Portal:Society
The Society Portal
A society (/səˈsaɪəti/) is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.
Human social structures are complex and highly cooperative, featuring the specialization of labor via social roles. Societies construct roles and other patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or concepts acceptable or unacceptable—these expectations around behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. So far as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual basis.
Societies vary based on level of technology and type of economic activity. Larger societies with larger food surpluses often exhibit stratification or dominance patterns. Societies can have many different forms of government, various ways of understanding kinship, and different gender roles. Human behavior varies immensely between different societies; humans shape society, but society in turn shapes human beings. (Full article...)
Selected article
Featured picture
An Australian Light Horse encampment on Mount Olivet and Mount Scopus near Jerusalem, 1918. Australian Light Horse were mounted troops with characteristics of both cavalry and mounted infantry who served during the Second Boer War and World War I. A number of Australian light horse units are still in existence today, most notably of the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry), now a light armoured unit.
Did you know...
- ... that an 1851 match between Voltigeur and The Flying Dutchman (see painting) drew 100,000 spectators, the largest crowd at the Knavesmire since 1759?
- ... that in Egyptian mythology, the Eye of Ra slaughtered masses of people, got drunk, ran away from her owner, and was brought back by her husband?
- ... that over three million Chinese military and civilian personnel served in Korea during the Korean War?
Anniversaries this month
- 2 August 2009 - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society reached The New York Times Best Seller list
- 17 August 2011 - Organization of the Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society
- 24 August 1963 - Malaysian Red Crescent Society admitted as a member of the League of Red Cross Societies
Selected quote
Selected biography
Featured audio
Categories
![Society categories](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/C_Puzzle.png/42px-C_Puzzle.png)
Category Fictional society not found
Category Corporate groups not found
|
Category Philosophy and society not found
Category Wikipedia books on society not found
|
Related portals
Recognized content
Featured articles
2012 phenomenon
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
1689 Boston revolt
Communication
1969 Curaçao uprising
Diocletianic Persecution
W. E. B. Du Bois
Female genital mutilation
First homosexual movement
From the Doctor to My Son Thomas
Fuck (2005 film)
Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
Growing Up Absurd
Homo antecessor
1981 Irish hunger strike
Theodora Kroeber
Ole Miss riot of 1962
Peasants' Revolt
Solo Man
Rosewood massacre
Stonewall riots
George Washington and slavery
Featured lists
Good articles
1950s American automobile culture
Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011
Agriculture
Alfred Kroeber: A Personal Configuration
Algorithmic bias
America's 60 Families
Anarchism
Anarchism in Cuba
Anonymous (hacker group)
Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
Anna Apostolaki
Archaeoastronomy
The Archives of the Planet
Aroused (film)
2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka
Australopithecus africanus
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus bahrelghazali
Australopithecus deyiremeda
Australopithecus garhi
Australopithecus sediba
Bad Dürrenberg burial
Balangoda Man
Before the Dawn (Wade book)
Birth control
Black Lives Matter
Boerehaat
The Bog People
Bomis
Boston Massacre
Cagot
Catilinarian conspiracy
Cueva de las Manos
Celebrity Studies
Chakh Akhriev
Child prostitution
History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance
A Community of Witches
Compulsory Miseducation
Criminalization of homosexuality
Cro-Magnon
Cult film
Culture of the Song dynasty
Cutting the Mustard
Hilda Ellis Davidson
Demographic history of Scotland
Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
Denisovan
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Diaphoneme
Diver communications
Dmanisi hominins
Domestication
Double burden
Dreamtime (book)
Émile Durkheim
EST and The Forum in popular culture
Education
Ely and Littleport riots of 1816
Extremely online
Family in the United States
Feminism
Feminist economics
The finger
Forensic anthropology
Free Expression Policy Project
Stephen Fuchs
Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study
Gender and sexual minorities in the Ottoman Empire
Genetically modified organism
Anca Giurchescu
God's Choice
Erving Goffman
Paul Goodman
He-Man as a gay icon
Herto Man
Historiography of the Crusades
History of agriculture
Hitachi Magic Wand
Winifred Hoernlé
Homo rudolfensis
Homo ergaster
Homo habilis
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo longi
Homo luzonensis
Homo naledi
Hooray Henry
Human
Human history
Human interactions with insects
I Ching
Globalization and women in China
Incel
Ivatan people
1968–1969 Japanese university protests
Java Man
Jewellery of the Berber cultures
Jews in the civil rights movement
Joint custody (United States)
Kenyanthropus
Kirkbride Plan
LGBT and Wikipedia
Language
Lantian Man
Ralph Larkin
Lesbian
Luttra Woman
Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld
Bronisław Malinowski
The Man-Eating Myth
Man of the Hole
March for Our Lives Portland
March for Science Portland
March of loyalty to martyrs
Karl Marx
Josef Mengele
Maria Mies
Misanthropy
Models of communication
A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights
Mork Goes Erk
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Myth of the clean Wehrmacht
Native American mascot controversy
Neanderthal
The Neanderthals Rediscovered
New World Order conspiracy theory
No Lifeguard on Duty
Not My Presidents Day
Not in Front of the Children
Nudity
Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World
Odyssey
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
Otaku
Ovulatory shift hypothesis
Paranthropus
Paranthropus aethiopicus
Paranthropus boisei
Paranthropus robustus
Peking Man
Political party
Polyethnicity
Positioning theory
Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact
Poverty in ancient Rome
1956 Poznań protests
Protests in Canada against the Sri Lankan Civil War
Proto-globalization
Psychedelic music
Iveta Radičová
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Aparna Rao
A Rape on Campus
Reborn doll
Herbert Hope Risley
The Road to Total Freedom
Romania in the Early Middle Ages
Rose Street Club
Royal intermarriage
Edward Said
Schramm's model of communication
Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy
Sheng nü
Silver
Simele massacre
Maria Simon (sociologist)
Kateryna Skarzhynska
Slavery in Haiti
Social identity theory
Society
Sociology of leisure
Source–message–channel–receiver model of communication
Stay-at-home dad
Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club
Tautavel Man
Team effectiveness
Tefillin
Think of the children
Trance and Dance in Bali
Truce term
Max Weber
Weiquan movement
Whiskey Rebellion
Who We Are and How We Got Here
Benjamin Lee Whorf
Witch-hunts in India
Women's March on Portland
Yuanmou Man
Yuri (genre)
Florian Znaniecki
Featured pictures
-
20151030 Syrians and Iraq refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece 2
-
Bertillon, Alphonse, fiche anthropométrique recto-verso
-
Cicatrices de flagellation sur un esclave
-
Daisy (1964)
-
DurbanSign1989
-
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
-
Jane Addams - Bain News Service
-
Marine da nang
-
Nanook of the North
-
SantaCruz-CuevaManos-P2210651b
-
United States President Barack Obama bends down to allow the son of a White House staff member to touch his head
-
W.E.B. Du Bois by James E. Purdy, 1907
-
Xiahe mandible
Things you can do
![]() |
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
|
WikiProjects
Web resources
- Definition of Society from the OED.
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Industrial Revolution
- "The Day the World Took Off" Six part video series from the University of Cambridge tracing the question "Why did the Industrial Revolution begin when and where it did."
- BBC History Home Page – Industrial Revolution
- National Museum of Science and Industry website – machines and personalities
- Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living by Clark Nardinelli - the debate over whether standards of living rose or fell.