The Society Portal
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. 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 of members. In the social sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.
Societies construct patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or speech as acceptable or unacceptable. These patterns of behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. Societies, and their norms, undergo gradual and perpetual changes.
Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult 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, and also applied to distinctive subsections of a larger society.
More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society may be illustrated as an economic, social, industrial or cultural infrastructure, made up of, yet distinct from, a varied collection of individuals. In this regard society can mean the objective relationships people have with the material world and with other people, rather than "other people" beyond the individual and their familiar social environment. (Full article...)
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"Our New 'First Lord' at Sea", an 1877 editorial cartoon from Punch mocking the appointment of William Henry Smith (right) as First Lord of the Admiralty, the governor of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. Smith had been a household name thanks to the W H Smith chain of booksellers and newsagents, and he had been a Member of Parliament for the previous ten years, but he had no naval or even military experience whatsoever. The following year, Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore would satirise him on similar grounds, and he became known as "Pinafore Smith" throughout the course of his three years in the post.
Did you know...
- ... that Paul Davidson produced thirty-nine movies directed by Ernst Lubitsch?
- ... that the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society has donated over 60,000 corneas for transplantation in 57 countries, including those of the late President of Sri Lanka, J. R. Jayewardene?
- ... that the ISNSCE's Tulip Award in DNA Computing was first given in Leiden (pictured), whose botanical garden is known as the birthplace of the tulip culture in the Netherlands?
Anniversaries this month
- 5 February 1784 - The Asiatic Society (logo pictured) founder Sir William Jones was elected its president, serving until his death in 1794
- 6 February 1899 - Formation of the American Ceramic Society in Columbus, Ohio by nine members of the National Brick Manufacturer’s Association
- 11 February 1915 - Wlodimir Ledóchowski elected 26th Superior General of the Society of Jesus
- 28 February 2002 - Gulbarg Society massacre took place during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a mob attacked the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad
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Daisy (1964)
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