Exam 2

Topics
● Chapters
○ 3 (88-99; 108-111)
○ 4 (118-133)
○ 5 (141-153)
○ 6 (168-179)
○ 8 (212-232)
○ 18 (484-490)
○ 20 (539-556)

Questions

. Why and how does human society evolve? Critically

discuss G. Lenski’s theory of societal evolution.
Answer:
Definition
○ Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory
and share a culture
● Major sociologists
○ Gerhard Lenski
◆ Technology in shaping a society
○ Karl Marx
1
◆ Social conflict
○ Max Weber
◆ Ideas
○ Emile Durkheim
◆ How traditional and modern societies hang together

Gerhard Lenski
● Sociocultural evolution
○ Changes that occur as a society gains new technology
● Five types of society
. Hunting and gathering societies
◆ Making use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather
vegetation for food
◆ 12,000 years ago
◆ Little control over environment
◆ Nomadic
◆ Just a few dozen members
◆ Depend on family
◆ Everyone’s life is pretty much the same
◆ Shaman, or spiritual leader
◆ Simple weapons
◆ Close to socially being equal
◆ Real enemy- forces of nature
◆ Cooperate & share
◆ Many die in childhood, and no more than half reach the
age of 20
. Horticultural and pastoral societies
◆ Horticulture- the use of hand tools to raise crops; form
settlements
◆ Pastoralism- the domestication of animals; remained
nomadic
◆ From 12,000 to 3,000 years ago
◆ Settlement became more permanent
◆ Establishment of villages
◆ Populations expanded
◆ More socially diverse
◆ Greater inequality
. Agrarian societies
◆ 5000 years ago; in the Middle East
◆ A large scale cultivation using plows harnessed to
animals or more powerful energy source
◆ From 5,000 BCE, decreasing number today
 ◆ Animal-drawn plows, irrigation, wheel, writing,
numbers, various metals
◆ The dawn of civilisation
◆ Worked the same land for generations
◆ Expanded in size and population
◆ More specialisation due to greater production
◆ Invented money
◆ Extreme social inequality; THE MOST
◇ A large number of people peasants or slaves
◆ Women provide most of the food
◆ Emperors and pharaohs
◆ Greater range of life choices
◇ This is why agrarian society differ more from one
another
. Industrial societies
◆ The production of goods using advanced sources of
energy to drive large machinery
◆ From 1750 to present
◆ Water power & steam boilers
◆ Gave people power to alter the environment
◆ Change took place faster than ever
◆ Industrialisation drew people away from home to
factories
◇ Weakening of
■ Close working relationships
■ Strong family ties
■ Many of the traditional values, beliefs, and
customs
◆ Occupational specialisation
◆ Rapid change and people’s tendency to move from one
place to another
◆ Cultural diversity
◆ More anonymous
◆ Promote subcultures, countercultures
◆ Single, divorced, single-parent families, stepfamilies
◆ No longer does family serve as the main setting of
work, learning, religious worship
◆ Greatest effect- raised living standards
◆ Rose incomes
◆ People live longer
 ◆ Social inequality decreased slightly
◆ Extended schooling
◆ Greater political rights
. Postindustrial societies
◆ The production of information using computer
technology
◆ Emerging in recent decades
◆ Factories and machineries, computers and other
electronic devices
◆ Uses less and less of its labour force
◆ Work can be performed almost anywhere
◆ More jobs became available
◆ Heart of postindustrial society- Information revolution
◆ This society is at the heart of globalisation
Criticisms
● Tech provides no quick fix for social problems
○ Poverty
○ Nuclear weapons
● Give us more personal freedom
● Lack sense of community
● Threatens physical environment
● Establishes peace
● Protect environment
● Raise productivity
● Reduce infectious diseases
● Relieve boredom
Kar Marx
● Social conflict
○ The struggle between segments of society over valued
resources
● Society and conflict
● Two categories of people
○ Capitalists
◆ People who own and operate factories and other
businesses in pursuit of profits
◆ A small part of the populations
○ Proletarians
◆ People who sell their labour for wages
◆ Most of the population
● Aware of how the Industrial Revolution changed Europe, he
came up with this theory
○ He spent time in London
○ Amazed by factories growing up, amount of goods
produced, drawing raw materials from around the world
○ He saw a handful of aristocrats and rich enjoying
 ○
privileges and wealth and served by many servants while
others are living in slums and laboured longer hours
● He saw the society in terms of a basic contradiction: if a
country is so rich, how can this many people be poor?
● Materialistic view
○ The other social institutions all operate in a way that
supports society’s economy
○ Social institution
◆ The major spheres of social life, or social subsystems,
organised to meet human needs
◆ Economy, family, religion etc.
◆ Infrastructure
◇ The economy
◆ Superstructure
◇ Ideas & values
◇ Social institutions
■ Politics, religion, family, education
● Conflict is the engine that drives social change
● Communism
● Class conflict
○ Class struggle
◆ Conflict between entire classes over the distribution of
a society’s wealth and power
○ Class consciousness
◆ Workers’ recognition of themselves as a class unified
in opposition to capitalists and ultimately to capitalism
itself
◆ Replaces false consciousness
● Alienation
● 4 ways capitalism alienates workers
. Alienation from the act of working
. Alienation from the products of work
. Alienation from other workers
. Alienation from human potential
● Revolution
○ Socialism

Max Weber
● Rationalisation of society
● Disagreed with materialism
● Not how people produce but how people think about it
● Modern society is the product of a new way of thinking
● Idealism
○ How human ideas- especially beliefs and values- shaped
human society
● Ideal type
○ An abstract statement of the essential characteristics of
any social phenomenon
○ Preindustrial society
○ Industrial society
● Two world views
○ Tradition
◆ Values & beliefs passed from generation to generation
◆ Preindustrial societies
○ Rationality
◆ a way of thinking that emphasises deliberate, matter-
of-fact calculation of the most efficient way to
accomplish a particular task
◆ Industrial-capitalistic societies
● Rationalisation of society
○ The historical change from tradition to rationality as the
main type of human thought
● Modern society is disenchanted
● Weber- capitalism rational
● Marx- highly irrational
● Great thesis: protestantism & capitalism
○ Industrial capitalism is the major outcome of calvinism
● Rationality is the basis of modern society
● Seven characteristics of rational social organisation
. Distinctive social institutions
. Large-scale organisations
. Specialised tasks
. Personal discipline
. Awareness of time
. Technical competence
. Impersonality
● Bureaucracy
● Alienation- because of bureaucracy’s countless rules and
regulations
● Weber saw modern society a vast and growing system of
rules trying to regulate everything

Emile Durkheim
● Recognising that society exists beyond ourselves
● Society Is more than the individuals who compose init has the
power to guide our thoughts and actions
● Cultural norms, values, and beliefs
● Crime is not abnormal, rather it is very normal for the most
basic reasons
● People with weak social bonds are prone to self-destructive
behaviours
● Solidarities
○ Mechanical solidarity
○ Organic solidarity
● High level of suicide- lowest level of social integration
● Anomie
○ A condition in which society provides little moral guidance
to the individuals
● Most optimistic theory of all
● Large, anonymous societies gave people more freedom and
privacy than small towns
● Critical review of the four versions of society:

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. Define culture. Discuss the major theories of culture.

Answer:
● Definition
○ Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the
material objects that form peoples’ way of life
○ A shared way of life
● Two spectrums
○ Nonmaterial culture- ideas, values, arts
○ Material culture- physical things- chairs, tables
● Culture shock
○ Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar
way of life
● Elements of culture
○ Symbols
◆ Anything that carries a particular meaning recognised
by people who share a culture
◆ Flashing light, graffiti, whistle
○ Language
◆ A system of symbols that allows people to
 ◆
communicate with one another
◆ Key to cultural transmission
◆ Sapir-Wharf thesis
○ Values & belief
◆ Values are culturally defined standards that people use
to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and
serve as broad guidelines for social living
◆ Beliefs are specific thoughts that people hold to be
true
○ Norms
◆ Rules and expectations by which a society guides the
behaviour of its members
◇ Mores
■ Norms that are widely observed and have great
moral significance
■ Distinguish between right and wrong
◇ Folkways
■ Norms for routine or casual interaction
■ Distinguish between right and rude

● Major theories of culture at work

○ Structural-Functional Theory
◆ Explains culture as a complex strategy for meeting
human needs
◆ The structural-functional theory posits that society is a
complex system made up of various interrelated parts
that work together to maintain stability and order. Each
part has a function that contributes to the overall
equilibrium of the system. Culture, in this view, serves
as the glue that holds society together. It provides a
shared set of beliefs and practices that foster unity
 and cooperation among members.
◆ Idealism
◆ Cultural values
◇ Direct our lives
◇ Give meaning to what we do
◇ Bind people together
◇ Mediate or create social problems
◇ Transfer our ideas and experiences to the next
generation
◆ Considers values the core of a culture
◆ Cultural values direct our lives, give meaning to what
we do, and bind people together
◆ Cultural universals
◇ Traits that are part of every known culture
◇ Family
◇ Funeral rites
◇ Jokes
◇ Weddings
◇ Thanksgiving
◇ Educational institutions
◆ Amish example
◆ Evaluations
◇ Strength- it shows how cultures operate to meet
human needs
◇ Ignores the cultural diversity that exists in many
societies
◇ As it emphasises cultural stability, downplays the
importance of change
◇ Not as stable or a matter of as much agreement
○ Social-Conflict Theory
◆ Stresses the link between culture and inequality
◆ Benefits some at the expense of others
◆ Culture is shaped by society’s system of economic
production
◆ Materialism
◆ Links competitiveness and material success with
capitalistic economy
◆ Our society’s culture largely reflects the capital
economic system
◆ Gender is a crucial dimension of social inequality
 ◆ Male domination is natural
◆ Rich culture vs. poor culture
◆ Superiority vs. inferiority
◆ Civilised self vs. barbaric others
◆ Clash of civilisations
◆ Masculine vs feminine things
◆ Evaluations
◇ Suggests that cultural system do not address
human needs equally, allowing some people to
dominate others
◇ Capitalism
◇ Such inequality pressurises towards change
◇ Understates the way in which cultural patterns
integrate members of the society
○ Sociobiological Theories (evolution & culture)
◆ Sociobiology
◇ A theoretical approach that explores ways in which
human biology affects how we create culture
◇ Sociobiology suggests that many aspects of culture
can be traced back to our biological origins. Human
behaviors and beliefs, according to this theory, have
evolved because they offered some survival or
reproductive advantage. Culture, then, is not just a
product of historical or social forces, but also of
evolutionary pressures.
◆ Example
◇ Universal acceptability of incest as taboo due to
biological problems
◇ Bravery and courage
◇ Sacrifice
◇ Biological roles
◆ Natural selection
◆ How often do men think about sex?
◇ Men- 19 times a day
◇ Women- 10 times a day
◆ Charles Darwin
◆ Mens’ sperms vs women’s ovaries
◇ Controlling sex
◆ Double standards
◆ Promiscuity
 ◆ Evaluations
◇ Sociology may revive biological arguments; but no,
sociobiology unites all of humanity because people
share a single evolutionary history
◇ Sociobiology has little evidence to support their
arguments; it is culture and society that determines
human behaviour, not biology

. Why is socialisation a life-long process? Discuss the

major socialisation agencies in Bangladesh.
Answer:
● Definition
○ The lifelong social experience by which people develop
their human potential and learn culture
● That sociology is a life-long process can be best explained by
six major theories of socialisation theories
. Sigmund Freud’s elements of personality:

○ Main idea: we internalise social norms and childhood

experiences have a lasting impact on personality
○ Two basic needs or drives
. Life instinct or eros
. Death instinct or Thanatos
○ Model of personality
◆ Id
◇ Human being’s basic drives
◇ Unconscious and immediate satisfaction
◆ Ego
◇ A person’s conscious efforts to balance innate
pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of the
society
 ◆ Superego
◇ The cultural values & norms internalised by an
individual
○ Sublimation
○ Evaluation
◆ Presents humans in terms of men, undervalues women
◆ Difficult to test scientifically
. Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development:

○ Studied cognition
○ Four stages
. The sensorimotor stage
◇ The level of human development at which
individuals experience the world only through their
senses
◇ First two years
◇ Touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, listening
. The preoperational stage
◇ The level of human development at which
individuals first use language and other symbols
◇ Between two and six
◇ Attach meaning only to specific objects
◇ Lack abstract concepts
◇ Can’t judge size, weight, or volume
■ Glass and liquid example
. The concrete operational stage
◇ The level of human development at which
individuals first see causal connections in their
surroundings
◇ Between seven and eleven
◇ How and why
◇ Attach more than one symbol to a particular event
or object
■ But one symbol at a time in preop, more than
 ■
one in concrete op
. The formal operational stage
◇ The level of human development at which
individuals think abstractly and critically
◇ From twelve
◇ Job (what would you like to do when you grow up)
example
○ Evaluation
◆ Saw mind as active and creative
. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development:
○ Moral reasoning
○ Three levels
. Preconventional level
◇ Experience world through pain and pleasure
◇ Sensorimotor stage
◇ Rightness means what feels good to me
. Conventional level
◇ Formal operational level
◇ Lose selfishness, learn what is right and wrong in
terms of what pleases parents and confront cultural
norms
◇ Moral judgements
. Postconventional level
◇ Move beyond society’s norms to consider abstract
ethical principles
◇ Think about liberty, freedom, or justice
○ Evaluation
◆ Whether the model applies to all people in all societies
remain unclear
◆ Why people in the US don’t reach the postconventional
level- unknown
. Carol Gilligan’s gender and moral development:
○ Boys- justice perspective, impersonal rules dominate lives
in workplaces
○ Girls- care and responsibility perspective, personal
relationships are more important to women
○ Evaluation
◆ Does nature or nurture account for these differences?
. George Herbert Mead’s theory of the social self:
○ Self
 ◆ Part of an individual’s personality composed of self-
awareness and self-image
. Self is not there at birth; it develops
. The self develops only with social experience
. Social experience is the exchange of symbols
. Seeking meaning leads people to imagine other peoples
intentions
. Understanding intention requires imagining the situation
from other’s POV (taking the roles of others)
. By taking the role of others, we become self-aware
○ Looking-glass self
○ The self has two parts: I and Me
○ The key to developing the self is learning to take the roles
of others- imitation
○ Generalised other
◆ Widespread cultural norms and values we use as
references in evaluating ourselves
○ We play a key role in our own socialisation
○ Evaluation
◆ He found the role of both self and society in the
symbolic-interaction relationship
◆ View completely social
◆ Id vs superego- combat; but I & me- work together

. Erik H. Erikson’s eight stages of development:

. Infancy
◆ Trust vs mistrust
◆ Between birth and eighteen months
. Toddlerhood
◆ Autonomy vs doubt & shame
◆ Up to age three
. Preschool
◆ Initiative vs guilt
 ◆ Four and five year olds
. Preadolescence
◆ Industriousness vs inferiority
◆ Between ages six and thirteen
. Adolescence
◆ Gaining attention vs confusion
◆ During teen years
. Young adulthood
◆ Intimacy vs isolation
◆ Young adults
. Middle adulthood
◆ Making a difference vs self-absorption
◆ Middle age
. Old age
◆ Integrity vs despair
◆ End of life
○ Evaluation
◆ Views personality a lifelong process
◆ Non-one faces these challenges in the same exact
order
◆ Failure to meet challenges in one stage means
doomed?
● Socialisation snd the course of life:
○ Childhood: one to eleven
○ Adolescent: teenage years
○ Adulthood:
◆ Early (20-40)
◆ Middle (40-65)
○ Old age: begins around mid-sixties
○ Death & dying
● Major sociological agents:
○ The family
○ The school
○ Peer group
◆ A social group whose members have interest, social
position, and age in common
○ The mass media
○ Religion
 . Define marriage and family. Discuss the historical
evolution and function of the family.
Answer:
● Family
○ A social institution found in all societies that unites people
in cooperative groups to care for one another, including
any children
○ Kinship
◆ A social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or
adoption
○ Extended (consanguine) vs nuclear (conjugal) family
● Marriage
○ A legal relationship, usually involving economic
cooperation, sexual activity, childbearing, and emotional
support
○ Marriage patterns
◆ Endogamy vs exogamy
◆ Monogamy vs polygamy
◇ Polygyny and polyandry
● Types of families in history
○ Sexual promiscuity: no notion of family
○ Consanguine: marriage between brothers and sisters
○ Punaluan: a group of male and female
○ Sysdiasmian: opposite sexes but polygamy in nature
○ Patriarchal: male dominated
○ Monogamy: nuclear family
● Residential patterns
○ Patrilocality
○ Matrilocality
○ Neolocality
● Descent
○ Patrilineal descent
○ Matrilineal descent
○ Bilateral descent
● Functions of the family:
○ Provide basic material necessities
○ Socialisation & education
○ Domestic division of labour
○ Nurture keen relationship
 ○ Encourage harmony & stability
○ Sexual regulations
○ Reproducing & child rearing
○ Caring activities
○ Emotional labour
○ Dual role of women: work & home
● Stages of family life
○ Courtship
◆ Arrange marriage
◆ Romantic love
○ Child rearing
● Family in later life
○ Retirement
○ Grandparenting
○ Dependence on someone else
○ Undiagnosed depression
○ Trauma of losing a spouse
○ Stress of living with a chronic disease
○ Lack of frequent social interactions
○ Loneliness, isolation, and suicide
● Transitions & problems in family life
○ Divorce
○ Alcohol & drug addictions
○ Abusive relationships
○ Child abuse
○ Remarriage & blended families
○ Family violence
● Alternative family forms
○ One-parent families
○ Cohabitation
○ Gay & lesbian couples
○ Extended family households
○ Singlehood
○ New reproductive technologies & families
● Major theories
○ Structural functional
◆ Socialisation
◇ Family is the first and most important setting for
child rearing
◆ Regulation of sexual activity
◇ Incest taboo
◇ Maintaining kinship
◇ Reproduction between close relatives
◆ Social placement
◇ Family is not needed for people to produce, but to
maintain social organisation
◆ Material and emotional security
◇ Heaven in a heartless world
◆ Evaluations
◇ Why society is built on families
◇ Overlooks negative aspects of family life, including
patriarchy and family violence
○ Social conflict & Feminist theory
◆ Rather than focusing on ways that kinship benefits
society, this approach points out how the family
perpetuates social inequality
◆ Property & inheritance
◆ Patriarchy
◇ Men control the sexuality of women
◆ Race & ethnicity
◇ Endogamous marriages support racial and ethnic
inequality
◆ Evaluations
◇ Shows family’s roles in social stratification
◇ Family as part & parcel of capitalism
■ Non-capitalists also have families
◇ Carries out societal functions not easily
 ◇
accomplished by other means
○ Other micro-level theories
◆ Symbolic-interaction theory
◇ Intimacy
◇ Sharing pains & pleasures
◇ Build emotional bonds
◆ Social-exchange theory
◇ Courtship & marriage as forms of negotiation
◇ Dating allows to test the pool
■ Shop around
■ Advantages and disadvantages
◇ Men brings wealth & power, women bring beauty
◆ evaluations
◇ Provides a counterpart to structural-functionalism
& social conflict visions
◇ Focus on the individual experience of family life
◇ Misses the bigger picture
■ Experience of family life is similar for people in
the same and economic conditions

. What is education? Write a note on global education

systems.
Answer:
● Education
○ The social institution in which society provides its
members with important knowledge, including basic facts,
job skills, and cultural norms and values
● Schooling
○ Normal instruction under the direction of specially trained
teachers
● Education in historical context
○ Ancient Greece
◆ Aristotle, Plato, Socrates
◆ Taught upper class men, aristocrats
○ Ancient china
◆ Confucius
◆ Shared wisdom with a privileged few
○ Ancient India
 ◆ Aryan Yogi philosophers
◆ Taught upper class people; lower caste people had no
access to knowledge
● 1/3rd of all children never reach secondary grades
● One-sixth of world’s population cannot read or write
● Girls receive less schooling than boys
● Education in modern context
○ India
◆ Middl-income country
◆ Many children still continue to work on factories
though it is outlawed now
◆ 97% children complete primary schools
◆ Crowded classrooms
◆ 92% children go to secondary school
◆ 25% enter college
◆ 1/4th of the population can’t read or write
◆ Patriarchy shapes Indian education
◆ Joyful at the birth of a boy
◆ Most children in the Indian factories are girls
○ Great Britain
◆ Industrial Revolution changed the dynamics
◆ Previously only a studied classical subjects, having
little concern for the practical skills
◆ Law- every child will have to attend school until age
sixteen
◆ Traditional class differences still affect British
schooling
◆ Most wealthy families- public schools (private boarding
schools)
◇ 7% of British students
◇ academic+special things
◆ Most children attend state-supported day schools
◆ Highest scores—>govt. pays most of the college costs
◇ Many students who do not do well still get in
○ Japan
◆ Widely praised for producing some of the world’s
highest achievers
◆ A series of difficult and highly competitive exams
◇ Kind of like SAT
◆ 99% men and women graduate from high school
 ◆ Competitive exams allow 51% of high school graduates
◆ Take these exams very seriously
◆ Half attend “cram schools” to prepare for these exams
◆ Late night completing homework
◆ Hardworking
◆ Mathematics and science impressive
◆ 4th in science and reading
◆ 6th in maths
○ USA
◆ One of the first countries to set a goal of global mass
education
◆ By 1918, all states passed mandatory education law
requiring children to attend school until the age of 16
or completion of 8th grade
◆ Tries to promote equal opportunity
◆ Stresses values on practical learning
○ Bangladesh
◆ Primary education
◆ Secondary education
◆ Higher secondary education
◆ Tertiary education
◆ Curriculums
◇ EM
◇ NCTB
■ BV
■ EV
◇ Madrasha
◆ Stipends
● Theories at work
○ Structural-functional theory
◆ Education supports operation and stability of society
◇ Socialisation
◇ Cultural integration
◇ Social integration
◇ Social placement
◇ Personal development & success
◇ Other latent functions
◆ Evaluations
◇ Stresses the ways in which formal education
supports the operation of modern society
 ◇ Overlooks the classroom behaviour teachers and
students can vary from one setting to another
◇ Says little about the many problems of our
educational system
◇ Schooling helps reproduce class structure in each
generation
○ Symbolic-interaction approach
◆ Schooling or degrees create social identity
◆ Education is the symbolic capital to people
◆ The notion of inferiority and superiority in the school
system
◆ Illiteracy as a form of social stigma
◆ Evaluations
◇ Explains how we all built reality in our everyday
interactions with others
◇ People do not just make up such belief about
superiority and inferiority
○ Social conflict theory
◆ Social control
◆ Standardised testing
◆ School tracking
◇ Assigning students to different types of educational
programs
◆ School inequality
◇ Public vs private schools
◇ Differences among public schools
◆ Access to higher education
◆ Greater opportunity: expanding higher education
◆ Community colleges
◆ Privilege & personal merit