Anthropology Optional (Social groups and institutions) by Sourabh Mishra

Model Answer

Question #1.Write short note on: Society and Culture. 10 marks (150 words)

Steps-

• Concept of culture
• Concept of society
• Views of Anthropologists about the relationship between society and culture
• Conclude with some suggestive way forward

Concept of culture:

• Culture is defined as the sum of all group habits developed by a person as a member of a group. E.B. Taylor defines it as knowledge, belief, art, morals, customs, etc acquired by an individual as a member of society.

Concept of society:

• society is an association of individuals. It is a permanent population of people acting in accordance with its culture. It organizes the activities of people and the establishment of standardized behaviour is a social imperative.

Views of Anthropologists about the relationship between society and culture:

• According to Malinowski, culture is a wider concept than society and it includes the social organization of the social structure of people. Further, He says that culture comes before the existence of society.
• Radcliff Brown, Evans Pritchard, and Edmond Leach said that society concerns with social, interpersonal, and intergroup relations while culture is an overall design and prescription for a great variety of human behaviour. While elements of sociability can be traced to sub-human species, culture is exclusively a human prerogative.
• As per Hoebaldescription society as people and culture as ways of acting. According to him, we may say one belongs to society but not to culture.
• LevisStrauss, says that society existed prior to culture while Krober puts that society does exist without culture, but culture does not exist without society.

Culture and society are two aspects of social realities viewed from different dimensions that are, culture is action and behaviour while society is relationship and grouping.

He further added that culture and society are interwoven and interdependent concepts that cannot exist without each other.

According to modern civilizations, the terms culture and society are synonyms and are interrelated and inseparable.

Thus, to conclude we can say that culture and society are two complementary ways of looking at the same reality each illuminating different aspects.

Question #2. Discuss the anthropological understanding of social institutions. How are social institutions different from social groups? 15 marks (250 words)

Approach

• Introduce the social institutions briefly
• Thinker’s perspective is based on social institutions with some relevant contemporary examples.
• Characteristics of Social Institutions
• The comparative differences between social groups and Social Institutions
• Conclude the topic with a short way forward.

Introduction:

A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value.The word institution means an organization with some specific purpose as a public or charitable institution. It is also used to denote any set of people in organized interaction such as family.

Thinker’s perspective:

• Ginsberg defines social institution as a definite and sanctioned form or modes of relationships between social beings with respect to one another or to some extent objects.
• It is an organized form of customs, rituals, procedures, and relations.
• Each social institution depends upon certain established rules and uses which are recognized and accepted by the members of the society. These rules and regulations govern the relations between individuals and groups.
• Some examples of social institutions are marriage, family, education, religion, etc.

Characteristics of social institutions:

• Every institution has a definitive objective to be achieved by its members.
• They are means of controlling individuals and in this effect, they are more stable than other means of social control.
• They are governed by rules and regulations.
• They have some definite proceedings formed as per customs and dogmas.
• Their functions and proceedings depend upon the collective actions of the members.

Some of the scholars differentiate the social groups and social institutions on the basis of comparative analysis:

Conclusion:

A social institution never becomes extinct. New institutional rules and regulations may be replacing the old, but the institution goes on.Today, due to the complex modern social life, the prominence of secondary social groups has increased. They are taking up functions that were previously the exclusive domain of the primary ones.Still studies show that primary groups get formed even in secondary groups, for instance, at workplaces. This is a further testament of the human beings.