Chap 4. Society Flashcards
What is society?
Is a group of people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture.
4 important sociologists:
1- Gerhard Lenski
2- Karl Marx
3- Max Weber
4- Emile Durkheim
He describes how
societies have changed over the past 10,000 years. Points to
the importance of technology in shaping any society.
Gerhard Lenski
He talks all about social conflict that arises as people work within an economic system to pro
duce material goods.
Karl Marx
He shows that the power of ideas shapes society.
Max Weber
He helps us see the different ways that traditional and modern societies hang together.
Emile Durkheim
Lenski uses the term?
Sociocultural evolution
What is sociocultural evolution?
Means changes
that occur as a society gains new technology.
What are the Five types of Societies?
1- Hunting and Gathering
2- Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
3- Agrarian Societies
4- Industrial Societies
5- Post-industrial Societies
The use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation for food.
Hunting and Gathering
The use of hand tools to
raise crops.
Horticulture
The domestication of animals.
Pastoralism
Large-scale cultivation
using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources.
Agriculture
The production of
goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery.
Industrialism
The production of information using computer technology.
Post-industrial
Gerhard Lenski states that society is defined by what?
Levels of technology
Karl Marx states that society is defined by what?
Social conflict
Max Weber states that society is defined by what?
Ideas/mode of thinking
Emile Durkheim states that society is defined by what?
Solidarity
The stuggle between segments of society over valued resources.
Social conflict
Social conflicts divides into:
-Capitalists
-Proletarians
People who own and operate factories and other businesses in pursuit of profits.
Capitalists
People who sell their labor for wages.
Proletarians
Conflict between
entire classes over the distribution of a society’s wealth and power.
Class conflict
Marx’s term for workers’ recognition of
themselves as a class unified in opposition to capitalists and ultimately to capitalism itself.
Class consciousness
Values and beliefs passed from generation to generation.
Tradition
A way of thinking that emphasizes deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient way to accomplish a particular task.
Rationality
What is rationalization of society?
The historical change from tradition to rationality as the main type of human thought.
Who considered industrial capitalism highly rational because capitalists try to make money in any way they can?
Max Weber
Who considered that capitalism irrational because it fails to meet the basic needs of most of the people?
Karl Marx
Are nomadic, have a few dozen members, consider men and women roughly equal because each have an important role.
Hunting and Gathering
Are able to produce more food, so populations expand to hundreds, show greater specialization of work, and have increasing levels of social inequality.
Horticultural and pastoral societies
May expand into vast empires, extreme social inequality, in which reduce the importance of women.
Agrarian societies
Moves work from home to factory, reduces the traditional importance of the family and raises living standars.
Industrial societies,
Shifts production from heavy machinery to computers, and requires a population with information-based skills.
Postindustrial
Materialist approach is tell by who?
Karl Marx
What is materialist approach?
Means that societies are defined by their economic systems.
What was the conflict between social classes in “ancient” societies?
Masters dominates slaves
What was the conflict between social classes in agrarian societies?
Nobles dominated serfs
What was the conflict between social classes in industrial-capitalist societies?
Capitalists dominate
proletarians
Who focused on the role of capitalism?
Karl Marx
The experience
of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness
Alienation
Who predicted that a workers’ revolution would eventually overthrow capitalism and replace it with
socialism?
Marx
Workers feel disconnected from their work and powerless under what?
Capitalism
Thmajor spheres of social life,or societal subsystems, organized
to meet human needs
Social institutions
Marx’s term for explanations of social problems as the short
comings of individuals rather than as the flaws of society.
False consciousness
The idealist approach was state by who?
Max Weber
What is idealist approach?
The power of ideas to shape society
Weber traced what ideas?
Beliefs and values
Members of preindustrial societies are bound by?
Tradition
Members of industrial-capitalist societies are guided by?
Rationality
An abstract statement of the essential characteristics of any social phenomenon.
ideal type
Calvinism emphasizes the idea of?
Predestination
The belief that God has already decided who will be saved) and hard work as a way to glorify God.
Predestination
Is a form of Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin
Calvanism
Encouraged people to work hard, be disciplined, and live modestly.
Wealth gained through honest work was seen as a sign of God’s favor, it isn’t supposed to be used for luxury but with used responsibility.
Calvinism
Hard work, discipline, frugality, and reinvestment align closely with the?
Industrial capitalism
Increasing rationality gave rise to what?
The Industrial Revolution and Capitalism.
Who feared that excessive rationality, while promoting efficiency, would stifle human creativity?
Weber
He claimed that society has an objective existence apart from its individual members.
Emile Durkheim
He pointed out that social elements (such as crime) have functions that help society operate.
Emily Durkheim
False or True. Society also shapes our personalities and provides the moral discipline that guides
our behavior and controls our desires.
True
Condition in which society provides little
moral guidance to individuals.
anomie
Social bonds,based on common sentiments and shared moral values,that are strong among members of preindustrial
societies
mechanical solidarity
Specialized economic activity
Division of Labor
In what society does strong bonds from shared values and tasks (mechanical solidarity), have guided the lives of their members?
Preindustrial societies
In what society, bonds come from needing each other to survive by their specialized work (organic solidarity)?
Industrial societies
True or False. Industrial societies and division labor weak traditional bonds.
True
In what society, without shared values, people might feel disconnected (anomie)?
Modern Societies
