Portal:Society

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days. Before the twentieth century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had evolved significantly, from its agricultural beginnings into a largely Christian society.

More selected articles

More...

edit

Featured picture

Credit: C. M. Russell; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

The Battle of the Little Bighorn occurred on June 25–26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, and was the most famous action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It was an overwhelming victory for the Native American coalition over the U.S. Army 7th Cavalry.

More selected pictures

Read more

edit

Did you know...

... that despite the presence of a minor basilica (pictured), Plaza Miranda in Manila is a center for fortune-telling and the sale of lucky charms and amulets?
... that the exploits of the Polish partisan People's Army were significantly exaggerated by the propaganda of the People's Republic of Poland?
... that the writer of The X-Files episode "Per Manum" has described it as being about "the way you perceive connections between people"?

More did you know facts

edit

Anniversaries this month

1 and 2 November - Day of the Dead tradition (pictured) among Mexican people
15 November 1982 - Chinese Society Halls on Maui placed on the National Register of Historic Places
17 November 1989 - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society was formed as the IEEE Neural Networks Council
26 November 1825 - Foundation of the Kappa Alpha Society, the progenitor of the modern fraternity system in North America

More anniversaries...

edit

Selected quote

“

I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.

”

— William Hazlitt, Table-Talk (1822)

More selected quotes

More at Wikiquote

edit

Selected biography

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB, FBA (/ˈkeɪnz/ KAYNZ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, and informed the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern macroeconomics and the most influential economist of the 20th century.His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, as well as its various offshoots. In the 1930s, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking, overturning the older ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would, in the short to medium term, automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands. Keynes instead argued that aggregate demand determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment. He advocated the use of fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. Following the outbreak of World War II, Keynes's ideas concerning economic policy were adopted by leading Western economies. During the 1950s and 1960s, the success of Keynesian economics resulted in almost all capitalist governments adopting its policy recommendations. Keynes's influence waned in the 1970s, partly as a result of problems that began to afflict the Anglo-American economies from the start of the decade, and partly because of critiques from Milton Friedman and other economists who were pessimistic about the ability of governments to regulate the business cycle with fiscal policy. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

edit

Featured audio

Ordo Virtutum

From Ordo Virtutum (c.1151) by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179). Performed by Makemi.

More selected audio

Read more

edit

Related portals

edit

Recognized content

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Featured pictures

20151030 Syrians and Iraq refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece 2
Bertillon, Alphonse, fiche anthropométrique recto-verso
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
Scourged back by McPherson & Oliver, 1863, retouched
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

edit

Things you can do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Check article requests in Business and economics topics • Social sciences topics • Requested pictures of society topics
Assess : Check article deletion discussions listed at Deletion sorting – Social science
Cleanup : check new articles for cleanup from Sociology-related new article feed
Copyedit : Check Sociology article alerts for interesting articles to copyedit
Expand : Expand articles in categories including: Culture, Law, Education, Politics
Featured article candidates : Review society-related articles submitted at Featured Article candidates, especially those at FAC urgents
Good article nominations : Check out articles under review for Good Article candidacy, in the Social sciences and society section
Maintain : Check the recent changes page for improvements, other changes, and vandalism to these articles
Stubs : Take on project for improvement of one of the Sociology stubs
Verify : Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability

edit

WikiProjects

Related projects

What are WikiProjects?

edit

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.

edit

Associated Wikimedia

Society on Wikibooks	Society on Wikimedia Commons	Society on Wikinews	Society on Wikiquote	Society on Wikisource	Society on Wikiversity	Society on Wiktionary
Manuals and books	Images and media	News	Quotations	Texts	Learning resources	Definitions