Culture in pre-industrial societies Flashcards
Culture (pre-industrial) Durkheim argues that…
Durkheim argued that the role of the social institutions in society is to socialise individuals into shared cultural values and also to meet functional prerequisites. These are the basic needs of society.
Discuss socialisation agencies in pre-industrial societies
In traditional pre-industrial societies, socialisation agencies, such as religion, were extremely powerful cultural influences on values and behaviour.
During this period, ‘cultural conformity’ was more important than ‘individual identity’.
conformity to values was very high and conflicts were very rare.
social solidarity/social belonging was high as everyone felt similar to each other and social order (predictable, ordered behaviour) was a natural outcome of these processes as it was rare for people to complain or to speak out.
What is the term for the pre-industrial society in Functionalism?
Mechanical Solidarity
characterised by ‘mechanical solidarity’ as many people were similar in terms of status and societies were very similar.
We didn’t have a specialised division of labour, we just had owners and workers. We can describe this as a homogeneous society which was characterised by similarity rather than difference.
