Sociology

Chapter 1 - Emergence of Sociology

Definition and scope of sociology
• Sociology is a detailed and systematic study of society.
• It is the systematic study of the human being in-group relations.
• Sociology is concerned with people and without people or human
beings , there is no sociology.
• It cannot be in isolation as its main emphasis is on their relationship
with other persons.
• The sociologists study people organized in families, friendship
groups, schools and in other organizations.
• The fundamental process in any society is interaction/social
interaction.
• In short, sociology is a discipline, which refers to the systematic or
scientific study of human society and social behavior.
• It focuses on processes and patterns of organization and conduct,
which are continuing in society.
 Development of Sociology
Early Thinkers
1. August Comte: He coined the term sociology to apply to the science of
human behaviors.
 The term Sociology derived from Latin word ‘socious’ means
‘society’ and Greek word ‘logus’ means ‘science’.
2. Emile Durkheim:the first sociologist to apply statistical methods to the
study about social phenomena.
 he defined sociology as the study of social facts.
3.Max Weber: He said that in order to understand behavior fully, we must
learn the subjective meanings people attach to their actions- how they
themselves view and explain their behavior.
4.Karl Marx: a society divided between two classes(workers &capitalist) who
have opposite interests.
 He viewed struggle between social classes as inevitable (predicable).
 there will be no exploitation and oppression of one class by another, and
where in all individuals will work according to their abilities and receive
according to their needs.
Importance/significances of studying sociology
 Sociological imagination-looking the environment
through social lenses to know the power of group
influence.
 helps us look beyond individual psychology.
 We become more sensitive towards the social issues.
 Makes us more critical, broad- minded and respectful
in our interpersonal and inter- group relationships.
 increases our self-knowledge.
 Enhances us to influence the direction of forces and
circumstances that affect our lives.
 Helps us to deal with social problems, to facilitate
developmental activities in socio-economic sectors.
Major theoretical perspectives in sociology
 A perspective is simply a way of looking at the world.
Three major theoretical perspectives are: functionalist ,conflict ,and
symbolic/ interactionist perspective.
 Functionalist Perspective
 society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in
harmony to maintain a state of balance.
 society is like living organism with each part being indispensable
to the survival of the system.
 each part of the system performs some functions.
 Ex-each of the social institutions contributes important functions for
society:
 Family provides reproducing, nurturing, and socializing children.
 education offers transmition of society’s skills, knowledge.
 politics provides a means of governing members of society.
 interconnectedness of society,how each part influences the other
parts.
 Conflict Perspective
 society is a stage for class struggle.
 there is no single interest but a variety of interests which
divide people and groups.
 social relations involve domination and exploitation of
one group by another.
 man is naturally good but social institutions distort the
basic nature of man.
 inequality promotes conflict and is unnecessary.
 class is a distinct social group with different interest
mainly economic and that the state is invariably an
instrument of oppression.
 The society persists only because of the existence of
external threats.
 points of conflict determine the line of cleavage
between groups and its resolution gives rise to other
forms of social relationship.
Symbolic/ Interactionist Perspective
 It is about micro-sociology=concerned with the individuals
interacting in small groups.
 reflects the micro-sociological perspective.
 human behaviour is influenced by definitions and
meanings that are created through symbolic interaction
with others.
 Says ‘our identity/sense of self is shaped by social
interaction.’
 The scientific methods of Investigation
 Steps in Scientific research
 Define the problem= Example:high crime rate in Addis
 Review the literature: A survey of what ever research has
been done on this problem.
 Formulate the hypothesis-is statement of the relationships
presumed to exist between classes of facts.
e.x. The rate of crime is directly associated to income.
 Plan the research design-outlining just what is to be
studied, what data will be collected, where and how they
will be collected.
 Collect the data.
 Analyze the data.
 Draw con conclusions.
Rural sociology
 is the science of rural people.
 It is the study of the nature, behavior and development of
societies or human-beings live in the rural areas.
 scientific study of rural human in relation to groups with
whom she/he interacts.
 The study of human beings and their lives in the rural
situations
 The science of rural society/rural man and his group
relationships/.
 The laws of social structures and development of rural
society
 studies about rural population, social organizations and
social progresses operating in the rural societies.
 The difference b/n rural and urban
RURAL URBAN

Have low population density High population density

Remote from urban centers Nearer to central administration

Engaged in primary production Engaged in various activities

Provide fewer social services Greater social services

Maintain social control Maintain social control formally

informally
Simple organization of life Complex organization of role
 Rural urban dichotomy - continuum debate
 It is impossible to draw a clear demarcation line between rural and
urban society.
 The concept of rural urban continuum emerged as a response to
this concept what sociologists call “rural urban dichotomy.”
 According to rural-urban continuum, there is no dichotomy
between rural and urban; b/c
 urbanization is not an independent variable.
 Urban society finds its birth in rural society.
 Here there are two essential things:
 There is a disagreement over the traditional dichotomy between
rural society and urban society.
 The difference between rural and urban community is a matter
of degree.
 Both the concepts rural and urban defined but not adequate.
 Definition Problems:
• (a) Population used as a basis of identifying a city from a village.
However, such measure varies from country to country.
 USA considers 2500 population as urban; it is 2000 population in France,
30,000 populations in Japan,
• (b) Modes of life such as transportation, communication, electricity,
and so on used as a basis of determining an urban area.
 But, this is not adequate criteria
• (c) There is no clear-cut demarcation between the two.
 It becomes very difficult to know as to where does an urban area
begin and rural area ends.
• In general there is lack of universal definition for village or town.
 CHAPTER 2: CULTURE

 Culture=is the totality of learned, socially transmitted

customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior.
 It is shared by the members in the society.
 It is the sum total of the thought and behavior, leading to
total way of life of people in society.
 Defined as:-“socially standardized ways of feeling,
thinking and acting, which an individual acquires as a
member of the society”.
 Tylor(1871):-knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.
 Characteristics of Culture
 Culture is learned=It is not biological; we do not inherit
it.
 We learn culture from families, peers, institutions, and
media.
 The process of learning culture is known as
enculturation.
 Culture is shared=Culture is located and transmitted in
groups.
 We share culture with other members of our group.
 That doesn’t mean that culture is homogenous (the
same).
 Culture is based on symbols
 A symbol is something that stands for something else.
 Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary.
Cont…
 A symbol is anything that is used to represent any other
thing, when the relationship between the two is arbitrary
(e.g., a flag).
 Language, money and art are all symbols.
 Language is the most important symbolic component of
culture.
 Culture is integrated(holism)=the various parts of a
culture being interconnected.
 Culture is dynamic=cultures interact and change.
 Most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they
exchange ideas and symbols.
 All cultures change, otherwise, they would have
problems adapting to changing environments.
Universality, Generality and Particularity of Culture
 Universality of Culture
 found in every culture.
 All society have certain common practices and beliefs.
 Example of cultural universal:-athletic
sports ,cooking ,medicines marriage and sexual
restrictions .
 cultural practices may be universal but the manner in
which they are expressed varies from culture to culture .
 marriages arrangements-self, by the parents, etc…
 Generality of Culture
 Occur in certain times and places but not in all cultures.
 Certain practices, beliefs, and the like may be held
commonly by more than one culture, but not be
universal.
 Particularity of Culture
 Cultural practices that are unique to any one culture.
 is a trait or feature of culture that is not generalized or
widespread; it is confined to a single place, culture, or
society.
 Because of cultural diffusion, now some are wide-spreading.
 Traits that are useful, have capacity to please large
audiences, and that don’t clash with the cultural values of
potential adopters are more likely to diffuse than others are.
 Still, certain cultural particularities persist.
 Example:-a particular food dish (e.g., pork barbeque with a
mustard-based sauce available only in South Carolina.
• The pastier—beef stew baked in pie dough characteristic of
Michigan’s upper peninsula).
 Cultural variation and Change
 Why and how do cultures change ?
 Due to the contact between neighboring groups.
 By diffusion/borrowing of traits between cultures and
innovation.
 Diffusion can be direct or indirect.
 It is direct when two cultures trade with, intermarry among.
 Diffusion can be forced or unforced.
 Diffusion is forced when one culture subjugates another
and imposes its customs on the dominated group. Ex. By
military.
 Acculturation=is the exchange of cultural features that
results when groups have continuous first hand contact.
 With acculturation, parts of the cultures change, but each
group remains distinct.
 Good example of acculturation is a pidgin, a mixed
 Innovation=is the process introducing a new ideas, or
objects to a culture.
 There are two forms of innovation:-discovery and
invention.
 Discovery=making known or sharing the existence of an
aspect of reality.
 Invention=results when existing cultural items are
combined in to a form the did not exist before.
 Independent invention=creative innovation of new
solutions to old and new problems.
 Cultural generalities are partly explained by the
independent invention of similar responses to similar
cultural and environmental circumstances.
 Globalization=a series of processes, including
diffusion, migration, and acculturation, working to
promote change in a world in which nations and
people are increasingly interlinked and mutually
dependent.
 The forces of globalization=international
commerce and finance, travel and tourism,
transnational migration, the media, and various high-
tech information flows.
Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
 Ethnocentrism:-is viewing one’s own culture as superior and to
apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and
beliefs of people raised in other cultures.
 People everywhere think that the familiar explanations,
opinions, and customs are true, right, proper, and moral.
 They regard different behavior as strange, immoral, or savage.
 Often other societies are not considered fully human.
 Their members may be castigated as cannibals, thieves, or
people who do not bury their dead.
 Cultural relativism:-asserts that cultural values are arbitrary,
and the values of one culture should not be used as standards
to evaluate the behavior of persons from outside that culture.
 Shows that, behavior in one culture should not be judged by the
standards of another culture.
 Cultural relativism argues that there is no superior, international,
universal morality, the moral and ethical rules of all cultures
deserve equal respect.
Chapter 3
Social Groups, organizations and social networks in rural societies
 Social group:- is any number of people with similar
norms, values, and expectations who interact with one
another on a regular basis.
It is a unit of two/more people in reciprocal
communication with each other.
It requires common interests, shared values, and
norms.
Individuals have social relationships.
Types of Groups
(a)Formal groups:-are structured to perform a specific task.
 are established to achieve organizational goals.
 command groups, tasks groups and functional groups.
 Command group=a supervisor and the subordinates.
 Task groups=people who work together to achieve a common
task within a specified period of time.
 example-standing committees.
 Functional groups=created by the organization to accomplish
specific goals.
 remain after achievement of their current goals and objectives.
 Secondary relationships=involve weak emotional ties and little
personal intimacy /mutual understanding/ of one another.
 Groups are short term; beginning and ending without particular
significance .
 developed in work place .
 example, attending a university .
(b)Informal groups:–formed naturally, in response to the common
interests and shared values of individuals.
 intimate ,face to face association ,cooperation, socialization
process ,development of roles and statuses .
 To accomplish organizational goals and do not have specified
time frame.
 Example-interests group, friendship groups and reference
groups.
Stages of group development
 Acc. to Tuckmans theory, four stages of group development are:-
 Forming , Storming ,Norming and Performing.
 Forming-members familiarize themselves with the task and with other
members of the group.
 members depend on outside expertise for guidance, job definition and
task analysis.
 Storming–group encounters conflict as members confront and criticize
each other.
 identification of roles and responsibilities, operational rules.
 is called counter dependent stage.
 The group have problems getting through this stage due to difficulty in
clarifying their tasks.
 Lack of skills and ability contributes to their inability to get beyond this
stage.
 Norming-members start to resolve the issues that are creating
the conflict and begin to develop their social agreements.
 members recognize their interdependence, develop cohesion.
 They agree on the group norms that will help them to function
effectively in the future.
 Performing-groups understands its goals and individual roles.
 It move toward accomplishing its task.
 Mutual assistance and creativity.
 growth and maturity independent, relying on its own resources.
 Adjourning-group resort to some form of closure.
 Not all groups experience this stage of development because it
is characterized by the disbandment of the group.
 Some groups are relatively permanent.
Group structure-pattern of relationships among members that hold
the group together.
 described in group size, group roles,norms and cohesiveness.
(a) Group size-2 people to a very large number of people.
 Small groups are between 2-10 people.
(b)Group roles-work roles, maintenance roles and blocking roles.
i. Work roles: are task oriented activities that involve accomplishing
the group goals.
ii. ii. Maintenance roles:help members maintain their involvement in
the group.
 harmonizer, gatekeeper, consensus tester, encourager and
compromiser.
 Gatekeepers keep communication channels open.
 concensus tester-test possible conclusion.
iii. Blocking roles:Are activities that disrupt the group.
 The form of dominating discussions.
 Group Norms
 Norms are acceptable standards of behavior within
a group.
 define the boundaries of acceptable and
unacceptable behaviour.
 Group cohesiveness
 the bonding of the group members and their
desire to remain part of the group.
 If there is intense competition with other groups or
face a serious external threat to their survival.
 Smaller groups,that spend time together are more
cohesive.
 advantages is workers satisfaction, low turnover
and absenteeism and higher productivity.
Factors affecting group interaction .
 group cohesiveness, composition, role, and group think.
 It enhances the identification of the individual belongs to and their
beliefs of how group can fulfill their personal needs.
 Group composition: is the degree of similarity or difference among
group members on factors important to the group’s work.
 Group cohesiveness: is the extent to which a group is committed to
staying together.
 “sticking together.”
 participants identify with their membership.
 advantages of cohesiveness are workers satisfaction, low turnover.
 Group size: size vary from 2 people to a very large number of people.
small groups are between 2-10 people.
 advantage is quick decision and easy interaction.
 Group Roles-work roles, maintenance roles and blocking roles.
Social Organization and Social Networks
Rural social organization-are a classes of human relationship structures
where people purposefully associated in systematically arranged units to
promote and achieve some common purpose or interests.
 differ from an institutions by its focus on a narrow limited purposes
where as institution pursues broader and more general purposes.
Types of rural organizations
 formal and informal /traditional/indigenous organizations.
 example; in Ethiopian:
-Socio-religious-such as (Mahiber, Senbete, etc)
-Self help associations (Idir,meredajamahiber,etc.)
-Labor exchange parties (Debo,Gigae,Wonfel, etc)
-Others , like traditional courts,shengo,Yegobezdagna/yegobezAleka, etc
 Ormal ones(farmers cooperatives and trade unions, farmers
associations, rural youth
associations, rural women associations).
 play significant role in the socio-economic lives of rural communities in
many countries.
 The formal and informal farmer organizations play crucial roles in:
 food security, sustainable environmental management and resource
use through mobilization, proper management, information exchange
 conflict management, service provision, educational and other
functions.
 All development actors need to have a clear understanding of the
diversity, roles and functions of these organizations and make use of
the existing potentials and opportunities by working with them as
development partners.
Social network-is a social structure made of individuals (or
organizations) called "nodes," which are tied by one or more specific
types of interdependency(friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike
or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige—etc).
 It is made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or
organizations).
Popular social networking sites
 Alpha socialisers-(a minority) people who used sites in intense short
bursts to flirt, meet new people, and be entertained.
 Attention seekers-(some) people who craved attention and comments
from others, often by posting photos and customising their profiles.
 Followers-(many) people who joined sites to keep up with what their
peers were doing.
 Faithfuls-(many) people who typically used social networking sites to
rekindle old friendships, often from school or university.
 Functionals-(a minority) people who tended to be single-minded in
using sites for a particular purpose;professional/work
relatedlink,relationship initiation friend
ster,Twitter,music,movie,photos/pictures—etc.
Social Network Analysis
 We measure social network in terms of:
 Degree centrality: the number of direct connections a node has.
 Betweenness centrality: a node with high betweenness has great
influence over what flows in the network.
 Closeness centrality: the degree an individual is near all other
individuals in a network (directly or indirectly).
Chapter 4: Social Structure and Institution of Rural
Society
Social Stratification
 It is division of society into different classes.
Ex.poor,rich,peasant,
 Murray, “Social stratification is the horizontal division
of society into higher and lower social units.
 It is the division of society into categories, ranks, or
classes.
 It lead to social inequality-the unequal sharing of
resources and social rewards.
 It divides society into various sections.
 It is the structured ranking of individuals and groups and
their grading into horizontal layers or strata.
 Some individuals are ranked higher than others on
the basis of opportunities and privileges which they
enjoy.
 inequality of status is the distinguishing feature of
social stratification.
 division of society into classes on the basis of status.
 Maciver, “status is the social position.
 Status is very important element in the concept of
social stratification.
 It involves some special combination of social
privileges.
 Privileges determine the standard of living and the
way of life of the members of each class.
Functions of Stratification
 A means of accomplishing jobs in society:
 It contributes as an essential mean to get some of its
jobs by distributing different amounts of prestige and
privilege to various strata.
 university is example of stratification with clearly
defined strata.
 b/c it is marked with visible symbols denoting status,
specific roles and role expectations, norms and
prescribed standards of behaviour and
interrelationships.
 it is clearly organized to do a job.
 Regulation and control of individual and group
relationships:
 Stratification regulates and control human
relationships in society by defining the roles and
roles expectations.
 Whatever an individual’s position, whether high or
low, social stratification regulates his participation in
certain areas of social life.
 It tends to regulate participation of groups and
individuals in the total life of society by:-
 giving them access to certain areas.
 and restricting them to others.
Cont.…

 Contribution to social integration and structure:

 Stratification in society has a strong integrative
function.
 It serves to co-ordinate and harmonise units within
social structure.
 because in stratified society, members are dependent
one another.
 Simplification:
 Stratification of society categorises people into
different strata.
 Every status has its particular role.
 Thus role expectations simplify man’s world in
respect to his relations with other people.
Factors for social stratification
 In the system of stratification, differential
position/status of members are found in all societies
all over the world.
 Members differ in the roles and status ascribed to
them by society.
 Two sources of stratification are:-ethnic and social.
 Ethnic factors:- occur in society where two ethnic or
racial groups exist and one dominates the other over a
long period of time.
 Social factor:-the growth of a system of ranked strata
within society.
 based on the value system and social values of
society.
Cont…

 social case varies from society to society.

 In some societies , occupation, income and wealth,
education are considered.
 in other societies, ownership of landed property,
ancestry and family name may be most important.
 in still others education, caste, creed and powder or
influence with authorities may rank high as social
values.
 The universal criteria for determinants of status are
wealth, ancestry, functional utility of the individual,
religion, biological characteristics.
 Types of social stratification

o Based on the degree of social mobility in a society, there are two types
of stratification system:-
A. Open stratification system
Each individual is influenced by his/her achieved status.
Movement between strata is possible and ease of movement depends
on the degree of openness in the system
Person’s flexible
Societies range from open to very open
encourage competition among members of society
B. Closed stratification system
It allows little /no possibility of individual social mobility
Social placement is based on ascribed status.
Movement between the status levels, or strata, is impossible.
A person is assigned a status at birth and remains at that level
throughout life.
Person’s status is assigned at birth
 Four major principles of Stratification
 It is a trait of society, not simply a function of individual
differences.
 It is persists over generations.
 It is universal but variable.
 It involves not just inequality but beliefs
 Four major stratification systems
 Caste systems
 Class systems
 Estate system
 Slavery system
A. Caste systems
 It is hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated
and that tend to be fixed and immobile
 It is more closed than open stratification system
 Resources and social rewards distributed based on
ascribed statuses
 Lifelong status/caste/determined by the status of parents
 Effort and talent might affect position within your caste, but
not move you higher
 Caste system is peculiar to India.
 Caste systems shape people’s lives in four crucial ways:
 It is largely determines occupation.
 It is generally mandate endogamy.
 It is limit outgroup social contacts.
 It is powerful cultural beliefs .
B. Class systems

 It is a social ranking based on economic position in which

achieved character can influence social mobility
 It is more open than closed stratification system
 Resources and rewards distributed according to achieved
statuses
 Some control over place in society
 It is based on economic factors of class; property, prestige,
and power
C.Estatesystem

 A system of stratification under which peasants

were required to work land leased to them by
nobles in exchange for military protection and other
service.
 The feudal estates of medieval period have been
the basis of social stratification.
 The feudal estates were legally defined.
 They represented a broad division of labour having
definite functions to perform. The feudal estates
were also political groups.
D. Slavery system
 The term slave is used to denote “a man whom law
and custom regard as the property of another”.
 It is the most extreme form of legalized social
inequality for individuals/groups
 In slavery every slave has his master to whom he is
subjected.
 The master’s power over the slave is unlimited.
 Slaves are in lower condition and have no political
rights.
Rural social Institutions
 are created by man from social relationships in
society
 to meet basic needs such as stability, law and order
and clearly defined roles of authority and decision
making.
 are organised systems of behaviour to meet basic
needs of society.
 organised system of social relationships which
embodies certain common values and procedures
and meets certain basic needs of society.
 SocialInstitutions are organized in response to
particular needs, such as replacement personnel
(family) or preserving order (the government).
 an organizational system which functions to satisfy
basic social needs by providing an ordered
The Rural Family
 The Concept of Marriage and Family
Family-is defined as a kinship group linked by blood and
marriage and occupying a common household.
A household is not the same thing as the family.
 It is all persons occupying the same house.
 These include relatives as well as lodgers.
The family as a social group is made up of:-
 a man, his wife or wives and children living under a
common roof.
 interacting and influencing the behaviours of each other in
a more intimate manner than with others who do not
belong to it.
The family entails the formalised, regular and patterned way.
It involves:-
 A set of common procedures such as betrothal or
engagement, courtship, honeymoon, wedding.
 A common set of values and norms. e.g incest taboo
which forbids sexual intercourse with blood
relations thereby necessitating marriage outside
the immediate family (exogamy).
 love between husband and wife in a way different
from that which is expected between brother and
sister.
 Family is the most basic, fundamental, universal
human / social institution / unit or minimal social unit.
 It is found in all societies throughout the world
 formed around marriage.
 it is a legally sanctioned relationship involving
economic cooperation, normative sexual activity and
child bearing that people expect to be
enduring/continuing.
 One function of marriage is creation of family.
 Family exists independently of marriage but it is
through marriage that families usually come in to
being as a socially recognized or legitimate entities.
 It is the most multifunctional of all institutions in
society.
 It is a system of organised relationships involving
workable and dependable ways of meeting basic
social needs.
 It a set of people related to blood, marriage, or some
other agreed up on relationship.
 adoption, who share the primary responsibility for
reproduction and caring for members of society.
 consists of a man and a woman/any two individuals
who wish to share their lives together in a long-term
committed relationship with one another.
raising offspring(s) and usually reside in the same
dwelling.
It is a distinct social group with its own roles, patterns,
behaviors, and cultural universal.
though its structure varies across time and space.
E.g1.Variations in “the family” across cultures=Toda
(southern India)=a woman may be married to several
men.
Fatherhood is not connected with actual biological
facts, any husband may establish paternity.
Balinese of Indonesia permit twins to marry each other
because they believe that twins have already been
intimate in the womb.
E.g2 Variations in “the family” from culture to
culture=Banaro culture of New Guinea-the husband is
forbidden to have intercourse with his wife until she
Functions of the family
 Reproduction (replacement dying members)
 Protection (Infants/sick /disabled are very dependent)
 Socialization (transmit the norms, values, and language)
 Regulation of sexual behavior (standards of sexual
behavior are most clearly defined within the family)
 Affection and companionship (provides warm and intimate
relationships)
 Providing of social status (inheritance)
Composition of family
 1. Nuclear family:-a married couple and their unmarried
children living together .
 2. Extended family:-a family in which relatives such as
grandparents ,aunts or uncles live in the same house as
parents and their children
Forms of Marriage
 Exogamy=takes place outside one’s group/blood
relations.
 Endogamy=takes place within some specified group.
 Monogamy=When one man and one woman are
involved.
 Polygamy=When more than two people are involved.
 Polygamy can assume three forms.
 First one is the case of one man married to two or
more women(polygamy).
 It is most common among traditional villagers and
Muslims in Nigeria.
 The second one is,one woman and two or more men.
It is known as polyandry.
 Is identified among very few tribes in the world.
 The Todas of southern India are known to accept fraternal
polygamy in which one woman is married to two or more
brothers.
 The offspring of a such union belong to the extended
family directly rather than to a particular father.
 The third form of polygamy is what is known as group
marriage and involves several men and women in
marriage relationships with one another with no sense of
exclusive ownership.
 Murdock (2002) in his study of 250 societies found that
only 43 (17%) practised monogamy as a rule while the
rest (8.3%) allowed different forms of polygamy.
Kinship patterns
Kinship is a set of relationship based on biological or blood
relationships and any type of social binding.
 The relations can be established through:-
 Blood/biological relationship,called consanguine
relationship.
 marriage called, affinity/conjugal. Such as wife-husband,
in-law relationships.
 The principles of descent assigns people to kinship
groups according to their relationships to a mother and
father .
 There are three primary ways of determining descent.
 Bilateral descent.
 Matrilineal descent.
 Matrilineal descent.
 Bilateral descent=both sides of a person’s family are
regarded as equally important.
 E.g no higher value is given to the brothers of one father
than to the brothers of one mother .
 Matrilineal descent=only the father relatives are
significant in terms of property ,inheritance…..etc
 Matrilineal descent=only the mother relatives are
significant .
Functions of kinship
 Increase social relationship among different families to
help each other.
 Responsibility sharing among close kins in the case of
sickness,death,old age support, in actual orpotential
enemies etc.
 Regulate forms of marriage in mate selection:-there may
be rules and restrictions based on the religion,culture,
race, ethnicity, etc. who marry whom.
 Economic cooperation
 Power, position, rank distribution whether through
inheritance called ascribed or through open opportunity-
through competition , merit, performance and
achievement, ability.
 Legitimacy and recognition of social relationship for
example marriage through ceremony, bridewealth, etc.
Authority patterns(who rules ?)
Societies vary in the way power is distributed within the
family .There are three type of authority pattern.
A.Patriarchy authority=a society that expects males
dominate in all family.
B.Matriarchy authority=women have greater authority than
men
C.Egalitarian authority =spouse are regarded as equals
authority.
Rural religious institutions
Religion is institutionalised systems of beliefs, values and
symbolic practices which provide groups of men with
solutions to their question of ultimate meaning – death,
difficulties, suffering, etc.
 Milton (1996) has also defined religion as “the attempt to
bring the relative, the temporary, and the painful things
of life into relation with what is conceived to be
permanent, absolute and cosmically optimistic”.
 Religion is a universal human institution.
 It entails a set of basic beliefs and ritualistic practices.
 These beliefs and practices however vary from one
religious organisation to another and responsible for
the multiplication of religious organizations in society.
Types of religion
•Buddhism (5.9%)
•Christianity (33.3%)
•Islam(20.3%)
•Judaism(0.2%)
•Hinduism(13.3%)
Functions of the Religion
 Used as sources of social integration and unification
(composed of individuals and social groups with diverse
interests and aspirations and to bind people together in
time of crisis).
 Used to provide social support=death/serious injury
 Promote social change (provide disciplined ,work ethnic )
 Social control (encourage oppressed people to focus on
the other world concerns rather than immediate poverty).
Types Of religious Organization
1.Ecclesiae
 it is religious organization that claims to include most /all
members of society.
 it is recognized as national /official religion .e.g Islam in
Saudi Arabia ,Buddhism in Thailand.
 every one belongs to faith.
 membership by birth.
 it is not conservative in that they do not challenge the
leaders of a secular government.
2. Denominations
 it is a large organized religion that is not officially linked to
the state or government.
 claims as members of large segments of a population
 generally children accept the denomination of their
parents and live little through to be members in other
factors.
 not challenge to the secular government
 E.g. in US,the large number of denominations such as
Roman catholic,Episocopaliacy,Lutherants.
3. Sects
 Relatively small religious groups that have broken away
from the other religious organization to renew what it
considers the original vision of faith.
 Are fundamentally at odds with society and do not seek to
become established national religions.
 Unlike ecclesiae and denominations, they required
intensive commitment and demonstrations.
 .e.g Martin Luther (protestant from Catholic Church).
4. Cults
 Found in South California
 Small secretive religious groups that represent either a
new religion or a major innovation of an existing faiths.
 Unrelated to existing faiths .e.g.Christians science church.
Rural education institution
Education is the process of transmitting the socially
approved cultural heritage of any society from one
generation to another.
 It is the process by which the new knowledge is spread
among members of a society.
 The cultural heritage and knowledge are transferred
through education.
 It is the process of transmitting and acquiring the socially
approved aspects of cultural heritage.
 The school is the social organisation in which education
takes place.
 The process of socialization or culture learning usually
starts informally in the family, churches, mosques, the
community and then formally in schools.
 Education is systematic training by specialists within the
formal organization of the school.
Functions of the education
 Maintaining social control
 prepare young people to lead productive and orderly lives
as adults by introducing them to the norms ,values ,and
sanctions of the large society
 by learning punctuality ,discipline ,schedule –etc and
responsible work habit
 school serve as a transitioned agent of social control
 Serving as agent of change
 stimulate or bring about desired social change
 means of countering racial and sex discrimination ---etc
 Promoting social and political integration
 by transforming a population composed of diverse
 Racial ,ethnic, religious groups in to a society.
 Transmission of knowledge (School teach students).
 Transmitting culture.
Rural leadership institutions
Leadership is the processes through which a person directs
guides, and influences, the thought m, feeling,and behavior
of members of the society.
 It is the power structure of every society certainly vital and
integral in which individuals operate within to promote,
stimulate, guide, or otherwise influence, members to
actions.
 individuals who perform the leadership activities are
called leaders.
 The nature of leadership determines the behavior and
level of achievement of the members in the society.
Leaders are known as power leaders, men of power, power
centers and power elites.
 Their role or influence and their own and social power in
the society or in the group makes them distinctive.
 they are vital in decision making.
Types of Leadership
 Autocratic leadership
 Domination/dictatorship types of leadership
 Decision is power-centered/made by leaders
 Wide status difference between leaders and followers
 Leaders idea should be accepted by the followers
 Leaders may apply the theory x-management
 In this case one person posses unlimited power
 Aristocracy leadership
 The government by the best individuals or small
privileged class/usually by the heredity or hereditary
nobility/.
 Democratic leadership
 Decisions made by active participation of followers
 Leaders selected by their merit and achievement
 Leaders act as facilitators
 Laissez-fair/laisser-fair leadership
 Everything is going on by its own
 Unable to achieve any objective through this leadership
 Confusion and doubtful leadership
 Disagreement among members
 No controlling mechanism
Types of leaders
 Traditional leaders
 emerged out of the tradition of the community and they
stick to the tradition
 static type and not accept change
 have vested interests and advantages to their traditional
leadership
 Fear changes because it may overthrow them from power
position.
 E.g. Tribal chiefs or leaders
 Caste leaders
 followers are belongs to from the same caste as that of
their leaders
 provide leadership in matters related to the caste
 Religious leaders
 Become leaders through preaching religious doctrines
 Performing religious acts or rituals
 They advice followers on religious matters
 Political leaders
 They arise out of the political system and give leadership
function relating to their political ends/objectives
 Functional leaders
 They are recognized as leaders, because of their
specialization or specialized knowledge and function in
the society.
 E.g. head masters of schools, scientists, doctors,
agricultural innovators, etc.
 Opinion leaders
 There are persons to whom people go for opinion and
advice on certain issues
 Opinion leaders also act as legitimizes and influence
decision making of the opinion seekers
 In comparison to the opinion seekers , the opinion leaders
 may have more formal education
 have higher social and socio-economic status
 have more social participation
 have more exposure to mass media-cosmopoliteness
Rural Political institutions
Political institutions serve the people of a nation in form of
governments in their traditional and modern forms which
exist at the local, state and national levels.
 They serve executive, legislative and judiciary functions at
each level and also relate citizens to each level of
government in theperformance of these functions.
 It is the process of determining who gets what and why?
 Man creates polity to determine the distribution and
allocation of resources and to maintain stability, order, etc.
 Through government administration provide the regularity
functions of law and order.
 It maintains security and peace in the society.
 Help us to know the rules and games of politics through
political science.
Rural economy institutions
 Economics created by man to satisfy economic, material
and other physical needs of human beings.
 It is to satisfy and meet humans’ basic physiological
needs such as the food, cloth and shelter.
 It provides the society with the necessary supply and
services such as marketing, credit, banking, cooperatives,
exchange, etc.
 economic institutions are credit and banking systems,
advertising, cooperatives---etc.
 The family as we have earlier discussed, is the basic
economic unit in any society.
 It acts as the basic unit of production and
consumption.
 As a society advances and becomes more
complex,production and distribution of goods
transferred to industrial and commercial firms.
 The family provides the labour/manpower for
production and distribution within these organisations.
 The basic factors of production in any economy was
land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.
CHAPTER 5. SOCIALIZATION
The Concept of Socialization
Socialization=is a process of making somebody social
and fully human.
 it is a process whereby individual persons learn and
are trained in the basic norms, values, beliefs, skills,
attitudes, way of doing and acting as appropriate to a
specific social group or society.
 An individual person passes through various stages
of socialization, from birth to death.
 For individual person, especially a newly born baby,
socialization is a process whereby a biological being
(organism is changed into a social being).
 For the group, society or any professional
organizations, socialization is a process whereby the
organizations', social groups' and society's structure
are kept and sustained.
 It is the process whereby the culture, skills, norms,
traditions, customs, etc., are transmitted from
generation to generation/from one society to another/.
 Socialization may be formal or informal.
 It in formal formally organized social groups and
institutions, like schools, religious centers, mass
media universities,work places, military training
centers, internships, etc.
 It is informal in informal social interactions and
relationships at micro-levels, at interpersonal and
small social group levels.
 The most important socialization isinformal one.
 E.x. family, parents, neighborhood and peer group
influences.
 It has a very powerful influence, whether negative or
positive, in our lives.
 The process of socialization, whether it is formal or
informal, is vitally important to both individuals and
society.
 Without some kind of socialization, society would
cease to exist.
 Socializationthe is the way by which culture is
transmitted and individuals are fitted into the society's
organized way of life.
HumanBiological Bases of,andCapacity for, Socialization
 Humans are the only ones who are capable of
socialization.
The key biological characteristics of human beings on
which socialization is based are:-
 Absence of Instincts:The term "instinct" refers to the
complex behavior patterns for which some animal
species as biologically programmed.
 E.x.nest-building among birds is an indistinct.
 But humans have no comparable behavior patterns
which are biologically fixed, although they have
innumerable built-in physiological reflexes.
 Human have biological drives or impulses such as
hunger, thirst, sex, etc, rather than instincts.
 This absence of instincts makes humans dependent
on social direction and their behaviors are amenable
to such direction.
 The open-endedness of humans is thus the biological
ground for social conformity.
 Social Contact Needs: Humans need sustained social
contacts.
 Studies conducted on primates and human infants
revealed that lack of body stimulation and contact in
infancy appear to inhibit and prevent the development
of higher learning functions.
 Satisfaction of the social contact and initiations needs
in humans is a strong biological imperative.
 Longer Period of Childhood Dependence:
 The human infant need much longer period of
physical dependence and sexual immaturity than
other animals.
 The need to acquire the techniques and skills of
social living further prolongs the dependence.
 Such longer period of dependence, during which the
child is cared for and controlled by others, results in
an intense emotional dependence that remains
throughout life.
 Capacity to Learn:A high level of intelligence is an
innate human biological potential.
 Hence, humans are highly educable.
 they can learn much more than other animals and
can continue to learn more over a longer period of
time.
 Language:Man's ability to learn is a function of his
capacity for language.
 Other animals may have some degree of intelligence
but only humans have reasoning capacity because
they have language.
 Language expresses and arouses emotion; conveys
feelings, values and knowledge.
 As a vehicle for knowledge/attitude, language is the
key factor in the creation of human society.
 Symbolic communication, which is possessed only by
humans, makes language possible.
 Humans innately possess the potential and capacity
to create culture and to be guided by cultural and
social norms.
 At the center of all these is language.
Types and Patterns of Socialization
There are two patterns of socialization.These are:-
 Repressive socialization is oriented towards gaining
obedience.
 Participatory socialization is oriented towards
gaining the participation of the child.
 As adapted from Broom and Selznick (1973):-
1. Repressive Socialization 2. Participatory Socialization

• Punishing wrong behavior • Rewarding good behavior

• Material rewards and punishment
• Obedience of child
• Non-verbal communication
• Communication as command
• Parent-centered socialization
• Child's discernment of parents' wishes
• Family as significant other
• Symbolic rewards and punishment
• Autonomy of child
• Verbal communication
• Communication as interaction
• Child-centered socialization
• Parents' discernment of child's needs
• Family as generalized other
Major Types of Socialization
 Primary/childhood socialization, secondary/adulthood
socialization,de-socialization and re-socialization.
 Other minor types of socialization:anticipatory
socialization and reverse socialization.
 Primary/Childhood Socialization
 It is called basic/early socialization.
 The terms "primary", "basic" or "early" all signify the
overriding importance of the childhood period for
socialization.
 Much of the personality make-up of individuals is
forged at this period in life.
 Socialization at this stage of life is a landmark;
without it, we would cease to become social beings.
 The human infant who is a biological being or
organism is changed into a social being mainly at this
early stage.
 Hence, children should be appropriately socialized
from birth up to particularly five years of age, because
this period is basic and crucial one.
 A child who does not get appropriate socialization at
this stage will most likely be deficient in his/her social,
moral, intellectual and personality development.
 Some grew up developing anti-social attitudes,
aspirations and practices.
Secondary/Adult Socialization
 It is when individual take up new roles, reorienting
themselves according to their changes social
statuses and roles, as in starting marital life.
 It experiences what kind of people we become.
 The socialization process at this stage may
sometimes be intense.
 E.x. fresh college graduates entering the world of
work to start their first jobs, there are quite many new
roles to be mastered.
 It also occur among immigrants.
 When they go to other countries, they may need to
learn the language, values, norms, and a host of
other custom and folkways, coupled with
experiencing economic hardships may prove to be
truly stressful and most challenging.
 But challenges of socialization continues in late
adolescent and adult stages.
Re-socialization and De-socialization
 Re-socialization means socializing individuals again
into their former values and norms, after they rejoin
their former ways of life, spending a relatively longer
period of time in total institutions.
 This is because they might have forgotten most of the
basic values and skills of the former group or society.
 It signifies the rapid and more basic changes in the
adult life.
 This quite so often happens as adult life in modern
societies demands sharp transitions and changes.
 De-socialization is stripping individuals of their
former life styles, beliefs, values and attitudes so that
they may take up other partially or totally new life
styles, attitudes and values. It precedes re-
socialization.
Anticipatory Socialization is the process of adjustment
and adaptation in which individuals try to learn and
internalize the roles, values, attitudes and skills of a
social status or occupation for which they are likely
recruits in the future.
 They do this in anticipating the actual forthcoming
socialization.
 It involves a kind of rehearsal and preparations in
advance to have a feel of what the new role would
look like.
 It may not be adequate when the nature and scope of
life transition is complex.
 It may be difficult to fully anticipate what will happen.
Reverse Socialization
 It is process of socialization whereby the dominant
socializing persons, such as parents, happen to be in
need of being socialized themselves by those whom
they socialize, such as children.
 It is associated with the fact that socialization is a
two-way process.
 It involves the influences and pressures from the
socializees that directly or indirectly induce change
the attitudes and behaviors of the socializers
themselves.
 In reverse socialization, children, for example, may
happen to socialize their parents in some roles, skills,
and attitudes which the latter lack.
Agents and Components of Socialization
 Agents of socialization are the different groups of
people and institutional arrangements which are
responsible for training new members of society.
 E.x. family,school,peers,massmedia(television),..etc.
 They help individual members get into the overall
activities of their society.
Three components to socialization process are:-
 The socializee(anew born child, a recruit to the
army,the police force,a freshman in a college,an
intern in medical service).
 The ocializers(parents,peer groups,community
members,teachers,church members).
 Socialization takes place in different socializing
environments, called socialization settings.
Multiple and Contradictory Influences of Socialization
 The consumption of tobacco and alcohol is rapidly
increasing in the Third world.
 There are contradictory processes of socialization
behind this phenomenon.
 On the one hand, families, schools, and medical
institutions warn youngsters not to consume these
products.
 But,the global companies producing these products
are powerfully waging the war of getting the products
to the youth, through the lure of television
advertisement.
 This shows the conflicting, competing messages pass
from the various sources of socialization.
 The international companies play dominating roles in
influencing the attitudes and lifestyles of youth.
CHAPTER 6: Social Change, Social movements and Social
mobility in rural society
 Social change is the process by which attraction occurs in the
structure and function of a social system(a group, a
community, a city, a region or a nativity).
 It affect the society as well as the individual.
 At individual level, it is concerned with how individual learns
of innovation, what motivates him to change, how to adjust to
change and the societal personal factors affecting social
change.
 It is the alteration of social situation, structures and function s,
roles of social members in a given social system or in a
society i.e. change in a society as a whole.
 It was the processes and results of alterations in the patterns
of a group’s social behavior.
 It may be a continual process, responding to local factors
and/or the consequence of economic development or other
forms of planned change.
Factors of social Change
Education:Education helps to diffuse knowledge,
skills and attitudes to people which help them in their
adjustment to the new ways.
Research findings have shown that people with higher
level of education adopt (accept) change earlier than
none or less educated people.
Social disorganization: This occurs as a result of
rapid and uncoordinated change which may bring
about further change for good of the social system.
 The experiences the people of Nigeria heard during
the civil war of late 1960’s have been a factor that has
kept multi-nationalities and multiethnic group together
as a nation.
 Heterogeneous population:The migration of people
from one place to another brings them in contact with
new cultural traits.
 societies which compose of people with different
ethnic backgrounds interact freely,diffuse their
customs, knowledge, technology and ideology
generally experience rapid change.
 Contact with other cultures:Exposure to other
cultures through contact and diffusion.
 Favourable Political and Economic climate
 Active Involvement of the people
 Relative Advantage:-If the newly introduced change
is superior to previous.
 E.x. manual ploughing is inefficient when compared
with the use of machine/tractor.
Theories of social change
 The Behaviourists
 Says that individual respond to rewards and
punishments which their culture imposes on desirable
and undesirable behaviors.
 The Psychodynamics Theory
 emphasizes the man’s internal state and explains
behavior terms of his internal characteristics.
 early childhood socialization largely predetermines
future behavior.
 in a society where children are not taught values of
achievement, their needs for it will be very low in the
future.
 The Diffusionist Theory:Says ‘social change is an
educational process’.
 less importance of the internal state of individuals.
 world society could be divided into two camps on the
basis of the relative modernity.
 Modern sector:-developed nations who are
technologically advanced countries.
 Primitive sector:-the developing nations who are
technologically backward countries.
 for change to occur, modern technology must be
diffused from advanced countries to underdeveloped
nations.
 for the diffusion to be effective, it must include
adequate communication skills, democratization and
educational approach.
 The Conflict Theory
 institutional arrangements is needed to couse a
change.
 not in individual’s internal state or characteristics.
 It assesses man in the totality of his social relations.
 economic relations are the source of conflict and
conflict the service of change.
THANK YOU