1. SOCIOLOGY

What is Sociology? Sociology is known as study of a man or human being in society. But in scientific terms, Sociology is the systematic study of human society. One of the significant differences between the man and other animals lies in man’s social nature. Though man as a whole human being is both individual and social but it is in the social world that his immense inherent capabilities are released. Plato taught that man can be understood only in the context of his political and social life; he knew that individual experience is limited and written in very fine letters. Only in the context of society written in very large letters, does man’s total nature becomes visible. Another great German sociologist George Simmel once remarked, “Man in all aspects of life and actions is determined by the fact that he is a social being”. Man is aware of his coexistence with other human beings, and he lives and learns as a member of the variety of social groups- both large and small- family, playgroup, school, neighborhood, workplace etc. Sociologist Cooley noted that a separate individual is an abstraction unknown to experience. In other words man learns, communicates his learning, stores it up to be passed along to his fellow men and to future generations. The need and necessity of mixing and interacting with other men is a real human nature. It means all truly human capabilities make no sense in isolation, they must be related to both the natural and social world. People cannot express their humanness without nature and without the people. At all levels sociability is an integral part of human nature. THE ORIGIN OF SOCIOLOGY Striking transformations during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries greatly changed the European society. Three changes were especially important in the development of sociology:

One. The rise of factory based industrial economy. During the middle ages, people tilled fields near their homes or engaged in small scale manufacturing. But by the end of eighteenth century, inventors used new sources of energy, the power of moving water and then steam to operate large machines in mills and factories. Instead of laboring at homes or tightly knit groups workers became a part of the larger labor force working for those who owned the factories. This change in the system of production separated the families and weakened the traditions that governed community life for centuries.

Two. The growth of cities. Across Europe factories drew people in need of work. Along with this “pull” came the “push” of the enclosure movement. Landowners fenced off more and more land, turning farm into grazing grounds for sheep, the source of wol for thriving textile mills. Without land countless farmers left the countryside in search of work in new factories.

1

As the cities grew in size, the new urban dwellers faced mounting social problems, including homelessness, pollution, crime, illness and stress. Living on streets crowded with strangers, they adapted to the new impersonal social environment.

Three. Political Change. During the middle ages, people viewed society as an expression of God’s will. Royalty claimed to rule by “divine right” and each person up and down the social ladder, played a part in the holy plan. But economic development and the rapid growth of cities soon brought new political ideas. There came the shift in focus from people’s moral obligation to God and their rulers to the idea that people should pursue their own self-interest. In the new political climate, philosophers spoke of individual liberty and individual rights. Rouseau began his book with the famous sentence “ Man was born free but everywhere he is in chains”. He was one of the most influential political thinkers and had a powerful effect on the French revolution. The French Revolution, which began in 1789, further exemplified this dramatic break with political and social traditions. As the social ground trembled under people’s feet, the new discipline of sociology was born in England, France and Germany__ precisely where the changes were greatest.Social conditions that were of significant importance in the development of sociology are the following:

1. Political Revolution2. The Industrial Revolution3. Socialism4. Feminism5. Urbanization6. Growth of Science7. Wars

From the end of 17th century through most of 18th century by the Historians is called the age of ENLIGHTENMENT or REASON, because:

1. The popularity of science and reason increased rapidly.2. People started thinking scientifically rather than religiously.3. Scientists and intellectuals started questioning the natural phenomena.4. They became interested in testing the real world situation.5. Empirical research was combined with reason, like “How and Why of

What”.6. The enlightenment created a belief that people could comprehend and

control the universe by means of reason and empirical research.7. They started believing that because the physical world was dominated by

natural laws, it was likely that the social world too. It was up to the philosophers by using reasons and research to discover and develop these social laws.

8. With emphasis on reason the enlightenment philosophers were rejecting the belief in traditional authority.

2

9. For every one’s understanding they preached that if it was natural for the ruler to be fair or unfair to the subjects then there must be a natural law of justice as well. The philosophers argued that there was an unwritten contract between the ruler and his people, if the ruler was unjust to the subjects, the people in return were at liberty to depose him.

10. More they studied the traditional values, more they found it irrational and in contrast to human nature, inhibitive to human growth and development like slavery and distribution of wealth and occupations.

Earlier, the Italian Scientist Galileo (1564-1842) had proved that the sun and not the earth was the center of universe, and invented the telescope so that the heavens could be studied in more details. His discovery challenged church teachings that the earth was the center of universe. Another scientist argued that everything in the universe could be explained and reduced to mathematical principles. Later on the research of Newton and other scientists suggested that much of what happens in the world depended on the laws of nature and contradicted the church teaching.

REACTION TO ENLIGHTENMENT

The most extreme form of opposition to enlightenment ideas was the counterrevolutionary philosophy. Reaction was not only to the enlightenment but also to French revolution, which was thought to be the outcome of reason, thinking and enlightenment. According to them revolution brought bloodshed, unrest and prolonged disturbance in the French society. They wanted to return to the peace and harmony od the middle ages.

In their view God was the source of society, therefore reason was seen as inferior to traditional religious belief. Because God has created society, people should not temper with it and should not try to change the holy creation. They wanted to uphold the traditional institutions like patriarchy, monogamous family, the monarchy and the catholic church.

They saw revolution and development as disruptive forces. This continuous action and reaction between the two the enlightenment intellectuals and the conservative philosophers in fact provided basis for the classical French revolutionary theory.

So it was that the French social thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the term Sociology in 1838 to describe a new way of looking at society. Sociology is among the youngest academic disciplines as compared to history, political science economics or psychology. The early industrial revolution saw the first U.S courses in sociology. From 1860 onwards Sociology became one of the major social sciences taught in the universities of the world. It was not only the social factor or ever changing nature of the world around us which gave birth to the discipline of sociology, intellectuals played a vital role in giving shape to the scientific theories of sociology. Comte saw sociology as the

3

product of three stage historical development. Known as evolutionary theory, according to which not only the world has gone throughout the history but groups, individuals, societies and even minds go through these three stages.

THEOLOGICAL STAGE The period prior to 1300. (the belief that super natural powers and religious figures were the root of everything. Social and physical world were produced by God).

METAPHYSICAL STAGE It was the period between 1300-1800. Belief that abstract forces like nature rather than personalized Gods explained everything. POSITIVISTIC STAGE

From 1800 onwards period is defined as the period of belief in science. People started giving up search for absolute causes like Gods and nature. He argued that the intellectual disorder was the cause of social disorder. If positivism gained total control, the social upheaval will cease. Because it was an evolutionary process there was no need of revolution. Positivism will come if the process is slow. Only the sociology could expedite the arrival of positivism and hence bring order in the society. SOCIOLOGY AND OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES

As compared to other social sciences taught in the colleges and universities of the world, sociology is relatively a new discipline. But there is a very rough demarcation line between sociology and other disciplines. PSYCHOLOGY. Psychology has traditionally focused upon individual behavior properties of personality as attitudes, needs, traits and feelings, as well as such processes as learning and perception. Soci9ology in contrast has dealt with relations among people—with social interaction and organization. Simply, sociology has focused on what occurs among people, psychology has emphasized what occurs within people.

ECONOMICS. Economics is primarily concerned with trade, taxation, pricing, manufacturing and financing. Traditionally economics has studied the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services; for instance, the extant and nature of unemployment, income, welfare expenditure and tax resources. But it has paid little attention to the actual interaction occurring between people in the economic sphere that are the products of social life.

POLITICAL SCIENCE. Political science developed within United States, as a discipline having two main interests, political theory and administration. In recent years political science however has become increasingly interested in human political behavior, and has undertaken studies on community decision making, voting behavior, public opinion, power structures, political movements, and government bureaucracy. There is little that distinguishes political scientist from a sociologist.

4

ANTHROPOLOGY. As a subject Anthropology has close kinship with sociology. But two fields are progressively separating now, with anthropology branching out as, prehistoric archeology, physical anthropology, and psychological anthropology. But social anthropology retains many of the same interests as sociology, except that anthropologists have traditionally studied preliterate groups, whereas sociologists have studied contemporary, complex, and literate societies. With such a little difference anthropology maintains a close relationship with sociology. SOCIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION

The society where we live today took thousands of years to take its present shape. Historically, there seems to be a trend for societies to change by becoming increasingly complex. This historical trend is called sociocultural evolution. Some societies changed rapidly; others remained more or less on the same level to secure their livelihood, still others disintegrated and perished. There is no single prime agent responsible for this evolution. A great many processes, all interrelated in complex ways seem to operate, which is called socio-cultural evolution, “the changes that occur as a society gains new technology”. Societies with simple technology can provide for only a small number of people and offer few choices about how to live. Whereby technologically complex societies—while not necessarily “better’ in any absolute sense support large populations who live diverse, highly specialized lives. The socio-cultural evolution, first of all was accounted by Gerhard Lenski and Jean Lenski, help us to understand the great differences among societies that have flourished and declined throughout human history. And it also help us better understand how we live today. According to Lenskis, the more technological information a society has, the faster it changes and technologically simple societies are defined as “living the life of their ancestors”. Based on Lenski’s work there are five types of societies distinguished by their technology: hunting and gathering societies, horticultural and pastoral societies, agrarian societies, industrial societies and post industrial socities.

HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES. The most basic societies live (or lived) by simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation.Untill 10,000 years ago all humans were hunters and gatherers. Today however only a few remain--- the Aka and Pygmies of central Africa, the bushmen of western Africa, the Aborigines of Australia the Kaska Indians of northwest Canada and the Beteks ans Semais of Malaysia. With little control over their environment, hunters and gatherers continually search for game and collect edible plants. These societies are nomadic and keep moving on as they consume vegetation in one area and pursue the migratory animals. They keep coming back to their favored sites but they usually don’t form a permanent settlement. The key organizing principle of these societies is the “kinship”. The family obtains and distributes food, protects its members and teaches the children. Everyone’s life is much the same and focused on getting the next meal. There is some specialization related to age and sex. The very young and very old contribute only what

5

they can, while healthy adults secure most of the food. Women gather vegetation—the more reliable food source –while men take less certain task of hunting. The two sexes have different responsibilities but most hunters and gatherers see men and women as having about the same social importance. These relatively simple and egalitarian societies easily fall victim to the forces of nature. Storms and droughts can easily destroy their food supplies and there is little they can do in the event of accident and disease. Many die in childhood and about half never reach the age of twenty. Through the process of technological advancement their land holdings are reduced and game and vegetation depleted. In near future we may witness the end of hunting and gathering societies on earth. But studies on this way of life have already produced valuable information about human history and our fundamental ties to the natural world.

HORTICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETIES. About ten to twelve hundred years ago, people discovered “horticulture”, the technology of using hand tools to cultivate plants. It allowed people to give up gathering in favor of “growing their own”. Humans first planted gardens infertile regions of the Middle East and soon after in Latin America and Asia. Within some 5000 years cultural diffusion spread knowledge of horticulture throughout most of the world. Not all the societies abandoned hunting and gathering an favor of hunting and the people living in arid regions, such as Sahara region of western Africa or the Middle East found horticulture to be of little value. They turned to a different strategy for survival, “Pastoralism”, means supporting of domestication of animals. Still others mixed horticulture and pastoralism. Today many such societies thrive in America, Asia and Africa. This technology greatly increased production and enabled societies to support not dozens but hundreds of people. It also encouraged forming of settlements, moving only when they depleted the soil. Slowly these settlements were joined by trade and their population started increasing rapidly. Now capable of producing a material surplus, not everyone had to secure food and were attracted to other professions like, making crafts and weaving clothe, which encouraged more specialized and complex social arrangements. Hunters and gatherers believed that many spirits inhabited the world, while horticulturists practiced ancestors worship and conceived of God as creator. Pastoral societies carried this belief further, viewing God as directly involved in the well being of the entire world. This view of God is widespread in our own society because Christianity, Islam and Judaism were originally Middle Eastern religions. Expanding productive technology created social inequality. Families with more food production became more powerful and privileged and alliances with other elite families ensured their social advantages transfered to their next generations and a formal system of social inequality emerged. Along wit social hierarchy a simple government backed by military force emerged to shore up the dominance of the elites, but the rulers controlled only small number of people because of their limited ability to communicate or travel long distances.

6

The horticulturists and pastoralists brought social inequality and in many cases engaged in slavery and ongoing warfare and even cannibalism.

AGRARIAN SOCIETIES. About 5000 years ago, another technological revolution was underway in the Middle East that would eventually transform most of the world. This was the discovery of agriculture, the technology of large scale farming, using plows harnessed to animals or eventually mechanical tractors. So great was the social significance of animal drawn plow and other technological innovations of that period—including irrigation, the wheel, writing, numbers, and the expanding use of metals- that this era is called the dawn of civilization. More regular use of plow and cultivation resulted in more fertile land and large food surpluses. Among hunters and gatherers and horticulturists women were the primary providers of food. Agriculture propelled men into a position of social dominance. Declining position of women in the society is the result of the course of social evolution. As always increasing production means greater specialization. Tasks once performed by everyone, such as clearing land and securing food became distinct occupations. Specialization also made the early barter system obsolete and money became the standard of exchange. Dramatic social inequalities were promoted by the agrarian societies. In many cases including USA peasants and slaves made up a large share of the population. Religion reinforced the powers of agricultural elites. According to religious doctrine, people were morally obliged to perform their work. Wonders of the Ancient world, such as the great wall of China and pyramids of Egypt were possible only because Emperors wielded absolute powers, commanding their people to a life time of labor without wages. When elites gained unparalleled powers and large empires, the leaders required the services of wide range of administrators. It was at this point that along with growing economies political system emerged. Up to this period of socio-cultural evolution, the agrarian societies had the greatest specialization and the most social inequality.

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES. Industrialism is technology that powers sophisticated machinery with advanced source of energy. Until the industrial era, the major source of energy was the muscles of humans and other animals. But around 1750, mills and factories began to use flowing water and then steam boilers to power large and more efficient machineries. Industrial societies took over a century rather than thousands of years to transform themselves. Societies began to change faster then ever before. This stunning change stimulated the birth of sociology itself. During the 19th century everything was revolutionized. In the 20th century automobiles further reshaped the western societies and electricity powered all the conveniences. Electronic communications made the large world seem smaller and smaller. And then the computer brought the information revolution dramatically increasing our capacity to process words and numbers.

7

Occupational specialization expanded over the long course of socio-cultural evolution has become more pronounced than ever. Rapid change and movement from place to place has also resulted in cultural diversity. With the industrial revolution humankind passed another threshold to a new level of social organization. Economic self-sufficiency and local market systems came to be displaced by complex division of labor, exchange relationship and national and international market system. Because of their ability to produce and invent, western nations became dominant. Other good changes also came with the industrial revolution, the ability to read and write, limited to a small minority in agrarian society became an essential skill in advanced industrial societies. More statuses are opened to achievement rather than ascription according to family of birth. As property became more broadly distributed among the population, the base of political power expanded. New conceptions of citizenship arose based on notion of fundamental rights to which all members of the society were entitled. Industrialization has trend to go hand in hand with the rise of democratic institutions. Industrial technology recasts the family too, diminishing its traditional significance as the center of social life. Family is no longer the primary setting for economic production, learning and religious worship.

POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES. Some social analysts contend that the United States is currently moving in the direction of a postindustrial society. Two features characterize the post industrial society. First, increasing number of workers find employment in tertiary industry, centering on the provision of services, rather than manufacturing goods. Second, with the introduction of computers and complex feedback regulation devices, new technologies permit the automation of many processes in the work place. All these changes are accompanied by a knowledge explosion based on the creating, processing, and distribution of information. Today the work requirements are far different from twenty five years ago, and will be different again twenty five years from now. Today’s workers are better educated, less likely to be union members, and more likely to be women. Throughout the American economy, unskilled, blue- collar manufacturing jobs are being replaced by white- collar, services, managerial and professional positions. Managers and professionals have already outnumbered unskilled workers five to one. In postindustrial societies, service organizations, restaurants, banks medical clinics, schools and the like are the principle source of employment. There is a rise of new class of salaried professionals and technically trained managers.

THE LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY

There is no doubt about it that technology remedies many human problems by increasing productivity, reducing infectious diseases, and sometimes even providing instant entertainment, it provides no “quick fix” for social problems. Poverty for example remains the plight of millions of men and women in this country and of one billion people worldwide. Moreover technology has created more social problems that our past generations could hardly even imagine. Industrial societies provide more personal freedom but at the cost of sense of community that characterized pre-industrial life. Nuclear weapons stockpiled by the advanced nations can turn the world into ruins within

8

no time. Advanced technology has also led to a major social problem involving the environment. The socio-cultural evolution accompanied by more powerful sources of energy has increased our appetite for the earth resources. The question is weather humanity can pursue material prosperity without damaging the planet to the point from which it will never recover.

9