Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama

Social Structure
Anthropology 436

Some Definitions of Society

Society: A territorially bounded and autonomous population of animals of a single species (e.g., men) maintaining ties of association and interdependence." p. 501

"A society is a form of organization involving...

(1)...relatively sustained ties of interaction among its members.

(2)...relatively high degree of interdependence among its members.

 (3)...a high degree of autonomy." p. 9

 Gerhard Lenski (1970) Human Societies. New York: McGraw-Hill.

 "The Latin word socius denotes a companion or ally and in their specific sense the words "society" and "social" refer to associations of individuals, to group relations.  When we speak of social structure, or the organization of society, it is clear what is meant: the way a mass of people is constituted into families, clans, tribes, states, classes, sets, clubs, communities, and the like. A society is a group of interrelated individuals."

 A.L. Kroeber (1948) Anthropology. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

"A group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not generally understood by neighboring peoples." p.p. 18-9.

Carol and Melvin Ember (1993) Cultural Anthropology. 7th edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 "Society refers to a particular group of people within a specific territory. In particular it refers to the patterns of relationships among people within a definite territory." pp.46

Raymond Scupin (1992) Cultural Anthropology: A Global Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

"A society is a collection of people who are linked to one another, either directly or indirectly, through social interaction...The term society can be applied to the total human community, encompassing all of humanity. Alternatively, we may speak of American or Canadian society, or we may restrict ourselves to even smaller geographical or social groupings. pp. 6

Michael Howard and Patrick McKim (1983) Contemporary Cultural Anthropology.

"(Society is) members of a population distinct from surrounding populations in a number of ways: they live in separate communities, speak a common language, share the same body of customs, and interact with one another more closely and more often than with outsiders.  A society is a population distinguished...usually by territorial separation and a shared language and culture...from those around it." p. 143

Roger Keesing (1976) Cultural Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

"The term society signifies a group of people who share a common habitat and who are dependent on each other for their survival and well-being...the boundaries between societies are usually characterized by breeding discontinuities and lowered rates of gene flow." p. 114

 Marvin Harris (1985) Culture, People, Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology. New York: Harper & Row.

"A society is a group of people who are dependent on one another for survival and/or well being and who share a particular way of life." p. 6

Serena Nanda (1991) Cultural Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

"Society is organized life in groups." p. 36

Conrad Kottack (1991) Cultural Anthropology. 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

 "Society: the largest group people think of themselves as belonging to." p. 104

 Marc Swartz and David Jordan (1976) Anthropology. New York: Wiley and Sons.

"For convenience of study, aggregates of individuals in their relational aspects are arbitrarily isolated as social units.  Where these show a number of common features in distinction from other such units, they are conveniently termed societies." p.2

 Raymond Firth (1951) Elements of Social Organization. Boston: Beacon Press.

"The concept of society is a relational not a substantial one; the only concrete entities given in the social situation are people.  What we indicate in the social situation are people.  What we indicate when we use the term "society" is that these people are related to one another in various institutionalized ways." p. 34

John Beattie (1964) Other Cultures. New York: Free Press.

REMEMBER: Society is always an abstraction, never a thing.

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