Topic 2.

Contemporary
Societies

1. Why do human societies exist?

Human nature is gregarious. This means that human beings do not live on their
own, but they need to live in a community in order to cooperate, to protect themselves
and to improve their quality of life. These associations form societies.
This tendency comes from our hominid ancestors. They were not especially well
endowed with physical abilities: they were not as fast, as strong, nor as resilient as other
species.
It was thus intelligence that allowed
our ancestors to survive. But intelligence
needs learning, and living within a social
group was the best way to learn what was
needed to survive.
This is particularly true since
hominids, including present human beings,
are the species with least instinctive
behaviour at birth.
The first forms of association were
families, clans and tribes. These were small associations based on the direct knowledge
of their members.
Afterwards, larger associations were formed: villages, cities, states and empires.
With them came private property, laws, administration and taxes, in order to regulate
these forms of association.
By then social and economic inequalities appeared, due to differences in the
social functions performed by each person
Societies became then hierarchical: some people were the richest and most
influential, usually those who monopolized the political power, while the vast majority
were committed to working for the material sustenance of the society.
From those times, societies have evolved quite a lot, but the basic inequalities of
wealth, political power, education and cultural knowledge have lasted until the present
day.
Nowadays, education and knowledge are the basic means to overcome these
inequalities.

 Work in groups to describe and comment other societies different from

the western ones: Muslim, Indian, Chinese....
Think about what is scholar education useful for.

2. Social organisation
To understand how societies are organised, we try to identify different groups in
it. A social group is a number of individuals who share different features or identifies
themselves as part of that group. From this point of view, is easy to understand that
many groups may be distinguished. But we specially identify two major ones: primary
and secondary.
In primary groups there are strong links among the people who belong to them.
An example of this is families and religious communities.
In secondary groups it is just some shared activities or interests that bind them
together. For instance, political parties or sport clubs.
Therefore, the difference between them is simply the stronger or weaker links
that keep the members together.
Diversity in societies is a term referred to the different kinds of people we can
find in them. That is to say, if most people belong to the same social groups or there are
great differencescultural, religious, political...among them.
In modern societies, diversity is becoming more and more usual. In Spain, for
example, it is quite common to find people from other countries and cultures. In other
countries with even a longer tradition of immigration
diversity is even wider. That is the case of the United
States, a country formed on the basis of Native
Americans, European immigrants and African slaves
carried along several centuries. When social diversity
is so widespread that is an essential characteristic of a
given society we talk of multicultural society.

3. Types of society
The most common classification of societies as a whole divide them between
hierarchical or closed societies and dynamic or open societies.

In the first case,

there is an organisation of
society based mainly on
birth, that is to say, the
position
occupies

an
in

individual
society

depends on his or her

family origin, and there are
few

opportunities

to

change that position. An

example of this is feudal
societies.
In the second case, everyone is supposed to have the same rights and obligations.
Social differences can be overcome in different ways at least in theory. But in fact, there
are several difficulties to make this possible: influences, family wealth, knowledge,
tend in practice to make people transmit to their descendants the position they hold in
society. This is the case of modern western societies.

4. Discrimination and conflict

Not everybody agrees with multiculturalism. Some people hold that
multiculturalism means that local cultures will disappear in the future. This is why those
who belong to ethnic, cultural or religious minorities are sometimes denied the same
rights that majorities enjoy. This is what is called discrimination. Discrimination often
leads

to

conflict,

because those who are

considered inferior
try at any moment to
reach or conquer the
same rights the rest of
the

population

Violence

then

has.
may

arise when conflicts

are not guided through negotiations and other peaceful means, even reaching war.

5. Cultures around the world

Different cultures or civilisations have developed throughout the centuries. Some
of them have already disappeared, but some of them have evolved until present times,
when four main cultures may be distinguished. These cultures are:
Western societies. They are predominant in Europe, America and
Oceania, though they share space and population with other cultures in
the two last cases. For instance, indigenous people in New Zealand,
Australia, Chile, Peru These cultures are mainly defined by Christian
religions and Greek, Roman and Germanic cultural heritage. In recent
times religious beliefs have lost much of its importance and influence of
past centuries, becoming much more secular societies. As a result, many
people declare not to have religious beliefs. On the other hand,
migrations have caused an important degree of mixture of cultures in
recent times.
Muslim societies. They are extended through North Africa and the
Middle East. Their common feature is religion (Islam) and to a lesser
extent language (Arab). However, Islam is divided in two main branches,
Sunni (Western Islam) and Shiite (Eastern Islam)
Eastern (Oriental) societies. They are quite diverse in more than one
sense, having some of them little in common. Many different languages,
cultural traditions and religions are followed in the Eastern part of Asia,
including China, Korea, India, Japan and Indonesia. In the case of
religion, Buddhism and Hinduism are two with the greatest number of
believers.
African societies. These societies are extended in Africa, South of the
Sahara desert. Tribal organizations are common, and religions are closely
connected with nature (shamanism). Languages are also from different
branches.
a) Paint in different colours the main four types of society mentioned in the next
page map

6. European and Spanish societies

Europe is the core of Western civilization, the starting point from where it
expanded throughout the world since 15th century onwards by means of conquest and
colonization of other lands and peoples.
In general terms European population is characterised by aging: Europeans are
getting elder over time. As we have seen in population pyramids, the usual European
one is regressive, with a base that is narrower than the top. This is caused by the limited
number of births (low birth rate) and a long life expectancy (81.7 years in the case of
Spain)
European society is widely multicultural. Immigration has caused that in
European cities can be found examples of many different languages, religions and
traditions

coming

from the rest of the

continents. In spite
of this, it is also true
that

sometimes

immigrants

have

difficulties

to

become full part of

their local societies,
giving way to the formation of ghettos (isolated quarters with a high percentage of
dwellers from abroad, usually plagued with job scarcity, schooling and health care
problems, high crime rates). In Spain, the integration of foreigners is more thoroughly
5

achieved than in other countries, specially taking into account the high percentage they
represent over the whole population of the country (12%)
European families are becoming more diverse than it was common in the past.
The traditional nuclear family composed of a heterosexual couple and their descendants
is no longer the only model of family. Single-parent households or homosexual families
are becoming more common in recent times.
In Northern Europe its common that both parents work outside home. In the
Southern part of the continent this is less frequent because of unemployment and
cultural traditions that tend to make of wives homemakers. There is also a huge
difference between Northern and Southern Europe regarding the age at which young
people leave home. In the former, it is not much later than 18 years old while in
countries such as Spain it can be delayed well into the twenties or even later.

7. Inequality and conflict in Western society

Inequalities and discrimination are widespread in Western societies in different
aspects, notwithstanding legislation and declaration of intentions of politicians and
institutional spokespersons.
-

Economic inequality, that is, the differences of income among individuals

has been the
basis

of

Western
societies from
the

very

beginning of
their
formation. In
the last years
in

Spain

it

has been boosted as a result of the economic crisis, which has extraordinarily
widened the breach between poor and rich people.
-

Cultural inequality is caused by unequal access to education due to poverty,

lack of public funding of schools or other reasons that causes the
marginalisation of certain minorities. This is the case of gypsies in Spain.

Physical conditions make some people not to be able to exert all the rights
granted to the majority of individuals, for instance the physically or mentally
handicapped persons.

Sex is a frequent cause of discrimination in salaries. Often can be heard

denounces of women receiving a lower pay even though they occupy the
same posts than men. Another forms of discrimination based on sex are the
cases of abused women.

Age is a cause of discrimination for instance when children are induced or

forced to work in spite of being forbidden below (usually in Europe) 16
years old. Also when elder people need to work although they are in age of
being retired.

In

order

to

correct

these

inequalities and forms of discrimination

people organize themselves in several
forms: trade unions, political parties,
women

and

neighbourhood

associations that put pressure on

politicians and take action in order to
have laws passed that allow reaching

their goals. Also, Non-Governmental Organizations

(NGOs) help in limiting the consequences of the
worst forms of discrimination.