Chapter - 3
Understanding Social Institutions
Social Organizations :-
Social institutions are seen as a complex web of roles of social norms, beliefs, values and relationships built to meet the needs of society.
Social institutions exist to meet social needs.
Important social institutions are :-
Informal :-
- family
- Marriage
- kinship
formal :-
- law
- education
Institution :-
An organization is said to function in accordance with established or at least the rules accepted by law or custom and its regular and continuous functioning cannot be understood without knowing these rules. Organizations impose restrictions on individuals, as well as they provide opportunities to individuals.
main family :-
The parent family is seen as the best resource-rich unit to meet the needs of the industrial society. In such a family, one member of the household works outside and the other member takes care of the house and children.
Different forms of family in societies:-
Different forms of family are found in different societies:-
- On the basis of residence/location :-
- patrilocal
- matriarchal
- On the basis of authority and influence :-
- patriarchal
- matriarchal
- On the basis of lineage:-
- patrilineal
- Maternal
- The family of birth and the family of reproduction.
- Nuclear family and joint family.
Female Headed House/Family :-
When men move to urban areas, women have to plow and manage farming operations. Sometimes they become the sole sustenance of their family. Such families are called female dominated households.
Example:- Kolam tribal community in northern Andhra Pradesh.
Family is sexist:
Even today it is believed that the boy will help the parents in old age and the girl will get married and go to another house, thus girls are expected. Female feticide is encouraged. According to 2001 census, there are 927 girls per thousand boys. The situation is very bad in prosperous states like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and western Uttar Pradesh.
A family is a group of individuals connected by a direct kinship relationship. Kinship bonds are those bonds between individuals that join blood relatives either through marriage or through lineage.
Marital Relatives: -
The relatives formed through blood are called homologous relatives / blood relatives and the relatives formed through marriage are called matrimonial relatives / matrimonial relatives.
Marriage Institution :-
Marriage is defined as the social acceptance and approval of a sexual relationship between two adult (Rutri/Male) persons.
Different forms of marriage :-
a marriage :-
This marriage allows a person to have only one partner at a time.
Polygamy:-
This marriage allows a person to have more than one partner at a time.
polygamous marriage (multiple wives of one)
Polygamy (multiple husbands of one wife)
Intermarriage :-
In this marriage, the person marries in the same cultural group of which he is already a member.
Example:- Caste.
Exogamy :-
In this marriage a person marries outside his group.
Example:- Gotra, caste and race.
Work and economic life:
Work can be defined as paid or unpaid work performed by physical and mental exertion that aims to produce goods and services to satisfy human needs.
Characteristics of the economy of modern societies:-
There are several important features of the economy of modern societies:
- The division of labor into the more complex.
- Change of place of work.
- Developments in industrial technology.
- The factories of the capitalist industrialists.
- Salary according to specific work.
- Supervision of works by manager.
- To increase the productivity of workers and maintain discipline.
- Unlimited expansion of mutual economy.
Job Conversion :-
- Industrial processes are divided into simpler operations.
- Requirement of wholesale markets for bulk production.
- Innovations in the production process, creation of automatic production links.
- Liberal production and work decentralization.
Political institutions are concerned with two important aspects of society:-
Political institutions are concerned with two important aspects of society.
Power :-
Power is the ability of individuals and groups to do their own thing in spite of the opposition of others.
Power :-
Power is exercised through power. Power is that form of power which is accepted as being valid.
Stateless society: -
A stateless society A society that lacks formal institutions of government.
Concept of State :-
Concept of State State exists where a political system of government governs a certain area.
The modern state is defined by nationalist ideas of sovereignty, citizenship and opportunity:
Sovereignty :-
Sovereignty refers to the undisputed rule of a state over a definite geographical area.
Example :-
Rights of citizenship :-
- Civil Rights: Right to freedom of speech and religion.
- Political Rights: Right to participate in elections.
- Social rights: Health benefits, social welfare, unemployment allowance and the authority to fix minimum wages.
Religion :-
According to mile Durkheim, “Religion is an organized system of many beliefs and practices relating to sacred things that bind individuals in a sense of a moral community that similarly express beliefs and practices.”
education :-
Education is a lifelong process involving both formal and informal learning institutions.
Education acts as the main agent of stratification:
- On the basis of socio-economic background go to different types of schools.
- Schooling further deepens the existing distinction between the elite and the ordinary.
- Children going to privileged schools develop self-confidence whereas children who are deprived of it may experience the opposite feeling.
- There are many other children who cannot go to school or drop out in the middle of school.
Types of Education :-
Formal education:- Schools, colleges, educational institutions.
Informal Education: Home, Neighborhood, Park, Society.
Citizen :-
A member of a political community with both the rights and duties attached to that membership.
Work division :-
- There is some priority form of division of labor in all societies.
- It includes specialization of tasks, tasks.
- Various businesses are combined within a production system.
- With the development of industrialization, the division of labor becomes more complex than any type of production system.
- The form of division of labor in the modern world is international.
- Gender is seen as the basic principle of society.
- Social expectations about behavior considered appropriate for members of each gender.
empirical test :-
Actual investigation conducted in a given area of social studies.
Intermarriage :-
When marriage takes place within a specific caste class or tribal group.
External marriage:
When a marriage relationship takes place outside a certain set of relationships.
thinking :-
Shared views or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of the dominant groups.
Ideology is found in all those societies. in which there are systematic and inherent inequalities between groups.
The concept of ideology is closely associated with power, as the ideological system works to legitimize the differing power of the group.
Validity :-
A belief in which a particular political order is legitimized only by authority.
Monogamy :-
When a man/woman has only one husband or one wife at a time.
Polygamy :-
There is more than one husband / wife of a man or woman at a time.
Polygamy: -
When more than one person is married to one woman.
Polygamous Marriage :-
When more than one woman is married to one man.
Service area :-
Industries related to the production of services rather than manufactured goods, such as trade industries.
State Society :-
A society in which there is a formal system of government.
