one to interact directly with all the other members.

S OCIAL

GROUP . When

two or more persons come into social relationships and influence one another, they constitute a social group or patterned interaction, shared beliefs and values, and ‘consciousness of kind’ characterise a social group.

S OCIAL

NETWORKS . Social

ties radiating outward from the self, that link people

together.

EXCERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

What is a group? How groups are formed? Define social category. What do you mean by aggregates? What are primary groups? What are secondary groups? Explain the major criteria used for classifying groups. ‘Individual’s life is group life’ — Discuss. Differentiate between primary and secondary groups. Differentiate between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ groups. Differentiate between ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Cooley, Charles H., Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind , Scribners, New York, 1909. 2. Homans, G.C., The Hu man group , Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1950. 3. MacIver, R.M. and Charles H. Page, Society : An Introdu ctory Analy sis , The Macmillan Co. of India Ltd., Delhi, 1977. 4. Sumner, WIlliam Graham, F o l k w a y s , Dover, New York, 1906.

32


CHAPTER 5

Social Control Soc ial Cont rol : Its Usage and Soc ial Relevance

Our behaviour in day-to-day life is quite orderly and disciplined. We walk and drive on the left side of the road; we respect our elderly people and obey our parents. We pay taxes to the government and whenever required we stand in a queue. Thus, consciously or unconsciously we follow the norms and va lue s of th e so ci et y to whi ch we belong. But there are people who are said to be deviant in society; they smoke in public places and consume liquor. They use filthy language in their conversation and display indecent mannerism. Such persons usually be co me vi ct ims of cr itici sm an d condemnation. There are measures of social control. Society exercises its control through state, educational institutions, civic bodies and a variety of other institutions. It is our belief that society cannot function properly without appropriate exercise of social control. The regulation of behaviour, thus, in a society, whether of individuals or of groups, is undertaken in two ways. It happens either by the use of force or by institutions through norms, values

and inherent in various social institutions which are gradually acceptable to the people. The term ‘social control’ is generally used by sociologists to refer to the second kind of regulations in which the appeal to values and norms reduces or mitigates tensions and conflicts among individuals and between groups. Edward A. Ross initially used the concept of social control for maintaining order in society. However, his use of the term was rather vague. Yet, one gathers that he was mainly concerned with those regulative institutions that insure individual behaviour in conformity with group demands. He showed the important role that belief in the supernatural, ceremonies, public opinion, morals, art, education, law and related phenomena play in maintaining the normative structure of society. Ross’s contemporary, William G. Sumner attempted in his famous book F ol k w a y s (1906) a somewhat similar task. In the sub-title of his book, A Stud y of th e Sociological Im porta nce of Usages, Man ners, Customs an d Morals ,

he indicates that norms serve to insure individual conformity. The French Sociologist Emile Durkheim


maintained that the essence of control lay in the individual’s sense of moral obligation to obey a rule — the voluntary acceptance of duty rather than a simple exterior conformity to outside pressure. One may ask: Why is there need for social control? To answer the question, at a minimum, long period of order and stability in human behavior are required for the continued existence of social structure. Of the greater significance is the degree of integration of cognitive (beliefs and knowledge), material and normative ( values and norms) dimensions, for without a high degree of integration a social structure could not exist. However, much of the recurrence and predictability in human behaviour and thought is made possible by two aspects of the normative dimension-norms themselves (which are crucial for social order and stability), and the enforcement of these norms. Adherence to these norms is fostered through both childhood and adult socialisation, the process whereby culture is transmitted; and through sanctions, or behaviour designed to ensure conformity to norms. Institutions of Social Control

The individuals and groups are obliged to comply with the social control measures through a network of social institutions. The social institutions are several — family, kin, caste, village, education, state, religion and economic organisation. Perhaps

33

among these institutions, the most powerful are the state and religion. Th es e in st it ut io ns ex er ci se so ci al control both in informal and formal ways. The state exercises legal power to control the individual and group behaviour. If we commit violence, the police punishes us; if we do not pay taxes we are prosecuted; if we are short of attendance in the class, the school disallows us to appear in the examination. These are all formal method of social control. There are informal methods of social control also. When we disobey our parents and elderly persons, our peers and neighbours look upon us down. When we display bad manners, we are criticised. Religion has a great influence in exercising informal control on the individuals and groups. Thus the institutions are the powerful mechanism to control our behaviour. Recently, the institutional role of social control has increased through new tools of globalisation such as electronic and print media. Television, movies and internet are new tools to bring the individuals in to the net of social control. Social control is reinforced through institutional mechanisms, which establish desirable patterns of behaviour. Institutions ensure desired behaviour patterns. William Graham Sumner views that anything can be made to seem acceptable, if the society has devised norms to support the thing. The most important norms in a society are those that are institutionalised. An institution for this purpose may be defined as a formal

34

and stable way of pursuing an activity that is important to a society. The family, for example, is an institution; it is accepted or socially approved way to pursue the important activities of sex and child rearing. Other institutions help to regulate and pattern such activities as religion, political use of power and education of both young and old. Institutions have assumed importance because they are made up essentially of norms — rules and guidelines, which bring the erring and deviant individuals to conform to the order of society. Some examples of institutionalised norms in the family are those that prescribe love and loyalty between husband and wife, regulate the care of dependent children and stimulate co-operation in the performance of family activities. To respect parents, to adhere to different etiquette in day-to-day life, show compassion for the poor are some of the examples of institutionalising the family norms. Mechanisms of Social Control

Every group has some mechanisms, some means of accommodating the individual members to one another. In their book I n t r o d u c t o r y S oc i o l og y , Sutherland, et. al. (1961) view that any social attitude, custom, or institution, which modifies be haviour in the direction of group unity is a form of social control. In reality, all forms of social organisations, from a trade union to the federal constitution are means of social control.


Mechanism of social control is specific to the structure and type of society. The U.S. society in its structure is different from European society. In the case of our Indian society, we are multi-ethnic people. With the diversity of our people, the methods of social control also vary. The state legislation also varies. Some fields of society are the concern of the centre and some are that of the state. For instance, education and agriculture are the state subjects. It is the state, which legislates for the social control of these fields. The same applies to the policy with regard to language. Social controls are therefore, specific to the group or to the society. Informal mechanisms also vary accordingly. Jainism and Vaishanaism do not permit the acceptance of non veg eta rian food. Her e the informal mechanisms work to control the behaviour of the followers of these religions. Th is bri ng s us to sp ec ify the importance of two major forms of social control: informal and formal. Inform al Mec hanis ms I n f o r m a l c on t r o l s are “unofficial”

and tend to occur in small groups. In the introduction of his book, I n t e r a c t i o n i n Sm a l l G r ou p s , Crosbie (1975) has listed four basic types of informal control. S oc i a l r e w a r d s w h i ch i n cl u de s mi l e s, n od s o f approval and more tangible acts such as promoting an employee, reward conformity that indirectly discourages deviance. P u n i s h m e n t , which inc ludes frowns, cr iticism


and even physical threats, targets deviant acts directly and is intended to stop them. Persua sion is another way of bringing deviants into line. A baseball player who breaks training may be persuaded by a coach to fall in line with other players and take it seriously. Redefining norms is the forth type of social control. A more complicated kind of social control is to redefine norms in the context of the changed set of circumstances and values. For instance, it was once unusual for a husband to stay home, do the housework and take care of children. But in view of the changed circumstances women taking to out of home work, husbands — especially in the urban settings — expected to take turns with their working wives in taking care of their homes and children. In our day-to-day life we come across a large number of cases, where informal methods of social control are used. Informal mechanisms include established and accepted institutions and customs relating to socialisation, education, marriage rules, family life and interpersonal relations. This kind of control mechanism functions through informal sanctions, which are expressions of reward or punishment exhibited by members of primary groups. For instance if one eats ones food by left hand, one is rebuked. On the other hand, a smile or a disapproving look may express some positive or negative sanctions in any given society. Generally, the informal application of social sanctions is one

35

of the main functions of the primary group. Negative sanctions used range from a gesture of disapproval to rejection by the grou p. Ev en a ph ysi ca l punishment is not spared. For most people, primary group sanctions are adequate deterrents to a deviant behaviour. Informal social control can also be exercised, besides family, by other social institutions for instance, clan, community and neighbourhood. Clan is a wider social circle, which includes both our marital kin as well as blood kin. The members of kin group also exercise social control on the individual. For instance, if a daughter-in-law who has newly entered the family does not abide by the norms and practices of the behave according to the norms of family of inlaws, she is pressurised through her blood kins to identify herself with the new family. Cousins and collaterals exercise similar influence. In our country, the informal social control wielded by the village community is quite effective. If an erring son does not take care of his parents, the whole village community shows scorn and disrespect for the boy. An individual in the village cares more for his/her village people than anyone else. In a tribal society, for instance, a Gond or a Santhal would prefer to go to prison than to earn the displeasure of his village folks. Similar is the informal control exercised by people living in the neighbourhood. For example, even in big cities, one has to be sensitive to the attitudes of one’s locality members.

36

Besides, social institutions, there are some traditions in a society, which need to be followed. The social institutions consist of folkways and mores. Folkways in simple words mean customary ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. If there is a marriage in the family, the people in a village think of arranging a feast. The argument is simple: ‘we have enjoyed several feasts at other people’s marriage, this is our turn; and we should do it in a graceful way’. It is also called custom. Yet another custom is to put on festive clothes on occasions of celebrations. The folkways are in fact, the traditional customs of a community. It is expected of the members of the community to give due regard to the observance of folkways. It is a clear case of informal social control. If the folkways are not observed, the deviant becomes vulnerable to public criticism. He/she is condemned and in some cases ostracised. Mores are forms of norms, which are consciously created. They need to be preserved. It is through the mores that a society gets its continuity. Violation of mores entails evil for the society. These have to be observed, and therefore, mores are perhaps the strongest mechanisms of social control. Limit ation s o f Inform al Cont rols and Sacntions

Informal sanctions can be very effective but they have limitations. One is that such sanctions may be so vaguely defined that they do not serve as an


effective deterrent. The deviant does not really know what punishment, if any will be given . Another is that per son al feelings, relative social statuses and considerations of group solidarity enter into informal situations. Lack of desire to apply the sanctions or lack of power to do so, can also hinder social control. A st ude nt wh o di sc ov er s a fri en d cheating in a school examination may condemn his/her friend’s action on moral grounds or because it will put hard work at a low premium. But, since he/she is a friend and a classmate, the student in question may not report his/ her cheating for fear of jeopardizing his/ her friendship, placing himself/herself in an unpopular position of a ’snitch’, and becoming a social outcast among his/ her other friends. Formal Mechanism

Due to limitations and weaknesses of informal social control mechanisms, many organisations and positions specialising in the process of social control have been created in modern societies. Formal controls include all the legislation and enactments practiced at various levels such as village, district, state and national level from time to time. Formal control is ‘official’ and usually involves large organisations such as police departments. The agents of formal organisations and rules enforce conformity. Police departments and other lawenforcement agencies courts, mental hospitals and prisons, etc. are organisations of this kind, enforcing


rules that have been written into law. Members of social control agencies make up a sizable portion of the labour force and include police officers, judges, lawyers, prison employees, tax collectors, legislators, social workers, ministers, doctors and other officials in government regulatory agencies. All of them exert social control as a part of their duties. The network of such formal positions has tended in modern times to grow immediately and to overshadow and dominate the informal social-control agencies and mechanisms. In the process, it has become more impersonal over time and possibly also more just. For example, the school organisations, in their day-today functioning often exercise formal and impersonal social control in matters of admission, during the periods of tests and tournaments. Sociologists have also discovered that formal means of social control can also act as informal (subject to circumstances) means. In his paper on Social Control in the Prison , in his book entitled T h e o r i t i c a l s t u d i e s i n So ci a l O r g a n i s a t i o n o f t h e Pr i s o n , Richard Cloward (1960) investigated the relationship of prison guards to prisoners and reported on the way in which gu ards bar gain wit h t he inmates by ‘forgetting’ to enforce some rules and expect prisoners to cooperate in observing other rules. The guards may also give preferential treatment to certain kinds of rule br ea ki ng . It should be noted that whether sanctions are formal or

37

informal, they might be either positive (rewarding) or negative (punishing). Political organisations function as formalised groups in regulating beh avi our in so ciety. It is a very important feature of social structure. In some societies, it is an undifferen-tiated phase - the political, the economic and the religious behaviour of the group is an integrated pattern of living. The political organisation controls through secondary, impersonal measures, in contrast with the personal influences of a primary group. The political organisation (Government) sets for itself the task of protecting or maintaining certain values through rewards and punishments. State as a Soc ial Group of Government Control

When the members of a society are considered with reference to their political behaviour, they are called citizens or subjects and the group to which they belong is called the stat e. The st a te invol ves a t err it or y , a government, and a people. If the people are unified culturally by common folkways and traditions, they are also called a nation. When the folk and citizens are one and the same, when the nation and the state coincide, the greatest group unity is possible. The government includes those official agencies and functionaries by means of which the state achieves it sends. The laws are rules of the state codified, enacted or decreed and enforced through the machinery of government.

38

The state differs from other social groups within its territory in that it alone may exercise social control by coercive force, but this difference is less significant than is commonly supposed. Although the state is entrusted with coercive authority, it does not rely on that type of control alone, but functions very much as do other secondary groups whose purpose is to facilitate the co-operation of large number of people in a common enterprise. Indeed modern states have taken over the functions of many private agencies of social welfare, in which the punitive feature is almost negligible. On the other hand, some non-official agencies have types of formal authority over their members, which are not far different from those of the state. Government is one of the agencies for exercising social control through the agency of State. The functionaries of government control with the formal device of constitution applying methods which they consider necessary and important. Formal devices are in fact, formal sanctions. Formal sanctions are codified and administered by officials. Thus, formal sanctions reside in the hands of appointed or elected representatives of the society. These also rest on established procedures and written codes; and are more intimately involved with legal norms. State functions through governments. The government is extended from Centre, State to municipality and p a n c h a y a t s . All these forms and


manifestations of state are great mechanisms of social control and also administrative functioning. Besides, giving sanitary facilities, the municipality also looks after the development work of its area. The municipality looks after the provision for habitation area, road and transport, electricity and environment. It thus, has a massive control on the community life in the municipal area. At the village level, we again have p a n c h a y a t s , which have been given a new dimension of social and administrative control through the seventy third constitutional amendment. Pa n c h a y a t R a j gives representation now to the disadvantaged members of the society especially women from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. Under the new provision, the g r a m p a n c h a y a t has statutory control over all its natural resources such as water, forest and land. This empowerment makes a P a n c h a y a t a strong mechanism of social control. Law

In our societies law is based upon moral notion; moral rules are also strongly influenced by religion. This is evident in the sphere of legislation, whi ch alw ays de ri ve s fr om so ci al doctrines and ideals. But equally, in the administration of justice and in judicia l decisions, there has almost always been reference to the fundamental moral ideals of society. They are in terms of ‘reason’, ‘natural


law’, ‘equity’ or in recent time’s as ‘public policy’, as well as in terms of written or traditional law. The specific character of the legal regulation of conduct may, however, be considered from another aspect. In general, legal rules are more precise than moral rules. Legal sanctions are more definite and frequently more effective than those of morality as viewed by Durkheim. As Bertrand Russell has remarked, ‘the good behaviour of even the most exemplary citizen owes much to the existence of a police force’. It is hardly possible, and certainly not useful, to conceive a society of any degree of complexity in which social behaviour would be regulated entirely by the moral sanctions of praise and blame. Th is di sc uss ion ind ica tes the importance of law, which, though it rests upon moral sentiments and is influenced by the institutional arrangements of a society, brings about a degree of certainty in human behaviour. Moreover, law may have an independent influence upon social be ha vi ou r, be ca us e it es ta bl is he s attitudes and conduct in a society which to start with, might have belong to only a small minority of reformers . At this stage, it is interesting to ask the question: What does law consist of? Study of law clearly shows that it is a collection of customary laws of the people. Each group has its customary laws. The Hindus have their own laws. These are not divine but have been legislated by the Hindu Lawmakers. Th es e la ws are ba se d on Hi nd u

39

traditions. The Muslim law conforms to the Muslim scriptures and religious literature. The Muslims have their Muslim personal Law. Likewise, the tribals also have their customary laws, which are taken care of by the state laws. The Hindus have various laws relating to marriage, family, succession, inheritance and guardianship, etc. Th us , th e la ws co me to ha ve bo th customary and legislative support as parliament and legislatures enact them. If there is a prohibition on liquor or restrictions on dowry it is all law because it has the support of customs and the law-making bodies. The formal social control exercised by the law, thus, has greater legitimacy. Informal and Formal Control in Count ry-Town Sit uation

Robert Bierstedt makes distinction between informal and formal control in country-town situation. Social control in the city presents a striking contrast to its counter part in the country. In the former situation it tends to be secondary and formal; in the latter primary and informal. The gossip keeps the individual members of a small community ‘in line’. It operates as a potent sanction inducing conformity to the norms while it has no relevance in the city. We need not elaborate upon the function of gossip as a means of social control. It is an instrument in the small community that permits the prompt application of sanctions to those who fail to conform to the norms.

40

It is apparent that gossip can have no such function in the metropolis. The primar y grou ps in which it operates so effectively in the village have no definite locus in the city; they exist, but not at a given place. An individual can easily withdraw from them or otherwise avoid them. If the city provides privacy, it also furnishes anonymity to those who desire it. One may escape the primary social controls altogether at the price of dispensing with group affiliations, both formal and informal. On the other hand, the formal social controls — the law and police — are very much more in evidence in the city than these are in the rural community. No one is immune from the parking regulation, none from the traffic ticket. The sanctions of the law press upon all alike who are tempted to stray from its requirements, and they are applied, if not with complete impartiality, at least with impersonality. At the same time, it is apparent that the city exhibits more tolerance for certain kinds of conduct and be ha vi our, and fo r in di vi du al idiosyncrasy, than does the small community. The reason is simple. The city is a place of contrasts. Its very heterogeneity suggests that there will be many different sets of norms. The citizens themselves are exposed to variegated cultures and to diversified ways of working and worshipping. The city person sees the multi-language newspapers on the stalls and in the subway. He/She is accustomed to differences, and learns to tolerate


them. The strange and the unfamiliar persons do not look surprising to each other. The city has taught them to expect it and to live with it. The villager, on the other hand, is likely to greet the unfamiliar with suspicion and even with hostility. Village unity is familiar in our country. Iravati Karve in her study of kinship behaviour in India reports that the son-in-law of a particular family in village is treated as a son-in-law of the whole village. When he passes through the village streets, the women veil faces. Obviously, such a behaviour in a city is absent. Contrast in Terms of Social Control

The divide in terms of differential social control can be further seen in rural and urban life. The basic fabric of any community is its family and the mechanisms of social control differ considerably in the urban and rural life. In other words, we propose to see the role of family in both these communities. MacIver and Page divide rural and urban communities in matters of social control on two fundamental points: 1 . T h e R u r a l Co m m u n i t y

In the rural life, where the family is relatively dominant and self-contained, a group responsibility prevails. In the city, it tends to be more and more fragile. In the comparative absence of other forms of relationships, the patriarchal type of family tends to persist, imposing greater control over its members. The status of the


individual is likely to be the status of his/ her family. Property is likely to be thought of as a family possession. Family opinion develops about most matters of interest and is apt to permeate in all its members. Generally, there is less individual questioning and contest. Marriage itself is a duty to the family, a responsibility of the individual for the maintenance of its name, line, property; and is often decided by the family, as to wh om ind ivi du al ma rr y. Not on ly marriage, but also religion, occupation, mode of living, recreation and politics are far more strongly influenced by family tradition in the rural community than in the city. Th e do mi na nc e of the fa mil y explains, in large measure, why social control in the rural community is exercised with a minimum of formality and a maximum of command. The group mores, reflecting a commonly shared system of values, are themselves effective as social pressures, in little need of support from specialised control agencies. Gossip and the other informal devices of social regulation tend to prevent wide departures from the code . 2 . T h e Ur b a n Co m m u n i t y

Urban community is different from village community so far the exercise of social control is concerned. Rural community is essentially a traditional society. The mechanism of social

41

control is, therefore, specific to this community. The urban community is complex; hence it is complex mechanism of social control. In towns and cities, the patterns of social behaviour are informal. The formal methods of social control wor k in su ch a so ci et y rel atio ns are contractual; there is enough linguistic, caste-class and technological multiplicities. Conflict and tensions are likewise common. Therefore, the mechanisms of social control are largely legal and exercised by state and secondary institutions. Social control in the city, especially wh en the co mm uni ty rea ch es the dimensions of the modern metropolis reflects the multiplicity of social contacts, the diversity of social codes and the predominance of secondary relationships. Regulation itself becomes in large part the activity of specialised associations, including the agencies of the impersonal law. Police and courts as well as teachers and social workers tend to take over the regulatory functions of the family head or the family circle. If the city dweller’s rights are trespassed or his/her child is criminally delinquent or, if he/she has offended the legal code, most likely the judge and the law will decide the issue. On the other hand, his/her deviations from the norms of conduct, sexual and otherwise, may pass unnoticed, relatively unchecked by gos si p or op in io n, in th e impersonalised urban world.

42


GLOSSARY B ELIEFS . Ideas or theories about the natural or supernatural world that are not

supported by objective or factual evidence. F OLKWAYS . Social ways that are considered significant but are not strictly

enforced. IDEOLOGY. A set of thought. INTERNALISATION . Acceptance by individuals of the norms of a group or society

or part of their own personality. It may happen unconsciously as in the case of a child who starts following certain norms or values without questioning, mostly through the process of imitation of the adults. LAWS . Standardised and formalised norms that regulate human conduct. MORES . Social practices that provide the moral standards of a group or society

and that are strictly enforced. NORM. A rule or standard that defines what people should or should not do, think

or feel in any given social situation. S ANCTION. A reward (positive sanction) directed at a person or group to encourage

conformity to social norms; alternatively a punishment is a negative sanction directed at a person who deviates from a socially prescribed and expected behaviour. S OCIAL

CONTROL. Any

mechanism or agency that conditions or limits the actions of individuals or groups in order to motivate them to conform to social norms.

VALUE . A widely held belief about what is good, right, wise or beneficial.

EXCERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

What is meant by social control? What is formal social control? Explain non-formal control. Define mores. How does social control operate in society? How does social control operate in primary groups? What is the role of customs in social control? Distinguish between custom and law. Discuss the nature of social control. Distinguish between formal and non-formal social control. Discuss the institutions of social control. Explain any one institution in detail. What are various means of social control? “Religion controls society non-formally” — Discuss. Distinguish between religion and morals.


SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Bierstedt, Robert, The Social Order, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., Mumbai, 1970. 2. Bottomore, T.B., Sociology, Blackie and Sons Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 1971. 3. MacIver, R.M. and Charles H. Page, Society : An Introductory Ana lysis, The Macmillan Co. India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, 1974. 4. Ross, Edward A., Social Psy chology , Macmillan, New York, 1921. 5. Smelser, Neil J., Sociology, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1993.

43

44


CHAPTER 6

Culture DEFINING CULTURE

This chapter is an attempt to describe the meaning of “culture” and to discuss its types. The word culture comes from the Latin word colere , which means “to cultivate, to till the soil.” In medieval times, the term came to refer to the progressive refinement of crops — hence the term a g r i c u l t u r e was associated with the art of farming. But in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term referred to the refinement of people as well. Therefore, when a person was refined and well read, she/he was considered “cultured”. In that period, the term was applied mainly to the aristocratic classes and was supposed to set them off from the “uncultured” masses. The German word K u l t u r also referred to the attainment of high levels of life and civilisation. In contemporary times, the word culture still has connotation of the opera house, fine literature, and good breeding. To al l in te nt s an d pu rp os es , a newborn human baby is helpless. Not only is it physically dependent on older members of the species but it also lacks the behaviour-patterns necessary for living in human society. It relies primarily on certain biological drives

such as hunger and charity of its elders to satisfy those drives. The infant has a lot to learn. In order to survive, it must learn the skills, knowledge and accepted ways of behaviour in the society into which it is born. It must learn a way of life, in sociological terminology, must learn the culture of its society. Culture is a valuable concept for understanding human action also within the context of social organisations. Like structure, it originates through interaction and finally becomes a lasting social pattern to be followed by the people. Sociologists define culture in different ways. In 1871, Edward B. Tylor gave a descriptive definition of culture which still remains uncontested: “Culture is the complex wh ol e whi ch in cl ud es kn ow le dg e, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of the society”. Ralph Linton states that, “the culture of a society is the way of life of its members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation”. Clyde Kluckhohn defines culture as ‘the total life-way of people’. Th us, cu lt ure co ns ist s of all the


45

learned, normative behaviour patterns culture. Much of Indian social — that is, all shared ways or patterns of anthropology has been drawn from British and American social anthrot h i n k i n g a n d f e e li n g a s w e ll a s d o i n g . Kluckhohn and Kelly briefly define : pology. The British anthropology dwells “culture is an historically created heavily on the study of social structure, system of explicit and implicit designs American anthropology, on the other for living, which tends to be shared by hand, is specially concerned with all or specially designated members of culture. Herskovits, American a group at a specified point in time”. anthropologist, has given certain For the sociologists, culture denotes characteristics of culture in his bookacquired behaviour, which are shared M a n a n d H i s W o r k s . Such a by and trans mi tted amo ng the characterisation of culture help us to members of society. Culture is a way of define it properly. Herskovits gives life of specific given people e.g. Hindu, various elements of culture as follows: Muslim, Christian and Sikh culture 1. Culture is learned; it is an acquired etc. and its regional variants are e.g. behaviour. Assami, Bengali, Bihari, Gujrati, Oriya, 2. Culture derives from the bioPunjabi, Rajasthani and Tamil etc. logical, environmental, psychoCulture is an accumulated knowledge, logical, and historical components which is transmitted from generation of human experience. to generation with modifications and 3. Culture is structured — it consists additions. of organised patterns of thinking, Ano the r imp ort ant asp ec t of feeling and behaving. culture is that it is not one’s own asset; 4. Culture is divided into different it is shared by others and transmitted aspects. from one individual to another. For 5. Culture is dynamic. instance, parents at home, children in 6. Culture is variable, it is relative. school, friends in daily walks of life, 7. Culture exhibits regularities that transmit their experiences and permit its analysis by the methods be ha vi ou rs to ot he r in di vi du als . of science. Culture, therefore, is a learned 8. Culture is an instrument whereby behaviour shared by and transmitted the individual adjusts to her/his among the members of a group. It is total setting and gains means for social, idealistic, needing recurring created expressions. demands of mankind. It has the quality A review of these developments has of being integrated. Culture fulfils been done in 1950 by A.L.Kroeber and many of individual’s needs. It is the C.Kluckhohn in their paper, T h e special quality of an individual; and is Concept of Cult ur e: A Crit ical Review evidence of his/her social heritage. o f D e f i n i t i o n s . The approximate Am on g soci al scie nt is ts , so ci al consensus of these definition is as follows: anthropologists have a special focus on “Culture consists in patterned ways of

46

thinkings, feeling, and reaction acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional i.e., historically derived and selected ideas and especially their attached values”. ‘Culture’ can be conceptually distinguished from ‘society’; though there may exist close connection between the two. A society is a system of inter-relationships, which connects individuals together. No culture could exist without societies and no societies could exist without culture. Thus, wi tho ut cu lt ur e, we wo ul d no t be ‘human’. Th er e are als o ce rtain ot he r expressions which sociologists and anthropologists frequently use as synonyms for culture: (i) learned behaviours, (ii) the social heritage, (iii) the superorganic, and (iv) design for living. Each one of these expressions emphasises slightly different aspects of complex phenomenon of culture. The first one suggests that culture is learned, taught, shared and, cannot be possessed by an individual in isolation from society. The second one i.e. the referring to social heritage, suggests that culture is transmitted from one generation to the next. It is inherited from the past, in the social sense and that, in each generation, something is added and something is lost. The third one, i.e. the superorganic suggests that culture varies in relative independence from physical constituents and


biol ogic al comp onents an d ha s an independent meaning. Finally, the fourth, i.e. culture as a design for living, suggests that culture varies from one society or group to another, and also between different times, periods and special settings. Major Components of Culture

All human groups have culture namely — lan gu age, be li ef , va lu e, no rm , behaviour, and even material objects that are passed on from one generation to the next. In his book T h e S o c i a l O r d e r , Robert Bierstedt (1970) classifies the contents of culture into three large components of culture: Ideas, norms and material. Further, the components of culture may also be classified into three dimensions: (i) cognitive, (ii) normative and (iii) material. T h e Co g n i t i v e D i m e n s i o n

The first component of culture is idea, which consists of myth, superstitions, scientific facts, art and religion. This reflects ways of thinking, what people think, in short, is an important component of their culture. Ideas refer to the cognitive dimension of culture, which includes beliefs and knowledge. The literature of a society ordinarily does express ideas, and become a part of the intellectual heritage of the people wh o li ve in th e so ci et y. In li te ra te societies, ideas are recorded and written down and stored in books and documents. Ideas thus make up the literature of the society. In non-literate


societies, they constitute the folklore and the legends of the tribe. We should include, ideas, therefore, in the first of our major components of culture. Al l hu ma n be in gs sh ar e in th e construction of cognition. They all think, feel, recognise, recall things from the past and project them the into real and fantasised future. Cognition is the process that enables humans to comprehend and to relate to their surroundings. Basic to any person’s organised conception of his environment are his/her beliefs. Ideas that are accepted by persons as representing reality, as being true, are b e l i e f s . Beliefs may or may not actually be true, but to their subscribers they portray reality. The extent of verification for cultural beliefs covers a wide range. Some beliefs are held because of habit, tradition or appeal to an authority when, in fact, they are false. Other beliefs that rest on habit, tradition or an authoritative source are based on sufficient critical observation to be considered true. Th e No rm a t i v e D im e n s i o n

The normative dimension is the second large component of culture. It includes rules, expectations and standardised procedures, in short, ways of behaving in al most al l th e situations that we confront and in w hi c h p eo pl e pa r t i c i pa t e. Th e normative dimension of culture is of critical importance in promoting recurrence and predictability in human interaction. Norms can be

47

classified as folkways, mores, customs and laws etc; which guide individual conduct. The concept of norms is one of the most important concept in sociology. When we use this concept we refer not to ways of thinking but to ways of “doing”. Most of the things that we do as members of society on different occasions are governed by cultural precepts. When we talk about what people do in society, we are interested as sociologists, not in their behaviour as such, but rather in that type of behaviour whet her it is socially acceptable or not. We are interested, in human conduct on different social occasions. Behaviour, as we have noted, may be mere impulse or response. Conduct, on the other hand, implies the presence of norms, which are cultural. Our conduct conforms to certain standards that are considered appropriate in the society in which we live. These standards and rules and expectations are what we call norms. Without norms, social life would be impossible and there would be no order in society. Without norms, we would never know whether to shake hands with a new acquaintance or kiss him/her or give him/her an affectionate push. Society itself is a kind of order, which is made possible by the presence of norms; and norms are the essence of social organisation. In the discussion of culture, value is usually considered from the standpoint of how the group acts, feels or thinks. A c u l t u r a l v a l u e may be

48

defined as a widely held belief or sentiment that some activities, relationships, feelings are good or bad, proper or improper. Our goals are important to the community’s identity or well being. Cultural norms are based on cultural values. They are guides, specifying what is appropriate, setting limits within which individuals may seek alternate ways to achieve their goals. Norms are usually framed as rules, prescriptions or standards to be followed by people who occupy specified roles. Thus, there are norms for the conduct of citizens, friends, parents and school teachers etc. Hence, value and norms (folkways, mores, laws) are central concepts to understanding of culture. The Material Dime nsio n

We have discussed ways of thinking and ways of doing. Now, we would like to explain the third major component of culture — the material culture, referring to what we have or possess as members of society. The culture provides knowledge, rules for organising work and tools for human survival. Material culture refers mainly to basic conditions, which generally include material items that the members of a society have and use, and also to science, technology and instruments of production, transport and communication Material cultural is often counter posed with non-ma terial culture, under which the cognitive and normat ive dimensions of culture are classified,


refers to intangible product of human creation. Tangible or concrete products of human creation are labelled as ‘ma terial culture’ . ‘Material’, of course, is the most obvious and the most easily understood component of culture. When an ar cheolo gi st s di gs up an ancient city or a subterranean village, he/she may find certain forms of terracotta, artifacts, painted greywares and coins etc; all of which may be termed as remnants of the ancient material culture. It may not be possible, the norms of the people who once lived there and the ideas they entertained cannot be ascertained through excavations. But the fact that norms and ideas can be inferred, to some extent at least, from the material remains. It indicates that there is a close connection between material and non-material elements of culture. Theo ry o f Cultural Change

The concept of material culture is clear enough whereas the concept of nonmaterial culture is not quite clear, except in the sense that it is a residual category, including ‘everything that is not material’. This may include several items of fundamentally different kinds, such as thoughts ideas, religion and style of living etc. This, however, is a logical weakness of residual categories. Ogburn argues that both material and non-material aspects of culture have a bearing on personality. The Hindus in India may perhaps be different in some ways from Americans due to differences in the emphasis on


49

different values, as well as different items of material culture that they consume in daily life. The Hindus emphasise the non-material aspect of culture, such as religion and philosophy, whereas the Am er ic an s ar e kn ow n to mat er ial aspects, like their speeding highways, posh automobiles, to lay a strong stress on the modern gadgets and so on. Ogburn has introduced a very interesting concept signifying relationship between material and nonmaterial culture. The concept is known as the cultured lag, according to which even though material culture of a society changes very rapidly. while as technology might change at a fast pace, non-material cultural such as ideas and values often lag behind and undergo a much more gradual change. Some sociologists do not like to include material object under the concept of culture on the ground that culture consist of abstract thinking or that it has a meaning only after it has been “internalised” and becomes a customary part of the conduct of the members of a society.

are likely to ask whether it is true or false. We also notice that true and false ideas both exert and influence alike in society. On the other hand, when we are presented with a noun, we tend to evaluate a situation and begin to enquire whether it is “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “ bad” “efficient” or “inefficient”. In some cases, however, we raise these questions about ideas, too. Frequently, the second question is more important than the first. Ideas that are evaluated in this way are what we should call ideologies. More precisely, an ideology is an idea supported by a norm. We are encouraged to believe it, not because it is true, but because such belief is regarded as right and proper in our society. Technologies

Technologies are sometimes referred to as technical norms or, more simply, as technique. Technologies, of course, differ from society to society; and societies may accordingly be compared wi th re sp ec t to th ei r le ve ls of technological achievements. Here, we need only emphasise that technologies, like ideologies, are an integral part of Ideologies the culture of a society including both When we are presented with an idea, we the material and non-material culture.

GLOSSARY DIMENSION OF CULTURE. It is an idea which consists of myth, superstitions, scientific facts, art and religion.

COGNITIVE

CULTURE . It reflects the symbolic and learned aspects of society which includes

language, customs, traditions which are passed from one generation to another. IDEOLOGY. It may be defined as referring ot beliefs, attitudes and apinions which

forms a set thinking.

50

INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY CULTURE . It consists of some objects such as, dwellings, clothing, jewellery, tools, radio, musical instruments etc.

MATERIAL

refers to basic conditions which includes material items that the members of society have and make use.

MATERIAL

DIMENSION OF CULTURE . This

NON- MATERIAL CULTURE. It refers to abstract elements of society like way of thinking

(beliefs, values and other assumptions about the world) and patterns of be ha vi ou rs (l an gu ag e, musi c, ar t, ge st ur es an d ot he r fo rm s of interaction). NORMATIVE

DIMENSION OF CULTURE. It

includes rules, expectations and standardised

procedures. TECHNOLOGY. It refers to all forms of productive techniques such as the invention

of the steam engine.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Define culture. What is meant by material culture? What is meant by non-material culture? What are technologies? How did the term culture originate? List the characteristics of culture. “Can culture be superior or inferior”? Explain. What are the major components of culture? How does culture differ from society? Explain the normative dimension of culture. Explain the concept of cultural lag.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Benedict, Ruth, Patterns of Cultur e, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1946. 2. Bierstedt, Robert, The Social Order, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi, 1970. 3. Kluckhohn, Clyde, M i r r o r f or M a n , McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New York, 1949. 4. Malinowski, Bronislaw, E n c y c l o p a e d i a o f t h e S o ci a l S c i e n c e s ‘Culture’, Macmillan, New York, 1968. 5. William, Raymond, Cultur e and Society, Doubleday, New York, 1960.


51

CHAPTER 7

Marriage, Family and Kinship and, thus, grows into a complex web or network. Marriage also serves an The sexu al -r elat io nship in hu ma n important economic function since it society is highly constrained. Who, when defines proprietary rights and rights of and with whom will have this relationship inheritance which may vary more or is determined by society. For less from one ethnic or religious regulating sexual-relationship, society community to another. has designed and evolved the institution of marriage. Marriage Definitio n of Marriage provides Legitimacy for sexual relationship between the two particular Harry M. Johnson has defined marriage individuals of opposite sex and grants as ‘a stable relationship in which a man legitimacy to the off-springs born out of and a woman are socially permitted, this relationship. Marriage is an wi tho ut los s of st and ing in the universal institution of human society. community, to have children’. Every society from primitive to modern Ac co rd in g to Co ll in s Di ct io na ry of time has had the institution of marriage Sociology ‘marriage is a socially but its form and nature has varied from acknowledged and sometimes legally time to time, from society to society. ratified union between an adult male Likewise in India, every religious and an adult female’. This type of union community, every cultural region and is based on two objectives: sexual every tribal community is marked by gratification and procreation with some particularities in the institution of socially sanctioned sex-relationship marriage. and economic co-operation. It is clear Marriage is the basic institution of from the above definitions that the human society. With the marriage of important reasons for the emergence of two persons of opposite sex, the the institution of marriage are: nucleus of the family formed by (a) Sexual gratification, which is a husband and wife comes into biological need, existence. Through marriage, two (b) Legitimisation of children born families enter into kinship-bond, which out of such union, which is a expands with the expansion of family social need; and MARRIAGE

52


(c) Economic co-operation which is an economic need. (a ) B i o l o g i c a l N ee d

Sex is one of the basic needs of the human individual. Like hunger, sexual drive must be satisfied so that a normal human life is maintained and consequently, society persists. Marriage satisfies not only the biological need of sex but also ensures the psychological satisfaction of having children. Caring and bringing up of the child is the responsibility of father and mother. This requires a relatively stable union and marriage ensures this to happen. (b ) L e gi t i m i s a t i o n o f C h i l d r e n

Regulation of cohabitation in civilised society is necessary so as to grant legitimacy to the children born out of this union. Consequently, society puts a legal and moral binding on the parents to care and bring up the child ren for the perpetuation of society. (c ) E c o n o m i c N e e d

Marriage did not come into existence only for the biological need or sexual gratification and to provide legitimacy to the children but also for economic cooperation. It was not possible for the human beings to arrange livelihood single-handedly. This would have been more difficult with the development of the economy, in which the division of labour and occupational differentiation grew manifold. In the beginning of the

settled life, therefore, it was not very easy to carry out economically meaningful activities without the co-operation of others. The institution of family thus emerged inter alia with the realisation of the need to cooperates among the people. Histo ry o f Marriage Inst itut ion

As noted earlier, marriage in some form or the other has existed since times immemorial. Anthropologists have attempted to trace the history of marriage but there is no consensus among them. The evolutionary theory of Lewis Morgan based on certain rudimentary folkways and social practices concludes that in the earliest form of groupings of people, sex was absolutely un-regulated. Consequently, the institution of family was not known. Believing that human societies have evolved from lower into higher types, Morgan set forth certain hypothetical stages in the evolution of marriage. Accordingly, as he thought, from the hypothetical state of promiscuity society must have evolved into group marriage, then polygamy and lastly monogamy. Westermarck on the other hand, is of the opinion that the history of marriage began with its monogamous form. He concludes this on the basis of his assumption that the male has by nature been an acquisitive and possessive creature. Yet another, anthropologist Robert Briffault claims that at the initial stage of marital relationship, mother had the supreme


authority. He rejects patriarchy as claimed by Morgan and monogamy as claimed by Westermark to be the initial forms of marriage and family. Sociology takes little interest in the origin and the initial forms of marriage. It is more concerned about the nature of marriage in the civilised society and the changes that have taken place in this institution and in the forces responsible for this change. The Rules of Exogamy and Endogamy

In the modern societies, there are certain restrictions on choosing a marriage partner. Under the rules of endogamy, a person should marry only within one’s own restricted group such as caste, religion, race etc. In India, the caste is an endogamous group. A person is not allowed or expected to marry outside one’s own caste. Endogamy is also practised in relation to religion. A person of one religion is not expected to marry a person of another religion. Exogamy refers to the rules of avoidance in marital relationship. Every community prohibits its members from having marital relationship with certain persons. Exogamy in one form or the other is practised in every community. Under this rule, marriage among close relatives especially kin and same clan is prohibited. For example, in China, the individuals who bear the same surname may not inter-marry. In Hindu marriage, G o t r a and S a p i n d a are such exogamous groups. G o t r a

53

refers to a group of families which trace their origin from a common mythical ancestor. Sapinda means that persons of seven generations on the father’s side and five on the mother’s side cannot inter-marry. Incest Taboo

Incest taboo is perhaps the most prominent feature of exogamic rule of mate-selection in almost every society. Marriage of father-daughter, motherson, brother-sister is unknown the world over. Prohibi tion of sex relationship between such primary kins is called incest taboo. Human society is so concerned about it that any violation of incest taboo is treated as an offence and the offender is liable to a severe punishment. According to the traditional belief in nearly all societies, violation of incest taboo is also supposed to be visited by punishment from nature. Reasons of Incest Taboo

There are sociological, psychological and also scientific reasons for the institution of incest taboo. The exogamic rules are designed to restrict free marriage relationship. The incest taboos, according to Kingsley Davis, confine sexual relations and sentiments to the married pairs alone excluding such relationships as between parent and child, brother and sister etc. In this way the possibility of confusion in the organisation of kinship is prevented and the family organisation is maintained.

54

Quite often, a scientific justification is also provided for keeping restrictions of incest taboo. Eugenically, there is a fear of a possibility that certain physiological inadequacies present among close kins such as cousins may be perpetuated and transferred to their off-springs in case the former inter-marry. Forms of Marriage

Generally, there are two forms of marriage prevalent in different parts of world: (i) monogamy and (ii) polygamy. (1 ) M on o g a m y

Monogamy refers to a marriage union consisting of a husband and a wife. Most marriages in the world are monogamous. In a society where monogamy prevails, a man or a woman can remarry only after the death of the spouse or the dissolution of marriage. In Hindu society, monogamy is a preferred form of marriage. (2 ) Po l y ga m y

Polygamy is that arrangement of marriage in which either a woman has more than one husband or a man has more than one wife. The former arrangement is called p o l y a n d r y and the latter p o l y g y n y . Of the two forms of polygamy, polygyny is much more prevalent than polyandry the world over. In India, e.g. Naga, Gond, Baiga and Toda are some of the tribes in which polygyny is practised. However, of all the major religious communities in India, Muslims are the only ones who are found practi sing polygyny


under the sanction of t heir religion, even though such case are only few and far between. Polyandry has two forms: fraternal p o l y a n d r y and non-fraternal polyandry. In fraternal polyandry, the woman is wife to all the brothers and in the nonfraternal one, the wife has several husbands who are not brothers. She makes a round to different settlements where her husbands live and spends some time with each of them. In the fraternal marriage, all the brothers become fathers of the off-springs and in the non-fraternal one, some one of the husbands will be chosen as father of the child. The paternity here is more legal and social than biological. Ogburn and Nimkoff are of the opinion that the chief factor responsible for polyandry would seem to be the extreme poverty of the people. THE FAMILY

Marriage leads to the formation of family. The family is a universal institution and has existed through out the history of society. With the passage of time, family has undergone changes gaining and losing various shapes and characteristics. The present stage of economic development and cultural changes have posed some new challenges to the institution of family leading to radical changes in the structures and functions of family. In the Western societies, the very existence of family appears to be threatened. However, the institution of family is surviving and will survive for the survival of the society itself.

TECHNIQUES TECHNIQUES OF DATA COLLECTION COLLECTION

55

necessarily a biological group. Definition of Family Sometimes children are adopted by the couple. The adopted children also, Family, basically, is made up of are the members of family. The family individuals having kinship relationship among themselves. The may have only conjugal relationshi p. smallest family consists of the o u s Re Rel a t i o n s h i p husband and wife with or without C o n s a n g u i n e ou children. Such a family is also called a The member members s of the family family are relate related d to nuclear family. A man with his one another through the process of children or a women with her children childr en procreation. The biological intercan also constitute a family. This is connection is the consanguineous called a single-parent family. A family relationship, which is socially defined may even consist of persons of few more mo re as kinship. Thus, family is a kinship generations living together and other group. relatives forming an extended family. Such an arrangement is also known by D u a l M e m b er er s h i p the name ‘household’. The family is a durable group fulfilling the basic Every individual acquires membership function of sex relationship, in two family groups. An individual procreation and several other needs first takes birth in a family and then t ime he/she such as the maintenance and after a certain period of time himself/herself procreates. The family socialisation of the children. in which the person takes birth is called the ‘family or orientation’ and the Structure Structure of Family other one is called the ‘family of The family is an organised organised group based procreation’ in which he/she has on a network of relationships. These children of his/her own. Nuclear family relationships provide basis for the is a family of procreation for the definition of the family and the parents and it is a family of orientation assignment of rights and duties for their children. between the t he members. member s. Following Follo wing are a re Kingsley Davis says that ‘the family the main elements of the structure of is a group of persons whose relations family : to one another are based upon consanguinity (or descent from A f f i n a l Re R e l a t i o n sh sh i p common ancestor and similar close The family begins with the marriage of ties)’. These definition do not represent the persons of opposite sex. The the entire cultural range — especially couple who are called husband and the non-Western societies. The Indian wife may never have children childr en yet they families have been traditionally known constitute a family though a partial to be much more complex in structure o n e . T h u s , e v e r y f a m i l y i s n o t and have often included members of

56


more than two or three generations. behaviour behaviour of its members. members. It regulates regulates Such family compositions have been sex relationship and defines legitimacy denoted by the term jo in t f a m il y . and illegitimacy, morals and manners. Th e na t u re of t h e fa mi l y is b ot h, Characte haracte ristic s o f Family permanent and temporary. It is The family is not a simple collectivity permanent as an institution but its of individuals. It is formed by the organisational aspect is relatively individuals who are biologically, transitory. Because, the institutions economically and socially inter- never die out, though the changes in connected. Some of the basic features them do take place but a family organisation may come to an end if of family are as follows: every member of the family does not – An universal phenomenon phenomenon survive for any reason. – Emotional relationship relationship – – –

Limited size A basic unit of society Mu t u a l r ig ht s a nd du t i es among the members of the family – Socialis Socialisation ational al role of the family family Th e fa mi l y is a u ni v er sa l phenomenon. It has a social environment i.e. the persons in the family are assigned certain statuses wh o perf pe rf or m th e ro le s ex pect pe ct ed of them. The system of status and role forms the part of the culture pattern. The persons persons in the family are in definite definite relationship with one another around these statuses and roles. The individual’s early life is influenced by this culture. There is not only economic co-operation and biological relation between between the members of the family but there also exists emotional relationship among them. They share pleasures and pains with one another. Every member of the family bears responsibility towards other members. The family family thus, thus, provides provides full full security security to every member including the young and the old. The family regulates the

Social Functions of Family

The family occupies occupies central position position in society. The society would not survive unless its needs such as production of the economic services, protection of the young and their socialisation, socialisation, the care of the old, the sick and the pregnant, conformity to the law and a nd so on are not met. The family is so organised a group grou p that it serves all these needs of society. Society Davis in his book H um an Society and and W. J. Moor e in i n his h is book T h e F a m i l y have pointed out following social functions which the family performs for the survival and maintenance of society: R ep ep r o d u c t i v e F u n c t i o n

For its persistence, society needs uninterrupted inflow of new individuals. The family fulfils this need by regulating regulating sex relationship relationship between particular members in the family. By this is satisfied not only individual’s bi ol og ic a l ne e d of s ex bu t i s a l so ensured the procreation of children


which is necessary necessary for the continuance continuance of society and the human race. M a i n t e n a n c e o f F a m i l y M em e m b er er s

The family family takes care care of the new new born baby. baby. Human infant infant takes much longer longer period of time and care to become independent. Even the mother carrying the baby needs support other members of the family. This responsibility is shouldered by the family.

57

and the law. The family plays a vital role in socialising individuals to conform to the various norms and means of social control. Economic Functions

Th e fa m il y h as c er t a i n ec on o mi c functions also to perform. It takes care of the primary needs of the individuals such as food, shelter, clothes and security. The vitality of economic functions of family are more noticeable in the tribal and agrarian societies whe w he r e e ac h f am il y i s a co mp l et e S oc o c i a l P l a c em em e n t o f I n d i v i d u a l s productive unit. The process of The family fam ily is i s a kinship group with a industrialisation and urbanisation system of defined statuses and roles. has, however, reduced this function of It also has a system of division of labour family. and distribution of responsibilities among its members. Every kin, thus, Types of Family has a social position in the family. There are two broad types of family: the nuclear family and the joint family. A S oc o c i a l i s a t i o n o f t h e Yo Yo u n g third type is the extended family which Society is a collectivity of individuals is not a very common form. Two other interacting among themselves types of family are there, which are according to the norms and values generally found in tribal societies: the determined by society. These norms polygynous family and the polyand values are learnt by individuals in androus family. The former of the two the family through the process of is based upon one woman having more socialisation. The family plays primary than one wife, whereas the latter is role in socialising the individual to based upon one one man married married to more more behave behave according according to the expectatio expectations ns of than one husband at the same time. The society. joint families also are of of two types: (a) Patriline Patrilineal al and Patriloca Patrilocall family; family; S oc oc i a l Co n t r o l (b) Matrilineal and Matrilocal family. The for mal ma l mean me ans s of socia so cia l cont co ntro roll such as police and the law courts are N u cl c l ea ea r F a m i l y not enough to maintain the equilibrium of society. It is imperative Th e nu cl ea r f am i ly i s a gr ou p of that people conform to the social norms persons consisting of husband, wife

58

and their unmarried children. This is a ba si c gr ou pi ng of ma te s an d th ei r offspring/s. The kinship relationships in nuclear family are: husband-wife, father-son, father-daughter, motherson, mother-daughter, brother brot her, sist er-siste r and br othersister. This is the smallest composite family unit. There may also be ‘supplemented nuclear family’ units with a widowed parent of the husband or his younger brothers and sisters as residents. J oi n t F a m i l y

Joint family consists of more than one primary family. All the members are bl ood re latio ns or cl os e ki ns and generally share common residence, kitchen and property. Joint family generally consists of three or more generations. But two or more colateral families living together in a common residence and sharing a common kitchen and property also form a joint family. Joint family is the hallmark of traditional Indian society having very deep roots in history. Joint family in its traditional form is prevalent in India even now, even though, it is waning very fast. E x t en d e d F a m i l y

If other closely related kins than those who form the nuclear or joint family are added to the nuclear family it takes the form of an extended family. The extended families can be either those in which the nucleus is surrounded by distant consanguineous kins or those


in which kinship universe is extended still further such as parents-in-law living in their son-in-law’s family. M a t r i l i n e a l a n d M a t r i l o c a l Fa m i l y

This is the family in which the husband resides with his wife in her mother’s house. The ancestry in this family is traced to the maternal line. The matrilineal family is also matriarchal in nature because the authority in this family lies with the mother. She is head of the family. This is not a common form of family. The Khasis of Meghalya live in matrilocal families. Pa t r i l i n ea l a n d Pa t r i l o c a l Fa m i l y

Most of the families world over are of this type. In the patrilineal and patrilocal family, ancestry is traced to the paternal line. Unlike matrilocal families, the ancestors in the patrilocal families are men. The patrilocal family is also patriarchal. The authority lies with the male members and the final authority rests with the eldest male member of the family. Po l y g y n o u s Fa m i l y

When a man marries more than one wife, the family organisation which is formed a polygynous type. Most of the tribal families are polygynous. Po l y a n d r o u s F a m i l y

This is a family in which a woman has more than one husband. This is made of the fraternal polyandry where a several brothers marry one wife.


Ch a n g e s i n t h e F am i l y S y s t e m

The family institution in the whole world is undergoing change. In the developed societies of the West, this change is quite fundamental in nature, so that the very existence of family is threatened. Industrialisation and development of material culture have mainly led to this change. In the less developed countries like India the change in family is still not touching threatening proportions. However, drastic changes in the family in India are also taking place though slowly. Changes in the Structure of Family

An important change in family is the diminution in the size of the household. Earlier, the number of persons in the family used to be quite large. Extended families consisted of persons of several generations and several married couples with a number of their children. The present family hardly consists of more than three generations and the couples are not interested in having more than two or three children. The number of nuclear families is fast increasing. The family size is getting smaller because of the fact that industrialisation and urbanisation have led to the migration of rural people to cities. The emotional bo nd s are thi nn ing and get ting confined only to the members of one’s own family as a result of stress on va lues of ind ivi du ali sm and independence. This is also evident in the rise of divorce rate and in the rising number of single-member households.

59

Changes in t he Funct ions o f Family

In the tribal and agrarian societies, the family was a unit of production. The family had an occupation, agriculture, household industry, handicraft and handloom, blacksmithing and carpentry etc. All the members of the family contributed to the production, whi ch the y co mmo nl y sh ared . Industrialisation has displaced the household production system. The urban industries have created new job s. The people have shi fted away from their family occupations; their dependence on family has consequently decreased or ceased. Industrialisation has led to the development of several organisations, whi ch ha ve take n ov er the so ci al functions which only family could provide. Future of Family

The society has entered into a superindustrial age characterised by a nearabsolute individualism, predominance of corporate organisations and frantic occupational and spatial mobility. In this environment, family has been most susceptible to change. The change has been quite drastic in the Western society. The Indian society and rest of the Asian societies are also moving in the same direction, though slowly. Ferdinand Lundberg the author of T h e C om i n g W o r l d o f Transformation says that the family is ‘near the point of complete extinction’. Psychoanalyst William Wolf wrote that ‘family is dead except for the first year

60

or two of child-raising’. William J. Goode, on the basis of his experiences of the erosion of family norms in the Western societies also has raised the question as to whether the family system is disappearing. On the other hand, there are optimists who do not visualise any possibility of the withering away of family, but foresee instead a revival of family as a stronger institution. The family is in for a golden age. Irwin M. Greenberg, is of the view that the very turbulence of tomorrow will drive people deeper into their families. Alvin Toffler is, however, of the view that both the contrasting views on the future of family are unrealistic, the family will neither come into a golden age, nor go into oblivion. The family, according to him, will ‘break up, shatter, only to come together again in weird and novel ways’. People may also be apprehensive of the replacement of Indian joint family system by nuclear family system in due course. This would however, be a misapprehension because the studies do not suggest any such trend leading to the extinction of joint family system from here. I. P. Desai, Kapadia, M. S. Gore, P.Kolenda and others have studied Indian family and found no evidence of obvious domination of nuclear family over the joint family. There are no doubt, radical changes taking place in the traditional structure of joint family, yet it continues to be a dominant and much idealised system in the country. The joint family may not remain ‘joint’ in the sense of people living together at one place, but its members will continue to owe


affiliation to it in terms of emotional identification, commit-ment and responsibility. KINSHIP

You have studied in the preceding section of this chapter that family is a group consisting of close relatives. These relatives are known as kins or kindred. Kinship system is also seen as a method of organising marriage-relations between groups. Through marriage, Levi-Struass observes, members are recruited to kinship groups. A female is recruited as wife, as daughter-in-law and so on through her marriage into another group and a male through his marriage is recruited as husband, sonin-law of his wife’s parents’ group. The kinship group’s alliances, thus, are transacted through marriage. The members of the family are linked with one another by kinship bonds based on blood relationship with only exception of husband and wife who are bound by marriage. Every member of the family behaves and expects from others to behave in particular ways as sanctioned by social norms. This behavior pattern is learnt by the individual through socialisation process. The mutual expectations in the family are based on kinship ties. A kinship system is not an unorganised aggregation of individuals. It is a system of the way the relations between individuals in the family and between families are organised. “It is”’ as defined by G.P.Murdock “merely a structured system of relationship in which individu als are bound to one


another by complex interlocking and ramifying ties”. Radcliffe-Brown looks at kinship system as a part of social structure and insists upon the study of kinship as a field of rights and obligations. Kinship bonds are very strong and considerably expanded in tribal societies and also in rural communities. Along with modernisation, technological development, the kinship system has shrunk and has got circumscribed to only ‘not so distant relatives’. Studies of kinship system have been done, largely by social anthropologists and only a few of them by the sociologists. The names of some important anthropologists associated wit h studies of kinship are: Rivers, Kroeber, Lowie, Radcliffe-Brown and Irawati Karve. Nucle ar Family

Kinship begins with nuclear family. Nuclear family is the smallest and the initial building block of the kinship group. The kins found in this group are husband, wife, son, daughter, brother and sister. At some times in life, every male in this type of family plays the role of husband, father, son and brother and every woman the role of wife, mother, daughter and sister. Ince st Taboo

In every society, howsoever primitive or modern, certain incest taboos and rules of exogamy are observed. The incest taboo refers to prohibition of marital relationship between close

61

blood rela ti ves su ch as fa ther an d daughter, mother and son or brother and sister etc. This rule removes confusion in relationships by preventing a man becoming both husband and father in the family in which he is son and brother and a wom an fr om be co mi ng wif e and mother in the family in which she is daughter and sister. In a nuclear family, an individual has only one kinship status at a time. If the brother or sister marry they become members of a nuclear family other than that in wh ic h th ey we re born . Thus ever y normal adult member of a family belongs to two nuclear families: (1) The family of orientation, (2) The family of procreation. The family of orientation is that in which the person is born and the family of procreation is that in which he/she establishes by marrying a woman/man of some other family and by procreating in it. Father, mother, son and daughter, are the kins of the former and husband, wife, and their unmarried children are the kins of the latter. It is because of the prohibition of marriage within the nuclear family and consequently membership of the individual in two nuclear families at the same time that kinship systems have evolved. Imagine if there would be no such incest taboos then the marriages would take place wi th in th e nu cl ea r fa mi li es an d consequently, there would be no need for one-to-one kinship relation. Since individuals belong to two families due to the practice of incest taboo, the kinship ties go on branching out.

62


relationships may be very close, not so close, distant, remote and so on. On this The relatives are linked either by a bond of blood or by a marital bond. On the basis, kinship relatives can be classified basis of these ties, relatives are classified into following categories. into two types; the affinal relatives and Pr i m a r y K i n s h i p the consanguineal relatives. Types of Kinship

A f f i n a l R el a t i v es

The relatives linked by marital bond are known as affinal kins. For example, husband and wife, wife’s mother, daughter’s husband, parents-in-law, son-in-law are all affines. Co n s a n g u i n e a l R el a t i v es

The r ela tives li nked by blood or common ancestry are known as consanguineal kins. For example, father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, father’s brother, father’s brother’s son, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on. The consanguineal kins form a common ancestry and a common descent. Blood is not the only determining factor in consanguineal kinship but more significant role is of the social recognition of such kins. For example, the adopted child is also recognised as a real son. He shares father’s surname and joins the descent. Among the Toda tribe, polyandry is practice. From among the brothers who have a common wife one has to present a bow and arrow to the wife in order to be recognised as a father.

Primary kinship relatives are those who belong t o the sa me nu clear family as a particular person — the individual’s father, mother, brother and sister in the family of orientation and husband, wife, son and daughter in the family of procreation. A complete nuclear family thus has eight distinct kinds of relatives. S ec on d a r y K i n s h i p

Each of the relatives mentioned among the primary kins may have his/ her own primary relatives who may not be included among the primary relatives of the ego. For the ego they are secondary relatives. Certain examples of secondary relatives are: father’s father (grandfather), father’s mother (grandmother), father’s sister (aunt), brother’s wife, sister’s husband and so on. T er t i a r y k i n s h i p

Each secondary relative has primary relatives who are neither primary nor secondary relatives of the ego. They are known as tertiary relatives. Some of the tertiary relatives, for example, are great Degree s o f Kinship grandparents, first cousins, spouses of Th er e ca n be di ff er en t de gre es of all uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces distance between the kins. The and so on.


All other relati ves who are more remote than tertiary relatives are termed by Murdock as ‘distant relatives’. For all practical purposes, the relatives upto tertiary degree are normally found in interaction among themselves. Very few might remember remote relatives unless they are remembered for establishing the ancestry. In modern industrialised societies tertiary relatives are only rarely remembered. The most common range of kinship structure today is upto secondary relatives. Kinship Usage

Within each kin group there are certain reciprocal behavioural patterns. These behaviours, verbal or non-verbal constitute kinship usages. Relationships of avoidance, joking relationships and teknonymy are some of the usages which are almost universally practised. In relations of avoidance, we find that certain relationships are of restricted nature. Such kins maintain a distance and avoid free interaction between themselves. A man’s relationship with his son’s wife and with his younger brother’s wife are the examples of this category of relationship. Certain other relationships are there in which opposite is the case. Interaction between them is intimate and frank and they have joking relationship including use of obscene and vulgar references. Joking relationship between a man and his wife’s sister and between a woman and her

63

husband’s younger brother are very common. Teknonymy is yet another kinship usage. This refers to addressing a person neither by his/ her name nor by the kinship term but by relationship to a child some other term. For example, a person who is father/mother of a child is addressed as the father/mother of the child and by kinship term such as ‘my husband’ or ‘my wife’. Kinsh ip Terms

Kinship terms are used to designate and address a kin. There are certain terms which are used for more than one kin having some similarity and certain specific terms are there for a specific kin. Kinship terms are technically classified in different w a y s , bu t t he r e a r e t w o br o a d categories of the terms as given by Morgan: the c l a s s i f i c a t o r y terms and d e s c r i p t i v e terms. If the same term is used to designate several people, it is called c l a s s i f i c a t o r y t e r m . I n E n g l i s h ‘grandfather’ includes both father’s father and mother’s father, brotherin-law applies to both wife’s and husband’s brother and also sister’s husband and so on. In Hindi the t erm ‘samdhi’ is used for both daughter’s father-in-law and son’s father-in-law. The descriptive terms are those which apply only to relatives of a single kinship category. They are specific terms for the specific kins. For example, In Hindi, the terms, m a u s s i , m a u s s a , p h u p h a , p h u p h i , etc.

64

Social Functions of Kinship

Kinship is an important aspect of our family life. People in the family have definite rights and obligations according to their statuses. A kin is more quickly available for help than any other person or agency. It is because the kin has emotional relationship with another kin. Kins help in economic tasks or other activities which require co-operation from others. When social functions like marriage ceremonies and religious activities take place in the family, kins are necessarily invited and their attendance is most expected. It is also obligatory on their part to render services as and when required. In the events of crises also, people bank heavily on their relatives for aid and succor. Blood relatives have greater importance as a person feels much closer to them than those who are related by marriage. Different kins have different obligations to carry out on different occasions in the family. For instance, in Hindu family, the role of the eldest brother is very significant. When a person dies, the eldest son of the deceased is supposed to light the funeral pyre. It is customary that the eldest son would be the heir after the death of the father and would receive the larger share in case the property is divided among the offsprings. The kinship system helps maintain solidarity in the family. However, tensions and conflicts among the kins due to discriminatory rights also did exist and even now exist in the traditional Indian joint families


particularly of the propertied class. Changing Kinship Relation s

Kinship system has been very significant in tribal and rural societies. In these societies, kinship bonds have been very strong and the size of kinship universe very big. Relatives of several generations on both paternal and maternal side remain in close contact. Under the impact of industrialisation and corresponding rural-urban migration and consequent urbanisation, the kinship systems have undergone a drastic change. As the size of family has become considerably small and the extended family system appears to be on wane, the number of relatives with whom regular contact is maintained has substantially gone down. The distant relatives and to some extent even tertiary relatives are now ignored by the people. This has also happened on account of growing occupational differentiation and spatial mobility, which has forced the people to ignore not-so-close relatives as the kinspersons, are no longer easily available. The modern values, particularly those of individualism have forced people to become selfcentered and to feel concerned only about their close and primary relatives. Previously, the blood relationships wer e st ron ger than the ma rital relationships and still continue to be so to an extent. But now the trend also appears to be developing for matricentric social interaction. As a result, married couples now have greater interaction with wife’s family than with that of the husband. The kinship bonds


65

have definitely shrunk. But, essentially in human society. speaking, kinship system will continue to have significance along with the continuance of the institution of family

GLOSSARY AFFINAL

RELATION. Relationship

C ONSANGUINEOUS

by marriage like husband and wife.

RELATION . Relationship

by blood like brother and sister.

E XOGAMY. Marriage outside a defined group e.g. gotra , village. E NDOGAMY. Marriage within a defined group e.g. castes, kinship. F OLKWAYS . Customs and habits or typical behaviour patterns, characteristic

of a given community. H YPERGAMY. Marriage of daughter with a man of higher class or caste. H YPOGAMY. Marriage of daughter to a man of lower class or caste. J OINT

FAMILY . Family

consisting of members of three or more than three generations staying together under a common roof and with a common kitchen.

K INSHIP . Social relationship based on real, putative or fictive consanguinity

, or It is the system of the way in which the relations between individuals in the family and between families are organised. LEGITIMACY. Giving legal (social) sanction. MATRILINEAL . Tracing of lineage from the female side. MATRILOCAL. After the marriage bride and groom stay with the bride’s family. MONOGAMY. Marriage of one man with one woman. N UCLEAR

FAMILY . Family

consisting husband, wife and unmarried children.

P ATRILINEAL. Tracing of relationship through the male side. P ATRILOCAL. After the marriage bride goes and stays with the groom’s family. P OLYGAMY. Marriage between one man with many women or one woman with

several men. TABOO. Prohibited conduct.

EXERCISES

1. Define marriage and explain the social significance of marriage. 2. What do you understand by the endogamous and exogamous rules of

66


3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

marriage? Support your answer with suitable examples. Explain rules and norms of marriage. Define family. What are the basic features of family? Discuss the social functions of family. What is the impact of industrialization on family? What are the characteristics of the various forms of family? What do you understand by kinship? Discuss its importance in social life. Differentiate between affinal and consanguineal relatives. Explain, with examples the, different degrees of kinship relationships. How has industrialization affected the kinship system. What do you understand by exogamy? Why is exogamy practiced? What do you mean by nuclear family? What do you understand by hypergamy?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Collins,Dictionary of Sociology by David Jary and Julia Jary, Harper Colins Publisher, Glaxco, 1991. 2. Desai, I.P., Some Aspects of Family in Ma huva , Mumbai, 1964. 3. Goode, W.J., The Family , Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1954. 4. Karve, Irawati, Kinship Organization in India, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1965. 5. Murdock, G., Social Structur e , Macmillan, New York, 1949. 6. Ogburn, W.F. and Nimkoff, M.F., Routleage and Kegan Paul, A H a n d b o ok o f Sociology, London, 1947. 7. Prabhu, P.N., Hin du Social Organization , Popular Book Prakashan, Mumbai, 1954. 8. Uberoi, P. (Ed.), F a m i l y , M a r r i a g e a n d K i n s h i p , Asia Publishing House, New Delhi, 1993.


67

CHAPTER 8

Economic Institutions People are required to carry out economic activities to produce the means by which their needs may be satisfied. The food for satisfying hunger will have to be collected or produced; and a home for shelter will have to be made. Apart from these biological needs, people also have many social needs which need to be satisfied. In this pursuit, the tools and technologies have to be invented and used. The activities carried out in respect of production and consumption are called economic activities. These activities are rational in so far as they are preceded by a deliberate planning in respect of the needs and the means. These are economic act ions whi ch, according to Max Weber, refer to the peaceful use of the actor’s control over resources, which is primarily ‘economically oriented’. Economic activities of the individual are governed by rules and procedures laid down by society . Mere use of technology to produce the means of life is not enough. Imagine a situation in which a person produces a commodity but the product is forcibly appropriated by some one else. A person goes to the office on time in the morning and finds that some one else

is occupying his/her position. A person works in a firm but is denied his/her wages in the end. All these are chaotic situations, which threaten the very existence of society as there would be on ly st ru gg le, de pr iv atio n an d death, if these are not checked. In order to avoid such chaos, society ensures that people are engaged in lawful use of technology for production and more importantly, that the product is distributed among its members in an orderly and efficient manner. Society organises this production and distribution system. The distributive system means an allocation of rights and duties in respect of the fruits of technology and labour. The economy refers to the system of production and distribution. D e fi n t i o n o f E c o n o m i c In s t i t u t i o n

Social institutions concerned with the management, production and distribution of human resources are referred to as economic institutions. Kingsley Davis defines economic institutions as those ‘basic ideas, norms and statutes which govern the allocation of scarce goods in any society, whether society is primitive or civilised. Ogburn and Nimkoff define

68

economic institutions in a simpler way. According to them, ‘the activities of men in relation to food and property constitute the economic institutions’. The economic institutions thus govern the activities of the individuals with regard to production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in society. The economic inst itu tions which constitute the economic system of society are the wages, the system of exchange, the division of labour, the property and the contract. The property and the contract are the most fundamental economic institutions. Property

The property is an object or a good of which a person or a group of persons claim to be the owner. Even the state can be the owner of the property. The property owned by a person or a group of persons is called private property and which is in the control of the state is called public property. Land, factories and such articles which have economic value are called property. There are rights and duties of the person or the group in respect of property. The property rights of the people are defined and protected by either custom or law. In the medieval period when the economic system was feudal, land was the basic property. Rights in the land were customary i.e . fixed by the prevailing customs in the concerned society. In modern society, property rights are governed by law. Kingsley


Davis has pointed out the following characteristics of property: 1. Property can be transferred, 2. It is not necessary that the owner of the property is also the user of it, 3. Property is a concrete external object, 4. The property incurs certain amount of power to the owner. Contract

The cont ra ct is an other im port an t economic institution. A contract essentially refers to an agreement between two or more persons to behave in a certain specified way for a certain specified period of time in future towards achieving certain specified ends. The rights and obligations in the contractual relationship are limited to those specified in the contract. The relationships in the family are not of the contractual kind, but the relationships between the employer and employee, the lawyer and the client and those between business partners are all contractual. Following are the characteri stics of the contractual relationship: 1. The contractual relationships are impersonal, 2. The contractual relationships are limited to the formal terms and conditions, 3. The contractual relationships are limited in terms of time, place and reference, 4. Contractual relations are rational.


However, no existing contractual relationship in society is strictly ideal and devoid of personal elements, whi ch do ten d t o develop over time wa ll co nt ra ct ua l re la ti on sh ip . Fo r example, business partners become friends in due course of time. The behavi our of the employ er wit h the employee cannot remain devoid of sympathy and morality for ever. Like property rights, the contractual relations are also determined either by custom or by law. Th e E c o n o m i c S y s t e m s

Economic system is the sub-system of society. Human beings began economic activities as early as they set out to arrange and manage food for themselves. In the beginning, it appears, they were food-gatherers. Then they invented tools for hunting and collecting food and discovered the use of the animals, particularly the cattle. This was followed by the second stage in this process of development — the development of agricultural economy. The third stage is that of the industria l economy. The se economic systems represe nt three broad stages in the history of society: the primitive stage, the agrarian stage and the industrial stage. Th e P ri m i t i v e E c o n o m i c S y s t e m

The economy of the tribal commu nity is based on hunting and cattle rearing and a modicum of agriculture. Their tools and technology are very simple.

69

The p r i m i t i v e p e op l e are very close to natural environment and their economic activities and gains depend on the weather conditions. Their tools may include the bow and arrow for hunting and plough and hoe for agriculture. Some primitive communities do not have even payment settlements. The other features of the primitive economy are: (a) economic, religious and magical activities are so intertwined that it is difficult to separate them. For example, in order to ensure success in their economic activity they perform certain rituals and magic, (b) there is complete absence of desire for making profits either from production or from exchange, (c) There is no money involved in the primitive economy, (d) The wealth in the primitive societies is not accumulated for any material objective and exchange. It is done more for some social gratification. For example, in some communities on the north-west coast of Canada, t h e i m p or t a n t m a n in a tribe accumulates large quantity of blankets simply only to destroy them in a fire at the ‘potlatch’ ceremony. This is also called conspicuous consumption and is supposed to enhance the prestige of the concerned person, (e) The property in tribal communities is not strictly private but belongs to the group or the community and, (f) The division of labour in primitive communities is based on sex. Generally, men are hunters and wom en are ga the rer s of ot he r natural eatables. Most primitive communities are now undergoing the acculturation process, so that due to

70

influence of civilized society the primitive economy, as described above, may not be found actually in existence at the present time. The Agrarian Economy

The rural economy is agrarian economy. It is a stage in the evolution of human society, which follows the primitive characterized by hunting, domesticating animals and shifting cultivation. When these tribal communities settled down perma-nently, the village communities emerged and agriculture became the main economic system, which brought about more assured food supply. This also entailed the growth of population and increase in the size of the village communities. With stable agriculture, grew many other economic activities associated with agricultural life such as pottery-making, weaving, carpentry etc. The land became the basic property in the rural economy and the institution of private property took concrete shape. The villages were economically self-sufficient. The Indian villages, in particular, were known to be not only economically self-sufficient but also had harmonious social relations. This could happen only because of the fact that the occupations and related economic activities were closely linked with the social structure. Dif fer ent castes had their fixed occupations and people were traditionally expected to pursue these occupation. All the Service castes served the higher


castes and were provided shelter, food and protection by the latter. No cash payments in market terms were made for their services. Instead, they received payments in kind and also in the form of some occasional gifts. This custom was known as j a j m a n i s y s t e m . During the medieval period, the feudal lords in England and the in India (as they were called) zamindars were the big land holders who allowed the poor farmers to practice agriculture on a portion of their land and in return extracted revenue from them. Difference between the feudal lords of Europe and the z a m i n d a r s of India was that the former were the ultimate authority without any middle-man be twee n the m and the ir va ss als, whereas the latter mediated between the British government and the tillers of the land. The z a m i n d a r extracted revenue from the farmers and handed over a part of it to the British government. The z a m i n d a r i system in India was abolished in the fifties of last century. As th e ag ri cu lt ur al pr od uc ti on increased and markets grew both rural and urban industries started growing. Th e do mes tic and ha nd icr aft industries were established. Indian artisans were highly skilled and their products enjoyed a pride of place in the world. On the one hand, agricultural implements and other articles of common use by the masses were made and on the other, were also produced commodities for use by the elite classes. The works in this category


included silk-work, stone-carving, carpet-weaving, brass-work and ivory work etc. In the rural economy, family was the basic unit and land was the chief source of production. The institution of property rights and contract at this stage of rural economy were both customary as well as legal. In the family, the land was inherited and all the members of the family had their rights over it as sanctioned by tradition. The institution of law then was not as developed as it is today and the contracts (the economic relationships) in the pre-industrial medieval societies were governed mostly by customary obligations. The wh ole ec on om ic act ivi ty ce nt er ed around the relationship between the landowner and the worker on the land, the landlords and the real users of the land, and the lenders and the borrowers of money. The rights and obligations in these relationships were customary and the system was based on personal relationships, though it was quite exploitative. The landlords and the money lenders enjoyed power and prestige in India and often oppressed the poor cultivators who lived an impoverished existence. The power of the money lender was, however, not as pervasive as that of the landlord. The landless workers were always poverty stricken and their position vis-a-vis landlords was subordinate and miserable.

71

economy. Its foundation was laid in the middle of the eighteenth century with the advent of Industrial Revolution in England. Earlier, the agricultural revolution had taken place. Production in these fields was in a considerable measure resulting into huge surpluses and profits. These situations led to the need to increase production, which could not be possible by the then existing manual power. Hence, the invention of steam power which provided a great impetus to production. Industrial Revolution essentially, refers to the replacement of manual power by the mechanical power in the production process. The source of energy in the beginning was steam, which was later on replaced by electricity. With the use of machine not only that the production was augmented in quantity but also improved in quality and variety. The mechanization was introduced first in the textile industry. The cloth already bein g pr od uc ed by th e ha ndlo om s could not compete with the power loom cloth. As a result, handlooms were very soon replaced. The industrial production before Industrial Revolution was being carried out at the family level. The family was the unit of production and the members of the family were the workers and rarely the labour wa s hired. The industrialization entailed the growth of factory system of production. The capital required in this system for purchasing capital goods The Indust rial Econ om y was so huge that a single family could The modern economy is industri al not afford it on its own. Consequently

72

more than one families joined hands to pool capital to run the factory which shifted away from the purview of family. Earlier, the simple tools and technologies were being used, for the arrangement of which, a very small amount of capital was required. The Industrial Revolution pressed the need of huge capital for purchasing raw material, machines and tools and other capital goods. The production system, thus, became very expensive. Consequently, several institutions came up to play a vital role in the industrial production and distribution system. Some of these institutions are, the financing agencies, marketing agencies, transportation and communication systems etc. The whole economic system became complex, skilloriented and capital intensive. Th T h e c o u n t r i e s o f t h e W e s t e r n Europe, USA, and Japan from Asia have now reached a stage that they are categorized as d e v e l o p e d countries. Th e y a r e t h e m o st i nd u s t r i a l i z e d countries of the world. The other countries including India are on the path of industrialization and are classified as the less developed countries. The rate of industrialization varies from society to society along variation among different countries in terms of their social, political, geographical, economic and historical conditions. This is an industrial age, in which even the tribal communities located in certain remote areas have not remained completely un-influenced


by the modern industria indust riall economy. Mo d e r n a n d T ra ra d i t i o n a l A g ra ra r i a n Economy

Modern agrarian economy is altogether different in nature from the agrarian economy of the preindustrial era about which we have described at length earlier in this chapter. The main features of the traditional agriculture were: (a) The agricultural activities were only for consumption, (b) The agricultural y i e l d w a s v e r y l o w a n d t h e r e was general gene ral scarcity scar city of food, f ood, (c) The work was essentially essential ly manual with the use of a few hand driven implements, (d) Agriculture depended mainly on the weather and (e) There was greater unevenness in land-holdings. Majority of people in villages were either landless or with small pieces of land. The industrial economy took in its fold also the agriculture. Under its influence, the agriculture also underwent mechanization. High power tractors for tilling the land, high efficiency tube wells and canals for irrigation, high efficiency harvesters for threshing the grains grains are now commonly used. The development of science and technology has given a great impetus to agricultural economy. Not only a variety of tools and machines but also different types of fertilizers have been invented for agriculture. These developments have changed the nature of agriculture. The agricultural yields have been so much augmented that many countries often face the


crisis of storage of grains. The present farming is of the capitalist kind. The farmers now produce for the market and grow only those crops in their fields, which whic h bring br ing greater grea ter profits prof its to them. them . Thu s, the th e agri ag ricul cul ture tu re now is of the th e industrial nature. It is carried out scientifically and governed by the market-situations. The agrarian economy is, therefore, no longer confined to producing only grains. Also, the agriculturists are now concentrating on a variety of other related activities, such as food processing, poultry, flowercultivation etc. They are also frantically shifting from agriculture to horticulture whi ch is gaini ga ining ng in demand dem and in the market. The farmers, particularly in the suburban areas and also those living in vil lage la ges s well we ll-c -con onnec nec ted te d with wi th urba ur ban n centers through efficient transportation and communication are now producing vegetables, fruits, flowers etc. Th T h e G r e e n R e v o l u t i o n w a s launched in India in the later half of the sixties in the last century. It changed not only the nature of agriculture in the country by introducing technology into it and, consequently, augmenting the quantity of production but has also influenced the existing agrarian relations. It is the middle classes which whic h have ha ve benefi b enefited ted most from the G r e e n R e v o l u t i o n due to which their very size in the country has expanded. Th T h e s t a n d a r d o f l i v i n g o f t h e agriculturist castes has also risen; also, the exploitative nature of the agrarian economy has been reduced.

73

Characteristics of the Modern Industrial Economy

We have already read in the preceding pages that the property rights in the feudal system of the medieval times were determined by customs; and the property to which they customarily claimed their ownership referred to land, cattle, agricultural implements and other tangible material objects . In the modern age, however, even nonmaterial intangible objects like ideas, authorship of books, artistic production, musical notes and intellectual innovations are protected by law like ‘property’. That is why, both the governments and the judiciary take the responsibility of providing protection to the people in all these matters. Th e S y s t e m o f Ex Ex c h a n g e

A sy st em of ex ch a ng e ha s al wa y s existed at every stage of economy. In the primitive societies, people exchanged things of their utility. It was called the barter-system. There was neither money, nor any measure to determine the value of a thing. The modern economy is essentially a market economy in which exchange is a prime institution. People now produce for the market and every commodity has a value in terms of money and the currency curr ency is the medium of exchange. Even agriculture is no longer a mere subsistence economy as it was during the pre-industrial period. The agricultur agricultural al product production ion has a value value in market terms and the farmer produces surpluses for the market with a profit

74

motive. motive. The money is not only in the form of metal coins as in the earlier times but paper money has become a more prominent form of money. The coins are used only as small changes. At a very advanced stage of industrial economy where we have already reached now, even money has become a secondary means of exchange. Most of business at a higher level is transacted on credit. The economy is so advanced and transactions have become so huge and complex that no amount of hard money would be able to meet the demand. Moreover, the exchange on the basis of credit is very convenient, quick and safe. Division of Labour

Every society, primitive or modern, has the institution of division of labour. The division of labour is a system of distribution of work among the people according to their skill and competence. In the primitive societies, the division of work was very simple and determined only by sex. The men generally did the work which required hard labour such as hunting and cultivation whereas child-rearing, cooking, water fetching and food gathering etc. were the responsibility of women. In the undeveloped economy, the jobs and other economic activities were so simple and few that no special training and skill, as such, was required requ ired to t o carry ca rry them out. The industrial economy as we have today, is complex and replete with variety of occupations requiring varied levels of training and skills for their execution.


Required professional specializations are so large that different persons with different specialized knowledge are required in the modern economy. The occupational specializations with immense variations are the result of the fact that modern economy is essentially technology-based technology-based and a large number of institutions have developed to fulfill these wide-ranging requirements. This has led to the emergence of different kinds of professional classes. Since the modern economy is based on technology and science, tremendous progress has taken place in the use of sophisticated electronic machines and computers in economic activities. The sex based differentiation as we had in the preindustrial economies is no longer the rule of law. The women are equally competent to participate in the economic activities since quite a good number of jobs not require much physical strength. The development of new sophisticated technologies has enabled women to be equally or even more efficient in doing jobs outside their homes, which has provided a great fillip to their position in society. The division of labour is a kind of economic co-operation. Its genesis is socially determined. Emile Durkheim, a noted sociologist calls it a social fact . He is of the opinion that division of labour in society increases with the increase in population in society. In primitive societies, the population was small and the economy was simple and rudimentary. Therefore, the division of labour was also simple. With the development of society following the


growth of population, the division of labour also has become complex and differentiated, leading to what Emile Durkheim has called, a growth in organic solidarity in society. In Marxian literature, labour in the capitalist system of production is without any qualit ative attr ibutes. Ac co rd in g to Ma rx, ‘l ab ou r wh ic h creates exchange-value and therefore commodities, is specifically ‘social labour’ and ‘the division of labour is the economic expression of the social character of labour’. Wage

The wa ge sy st em , li ke ma ny ot her economic institutions has its roots in the past. During medieval period, merchants and traders used to hire labour for producing handicrafts work. In the putt ing out system of manufacturing, the merchants provided the raw material to the labourers and received from them the finished product. The workers were paid by the merchants for their labour. In the traditional agricultural economy as in India, the wages were not paid in cash and the rate of wages was not fixed. Sometimes, rich farmers used to take the services of the workers without making any payment for it. Th e wo rk er s ha d to se rv e un de r a customary obligation . It was called begaar.

With the advent of industrial economy, the institution of wage became firmly established. The wage rate is now fixed; and forms the part of contract between the employee and

75

the employer and is governed by law. This is unlike the tr adit ional wage system in which the relationship between the master and the revent was very personal and informal. In the modern economic system, this relationship is formal and impersonal; and is governed by legal conditionalities on both sides. The institution of trade unions for the wor ker s and ass oc iatio ns fo r the employers have emerged for the protection of their interests in these contractual dealings. As the in dus trial ec on omy advances, the corporations emerge. They are joint stock companies with great significance in the modern economy. The modern industries require huge amount of capital for the purchase of expensive capital goods, which is not possible for a single person to accumulate. This becomes possible by inviting shareholders to invest their money by purchasing shares in these companies. The corporation is not a partnership concern, which gets dissolved in the event of the death of one partner. Instead, the corporations may have any number of shareholders, and also these may continue to exist despite entry or exit of any specific shareholder/ s. Corporations also have many other advantages over the partnership concerns but, at the same time, they may also have some negative features. For example, it is often remarked that a ‘corporation has no soul’. It is usually insensitive to the general welfare of the common people and is governed purely by profit motive.

76


Further, whatever may be the number any excesses unleashed by the of shareholders, a corporation is always capitalists. The capitalist are not allowed to appropriate absolutely governed by a small group of insiders. uncontrolled profit. The state monitors prices and decides minimum wages in Types of Modern Econom y order to protect the interests of the Th er e ar e two way s of cl ass ify in g workers. modern economies. One kind of distinction is between the capitalist, T h e S oc i a l i s t E c on o m y the socialist and the mixed economies. Another distinction is bet ween the The socialist econom y ref ers to the developed and the less developed establishment of public enterprises. In economies. The United States of this economic system, the capital is in Ame ric a and the co unt ri es of the the ownership of the state. The Western Europe a re among t he state controls the production and capitalist economies. China is an distribution. Russia and China and example of the socialist economy and many other East European countries India is an example of the mixed fall in this category. However, from the decade of 1980s the socialist countries economy. have shown interest in liberalization of their economies and appear to be T h e Ca p i t a l i s t E co n o m y gradually shifting away from the The ca pi tal ist economy is a free ideologically rigid socialistic system to economy. It operates according to the the market oriented economy. market forces. There is private ownership of the enterprises. The T h e M i x e d E c on o m y production is controlled by individual The mixed economy is a combination of owners of capital employed in the both the capitalist and the socialist enterprise. It is also called the market economies. In this system, some economy because it is the buyers and industries and business enterprises are sellers who determine what goods and owned by the state and others are left free services in what quantity and at what to the private ownership of the people. prices should be bought and sold in The enterprises owned by the state are the market. In the capitalist economy, known as public sector enterprises and there is freedom to the people to carry those, which are owned by individual out any economic enterprise and the entrepreneurs or group of individuals or motive behind this is only the shareholders is collectively called the appropriation of private profit. private sector. There are also certain However, all the modern states attempt firms, which are owned both by the to take care of the interest of the state and the private shareholders. common people (consumers and This is ca ll ed a ‘j oint ’ sect or . Ever workers) and intervene in the event of since Independence, India


has been pursuing the system of mixed economy. In the year 1990, the Government of India adopted New Economic Policy with an objective to bring about a radical economic reform in the country. The three main objectives of the new policy are: liberalization, privatization and globalization. Under liberalization scheme, the previously rigid business rules and the licensing system have been relaxed. The government has also liberalized the international trade practices in order to promote export and competition among the Indian bu sin es sm en . The di rec t fo rei gn investment has been welcomed in the country. The foreign companies are be in g pe rsu ade d to inv es t in the industrial sector of our country. The Government is gradually moving towards reducing the share of public sector in the economy and promoting private investors. This shift by the country from the long-cherished principle of mixed economy was necessitated because it was realized that this system did not yield the results, as it should have over a long period of forty year s si nce Inde pendence an d th e development process in t he country could not pick up adequate pace.

77

categorized into two classes: the developed and developing. This classification is based on the level of economic progress of the countries. The countries which started on the path of industrialization long back and have now reached the optimum level are grouped as ‘developed countries’. These countries are highly industria-lized and are considered to have entered into the post-industrial stage. These are rich countries and have high per capita income; and have excelled the less developed countries not only in the domain of production but also in the sectors of education, health services and the control of population growth. The USA, Canada, the countries of the Western Europe and Japan form this category. The developing economy, on the contrary, is that in which industrialization is at a lower level. These countries have limited access to modern technology due to shortage of capital. The per capita income of the people in these countries is low and the standard of living of majority of people is poor. Poverty, illiteracy, high birth rate as well as death rate, high infant mortality rate, malnutrition and poor health services are the symptoms of the less developed countries of the world today. The T h e D e v e l o p e d a n d D e v e l o p i n g countries of Latin America, Africa and Economies Asia ar e generally included in this The countr ies or the world are also category.

78


GLOSSARY SYSTEM . Exchange

B ARTER

of things of utility in agrarian sector.

B EGAAR . To do work without any payment.

CONTRACT. Agreement between two or more persons.

industrialized countries with high per capita income, excellence in education and health services etc.

D EVELOPED

COUNTRIES . Highly

ECONOMY. Economy where industrialization is at lower level with limited access to modern technology, low per capita income, comparatively poorer standard of living.

D EVELOPING

D IVISION

OF LABOUR . Distribution of work among the people according to their skill & competence.

E CONOMY. System of production and distribution. GLOBALIZATION . Integration of economic activities (by units) of private capital on

world scale. J AJMANI

SYSTEM. Customary

exchange of goods and services between patron

(jajman) and client ( k a m i n ).

LIBERALIZATION. Relaxation of rigid business rules and licensing system, etc. P RIVATIZATION. Reducing the share of public sector in the economy and promoting

private investors. P ROPERTY. Articles which have economic value. P OTLATCH . Ritualized ceremony for the exchange of gifts for establishing social

standing and honour. May involve the honorific and auspicuous destruction of stocks of valuable. It is generally found in tribal societies.

EXERCISES

1. What do you mean by economic institutions? Point out certain fundamental economic institutions. 2. Discuss the characteristics of the primitive economy. 3. What are the characteristics of modern industrial economy? 4. What are the characteristics of property? 5. Distinguish between agrarian and industrial economies. 6. In what way is the modern agricultural economy different from the preindustrial traditional agriculture? 7. Write a short note on Marxian view of labour. 8. Discuss the nature of exchange system at different stages of economy. 9. Write fifty words on each of the following. (a) property (b) contract


10. Distinguish between the capitalist and the socialist economies. 11. Differentiate between the developed countries and the less developed countries. 12. What does mixed economy mean? 13. What do you mean by contract? 14. What are the aims of the New Economic Policy of India?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. 2. 3. 4.

Gillin, J.L. and Gillin, J.P., An Introdu ction to Sociology, New York, 1947. Kingsley, Davis, Hum an Society, New York, 1948. Martindale, D. and Monachesi, E.D., Elemen ts of Sociology, New York, 1951. Smelser, N.J., The Sociology of Econom ic Life, New Delhi, 1965.

79

80


CHAPTER 9

Political Institutions There is a close link between polity and society. The sociological study of polity seeks to understand how political elements like leadership, power and authority, party activities and voting behaviour are influenced by social factors like caste, class, race, region and religion; and how state corresponds to the growing complexities of society. Political system is a sub-system of society. It has always existed ever since the emergence of society. Society is a system of rules and regulations by which is controlled the behaviour of the people. Society has to have this control mechanism if it has to continue to exist. The absence of rules and regulations in society would prove chaotic leading to the collapse of social systems. In the civilized societies like ours, most of the means of social control are formal such as written laws. However, the customary laws are not completely absent, either. The institutions, which have the authority to ensure the observance of the rule of law in primitive societies are the family, kinship and community, whereas in the civilized societies it is done by the state. These agencies are endowed with legitimate power to use force to

ensure the observance of law by the people. Power and Authority

Legitimate power is the most significant element of political institutions. Martindale and Monachesi have defined political institutions as those holding monopoly in the exercise of legitimate force. The power can not be unlimited and unqualified. The unqualified power cannot last long. A person, howsoever strong, may not be allowed to exercise the use of force or violence for an indefinite period of time. Also the influence of power cannot remain intact, if the force is frequently used to exercise power. Therefore, the threat of force is more significant than the actual use of force in maintaining the effectiveness of power to control. Imperativeness of frequent use of force indicates erosion of the power. The political systems in the remote past were such that the political power of rulers (feudal lords, kings, emperors and despots) was relatively unqualified bu t st ate, wh ic h em er ge d aft er Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution was endowed with qualified


power. ‘The state’, according to Max Weber, ‘is a human community which successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force wi thi n a giv en ter rit ory’ . Th e constitution of a state/country defines the limits of power of the state and its different organs. The power is legitimate so long as it presents the ‘general will’ of the people and is voluntarily accepted by them. Max Weber makes a distinction between power and authority. When a person exercises his influence over the other person or persons irrespective of the will of the latter, this influence is called power. Authority, on the contrary, is an exercise of influence, which is voluntarily accepted by the persons on whom it is exercised. The authority is a legitimate power. The use of force by a despot or a tyrant may be a power, whereas that of the head of the state in modern societies is an authority. The authority, thus, is a socially recognized influence. There are sev eral factors which determine the nature of power individually or in combination. These factors have sociological significance. Some of these factors are: (a) social position, (b) prestige, (c) fame, (d) the physical and material prowess; and (e) education, knowledge, ability and excellence. When the power is legitimized it becomes authority and only then it is accepted by people voluntarily. Max We be r po in ts ou t thr ee ba se s of legitimization of power and classifies three corresponding types of authority.

81

The autho rities are: the tradi tiona l authority, the charismatic authority and the legal-rational authority. The tra ditional aut hority is that wh ic h pe op le ob ey by ha bi t. Th ey accept the power of someone simply because it has been don e so in the past. It has become a tradition. The tribal chief, the king or feudal lord of the medieval period or the head of the traditional patriarchal family are the examples of traditional authority. This type of authority is personal and irrational. Charismatic authority is the second type. People also behave voluntarily under the influence of a person who possesses some extraordinary qualities. They obey the person due to their faith in and respect for him. The charismatic authority is personal and rational in nature. Th e aut hor it y in the mod er n industrial society is legal-rational type. Th is autho rity is for ma l and its privileges are limited and defined by law. The actual power lies not in the person who wields it but in the position or the chair he occupies. Charismatic administrative staff of the state is an example of this category. This authority is personal and irrational in nature. The State

According to Max Weber state is the most fundamental institutions of a political system. The state means the institution which exercises the monopoly over the legitimate use of

82

power within a given territory. It can use force to implement its policies. It has sovereignty. There are the subinstitutions of the state which are involved in the exercise of political power. The executive, the judiciary and the legislature are the instruments, which co-operate in the distribution of power. The essential elements of the state are: a population, a defined territory, a government and sovereignty. All modern societies are ‘nation-states’. Giddens writes that ‘nation-states’ are the states in which the great mass of population are citizens who regard themselves as a part of single nation.’ Population

Population is the most important element of state. Unless some families of people relatively permanently in a geographical area constitute a community a state can not be formed. The size of population may be small or large. Political scientists are not unanimon what the smallest size of population should be for a state to exist. Today, Vetican city has the lowest and China has in largest population of the world. Territory

The modern states have clearly defined territorial boundaries. The borders of traditional states had been very loosely defined and carelessly controlled. S o v er e i g n t y

Sovereignty means the supreme power that the government possesses to wield


control over people within the defined territory of the state. Gover n m en t

The government consists of following three organs which perform political functions. 1. The Legislature 2. The Executive 3. The Judiciary The legislature is the elected body of representatives who are endowed with authority to make laws in order to regulate society within the jurisdiction of constitutional provisions. Unlike the primitive and pre-modern societies, wh er e th e la ws ar e cu st om ary , in modern states the laws are written; and are subject to change as and when required to meet societal needs. The organ of gover nment which executes laws passed by the legislature is known as the Executive. It may include entire staff of officials which are voted with the administration of public affairs, for example, the executive head, council of ministers, secretaries and other civil servants. In the narrower sense, it signifies only the real executive. The executives may be (a) nominal or real, (b) hereditary or elected, (c) single or plural. They are appointed on a fixed remuneration and terms and conditions. The relationship be twee n the em pl oy er an d the employee is contractual. The welfare an d security of the citizens depends up on impartial administration of justice, which is done by Judiciary. It has the function


of defining and interpreting laws. It also resolves disputes according to the laws of the land, punish crimes and protect the innocent from injury and usurpation. Political Systems

At every stage, in the history of society, there has been one or the other kind of political system. The political structure that developed in primitive societies was based on kinship and religion. The power to control people vested in kinship groups and the chiefs of the community. Th e po li ti ca l st ruc tu re fu rt he r developed with the growth of agricultural economy. The landed property went into the hands of a single person and, therefore, he became powerful. This was the key element in the formation of the feudal states. The large landholders would naturally exercise a control over the slaves, serfs and labourers, who were under their subservience. These rich men became chiefs and lords. The medieval European societies, India, China and other Asian countries had the feudal form of government. With Industrial Revolution by the middle of the Eighteenth century and following the French Revolution, capitalism developed along with new value system in Europe. The power of the king started breaking down giving way to the establishment of democracy. The traditional values of orthodoxy, hierarchy, monarchy and autocracy also started getting replaced by those

83

of rationality, equality, democracy and secularism. The political authority shifted away from church and monarch to the body of people called ‘government’ elected by the people. The democratic form of government is currently the most popular political system in the world. However, other forms of political systems still continue to exist. Conte mporary Political Syste ms

Broadly, two forms of political systems exist today in the world: Monarchy and Democracy. Mon a r ch y

Monarchy refers to the rule of a single person. The power of a monarch is customary and passes through family from generation to generation. In ancient and medieval period there wer e se ve ral mo na rch ie s in Asi a, Africa and Europe. The power of the monarch was legitimized by tradition and not by law. Today, only in a few countries, there is monarchic government. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco have monarchs who exercise near-complete control over the government. Some modern democratic countries also have monarchs but their power is restricted by the Constitution. They ar e th us , only consti tu ti onal monarchs who carry out certain symbolic responsibilities. The queen of the United Kingdom, emperor of Japan and king of Nepal are such monarchs, today.

84


of governance is authoritarian. The will of people is not honoured as is done in Democracy is the most popular and democratic governments. In these widely accepted form of government societies, those ruling the state today. There are two prevailing deliberately use their power and systems of democracy in modern positions to realize their own interests society: ignoring the interests of the common (a) the pure or direct, people. Myanmar and Singapore are (b) the representative or indirect. examples of such countries. Th e di rec t or par tici pa tor y democracy is that in which the will of POLITICAL PARTY the state is expressed directly and oc cup y immediately through the mass Th e po liti ca l pa rt ies assembly. The decisions are taken by significant place in democracy. It is an the community. This kind of organized body of people with common democracy is possible only where the interests and ideology. Gilchrist state is so small that all the members defines political party as ‘an organized can assemble under one roof. The group of citizens who profess to share ancient Greece had this kind of the same political views and who act as democracy. The representative or a political unit try to control the indirect type of democracy is one in government’. MacIver writes that ‘ a which the will of the state is formulated political,party is an association and expressed through a small and organized in support of some principle selected body of persons, who are or policy, which by constitution al chosen by the people as their means endeavours to make the representatives. These representatives determinant of the government. The come through voting. The democratic parties are essentially political and system of indirect representation also they strive for power. There are some motivational factors, which are has two forms: instrumental in the development of (i) The Parliamentary System; and political parties. These motivational (ii) The Presidential System. In the parliamentary system the factors are ideological, regional, authority to rule lies with the religious, linguistic etc.’ The parties may be cla ssified i n parliament, which is a house of the representatives of people. In the terms of their ideologies. Some parties presidential system, the real power lies are Rightist, i.e. politically conservative wi th the pr es id en t wh o ind ir ec tly and supporting the ideals of capitalism represents people. India and England whereas some are Leftist, i.e. those who are examples of the former and USA of support the ideals of socialism. Still others are Centrist, i.e. with moderate the latter. There are certain countries, which rather than with extreme political claim to be democratic but their system views. In India, the BJP is labelled as Dem ocr a cy


the Rightist, CPI and CPM the Leftist and the Congress the Centrist. The political position of a party is acknowledged on the basis of the level of representation of the people it has. Some parties have national status because they represent all the regions of the country, like Congress, BJP, BSP and RJD. As against this, some parties are only regional in status like the Tel ugu Des am, Akali Dal, National Conference, because they represent the people only of some specific regions of the country. There is visible connection between the formation and functioning of political parties on the one hand, caste, class and regional interests on the other. However, national-level parties have sought to represent the general interests of the people. Certain parties arouse caste or religious sentiments in consolidating their political position and ensuring the victory of their candidates in elections. Pres su re Groups

Ap art fr om na tio na l an d reg ion al parties, there also exist interest groups and pressure groups which act to influence political decisions and processes in the democratic states. The interest groups are, some kind of associations some which function to safeguard the social, economic and cultural interests of its people. Quite often, these groups are forced by people owing affiliation to more than one political party, simply because they feel a commonality of interests. Such

85

a group is, thus, a political force which attempts to influence the decisions of the government in its favour. The pressure groups work with the objective of occupying a powerful position in the national politics. With the increase of education, economic position and political awareness, the pressure groups emerge, especially when their constituent members realize that their interests are being ignored by the group of people who currently occupy positions of power. The Indian nation is replete with diversities and, therefore, there always exists a natural possibility of certain sections of people feeling discrimi-nated. As the situation in the country stands at present, certain castes or sub-castes, communities and regional groups can come together in order to present their political interests from being appropriated by the government. T h e Co n s t i t u t i o n

Almost every country of the world has a Constitution. The Constitution is a document of legal rules, which guide and govern the government of a country. It is a written document containing the general principles under which the government functions. Only the British Constitution is unwritten. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. No statutory law of the government can be out of or in violation of the general principles of the Constitution. The Constitution can also be amended through a definite

86


procedure and only by a competent body, as and when required. Th e In di an Co nst it ution was passed by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November, 1949. It came into force on 26 January, 1950. The Constitution consists of 395 Articles and Eight Schedules. The Ninth Schedule was added by the Constitution (First Amendment ) Act 1951 and the Tenth Schedule by the Constitution (Fifty-second amendment) Act 1985. The total number of amendments made, so far, are 94 and many more are on anvil. Indian Constitution is perhaps the largest document in the world. The Preamble to the Constitution declares that India is a sovereign democratic Secular Republic. The Indian State is a parliamentary democracy. The Constitution declares India to be a secular state. It means that it will not be guided in discharging its duties by the teachings of any religious faith within its territories. Additionally, India is also a Welfa re State. The Fundamental Directive Principles

Rights

and

The Constitution of India contains the fundamental rights, which the State has to ensure to its citizens and the Directive Principles which the central and various state governments have to be guided by in the process of their governance. Some specific fundamental rights are: the right to equality, the right to freedom (freedom

of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of property and freedom of profession, occupation and business), right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights. The Directive Principles contained in chapter III of the Constitution intend to emphasize that the primary concern of the state is to ensure social justice to the citizens. The state has been charged to make effective provisions for securing right to work, to education, to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and other such minimum things required for a civilized existence. Elections

Th e Art icl es 32 4- 32 9 of the Constitution of India refer to the specifications of the elections. The Constitution under the provisions of these articles provides for every citizen of India who is not less than eighteen years of age, except those who ar e mentally unsound or who had been found guilty of criminal or corrupt practices, the right to vote for elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha ) and the Legislative Assembly ( V i d h a n S a b h a ) . The Election Commission is charged with the responsibility of regulating, directing and controlling all elections including the election of the President and Vice-President of India. The Election Commission consists of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election


87

decentralize power percolating it down to the village level and enable the village people to have effective control on village development programmes. functions as a unit of Gram Panchay at self-government. Panchayati Raj is a three-tier system of governance: Gram P a n c h a y a t at the village level; Pa n c h a y a t S a m i t i at the intermediate level; and Zila Pancha ya t at the district level. Members at all the three tiers are chosen by direct election. The 73rd Constitution Amendment Act accorded greater power and responsibilities to the elected members of P a n c h a y a t s Panchayati Raj and by reservation of seats, enabled P a n c h a y a t i R a j is a significant wom en to act ive ly pa rtic ipa te institution of Indian polity. The in political processes in greater objective of Pa n c h a y a t i R a j is to number.

Commissioners whose number is determined by the President. Chief Election Commissioner is also the Chairman of the Commission. Elections in India are a huge event. It is the world’s largest exercise in democracy. Every adult Indian has right to vote is a testimony to the successful democracy that our country is. The Election Commission provides facilities to the voters to have easy and passable access to polling booths and to cast their votes fearlessly.

GLOSSARY AUTHORITY. Power, influence, established by political rule within a community

or society. B U R E A U C R A C Y . Bureaucracy in the sociological literature refers to an

organizational set-up, where specific individuals perform their assigned tasks according to these specialized skills. D E M O C R A C Y . Participation of the people at large in their own political

governance. MONOPOLY. Exclusive use of power by only a single ruler or a single party. N ATION- STATES . The states in which the great mass of population are citizens

who regard themselves as a part of single-nation. GROUPS . A specific group which acts to influence political processes in the democratic states.

P RESSURE

S OVEREIGNTY. Supreme power of government exercised by a state or its people

living within defined territorial limits. EXCERCISES

1. What do you understand by political institutions? Indicate the significance of the element of ‘power’ in political system.

88


2. What are the characteristics of modern state? 3. What do you understand by authority? What are the basis of legitimating power. 4. Discuss the nature of political parties. How are they different from the pressure groups? 5. Discuss the influence of social and cultural conditions on political processes and the nature and function of political parties in India. 6. Write short notes on the following: (a) Rational-legal authority (b) Pressure groups (c) Democracy (d) Power and authority (e) Power and state. 7. What is monarchy? Give examples. 8. Which countries are not truly democratic and why?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Basu, D.D., Introdu ction to the Indian Constitu tion , Printice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1983. 2. Bottomore, T.B., Sociology , Blackie and Sons, Bombay, 1978. 3. Giddens, A., Sociology, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1989. 4. Lenski, G., Pow er and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratificati on , McGraw Hill, New York, 1966. 5. Weber, Max, The Theory of Social an d Economic Organiza tion, Free Press, Illinois, 1947.


89

CHAPTER 10

Religion and Culture Religion has existed throughout the history of human society. It is a part of culture and an important aspect of human social life. It shapes human behaviour in a moral fashion . Religion is a system of belief in the existence of supernatural beings. It is based on assumptions and speculations. One of the speculations is that religion came into being as a result of the instinct of fear in a person. At the initial stage of society, human individuals were completely dependent on nature for their livelihood. Quite often, due to very weak faculty of intelligence, they could not understand and rationalize the causes of natural obstacles in their way of arrangement of food and shelter. As a consequence, they were led to believe in and feared from the existence of some supernatural power — a power higher than their own. Whose displeasure, in their view, could be contained only by its appreciation and propitiation. Thus, perhaps evolved religion which grew into an organized form based on a system of beliefs and ritual practices. DEFINITION OF RELIGION

Th e ant hr op ol og is t E. B. Ty lor ha s

defined religion as ‘a belief in supernatural being’. Emile Durkheim, an eminent sociologist has defined it as a ‘unified system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things that is, things set apart and forbidden beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church’. Basic Characte ristic s o f Religion

Following are the basic characteristics of religion : 1. Belief in the supernatural power, 2. These beliefs are associated with emotional state of mind such as fear, awe, happiness, reverence etc., 3. There are many material objects involved in religious practices such as altar, charms, cloth, flower, banana leaves, sacrifice, cross, incense sticks etc., 4. The material objects involved in religious practices vary from culture to culture, 5. Every religion involves its specific rituals such as playing, dancing, chanting, fasting and eating certain specific kinds of food and so on,

90

6. Religious rituals are generally performed in isolation but occasionally religion is ceremoniously practised collectively, 7. Every religion has its specific mode of worship, 8. Every religion has its special place of worship, 9. The concept of heaven and hell and sacred and profane. Magic, Religion and Scien ce

Magic, religion and science are mutually distinct and also represent, as argued by Frazer, the three stages in the development of human thought. The common thing among them is the quest of understanding the reality of nature and the attempt to exercise a control over it. Magic, like religion, is also a belief in supernatural power and tries to control this mystical power by the use of force and techniques. Magic is generally practised individually, wh er ea s re li gi on is pr ac ti se d by a community of believers. Magic is part of the tribal culture, though, it is not completely absent in modern societies. Some persons of the modern society such as players, professionals and those who work in risk-prone places perform magic-like rites. They wear special kinds of precious stonestudded rings in order to avert the evil effects of bad spirits. People perform magical rituals in order to save themselves from imminent dangers. In magic, the exorcist considers himself


more powerful than the spirit—the supernatural and performs rituals to overpower it. Magic has two forms: the wh it e ma gi c an d th e bl ac k ma gi c. Wh ite ma gic is tha t in whi ch the exorcist exercises his magical power for the benefit and well being of the common people. On the contrary, when the sorcerer uses magical power by means of charms for evil purposes, we call it black magic. In religion, unlike magic, the mysterious power is assumed to be superior to the human being. It is believed that this power directs and controls the course of nature and human life. In religion, the supernatural power is only propitiated and prayed to instead of being controlled by force. Religion, unlike magic, is humble, submissive, ethical and moralistic in its values, whereas magic may be negative and evil-ended too. Wh ile bo th mag ic an d rel ig io n believe in the existence of the unknown — the superna tural beings, science be lie ve s in wha t is kn ow n as observable and knowable. Science refers to a systematic knowledge of the reality. It attempts to understand realities on the basis of observable facts. Science is rationalistic in as much as it aims at seeking the causeeffect relationship involved in the dynamics of phenomena. But scientists are not atheists necessarily. Th ey may also be be li ev er s, worshippers and, of course sometimes dogmatic also.


THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION

Anthropologists and sociologists have propounded theories of the origin of religion. The theories are generally evolutionary in nature as they depict successive stages in the development of the institution of religion in society. E.B. Tylor in his book Prim itive Cultu re, has clearly explained his views regarding the origin of religion. His theory of religion is popularly known as the ‘theory of animism’. According to this theory, religion emerged from the idea of soul. From the fact of death and the phenomenon of dreams, the idea of soul that emerged in the minds of the primitive people was that the soul after death transmigrates. During sleep, these transmigrated souls interact wi th the bo dy so ul . Dr ea m is the manifestation of this interaction. J.G.Frazer, in his book the Golden Bough , presents the theory of the origin of religion by making a distinction between magic and religion. Magic, according to Frazer, is an attempt of people to control nature by force. This act presupposes the assertion of greater power of the people than the power of nature. On the contrary, religion is the propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man, which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life. The human thought, according to Frazer, has evolved in the sequence: first, the m a g i ca l s t a g e ; second, the religious stage ; and third, the scientific stage .

91

Max Muller’s theory of the origin of religion is known as ‘naturism’. Like the view’s of Tylor, Muller’s theory is also based on the intellectual error of the primitive man. To the primitive man, at the first stage, the nature appeared to be most surprising, fearful, marvellous. “It was that vast domain of surprise and of terror, according to Muller,” which supplied from the earlier times the impulse to religious thought and language. It is from this sensation of infinite that religion was derived”. In his book, E l em e n t a r y F or m s o f t h e R e l i g i ou s L i f e Emile Durkheim rejects all the existing theories of religion and instead, puts forth a sociological theory of religion. In every religion, Durkheim says, a distinction is made between sacred and profane things. The sacred things are those which are treated as very special and superior and also which are protected and isolated. The profane things are interdicted and kept at distance from the sacred. The sacredness of a thing is not an inherent characteristic but something which it gets from another source and also from its opposition to the profane. ‘Totemism’ according to Durkheim, was the most primitive form of religion. Th e wo rd , ‘t ot em ’, acc or di ng to Giddings, first originated among North American Indian tribes but has been wi de ly us ed to re fe r to an im al s or plants believed to have supernatural powers. Totem consists of a series of ideas. One of the ideas is the belief that the people of a social group ( c l a n ,

92

phratry , moity are such social groups in

primitive societies) are related to a common mythological ancestor. Symbols are used to represent the totem. Certain restrictions are applied such as, prohibition of killing and eating of totem except for ceremonial sacrifice, taboo of sexual relationship or marriage between the members of the group having the same totem. The basic argument of Durkheim is that all religious ideas such as totem have emerged from the social group. Th e de ity, the rig ht eo us and unrighteous, heaven and hell and totem are all the collective representations of the group itself. Th e totem is trea ted sa cr ed because it is a symbol of group life. People respect totem because they respect social values. Totem represents collective consciousness. In religion, according to Durkheim, collective ceremonies are held. People’s faith in religion reaffirms group solidarity. Ceremonies and rituals bind people together in the community. Durkheim emphasizes that on special occasions in life such as birth, marriage and death a very new situation emerges. Collective ceremonies and rituals on such occasions help the affected people to adjust with the new situations. Prom inen t Religions

The prominent religions of the world are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Judaism. In


India, apart from Hinduism, other religions are Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. Each of these religions is based on a particular system of beliefs and practices. Judaism, Christianity and Islam originated in the Middle East. These religions are monotheistic and earlier two religions are messianic. They believe in single God and His Prophets. Judaism is the religion of the Jews and the oldest of the three religions. Christianity emerged fafter Judaism and spread as a prominent religion. Jesus, himself a Jew, was the initiator of Christianity. Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity in the wor ld, today. I t originated from the teachings of the prophet Mohammad in the Seventh century. Hinduism is the oldest of all the great religions of the world and the prominent religion of the Indian Subcontinent. It dates back some six thousand years. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. Several gods and deities are worshipped. Other basic features of Hinduism are its tenet of the cycle of ‘reincarnation’. Theory of reincarnation is based on the belief that all creatures continue to pass through the eternal process of birth, death and rebirth pending the attainment of salvation ( M o k s h a ) — freedom from the cycle of birth, death and birth. Hinduism, basically speaking, emphasizes upon the observance of one’s own duties as a member of society particularly the caste and the family. Buddhism,


93

Jai nis m and Sikhism are the other as V e d a s of Hindus, the Q u r a n of religions which have emerged from Muslims and the B i b l e of Christians. Hindu religion. Th ey co ntai n the ph ilo sop hy and ideology of respective religions. Ideology of Religion Every religion consists of several folklores and folksongs replete with Beliefs and rituals are the subjective mythological stories, mysteries and attitudes of individuals. Religious belief messages of the gods. They form the is based on the assumption of the part of the tradition of the society and existence of supernatural world. It are transmitted by one generation to relates to the intangible aspect of other. This is how the emotional religion such as, idea of God, heaven adherence to religion is strengthened. and hell, consecration and Th e vi ct or y of go d ov er de vi l or of desecration, sin and virtue. It also goodness over the evil is generally the relates to the tangible objects such as, main theme of the tales or songs. For place of worship, holy books etc. For example, R a m a , Jesus Christ and Hindus, apart from several gods and prophet Mohammad have been goddesses, cow is also a sacred animal; depicted as symbols of goodness. and so is the water of Ganges. It is all a matter of subjective faith and does Organization of Religion not have any thing to do with the inherent nature of things. Th er e are di ff er ent fo rms of the The rituals relate to the behaviour communities of believers such as the of people with reference to the church, the sect and the cult. Church supernatural and sacred things. is a well-established organization. It Rituals are religious actions in which has a bureaucratic structure with a one or the other kind of tangible sacred hierarchy of office bearers from among things are manipulated. Ritual is goal the believers. The Catholic and the directed. It is performed in order to Protestant are such churches. No other achieve certain desires and wishes. religion is so highly organized. Th e ritua l is, ther ef or e, an Hinduism has no organized body instrumental action. Ritual practices except that certain important temples vary from place to place and from time of the country have the body of persons to time. Religious behaviour may entrusted with the responsibility of include wearing special clothes, management of temples. Temples also fasting, dancing, giving alms etc. have priests to look after the Every religion has its particular maintenance of the temples and carry mode of worship. A Hindu worships in out routine religious functions. The the temple, a Christian in the Church priests are generally selected only and a Muslim worships in the Mosque. conventionally. Every religion has its Holy texts such Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch

94


have made a significant distinction be twee n ch urc he s and se ct s. As compared to church sects are smaller in size. They are also not so well organized. They generally originate as a remonstration against the old established religions. It is initiated by a few and gradually others join it. The sect rejects the tenets of the conventional religion and attempts to convince people about the weaknesses of the traditional religion. It motivates people to follow the teachings of the sect. Arya Samaj and Neo-Buddhism Ram Krishna Mission are the examples of sects of Hinduism. Cult is yet another religious organization. It is formed around ideology and thinking of a particular individual leader. The like-minded people follow him. A person may follow a cult principle and adhere to any other religion. The cult is still smaller and has a shorter life than sect. Instances of cults in the West as given by Giddens are the groups of believers in spiritualism, astrology or transcendental meditation. The Kabir Panth, Sai Baba, Jai Gurudev are some of the present cults in India. THEORIES OF RELIGION Theory of Karl Marx

Althoug h Karl Marx was not for the abolition of religion as he was for the private property system, he visualized the alienation of man in religion. Marx writes that the more man puts i nto God, the less he retains into himself. He also says that religion is ‘opium of

the masses’. People justify the inequalities and injustices meted out to them as the will of god and thus, any resistance to oppression is minimized . Religion promises that the life afterwards would be better. Marx feels that religion reduces the possibility of revolt against inequalities and exploitations. Theory of Max Weber

Max Weber studied world religions including Hinduism with a view to trace the role of religion in economic development. Weber wrote in his book The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of that the Development of Capitalism

modern capitalism in the West is essentially due to rise of Protestantism. Calvinism, according to We be r, hel pe d de ve lo pm en t of entrepreneurs. It is because the Protestantism believes that real service to God is honestly working hard for material success. Hinduism, on the contrary, according to him is not conducive to development because of its philosophy of ‘other-worldliness’ and emphasis on resigning material gains. Max Weber, however, is not correct in his conclusions regarding Hinduism and its impact on Indian economic development. Most of the early entrepreneurs of the country such as M a r w a r i s were from the communities of strong believers. More over, even this fact is not a truth that only Protestants could develop and not the Catholics in the West.


Religion and Culture

Religion is a part of culture but has autonomous power to influence most elements of culture complex. It pervades the entire way of life of people and determines the world view and approach to life. Religion in its fold has bo th ma ter ia l an d non -ma ter ia l cultural contents. The belief in intangible mystic super power, transmigration of soul, transcendence, the otherworldly abode like heaven and hell, division of world of things into sacred and profane refer to the nonmaterial aspects of religion. The material aspect of religion relates to the host of tangible things that hold religious significance and are used at the time of religious performances and rituals. Ritual may be performed by a person or a group of persons. It may also be entertaining but should not be taken primarily as an entertainment. It is a serious life activity. The modes of wo rsh ip, th e ob jec ts li ke fl ow er s, incense sticks, candles etc., the places of worship and many other such objects that are used during religious practices form the material aspect of religion. Impact of Religion on Culture

Religion infringes upon most elements of culture. All religions have some common elements. Belief in supernatural power i.e. faith in the existence of God, worship and propitiation of God, mysticism of the supernatural power, maintenance of isolation of that power and related

95

things as sacred from the rest treated as profane are such elements. But there are variations in religious practices among different religions. Different religions prescribe different kinds of objects with different meanings. Such variations have caused cultural variations in societies. Te mp les of Hi nd us, Mo sq ues of Muslims and Churches of Christians are architecturally different from one another. A multitude of gods and goddess are worshiped. Hindu religion is pantheistic and Islam and Christianity are monotheistic and messianic. When a Christian goes into Church, he takes off his hat but keeps his shoes on, whereas, when a Hindu steps into temple or a Muslim into mosque he takes off his shoes but takes his head covered. In Hindu religion, the flower is an important item to be used at the time of worship where as in Islam and Christianity it is not. The Chr istians lig ht candles in the church during worship. Incense sticks are used by all these communities at the time of worship. The last rites are important cultural situations in every religious community. In what way they are performed and what connotations they carry vary from society to society. Among the Muslims and Christians, the dead body is buried under the ground, whereas among Hindus, it is consigned to the fire. The cremation takes place with some ritual performances as prescribed by the respective religion. The post-cremation ritual ceremonies among the

96

Christians and Muslims are not as complex and elongated as among the Hindus. The Zoroastrians hang the body of the deceased on what they call the Tower of Silence and leave it there for vultures to eat it to finish. Signs and symbols are very significant elements of culture. The sign indicates the existence of a thing or an event and symbol represents the thing or event. Both signs and symbols are meaningful and their meaning is conveyed by interpretation. They are very commonly used in religion and religious practices. The signs differ from religion to religion, sometimes, conveying contradictory meanings. The mourning is marked by the black dress among Christians, whereas among Hindus people generally wear white dress on such occasions. The art and artifacts of local culture are found to be highly influenced by religion. For example, gods and goddesses, elephants, cows etc. are quite often depicted in the folk art of Hindus. The elephant and the cow etc. have religious significance in Hinduism. Most of the Indian festivals are either purely religious or involve some religious activities. Durgapuja in contrary to South, is a very popular festival of North India which is celebrated to propitiate the goddess — a goddess of power. Dussehra Durga is another festival being celebrated in most part of the country which concerns with the myth of the victory of L or d R a m a over R a v a n a , who symbolize the victory of goodness over evil. Yet another festival is D ee pa w a l i


in which goddess L a x m i is worshipped. L a x m i is considered to be the goddess of wealth. Likewise in most festivals some kind of religious practices are carried out. Ethics and morality are greatly influenced by religion. Theft, violence, dishonesty telling a lie and fidelity are the ethical and moral questions. No society approves them. Religious minded people believe that such acts amount to committing a sin and the person committing such sin is doomed to go to hell. On the contrary if a person observes honesty, tolerance and helps and protect other creatures is graced to get a place in heaven. Heaven and hell are the mythical abodes one of whi ch a person is all ott ed aft er the present life according to the good or bad deeds of the person. Peace and love are the prime objectives of religion. Religion in Modern Socie ty

Religion as we understand is a system of belief in supernatural being. Belief is a matter of emotion and the supernatural is beyond factual experience. Hence, no element of rationality in religion so far as the basis of its understanding is concerned. The modern society cherishes the values of rationality and secularism. Science and technology control the nature of economic life of the people. Science does not accept the existence of that which is not observable. Since religion is based on mere belief in the factually unknown and unknowable and not on reason, it does not hold its significance


97

as strongly in modern societies as in the traditional ones. However, any amount of development of science and technology and modernization can not dispense religion altogether. What has happened in the present modern society is that religion has undergone change along the changes in other aspects of social life. The following are some of the changes in religion as have taken place : (a) In traditional society religion pervades every act of life. In the modern society, religion is confined to certain situations. (b) In traditional society, religious beliefs are strong and rituals are performed by all and quite frequently. In modern society religious faith varies from individual to individual. Some of even those who are strong be li ev er s do no t ne ce ss aril y perform rituals. (c) In the medieval period, the state and religion were, generally,

inseparable. The modern states, on the contrary, are secular having a field separate from religion. Wh il e rel ig ion wo rk s as an integrating force for the group adhering to it and also integrating the personality of the people, it also sometimes, becomes the cause of strife and communal tension. Though all the religions have common objective i.e. we lf ar e of th e so ci et y and hu ma n being, and therefore, there is no point of competition among them. But, some political parties or countries for their clandestine political motive, manage to arouse hatred in one religious community against the other religious community leading to occasional outburst of communal violence. The present day terrorism which has gripped various parts of the world is an evidence of the notorious activities of a section of religious community in the name of religion.

GLOSSARY ANIMISM. Phenomena as dreams and death by reference to the spiritual existence,

animals and plants. CULT. Is the belief and practices of a particular group of religion to a god or gods.

A small flexible group whose religion is characterised by its individualism and esoteric belief. J UDAISM . Religion of the Jews. R ITUALS . Any formal actions following a set of pattern which express through

symbols. S ACRED. Religious beliefs regarded and explained as extraordinary and outside

everyday course of events and things.

98


S ECT . A religious group having some specific rituals, etc. S YMBOL. Any gesture, architect, sign and concept which signifies or expresses

something else is symbol. TOTEM. A plant, animal or object which is sacred symbol of a group.

EXERCISES

1. Define religion. Point out the basic characteristics of religion. 2. Examine the theories of the origin of religion. 3. Give a comparative account of the theories of Tylor and Frazer. 4. Explain Durkheim’s sociological view on religion. 5. Differentiate between the theory of Durkheim and that of Tylor. 6. Distinguish between magic, religion and science. 7. Discuss the organization of religion in society. 8. What is the shape of religion in modern society? 9. Trace the relationship between religion and culture. 10. Define cult. 11. What do you mean by sect?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Durkheim, Emile, Elementary Forms of Religious Life, London, 1930. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology , Cambridge, 2001. Harlambos, M., Sociology : Themes a nd Perspectives , Oxford, 1980. Weber, Max, Sociology of Religion , Boston, 1963. Wilson, B.R., Religious Sects , London, 1970.


99

CHAPTER 11

Education An A n in di vi du a l i s bo r n o nl y a s a biological biolo gical being but soon becomes become s a social being. This transformation from biological biological to social takes place through socialization and education. Education is an effort of the senior people to transfer their knowledge to the yo un ge r me mb er s of soci so ci et y. It is , therefore, also an institution which plays a vital role in integrating an individual with his society and in maintaining the perpetuation of culture. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim defines education as ‘the influence exercised by the adult generation upon those who are not yet ready for adult life’. He maintains that ‘society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity. The homogeneity is perpetuated and reinforced by education. A child, through education, learns basic rules, regulations, norms and values of society. The child gets attached to society only by learning the history of society’. Sociology has been interested in the study of education particularly in its interface with society. sociologists have focused mainly on the influence of social situations on the nature of education system and the role of

education in social change. From among the prominent sociologists who have worked on sociology of education some worth mentioning names are : Emile Durkheim, Ivan Illich, Pierre Bourdieu, M.S. Gore and Suma Chitnis. Basic Aims Aims of Education Education

The Th e basi ba sic c aims ai ms of educ ed ucat atio ion n are ar e to maintain society and to develop the personality of individuals. Following are some basic aims of education: (a) education integrates individual with society, (b) education maintains society, society, (c) education education perpetuates perpetuates culture, culture, (d) education education increases efficiency efficiency of individuals. Formal and Informal Education

Broadly speaking, there are two systems of education: formal and informal. The education which is imparted in a well-defined institutional setting is formal and which an individual acquires in the course of day-to-day life activities in the family and outside, in the company of others, is informal system of education.

1 00

Informal Education

Informal education dominates mainly in societies where there are no schools schools or insufficient number of schools to provide education to children. Informal education is imparted by family and kinship groups and the content of education relates to the activities involved in day-to-day behaviours pertaining to their social and economic needs. The language is only oral and the learning is by doing. People learn their language, rituals and ceremonies, norms and values and skills etc., through family and community activities, folklores and folk-tales. Even in civilized societies, where schools are available, children do receive education informally along with formal education they receive in schools. For example, morals, manners, family history and heritage are learnt by the child in the company of family members. Form Form al Educatio Educatio n

Formal education characterizes modern education system as we have it today. It is evident from old texts that formal education existed even in ancient India. The child used to spend the first quarter of his life in the abode of a hermit who provided education. The content co ntent of educati ed ucation on essentia ess entially lly related to scriptures and the art of using weapons in self-defense and in the service and welfare of others. In simple words, the formal education ,as we practice pr actice it today, t oday, refers to school sc hool education with formalized institutional


set up. It is modern education which began in England England in the year 1870. The Fisher Education Act 1918 made school education in England compulsory up to the age of 14 which was raised to 15 and, today, it is 16. In this chapter we concentrate mainly on the nature and functioning of formal education. It has three important components : (a) (a) An org organ aniz izat atio iona nall stru struct ctur ure, e, (b) (b) A defi defini nite te and and prop proper erly ly spe spelt lt out out content of education, (c) (c) Defi Defini nite te rul rules es and and reg regul ulat atio ions ns.. The Organisational Structure of Education

There are three levels of education education and each level has its organizational structure : 1. The elem elemen entary tary lev level el 2. The colleg college e level level 3. The univ univers ersity ity leve levell The elementary elementary level of education education is comprised of three sub-levels: the primary (for 5 years), the upper primary (for another 3 years) and high school (for a further 2 years). A child normally completes this education by the age of 14. Government of India has made education up to this level free and compulsory. Classes XI and XII constitute the college level education. After completing this, the student enters university education. College education is the threshold-level of education, which makes child qualified to take decisions about the future course of one’s educational career. One


may go in for professional education and become a skilled professional worker in different different fields or may opt for higher studies in conventional theoretical subjects being offered in the universities. The Th e form fo rm al educ ed uc at io n norm no rm al ly presupposes the availability of a separate building meant for this purpose. All the levels of education mentioned above must each have a distinct definite organizational set up. The organizational organizational structure structure of formal formal education consists of three main organs: the teachers, the students and the administrative staff. The teachers and administrative staff members are appointed by a person or a body of persons having legitimate authority to do so, on the basis of certain prescribed rules and regulations. In pre-industrial societies, teachers were normally drawn from the higher strata or sections of society. In India this task wa s tr a di ti on a l ly t a ke n u p by Brahmins. For the students also a minimum qualification is prescribed for entry in to a particular course of education. The student receives education on payment of fees and is bound to abide by t he r u le s la i d do w n by t h e administration of the educational institution. The modern formal education is mass education. No body is denied admission in schools and colleges on the basis of caste, creed or any such characteristics other than the lack of prescribed minimum educational qualification. This is also guaranteed nearly under all modern

10 1

constitutions including the Indian Constitution. In ancient Indian society, education was the privilege of only the higher caste people, the lower caste people were usually denied education. Our constitution now guarantees education to every section of society under the goal of universal education. From administrative point of view, some educational institutions are run privately, some are controlled by government and some others are semigovernmental. In India, quite a large number of schools and colleges are privately run. D is is t a n c e E du du c a t i o n

Distance education system is another form of formal organization for providing higher education to those who w ho ca n no t en ro ll t he m se l ve s i n conventional schools, colleges or universities as full-time students. Such a system helps those receive benefits benefits of education education who can do it only in their spare time. Distance education is an off-campus education programme carried out through postal and electronic media. The students are made available printed material, audio and video aids. They also meet the counsellors occasionally at specified study-centers easily accessible to them. The Content of Education

In pre-industrial societies, not only the number of educational institutions wa s ve ry sm al l bu t th e co nt en t of

102

education imparted to the students was altogether different from what is provided to them, today. In schools of the olden days, what students were taught was related mainly to religion, philosophy, metaphysics and scriptural subjects. On the other hand, the course-content of modern education is rationalistic and in tune wi th th e ne ed s of th e pr es en t da y society. Science and technology, grammar and literature, social philosophy, history and culture, geography, and ecology, agriculture and horticulture comprise a vast range of subjects, which are taught in schools, colleges and u niversities. Modern education lays emphasis on the subjects like freedom, nationality, law, human rights, democracy and scientific worldview. In order to ensure total development of personality of the child, the schools also organize cocurricular and extra-curricular activities. The modern education is changeoriented and, therefore, the courses are modified time and again corresponding to the changes that take place in society at large so as to keep pace with the needs of the changing situation emerging in the wake of fast changing industrial society, today. In the present industrial society has emerged a multiplicity of occupations and professions each of which is associated with specific kind of knowledge and skill. It is a society of complex division of labour. This society, therefore, requires people with specialized knowledge. The modern


education provided by different educational institutions fulfils this need of the present industrial society. A vast range of subjects like medicine, health, engineering, management and commerce, jurisprudence and forensic sciences, physical, biological, agricultural and social sciences; and many more specializations are being taught in modern educational institutions. E du c a t i o n a n d S o c i e t y

The modern educ at io n as we ha ve today, began with the advent of industrial economy because it is this education system which could cater to the requirements of industrial economy. With the development of economy, grows the demand for manpower with specialized knowledge and skill. The present education system is geered to meet this need. Democracy is the contemporary and most popular form of political system of the world. It is based on the principles of secularism, equality and liberty. The modern education lays a strong emphasis on these principles. Therefore, the expansion of education makes political processes more and more democratic. This is the reason why every government makes serious attempts to universalize education. The political system, on the other hand also determines the nature of education. The government, through education, also communicates its national goals and makes its citizens aware and conscious of such goals so that national cohesiveness may be


maintained. Necessary changes in school curriculum are also dictated and carried out in order to meet this end. The students are acquainted with the cultural and national heritage; and taught to show respect to them in order to ensure the requisite national integration. Every society has its history, heritage, values and norms which together constitute its tradition. All these have a direct bearing upon the nature of education that a society adopts. Deeper the roots of tradition of a society, greater will be its influence on education. That is why there is a constant concern on the part of the leadership of the country — political and intellectual to inject appropriate sensitivity into the curricula about country’s past traditions. Thus, in schools, the children are taught both the history and culture of India and modern India; and also the subjects like science, technology, development, democracy, environment etc. Despite the influence of British missionaries trying to introduce a western system of education in India, some deliberate efforts were made by persons like Raja Ram Mohan Rai, Karve, Tilak, Gokhale and Malviya for introducing specific ‘Indian’ contents into the education system. These refer to knowledge about Indian philosophical systems, art and culture etc.

10 3

perspectives prevailing in sociological writings: (a) The functionalist perspective, (b) The Marxist perspective F u n c t i o n a l i s t P e rs p e c t i v e

The functionalist sociologists have acknowledged the positive influence of education on society. Emile Durkheim maintains that ‘society can survive only when there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity, education does ensure perpetuate and reinforce this homogeneity’. Durkheim argues that in complex industrial societies, school serves an important function which the family or peer, group may not be able to do. In the family or peer group, a person has to interact with his kin or with his friend. In the society at large, one has to interact with a person who is neither a kin nor a friend. School teaches an individual to learn to cooperate with such strangers. Talcott Parsons also maintains that schools socialize young people into the basic values of society. The schools of the modern society educate the young not only to knowledge and honour these basic values but also prepares to cope with the newly created conditions and circumstances in the wake of industrialization. The functional role of education in society has also been highlighted by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore. Sociological Perspectives on Social stratification, according to them Education is a mechanism for ensuring allocation Th er e are br oa dl y two th eo ret ic al of positions in society to suitable

104

persons. Education system serves this purpose and provides competent people to occupy significant positions in society. Marxian Perspective

A host of scholars have emphasized the influence of existing social structure on education. A general perspective adopted for analyzing this impact has been Marxian perspective, according to which the education system of a society is determined by the existing class structure of the society. The elite classes of a society due to their dominating influence on the masses, have power and competence to formulate the education system and its agenda. They are supposed to formulate the education agenda in such a manner that it ensures the perpetuation of their interests. Consequently, only those skills are generated which are required by the labour force working for their interests. as to ensure that it serves their interest. Education and So cial Change

Education serves as an instrument of social change. The modern education changes the outlook of people from dogmatic, conservative, inert, to rational, forward-looking; and achievement-oriented. The change in the outlook and attitude of people leads to changes in social and cultural matrix of society. We can observe radical changes that have taken place in the family, community and caste system of Indian society due to


expansion of education facilities. The modern education has contributed enormously to the introduction of new, sophisticated and highly efficient technologies in the service of human beings. It has brought about not only economic development, particularly in rural areas, but has also been instrumental for many changes in social relationships. Jo int fa mi ly ha s be en a characteristic feature of the traditional Indian family system. The authoritarian relationships with the highest position wielded by the eldest male member of the family and relatively lower positions occupied by women, wer e amon g the mo st si gni fi ca nt characteristics of the family system in India. The modern education has contributed to the transformation of these relationships into more and more equalitarian relationship, with the improvement the position of women vis-à-vis men. This has been possible only due to expansion of education. This has also resulted from increasing economic independence among women due to their preparat ion in va ri ou s skil ls requ ir ed in th e hole market. Thus has automatically reduced the magnitude of genderdiscrimination. In traditional Indian society, interpersonal relations in the community were based on the caste norms. For most of the castes, there were fixed occupations which the people were supposed to adopt; as a result, intercaste relations were guides by criteria of ‘high’ and ‘low’ and were often


exploitative. The higher landed castes generally monopolized political power in rural areas. But, the education now is changing very fast this traditional setting in the villages. Inter-personal relations in the village community are now coming to be based more and more on the principles of democracy and equality. Every one can now pursue his economic and political betterment and thus try to rise in the social hierarchy. NATIONAL POLICY OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ON EDUCATION

The Article 45 of the Constitution of India made promise for free and compulsory education to all children until they reach the age of 14. The Kothari Commission of Education made several recommendations regarding expansion of education in the country and targeted to achieved that these be by the end of year 1960. Free and compulsory education with an objective of ensuring universal education involved three necessary elements: 1. Universal provisions, i.e. providing educational facilities up to the age of 14 years as free education including the provision of school buildings. 2. U n iv er s al e n r ol m en t i . e. ensuring that every child is enrolled at primary level 3. Universal retention i.e. ensuring that children do not drop out of school at an early age. The Government of India adopted

10 5

an Education Policy in 1968. The most notable feature of the Policy of 1968 was th e acc ep tanc e of a co mm on structure of education through out the country and the adoption of the 10+2+3 system by all states. A national Education Policy was adopted in 1986 in order to meet the new challenges and social needs corresponding to social and economic developments in the country. Following were some of the provisions made in the policy 1986 : – It la id em ph as is on pr om ot in g National System of Education which implied that up to a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex have access to education of a comparable quality, – Th e Po li cy pr op os ed Op er at io n Blackboard which envisaged the need of at least (i) two reasonably large rooms usable in all weather, (ii) necessary toys and games material, (iii) blackboards and (iv) maps, charts and other learning materials for the primary schools, – The Policy stressed to the need provide equal educational opportunities to those who had be en a rel ativ el y de pr ive d lot earlier . Women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other educationally backward sections and minorities of Indian society wer e su ch gr ou ps pr om ise d equality of educational opportunity, – The Policy laid special emphasis on

106

total development of the child; and it was recognized that along with education, nutrition, health, social, mental, physical, moral and emotional development of the child must be ensured. This was called Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, which received high priority in the Policy, – Th e Po lic y laid em ph asi s on providing social and moral education to the child to foster national unity and integration to eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstitions and fatalism. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Arduous efforts have been made in the last four decades for the Universalisation of Elementary Education and to fulfill the mandate of the Indian Constitution. National policy on Education 1986 and 1992 also gave top priority to the achievements of Universal Elementary Education (UEE). Many projects and programmes at the micro and macro levels have since been undertaken in this regard. Experience has shown that with all the past interventions, there has been considerable progress in providing access to primary education, increase in enrolment and retention, improvement in school attendance and generation of strong demand for education, especially for girls. However, pupil-achievement has been low and there have been inter-state


and inter-district differences in pupil’s attendance and achievement level. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SAA) is an attempt to provide human capabilities to all children through provision of community – managed quality education in a mission-mode. Therefore, it focuses on the following : – A prog ra mm e wi th a clea r ti me frame for Universal Elementary Education (Class VIII), – A res po nse to the de mand fo r quality-based education all over the country, – An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education, – An ef fo rt to eff ec tive ly in vo lve Panchayti Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, village and urban slum level Education Committees, Parent-Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass-root level structures in the management of elementary schools. Th e Sa rv a Sh ik sh a Abh iy an is intended to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the age-group of 6 to 14 year by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge school, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools. Following are the main objectives to be achieved by SSA: – All children to be put in School, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternative school, Back-to-School Camp by 2003, – All children to compete five years of primary schooling by 2007,


–

10 7

All children to complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010.

Should Education be Privatise d?

Education is the national goal of a we lf ar e st at e. It is th e du ty of th e government to ensure education to every citizen of the country. In pursuance of this, the Indian Government has planned to provide free compulsory education to the children up to 14 years of age, which it continues to do. In order to protect the educational interests of the socially and economically deprived persons of the country, the government has taken several measures including financial support and reservation of seats them. Despite all these measures, the government could neither achieve the target of universal education nor could it ensure equal opportunity of education to all. This is largely due to the fact that the government did not bother to abolish the double standards of education by disbanding the private school system in the country. Ironically, The Kothari Commission and the National Education Policy

1986 laid emphasis on having a common school system for the whole country, but the two systems of education continue to exist. Privatization of education would mean the administration and management of educational institutions to be completely in the hands of individual entrepreneurs or private organizations. The educational institutions would then be run strictly on the market principles of cost-benefit ratio completely ignoring the educational needs and economic handicaps of the poor people. In India, whe re ine qual ity in ed uc at ion al attainment is of alarming proportions, complete privatization of education wou ld pe rpe tua te an d rei nf or ce inequality in the country. The present education system in the country is often dubled as the most elitist and if it is privatized, it will further become an exclusive preserve of the elite groups of society. Therefore, India is not yet prepared to opt for complete privatization of education. Instead, greater sensitivity is required to be shown to the need of mass education.

GLOSSARY COMMUNITY. Denotes a collectivity of people who occupy a common geographical

area; and are engaged in same social, economic or political activity. D IVISION OF LABOUR. The phrase refers to the division of a work process into a number

of parts, each part undertaken by a separate person or group of persons. E COLOGY. Ecology is man-made material adaptation to the physical environment. HOMOGENEITY. Similarities between two or more different groups or certain other

things.

108

INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY S O C I E T I E S . Societies which existed prior to the dawn of manufacturing industry during the Eighteenth century Europe.

P RE -INDUSTRIAL

S CRIPTURAL. Religious books. S OCIAL

STRATIFICATION . The

hierarchically organized structures of social inequality ranks, status groups, etc. which exist in many society.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Define education. Discuss the organizational structure of education. Differentiate with examples between informal and formal education. Discuss the salient features of modern education. Elaborate the organizational and curricular characteristics of the modern formal education system. Discuss the views of the functionalist sociologists on the role of education in society. In what way does social structure influence the nature of modern education? What are salient features of National Education Policy 1986 of the Government of India? What do you mean by privatization of education? Point out the basic aims of education. Should education be privatized? Give your opinion. Write in brief note on education as an instrument of change.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Bottomore, T.B., Sociology, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., Britain, 1971. 2. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology , Cambridge, 1989. 3. Harlambose, M., Sociology : Themes a nd Perspectives, Oxford, 1980.


10 9

CHAPTER 12

Culture, Society and Personality CULTURE

Culture-Traits and Culture Com plex

Culture is a mode of behaviour and also a way of life. In social life, every individual behaves according to expectations of other persons in the group. These expectations are based on values and norms of the group. Social norms determine Individual’s overt acts, which, therefore, reflect values of culture. The art and artifacts, tools and techniques, and other physical conditions which are used in the act as a matter of habit also form the culture of the group. According to Ralph Linton, ‘ The culture of a society is a way of life of its members, the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation’. Clyde Kluckhohn says that culture is a ‘design for living’ held by members of a particular society. Two very important characteristics of culture are: culture is learnt, not inherited and it is a be ha vi ou ra l pat ter n sh ared by members of a group or society. It also refers to the ways of acting of people in the context of various social relationships in today’s life.

Culture consists of various units called ‘culture traits’. Culture traits, according to Linton are ‘the individual acts and objects, which constitute the overt expression of a culture’. Exchange of rings in marriage, rules of kicking the ball in football game, red cloth, flowers and incensed sticks in religious rites etc., are examples of culture-traits. These units, by themselves, hold no significance. Th ey be co me si gni fi ca nt and meaningful only in relationship with other units. For example the spark plug holds significance so long as it is placed at the proper place in an engine, ring and vermilion only in marriage and a whistle only during a match in the field. An organisation or institution consists of more than one such cultural units or traits and the configuration of these simple units is called a ‘culture complex’. For example, family, marriage, religion, education, games and automobiles are a few examples of a large number of culture-complexes of human society. The interrelations be tw ee n di ff er en t pa rt s of cu lt ur e make an arrangement. Ruth Benedict

110

also recognises this fact by saying that culture constitutes a pattern, which va rie s fr om so ci et y to so ci et y. Therefore, different societies have their different and distinct culture-patterns. For example, the institution of family in India is perceived quite differently from how it is perceived in Great Britain, today. Indian family is traditionally regarded as ‘joint’, whereas the family in Western Countries is nuclear in nature. A society is characterized by its culture-pattern. Cultural Values and Norms

Cultures vary from society to society and each culture has its specific values and norms. The norms are the rules of behaviour approved by society and the values refer to what ought and what ought not to be done. In some cultures, individualism is the predominant value in society, whereas in others, the collective approach of resolving a problem or meeting obligations is appreciated. In one culture, hospitality has a high social value, whereas in some others, it may not be so. In some societies, polygamy is an accepted form of marriage, whereas in many others, it is not viewed as proper. Culture Chan ge

Values and nor ms under go cha nge over time. Certain external conditions in the contemporary society have given impetus to this change. These conditions are industrialization, urbanization, global network of television and computer, all of which


have expanded enormously in the last few decades. Values related to interpersonal relationships in the family have changed and consequently modes of behaviour of people have also changed. For example, In Indian joint family, the authority of the eldest male member has eroded in favouring one who ma ke s ef fec tiv e ec on om ic contribution to the family budget. Change in culture is a slow but a continuous process. But this process is accelerated by two conditions: (a) Wh en a gr ou p of pe op le co me s in contact with other cultures, it borrows culture-traits from them. As a result, the borrowed traits either add to the culture of the borrower or replace or modify certain traits which it already has. The more the people have contacts with other cultures, the more would they borrow from other cultures, modifying their own culturecomplexes, (b) The culture undergoes change not only because it borrows traits from other cultures, but also by way of the process of spread of culturetraits. This process is called ‘diffusion’. Diffusion takes place not only by contact but also by indirect means of communication. The advancement in information, technology and transportation system has made contact easy and quick making the process of diffusion quite fast. Environment and Change

Th ere are thr ee asp ec ts of the environments the individual lives in: the geographical, the social and the


cultural. Culture is that part of environment which has been created by human beings. It consists of t he whol e ga mu t of ma te ri al an d no nmaterial objects that have been shaped and created; and that satisfy physiological, social, economic and psychological needs. The tools and techniques, customs and traditions, economic, political and religious institutions are some examples of culture. Culture gives a new shape to natural environment but is also influenced by the latter. Culture relates itself to the efficiency and skill of human beings to exploit the natural environment according to their needs. Th ey ha ve ma de ro ad s in di ff ic ul t terrains like hills and deserts. Uncultivable lands have been made cultivable and fertile. Different kinds of tools, instruments and appliances have been invented in enormous volume and continue to be improved upon, whether these are means of transport and communication or of comfort and decoration. Besides such material objects of culture, we have also created non-material aspects of culture for our social life, such as va lues and nor ms , mo rals an d manners, art and artifacts, religion and philosophy. All these items of culture keep on changing according to the demands of the times to come. Th e na tural en vi ro nm en t determines the nature of culture. The architecture of houses varies from place to place across geographical variations. The houses are built of

11 1

wood at one place and of bricks at another, and of stones at yet another place. The Eskimos make snow houses called ‘igloo’. They use sledges for transportation when snow is hard. The bullock-cart used in plains cannot be used in the desert where only camels are the most convenient means of transportation. In the Eskimo family, the old persons do not enjoy the same respect and care as do their counterparts in a family in the plains largely because the life in plains is not as difficult as it is for the Eskimos where younger members make more beneficial cont ribution. The human beings like other animals, adapt to the existing natural environment and in the process of adaptation create and develop culture for the maintenance of their life. The cultural variations as are found in human society are mainly due to geographical variations. Material and non-material cultures are interrelated parts of a larger cultural unit called social institution. For example, family consists of house, furniture, food habits on the one hand, and marriage rules, a system of relationships and norms and values, on the other. Cultural Diversity

The early hunting and food gathering societies were homogeneous and ‘monocultural’. The modern industrial societies are ‘multicultural’. The processes like migration, globalization and colonialism have contributed to cultural diversity in every society.

112

Indian society is known for its high degree of cultural diversity. There are several tribal communities, thousands of castes and sub-castes, several religious communities and groups of people with different languages. All these communities form India’s glorious multicultural character. In an important survey, K.S. Singh has identified 4635 communities.


transformation from biological to social is carried out is called socialization. In the process of socialization, right from infancy, an individual learns customs, traditions, values and norms of the group. The interaction among the individuals in the group is governed by the values and norms i.e. the culture they are socialized in. It is through internalization of culture and interaction with the fellow members of SOCIETY the group, therefore, that the personality of an individual develops. Society is a collectivity of individuals In human society, the individual is interacting among themselves. They thus, a personality shaped by its interact in order to satisfy their needs. culture. Th es e nee ds ma y be bi ol og ic al, economic, social and psychological. Individual and Societ y Interaction among individuals leads to the formation of group. People, thus, The debate whether individual came live in groups. Social group is not first and society followed or vice-versa merely a collection of individuals but is perhaps not a very productive also is a system of values and norms exercise. Both individual and society which control the beh aviour of the are compliment to each other. The members of the group. The behaviour individuals need society for their own is not acceptable to the group, if it does survival. Human infants, infact, not conform to its values and norms. require the longest period of The control mechanism of the group dependence before they are able to minimizes the occurrence of deviant work independently. The members of beh aviour among its mem ber s and the family, chiefly the mother maintains its equilibrium. The contribute to the rearing and training constituents of norms guiding the of the child. In modern society many behaviour maps for the continuity of institutions directly or indirectly culture in a group. The family, the play provide assistance to family in group, the village neighborhood, the performing this role. community and the association are the Society also exists because of the examples of group. Groups constitute fact that human individual is society. essentially a social animal. Sociability A human individual is not a mere is his basic nature. Society came into biological being but also a social being. existence due to this human nature Th e pr oc es s thr ou gh whi ch thi s which extends from the family bonds.


Malinowski, a noted anthropologist, wrote that there is nothing like herd instinct in human beings as claimed by McDougall, one of the pioneers of social psychology. The gregariousness found among them is an extension of the relationships within the family. Human individuals live in groups essentially because they are social beings. Kingley Davis, in his book Human Society, writes that society for its existence has to have a population and has to maintain that population by way of making provisions of nutrition, protection and reproduction of new organisms. Different functions have to be allocated among the people in order that they have a feeling of mutual solidarity. Society has to motivate people to have contact among themselves and to learn about tolerance and resistance to the outsiders. And, finally society has to evolve mechanism for the perpetuation of the social system. All these taken together help meet the basic needs of social survival. Social Group

Social group is a carrier of culture and works as the main agent t o provide training to human individuals to develop their personality. The social groups can be classified in many ways but the most popular and significant of all is the division into primary and secondary groups. This division is largely on the basis of the nature of relationships found in the group. The relationships in primary group are

11 3

informal and intimate. Such relations cannot be substituted, and are not made as means to some end. The family and the group of friends are examples of primary group. C.H. Cooley has emphasized that primary group plays the most significant role in the socialization of child. Secondary groups, on the other hand, are consciously formed with some purpose. They represent specialized interests of its members. The rela ti onships in secondar y groups are formal, exclusive, geared to a specific purpose. The corporations, trade unions, political parties and the states are examples of secondary groups. The relationships in both types of groups are based on prescribed norms and values and rules and regulations. The rules and regulations in the secondary group are more clearly defined than in the primary group. The secondary groups are the by-pro duct of in dustri al iz at io n in society. With the development of society, new institutions and secondary groups emerge. The society becomes complex as has our society come to be. Karl Manheim calls the modern complex industrial society a ‘mass society’, which is characterized by imp er so nal rel atio ns, ex tre me specialization of roles, loneliness of the individuals and a certain sense of alienation. Interaction among individuals in the group leads to formation of relationships, which may be either associative or dissociative type. Dissociative or oppositional

114

relationships again may be in the form of either competition or conflict. When people are involved in competition they make efforts to improve their own efficiency to outclass the opponent. The boys appearing in an examination to qualify for a job or the football match between two teams in a stadium are the examples of competition. But in conflict, the involved persons try to weaken or destroy the efficiency of one another. A fight between two enemies and a war between two countries are the examples of conflict. Competition sometimes turns into a conflict. In co-operation, people strive for a goal with the help of other persons or groups. Two boys making a model for science exhibition and many persons working together for providing relief to the flood-affected people are the examples of co-operation. Thus, a society consists of the relationships among the individuals which crop up as a result of interactions among them. The behaviour of the individual in the group is governed by the norms of the group. The normative pattern of the group constitutes its culture.


interaction among the people in society is an interdependence of the behaviour of individuals carried out according to the norms prescribed with regard to statuses they occupy and roles they perform. Some sociologists are of the opinion that the social roles are static part of culture and do not change. Through socialization, individual learns the social roles and behaves accordingly during interaction with other members of society. This is the view of the functionalist sociologists. Giddings does not accept this view that roles are fixed and individual learns them to behave accordingly. Instead, according to him, individuals come to understand and assume social roles through an ongoing process of social interaction. Culture and S ocie ty

Culture and society are inseparable. Society, as we have already said, refers to a set of values and norms guiding their behaviour to each other. Both culture and society are coterminous to each other. They are the two aspects of the same social situations. For Status and Role example, a cricket match is a social Every individual in society is assigned organization but the rules and a status. The individual occupies more regulations of the match which the than one statuses. The same person players are supposed to observe form its may be a police officer, a father, a son, cultural aspect. The family is a social a husband, a doctor, a member of a unit but the interpersonal relations, club, a customer, a trader and so on. child-rearing practices and Each status is accompanied by specific distribution of responsibilities and role which the person who occupies the authorities among the members of the status is expected to perform. The family are cultural aspects of family.


A ce rtai n min ima l de gr ee of integration of culture-traits is necessary for the maintenance of society. Lack of integration in the cultural system produces confusion for the individuals, loss of efficiency for the society and the rise of conflict and consequently society tends to disintegrate. PERSONALITY

Everyone in human society has personality. If we say that one has personality, we are not referring to physical features of the person as is sometimes, understood by a common man. Personality refers to that totality of a person, which consists of biological constitution, attitudes, values, views, habits and behaviour-pattern. The personality thus, is a sum total of acquired and innate dispositions of a person. These variables are never the same in every individual. Therefore, no two individuals are exactly similar in every respect. Th er e are so me sc ho la rs in psychology whose conviction is that personality traits are inherited from parents but this is an extreme view; and does not sound fully convincing. On the contrary, Social Psychology is replete with scholars who are confident that personality traits are entirely social and cultural. Personality is shaped by social environment. F.H. Allport, H.A. Murray, A. Kardiner and R. Linton are among those who have this view. Otto Klineberg falling in this line says that personality emerges

11 5

mainly in a social situation but biological factors undoubtedly play a part in shaping the individual. The controversy over the primacy of biological or social factors is resolved by G. Mu rp hy who writ es tha t personality is neither biological nor social but ‘bio-social’. The human being has certain fixed biol ogic al char acte ri stic s, su ch as digestive system, respiratory system and circulatory system. Upon these physiological functions of the body depends individual’s adaptation to the environment and its survival becomes possible. Related to these processes are certain basic needs of the individuals which must be satisfied if they are to live. The hunger, the sexual need, need for bodily protection are such biological needs. There are various other needs in terms of their nature and intensity. In order to satisfy these needs, the individual needs some means and methods. The means and methods which may satisfy these needs are not arbitrary and as per the wishes of the individual. These means are institutionalized by society. For example, if an individual is hungry, he can satisfy this need legitimately only by earning bread through prescribed means and not by snatching from others. Apart from the basic needs, people in society have many other needs. These needs are secondary and relate largely to the enjoyment of leisure and comfort in life. Such needs are socially and culturally generated, and their satisfaction also is controlled by the

116

culture of society. In society, individuals learn to adapt to the means of acquiring satisfaction and also to the fact that in a given social condition, parameters of satisfaction are well defined. In the process of adaptation, the individuals learn to modify their actions in order to obtain satisfaction of their needs. How well they adapt to the existing socio-cultural framework of needs and means depends on their capacity to learn. The capacity to learn varies from i ndividual to individual because it is rel ated to the organic constitution and also to the mental make-up of the individual and is both acquired and hereditary. An infant completely depends on others for its survival. Initially it needs care of the mother or surrogate mother. As it grows up, it comes in contact with other people and by that time, habits of social adaptation begin to be formed. The child starts learning the language and the pattern of culture. In the family, the child learns a set of roles or functions associated with different statuses and as a result it develops specific habits, attitudes and values which determine his acts and thoughts. The combination of the acts and thoughts, according to Kimball Young may be labelled as ‘personality’. Definition of Personality

There are many different uses of the term personality. G.W. Allport, a psychologist, has prepared a list of fifty different ways in which the term


personality has been used. In a very common use, the word is used for an individual with good features which make him attractive. But personality does not merely refer to external qualities and appearances of an individual. Essentially, it refers to internal habits, qualities, motives and attitudes of a person. Kimball Young defines personality as ‘the more or less integrated body of habits, attitudes, traits and ideas of an individual, as these are externally organized into specific and general roles and statuses, and internally around self consciousness and the concept of self and around the ideas, values and purposes, which are related to motives, roles and statuses. It is clear from this definition that there are two aspects of what we call personality: 1. the individual’s acts in respect of the roles and statuses assigned to him in the group (the external aspect), 2. set of ideas, values and attitudes formed in respect of his roles and statuses (the internal aspect). Al lpo rt ev alu ated a nu mb er of definitions of personality and concluded in his book Pe r s o n a l i t y ; A Ps y c h o l og i ca l I n t e r p r e t a t i o n that personality is a dynamic organization wit hin the ind ivi du al of thos e psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. H.J. Eysenck is more lucid and perhaps flawless in defining personality in the book The Structur e of


11 7

H u m a n Pe r s on a l i t y . According to

Eysenck ‘personality is the more or less stable and enduring organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determine his unique adjustment to the environment’. Personality is an integrated whole. It is a combination of both biological and socio-cultural characteristics. G. Murphy writes that personality is neither biological nor social alone but bio-social. The personali ty has uniqueness bu t it do es no t me an tha t ev er y individual is unique in every respect from others. All the persons of a particular society have some common characteristics. In this context, the statement of Kluckhohn, Murray and Schneider is significant to note. They write, “every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, and (c) like no other man”. A man is like all other men to the extent they have a common human biological heritage, which determine their responses to the environment. He is like some other men because he belongs to a cultural group and due to the fact that all other persons of the group have been brought up in the same cultural milieu; his role

performance will be similar to all other persons of the group but not to the members of another group. A person is like no other man because the latter has not gone through exactly the same sequence of experiences, as has been the case with the former. The above three situ at ions of a person in the group reflect the relationship of an individual with his group in terms of the role of culture and biological heritage and efficiency in shaping the personality of an individual. It must have been very clear that the tri-concept of culture, personality and society are interwoven. Society and culture are the two sides of the same coin. The group formations and interpersonal relationships in the group are the societal part, whereas the mode of behaviour in respect of one another is the cultural part of it. Human individuals, apart from biological characteristics, have a set of attitudes and values, ideas and ambitions, which combine to form their personality. Through the process of socialization, the individual acquires, except biological features, every thing that forms personality. The individual is related with society through culture.

GLOSSARY CULTURE

PATTERN. A

typical type of culture or a specific type of culture.

C ULTURE - TRAIT . The individual acts and objects which constitute the overt

expression is known as culture complex. The meaning relationship

118


between two or more than two culture traits or an organization consists of more than one such cultural traits and the configuration of these simple traits is called a culture complex. MONOCULTURAL. Same type of culture or one type of culture. P ERSONALITY . Personality refers to that totality of a person which consists of

biological constitution, attitudes, values, views, habits and behaviourpatterns. S OCIAL GROUP. In terms of culture social groups are the carriers of culture and work

as the main agent to provide training to human individuals to develop their personality. S TATUS

AND ROLE . Status

is a position occupied by a person, in a family or kinship group or in a office in a social system relative to other. Each status is accompanied by specific role which the person who occupies the status is expected to perform.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Define culture. What are the types of culture? Explain cultural traits. What do you understand by culture complex? What is the meaning of values and norms? Explain the term cultural change. What is the relationship between environment and culture? What is igloo? Explain the relationship between individual and society. What is the role of social group in the context of culture? What is associative dissociative type or relationship? What is the meaning of status and role? How culture and society are inseparable? What is the meaning of personality?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Durkheim, Emile, Elementar y Form s of Religious Life, Free Press, New York, 1965. 2. Sutherland, R.L., Woodward, Juilien, Maxwell, L., Summer, W.G., F ol k w a y s , Dover, New York, 1906. 3. Tylor, E.B., Primitiv e Cultur e , New York, 1871. 4. Weber, Max, Protestant, Ethic and the Spirit of Capita lism ,Charles Scribrier’s Sons, New York, 1922, English translation 1958. 5. Young, Kimball, Mack, R.W., Sys tema tic Sociology , Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1972.


11 9

CHAPTER 13

Individual and Socialization At the time of birth, the human infant knows nothing about what we call society and social behaviour. It only needs to satisfy certain physical needs wh ich is done by th e el ders in th e family. As the child grows up, it keeps on learning behaviour patterns by interacting with other family members. The child internalizes the values and norms of the family which control the behaviour of its members. The child in due course of time, by learning the accepted behaviour patterns of society bec ome s a soc ial individ ual from a mere biological individual what he was at the time of birth. Socialization is a lifelong process but the most important aspect of this process starts during infancy. By the time individual becomes adult, the major part of socialization is completed. However, when ever there is change in the social and cultural environment of the individual in life, the process of his/ her socialization gathers momentum, until he/she adapts to the new culture. Such situations generally arise when the individual moves from one job to another or from one society to another. Socialization makes human individual a social being, without socialization, individuals would not

behave like human beings. Even the human style of speaking and modes of communication are the function of socialization. Keep a child, right after birth, for a considerable period of time, away from the company of human be ing , you sh all no t fi nd the development of any human characteristic other than biological in the child. Even the way of walking and eating of an individual is culturally determined and a child kept away from society would not be able to learn it. The best example here would be the socalled ‘wolf-children of Midnapore’. Two females aged two and eight were reportedly found in a wolf den in Bengal in 1920. They walked like animals on two legs and two hands, preferred a diet of raw meat, howled like wolves; and lacked any form of speech. Phases and Agenc ies o f Socialization

There are broadly speaking two phases of socialization as writes Giddens: primary socialization and secondary socialization. Also there are different agencies of socialization working at different levels of the process. Agencies of socialization are groups or social

120

contexts in which significant processes of socialization occurs. Agencies of socialization are: family, schools, peer groups, organizations, the media etc. ‘Primary socialization’ takes place in infancy and childhood. This is the most crucial stage of socialization as the basic behaviour pattern is learnt by the child at this stage. This stage consists of three substages: (i) the oral stage, (ii) the anal stage and (iii) the oedipal stage. At the first stage the infant builds up definite expectations about feeding time and learns to signal his/her pressing needs for care. The second stage begins more or less after a year of infancy. The child at this stage is trained to take over some degree of care for himself/herself such as toilet training. The third stage begins roughly from the fourth year and goes up to puberty. This is the period when child becomes a member of the family, as a whole. All the roles in the family prescribed according to sex are internalized by the child. The child identifies with the social roles. The family is the main agency of socialization in the first phase. ‘Secondary socialization’ starts from the later stage of childhood and goes up to maturity. However, socialization never stops in life. The schools, peer groups and other agencies in which the person is placed in life, play the role of socialization.


The family has in its fold all the norms, values, behaviour patterns, statuses and roles of society. Therefore, the role of family in socializing individuals to become a part of society is uppermost. The role of family in socialization has been greatly recognized by C.H. Cooley. Th e ch ild ob ser ve s tha t ev er y individual in the family is assigned a status such as father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife etc. All the family members behave according to the defined roles associated with their statuses. The child identifies himself/ herself with these statuses and roles and internalizes them, so as to be capable of and ready for behaving in society according to accepted patterns. By the time, child moves out of family to participate in social activities in society, at large, he/she has learnt most of socially accepted behaviour patterns. Development of ‘Self’

Right from the very childhood an individual learns and internalizes the role structure and develops own ‘self’. The self is a core of personality. An individual’s self is a set of attitudes and the consciousness of his acts and thoughts, as they are related to others. Th e int er na li zatio n tak es pl ace through the process of socialization. Much of the personality of an individual is shaped in this way. The individual learns this part of culture pattern unconsciously. Self, according The Family as Agenc y of Socialization to Charles H. Cooley, is social and Th e fa mi ly is the sm al le st un it of develops as a result of the role of society and represents it in all respects. primary group and social interaction,


particularly communication in sociali-zation. There are three prominent theories of socialization and develop-ment of self. Sociologists of the functionalist school are of the view that the social roles are the fixed parts of culture, which a person has to learn in society. Individuals internalize those roles and behave, accordingly. There is no scope of negotiating with the roles. Anthony Giddens does not accept this functionalist view. According to him, ‘socialization is a process in which humans can exercise agency; they are not simply passive subjects waiting to be in st ruct ed or pr og ram me d. Individuals come to understand and assume social roles through an ongoing process of social interaction’. THEORIES OF SOCIALIZATION Cooley ’s Theo ry of Soc ialization

Charles H. Cooley, in his book H u m a n N a t u r e a n d t h e So ci a l O r d e r presents his concept of ‘looking-glass’ self and explains how the self of a human individual develops and socialization takes place. The following three principal elements, according to Cooley, are involved in the development of self; and formation of personality: 1. t h e i m ag i na t io n of o ur appearance to the other person, 2. the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and 3. some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification. Cooley asserts that during

12 1

interaction with people, the child remains conscious, how others feel about his/her behaviour towards them. On the basis of their judgment on the behaviour, the child develops a feeling about himself/herself. It may be a feeling of pride, if the behaviour is appreciated or of mortification, if the behaviour is condemned by the people. A pers is te nt ap pr ecia ti on le ad s to formation of a confident and extrovert personality, whereas, continuous condemnation and discouragement may cause the formation of an insipid and introvert personality in the child. Social self depends on social interaction and, therefore, it is ultimately determined by culture on which the social interaction is usually based. Individual’s ideas, attitudes, values and habits are formed on the basis of the ideas and attitudes of the people of the surroundings. This forms the basis of his/her socialization. The primary group, according to Cooley, plays the crucial role in socialization. Primary groups are characterized by intimate, face-to-face association, direct co-operation and conflict, a relatively free play of personality and sentiment. Primary groups may exist in all social organizations but most glaring examples of primary group, in the present context, to which Cooley gives importance are the family, the play group and intimate neighbourhood. Cooley calls these groups primary be ca use , the y are the nu rse ry of human nature providing the earliest and most complete experience of all the

122

social processes, spirit of service, kindness, obedience to social norms and other ideals of society. Mead’s Theory of Socialization

Cooley’s interpretation, as we read earlier, depends on human imagination, whereas George Herbert Mead interprets socialization, on resulting ‘acts’ of this consciousness. Mead’s view is that human interaction depends on symbols. Symbols are not understood in terms of their face-value but they contain meaning. Symbols impose meaning on objects and events and in doing so largely exclude other possible meanings. For example, ‘chair’ may be used to stand on or to assault some one but during social interaction it conveys the meaning of only a social position a person enjoys. Symbols are man-made and do not refer to the intrinsic nature of objects. People impute certain meaning to the object and perceive that object in that way. Human interaction is not possible without symbols and, therefore, the existence of society is not possible without symbols. Language is the most significant symbol in human society. It is also, therefore, necessary that the symbols are largely shared by members of society. The individuals in society learn symbols and the meanings conveyed by them in order to be capable of interacting with others. Thus, social interaction requires the presence of commonly shared symbols which is possible by means of what Mead terms ‘role-taking’. Role-taking is


the situation in which a person puts himself/herself in the situation of the other interacting person in order to interpret the intention and meaning of that person. For example, if some one is crying or smiling, it can not be understood without placing oneself in the position of the person who is crying or smiling. The role-taking process of the child starts from the time of birth. In the beginning, the child identifies with the role of what Mead calls, ‘particular others’ such as mother, father etc. and as grows up, his/her identification takes place with ‘the generalized others’. So long as the child has not identified or understood the role of others he/she is only ‘I’. With his/her identification with the role of generalized others, ‘I’ gets converted into ‘Me’. This conversion of ‘I’ into ‘Me’ signifies the socialization of the child. This whole process of role-taking can be understood with the hel p of the example of a game. In playing the game of football, a boy comes to see himself from the point of view of other participants and tries to understand what they expect of him. The boy thus, understands his relationship with other participants and develops a collective viewpoint of participants. Th is col le ct ive vi ew po in t is the perspective of the ‘generalized others’. According to Mead, the individual and society are inseparable. Only society makes individual a human being. The individual creates social environment and then is shaped by it. The self of the individual develops from


interaction with others in society and interaction is not possible without communication. The communication is based on symbols with shared meanings. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Socialization

Sigmund Freud’s theory of socialization emphasizes that the formation of personality is an outcome of the interplay of biological, psychological and social faculties of the individual. A major part of human personality according to Freud, is formed in the very childhood say up to fifth year of age and during the rest of life it is elaborated and sharpened. The role of primary socialization in the formation of personality is reiterated in Freud’s theory of personality structure. The human mind has three main regions; (i) consciousness, (ii) subconsciousness; and (iii) unconsciousness. The conscious region of mind relates the person with present events and activities in life. The sub-conscious region stores up the experiences of events of the recent past. And the unconscious region of mind consists of the experiences of events of the remote past. The experiences stored up in the mind contribute to the formation of personality. These experiences keep on striving for their expression in one form or the other. For the analysis of human personality Freud, later, on shifts his emphasis from different regions of mind to the structure and function of

12 3

personality. The personality, according to Freud, is made up of three hypothetical systems: The ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’. These systems interact among themselves and the product of this interaction is the human behaviour. The ‘id’ consists of every thing psychological including wha t is in he rit ed and wh at is instinctive. It is a reservoir of psychological energy. The ‘id’ works on ‘pleasure principle’ and knows only that which gives pleasure. It believes only in what Freud calls ‘true psychic reality’. It never bothers about the objective reality in society and also knows nothing about rules, regulations, values and moralities. The ‘id’ aims at avoiding pains and discharging tension. It must satisfy its needs, even if, it has to arrange imaginary means such as nocturnal dreams. But after all, hallucination by itself is not really capable of reducing tension. For example, the image of food can not satisfy hunger. Th en app ea rs the se co nd psychological process leading to formation of the ‘ego’, the second system of personality. The function of ego is based on ‘reality principle’. The basic distinction between ‘id’ and ‘ego’ is that ‘id’ knows only subjective reality of the mind, whereas the ‘ego’ differentiates objective reality (concrete external reality) from the subjective reality (imaginary reality). The role of ‘ego’ becomes important because the concrete needs of the person can not be satisfied by mere imaginary object of satisfaction. Instead, concrete objects

1 24


existing in the external world would be required for their satisfaction. The ‘id’ avoids tension and desires to satisfy needs immediately, whereas the ‘ego’ prevents the satisfaction of needs unless appropriate object of satisfaction is available. The ‘ego’ discovers what is right and what is wrong, what is is acceptable acceptable and what what is not acceptable to society, what is possible and what is not possible. The action of an individual is guided by the ‘ego’ in choosing from among these alternatives on realistic principle. The ‘ego’ thus, does not put obstruction be fo re t he a im s o f ‘i d’ , i t r a t he r forwards its aims but in an organized way. It does not exist independent independent of ‘id’ and derives power from it. The ‘superego’ ‘superego’ is the the third third and last system of personality to be developed. It is the moral aspect of personality and is guided by the principle of idealism. It represents the norms and values of the society which the child has internalized through the process of socialization. It strives for neither real nor imaginary real. It concerns itself with what what is ideal. Its main main concern concern is to decide whether the chosen object of

satisfaction of needs is right or wrong from the point of view of the standards set by society. The main function of the ‘superego’ ‘superego’ is to restrict the impulses of the ‘id’ particularly, those which are not acceptable by society and to guide the ‘ego’ to follow the moral principles of society. Thus, ‘superego’ leads to perfection of human action. It controls both ‘id’ ‘id’ and ‘ego’. ‘ego’. It is important to keep in mind that these three systems of personality do not work against one another. They work wo rk toge to geth ther er as a team te am unde un derr the th e guidance of ego. These three respectively biological, psychological and social factors work together towards balancing one another leading to the formation of personality. A weak w eak ‘ego’ supposedly suppo sedly leads to the development of maladjusted personality. This situation arises when there is poor balance between the ‘superego’ and the ‘id’. If the ‘super Ego’ is stronger than the ‘ego’, the personality may become neurotic and if the ‘id’ is stronger than ‘ego’, the personality may be of immoral and delinquent type.

GLOSSARY AGENCY. Agencies here means the institutions those are responsible for the

socialization. CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT. Man-made environment including the cultural institutions

and even the customs and traditions of the community. INDIVIDUAL. Human being, person. INHERITED. The transmission of rights of property.


12 5

INSTINCTIVE . The inmate motivation drives leading to species, specific behaviour

patterns. I NTERACTION. The process and manner in which social actors relate to each

other, especially, in face to face situation. Action + reaction = interaction. H YPOTHETICAL. Any proposition which is advanced for testing or appraisal as a

generalization about a phenomenon. NORMS

AND VALUE . Norms are the general precepts those are accepted by

the society.

Values are constitu constituent ent facts facts of social social structure. structure. P ERSONALITY

FORMATION . Built

a specific type of personality due to various reasons.

P ROCESS . Process is a continuous action. S OCIALIZATION . It is a process of learning, according to, society’s rules. It is also

transmitted culture from one generation to other. S ELF. A mental construction of the person, by the person or the person sees him/

her – reflected by others, in their reaction.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

What is is socializat socialization? ion? Discuss Discuss various various agencies agencies of socializatio socialization. n. Discuss Discuss the the role role of family in the the process process of socializ socialization. ation. Critically Critically examine examine the important important theorie theories s of socializatio socialization. n. Discuss Discuss the developm development ent of individu individual al in the process process of of socializati socialization. on. Explai Explain n mead’s mead’s theory theory of of social socialisa isatio tion. n. Explain Explain Freud’s Freud’s theory theory of socia socialisa lisation tion.. Explain Explain C.H. C.H. Cooley Cooley’s ’s theory theory of social socialisat isation. ion.

SUGGESTED READINGS READINGS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Social ial Order Cooley, ley, C.H. .H. , Hum an Natu re and th e Soc , New York, 1922. Sociology Goode oode,, W.J., .J., Principles of Sociology , New Delhi, 1977. Germa n Id eology eology , 1845, Poverty overty of Philosophy, Philosophy, 1 987 . Marx arx, Karl Karl,, The Germa Self an d Socie Society ty Mead Mead,, G. G. Her Herbe bert rt,, Mind , Self , Chicago, 1934. Sociology Psy chology New New Comb Combe, e, T.M. T.M.,, Sociology , New York, 1930. Social Sy stem Pars Parson ons, s, Talc Talcot ott, t, The Social , New York, 1951.

1 26


CHAPTER 14

Culture ulture and Perso Perso nality Form Form ation Every individual in human society has a personality. Personality is a product of the culture in which the person has been brought brou ght up. We know that tha t the t he style of life i.e. the culture of a tribal community inhabited in some remote area is entirely different from that of an urban community. But if a tribal baby is raised in an urban family alongwith other babies of the family, the personality of the baby so formed would wou ld be, altoge alt ogethe ther, r, differe diff erent nt from fro m those of other members of the tribal community. If a Hindu child right from its babyhood is brought up by an orthodox Christian family, its behaviour behaviour and ideas ideas in adulthood adulthood will will hardly show any symptom of a Hindu. So will also be the case if a Christian baby is brought up in a staunch Hindu family. The personality is so much determined by culture that a person broug bro ught ht up in a parti par ticul cul ar cultu cul tura rall environment will more or less misfit into the other. Th er e ar e se ve ra l in st a nc es t o prove dominant role of social and cultural environment in the formation of personality of a person. T.A.L. Singh and R. M. Zing have described children who were found in the cave of a wolf. These ‘wolf ‘wolf children’ children’ except except of human

body had no characteristic characteristic of a normal human being. They behaved, almost, like wolves. Anna was another child which has been referred referred to by Kingsley Kingsley Davis. This child was kept in isolation from human society. Such cases are very strong examples examples of of the fact that a human individual at the time of birth is only a biological animal. It is i s only as a result of his/her living in human society in relationship with other individuals and being under a constant influence of culture of society that he/ she becomes a social being . Thus, the very social soci al existence exi stence of a person perso n is a function of cultural environment. Every person behaves in a specific wa y beca be ca us e of bein be in g shap sh ap ed by a specific culture. This behaviour would be strange for them who do not belong to that culture. Once upon a time, there was a practice of s a t i among among a section of people of Hindu society. Though it was not a general genera l practice pract ice countrywide. The widows dared rush to the funeral fire of their deceased husbands to burn themselves along with them. This This would be be a horrifying horrifying and inhuman act for the women who belonged belonged to other communities, communities, where, was not a practice. This practice is was sati now legally banned in the country and


it is ensured that this practice does not recur. Likewise, a Japanese of Samurai community in old Japan would stab a sword in his stomach, if suffered a disgrace. This kind of suicide was called hara-kiri . Culture shapes people to fit a particular life style. It moulds their ideas and beliefs. Offering an organ of own body to show devotion to God and to placate Him were once related to common religious practice in some old communities of our society. Wo men get the ir ear lob es or the septum nose pierced to dangle jewels from them. They do it because their culture demands. Some traditional Indian women observe p a r d a h whereas, some modern ones prefer to we ar cl ot he s as pe r the we st er n culture. A particular kind of dress is a part of culture of the society it belongs. Tr adi tio na l dr ess of Be ng alis is different from that of Gujaratis. Turban is an essential part of the traditional dress of Sikhs. Indians greet their elders in one way and Europeans in other. Such are the cultural specificities in society. Culture also defines what is proper and when it is proper. There is a ceremonial dress for the bride and brideg room at the time of marriage ceremony, which they would never we ar ot he rw is e. Th e mann er of greeting a person varies from culture to culture. While greeting a person one touches the feet of the person to be greeted, the other greets by folding hands and still other shakes hands with him.

12 7

Learning Culture

The learning of culture begins right from the time when the newly born baby first comes into contact with his family members, the first among them usually, being the mother. The child closely observes the attitudes, values and beliefs of the family. Similarly, the behaviour pat ter n of the family are observed by its members. By doing this child learns the roles associated with different statuses in the family. Father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife and many other kinship related statuses are found in the family. Ralph Linton defines status and role to explain their role in personality formation. According to him, the place in particular system, which a person occupies at a particular time is referred to as his status with respect to that system. The role is used to designate the sum total of culture patterns associated with a particular status. It, thus, includes the attitudes and values and behaviour patterns organized by the society for all the persons occupying this status. In so far as it responds as an overt behaviour, the role is a dynamic aspect of status. Right from the very childhood, an individual learns and internalizes the role structure and develops his/her own ‘self’. Internalization takes place through the process of socialization. Much of the personality of an individual is shaped in this way. The individual learns this part of culture pattern unconsciously. There is ano ther par t of cul ture

128

whi ch an in di vi du al lea rns consciously. This learning process begins at a later stage when the formal teaching in school begins. There he learns about a more complicated part of culture such as the history of culture, the nature of government, the cultural heritage and so on. This part of culture is so vast that it can not be learnt in a day or two. The individual learns it in several years of his/her school and college life. Ralph Linton classifies culture into three categories: 1. The cultural universals, 2. The cultural alternatives, 3. The cultural specialties. Cultural universals are that part of culture, which every individual must learn. Moral values are such cultural elements. The cultural specialties form that part of culture, which are not necessary for every one to learn. The individuals have their choice in selecting the cultural item for themselves. Occupational choice is an examples of this category. An individual has complete freedom in modern society to become an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or an entrepreneur. Cultural alternatives are found in the field of art, architecture and fashion. Individuals also enjoy freedom in making choice from among the available alternatives in this category. A person’s wearing a particular hair style is a cultural alternative. It is because of these cultural categories that in a society all the persons have some common characteristics. At the


same time, several kinds of variation in personality traits among them are also observed. The child training results into adult personality. The variations in personality dispositions among human individuals are directly related with the training pattern during their childhood. That a person is aggressive or submissive, courageous or cowardly, extrovert or introvert, depends on the nature of child-rearing practices in the family. John T. Hitchcock, in his study of R a j p u t s of Khalapur of Western Uttar Pradesh of India has pointed out how the kinship groupings, interpersonal relations within and interaction between these groups, authority pattern, roles and statuses and the position of women relate to the growth and development of children’s personality among the of Khalapur. They attach too Rajputs much importance to the prestige of (family lineage); and the Khandan children are trained to keep it up. mothers of Khalapur are found Rajput to be low on maternal warmth, high on emotional stability and permitting aggression by children against them (mothers). The mothers are described as being less warm towards male children than towards female children. Leela Dube, however, is not convinced by the finding that the mother lacks warm th towa rds male ch ild ren . Importance of child rearing in personality formation has also been emphasized by David McClelland who writes tha t it is the ch ildrearing practice, which leads to the


formation of entrepreneurial personality. It is proved that there is close link be twe en ch ild trai ni ng and adu lt personality but it does not mean that the former is the cause and the latter the effect. Margaret Mead studied Mundugumor society of Melanesia and found that both men and women developed as ruthless, aggressive, positively sexed individuals, with the maternal cherishing aspects of personality at minimum. It is not easy to determine, whether the hostile and assertive behaviour of adult women is the cause or the effect of the relatively unfriendly treatment of children. A. Kardiner has pointed out that the patterns of child training (primary institutions)give rise to the ‘basic personality structure’ and then in turn it becomes projected into the secondary institutions (for example, religious beliefs and practices). Newcomb states that ‘different practices in child training are consequences of differences both in culture and in personality’ and that ‘different practices in child training also lead to differences both in culture and in personality.’ Dollard’s suggestions hold importance in the context of understanding of the role of culture in understanding personality. He is of the view that much is known abo ut an individual, merely, from the fact that he or she is born in a particular community. A great deal can be foretold about the later personality of any individual at birth, if we know the

12 9

nature of his group. The Freudians have given great importance to family in the development of personality. But it should be kept in mind that the family in India and in many other countries holds so much significance that outside influence on any member of the family is insignificant. But as Mead has pointed out, in Somoa where a child who is dissatisfied with his own home may find a more congenial one with his relatives. The nature of family varies and therefore, varies the nature of personality. Among Trobriand Islanders the authority is vested in the uncle not the father and in matriarchal families like Nayar and some American Negro families the authority rests with the mothers, whereas, in most of other societies the head of the family is the father. These variations have consequential effect on the development of personality. Klineberg is of the opinion that family is of importance not only in transmitting the culture but also in terms of the personal relationships which develop within its framework. No culture is ever completely expressed in any one individual. There are, as we have mentioned earlier, ‘universals’ which apply to all normal adult members of the society, but there are also specialties which are found only in distinct categories of individuals (the priests and warriors). In many psychological studies it has also been asserted that personality is a result of the constitution of body. Ernst Kretschmer — a German

130

psychiatrist, has put forth a relationship between physical type and susceptibility to mental disorder like s c h i z o p h r e n i a . It is, moreover, difficult to negate constitutional or hereditary factors in personality formation because we find personality differences in children much before any influence of cultural environment on them would begin. But it is important to keep in mind that the role of cultural environment in personality is primary and utmost. The bi ol og ic al en tit ies th em se lv es ar e conditioned by culture. It has been observed that there is effect of the environment of the mother on the fetus. On the basis of a study, L.W. Sontag concludes that mother’s anxieties and fears may have certain somatic effects, which prove irritating to the foetus. This may lessen adaptability to the post-natal environment and digestive disturbances may follow. Due to a common belief, in our society, the expected mother during pregnancy are advised to always remain in a pleasant environment. No behaviour of the human individual is governed, absolutely, by innate tendencies. The instincts are also modi-fied by the environment. For example, fear is reduced if the person is repeatedly exposed to the object of fear. Culture and Personality Disorganization

The extent of mental disorganization varies from socie ty to soc iety. This va ri at io n is la rg el y du e to va ry in g cultural conditions. When culture of a


society makes excessive demands on its individuals, they are subjected to mental stress. This condition causes the probability of aberration in their personality. Expecting too much in the examination from a child of an average mental efficiency may lead to the development of abnormality in the child. Multiplicity of cultures also puts strain on the people, sometimes, causing confusion and mental tension. In Indian society several cultures exist and compete with one another. This situation does put strain on certain individuals. Mental ill health also results from rapid culture change. In this process New ideas and values emerge without replacing the old one. Mead points out that a child may face such culture conflict even within one’s own family. Th e mem be rs in a fa mil y may be having different attitudes and values. For example, the father may be a vegetarian, teetotaller, fundamentalist and believer in traditional and simple living, whereas the uncle may be a non veg etarian, secul ar and bel ieves in modern and high living and so on. These kinds of likes and dislikes and even different standards of morality may be found in one family. The lack of a standard cultural pattern in the family weakens its role of healthy socialization of the child. Th e fa ct tha t pa tho log ica l personalities are growing faster in modern societies is largely due to rampant increase in the needs and consumerist temperament of the


13 1

people without a proportional growth in become neurotic. Karen Horney in his the means to satisfy them. Some people book T h e N eu r o t i c Pe r s o n a l i t y o f O u r in society are not able to adjust with T i m e s calls such personalities ‘the such situations and are prone to step-children of our culture’.

GLOSSARY I NTERNALIZATION. Takes place through the process of socialization. LE A R N I N G . Is a process of adjusting previous response pattern to newly

experienced or perceived environmental changes. N EUROTIC

PERSONALITY. Any

diseased condition of person e.g. alcoholic, drug

addict, etc. DISORGANIZATION . The condition in which an individual cannot function effectively because of inner confusion usually resulting from his acceptance of contradictory standards of behaviour.

P ERSONAL

P ERSONALITY. Is a product of culture in which a person has been brought up.

Culture shapes people to fit a particular type of style. It moulds their ideas and beliefs. R OLE. Is used to designate the sum total of culture patterns associated with a

particular system. S TATUS . A person occupies the place in particular system at a particular time

is referred to as his status.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4.

Differentiate between primary and secondary socialization. Discuss Cooley’s theory of socialization. What do you mean by culture? Elaborate the relationship between culture and geographical environment. 5. Explain the relationship between culture and society. 6. Discuss the processes of interaction in the group. 7. Define culture traits and culture complexes and give suitable examples. 8. Explain relationship between culture, society and personality. 9. Define personality. Discuss the relationship between culture and personality. 10. Explain that culture shapes personality. 11. Define socialization. Explain the role of socialization in personality formation.

132


12. Discuss Mead’s theory of socialization and differentiate it from that of Cooley. 13. Discuss the psycho-analytical theory of socialization. 14. Explain relationship between culture and pathological personality. 15. Write on family as an agency of socialization. 16. Which are the phases of socialization?

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Benedict, R.F., Patterns of Cultu re , Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1946. 2. Kardiner, A., The Individ ual a nd His Society , 1939. 3. Kluckhohn, C., Murray, H.A. and Schneider, D.M. (Eds.), Pe r s on a l i t y i n Nature, Society an d Cultu re , Knoph, New York, 1953. 4. Linton, L., The Culture Back ground of Personality , Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1947. 5. Mead, G.H., M i n d , S el f a n d S o c i et y , Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1934. 6. Young, K., Ha nd book of Social Psychology , Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1946


13 3

CHAPTER 15

Me t h o d s o f Re s e a rc h Social science is concerned with the understanding and explanation of human behaviour. Data play an important role in explanation of human behaviour. Social scientists have developed methods for systematic collection of data. The historical, comparative and functional methods generate data, which can be interpreted in more than one ways. What facts do people seek to compare? What histories do they seek to recount? How do we analyze social relations? These are the vital questions relevant for present discussion on historical, comparative and functional methods of research. HISTORICAL METHOD

It is not unusual to find inquiries of different sorts in the social sciences. Inquiries in social sciences could be classified in two categories, the n o m o t h e t i c and the i d e o g r a p h i c . According to this classification, the ideographic sciences are those which study unique and unrepeatable events, while the nomothetic sciences attempt to make generalizations. We can, thus, call sociology as a nomothetic science and history as an ideographic science.

Historians try to increase our accurate knowledge of unique phenomena of the past, whereas sociologists try to seek information about certain uniformities in social behaviour under specific conditions. Thi s, in principle, is the diffe rence betw een the two modes of inqu iry. However, the data of history are also widely used now by sociologists. On the other hand, historians have also started using data generated by sociologists for their own writings. Historical method has also been employed by Karl Marx in conjunction wi th d i a l e c t i c a l m a t e r i a l i s m in understanding the human societies. He believed that the materialistic structure of societies accounts for their developmental, and thus, he took this philosophical device and applied to the materialistic view of society. The other form of historical approach is a characteristic of the work of Max Weber, and later sociologists. Max Weber’s own his tor ica l app roa ch is exemplified, especially, in his studies of the origins of capitalism, the development of modern bureaucracy, and the economic influence on the wo rl d re li gi on s. A ve ry co nv in ci ng illustration of this approach of Weber

134


is to be found in his treatment of the interpretations, often, enter growth of capitalism in Europe. As he unconsciously, even when, honest brings out in his book, Protestant Eth ic attempts are made to select and interpret pertinent facts. This can be and the Spirit of Capitalism . The main methodological features illustrated by reference to the current of these studies are that particular controversy that is raging on the historical changes of social structures writing of Med ieval Indian history, and types of society are investigated; especially the Babri Masjid versus and are compared in certain respects Ramjanam Bhoomi dispute. with changes in other societies. In this manner, both causal explanation and COMPARATIVE METHOD historical interpretations find a place in The analyses of social change in history the social explanation. are carried out with the help of several methods. One of the most favoured Sources of His torical Data methods is the comparative method In her book S ci e n t i f i c S o ci a l S u r v e y s used in sociology. This entails the , P.V.Young describes study of different groups and a n d R es e a r c h sources of historical data highlighting institutions in order to examine both the adequacy and limitations of similarities and differences. historical data. All sociological research involves Th e so ci al sc ie nt is ts gen er al ly the comparison of cases or variables, confine themselves to three major which are similar in some respects and sources of historical information, dissimilar in others. A major (i) Documents and various historical methodological issue is whether or not sources to which historians themselves the units of comparison (whole have access, (ii) materials of cultural societies, major institutions, religions, history and of analytical history, groups, and so on) and the indicators (iii) personal sources of authentic chosen to compare differences or observers and witnesses. When, how similarities are genuinely comparable and under what circumstances these and can legitimately be used outside sources are to be used depends upon their specific cultural settings. The the discretion of the researcher’s features under examination may occur interest, the scope of the study and the within the same society, for example availability of the sources. rates of mobility between different Historical data have some castes and classes belonging to the limitations, which arise mainly same society may be mutually because historians cannot describe all compared, or, the same variable’s may the happenings in time and space appear in different societies like the available at the time of writing history. rates of social mobility among the same Personal biases and private strata but in different societies.


The comparative method is amply used in anthropological and ethnological research. George P. Murdock, realizing the necessity for storing the information, which was continuously building up and the importance of having it at the disposal of social scientists everywhere, opened a C r o s s C u l t u r a l S u r v e y at Yale University. Today, the Human Relations Area File has been developed on the basis of Murdock’s idea and material, and is one of the principal ‘data banks’ which social scientists possess. Incidentally, in the Victorian age, Herbert Spencer had already be gu n an imp or tant sy st em atic inventory of information about social institutions in a great number of countries. Today, all sorts of data banks are developing in various places, making important factual information, readily and widely, available. In Britain its most forceful exponent was A.R. Radcliffe-Brown who dominated anthropology in the late thirties and forties, and used social anthropology as synonym for ‘comparative sociology’. The systematic use of comparison and contrast as method of enquiry became widely accepted among sociologists and social anthropologists in the first half of the Twentieth cent ury. Radcliffe-Brown sought to extend Durkheim’s sociological theory of totemism by comparing and contrasting the relationship between social structure and religious practices among the Au st ra li an Ab or ig in es — wh o ha d totemism — and the Andaman

13 5

Islanders — who did not have it. He also proposed that a relationship could be esta blished throug h systematic comparative study between ancestor worship and lineage structure. Herbert Spencer’s work is a lucid example of the comparative method where he has compared military and industrial types of societies. RadcliffeBrown observed that the comparative method alone gives you nothing. Nothing will grow out of the ground unless you put seeds into it. The comparative method is one way of testing hypotheses. The difficulties while using the comparative method seems to be due in part to the absence of hypotheses, or due to not clearly formulated hypotheses, at the outset, and in part to the problem of defining the unit of comparison. Thus, for example, Comte’s use of the comparative method to establish his ‘law of three stages’ is based, not upon a scientific hypothesis but upon a philosophical view of the development of humanity as a whole. Durkheim regarded the comparative method as the counterpart in the social sciences of the experimental method pursued in the other sciences. He recognized that social facts could only be observed, not artificially produced under experimental conditions. Therefore, Durkheim favoured the comparative-historical approach because sociologists could not carry out experiments and had to rely on the method of indirect experiment — the comparison of similar cases in a systematic way.

136


Thompson comments that this was, for Durkheim, ‘the core of sociological methodology’. In his book on Emile Durkheim, Thompson says that Durkheim drew up classification of behaviour (for example, suicide rates) to make it possible to test hypotheses about the relationship between social phenomena. The typology could be used when making comparisons. This is ‘the nearest thing to an experimental method in sociology’. FUNCTIONAL METHOD

Th e fu nc ti on al ist ap pr oac h, in sociology and social anthropology, appeared initially as a reaction against the methods and claims of the evolutionists. It was a criticism of native and superficial uses of the comparative method and of the methods of ‘conjectural history’. In which, unverified and unsystematic data were employed on contemporary or primitive societies for reconstructing the early stages of human social life. It was also a criticism of the intention and claim of the evolutionists to give a scientific account of the whole social history of mankind. The terms functional analysis and functionalism are often equated. Th er ef or e, we woul d li ke fi rst to understand the meaning of these terms before we discuss functional method. In Functional analysis requires from the researcher that he/ she explains or analyzes his/her observations of recurring phenomena in terms of their consequences for the wider social system, within which, they

exist. For example, the national anthem played on certain occasions such as the celebration of the Republic Day in India has a function of enthusing a sense of mutual solidarity among the citizens from different caste and communities in the country. In this context, functional analysis is a method of sociological and anthropological enquiry, which consists in examining social and cultural items by locating them in a wider context. This usua lly means showing how these items affect and are affected by others with which they coexist, over time, within the same social system. In other words, functional method refers to the functional analysis, which is also known as ‘functionalism’ and ‘structural functionalism’. ‘Functionalism’ is a doctrine, which asserts that the principal task of sociology and social anthropology is to examine the contribution, which social items make to the social and cultural life of human collectivities. It may additionally assert that to examine social phenomena in this way is to explain why these items occur at all; and/or why they have persisted. Functionalism provides a perspective from which to attempt an analysis of a society. The central concern is with the source of order and stability in society. The focus is on: (a) The way social institution help to maintain order and continuity in social life; and (b) The way structural arrangements in society influence behaviour.


The notion of ‘social function’ had, of course, been formulated in the Nineteenth century, most explicitly by Herbert Spencer. It is based upon an age-old analogy between society and an organism, but it could be presented in a more scientific manner after the development of modern biology. Spencer, however, like most of those influenced by biological conceptions, was most concerned to work out a theory of social evolution in his analyses of social structure and social function in the Prin ciples of Sociology. It was Durkheim, as Rad-cliffe Brown insists, who first gave a rigorous formulation of the concept of social function in T h e D i v i s i on o f L a b o u r i n Society and in The Rul es of Sociological M e t h o d . He defined function as a relationship between a set of dynamic processes and the needs of the wider social system. Emile Durkheim saw society as composed of many parts, each with its own function. When all the parts of society fulfil their functions, society is in a ‘normal’ state. If they do not fulfil their expected or assigned function, society is then in an ‘abnormal’ or ‘pathological’ state. To understand society, then functionalists say that we need to look at both structure — how the parts of a society are related to one another — as well as and function — how each part contributes to society. Augu st e Co mte and He rbe rt Spencer used an organic analogy, analyzing society as a kind of living organism. Just as a biological organism has inter-related tissues and

13 7

organs that function together, they wro te, so do es so cie ty. Li ke an organism, if society is to function smoothly, its various parts must work together in harmony. Robert K. Merton dismissed the organic analogy but continued with the essence of functionalism. The image of society as a whole, as he maintained is composed of inter-related parts. Merton used the term function to refer to the beneficial consequences of people’s actions that help to maintain the equilibrium of a social system. In contrast, d y s f u n c t i o n s , are consequences that undermine a system’s equilibrium. Functions can either be manifest or latent. Merton called an action intended to help a system’s equilibrium, it is a manifest function. For example, the tuition fee in a college may be doubled. The intention, or manifest function, of such a sharp increase may be to raise faculty salaries and thus, recruit better faculty. Merton pointed out that people’s actions can also have latent functions, un-intended consequences that help a system adapt. Let us suppose that the increase in-tuition fee led to the recruitment of better faculty at your college, as a result of which, you r co lle ge gai ne d a nat ion al reputation. As a result, it was flooded with new applicants and was able to expand both its programs and its campus. These can, thus, be seen as an un-intended resultant or consequence of the increase in tuitionfee. These can also be termed as latent of the increase in tuition-fee. function

138


Sometimes human actions have the adverse effect, of course, and hurt the system. But such consequences are usually un-intended and could not possibly have been anticipated. Merton called them latent d ysfunctions. Let us assume that the increase in the tuition fee backfired, that half the student body could not afford the increase and dropped out. With this loss of income, the college had to reduce salaries and lay off faculty. Because these results were not intended and actually harmed the system, they represent a l a t e n t of the tuition increase. dysfunction From the perspective of functional analysis, the group is a functioning whole, with each part contributing to the welfare of the whole. Whenever, we examine a smaller part, we need to look for its functions to see how it is related to the larger unit. This basic approach can be applied to any social group, whether an entire society, a college, or even a group as small as the family. What has been called functional

analysis should, in fact, be seen as a particular form of the system approach in the social sciences. To enquire as to why particular features of that system persist is to locate similar features in the wider system and to identify their relevance in the overall system. This has also resulted in two major critiques of the functionalist method, one that a socio-cultural item may be functional for a group in society but dysfunctional for another, and the second that to look for the function of each and every socio-cultural item has also produced a status quoist outlook generating resistance against change, which may in fact be required in a society at a particular point of time. Finally, we may say that functional analysis is a method, which refers to factors and forces of integration, equilibrium and also disequilibrium. At a given point of time, inter-relation be twee n di ffe ren t co mp one nt s of society can be studied from the functional point of view.

GLOSSARY ANTITHESIS . Opposite of original state/proposition/theme. B UREAUCRACY. Type of organization in which administration is based upon

impersonal, written rules and a hierarchy of offices. CAPITALISM. Free economy operating according to market forces, private ownership. VARIATIO n . An empirical relationship in which the magnitude of the first variable varies with the magnitude of the second variable.

CONCOMITANT

CONJECTURAL. Balance of forces, particular ideologies, class interests etc. that in

combination make up a particular pattern of social and economic contradictions .


C ROSS - CULTURAL

13 9

METHOD . Comparisons

of contemporary cultures.

D IALECTICAL. A process which sees forces of change from thesis (original state) to a n t i - t h e s i s (opposite state) to s y n t h e s i s (combination of first two

states). E QUILIBRIUM. A state of balance between parts within a social system. E THNOGRAPHIC. Written record of small society based on direct observation. I DEAL

TYPE . A

mental construction form in its abstract or pure for the social measurement.

I DEOGRAPHIC. Studying unique and unrepeatable events (e.g. History). I N T E G R A T I O N . The extent to which an individual experiences a sense of

belonging to a social group by virtue of sharing its norms, values, beliefs etc. LATENT

FUNCTIONS . Functions,

which are hidden and remain unacknowledged

by participants. of a social system which are intended and/ or overtly recognized by the participants in that social system.

MANIFEST

FUNCTIONS . Functions

MATERIALISM. Relation of production which correspond to a definite stage of

the development of their productive forces. NOMOTHETIC. A Science that attempts to make generalization (e.g. Sociology). O RGANIC

ANALOGY. Comparison

made to show a degree of similarity between

living organs. S YNTHESIS . A resultant of interaction between thesis and antithesis. T HESIS . Original state/proposition /theme. VARIABLES. A social factor such as age, social class etc., which can be observed

to affect other measures, such as income level.

EXERCISES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Define historical method. Define comparative method. Define functional analysis. State the importance of functional method and also some of its important critiques. What is historical method? Discuss its importance in sociological research. Define comparative method. Discuss its importance and limitations. Provide four difference between historical and comparative method. How functional analysis is used as functional method?

140


SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Beteille, Andre, Some Observations on the Compara tive Method, Amsterdam: CASA, 1990. 2. Beteille, Andre, S o ci o l o g i c a l B u l l e t i n ( T h e C o m p a r a t i v e M e t h o d a n d t h e Stand point of the Investigator) , 47(2), September, 1998. 3. Beteille, Andre, Sociology: Theory and Method , Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002. 4. Botomore, T.B., Sociology , George Allen and Unwin Ltd., Britain, 1971. 5. Merton, Robert, K., Social Theory an d Social Structure , Free Press, New York, 1968. 6. Vallier, I. (Ed.), Compara tive Methods in Sociology, Berkeley University of California Press, California, 1971. 7. Young, Pauline, V., Scientific Social Sur veys a nd Research , Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1973.


14 1

CHAPTER 16

Techniques of Data Collection Techniques refer to tools or apparatus, either verbal or mechanical, for elicifing informations from the respondents. On the other hand method is not only a combination of several techniques but refors to a complete set of guidelines pertaining to collection and analysis of data. Sociologists use a variety of techniques such as observation, interview, questionnaire, schedule, case study etc. Observer and social reality are two distinct entities that need to be bridged in order that some correct and dependable inferences are possible about the nature and structure of society and the social phenomena. This is difficult to state the complex and dynamic nature of social reality, which is changing every moment even wh ile it is being st udie d. The ta sk becomes all the more difficult because the observer herself/himself is very much a part of the situation under study — whether directly or vicari ously. Therefore, a vari ety of research techniques have been devised over the years accordingly to the nuances of the various situations to be studied. Some of these are as under :

vi si on as it s ma in mea ns of dat a collection. It implies the use of eyes rather than of ears and the voice. It is accurate watching and noting of phenomena as they occur with regard to the cause and effect or mutual relations. It is watching other persons’ be hav io ur as it act ual ly ha pp en s without controlling it. Lindzey Gardner has defined it as ‘selection, provocation, recording and encoding of that set of behaviours and settings concerning organisms (naturalistic settings of familiar surroundings) which are consistent with em pi rica l aim s’ . Her e the selection means that there is a focus in observation and also editing before, during and after the observations are made. Provocation means that though observers do not destroy natural settings but they can make subtle changes in natural settings, which increase clarity. Recording means that observed incidents/events are recorded for subsequent analysis. Encoding involves simplification of records. Characte ristic s of Obse rvation

Black and Champion have given the following characteristics of Observation observation: Observation is a method that employs – Behaviour of respondent is observed.

142

–

–

–

–

– –

–


It en abl es und er st and ing significant events affecting social relations of the participants. It de ter mi ne s rea lit y fr om the perspective of observed person himself. It de fi ne s reg ular itie s an d recurrences in social life by comparing data in one study with those in other studies. Observation involves some controls pertaining to the observer and to the means he uses to record data. However, such controls do not exist for the setting or the subject population. It is focused on hypotheses-free inquiry. It av oi ds ma ni pu la ti on s in th e independent variable, i.e. one that is supposed to cause other variable and is not caused by them. Recording is not selective.

Conditio ns o f Scient ific Observation

Data in social sciences, as in other sciences, are based on sensory observation. A check in an answer-box is a datum, not the inference that the respondent is for or against something. A smile is a datum. The inference is that the smiling person is in a happy mood. Social science depends to a considerable extent on ‘seeing’ things. Observation is a technique, which facilitates direct understanding of social phenomena. Observation ensures reliability and better understanding. The word observation is used here and elsewhere to include all forms of sense perceptions used in

recording responses, as they impinge on our senses. We make, however, a distinction between a response and a datum – a response is some manifest kind of action, a datum is the product of the recording of the response. There are two important conditions imposed on scientific observations as opposed to other observation. These are reliability and inter-subjectivity. Reliability and inter-subjectivity have to do with the two components of the observation process here called perception and recording. Galtung introduced two principles : 1. Pr i n c i p l e o f i n t e r - s u b j e ct i v i t y o r reliability : Repeated observation of the same responses by the same observer shall yield the same data. 2. P r i n c i p l e o f i n t e r - o b j e c t i v i t y : Repeated observation of the same responses by different observers shall yield the same data. In this connection, a principle of validity is, often, mentioned, with the understanding that an observation is valid if one has observed what he wants to observe. Validity, thus, obviously has to do with the relation between the manifest and latent, since observations by definitions always are at the manifest level. 3. Principle of validity : Data shall be obtained of such a kind and in such a way that legitimate inferences can be made from the manifest level to the latent level. Looking above condition, we may vi ew th at sc ie nt if ic ob se rv at io n is planned and logical. Also, it is relevant


to a problem, which serves formulated research purpose. It is reliable and valid. Observational Metho ds

Observation is fundamental in social life of human beings, however everyday’seeing’ has to be distinguished from observation. Observation is a tool of scientific inquiry. It differs from seeing in the reuse that it has a purpose behind it, that is to understand the social phenomena. Observation becomes a scientific tool for social inquiry when the following factors are taken into account (i) Action, (ii) Context or setting, (iii) Duration of event, (iv) Frequency of the event and (v) the meaning behind the interaction. Some times observation is backed up by a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement on the relationship between two or more social phenomena. This relationship has to be tested before any generalisations are made observation be co me s fo cu ss ed an d ac qu ir es a direction when acompanied with a hypothesis. Besides this observation can also be used as a techniques of data collection in an exploratory study. Types of Observation Participant observation

Participant observation entails data gathering through participation in daily life of informants in their natural interactional setting. A social researcher watches, observes and talks to people in order to understand their

14 3

interpretation, social meanings and activities. Researcher adds to this the dimension of her/his personal experiences of sharing everyday life of those under study. A participant observer takes part in the everyday activities of community — The village, tribe or neighbourhood — and spends time as a member of that group or society. To, accomplish this he has to take up a ‘role’ so that he has great acceptability in the community life of the concerned group. Participant observation, in the classical sense, emerged during the field work conducted by B. Malinowski among the trobi and Islanders, of Western Pacific. He spent many years with the trobianders, learned their language and understood their cultural life from an insiders perspective or emic point of view. It helps researcher to develop a deep understanding of the culture especially in accordance with the local paralance. Non-Participant Observation

The observer is detached from the group under observation, who may or may not know they are being studied. You must put yourself in the position of the ‘acceptable incompetent’. M. Hammersley and P. Atkinson say ‘it is only through watching and listening that the ethnographer can acquire some sense of the social structure of the setting and begin to understand the culture of the participants’. These methods are not necessarily alternatives, they can be used in

144


conjunction with each other. It precisely, enough to be able to be depends on what you wish to discover. present to observe it. Even the One method may be more appropriate observation of regular daily than another for different aspects of the occurrences, sometimes, becomes same study. A survey, for example, may difficult because of the possibility also require observational details to that unforeseen factors may supplement it. interfere with the task of In non-participant observation, the observation. observer remains detached and does – The practical possibility of applying not participate or intervene in the observational techniques is limited activities of those who are being by the du rat io n of ev en ts. Fo r observed. He merely observes their example, life histories cannot be behaviour. Sometimes, this places the obtained this way. Besides some persons being observed in an awkward occurrences that people may not be position and their conduct becomes wi lli ng and abl e to rep or t are , unnatural. But some say that though rarely, accessible to direct initially the observer’s bahviour is more observation (for example, marital useful as a tool of data collection relations). because the observer can choose the – Th e da ta co ll ec ted thr ou gh situations to be observed and can observation cannot be quantified. record the data freely . The recorded data will show how Non-participant observation is not persons interacted with one dependent on a systematic plan of another but it cannot be easily observation. However, it facilitates the counted the number of times they standardization of social situations to interacted. It is difficult to be ob se rve d and adm its too of a categorize in-depth emotional and systematic plan of the whole humanistic data. observation process and the recording of results. This is because the observer – Ob se rva tio na l st udi es use a smaller sample than survey is not required to participate actively in the social processes at work in the studies. Two or more observers can social field he is observing. Since, he study a bigger sample but then is not himself immediately affected by their observations cannot be the demands of the situation, he can compared. Since observations are concentrate his whole attention more made for a longer period, to employ easily on systematic observation of the many observers can become a situation and what is happening in it. costly affair. – There are some problems related to Limit ations of Observation reliability and validity of the observation. The constant error – It is often impossible to anticipate introduced by the observer because the occurrence of an event,


14 5

complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Researchers have used the case study research method for many years across a variety of disciplines. Social scientists, in particular, have made wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods. Researcher Robert K. Yin defines ‘the case study research CASE STUDY method as an empirical inquiry that Periods of intense use and periods of investigates a contemporary disuse mark the history of case stud y phenomenon within its real-life research. The earliest use of this form context; when the boundaries between of research can be traced to Europe, phenomenon and context are not predominantly to France. The clearly evident; and in which multiple methodology and sociology research sources of evidence are used.’ in the United States was most closely associated with the University of Conc ept o f Case Study Chicago, Department of Sociology. Case study method is an ideal From the early 1900’s until 1935, The methodology when a holistic, in-depth Chicago School was pre-eminent in the investigation is needed. Case studies field and the source of a great deal of have been used in varied social the literature. investigations, particularly, in Frederic Le Play is reputed to have sociological studies, and are designed introduced the case stud y method into to bring out the details from the social science. He used it as a viewpoint of the participants by using handmaiden to statistics in his studies multiple sources of data. It is, therefore, of family budgets. Herbert Spencer, an an approach to explore and analyze the English philosophical sociologist was life of social unit a person, a family, an the first to use case materials in his institution, a culture group or even an ethnographic studies. entire community. Its aim is to Case study research excels in determine the factors that account for bringing to us an understanding of a the complex behaviour patterns of the of the distortion of perception for various reasons is one of the major shortcomings of ‘reliability’. Observers may assign the same observational items to different categories because they may themselves have different tendencies to perceive evidence of a particular behaviour. It may lower the reliability of even a well-trained and skilled observer. The load of work can also hamper reliability. The result of overloading is, often, that the observer cannot record all relevant data.

146

unit and the relationships of the unit to its surroundings. Case-data may be gathered, exhaustively, on the entire life cycle or on a definite section of the cycle of a unit but always with a view to ascertain the natural history of social unit and its relationship to the social factors and forces involved in its environment. In other words, through case study, researchers attempt to see the variety of factors within a social unit as an integrated whole. R.K. Yin has identified some specific types of case studies: and E x p l o r a t o r y , E x p l a n a t o r y , D e s c r i p t i v e . Exploratory cases are sometimes considered as a prelude to social research. Explanatory case studies may be used for doing causal investigations. Descriptive cases require a descriptive theory to be developed before starting the project. R.E. Stake included three other types of case studies: I n t r i n s i c — when the researcher has an interest in the case; Instrumental — when the case is used to understand more than what is obvious to the observer; and Collective — when a group of cases is studied. Characteristics of Case Study Method

J.L. Feagin, A. Orum and G.A. Sjoberg describe the following characteristics of case study: 1. The case study ‘strives towards a holistic understanding of cultural systems of action.’ Cultural systems of action refer to sets of inter-related activities engaged in by the actors in a social situation.


2. The case studies must always have boundaries. 3. C a se s t ud y r es ea r ch i s no t sampling research. However, selecting cases must be done so as to maximize what can be learned, in the period of time available for the study. 4. Case studies tend to be selective, focusing on one or two issues that are fundamental to understanding the system being examined. studies are multi5 . ‘Case perspectival analyses.’ This means that the researcher considers not just the voice and perspective of the actors but also of the relevant groups of actors and the interaction between them. Survey and Case Study

A survey is a form of planned collection of data for the purpose of description or prediction as a guide to action or analyzing the relationship between certain variables. Surveys are usually, conducted on a fairly large scale as contrasted with case studies which tend to be more intensive but on a smaller scale. Case study is done in terms of limited space and broader time, whereas survey is done in terms of limited time with broader space. Case study and survey methods are not significantly different when the units in the case study are large like society or community. However, the differences arise when the unit is small like a person, or family. In this case while admitting the case data,


question arises — are they sufficiently penetrating and suitable to the task of determining characteristic subjective values in general, particularly, when the criteria of adequacy, representativeness and trustworthiness are applied? Read Bain says that life record as significant scientific material be ca us e it do es not pr ov ide “impersonal universal, non-ethical, non-practical aspects of phenomenon”. The case study tends to be conducted so that data can be quantified, processed and analyzed scientifically. Pre-thought schedules of questions or structured interviews are often, used and the answers to the questions are analyzed and classified into significant categories. In case study, we are worried about the uniqueness of the phenomenon and also with the totality of the phenomena. It is microcosmical, wh er ea s su rve y me tho ds ma cr ocosmically. The typicality of the case study is s p e c i f i c i t y , i n t e n s i v e n e s s , totality and i n d i v i d u a l i t y . It takes all aspects of individual phenomenon to be its preview. The typicali ty of the survey method is the broadness of phenomena and the narrowness of the focus of inquiry. Case study is inward looking, while survey method is outward looking. The Methodological Implications

Various related methods are used in case study, namely, s o ci a l s u r v e y s , , attitude questionnaires , and interview s s c a l e s , p r o j e c t i v e t e c h n i q u e s etc. Besides these techniques, personal

14 7

documents, diaries, autobiographies, letters, life history, data etc. are also used. Both case study and survey differ in degree not in kind. Those who favour surveys criticize case study for being unrepresentative and for dealing with artificial situations. The advocated of case study method are critical of surveys for their reduced ability to control important variables, for following events rather than ranking them. The application of these approaches, however, depends on what we need to find out and on the type of question to which we seek an answer. Many research inquires have employed both the approaches during different phases of their research, using the result of one to inform and redefine other, thus, producing conclusion that both are precise and representative. Limitatio n o f Case Study Method

The case study method is very t ime consuming and very demanding of the researcher. The possibility of becoming involved emotionally is much greater than in survey research, thus, making detached and objective observation difficult and sometimes, impossible. Another problem in the use of case study method is that, since, only one example of a social situation or group is being studied the results may not be representative of all groups or situations in the category. In other words, the particular mental hospital ward, slum, or suburb may not be

148

typical of all mental hospital wards, slums, or suburbs. Critics of the case study method be lie ve tha t the st udy of a sm all number of cases can offer no grounds for establishing reliability or generality of findings. Others feel that the intense exposure to the study of some specific cases biases the findings. Some dismiss case study research as useful only as an exploratory tool. Yet, researchers continue to use the case study research method with success in carefully planned and crafted studies of real-life situations, issues and problems. TECHNIQUES OF QUESTIONNAIRE

It is well worth noting that persons are not only reluctant to openly report their feelings, plans, fears and so on; they may in point of fact, be unable to do so. We may not be aware of many of our beliefs and hence, may not be able to report them. Nevertheless, each of us has a unique opportunity to observe himself/herself and to that extent one is in a position to and often will communicate his knowledge about himself. But such reporting or communication, especially one that diagnoses and explains why one’s behaviour was what it was, requires qualities of penetration much beyond the reach of average person. It is given to only a few to be able to engage in selfdiagnosis. The capacity to peep into depths of one’s personality is conspicuous by its absence among the people at large. It is precisely that this works to the detriment of the efficacy of the questionnaire technique.


Questionnaire poses a structured and standardized set of questions, either to one person or to a small population, or most commonly to respondents in a sample survey. Structure here refers to questions appearing in a consistent, predetermined sequence and form. The sequence may be deliberately scrambled, or else arranged according to a logical flow of topics or question formats. Questionnaires are distributed through the mail or by hand, through arrangements such as the ‘drop-off’, whe re a fie ldw or ke r lea ve s the questionnaire for respondents to complete by themselves, with provision either for mailing the complete form back to the research office, or for a return call by the fieldworker to collect the questionnaire. A questionnaire administered in a face-to-face interview, or over the telephone (growing in popularity among researchers) is generally termed a ‘schedule’. In deciding upon one of these methods, researcher balances the cost, probable response rate and the nature of the questions to be posed. Inte rview Sche dule

The set of st ru ctur ed qu esti ons in whi ch answers are recorded by the interviewer himself is called interview s c h e d u l e or simply the s c h e d u l e . It is distinguished from the questionnaire in the sense that in the later (questionnaire) the answers are filled in by the respondents himself or


herself. Though the questionnaire is used when the respondents are educated, schedule can be used both for the illiterate and the educated respon-dents. The questionnaire is especially useful when the respondents are scattered in a large geographical area but the schedule is used when the respondents are located in a small area so that they can be personally contacted. The wording of the questions in the questionnaire has to be simple, since the interviewer is not present to explain the meaning and import of the question to the respondent. In the schedule, the investigator gets the opportunity to explain whatever the respondent needs to know. Typology of Questionnaires

Two sorts of questionnaire are used in surveys. They are as follows: 1. Standardized questionnaire, 2. Open-ended and close ended questionnaire S t a n d a r d i z e d qu e s t i on n a i r e s are those in which there are definite, concrete and pre-ordained questions with additional questions limited to those necessary to clarify inadequate answers or to elicit more detailed responses. The questions are presented with exactly the same wording and in the same order to all the respondents. The reason for standardized questions is to ensure that all the respondents are replying to the same set of questions. Here the respondents or the researcher mark certain categories of reply to the

14 9

questions asked for instance, ‘yes/no/ don’t know’ or ‘very likely/likely/ unlikely/very unlikely’. Standardized questionnaires have the advantage that responses are easy to compare and tabulate, since only a small number of categories are involved. On the other hand, because the standardized questions do not allow for subtleties of opinion or verbal expressions, the information they yield is likely to be restricted in scope. Structur ed questionnaires are used in a wide range of projects, both to initiate a formal inquiry and also to supplement and check data previously accumulated. These may pertain to studies of economic or social problems, measurement of opinion on public issues or events, studies of administrative policies and changes, studies on the cost of living, consumer expenditures, child welfare, public health, and numerous other issues. Questionnaire items follow characteristic forms: open ended questions, where respondents fill in the blanks, using an original cho ice of words, or the closed-response format, wh er e re sp on ses mu st co nf or m to options supplied by the interlocutor. Choices are frequently presented in the ‘agree/disagree’ or ‘yes/no’ form. Standardizing the phrasing for each question is a key phase in questionnaire design. Seemingly, minor alterations in wording can substantially affect responses, a phenomenon which has affected much methodological research. O p e n e n d e d q u e s t i o n n a i r e s ar e

150

questions with no alternative answers provided. Open-ended questions are designed to permit a free response from the subject rather than one limited to certain alternatives. The distinguishing characteristic of open-ended questions is that they, merely, raise an issue but do not provide or suggest any structure for the respondent’s reply. Th e res po nd en t is gi ve n th e opportunity to answer in his/her own terms and his/her own frame of reference. They are not limited to ticking fixed choice responses. Openended questionnaires are more flexible and provide rich information than standardized ones. The researcher can follow up answers to probe more deeply into what the respondent thinks. On the other hand, the lack of standardization means that responses may be more difficult to compare. One of the principal values of the open-ended question is its use as an exploratory tool before opinion has been solidified or before the research objectives have been clearly defined. Closed ended questionnaires include a l t e r n a t i v e a n s w e r s the

possible answers are built into the question itself (example: ‘Are you very strongly, less strongly or not at all in favour of…?’). Sometimes the possible answers are given outside the question itself, in short list, which is read out or handed over to the subject for him to choose an alternative. This is termed as closed question with external alternative answers. There is normal practice that with internal alternatives


answers one should use no more than three alternatives. If a choice of more than three alternatives is necessary, one must switch to external alternatives. What, then, are the typical features of these two forms of questions? In the case of a question of fact, especially in its simplest form when it is a question on knowledge, the open question form requires ‘recollection’, while the closed question form requires ‘recognition’. Th is lat te r is mu ch ea si er fo r th e subject. The interview ‘flows’ better. From the point of view of the interpretation of questionnaires the closed question is preferable. The results are unambiguous and comparable. With an open question, the heterogeneous answers must first be ordered into categories (codified) be fo re the y ca n be int er pr et ed . Constructing classes in this way is sometimes very laborious and a challenging task. The interpreter must first of all read perhaps a hundred questionnaires to see how the answers are distributed before starting to collate them in classes. From the point of view too, of the reliability of interview-data, the closed question is preferable. With the openended question the interviewer must write down the subject’s answer and since, the latter often says a lot and speaks quickly, it is not always possible to take him down word for word. The form in which the interviewer records the answer is thus, influenced by his perception and linguistic ability and under certain circumstances this can produce serious distortions.


15 1

that the respondent will not be forced mentally to jump from one Although the content of questionnaire time-period to another. is governed by the purpose of the study 4. S u bj e ct - ma t te r s eq u en c e, many problems of communication may likewise, is important, and insofar still arise on all surveys regardless of as possible, all questions content. Much careful attention and pertaining to one subject should be experimentation are needed to grouped together. produce effectively worded questions. The language should be concise and The Problem o f Validit y directed toward producing uniformity of understanding among the Questions must not only elicit stable or reliable answers but they must also respondents. provide the kind of information, which the researcher wants. More often, the Arrangem ent of the Quest ions problem of truth is a much more The arrangement or ordering of the complex one. It creates problems when questions should receive special the respondent is not giving the facts attention and pre-tested with care. but the researcher is not really certain Every effort should be made to have the that these are not the facts. Another aspect of validity lies in order appear logical to respondent. 1. The questions placed first on the that statement, which is technically questionnaire should be those true but in reality false. We have all easiest to answer. Factual used this evasive technique at times; questions and questions which are warn ed by ou r pa ren ts not to li t interesting, are used at the dangerous crackers on Diwali. However, the answer to such beginning of the questionnaire. 2. Placing a question early in the dissimulation is not only good questionnaire, which can affect interviewing but also a good understanding of the kinds of answers, answers to later questions on the whi ch mi gh t be give n by the form should be prevented wherever respondents on the part of researcher, possible. For example, in health so that the additional alternatives will survey, starting off with a question also be asked. This technique rests about chronic illnesses before upon the greater knowledge, which the asking about current illnesses may respondent has of the total situation. result in an underreporting of If the researcher asks a question illnesses of all kinds. wit ho ut ade quate pr io r res ea rch , 3. A t i me s eq u en ce s h ou l d be many of them will miss the mark and observed in the arrangement of the respondent will be able to tell the questions. If it is necessary to truth without telling the facts. The include questions relating to danger is particularly great when the several periods of time on the same research has been sharpened to the form, they should be so grouped point where only a few, specific Communication

152


questions are to be asked. A good questionnaire will contain some check questions on crucial issues, variously placed within the document, designed to parallel or confirm each other. Sometimes, these will explore other facets of the same behaviour. In other cases, the check question will be almost a repetition of the first but intended to take the respondent offguard. Usually, the cross-check question is a kind of s p e c i f i c a t i o n . Tha t is, a general question is checked by specific references. Thus, a general question may be posed which deals with patterns of neighbouring in the locality, and this question may be checked by specific questions about specific neighbouring relationships, such as borrowing and lending, ‘dropping in’, etc. This technique is a useful device generally for penetrating the cliche answer.

and for that reason quite attractive. This is not merely a question of saving money but also of saving administrative time and talent, e.g. by using the mail system instead of a costly a d h o c staff of interviewers. One special advantage lies in the simultaneity of access, if it is important to reach all respondents at the same time, this is probably easier by means of questionnaires than interviews, unless the ratio of interviewers to interviewees is close. Limit ations of Ques tionn aire

Alt ho ugh que st io nn ai re is a go od techniques of research method (especially when the area is very vast) but it is al so has some li mita tions like:(i) Only literate people can answer it. (ii) Some times respondents do not give the facts. (iii)Respondents send back the half filled questionnaire. Advantage o f Ques tion naires (iv) Some important questions can not be answered. Th er e is li ttle do ubt tha t questionnaires are rather inexpensive (v) It is an expensive technique.

GLOSSARY CASE

STUDY.

A research approach that involves a detailed and thorough analysis of a single case/unit. followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondents.

CLOSE - ENDED

QUESTIONS . Questions

CODING . Categorizing data. STUDY. Research that focuses on the detailed analysis of a single community; an application of the case study approach.

COMMUNITY

CONCEPT . A word or set of words that expresses a general idea about the nature of

things or events, or the relations between them; it often provides a


15 3

category for classification. In an experiment, the group from which the independent variable is withheld.

C ONTROL

GROUP .

Research involving observation in more than one social system, or in the same social system at more than one point in time.

CORPORATIVE

ANALYSIS .

A variable whose occurrence or change is believed to be affected by one or more independent variables.

D EPENDENT

VARIABLE .

D OCUMENTS . Written sources.

an experiment, the group into which the independent variable is introduced.

E XPERIMENTAL

GROUP . In

F IELD STUDY. A type of research in which the subjects of investigations are observed

under their usual environmental conditions. GENERALIZATION . A general statement or preposition based on specific observations. VARIABLE. A variable whose occurrence or change results in the occurrence or change of another variable, in a controlled experiment, the variable that is introduced into the experimental group.

I NDEPENDENT

INTERVIEW. Face-to-face method of collecting data. INTERVIEW

BIAS . Effects

that interviewers have on respondents that lead to biased

answer. M ETHODOLOGY . The conceptual, logical and research procedures by which

knowledge is developed. NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION. It is a method of observation in which an investigator

directly observes a group without becoming a functioning member of the group or taking part in its activities. OBSERVATION. It is the examination of behaviour directly by an investigator or by

persons who serve as observers. OPEN- ENDED

QUESTIONS .

Questions that a respondent is able to answer in his or her

own words. It is a method of observation in which an investigation participates as a member of the group he is studying.

P ARTICIPANT

OBSERVATION.

Q UESTIONNAIRE. A printed list of questions to be answered by respondents by

himself/herself. R APPORT . A feeling of trust between researcher and subjects. R ELIABILITY. Shows the consistency, objectivity and lack of ambiguity of a statistical

test or a set of measurements. R ESPONDENTS . People who respond to a survey, either in interviews or in self-

administered questionnaires. S CHEDULE. A printed list of questions addressed to a respondents, but filled in

by the investigator. S ECONDARY

DATA .

The data already collected by researchers.

Introduction to Sociology

Recommend Documents