A society is a group of made up of, yet distinct from, a varied collection of individuals.

In this
regard society can mean the objective relationships people have with the material world and with
other people, rather than "other people" beyond the individual and their familiar social
environment.
individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same
geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant
cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations)
between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be
described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent of members. In the social
sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.
More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society may be illustrated as
an economic, social, industrial or culturalinfrastructure,

Contents

 1Etymology and usage

 2Conceptions
o 2.1In political science
o 2.2In sociology
 3Types
 A half-section of the 12th-century South Tang Dynasty version of Night Revels of Han Xizai, original by Gu
Hongzhong
o 3.1Pre-industrial
 3.1.1Hunting and gathering
 3.1.2Pastoral
 3.1.3Horticultural
 3.1.4Agrarian
 3.1.5Feudal
o 3.2Industrial
o refer to the entirety of humanity (also: "society in general", "society at large", etc.), although
those who are unfriendly or uncivil to the remainder of society in this sense may be deemed
to be "antisocial". However, the Scottish economist, Adam Smith taught instead that a
society "may 4Contemporary usage
o 4.1Western
o 4.2Information
o 4.3Knowledge
o 4.4Other uses
 5See also
 6Notes
 7Further reading
 8External links

Etymology and usage[edit]

. The painting portrays servants, musicians, monks, children, guests, and hosts all in a single social
environment. It serves as an in-depth look into the Chinese social structure of the time.

The term "society" comes from the Latin word, societas, which, in turn, was derived from the
noun, socius ("comrade, friend, ally"; adjectival form socialis), which is used to describe a bond
or interaction between parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can
subsist among different men, as among different merchants, from a sense of its utility without any
mutual love or affection, if only they refrain from doing injury to each other."[1]
Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of
functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural
identity, social solidarity, language, or hierarchical structure.

Conceptions[edit]
Society, in general, addresses the fact that an individual has rather limited means as
an autonomous unit. The great apes have always been more (Bonobo, Homo, Pan) or less.
Cultural relativism (Gorilla, Pongo) social animals, so Robinson Crusoe-like situations are either
fictions or unusual corner cases to the ubiquity of social context for humans, who fall
between presocialand eusocial in the spectrum of animal ethology as a widespread approach or
ethic has largely replaced notions of "primitive", better/worse, or "progress" in relation to cultures
(including their material culture/technology and social organization).
According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, one critical novelty in society, in contrast to
humanity's closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed
by the males, which supposedly would be absent in our nearest relatives for whom paternity is