Portal:Society
The Society Portal
A society (/səˈsaɪəti/) 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 members.
Human social structures are complex and highly cooperative, featuring the specialization of labor via social roles. Societies construct roles and other patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or concepts acceptable or unacceptable—these expectations around behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. So far as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual basis.
Societies vary based on level of technology and type of economic activity. Larger societies with larger food surpluses often exhibit stratification or dominance patterns. Societies can have many different forms of government, various ways of understanding kinship, and different gender roles. Human behavior varies immensely between different societies; humans shape society, but society in turn shapes human beings. (Full article...)
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The cover to the June 1914 issue of Vanity Fair, an American magazine published from 1913 to 1936 by Condé Montrose Nast, the first of many published by his company Condé Nast Publications. Nast purchased a men's fashion magazine titled Dress in 1913 and renamed it Dress, and Vanity Fair. In 1914, the title was shortened to Vanity Fair. During its run, it competed with The New Yorker as the American establishment's top culture chronicle and featured writing by Thomas Wolfe, T. S. Eliot, P. G. Wodehouse, and Dorothy Parker. However, it became a casualty of the Great Depression and declining advertising revenues, and it was folded into Vogue in 1936. In 1983, Condé Nast revived the title as a new publication.
Did you know...
- ... that Japanese flying ace Kaneyoshi Muto was compared to the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi?
- ... that people's preferred walking speed is correlated with their country's per capita GDP and purchasing power parity?
- ... that the celebration of the Dodoleglime festival by the Ve people of Ghana (pictured) commemorates the escape, through a town wall hole, of their ancestors from a tyrant king in Togo?
Anniversaries this month
- 15 December 1906 – Organization of the The Missouri Folklore Society; encourages study of folklore and arts in Missouri
- 29 December 1937 – Establishment of the Rural Sociological Society
- 30 December 1671 – Foundation of the Académie royale d'architecture by Louis XIV (pictured), king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert
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20151030 Syrians and Iraq refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece 2
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Bertillon, Alphonse, fiche anthropométrique recto-verso
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Daisy (1964)
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Dewey Defeats Truman
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DurbanSign1989
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Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
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If you talk too much, this man may die
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Jane Addams - Bain News Service
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Sahelanthropus tchadensis - TM 266-01-060-1
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Scourged back by McPherson & Oliver, 1863, retouched
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Self portrait of Edward Sheriff Curtis
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United States President Barack Obama bends down to allow the son of a White House staff member to touch his head
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W.E.B. Du Bois by James E. Purdy, 1907
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Xiahe mandible
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- 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.