What makes up a society?  How do we describe one?  It is a complicated affair, but here are some suggestions as to how to organize the process:

Aspects

1.  Who -- the individuals, the roles, the qualifications....
2.  What -- the objects, clothing, tools, ritual objects, technology....
3.  When -- scheduling, timing, cycles....
4.  Where -- the locale, buildings, furnishings....
5.  How -- the activities, rituals, techniques....

1.  Organization -- order (kinship systems, government, guilds, corporations).
2.  Power structures -- enforcement (the military, police, defense, war).
3.  Production -- subsistance (work, industry, agriculture, crafts, technology, cooking, cleaning, sewing, modern professions, applied science...).
4.  Education -- learning (school, apprenticeship, research).
5.  Recreation -- entertainment (play, sports, toys, games, art, music, musical instruments, stories, literature, theater...).
6.  Belief systems -- stability (propitiation of the gods or spirits, satisfaction of superstitious tendencies, social manipulation, moral control, religion, magic, theoretical science...).

1.  Family -- the most intimate circle and its activities, including meals, sexuality and reproduction, child rearing, male/female and adult/child role differentiation....
2.  Community -- a larger circle of people that we still think of as "us," and all that pertains to "us."
3.  The Others -- the people beyond our community, whom we think of as "them," and how we relate to "them."

Prerequisites of any society

• Biological creatures with needs;
• An ecosystem capable of sustaining them;
• Social relationships among those creatures; and
• Language or other symbolic communication abilities.

© Copyright 2002, C. George Boeree