Sociology Terms A-H

Social Organization

A social group or society. The organization of society into an interrelated hierarchy of groups and status levels. The process whereby all the groups and persons in a society co-operate in their willingness to give allegiance to their value system. The condition in which there is a high degree of order and integration in the social practices, values and ideologies in a society with a minimum of ambiguity and conflict among them. The customary and regular relationships among people; the regular ways that people usually behave towards each other.

Agrarian movement

A social movement in which the farmers of a country seek not only to recognize the agricultural economy but to change the relative importance of agriculture in the total economy of the country and to improve their own social, economic, educational and political status.

Withdrawal

A psychological reaction or type of defense mechanism in which a person attempts to adjust to a frustrating situation by avoiding it. In psychology a protective technique for studying personality in which the subject is presented with a list of words and asked to respond to each word with the first word that comes to his mind.

Racial Minority

A racial aggregate that is discriminated against in a society that is dominated by members of another race. A race that is numerically smaller than another race in a given society.

Automation

A series of individual computer-controlled or robotic machine tools with electro-mechanical link operations replacing transfer by hand. Automation displaces human labor and skill to maintenance, planning, distribution and ancillary work.

Village

A single definition which would embody the great variety of legal definitions that are to be found in the various state constitutions is impossible. Generally a village is larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town.

Village community

A small number of families engaged in agriculture who live in a compact settlement and who collectively control the use and the ownership of the land they till.

Amulet

A small object believed to contain supernatural power worn for protection against evil.

Sib

A social unit made up persons who are or who believe themselves to be united by family or hereditary descent. The sib always has a name as well as certain symbols towards which the sib members have feelings or reverence and respect. In addition the sib holds various forms or property such as the ceremonies and ceremonial equipment.

Crowd

An impermanent assemblage of interacting persons who lack leadership and internal organization and who are without a group tradition or unique cultural background which would provide them with ready responses for acting as a group; this makes them suggestible,impulsive,irrational,fickle and unpredictable in their behavior in new situations

Annales School

An influential group of French social historians including L. Febvar, M. Bloch and F. Braudel.

Underpopulation

An insufficient number of residents compared to the number who could live in a given area and maintain a given plane of living

Gender

Ann Oakley introduced this term to sociology. Gender draws attention to the socially constructed difference between the men and women unlike sex which does it on the basis of biological differences

Social cause

Any action or situation which would elicit conduct in people.

Cultural change

Any modification addition or loss of ideas, cultural objects of the techniques and practices that is associated with them

Status symbol

Any object, skill, experience or action on which members of a group or society place a value and which they use as a criterion for determining status

Social Sciences

Any of the several related sciences that objectively study and analyze the significant aspects of human social behavior. They would essentially include sociology, political science, economics, cultural anthropology, social geography, population studies and social psychology. Many social scientists would also include physical anthropology and psychology as well as historiography and archaeology.

Social Problem

Any social condition or practice which deviates from a given set of ideals. Social practices or conditions which deviate from the values of society and which seriously thwart the achievement or maintenance of these values by serving to disorganize individual personalities or by reducing the degree of social integration and respect for order.

Superstitutions

Any unsystematised body of irrational and fearful beliefs in various unreasonable phenomena having a supernatural character

Animism

One of the basic concepts of 18th century evolutionary theory of religion popularized by R.B Taylor in his primitive culture. Even Spencer supported the idea that animism was the universal and earliest form of religion practice. Taylor explained the prevalence of animistic beliefs by conjecturing that belief in animism among the primitive people provides an explanation for such phenomena as death, hearing the echo, seeing one's image in water etc.

Urbanism

Patterns of culture and social interaction resulting from the concentration of large population into relatively small areas. Urbanism reflects an organization of society in terms of a complex division of labor, high levels of technology, high mobility, interdependence of its members in fulfilling economic functions and impersonality in social relations

Ambilateral

Refers to kinship system in which one is free to identify with maternal or paternal kin group according to his will.

Atomism

Atomism views the world as composed of discrete atomistic elements and reduces knowledge to observation of the smallest indivisible elements such as human beings-not social structures and social institutions.

Fabians

Fabian society is one of the earliest socialist organizations of England. The socialism of the Fabians has always been gradualists rather than revolutionary, bureaucratic rather than democratic, technical and research based rather than ethical or emotional; elitist rather than popular. (Duncan Mitchell).

Fecundity

Fecundity refers to biological capacity for reproduction as distinct from actual reproduction which is called fertility. Fertility is always less than fecundity in all societies and varies considerably among different societies. The difference between fecundity and fertility is more pronounced among industrial societies as compared to preindustrial societies.

Asiatic mode of production

Found in least developed societies according to Marx for example in India. According to Marx Asiatic mode of production explains the stagnation of oriental societies. Basic features of society having Asiatic mode of production are absence of private property, self-sufficient village economy, control of public works by state, absence of class and thus class- struggle which causes a stagnant society in absence of social change.

Law of Social Migration

Franz Oppenheimer's statement that men tend to move from a place of greater socio-economic pressure to a place of less socio-economic pressure.

Functionalism

Functionalist analysts have a long history in sociology. Functionalists thought started from Auguste Comte (1798-1857), and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). It was developed further by Emile Durkeim, Talcott Parsons, refined by R. K. Merton etc. Functionalism views society as a system that is a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. The basic unit of analysis is society and its various parts are understood primarily in terms of their relationship to the whole. Thus social institutions such as family and religion are analyzed as a part of the social system rather than as isolated units. In a particular, they are understood with reference to the contribution they make to the system as a whole. The basic needs or necessary conditions of existence are called functional prerequisites.

Self

G.H Mead in mind, self and society 1934 regards self as social. Individuals with the phenomenon of role taking form a conception of self which is based on others responses to himself.

Ghetto

Ghetto Louis considered it as a state of mind rather than a physical fact in his book the `Ghetto' 1928. Normally ghetto refers to the inner urban area characterized by spatial concentration of the disadvantaged

Consanguinity

Relationship based on descent either from common male or female ancestor who may not be necessarily be a blood relation.

Social Control

The deliberate institutional means of making individuals and groups in a society observe and conform to the avowed social norms. The informal pressure exerted by a group over an individual by means of certain techniques such as gossip, ridicule and praise. The group interaction itself which functions to channel behavior into certain paths is also a kind of social control, quite apart of any deliberate methods.

Social Differentiation

The development of status differences in a society. The development of social and cultural distinctions in a society.

Cultural lag

The discrepancy between two related parts of a culture because of different rates of change in the parts of a particular culture which changes more slowly than the parts which are related to it.

Work ecology

The ecological study of the spatial distribution of workers in a factory, business office or the like and the relationship of this distribution to the patterns of work relationships and informal social relationships.

Utilitarianism

The ethical and social doctrine originated by Jeremy Bantham that the sole aim and criterion for judging all human conduct and all laws is the amount of happiness produced for the greatest number of people

Over -Population

The existence of too many people in a given area to allow them to maintain a given plan of living.

Non Material culture

The folkways occupational techniques, norms for conduct language habits and the religions, economic and political practices of a group of people

Culture area

The geographic area in which a relatively homogeneous culture is located

Cultural evolution

The gradual change in the number, variety and complexity of culture objects as well as in their meanings and functions.

Community organization

The high degree of mutual interdependence among the institutions and groups in a community in addition to a well-developed sense of community cohesion among the people and a willingness on their part to cooperatively achieve common interests.

Nuclear family

The husband, wife and their offspring. It is the same as the conjugal family.

Body Intimacy theory of family origin

The hypothesis that human families originated because of the fact an infant is physically dependent on his mother or on the other adults in order to live

Contract theory of societal origin

The hypothesis that human societies originated in a deliberate contract decided upon by savages who were living in a state of nature whereby everyone assumed a certain status in a society with its rights and obligations

Deindustrialization

The importance of manufacturing industry has declined in a number of advanced industrial societies when measured by the share of manufacturing in total output or the proportion of the population employed in the manufacturing industry. Such a trend has been termed as de-industrialization. This is mainly the result of the expansion of the services sector and the use of highly efficient technology in production.

Biological factor in social change

The inherited capacity for intelligence which would underline the creation of culture

Culture contact

The initial state of mutual awareness between cultural groups

Society

The largest social grouping having permanence through generations of people who adhere to a common culture, tradition and value system who have a status system and a division of social functions who have modes of control over their social conduct and who are conscious of being a unique society distinct from all others.

Divorce

The legal dissolution of a legal marriage.

Polygyny

The marriage of one man to two or more women at the same time.

Sex Ratio

The number of males per 100 females in a given population.

Population density

The number of people living in each unit of area.

Social Structure

The orderly organization of the social roles and statutes in a society.Any degree of regularity in the way that people act toward each other in a given group

Cultural Orthogenesis

The overdevelopment of a certain aspect of a culture compared to its other aspects. This concept assumes that there is such a thing as a culture that is equally developed in all its aspects

Monism

The philosophical view that everything is reducible to one principle or substance .The view that all social facts may be explained in terms of one basic principle or kind of cause

Culture centre

The place or area in which a given culture trait originated and from which it was diffused

Social Darwinism

The point of view that cultural groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as plants and animals in nature. Thus the weak groups are numerically diminished and their cultures delimited while the strong groups grow in numbers as well as in their cultural influence over the weak.

Agnosticism

The point of view that the existence of God cannot be scientifically proven.

Atheism

The point of view which denies the existence of God.

Agrarian socialism

The political and economic ideology which justifies collectivization in agriculture.

Paganism

The polytheistic worship of idols

Agnation

The practice of reckoning descent and kinship exclusively through the male line.

Status

The privileges, rights and duties which are associated with the higher or lower social rank in a group or society

Population problems

The problems associated with an unwanted increase or decrease in the number of people, a change in the sex ratio, age structure or in population quality.

Desocialization

The process by which earlier socialization is undone.

Social Ossification

The process by which status levels become more distinct. The process of standardization in social practices.

Assimilation

The process by which the people of two or more cultures who have come into contact with each other lose their unique cultural identities and become fused into a single homogeneous cultural unit which is different from any of the original component cultural units.

Amalgamation

The process of a genetic mixing of races.

Accommodation

The process of adjustment in the social relations among essentially antagonistic groups whereby certain mutually tolerable working arrangements arise which diminish for overt expressions of the underlying antagonisms among them.

Socialization

The process of developing a personality; it refers to the way that people learn the habits,attitudes,social roles of self-conceptions, group norms and universe of discourse that enable them to interact with other people in their society. The transfer of the ownership of property from private individuals to government ownership.

Institutionalization

The process of formalizing and standing the social practices which serve to maintain the important social values and establish regular procedures of control in a society.

Association

The process of interaction. The process where new groups are formed or group cohesion is strengthened. A number of formally organized people who are bound together by the fact they are seeking some objectives.

Cultural conditioning

The process of learning the values, norms points of view and social practices of a given society by participating in its activities.

Social Stratification

The process whereby clean and definite status levels are formed. The organization of society into status levels

Acculturation

The process whereby new culture traits are adopted and incorporated into an existing culture. The process of mutual modification of two or more different cultures which are in contact with each other without much sign of their fusing into a single homogeneous culture.

Social work

The professional attempt to help people meet their personal and family problems more effectively

Zoning

The public regulation of land and building use in order to control the character of the community. Ideally areas of the city or town are restricted to specialized usage for the benefit of the public welfare of example, so that residential areas will not become interspersed with industry. Zoning is an aspect of community planning

We -feeling

The recognition by a number of people that they form a unique group which is worthy of inspiring their loyalty in preference to all other similar groups.

Race relations

The relations among members of different races who are conscious of their racial differences.

Kinship

The relationship among people that exists because of genetic descent or marriage.

Culture conflict

The relationship between two cultural groups whereby each seeks to subordinate or destroy the culture of the other

Ancestor worship

The religious ritual that is based on the belief that the ghosts of deceased can mystically intercede on behalf of their living descendants.

Zone in tradition

The second of E.W Burgess five concentric zones: an area immediately surrounding the central business district of a large city that is being invaded by business and industrial expansion. Land value is high and expected to become higher when the are a eventually becomes part of the central business district. Because of this there is intense real estate speculation. Buildings are old and deteriorated and landlords who are often land speculators have little incentive to repair or improve them. This is the area of the slums and in Burgess' concentric zone hypothesis the existence of slums is explained primarily in terms of this process of transition in land use

Institution

The social norms and standardized practices which are performed by special functionaries in meeting continuous or recurring human requirements. The term is often loosely applied to a public building.

Cultural imperatives

The social norms which are found in all societies which presumably express the basic social needs of all people.

Generalized others

When a child sees himself in terms of the collective viewpoint of the others, he sees himself from the perspective of generalized others

Participant observation

When a researcher became a member of the group he is studying and participates in its group life fully, it is called participant observation.Malinowosky emphasized on this method of studying societies.

Avoidance

When one party avoids the other a man avoids his wife's mother in some societies.

Purdah

The custom of secluding women from public view.

Witch

A person most often a woman who is believed to have inherent powers to work magic for good or evil.

Cultural integration

The degree of consistency among the major values or ideals of a society.

Culture object

A man-made material object which is used for socially defined purpose;techinally the concept would also include things which were not actually made by men but which nevertheless would have a social meaning as for example a sacred lake or a sacred mountain

Mixed marriage

A marriage between two people of different religions, nationalites or races.

Beena Marriage

A matrilocal and matriarchal type of family life practiced among certain types of the sahara

Patriarchal family

A monogamous family in which the oldest male has extensive authority over the other members of the family or the household.

Descent

A persons' recognized social connection with his ancestors may be from male line or from female line. When descent is connected from both the lines it is called bilateral descent.

Myth

A myth is a narrative organizing data such as beliefs about transcendental powers about the origins of the universe and of social institutions or about the history of people. Its function for a society's members is to record, present and allow a reflective exploration of the moral system and relational features therein presented.

Culture myth

A mythological explanation of the origin of a society, social practices or culture object which relies on the action of a cultural deity or culture hero

Social Distance

The degree to which groups of people treat each other with reserve because of cultural,racial,religious,economic or other differences.

Family

A group which comes into being to establish or regularize the sexual or procreative function. A primary group which is made up of two parents and at least one dependent child all of whom are bound by a feeling of familisms.

Stationary population

A population in which the birth and death rates are constant and approximate each other so that the size of the age and sex categories remains relatively constant

Value judgment

A judgment of what is desirable or worthwhile. Value judgments are essential in all human activities except where they lead to rigidities and dogmatism. Value judgments are undesirable in sociology only if they exclude or obscure available or obtainable facts, knowledge or insights. In science value judgments influence the selection of problems for investigation and the practical application of scientific findings.

Social Parasite

A kind of person who makes a living at the expense of others without even trying to return anything to his supporters.

Exogamy

A large family unit of three or more generations who are related along the male or female lines who live in a cluster of houses.

Culture typology

A logical classification of cultures which purports to characterize the similarities and differences among them

Differentiation

A notion with a long history in sociology differentiation is mainly used in theories of social change. It refers to a process whereby sets of social activities performed by one social institution become split up between different institutions. Differentiation represents an increasing specialization of the parts of a society giving greater heterogeneity within the society.

Conflict

1.The social process of opposition among antagonistic groups in which each deliberately seeks to destroy, subdue or thwart the others whether such opposition is violent or not. 2.Violent opposition among groups. 3.Relations between two individuals who seek to thwart to subdue each other.

Dumont's theory of population

A Dumont's statement that as individuals rises in the social status system, they are less likely to reproduce because they lose interest in family life and race perpetuation.

Race

A major subdivision of the species homosapiens consisting of a large number of people who form a distinct genetic entity because they have similar physical traits which they had inherited from common ancestors. Though such a definition has the value of precision it has the important disadvantage of being indemonstrable with present techniques of anthropological analysis and research. The term is generally used to refer to a biologically defined category of people which is to be distinguished from all culturally defined categories of people.

Alien

A person living in a country who was born elsewhere and who is not a citizen of his country of residence.

Conjugal family

A biological family: parents and their offspring

Creed

A body of fundamental beliefs which guide ethical conduct.

Initiation Rites

A ceremony commemorating the admission of a person into a new status level of group.

Mobility

A change in social status. The process of changing residence.

Utopia

A conception of an ideal or perfectly society which eliminates all of the aspects of prevailing societies that are regarded as undesirable. Highly idealized utopias represent societies in which people live without interpersonal conflict, without rivalry without competition -infact without any of the potentially painful experiences realistically involved in human interaction in every human society of both the past and the present

Universal cultural pattern

A construct composed of the cultural elements; social organizations and types of social conduct which can be found in every human society

Culture trait

A construct which refers to the simplest element in a culture; a way of using a culture object, a social norm, a social attitude and so on

Culture pattern

A contract which refers to a logical interpretation of all the culture traits and complexes in a given culture into a meaningful whole; it is intended as a general characterization of an entire culture for the purpose of comparing it with other cultures

Cultural Island

A culture group which lives in the midst of a larger society of a different culture.

Cohort

A demographic term describing a group of people who share a significant experience at a certain point of time.

Commodity fetishism

A doctrine originally formulated by Marx. He made a distinction between producing something for one's own use and producing a commodity which is an object created solely to exchange since the producers do not come into contact with each other until they exchange their products. These objects come to stand for the social relationships people accept each other

Social Disintegration

A drastic breakdown in the social control of social relations and sense of in group solidarity in a society. The process by which people participate in over fewer social activities so that the amount of interaction among them decreases and group controls over them diminish in effectiveness

Matriarchal family

A family group, in which the wife has the highest status, controls the other family members and makes important decisions affecting the family group.

Punaluan family

A family in which a number of husbands are shared by group of sisters or one in which a number of wives are shared by a group of brothers. This was hypothesized by Lewis H Morgan.

Broken family

A family which once consisted of a husband and wife from whom one parent is permanently absented either because of divorce, death or desertion

Monogamy

A form of marriage in which there is only one spouse to each sex as distinguished from polygamy in which a person may have two or more spouses of the other sex.

Non- fraternal polyandry

A form of polyandry in which several men who are married to a given woman are not brothers.

Polyandary

A form of polygamy where a woman may legally have two or more husbands at the same time.

Differential Association

A general theory of criminal behavior developed by E.H Sutherland. It attempts to explain the crime in terms of cultural transmission; crime is learned within primary groups whose members are criminally inclined. People become criminal as a consequence of excess of social definitions to crime over a unfavorable definitions. The theory was further revised by Sutherland and Cressy. It criticizes the conventional view of crime which treats criminals as abnormal persons.

Cultural minority

A group of aggregate of people who have a unique culture in a society which is dominated by a group having another culture. The minority usually has a lower political, economic and social status than the dominant cultural group in the society. It may be a small cultural island in a city or it may be an entire nationality in a multi-national state

Clan

A group of agnates tracing descent from a common ancestor who may be mythical

Industrial Society

A society in which an industrial economy crucially affects the social relations among the people. It is one in which large masses of people who form the labor force live in large urban areas. They are differentiated into numerous status levels based on differences in wealth, political power, occupational status and speacialization.Bacause of the use of mass production techniques a wide variety of goods are produced and the living standards are high. It is a society in which because of its size much of the social interaction is formal, government is distant and mechanical and mass communication methods have to be used to reach the people.

Contract Society

A society in which social control is exerted primarily by means of formal law rather than by customs alone.

Idealistic Society

A society in which the culture represents a compromise between the ideational and sensate types of cultures.

Primitive society

A society that has not developed a system of writing. A non-literate society that has a rudimentary culture with no knowledge of metallurgy, machine manufacture, agriculture or any systematic science, technology or theology.

Ideational Society

A society which exalts spiritual values over material value

Matriarchate

A society, a social group, or organization which is dominated by women.

Z score

A statistical score expressed in terms of its relative position in the frequency distribution of which it is a part. A score is converted to a z score so that it may be compared with scores from other tests or measuring instruments. A Z score is obtained by subtracting a raw score from the arithmetic mean of the distribution of scores and dividing by the standard deviation of the distribution. The Z score is often referred to as the standard score and occasionally as the sigma score

Political sociology

A study of the political state as a social phenomenon and the social and cultural factors influencing political organization and change.

Social Revolution

A sudden and drastic change in the social practices or in the status structure in a society.

Religion

A system of conduct that is based on beliefs which outline the ethical and proper relations among men as well as the proper relationship between men and God which often embodies worshipful and reverent ceremony.

Urban renewal

A term applied to an approach to urban development. Three things are stressed in urban renewal. 1. Prevention of the spread of blight into good areas. 2. The rehabilitation and conservation of areas that can be economically restored. 3. Clearance and redevelopment of areas that cannot be saved.

Grand Theory

A term coined by C.W Wills to refer pejoratively to sociological theories couched at a very abstract conceptual level like those of Talcott Parsons

Differential Gratification

A term used to describe a type of behaviour in which sacrifices are made in the present in the hope of greater future rewards. It is often regarded as a characteristic feature of middle class up-bringing accounting for the relatively greater educational success of middle class children. It is also a pre-condition of accumulation of capital in the earlier stages of capitalism.

Anascopic

A theory which starts from individual and looks upward to contract a conception of society (eg: theory of humans).

Consanguine family

A type of family group which is organized around the brother and sister relationship. Though the siblings do not marry each other, they live together as a household group; their spouses live in other households

Tribe

A type of large social unit which is usually made up of several clans or sibs who are politically bound together by a chief or a common council and who may also have a common language and culture although it is not invariably so

Cultural type

A type of personality which is either produced by a given culture or which gets its meaning from the way that the person regularly acts with reference to a given culture. It is the same as a social type. A type of culture pattern.

Usage, social

A uniform or customary way of behaving within a social group.Max Weber used the term social usage as a more general term than custom which he regarded as a subtype

Feudal society

An ideal society which is the make up of closed status categories or estates ;it is made up of a large peasant labor force a small number of privileged land owners, artisans and merchants, warriors and a priest estate. Each status category would be obliged to observe its own laws.

Value orientation

A value to which an individual is committed and which influences his behaviour.Value-orientation is distinguished from value by those writers who make this distinction, in that value orientation focuses on an individual whereas value focuses on a group. It may be said that the members of a group share a certain value and yet this value will not be equally important to all group members. When referring to a value to which a particular member is personally committed that is when emphasizing the point of view of a specific individual rather than the group as a whole.

Sociological Fact

A verifiable statement or observation about a social phenomenon which has relevance to a sociological hypothesis or generalization

Pastoral Culture

A way of life which develops out of the fact that a group of people are dependent on herds of domesticated animals for a food supply. Because of the necessity of constant migration, their material culture is limited largely to portable goods and their social organization is influenced by the arduous character of migration.

Abstraction

Abstraction said to take place when we select from the phenomenon we study and whose character we wish to describe, such traits as would form a basis of their classification. In social sciences as well as natural sciences there are many varieties which can be neglected because they are less relevant to the phenomena being studied. To the extend that knowledge is possessed of the condition under which the neglected variables are or not significant the more powerful is the theory.

Achievement Motivation

According to D.C McClelland ,the need to perform well or achievement motivation significantly determines a person's effort in reaching some given standard of excellence in comparison with competitors. It is a major determinant of entrepreneurial activity and a cause of rapid economic growth when widely dispersed in a society. McClelland's views have been criticized as providing an explanation in terms of characteristics of individuals while neglecting social structural factors.

Ethnomethodology

According to Duncan Mitchell ethno methodology emphasizes on the incarnate character of social phenomena i.e. sociological terms such as culture or organization refer to the doings and sayings of people the situated nature of sociological research i.e. professional sociologists study society from within. According to Garfinkel ethnomethodology means the study of the methods used by people. It is concerned with examining the methods and procedures employed by members of society to construct account for and give meaning to their social world. Ethnomethodoligists either suspend or abandon the belief that an actual or objective social order exists. Instead they proceed from the assumption that social life appears orderly to members of society. Zimmerman and Wieder state that the ethno-methodologist is concerned with how members of society go about the task of seeing, describing and explaining order in the world in which they live.

Sacred and Profane

According to Durkheim sacred things are those which the religious interdictions protect and isolate profane things, those to which these interdictions are applied and which must remain at a distance from the first

Eugenics

According to Francis Galton the science of eugenics is to study those factors which may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generation either physically or mentally

Modernization

According to Gore modernization is not a philosophy or a movement with a clearly articulated value system. It is a process of change. According to Eisenstadt modernization is the most important feature of the contemporary scene. It refers to both firstly the structural aspects of social organization and secondly the socio-demographic aspects of societies.Rustow and Ward say that the basic process in modernization is the application of modern science to human affairs. Talcott Parsons explain modernization by reference to the onset of the process of structural differentiation which can be done by changes in either technology or values. As a result of this the institutions multiply and the simple structures of traditional societies are transformed into complex ones of modern societies.

Social closure

According to Max Weber who used this concept to describe the kind of social groups which maximized their own advantage by restricting access of rewards to their own members. Thus closing access to outsiders Frank Parkin treats closure as an aspect of the distribution of power between classes.Parkin identified strategies of exclusion by which collectivities with privileged access to rewards attempt to exclude outsiders and pass on privileges to their own kind.

Exchange theory

According to Oxford Dictionary of sociology, exchange theory views social order as the unplanned outcome of acts of exchange between members of society.

Six fundamental interests

Albion W Small's statement that the six basic main springs of human behavior are health, wealth, sociability, knowledge, beauty and righteousness.

Culture

All the learned socially -meaningful conduct which is practiced in a given society including customs,norms,language,the religious ,economic and political beliefs and practices, art and so on. This definition excludes all the man made socially meaningful objects. All that is learned and shared by a particular society plus all their manmade material goods that have a social meaning. The term also refers to super organic or all the learned conduct and artifacts of man as a genius of animals as distinct from all that is biologically inherited by men.

Communal society

An ideal type society in which most of the everyday life is regulated by tradition, custom and mores and in which there is relatively little emphasis on individual responsibility

Dowry

Amount paid to the groom by the family of bride.

Urban society

An abstract or idea type developed by Robert Redfield as part of his folk-urban societal typology. Urban society is characterized by a large, heterogenous population close contact with other societies, a complex division of labour, a prevalence of secular over sacred concerns and the desire to organize behavior rationally toward given goals as opposed to following without question traditional standards and norms. Many social relationships are impersonal and contractual and there is a formal system of social controls. Urban society is contrasted to folk society

Agnate

An agnate is one related by descent through males only.

Community

An area of common living which is defined according to the interests or characteristics of the people living in it an in which the people have the sense of being a unit. An aggregate of people living in an area among whom the relations are impersonal and formal and who are defined ecologically and symbiotically rather than socially

Ethnos

An ethnic group; a tribal society.

Embourgeoisement

An explanation of declining working class support for radical political movements as a result of increased affluence causing workers to adopt middle class values and life styles. Embourgeoisement was a popular argument in Germany and Britain during early and middle of 20th century. It was tested by Goldthorpe.

Zipf migration hypothesis

An hypothesis in ecology proposed by George K Zipf that states that other factors such as income level, unemployment being equal, the number of persons who migrate between two communities (in both directions) will be equal to the product of the population of the two communities divided by the shortest distance between the communities. The hypothesis is often expressed in terms of the formula P1.P2/D in which P1 is the population of one community ,P2 the population of the other community and D the shortest distance between the two communities. It is sometimes referred to as the P1P2/D hypothesis and also the hypothesis on the intercity movement of persons and the minimum equation hypothesis

Social Action

Conduct that is oriented toward other people.Any cooperative effort on the part of a group of people to achieve some goal.

Valence

As defined by Kurt Lewin, the quality of an object or goal that attracts (positive valence) or repels (negative valence) an individual.

Alliance theory

Associated with Levi Strauss this theory argues that in kinship systems, inheritance and the continuation of the vertical line i.e. descent is less important as compared to the horizontal links i.e. alliance. Thus the relationship of reciprocity and exchange brought by marriage is more important.

Dysfunction

Associated with R.K Merton anything is dysfunctional if it disrupts the normal functioning of a system.

Lineage

Consists of all descendents in one line of a particular person through many generations. If this line is taken from paternal side it is called patri-lineage and if taken from maternal side it is called matrilineage.

Life Chances

Coined by T Veblen ,a leisure class is defined by its sense of the indignity of manual labor and this disdain for work is expressed through conspicuous consumption, waste and leisure. The weakness of Veblen's approach was its conflation of aristocracy, bourgeoisie and nouveau rich although he was more concerned with social criticism than with sociological precision.

Norm

Common standards or ideas which guide members' responses in all established groups. Norms are the specific manifestations of values. Thus social norms induce conformity in the group behavior and ethical judgments.

Gesellschaft

Concept elaborated by Tonnies, it refers to association,. Term linked with Urbanism, industrial life, heterogeneity and secondary relationships

Material Culture

Culture objects anything tangible that is man-made.

Comparative sociology

Durkheim said comparative sociology is not a particular branch of sociology, it is sociology itself. In so far it ceases to be purely descriptive and aspire to account for facts.Max Weber also advocated comparative method. Earlier Montesquieu and Comte favored comparative method.Tylor like Comte said that one of the main aims of comparison is to discover what he called cultural adhesions or necessary correlations between two or more cultural phenomena such as rules of kinship behavior and rules of kinship terminology. According to Oxford dictionary of sociology where a sociological analysis is explicitly held to be comparative, this usually involves the study of particular social processes across nation states or across different types of society. Much of what is normally referred to as comparative sociology is perhaps more accurately described as cross-national research.

Concentric Zone theory

E.Burgess a sociologist of Chicago School proposed an ideal type model of urban growth in industrialized societies. He argued that cities take the form of five concentric rings. The innermost ring is the central business district containing most the markets,offices,banks and other serve facilities. The second ring is the zone of transition. As a result it is the run-down area of cheap housing. The third zone contains manual workers. The fourth is the middle class suburb and the fifth is the commuters zone. The real cities do not conform exactly to these five zone model. As criticism against the concentric zone theory Homer Hoyt had suggested the sector model while Harrison Ullman has suggested the multiple nuclei theory

Emic & Etic Analysis

Emicist concentrate on describing the indigenous values of a particular society while eticists apply broader theoretical models across a number of societies. The Emic approach became popular in the late 1960's as part of the movement towards cultural relativism (Oxford dictionary of Sociology)

Durkheim's stages of social development

Emile Durkheim's statement that there are two ideal types stages- mechanical solidarity and organic and voluntary solidarity which is associated with the functional organization of society.

Bogardus law of social tension

Emory S Bogardus's statement that the greater the social distance between two groups of people who live in close proximity the greater is the likelihood of overt tension occurring between them

Enfunction

Enfunctional activity contributes to the maintenance or survival of another social activity or of the social system as a whole.

Chicago school

Established by Albion Small. Main advocates of this school were Park and Burgess and the school was heavily influenced by philosophical pragmatism. Observation of the experience and the analysis of urban social processes

Grounded theory

Grounded theory is rooted in data which have been systematically obtained by social research. The development of grounded theory was an attempt to avoid highly abstract sociology and to restore. The balance between empiricism and theory building

Guild

Guilds were occupational associations of pre and early industrial society which communicated the lore and skills of a trade by means of formal apprenticeships, control and members occupational activities and the exclusion of outsiders from practicing the trade. They were normally fraternal and corporate bodies

Acephalous

Headless or stateless societies are acephalous societies. In such societies positions of authority within kinship or domestic group provide a means of control together with institutionalized behavior relating to lineages, tribes and tribal segments.

Spencer's stages of society

Herbert Spencer's statement that society developed from a society organized primarily for war. A society organized primarily for industry

Law of social motion

Herbert Spencer's view that social change or social trends tend to follow the direction of least obstruction.

Social Behaviour

Human activity which occurs in response to the meanings of the conduct of others or that which is intended to stimulate meaningful responses in others.

Idiographic & Nomothetic

Idiographic discipline is concerned with particular propositions while nomothetic is concerned with general propositions. This distinction was made by Wilhelm Windleband.

Status inconsistencies

In multi dimensional systems of stratification individuals may occupy inconsistent statuses-individuals with high level of educational attainment which provides a high social status along one stratification dimension may be employed in occupations that are poorly paid and carry low prestige indicating low statuses along other dimensions. This concept was coined by G Lenski.He also coined another term status crystallization which denotes consistencies between an individual's various statuses. He cites four important statuses: income, occupational prestige, education and ethnicity. Inconsistencies believed to promote resentment among individuals who may therefore either favor radical social change designed to alter the design of the system of stratification or attempt to crystallize their own statuses by changing their own personal situation.

Ahimsa

In politics it refers to non-violent opposition to civil authority. In Jainism the religious doctrine which considers all life sacred.

Puberty rites

In preliterate societies a ceremony which commemorates the social recognition of a young person's transition from the status of childhood into the status of adulthood.

Validity

In statistics correspondence between what a measuring device is supposed to measure and what is really a measure. For example if one were to ask whether a particular survey of voter preference really measures the preferences of voters or whether a particular intelligence test actually measures intelligence ,one would be raising the question of the validity of the survey or the test.

Integration

In the social sciences the term is used in various contexts to refer to the act of process of unifying things which were previously discrete and separate in to a composite whole.

Androgyny

In this type of society social roles are not assigned on the basis of sex or concept of masculinity or femininity.

Human capital

Individuals who invested time and money in education, training and other qualities that increase their productivity and thus their worth to an employer are said to have greater endowment of human capital.

Alienation

It denotes the state of estrangement of individuals from themselves and others. Karl Marx is responsible for popularizing this concept and for giving it a sociological meaning. The basis of allegation for Marx lies in the private ownership of means of production. Marx identified four particular manifestations of alienation- The worker is alienated from the product of his labor since what he produces is appropriated by others and he has no control over it. The worker is alienated from the act of production. The worker is alienated from his human nature because the first two aspects of alienation deprives him from his productive activity. The worker is alienated from other men since capitalism transforms social relations into market relations and people are judged by their position in the market relations rather than their human qualities. Weber found manifestation of alienation in the bureaucratic organization of social life in modern industrial societies. Seeman has attempted to provide a more comprehensive definition of alienation by incorporating various social and psychological states within the scope of this concept.

Action Theory

It distinguishes action from mere behavior in that action involves meanings or intentions. Action theory is an analysis of action starting with the individual actor. Analysis proceeds in terms of typical actors in typical situations by identifying actor's goals, expectations and values. The means of achieving these goals the nature of the situation and the actor's knowledge of the situation. Talcott Parsons refers to these elements as action frame of reference. Action theory can be traced to the works of Max Weber inspired by Weber two forms of action theories have been developed one form of action theory is reflected in the works of Alfred Schultz and subsequently Harold Garfinkel. Here priority is given to the meaningfulness of the action. The other form of action theory found in the works of Talcott Parsons in which the idea of meaningfulness is subordinated is the concept of social structure.

Human relation approach

It focused on behavior of employees in groups and marked a shift away from scientific management. It originated out of pioneering research carried out in Western Electric Company by Elton Mayo and colleagues between 1927-32 also known as Hawthorn studies.

Initiation Rites & Rites de Passage

It is a ceremonial process associated with rituals by which a person takes new position and role according to the new status. The term initiation rites are associated with the ceremonial activities attached with the rite de passage from childhood to adulthood.

Initiation rites and Rites de passage

It is a ceremonial process associated with rituals by which a person takes new position and role according to the new status. The term initiation rites are associated with the ceremonial activities attached with the rites de passage from childhood to adulthood.

Tradition directedness

It refers to the type of behavior which is minutely controlled from without by traditional cultural standards by kinship ties,religion,ceremonies and the like. Their outstanding characteristic is in conformity to external standards of behavior and the etiquette of their community

Elite theory

Italian sociologists Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca are associated with Elite Theory which argues few people (elite) regulate the affairs of society and rule over the masses. Although Pareto is usually considered to have derived the idea from Mosca, it was Pareto who has got the credit of creating elite theory.

Comprador class

Its sociological meaning refers to an individual or a class who acts as a social structural mediator between the metropolitan and satellite countries. Their western tastes,lifestyles,economic interests and political needs reflect the links that join the economic structure of the satellite to the metropolis

Social Sanctions

Means by which conformity to socially approved standards is enforced. It can be positive inform of reward and negative in form of punishment. It can be formal (legal restraints) and can also be informal.

Ethnic Group

Membership of a distinct group based on their own customary ways or culture, common language, common customs, traditions etc.

Methodology

Methodology is a system of method or procedures with which the study of a problem is approached. Methods and methodology are not the same while method is a part of methodology. Methodology is a system which combines or integrates certain methods. Methods are the tools or techniques which help to implement a methodological approach or perspective. Methodology gives us an understanding of the overall approach of thinkers to the problem under study.

Youth culture

Of late youth in many societies have come to be treated as a special category. Young people between the age of 12 and 20 have acquired a distinctive social identity. Three features distinguished the culture of youth groups in industrial societies for the mainstream culture. These are -It is culture of leisure rather than work. Social relations are organized around the peer group in families or individual friends. Youth groups are particularly interested in style. Some youth cultures are notable for their nonconformity.

Anthromorphism

Organic analogy in sociology attribution of human characteristics to that which is not human.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology began as the project of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl.His ideas were transformed by Alfred Schutz.Husserl was concerned with the process of consciousness of how experience creates a sense of an external reality. According to Turner Husserl initially made reference to the world of the natural attitude. Later he was to use the phase life world. In either case with these concepts he emphasized that humans operate in a taken for granted world that permeates their mental life. His aim was to search for the essence of consciousness. The substantive content of consciousness or the life world is not what is important but the abstract processes of consciousness per se are to be the topic of philosophic enquiry.Schutz blended Husserl's phenomenology with Max Weber's action theory and American Interactionism. He addressed the questions how do actors create a common subjective world and what implications does this creations have for how social order is maintained.

Polygamy

Plural marriage of one man to two or more women or the marriage or the marriage of one woman to two or more men at the same time.

Endogamy

Practice of marrying with a prescribed group e.g a kinship category, a tribe a religious denomination etc.

Moral restraint

Pre- marital chastity and the postponement of marriage as a means of keeping at a minimum the number of births in a population.

White collar worker

Professionals, business managers and proprietors and clerks.

Dharma

The Hindu code of righteous conduct a set of ritual duties.

Benedict's cultural pattern

Ruth Benedict dichotomous division of preliterate cultures into two ideal types. 1.The Apollonian or calm restrained type of culture 2.The Dionysian or frenzied emotional type of culture

Social Process

Social interaction among persons. Any sequence of acts by a group of people. Any way in which groups of people act toward each other as they seek to achieve certain goals.Any development or evolution of society.

Social Hygiene

Social work dealing with the problem of prostitution and control of venereal disease.

Ethnography, ethnology

Study of one society is called ethnography while comparative study of many societies is called ethnology. Thus ethnology is dependent on ethnography. Ethnographic study is done by in-depth analysis and personal contact over a period of time in a society.

Invisible Religion

T Luckmann argues that religion should not be identified merely with religious institutions but that the human animal is essentially religious in its transcendence of biological nature. Such transcendence is possible through the creation of a meaningful sense of SELF a process that usually takes place in the context of a world-view that gives everyday life its ultimate significance. In modern societies Luckman claims that a new social form for religion is emerging based on consumer preference and possessing a more differentiated character than in the traditional world.

Sociometry

Term coined by J.L Moreno. A technique to measure the likeness or dislikeness or identifying a group to which one wants to be associated

Avanculate

Term used to describe mother's brother authority over sisters children in a matrilineal society and sometimes used to describe the privileged joking relationships between maternal uncle and nephew.

Ethnocentrism

Term was coined by W.G Sumner in book Folkways 1906 when one's own group is centre of everything and all others are scaled, rated and compared with reference to it.

Paleolithic Age

The Old Stone Age the period of cultural development which was characterized by the use of crudely chipped stone tools which were made into almond -shaped flake tools. The men secured their food by gathering vegetation, by hunting wild animals. They lived in the open or in natural shelters such as caves

Other directedness

The concept was introduced by Reissman.The other directed person depends exclusively on constant approval of others for confirmation of his or her self image. This confirmed personality is seen as the product of mass consumption society.

Biological sociology

The analysis and interpretation of society and social processes in terms of analogies to biological processes

Urban managerialism

The approach to the study of urban social and spatial inequalities associated with the work of R E Pahl.The reason for social and spatial inequality is sought in the decisions of those who are associated with management and administration of cities

Urban ring

The area surrounding a city including the suburbs and the urban fringe

Life cycle analogy in sociology

The attempt to explain the development of social groups and institutional practices in terms of life-cycle stages of a biological organism for example the birth, growth, maturation, decline and death of an animal was considered analogous to the development of a group.

Ethos

The basic character of pattern of an ethnic group which makes it distinct from all other ethnic groups.

Totemism

The belief in a totem The organization of a society into totems

Polytheism

The belief in many gods of equal status

Witch craft

The belief that a witch has the inherent power to harm or help a person or his soul by using supernatural techniques.The magical techniques associated with such a belief.

Psychological sociology

The body of knowledge and interpretative point of view which seeks to explain sociological phenomena primarily in terms of individual psychological factors such as desires,motives,interests,wishes,needs,feelings and impulses.

Intelligence

The capacity for learning new habits and insights to retain learned ones to adapt to new situations adequately to see relationships among phenomena to solve problems to anticipate the actions of others and so on. The measurable abilities to solve problems analyse logical fallacies to learn new knowledge and to retain learned knowledge.

Marriage

The ceremony which unites a man and woman into a family. The legal partnership of a man and a woman. The person to person relationship between a husband and wife which is made up of their respective roles involving the duties and the privileges of each toward the other.

Cultural pluralism

The co-existence of a several different culture groups in a multi-national state

Ambivalence

The coexistence in one person of opposing emotions in sociology the dual consciousness posits a class which holds apparently inconsistent beliefs and values, resulting in an ambivalent attitude to some of the central institutions in society.

Authoritarian Personality

The concept indicates the way in which the structure of personality can be predisposed to the acceptance of anti-democratic political beliefs. Adorno in his study of the Authoritarian Personality states that hierarchically and authoritarian parent child relationships atomized view of social relationships leading to the formation of stereotypes,conventionality,exploitative dependency, rigid and repressive denial during socialization culminate in a personality with a social philosophy which worships the strong and disdain the weak. Such type personality are predisposed to the acceptance of authoritarian group.

Mass society

The concept of mass society holds that modern industrial society is acquiring the following characteristics- decline of individuality,routinised and alienating work, declining influence of religion, absence of deeply held and important social values although masses are prone to ideological fanaticism.The relationship between the individuals are weak and ties of kinship have lost their importance. The masses are politically apathetic and open to manipulation by dictatorship and bureaucracy.

Sick role

The concept was first outlined by Henderson and then elaborated by Parsons. From a sociological perspective illness can be regarded as a form of social deviance in which an individual adopts a specific role. This sick role has four major characteristics- The incumbent is exempted from normal social responsibilities. The sick person is not blamed for being sick The person is expected to seek out competent professional help. The incumbent of a sick role is expected to comply with the regimen prescribed by a competent doctor.

Sex Role

The cultural role assigned to men or women as members of their sex.

Feudalism

The social, economic and political structure known as feudalism was a characteristic feature of Europe,Japan,China etc at different time. Universal definition of feudalism cannot be given. There are five characteristics common to most feudal societies- Lord-vassal relationship Personalized government A pattern of land holding based on granting of fiefs in return for services primarily military Existence of private armies Rights of lords over the peasants who are serfs. The feudal political system was essentially a decentralized one and depended on a hierarchical network of personal ties within the ranks of nobility despite the formal principle of single line of authority stretching upwards to a king.The economic base of feudalism in Europe was characterized by manorial organization of production and a dependent peasantry who provided the surplus that lords needed perform their political functions.

Managerial Sociology

The sociological analysis of the methods and purposes of management in industry.

Socio-Economic Status

The status or amount of prestige in society which is associated with the amount of income, wealth or type of occupation

Macro- Sociology

The study of large communities and entire societies.

Regional sociology

The study of regions as unique societies having their own peculiar culture, language dialects, political outlooks and traditions.

Micro-Sociology

The study of the behavior and organization of small communities and small groups.

Cultural anthropology

The study of the cultures of simple and primitive societies of cultural origins, cultural variability and the process of diffusion

Industrial Sociology

The study of the effect of work in industry on the way of life of workmen ;it includes the study of work groups as social units and the social relations in theses groups, it views workmen not as faceless cogs in an impersonal enterprise, but as human beings with hopes,fears,shortcomings,aspirations and self-esteem who carry on a peculiar tradition observe a work oriented status system and live a certain way of life which is largely affected by the occupations.

Urban sociolgoy

The study of the implications of urban living for social relations

Rural sociology

The study of the influence of rural living on the organization and functions of social groups.

Cultural sociology

The study of the origins and change in the social practices and norms of a given society

Culturology

The study of the origins and development of cultures.

Anthropology

The study of the origins of the human beings, human racial variability and the development of human cultures.

Sociology of Religion

The study of the social, economic and political factors which are associated with the establishment, maintenance and change in a religious institution or its ideology; it is also the study of the significance of religion in human conduct

Medical sociology

The study of the sociological aspects of public health problems and conditions.

Sociology of Family Life

The study of the types of families in terms of the relations among the family members; it also usually includes the study of dating and courtship behavior; the factors associated with marital happiness ,the influence of urban and rural living on family and the effects of such crises as migration,divorce,desertion,death and war on family life

Alimony

The support payments made to a divorced spouse as ordered by the court of law.

Social Psychology

The systematic study of the development of the human personality in a group context also the study of collective movement of crowds, masses and public and the ways in which their behavior influenced, directed and controlled.

Delinquency

The term is usually used to refer to any undesirable conduct on the part of a juvenile which is serious enough to compel the attention of persons of authority outside the family. It includes truancy, incorrigibility in school, petty offences and sometimes fairly serious crimes. The term is also used as a softer synonym for adult crimes.

Social change

The term social change usually refers to any change in the ideas, norms, values, social roles and social habits of the people or in the composition or organization of their society. The precise definition depends on exactly how the word social is defined if social and cultural are identical then social change would be cultural change.

Folkways

The term was introduced by W.G.Sumner. Folkways are group habits, or in other words commonly accepted ways of behaving in a society.

Devilancy Amplification

The term was originally coined by L.T Wilkinson. It suggests that much of the alleged deviance in society is unintended consequences of police control,mass media coverage and popular reaction to deviance stereotypes. The theory suggests that distorted information and ignorance about minorities in mass society produced inappropriate responses to perceived deviances. Thus societal reaction and deviant responses create a spiral of deviancy by which relatively minor pattern of deviance is amplified.

Family culture

The traditions customs, group habits, attitudes and understandings which are peculiar to the members of a given family.

Applied sociology

The use of the sociological knowledge in solving or reducing social problems.

Class conflict Interpretation of society

The view that all social institutions forms of social control, ideas of right and wrong forms of government and religion status system as well as the process of change as such are the outward manifestation of a basic conflict among economic classes. In this view any given society would derive its peculiar institutions from the fact that one class had subdued and dominated all the others

Marxian theory of population

The view that capitalistic countries must necessarily have problems of population surplus because low wages make it difficult for workman to support their families. On the other hand according to the theory the socialistic countries cannot possibly have problems of population surplus because compensation for labor would be on the basis of need; this would allow energetic proletarians to have large families since full employment and adequate income were guaranteed.

Biological determinist view of cultural change

The view that cultural differences among ethnic groups are caused by innate physical differences among them and that culture change is dependent on changes in the physical characteristics of ethnic groups

Malthusian Doctrine

The view that human reproduction increases by geometric progression and thus eventually outstrips the available food supply which increases by arithmetic progression. Famines therefore would be an inevitable necessity from time to time; the only way of retarding famines are either to voluntarily control reproduction or to kill off people in wars.

Animistic theory of religion

The view that preliterate men personified every thing and therefore spirits were elevated to the status of powerful Gods. At that point religion as a human institution came into existence.

Cultural determinism

The view that the culture of a particular people is a self-contained extra-human entity which operates under its own laws and shapes the human personality while the human initiative or will is seen as merely an appendage of culture.

White man's burden

The views that because white men have the highest culture in the world they are obliged to assume the responsibility to uplift and civilize the preliterate nonwhite ethnic groups.

Social Systems

The whole range of habits and symbols that people use in communicating with each other. The regular relationships among the people of a society

Social theories of population growth

Theories which explain population change in terms of the social and economic conditions which are peculiar to a particular people including such factors as their cultural level, their cultural level, their religious ideas and their occupational structure

Centre Periphery

There are important uses of the centre/periphery dichotomy in sociology. Edwards Shils argues that the core of the society is a central value system which has a sacred character and is the ultimate source of authority, legitimizing the distribution of wealth, rewards and roles in the social system while the various social elites are fundamentally involved in the centre, other social groups are locked at the periphery. As the means of communication improve the centre becomes more extensive within society and previously periphery groups become increasingly involved in the centre value system and subject to its authority. In the development theory of Marxist sociologists like A.G Frank the centre refers to loci of the economic power in the global organization of production and distribution. In this perspective the global economy is conceived in terms of hierarchy of economic centers which through military, political and trade arrangement extract economic surplus from subordinate peripheral economies and regions. The distinction between the industrialized core and the under developed periphery is thus part of a more general theory of imperialism. The backwardness of peripheral economies is held to be a consequence of their dependence on various core economies and not the effect of their dependence on various core economies and not the effect of their poor resources,illiteracy,traditionalism or political instability.

Hawthorne Studies

These are the experiments which inspired Elton Mayo Ettal to create the Human relations Movement. Study was conducted on the working groups in the Hawthore plant Chicago; which is of great importance to Industrial and Organizational Theories.

Mores

These are the norms that are considered to be very important by group and vital for its welfare. Violation of the mores evokes an emotional response and instead of the mere raising of eyebrows or ridicule a strong group action follows. Thus mores are norms of a higher order than folkways.

Functional Imperative of Pre-requisites

These concepts refers to basic needs which all systems including social systems have to meet if they are to continue to survive as functioning system. Marion J.Levy and T Parsons are associated with these concepts.

Magic, witchcraft and sorcery

These three are an interdependent complex belief and practices in many tribal societies. Considerable work has been done on this topic by E.Evans Pritchard in his book 'Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic' among the Azande 1937.These are the art of performing charms, spells and rituals to seek to control events or govern certain natural or supernatural forces. Usually in the tribal societies it is believed that misfortune occur to people because their moral relations with their fellows have been disturbed. Magic is the employment of substances rites and spell to achieve aims by means not under sensory

Joking relationship

This involves both combination of friendship and antagonism between individuals. Radcliff Brown has differentiated between symmetrical and asymmetrical joking relationships. Symmetrical joking relationship is when both the parties has right to tease each other and asymmetrical is when it is only one way.

Anomie

This is a social condition characterized by the breakdown of norms governing social interaction. This may happen either due to existence of contradictory norms or due to inadequacy of norms. Durkheim used this concept to describe abnormal forms of division of labor and also in his typology of suicide. Later Merton adapted this concept to explain deviance in American Society. According to him, Anomie situation arisen when there is lack of coordination between culturally defined goals and the legitimate institutional means of achieving these goals. Individual adaptations to such an Anomie situation leads to deviant behavior.

Connubium

This is a system of marital exchange between two bands of tribes, according to which men of one tribe, marry women of other and vice-versa.

Incest Taboo

This is almost a universal phenomenon according to which sexual relationship between near kins (usually primary relatives like siblings, children etc) is prohibited. The attribution of incest taboo to fear of inbreeding, socialization etc is discussed by Levi Strauss. Freud has also discussed it in Totem and Taboo.

Incest Taboo

This is almost a universal phenomenon according to which sexual relationship between near kins (usually primary relatives like siblings, children etc.) is prohibited. The attribution of incest taboo to fear of inbreeding, socialization etc. is discussed by Levi Strauss. Freud has also discussed it in `Totem and Taboo' (1917).

Taboo

This means sacred prohibition on certain things or acts. The most important taboo is incest taboo according to which sexual relationship between primary ansanguinal kins is prohibited in most societies

Convergence thesis

This point of view claims that the process of industrialization produced common and uniform political, social and cultural characteristics on societies which prior to industrialization may have had very different historical backgrounds in social structure. Even ideological differences becomes insignificant. All societies converge to a common point because industrialization requires certain characteristics in order to function effectively. These are an extended social and technical division of labour,the separation of the family from the enterprise and the workplace, a mobile urbanized and disciplined work-force, some form of rational organization of economic calculation ,planning and investment

Elite

This refers to a minority group which has power or influence over others and is recognized as bring in some ways superior. The sociology of elite is traditionally dealt with the ruling elites. The classical theory of elite is found in the works of Pareto and Mosca.In these theories the elites are shown as possessing superior psychic qualities. A more recent theory is given by C.W Mills who does not regard elites as those who dominate the key institutions of society. The concept of ruling elites is a modification of the concept of ruling class. Theorists regard that power is concentrated in the hands of a small minority rather than being shared by members of the ownership class. The assumption common to all elite theories is that there will always be a divide between the rulers and ruled even in nominally democratic societies and institutions although the elites may vary in extent to which they are integrated into a socially cohesive or solitary group.

Labor Aristocracy

This refers to an upper and privileged stratum of manual working class which by means of scarce skills, position or organizational and trade union strength establishes better conditions for self

Diffusion

This refers to the spread of cultural attributes from one culture to another culture through contact. This is opposed to evolutionary theory. Diffusionists saw culture as patchwork of borrowed traits.

Miscegenation, The mating of people of different races is known as miscegenation.

This says that mating of people of different races should be encouraged as it would produce a superior stock of people.

Middle range theory

This term was coined by R.K Merton who believes in the necessity for sociological theory constructed between minor working hypothesis and master conceptual schemes.

Leisure class

This term was coined by Veblen in his book, 'The theory of Leisure class' (1899).When members of elites are engaged in conspicuous consumption they are termed as leisure class. This involves display and waste of possessions and goods. It has a specific form called conspicuous leisure.

Suburban way of life

Those live in the suburbs have a distinctive way of life described as quasi primary involving close almost family like relationships with neighbours and friends

Gemeinschaft

Tonnies used this term. Gemeinschaft refers to world of close, emotional, face to face ties, attachment to place and a homogeneous and regulated community

Matrilineal descent

Tracing descent through the female line only.

Bilateral

Transmission of descent or property rights through male and female parents without emphasizing on anyone.

Moiety

Two or more primary subdivisions in a political or kinship grouping is called moiety. Levi Strauss refers to it as dual organization

Urbanization

Urbanization means formation of cities. It is different from urbanism which according to Louis Wirth is a way of life. Thus urbanization is a process of achieving urbanism. A more complex society with high density of population, large size and heterogeneity

Value

Values are constituent facts of social structure. These are ideas about whether experiences are important or unimportant and they guide a person's judgment and behavior. An act is considered morally acceptable or legitimate if it confirms to existing values.

Law of Stratification

Vilfredo Pareto's statement that a privileged aristocracy in a country can survive only so long as it uses force to perpetuate itself.

Organizational Man

W.H White identified a new breed of business executives working for large corporations whose lives were dominated by their firms. Firms demanded total commitment and expected executives to move from town to town even between continents as they shifted from post to post.

Teknonymy

Word coined by Edward Burnett Tylor which means practice of calling the parent from name of the child

Monotheism

Worship of only one god .Monotheism preludes the existence of any plural number of Gods.