CHAPTER 13:

THE STUDY OF HUMAN

SOCIETY AND
COMMUNITIES
ALISON P. BRINOSA
III Social Studies
A S C A I I E O Y F S Y
 S O C I E T Y

A S C A I I E O Y F S Y
O M U M I N N C T T A Y
 C O MM U N I T Y

O M U M I N N C T T A Y
O R U P I N S C L T A A
 P A S T O R A L

O R U P I N S C L T A A
R M U D I N N S T L A I
 I N D U S T R I A L

R M U D I N N S T L A I
R R U L I A U B R N R A
 U R B A N

R R U L I A U B R N R A
THE STUDY OF HUMAN SOCIETY
❑To understand human social behavior is one of the main concerns
of social scientists. This can be done in two ways: (1) to focus on
the patterns of interpersonal interactions that characterize our
everyday lives; and (2) to concentrate on the larger aspects of the
social structure that affect people’s lives. The former is known as
microsociological, while the latter, macrosociological levels.
 THE NATURE OF SOCIETY
SOCIETY means….
❑ is universal among human.
❑ it has performed major adaptive functions that have increased
the chances of human survival. (for Ages)
❑ is the counterpart of those biological adaptive mechanisms that
cause one species to survive and another to become instinct.
❑ is organized in such a way that there are rules of conduct,
customs, traditions, folkways and mores, and expectations that
ensure appropriate behavior among members.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN SOCIETY
The concept of society implies a number of characteristics. It has
been viewed as people living in interdependence. In sociological
and anthropological sense, society:
• A society is a social system. A social system is made up of
individuals and groups that interact in a relatively stable and
patterned manner.
• A society is relatively large. The society can be regarded as the
largest and most inclusive social unit that exists.
• A society recruits most of its members from within. This is
done through reproduction and socialization.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN SOCIETY
• A society sustains itself across generations. This characteristics
is related to the fact that societies recruit their members from
within.
• A society’s members share a culture. Sharing a culture gives
individuals the vision and sense of purpose to sustain the
patterns of interaction that hold together the society.
• A society occupies a territory. Society is restricted to a group
whose members mostly live in a specific, clearly defined
geographic area.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
The following may be considered the major types of human societies.
Hunting and food gatherings societies. This
is the earliest form of human society. People survived by foraging for
vegetable foods and small game, fishing, hunting larger wild animals,
and collecting shellfish. They subsisted from day to day on whatever
was available. They depended, to a large extent, on tools made of
stones, wood, and bones. Anthropologists have estimated that humans
hunted for at least one million years, but it has only been a mere ten
thousand years since the first people began to experiment with the
possibilities of organized agriculture.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Richard Leakey- “hunting is the key
characteristic in the development of human social
organization”
• The humans close primate cousins are primarily vegetarians.
Primates are social animals. Plant-eating existence tends to
make the individual members very self-centered and
uncooperative.
• It can be observed that each member tears a leaf from a branch,
or plucks fruits from a tree, and promptly eats it.
• There is little communal eating or sharing of food.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Fichter and associates summarized a package traits derived from
hunting and food gathering.
a. A base camp. This was a place where infants could be
cared for and where meat and plant foods could be brought.
This camp became an important social focus.
b. A division of labor. Males were the hunters. The
females were tasked with child care and plant food gathering.
c. The development of cooperation. As society
was formed, each individual became more dependent on the
activities and the trust of others in the group.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Horticultural societies. These societies are
believed to have started some 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. These
coincided with the retreat of the last glaciers when a trying trend
took place in what previously had been rich, subtropical climate,
and the giant deserts of Africa, Asia, and Middle East emerged.
• During that age, some humans continued to eke out an existence
using the old subsistence techniques. It is in this so doing that
they created a new form of subsistence the horticultural
societies with the use of human muscle power and hand-held
tools to cultivate the fields.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• It is said that this process seemed to have repeated itself at least
three times in three different places: (a) in the Far East, rice was
first domesticated in Thailand about 11,000 years ago; (b) in the
Middle East, wheat barley and rye were domesticated about
10,000 years ago; and (c) in Mesoamerica, corn was
domesticated between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago.
• Anthropologists identified two distinct approaches that to
horticulture subsistence farming and surplus farming.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Subsistence
farming. This refers to an
approach that involves only
producing enough food a feed
the group. It is said that
subsistence framers live in
environments that are
unfavorable to cultivation.
Surplus farming.
People who practice surplus farming
live in thickly populated and
permanent settlements. There is
occupational specialization with
prestige differences. Social
stratification is well established. The
community tend to be structured by
kinship relations that are male
dominated.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Pastoral societies. This type of society relies on
herding and the domestication of animals for food and clothing to
satisfy the bulk of the group’s needs. Here, animals raised provide milk,
dung (for fuel), skin, sheared fur, and even blood (which was drunk as a
major source of protein in East Africa).
• Pastoral societies develop in many regions not suitable for plant
domestication. Most pastoralists are nomads (seminomands) who
follow their herds in a never-ending quest for pasture and water.
• Pastoral societies are organized along male-centered kinship groups.
They are usually united under strong political figures. However,
centralized political leadership does not occur.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Agricultural societies. These societies are
characterized by the use of the plow in food production. Often,
agriculture is more efficient than horticulture. It is said that plowing
turns the topsoil far deeper than does hoeing, allowing for better
aerating and fertilizing of the group and thus improving the yield.
• However, by about 5500 B.C., farmers in the Middle East were not
only using the plow but irrigation.
• As described by Tischler and others, reliance on agriculture had
dramatic and interrelated consequences for society.
• Agriculture also made land that was suitable for farming into a
valuable resource.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Industrial societies. These societies rose in connection with
the Industrial revolution.
• Industrialism used mechanical means for the production of goods.
• The Industrial Revolution began in a small way by the mid 18th
century and gained momentum by the turn of the 19th century.
• In 1798, Eli Whitney built the first American factory for the mass
production of guns near New Haven, Connecticut.
• Henry Bessemer’s development of large-scale production techniques
at the steel works in England in 1858.
• It is called a revolution because of the changes it brought about in the
society.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Industrial societies are characterized by more than just the use of
mechanical means of production. Industrialism also requires the
creation of highly organized systems of exchange between the
suppliers or raw materials and industrial manufacturers on the other.
• Industrial societies are divided along class lines. The nature of the
division varies, depending on whether the society allows private
ownership of capital (capitalism) or puts all capital in the hands of
the state (socialism).
• All industrial societies have at least two social classes.
a. A large labor force that produces goods and services but has little
or no influence on what is done with them; and
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
b. A much smaller class that determines what shall be produced and
how it will be distributed.

• Industrialism brought about a tremendous shift of populations. Some

of these changes are the following:
a. Kinship now plays a much smaller role in patterning public
affairs.
b. Industrial societies are highly secularized.
c. The predominant form of social and political organization in
industrial societies is the bureaucracy.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Post-industrial societies. The world has
continued to change since the beginning of industrialization. These
have prompted sociologists to consider the concept of the post-
industrial society.
• Post-industrial society depends on specialized knowledge to
bring about continuing progress in technology.
• One characteristics of the post-industrial society is the spread of
the computer industries.
• Knowledge and information are the hallmarks of a post-
industrial society.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Jacques Ellul. A French sociologist who wrote
an influential book, “The Technological Society” in
1964.
“Industrial technology is spreading inexorably around the world,
homogenizing social relations among individuals and the
interaction between humans and the natural environment.”
• Modern society is caught up in an uncritical dependence on
technology to solve all its problems, including the problems
that arise from the use of technology itself.
 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
Dissolution of Society. There are four conditions that will
bring about the dissolution of a society: (1) if its members are
killed off; (2) if its members become apathetic, no longer caring
whether or not the society continues to exist; (3) if society falls into
a state of chaos from which it cannot free itself; and (4) if the
society is absorbed into another society, as a result of conquest.
 THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY
Meaning and Nature of Community.
• George Hillery defines community as consisting of persons in
social interaction within a geographical area and having one or
more additional ties.
• This definition includes the following: (a) territorial aspect
(geographical area); (b) sociological aspect (social interaction);
and (c) a psychological aspect (common ties).
• A community refers to an organized way of life within a
geographic area.
 THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY
Meaning and Nature of Community.
• It refers to a population aggregate inhabiting a delimited area,
sharing a historical heritage, possessing a set of basic service
institutions, participating in a common life, conscious of local
unity, and able to act together in a common life, and able to act
together in solving problems involving public interests.
 FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY
The following have been considered to be the functions of the
community:
A system of production, distribution, and consumption. A
community must provide for basic needs of members and their
group food, clothing, dwelling, transportation, education, and other
goods needed for basic existence, either by producing them or by
importing them from outside.
A system of socialization. A community must provide
mechanisms for the transmission of existing knowledge, social
values and dominant patterns of behavior to the members.
 FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY
A system of social control. This requires mechanisms through
which conformity to the prevailing group norms are ensured.
Formal organization such as the police, the courts, and the Church
are important in this aspect.
A system of social participation. Members of a community
learn to interact with other members spontaneously, starting from
the family to a much bigger group.
A system of mutual support. The community is always
expected to provide relief and solutions to the members’ problems.
 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY
The community as a territorial unit. People think of
their community as the physical place or geographic environment in
which they live. This place has both personal and shared meanings for
the inhabitants. This sense of sharing a common area that may have
specific name and a unique identity is the territorial aspect to the
community.
• Mass transportation or the presence of highways may also affect the
location of a community, for the people may want to get quickly and
easily from their place of residence to their jobs and shops.
• Territory is just one factor affecting the formation of a community;
but it is an important starting point in any analysis of the community.
 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY

The community as a social group. The community

may be seen as consisting of people who are more than an
aggregate of isolated individuals and who often interact with one
another, have a shared culture, and find their contact with one
another meaningful.
• E.F. Hillery first expounded that the community is one of the
many social groups.
• The following are the basic properties of social groups: (1) a
body of members; (2) one or more tests of membership; (3) a
collection of assigned roles; and (4) a set of norms.
 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY
The community as a social system. The social system
view looks at the community as a relatively enclosed system of
interaction centered in some locality. A collection of small subsystems
perform various community functions such as socialization of
members, social control of the people living in the community, and
mutual support among the residents.
• This approach sees the community as a network of interactions
among individuals, groups, and institutions. The community
provides a context within which its members can pursue many, if
not most, of the activities that occupy them in their daily lives.
 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY
The community as a network of interactions. As a
social system, the community encompasses a broad range of
interrelated institutions such as families, schools, churches, and
political and civic organizations. It is in this sense that the community
offers an ideal setting in which to observe patterns of human
interaction in a wide variety of institutional settings. These patterns of
interaction make up the unique texture of life in the community.
• It is said that people gain a sense of security when they identify
with their community. This identification consist of common
values, norms, and goals.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMMUNITY
The following are the general characteristics or elements of
every community:
1. Population aggregate preferable to human group.
2. Delimited area.
3. Sharing of historical heritage.
4. The number of service institutions.
5. Participating in a common life.
6. Consciousness of local unity.
7. Ability to act together in solving civic problems.
 CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION
Kingsley Davis gave some criteria in classifying
communities. These are the following:
The size of the population (whether thick or scarce);
Secondary association – their presence will indicate
diversity of the population;
Social tolerance – caused by the diversity of the population
and impersonal contacts;
Secondary controls – controls regulating the complex and
predatory relations of members;
 CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION
Social mobility – requires division of labor, competition,
and impersonality;
Voluntary associations - based on volunteerism, and
voluntaristic character, not kinship ties;
Individuation – in which the individual is more
independent and self-centered;
Spatial segregation – in which the center of city is
monopolized by functions of basic importance.
 RURAL-URBAN INTERACTION
PATTERN
• Community is a type of social grouping which has a system or
structure of interrelated parts. It is a human population living
within a geographical area and carrying on a common
interdependent life. It may refer to a neighborhood, a town, a
city, or even a nation.
• Communities are types of social groupings which are the
extension of the groupings of family.
• They vary greatly in many ways such as size and population
density, occupation, and specialization.
 RURAL-URBAN INTERACTION
PATTERN
• Some are very small, consisting of a few families like the
neighborhood, the barangays, the sitios, while others consist of
thousand and millions of people.
• A community is rural when the people live in contiguous farms, their
chief occupations and interests are fishing and farming, and they have
certain interests and purposes to common actions.
• It refers to a number of families residing in a relatively small area
within which their lives have developed a more or less complete
socio-cultural definition imbued with collective identification and by
means of which they solve problems arising from the sharing of an
area.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL AND URBAN
RURAL URBAN
Primary contacts among the population
Complete and solid due to people’s
cooperation
Gemeinschaft in nature
Sacred
Homogeneous in terms of population
Familiarity among the members
Life is characterized by general
competence
Secondary contacts among the populations
Population is segmented due to limited and
minimal personal relationships
Gesselschaft in nature
Secular
Population is heterogeneous in terms of
occupation, background, attainment and lifestyle
There is an element of anonymity among the
people lesser interaction, lesser personal contacts
Life is characterized by specialization
 RURAL-URBAN INTERACTION
PATTERN
In the Philippines, the urban areas are those that fall under the
following categories:
1. All municipal jurisdictions whether or not designed as chartered
cities or provincial capitals; having a population density of at least
1,000 inhabitants for cities, and 500 per square kilometer for
municipalities;
2. All poblaciones and any barrio contiguous to the poblacion with
1,000 inhabitants for cities and 500 per square kilometer for
municipalities; and
3. All poblaciones and barrios contiguous to the poblacion having at
least 25,000 or more persons.
 FOLK SOCIETIES
• Robert Redfield defines folk society as a group of homogeneous,
isolated, nonliterate people living in a small community with a high
degree of group solidarity. It offers an ideal unit of observation for
the student of society.
• Robert Redfield (1897-1958) studied a village in Mexico and
published what has since become a classic community study entitled
Tepotzlan, referring to a certain Mexican village. To him, this village
was a relatively well-integrated, homogeneous village. Social life
proceeded smoothly, and the people, although far from affluent, were
quite content. There was a high degree of solidarity and cooperation.
 FOLK SOCIETIES
• Seventeen years later, Oscar Lewis made a sequel study of
Tepotzlan, only to discover the underlying individualism in the
village’s institutions and character, the lack of cooperation, the
tensions between villagers, the schisms within the village, and the
pervading quality of fear, envy, and distrust in interpersonal
relations.
• This points out that a simple study of any community must not be
considered complete. Such study must only point out similar
patterns that indicate how communities in general operate.
 IDENTIFICATION:
Direction: Identify what is being asked in the following sentences.
1) This is the earliest form of human society?
2) According to him, hunting is the key characteristic in the
development of human social organization?
3) In this farming, the settlements are small, and the neighborhood is
solid?
4) It is a type of social grouping which has a system or structure of
interrelated parts?
5) It is a group of homogeneous, isolated, nonliterate people living in
a small community with a high degree of group solidarity?
SOCIETY OR COMMUNITY:
Direction: Write SOCIETY if the highlighted word/phrase in the
statement is correct and write COMMUNITY if it is wrong.
• Pastoral societies develop in many regions not suitable for plant
domestication.
• Industrial society depends on specialized knowledge to bring
about continuing progress in technology.
• Society is universal among human.
• A base camp is one factor affecting the formation of a community.
• People who practice surplus farming live in thickly populated and
permanent settlements.
 ANSWERS:
IDENTIFICATION: SOCIETY/COMMUNITY
1. Hunting and Food • Society
Gathering Societies • Community
2. Richard Leakey • Society
3. Subsistence • Community
4. Community • Society
5. Folk Society
CHAPTER 13:
THE STUDY OF HUMAN SOCIETY
AND COMMUNITIES

THANK YOU!! ALISON P. BRINOSA

III Social Studies