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 concepts 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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Extermination of Evil is a set of five paintings believed to have been created in the 12th century, depicting traditional Asian deities banishing evil. The paintings are collectively listed as a National Treasure of Japan and held at the Nara National Museum. Clockwise, from top left: Sendan Kendatsuba, Shinchū, Bishamonten, Tenkeisei, and Shōki.
Did you know...
- ... that Arizona Territorial Governor Richard Elihu Sloan had the legal authority to make appropriations and levy taxes without legislative approval?
- ... that Liverpool charity Bradbury Fields runs a club for blind people to ride tandem bicycles?
- ... that the Muscogee people (pictured) rubbed moistened tramp's trouble on their faces to enhance their youthfulness?
Anniversaries this month
- 9 June 1886 - Centennial celebration of the foundation of the Stoughton Musical Society
- 14 June 1957 - IEEE Education Society was formed as the IRE Professional Group on Education
- 24 June 1834 - The Canadiens founded what would become the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society
- 30 June 1897 - Foundation of the Shanghai Foot Emancipation Society (foot binding pictured)
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Lev Chernyi (Russian: Лев Чёрный, IPA: [ˈlʲef ˈt͡ɕɵrnɨj] (listen); died September 21, 1921) was a Russian anarchist theorist, activist and poet, and a leading figure of the Third Russian Revolution. His early thought was individualist, rejecting anarcho-communism as a threat to individual liberty. In 1917, Chernyi was released from his political imprisonment by the Imperial Russian regime, and swiftly became one of the leading figures in Russian anarchism. After strongly denouncing the new Bolshevik government in various anarchist publications and joining several underground resistance movements, Chernyi was arrested by the Cheka on a charge of counterfeiting and in 1921 was executed without trial. (Full article...)
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2012 phenomenon
1969 Curaçao uprising
Digital media use and mental health
Diocletianic Persecution
W. E. B. Du Bois
Female genital mutilation
First homosexual movement
From the Doctor to My Son Thomas
Fuck (film)
Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
1981 Irish hunger strike
Solo Man
Rosewood massacre
Stonewall riots
George Washington and slavery
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Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011
Acting white
African Americans in Omaha, Nebraska
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America's 60 Families
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Anonymous (hacker group)
Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
Anna Apostolaki
Archaeoastronomy
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
The Archives of the Planet
Aroused (film)
2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka
Australopithecus africanus
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus bahrelghazali
Australopithecus deyiremeda
Australopithecus garhi
Australopithecus sediba
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Before the Dawn (book)
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A Community of Witches
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Culture of the Song dynasty
Cutting the Mustard
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution
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EST and The Forum in popular culture
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Ely and Littleport riots of 1816
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Free Expression Policy Project
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Growing Up Absurd
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Globalization and women in China
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1968–1969 Japanese university protests
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Jewellery of the Berber cultures
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Theodora Kroeber
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Ralph Larkin
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Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld
The Man-Eating Myth
March for Our Lives Portland
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Karl Marx
Josef Mengele
A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights
Mork Goes Erk
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Myth of the clean Wehrmacht
Native American mascot controversy
Neanderthal
New World Order (conspiracy theory)
No Lifeguard on Duty
Nonviolent Communication
Not My Presidents Day
Not in Front of the Children
Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
Otaku
Ovulatory shift hypothesis
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Paranthropus aethiopicus
Paranthropus boisei
Paranthropus robustus
Peking Man
Persecution of Zoroastrians
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Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact
1956 Poznań protests
Protests in Canada against the Sri Lankan Civil War
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Aparna Rao
A Rape on Campus
Reborn doll
Herbert Hope Risley
The Road to Total Freedom
Romania in the Early Middle Ages
Rose Street Club
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Edward Said
Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy
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Simele massacre
Kateryna Skarzhynska
Slavery in Haiti
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Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club
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Think of the children
Trance and Dance in Bali
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Weiquan movement
Who We Are and How We Got Here
Benjamin Lee Whorf
Women's March on Portland
Yuanmou Man
Florian Znaniecki
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Daisy (1964)
Nanook of the North
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Web resources
- Definition of Society from the OED.
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Industrial Revolution
- "The Day the World Took Off" Six part video series from the University of Cambridge tracing the question "Why did the Industrial Revolution begin when and where it did."
- BBC History Home Page – Industrial Revolution
- National Museum of Science and Industry website – machines and personalities
- Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living by Clark Nardinelli - the debate over whether standards of living rose or fell.
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