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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A United Nations vehicle patrols the streets of the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. An estimated three million people were affected by the earthquake, with an estimated 280,000 buildings severely damaged or destroyed.
Did you know...
- ... that Mayan eccentrics (pictured) were often buried under monuments and buildings?
- ... that the name of the Nuer White Army, a militant group in South Sudan, reportedly originated from the Nuer youths' use of light-colored insect repellents on their skin?
- ... that the 400 people interviewed for an oral history of MTV's early years could not agree on what was the best video, but they all agreed Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite" was the worst?
Anniversaries this month
- 3 March 1920 - A bill to constitute the Indian Red Cross Society, Independent of the British Red Cross, was introduced in the Indian Legislative Council
- 4 March 1970 - After 167 years of male-only membership, the first female members of the Demosthenian Literary Society were inducted
- 12 March 1888 - Death of Henry Bergh (pictured), founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
- 25 March 1973 - First admission of women into the Friar Society
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- 1969 Curaçao uprising
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Daisy (1964)
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