Society and Culture Directory

In the sociology, society is a self-perpetuating grouping of individuals occupying a particular territory, which may have its own distinctive culture and institutions. The term is most commonly used to describe human societies, although it may be used to describe animal societies. The social sciences generally use the term society to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is defined as a network of relationships between social entities. A society is also sometimes defined as an interdependent community,

Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. Social scientists identify hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider industrial and post-industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies. One common theme for societies in general is that they serve to aid individuals in a time of crisis. Traditionally, when an individual requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, members of that society will rally others to render aid, in some form symbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional, financial, medical and religious.