SOCIOLOGY AND HUMAN SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION
       Sociology as a discipline has developed reliable knowledge about relationship within the society. Though relatively a young discipline compared to other long established course, Sociology has distinctively carved out her subject matter at highly generalized and abstract levels. Sociological classification of society has produced them in different forms by social organizations. The Sociological points of view of society are clearly laid out in this unit.
Sociology: The Study of Society
Studying society can hardly be claimed to be anything new. Yet, sociology as a discipline goes back in name and identity to early decades of the nineteenth century. Sociology grew at a time of new and creative social though that transformed and modernized all of the society sciences. It has been defined as scientific study of human social behaviour, or as the science of human interaction, or as the study of society. The goals of sociology resemble the goals of most other sciences: the discovery of facts, the explanation of facts, and causes of human behaviour, and ultimately the prediction of behaviour.
Classification of Society by Social Organization
Throughout history, societies have assumed a number of different forms. For the purpose of analysis, societies are generally classified according to their chief mode of subsistence (the way they provide their members with food, shelter and clothing). The most common of these societies are listed below:
i. The Hunting and Gathering Society. This the earliest and least complex society formed by people thousands of years ago. This kind of society is characterized by:
(a) a small nomadic population, with an uncomplicated technology.
(b) almost no division of labour or any kind of specialization, and
(c) particular stress on the importance of kinship ties.
ii. The Horticultural Society: This is the second simplest society which appeared in history after people discovered how to cultivate grains. In this society, the cultivation of wheat, rice and other grains was the chief means of sustenance. Hunting and gathering were secondary. In this kind of society, domestic materials first appeared, and tools were more sophisticated than those of hunters and food gatherers. The horticultural society contained reasonably large, settled communities, developed the basics of trade; and produced for the first time, a surplus that had the consequences of dividing members of the society into social classes. The production of surpluses, or extra supplies of food, laid the foundation for social inequality, a condition that has existed in all later societies. Surpluses eventually led to a situation in which some people were rich and others poor, some led and others followed, and so on.
iii. The Agrarian Society: This next milestone in the development of human societies was reached around 3,000 B.C., following the invention of plow. The plow led to the formation of the agrarian society. In this type of society, even greater surpluses were produced, and people no longer had to move about to search for fertile soils. People became more differentiated into land holders and landless peasants, and social stratification deepened. To maintain the system and to oversee the increasingly complex economy, members of the society developed a bureaucracy. The agrarian society also developed the initial stages of a money economy, gunpowder, iron smelting, and the use of windmills as a source of power.
iv. Other Preindustrial and Industrial Societies: Other preindustrial societies are fishing, maritime, and herding societies. All exhibit features that are similar to those of agrarian societies. The revolutionary change in the form of societies occurred with the emergence of the industrial society. Most societies in the world today are either industrialized or are trying to attain industrial stage. Such societies are characterized by:
(a) Urbanization (growth of cities at the expense of rural areas).
(b) Massive mechanization and automation (the substitution of machines for human labour and the human brain).
(c) Complex bureaucratization (organization into formal groups for greater efficiency).
(d) Separation of institutional forms (the development of schools, hospitals, stores, factories to perform functions formerly performed by the family).
(e) The substitution of impersonal ties for kinship ties.

       Specifics of Sociological Study of Society
       It is pertinent to emphasize a number of relevant points in sociological view of the society.
(a) Sociology is morally neutral: It is not the task of sociologist to say whether a pattern of behaviour or an organization is right or wrong, good or bad. It is his/her task to find out what the behaviour or the organization consist of, to explain how it comes about and to demonstrate its consequence.
(b) Emphasis is not placed on individual people: The sociologist places emphasis on social relationships and these are by no means exhausted by relationships between people. Sociology is in fact more concerned with the relationships between the major parts of societies.
(c) It is an assumption of sociology that relationships between people, group of people and social institutions do change periodically: There are regularities in the social life of mankind. The search for these regularities and their description and explanation (is one of the major tasks of the sociologist).
(d) The way in which sociologists go about their tasks is, in one respect, very similar to the activities of physical scientists, i.e. combination of observation and formulation of theory.
CONCLUSION
       Though studying of society is not the only preserve of Sociology, it has adopted perspectives and points of view which make it effort peculiar or unique. Through the classification of society by social organization type, Sociology has contributed to a better understanding of the development of the society it simplest to the present complex form.
SUMMARY
      In this unit, efforts have been made to present Sociology as a systematic science of human society. Furthermore, the society has been classified along developmental lines. Lastly, the specifics of sociological study of society has given the discipline a clear focus of it subject matter.