A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.
Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.
A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.
More broadly, a society may be described as an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure, made up of a varied collection of individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society can be a particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. A "society" may even, though more by means of metaphor, refer to a social organism such as an ant colony or any cooperative aggregate such as, for example, in some formulations of artificial intelligence.
Read more about Society: Etymology and Usage, Conceptions of Society, Types of Societies, Contemporary Usage
Other articles related to "society":
... The Society is run by a President and a Council of twenty members, and is open to interested members of the public to join ... It publishes the peer reviewed quarterly Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR), the irregular Proceedings and the magazine Paranormal Review ... of the phenomena studied, and many prominent sceptics have been active members of the Society ...
... The Royal Society was founded in 1660, and in April 1661 the society debated a short tract on the rising of water in slender glass pipes, in which Hooke reported ... Moray proposed that a Curator be appointed to furnish the society with Experiments, and this was unanimously passed with Hooke being named ... Boyle for releasing him to the Society's employment ...
... Since the Elder Brain contains the essence of every illithid that died in its community, it functions in part as a vast library of knowledge that a mind flayer can call upon with a simple telepathic call ... The Elder Brain in turn can communicate telepathically with anyone in its community, issuing orders and ensuring everyone conforms ...
... Historically, Basque society can be described as being somewhat at odds with Roman and later Western European societal norms ...
... this class divide would be obliterated as society becomes more egalitarian ... It holds as its foundation the idea of class struggle that society mainly changes and progresses as one socioeconomic class takes power from another ... why socialism should, and will, replace capitalism in human society ...
Famous quotes containing the word society:
“In the ordinary course of things, how many succeed in society merely by virtue of their manners, while others, however meritorious, fail through lack of them? After all, it’s only barbarians who wear uncut precious stones.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The gold-digger in the ravines of the mountains is as much a gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference does it make whether you shake dirt or shake dice? If you win, society is the loser.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the idea of a classless society is ... a disastrous mirage which cannot be maintained without tyranny of the few over the many. It is even more pernicious culturally than politically, not because the monolithic state forces the party line upon its intellectuals and artists, but because it has no social patterns to reflect.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)