Module 7: Social Institutions

Question 1

Social Institutions

Answer 1

Established patterns of behavior and organization in a society that fulfills specific functions and maintains social order

Question 2

Family

Answer 2

Basic and oldest social unit; began the cycle of institution building

Question 3

Household

Answer 3

A basic residential unit where economic, production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing and shelter are organized and carried out

Question 4

Kinship

Answer 4

Social bond and connection between individuals who are related to each other

Consanguinity or descent: tracing an individual’s lineage through generations

Unilineal society: descent comes from mother (matrilineal) or father (patrilineal)

Affinity: formed through legal or social recognition forms

Fictive: socially or culturally constructed without biological or legal basis

Foster: created through foster care

Legal: established through legal processes

Ritual: ceremonial processes, without biological or legal ties

Question 5

Forms of Family

Answer 5

Extended - includes blood relatives

Nuclear - father, mother and children

Question 6

Religion

Answer 6

• cornerstone of society’s moral values

Beliefs: myths and theology

Rituals: correct form of behavior towards the sacred

Religious Organizations: organizations that maintain order in the religion

Monotheistic: one God

Polytheistic: many Gods

Ethical: no God but concerned with the principles of the universe

Ancestral or Animism: belief in spirits or animate beings

Question 7

Power

Answer 7

Authority: ability to make decisions and enable governments to issue commands

Legitimacy: moral and ethical concept that gives government right to exercise power

Traditional: customs, habits and social structures

Charismatic: charisma

Rational-legal/Bureaucratic: formal rules

Question 8

Forms of Government

Answer 8

Monarchy: political power is in the hands of a single person

Aristocracy: exercised by a privileged few

Democracy: majority

Totalitarian: unlimited power

Authoritarian: strong central government with limited freedom

Democratic: respect of individual freedoms and rights

Parliamentary: fused executive and legislative powers

Presidential: seperation between executive and legislative

Semi-Presidential: president exists with a prime minister and cabinet

Unitary: national and local affairs controlled by central gov’t

Federal: national and state

Confederate: central gov’t is less powerful than localities or states