Introduction

Humans are highly social animals. Normally we live in groups all of our lives.
It is extremely unusual for us to be in total isolation from other people for
long. You may personally enjoy being alone. However, your voluntary
isolation probably does not last more than a few hours or days at most. Our
strong emotional need for social contact makes it possible to use solitary
confinement as an effective punishment in prisons. The threat of social
ostracism can also be an effective way of curbing potentially deviant
behavior. Those who act "badly" run the risk of being rejected by other
members of their social group or community.

When we are deprived of human social contact, we often seek it in substitutes

such as radio and television shows, and books. Pets also are common social
substitutes for other people. This is particularly true of dogs and other
animals that enjoy interacting with us in a friendly way.

Dogs in the Western World

often become substitutes
for human companions.

The need for human social contact and the rewards that it can bring lead most
people to become members of numerous social groups. In fact, we are
members of many groups at the same time. We may be family members,
employees of companies, citizens of towns, states, nations, and members of
ethnic groups. In addition, we often are members of clubs, vocational
associations, political parties, and religious groups.

The most important kind of

social groups in small-scale
societies are families.

This picture shows members

of an extended family in the
Huili Tribe of New Guinea

Our behavior is adjusted to and by the various groups of which we are

members. For instance, we usually act differently when we are with friends in
contrast to family members or business associates. You might share a crude

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sexual joke with a good friend of your own age and gender, but you probably
would not do it with your grandparents or teachers. Likewise, when
interacting with your children you most likely will act in a responsible, nurturing
leadership role that would be inappropriate when you are talking with your
parents or your boss, since you are likely to have an inferior social status
relative to them.

In this picture, who do you

suppose feels like they are
in a superior status? What
are the clues? Look closely.

How is this difference in

status likely to effect their
interaction?

Our individual identities are greatly defined by the groups to which we belong
and by our positions within them. Think about the last time that you met a
stranger at a party or at some other social gathering. You probably asked a
question to determine what group they belong to and what they do within it. In
North America, the typical question in this situation is "what do you do." In
other words, are you a student, a doctor, a lawyer, etc. If the stranger
answers "I am a student," the common follow-up questions are "what school
do you go to" and "what classes are you taking" or "what is your major."
In small-scale societies that are primarily organized around kinship, the
common equivalent first question for a stranger would be something like "who
is your father." In other words, what is your family or clan identity.

What do you think these

two North American couples
asked each other when they
first met on this vacation?

What were they trying to

find out about each other?

People around the world create social groups based on two broad criteria:
kinship identity and non-kinship factors. Which of these is most important
depends greatly on the scale of the society. As societies grow in size to
hundreds of thousands of people, the non-kinship factors usually become
increasingly important and the kinship ones less crucial. However, even in the
largest industrialized nations today, we still use kinship for creating some
kinds of social groupings, but kinship has become much less important as a
foundation for membership in educational, business, and government

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organizations. Kinship will be explored in the next tutorial of this series, while
non-kinship factors are considered in this one.

Functions of Social Groups and Institutions

In studying any society, we can observe various social groups and institutions,
each with its specific functions. It does not matter whether the institutions are
related to business, religion, the legal system, or families. They all have
functions. For instance, the primary function of a legal system is likely to be
the maintenance of the social order in society. The functions of different
institutions may overlap and are likely to be interrelated in complex ways.
Complicating our understanding of them is the fact that any institution is likely
to have multiple functions, some of which are more obvious than others. In
trying to discover and understand them, it is useful to think of some of the
functions as being manifest and others latent. Manifest functions are those
that are obvious and easily discovered even by strangers. In contrast, latent
functionsare those that are less apparent and more difficult to uncover. If
you ask people what the functions of their institutions are, most will describe
the manifest ones. They may not have even thought of all of the latent ones.
However, to get a full understanding of a society and its culture, it is essential
to comprehend the latent functions as well. In order to discover them, it is
often necessary to observe their effects because people are often unaware of
them.

Let us see how good you are at coming

up with the functions of a common North
American icon -- the Golden Gate Bridge.

What is the manifest function of this

publicly funded and owned bridge?

What are some possible latent functions?

Click the button to see

how well you did.

Golden Gate Bridge

(San Francisco)

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 Status and Role
In all of the many social groups that we as individuals
belong to, we have a status and a role to fulfill. Status is
our relative social position within a group, while a role is
the part our society expects us to play in a given status.
For example, a man may have the status of father in his
family. Because of this status, he is expected to fulfill a
role for his children that in most societies requires him to
nurture, educate, guide, and protect them. Of course,
mothers usually have complementary roles.
Commonly expected
role of a father around
Social group membership gives us a set of statuses and the world is as a
role tags that allow people to know what to expect from protector and provider
each other--they make us more predictable. However, it is
common for people to have multiple overlapping statuses and roles. This
potentially makes social encounters more complex. A woman who is a
mother for some children may be an aunt or grandmother for others. At the
same time, she may be a wife for one or more men, and she very likely is a
daughter and granddaughter of several other people. For each of these
various kinship statuses, she is expected to play a somewhat different role
and to be able to switch between them instantaneously. For instance, if she is
having a conversation with her mother and young daughter, she is likely to
politely defer to the former but will be knowledgeable and "in-control" with the
other. These role related behaviors change as rapidly as she turns her head
to face one or the other. However, her unique personal relationships might
lead her to think and act differently than what would be culturally expected. In
other words, social group membership gives us a set of role tags that allow
people to know what to expect from each other, but they are not always
straight jackets for behavior.

Three generations of
women in a family,
each playing several
different roles in their
casual interaction.

Acquiring Statuses
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The way in which people get our statuses can vary significantly in detail from
culture to culture. In all societies, however, they are either achieved or
ascribed. Achieved statuses are ones that are acquired by doing
something. For instance, someone becomes a criminal by committing a
crime. A soldier earns the status of a good warrior by achievements in battle
and by being brave. A woman becomes a mother by having a baby. She also
can acquire the status of widow by the death of her husband. In
contrast, ascribed statuses are the result of being born into a particular
family or being born male or female. Being a prince by birth or being the first
of four children in a family are ascribed statuses. We do not make a decision
to choose them--they are not voluntary statuses. We do not pick the family
we are born into nor do we usually select our own
gender.

Both achieved and ascribed statuses exist in all

societies. However, some cultures choose to
emphasize the importance of one or the other. In
North America today, achieved statuses outside of
the family are reinforced while ascribed ones are
generally rejected. Children are encouraged from an
Bill Clinton rose from relative
early age to be independent and self-reliant. They poverty to the Presidency of
are told to better themselves in life. This can be seen the United States. His life
in the admiration of "self-made people" and in the exemplifies the national ideal
of a "self-made man". In
somewhat negative image in the mass media of contrast, his daughter was
people who are rich only because they inherited it. accorded special treatment
This strong cultural bias has led to the enactment of while he was in the White
House because of her
anti-nepotism laws for government jobs. These make ascribed status as the child
it a crime to hire and promote people because they of a president.
are your relatives. In addition, the North American
emphasis on achieved status has led to an acceptance and encouragement of
social class mobility and a rejection of gender and ethnicity based
restrictions. Children are taught in school from an early age that, despite the
fact that they may be from a poor family, male or female, they should aspire to
get a good education, better themselves and their family economically, and
even become a leader in society.

In India, ascribed, rather than achieved, social status has been strongly
reinforced for more than 3,000 years and permeates most areas of life even
today. As a result, social mobility has been very difficult to achieve until
recent generations. Even now, it is limited for those at the bottom of society.

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At the heart of the Indian ascription system are castes (or varnas ).
These are carefully ranked, rigidly hereditary social divisions of society.

INDIAN CASTES TRADITIONAL ROLE

(listed from highest status to lowest) IN SOCIETY

1. Brahman priests and teachers

2. Kshatriya rulers, warriors, and landowners

3. Vaishya farmers, merchants and artisans

4. Shudra serfs or laborers

Lower caste woman

from Ajmer, India
5. Scheduled castes (also called "polluted" laborers
untouchables, Harijan , or
Dalit )
Each of the Indian castes have sub-castes, or jatis , that in turn are ranked
relative to each other. The whole system is reinforced by the Hindu religion
and historical traditions. The one sixth of all Indians who are members of the
"scheduled castes" are essentially so low in status as to be outside of the
formal caste system. They are the poorest people, and they mostly do the
"unclean" ritually polluting jobs of sweeping streets, cleaning toilets, tanning
leather, etc. Members of the other castes are not as restricted in their
occupations and aspirations today. However, caste identity largely
determines who one can marry in India and it prevents socializing across
caste lines.

Underlying and constantly reinforcing the Indian caste system is the Hindu
religion and its concept of ritual pollution. People in the higher castes must

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take great care not to be polluted by contact with members of the lower castes
and especially the "untouchables." Being polluted puts one out of one's caste
and requires ritual cleansing. As a result, Indian restaurants usually have
chefs who are from the Brahman caste. Since they are at the top of this
ascribed status system, they cannot pollute any customers, regardless of their
caste. Likewise, a Brahman doctor would be more acceptable to all.

The Indian national government has attempted to encourage achieved status

by outlawing many of the traditional aspects of the caste system. They also
have instituted affirmative action programs to increase the number of lower
caste and "untouchable" students in universities and government. This social
engineering has faced considerable resentment and resistance from members
of the higher castes. However, the Indian government continues to
encourage this change with the hope that social mobility will ultimately make
the caste system less relevant to public life.

Castes are not limited to India. They may be found in one form or another in
most nations today. In Europe, the royal families traditionally were a separate
caste from the peasant farmers, tradesmen, and other classes. Only rarely
were "commoners" allowed to become members of the royalty. In North
America, one's race or ethnicity is often a caste identity. Most black, white, or
other Americans do not have the option of waking up tomorrow and deciding
that they will be a different race. Society generally will not allow them to do it.
While race is greatly a socially and culturally constructed reality rather than a
biological one, it is still a reality just the same in North America and in much of
the rest of the world as well.

Non-kinship Based Social Groups

All societies classify people to some degree based on their age. In North
America, for example, we generally label people as children, teenagers,
adults, middle aged, and elderly or senior citizens. Such age-based
categories are referred to by anthropologists as age grades. They are in a
sense both achieved and ascribed statuses. People become senior citizens
simply by living long enough. In other words, they have achieved this status
through longevity. On the other hand, grandchildren cannot achieve elder
status at the same time as their grandparents because they were born much
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later--there is an ascribed difference between them. In time, however, they
also can become senior citizens.

In some societies, age grades are clearly recognized as distinct identifiable

groups of people. Anthropologists refer to these groups as age sets. They
are people of similar age and usually of the same gender who share a
common identity and maintain close ties throughout their lives. They also
pass through age-related statuses together as a group. The transition
between these statuses is usually marked by a rite of passage.

Age sets are especially common in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the 1/4
million Masai cattle herding people of southern Kenya and northern
Tanzania, for instance, male age-sets have been traditionally very important.
The Masai strongly differentiate three major age-based male groups--boys,
warriors, and elders. The latter two groups are also informally divided
into junior and senior warriors and junior and senior elders.

Masai territory Masai woman and man (elder)

From the age of 6-8, Masai boys spend much of their time on their own, away
from the community, sharing the work of herding cattle owned by their
parents. At this time they develop the close male relationships that will last
throughout their lives. When they are 12-14, boys are circumcised together in
a ritual that marks their transition to a new status--they become morans , or
warriors. In Masai culture, only morans are allowed to have long hair. They
also dress differently and spend much of their time away from the community
in a hidden training camp. They no longer herd cattle but now are responsible
for their defense against predators such as lions and people who might steal
them. While boys are not allowed to carry spears, morans do. They must
remain unmarried during the 7 years that they are morans, but some of them
secretly have girlfriends. In their twenties, the moran once again go through a
rite of passage together. It marks their transition to the elder status and role
within society. They reinforce their camaraderie at this time by drinking the
blood of a freshly killed cow that has been specially sacrificed for the purpose,

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and their long hair is shaved off by their mothers to signify their new status.
They are no longer warriors but are becoming respected decision makers and
spokesmen for their families and communities. As elders, they are now
allowed to get married when they can acquire sufficient numbers of cattle to
pay a bride price. In Masai society girls usually marry in their teens and men
in their thirties and later. Middle aged and older men typically have several
wives.

Masai boy herding cattle and

young men with the traditional
dress and long hair of morans

NOTE: There is not universal agreement as to how the word "Masai" should
be spelled. Some prefer "Maasai."

Age sets also exist in other parts of the world but are generally not as
important as they are in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, students who
attend prestigious private universities such as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and
Cambridge usually identify with the members of their graduation class and
keep in contact with them throughout their lives. They get together for
reunions and help each other get jobs or arrange business deals. They
generally see themselves as a closed group of people who have shared a
common experience and continue to have common interests.

Gender-based Groups
In addition to age, gender is also a universal basis for organizing social
groups. While both men's and women's groups occur, men's associations are
more common around the world. When gender-based groups exist in small-
scale societies, every adult of the same gender is usually a member. In large-
scale societies, gender-based groups become more institutionalized and

9
membership is usually not mandatory. Typical gender-based groups in North
America include the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, fraternities, sororities, and
lodges (e.g., Elks, Masons, etc.).

In Britain, male rugby

clubs like this one from
Carmathan Wales are
important gender-based
community groups that
regularly socialize
together.

Groups Based on Common Interest

Voluntary associations based primarily on common interest and experience
are also widespread forms of non-kinship based groups, especially in large-
scale societies. Such groups are likely to have one of the following focuses:

1. vocation (e.g., trade unions, professional associations)

2. avocation (e.g., leisure activity clubs, fraternal organizations)
3. common residence (e.g., neighborhood associations)
4. religious belief (e.g., membership in a church or other religious organization)
5. political belief (e.g., political action groups, political parties)
past experience (e.g., widows clubs, veterans organizations, cancer survivors
6.
groups)

Membership in voluntary associations is usually based on achieved status in

addition to common interest. For instance, members of the American Medical
Association are trained medical professionals (an achieved status) in addition
to having a common interest in supporting and advancing the medical
profession in the United States.

In some cases, voluntary associations are based on ascribed status or a

combination of ascribed and achieved status. For instance, organizations
based on social or economic classes commonly appear as a result of unequal
access to wealth and power in large-scale societies. These groups are likely
to occur at all levels of society. They may be clubs of rich and powerful
families who have had this status for generations--i.e., they are from "old
money" families. At the other end of the economic spectrum, there may be

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gangs of relatively poor, disenfranchised youths. Cross-cutting these largely
ascribed class-based groups may be others based on ethnic or racial identity.

Voluntary associations are less common in small-scale societies. However,

when they do occur, they are usually male military associations, secret
societies, or religious cults. In some indigenous societies of New Guinea,
men traditionally lived together in a "big house" where they shared the secrets
of their religious belief system. There were religious cults that were largely
kept secret from women and very young children. Among the Indians of the
North American Plains, men commonly belonged to warrior societies.

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