The Study of Human

Society and Communities

Chapter 13
The Study of Human Society

• To understand human social behavior

• 2 major ways:
• To focus on the patterns of interpersonal interactions
that characterize our everyday lives
• To concentrate on the larger aspects of the social
structure that affect people’s lives
Society

• Universal among humans

• Performed major adaptive functions that have increased the
chances of human survival
• Members are mutually interdependent to an extent not true to any
nonhuman society
• Every society is organized
• Rules of conduct, customs, traditions, folkways and mores, and
expectations that ensure appropriate behavior among members
Characteristics of Human Society

• A society is a social system

• A society is relatively large
• A society recruits most of its members from within
• A society sustains itself across generations
• A society’s members share a culture
• A society occupies a territory
Types of Societies

• Hunting and food gathering societies

• Horticultural societies
• Pastoral societies
• Agricultural societies
• Industrial societies
• Post-Industrial societies
Dissolution of Societies

• Members are killed off

• Members become apathetic, no longer caring whether or not the
society continues to exist
• Falls into a state of chaos from which it cannot free itself
• Absorbed into another society, as a result of conquest, for
example.
Rural and Urban
Communities
Chapter 14
Importance

• To understand better the present structure of

such communities
• One’s view on how rural and urban life developed
will be wholistic
Philippine Rural Communities

• Population is small enough to promote primary group

interaction
• Economy: agriculture, fishing, forestry
• Intimacy and mutual helpfulness
• Neighborliness
• Economic cooperation
• Every individual is bound to his neighbors
• Traditional and personalized relationships
• Bayanihan type of culture patterns
Rural Culture

• Formal Belief System

• Animistic Beliefs
• Fiesta
The Folk-Urban Continuum
Folk Community
• Geographically isolated
• Culturally simple
• Institutions patterned along
family and kinship lines
• Uses religious sanctions to
control individual’s behavior
Urban Community
• Close to and institutionally
interrelated with other
communities
• Culturally complex
• Institutions patterned along
formal lines
• Secular sanctions to control
individual’s behavior
Development of Cities

• The first true cities are estimated to have appeared

about 5,500 to 6,000 years ago.
• Early Cities, requirements:
• Surplus of food and other necessities
• Some form of social organization that went beyond the family

• World’s first fully developed cities in the Middle Eastern

Area: Iraq (Sumerian Civilization) former Mesopotamia
Factors in the Rise of Cities

• Size of the population

• Control of the natural environment
• Technological development
• Development of social organization
Urban Culture
• Urban communities are described to be usually large with the people
engaged in varies occupations such as manufacturing, commerce,
industry, the profession or government jobs
• Due to large population, there are diverse and complex structures
• Contacts tend to be impersonal and anonymous
• Social institutions are more distinct in the urban areas than in rural
areas
• Population tends to be heterogeneous, with varied and diverse culture
• Folkways and mores tend to lose their effectivity in enforcing conformity
among the members
• More pronounced social stratification
Evolution of Cities

• Pre-Industrial Cities
• House only 5 to 10% of a country’s population
• Population of less than 10,000
• Powers were typically shared between feudal lords and
religious leaders
• Social stratification can be likened to a pyramid with a small
powerful class on top
Evolution of Cities
• Industrial Cities
• Brought about by the industrial revolution
• Application of scientific methods to production and distribution
• Large and expansive
• Today, centers for banking and manufacturing
• Elite is large and consists of business and financial leaders and
professionals
• Middle class is usually large
• Religious institutions no longer tightly intertwined with the political
system
• Arts and Education are secular, with strong technological orientation
• Mass Media
• Sub-cultures proliferate and ethnic diversity becomes great
Urbanization

• Refers to the process of concentration of population

through migration patterns
• In almost all countries, people tend to migrate to urban
centers because of poverty and an attraction to city life
• New Trend:
• More and more people are moving to small cities and to rural
areas in search of open space and “smallness”
Classifications of Urban Environments

• Urbanized area
• Contains a central city
• Population of 50,000 or more
• Metropolitan area
• Large population together with adjacent communities
• Industrial city expands outward
• Incorporating towns and villages into its systems of highways, mass
communication and transportation, industry, and government
• Metropolitan Statistical Area
• Either one or more central cities
• Mostly with close economic and social ties with other cities
Problems confronting the Cities today
• What are the acceptable limits of metropolitan growth?
• How should residential and nonresidential land use be
arranged?
• Should cities be centralized or decentralized?
• What new technologies should be given priority for solving
problems of housing, transportation, and energy
consumption?
• What services are best handled by private or public sectors of
the economy?
• Should regional or metropolitan governments be created to
coordinate and plan for urban development?