THE HUMAN SELF IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

I. SOCIAL BEING
- Man is born into a group, grows up in a group, socializes in and with a group and learns
many things in a group.
- “No man is an island.”
- The desire to be with others gives birth to the belief that sociability is part of human
condition.
- Man is a socially interacting being.

But how does man socially interact?

- The person (self) reshapes reality by negotiating changes in patterns of social interaction.
- This social interaction has following types:
Cooperation
-Happens when the self collaborates with others in order to achieve common goal.
Conflict
-Happens when the self is in direct struggle with or from individuals or groups over
commonly valued resources or goals.
Competition
-It is a form of conflict wherein there is an agreement on the means that can be used to
pursue and end.
-This agreement is expressed in the form of rules or limits that are imposed on the
interaction.
Negotiation
-It is a form of mutual satisfactory agreement between the self and others.
Coercion
-This happens when a self imposes certain action or behavior on others, or vice versa.
-This imposition occurs through the use of physical force, social sanctions (ridicule,
 withholding of love, excommunication, failure to grant recognition, suspension of benefits,
or the decision not to give the favor being asked for).

But what influences social interaction; whatever type it may be?

These are the following;
1. Goals and motivations
2. Situation or context
- Three elements
-Physical setting or place
-Social environment
-Activities or events surrounding the interaction
3. Norms or rules

II. MODERN SOCIETY What is modern society?

- When society is industrialized it is considered to be modern society or it can be defined as
people living together in current time.
- It is based on expansion of education, technology, industry and urban life. It has a complex
culture changing with the time. Its base is materializing. Due to diverse social conditions
heterogeneous life is found. Social problems of various natures develop among various
groups.
- Modern society is often called materialistic, where people no longer produce product for
living. Instead they produce goods to sell in the market. People don’t rely their own. For
example they go to market for groceries instead of owning gardens and animals. These
societies stress on quality of education for all.
Characteristics of Modern Society
- characteristics of a modern society include:
1. Advanced industry and technology: It is also called post-industrial society having, highly
complex, and advance industrial and technological systems. This is full of automation with
minimum role of human being in its operation.
2. Urbanization: This is a model of urbanization. A cluster of societies, towns and residential
areas are established fulfilling the residential needs of the people
3. High population pressure: Population size is very high having millions of people in cities.
4. Sub social institutions: Basic social institutions along with their sub-institutions or working
organizations are found in it, this is due to heterogeneity in the needs of the people and
volume of population.
5. Job opportunities: These societies are hub of industrial and economic organizations. Offices
of these companies are located in these societies due to which, better job opportunities
are available for educated, semi educated and technically skilful persons.
6. Better income opportunities: Due to economic activity, industries, commercial and better
income opportunities are available for the people of materialistic society.
7. Social stratification: People are divided in to different social strata based on their
socio-economic background. A highly complex division of labor along with specialization is
found.
8. Urban facilities: Modern urban facilities like fax, telephone, internet, cable, mobile
phone, gas, electricity, water treatment plant, sewerage system, air ports, railways, road
networks, big commercial areas, hospital, school, colleges, universities etc. are available in
it.
9. Sources of communication: Modern sources of communication like telephone,
internet, mobile phone, fax, cable are applied while communicating each other’s.
10.Social mobility: Due to better education, industrialization, economic and job opportunities,
a high degree of social mobility is found among people of this type of society. People
 frequently change their profession, jobs and place of residences.
11.International relation: These societies develop better relation with their neighboring
countries which provide economic and military benefits to them.
12.Crime rate: Due to anonymity and population pressure, a high degree of crime rate is
found. Murder, theft, dacoits, robbery, rape etc. happen many times in a day.
13.Women status: Status of women in modern society is high. Women are highly educated and
work parallel to men in different walks of life. They are given due importance and share in
decision making and resource sharing.

How does this kind of modern society shape or construct the human self?
The Negatives:
- It makes us become “addicted.”
- It appears to us as a sort of a “lure.”
- It seems so good, so positive, so helpful and so harmless. And then we’re hooked.
- In this society we are made to…
— Always move forward as if no limits to how far you can go or how fast you can get there.
Don’t pause, don’t reflect. You win or lose. You’ll fall behind and fail if you stop moving.
Fast at any cost is the mantra of this society today.
- This society allows us to look at progress equals fast, which equals success, a recipe for
addiction.
- It makes us believe and have attitudes and ways of thinking that elevate the values
of impulse, instant gratification and loss of control to first line actions and reactions. “I
want it now!” or “Do it now!”
- This makes us live under a weight of demands, real and imagined, that is debilitating
resulting to an alarming increase in stress-related disorders of all kinds for all ages,
beginning with elementary school- age children who are struggling with obesity,
depression, anxiety, attention disorders and all kinds of learning disabilities, a list of
 problems for all ages.
- This kind of society with an exhausting fast pace of life promotes overstimulation and
overscheduling, which become chronic stressors that lead to behavioral, mood and
attention disorders.
- In this society, its technological advances were supposed to free up creative thinking, but
the mass of incoming information has actually eroded our attention and our creativity.
People have less time to reflect on anything as they become dominated by a need to act, a
need to be online, robotically always checking. Multi-tasking stimulates internal chaos and
fragmented attention.
- By this kind of society, the need to be efficient and instant leads to a dumbing down of
information intake so that people become scanners and “decoders” of information, cruising
horizontally across the screen to pick up bytes, rather than delving towards a deeper
understanding.
- Instead of enhancing close bonds, technology has facilitated avoidance of direct person-to-
person contact, which takes too much time. We maintain the illusion that we’re connected
more closely than ever by the number of Facebook “likes” we accumulate. But it’s all fast,
now, this instant. Everything is impulse. Our sense of connection exists in the action, not an
accumulated, deepening experience.