A PROJECT REPORT ON “THE TYPES

OF SOCIETIES”

Submitted by:
Name: Rirtobi Ghosh
Paper Name: Values and Ethics
Paper Code: GE6B-06
University Roll No.: 33941923029
Course: BBA 3rd Semester, 2023-24
Institute: Bhavan’s Institute of Management Science
(AFFILIATED TO MAKAUT)
 CONTENTS

S. No. Topic Page No.

I. Abstract 4

II. Introduction 4-5

III. Types of Societies 5-8

IV. Conclusion 8
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the accomplishment of completion of my project titled “A PROJECT REPORT ON THE TYPES OF

SOCIETIES”, I would like to convey my special gratitude to Dr. Poulomi Bhattacharjee of Bhavan’s Institute
of Management Science.
Your valuable guidance and suggestions helped me in various phases of the completion of this project. I will
always be thankful to you in this regard.
I am ensuring that this project was finished by me and not copied.

Rirtobi Ghosh
 Page |4

I. Abstract

Since the ages as early as 3.5 million years ago, humans have consistently been a social group of species. Human
beings or homo sapiens have been accustomed to living in groups, herds and societies. This led to them forming
tribes, villages, towns, cities and then multicultural ‘societies. There has been significant changes in how humans
assemble themselves, carry out daily activities such as trade, work, leisure activities etc. Each society is unique
and usually follow a particular set of cultural norms and belief and practices. These differ from place to place and
from country to country.
Humans started out as hunter gatherers, fodder collectors and used to make their own tools. Then as they evolved
in terms of both mental capacity and physical strength, they learnt to sow and reap crops which further gave rise
to an agricultural evolution. After the advent of agricultural and pastoralist societies, humans evolved even further
to produce machines and new technology independent of natural resources to usher in a new age of innovation
and progress. This in turn led to the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Thus, it has been evident that
humans have been capable of adapting to changes and newer needs by developing modern forms of society,
leaving behind the olden ages.
In this project report, the phenomenon of branching out of humans into various different types of societies, their
specific timelines, the individual characteristics of each of these societies and the way it has impacted humans as
a socially inclined species over a period of time shall be discussed in thorough detail.

II. Introduction

The development of human societies have been reflected upon in archaeological and anthropological evidences
and specimens. Towards the beginning, as humans started evolving from Homo habilis to Homo erectus, they
developed newer methods of procuring food and other essential items from the surrounding nature using
ingenious tools carved out of stones, flint, wood and other natural objects.. Then Homo sapiens neanderthalensis,
the species of humans that existed before the Ice Age and the major movements of tectonic plates lead to the
formation of new geographical lands and also contributed to significant changes in the climate of the earth. This,
in consequence, forced the Neanderthals to migrate and form close knit tribes to survive the harsh climates and
nature. After the whole species of Neanderthals got wiped out due to lesser-known circumstances, the Homo
sapiens sapiens, the species of human beings as we know in existence today, evolved even further and adopted
the settled life and created various different villages, tribes and agrarian societies as opposed to their nomadic or
hunter gatherer counterparts.
As these humans learnt to cultivate crops in a better manner, conserve food crops, develop water and sanitation
practices, they started building civilizations and communities along the banks of fertile rivers. Over the years, the
ruins and remains of these olden cities and empires remained and humans further evolved into the machine age.
This was ushered in by the advent of the Steam Engine by James Watt who harnessed the power of steam produced
from coal to drive engines of locomotives. This further encouraged the innovation of various other modern
discoveries such as the telephone that was discovered by Alexnader Graham Bell, the phonograph, power looms,
sewing machines, cotton gins, electric generator etc. All these discoveries helped in the globalization process and
allowed humans as a society to persevere and continue making more life changing innovations.
 Page |5

The human society, in terms of sociology, is thus termed as “a group of people who live in a defined community
and share common cultures, customs and sentiments”. The people belonging to a particular society often assist
and help each other with commonplace operational activities such as work, trade affairs, cultural events etc. They
also may often share a common language, share a common major religion and may conform to some spoken and
unspoken norms that are abided in an implied sense. Although it is not necessary for a society to be homogeneous
in following one religion or a particular culture as most societies are heterogeneous in their composition and are
often welcoming of foreign influence and their cultures.
The human society is mainly divided into three major types, namely;
• Pre-Industrial societies
• Industrial societies
• Post-Industrial societies
The above-mentioned types of societies are again divided into a few other sub-societies, which will be discussed
in thorough detail below.

III. Types of Societies

Sociologists mainly divide societies on the basis of technological advancements achieved in each era. Technology
refers to innovation of machines, man-made tools, mass production and organized labour. The types of societies
are described as follows:
1) Pre-Industrial societies - before the Industrial revolution brought about modern tools and machines we know
of, humans used to be dependent upon nature and its resources to gather food and maintain other necessary
livelihood activities. The only form of production was from human and animal labour and the most common
occupations used to either be farmers or traders. Thus, the pre-Industrialist societies are further divided into
the following five sub-types:
a) Hunter-Gatherer societies (10,000 - 12,000 ya) : hunter gatherers were those nomadic tribes or groups of
people that used to forage for meat and fodder by hunting animals and collecting various parts of plants and
trees for use. They never settled in one place and used to roam around in search of better forage and living
conditions, which is why they were called ‘nomads’. Whichever member of a particular tribe hunted and
brought back food, shared it with the other families in the tribe.
Although the hunter gatherers were entirely dependent on natural resources and did not have
advanced tools and the learning of crop cultivation, they still possessed ideas such as developed banking
systems where food used to be stored and also possessed the concept of burial and a strong sense of communal
belonging. Some remaining hunter gatherer societies include the Bambuti tribe of The Democratic Republic
of Congo and the aboriginal tribes of Australia.
b) Pastoral societies (7,500 ya) : the hunter gatherer society evolved into its successor, the pastoralist society.
Pastoral societies were dependent upon domestication of animals, which is different from their hunter gatherer
counterparts as they used to hunt animals in contrary to the pastoralists who domesticated animals, fed them
and kept them as livestock. The ability to tame and breed animals provide pastoralist societies with an edge
over their predecessors as they could produce food, clothing from the barks of trees and skin of the animals
and use the animals like cattle, horses etc. as transportation sources. In result of this, the practice of trade
came into existence as humans learnt to produce goods at will.
However, the pastoralists were also nomadic in nature as they also used to move
from one favourable location to another in search of better and fresher pastures for their livestock to graze
 Page |6

on. This also marked a shift in the occupation the members of a tribe took upon from simple farmers to
other specialized occupations such as artisans, tool-makers etc. The Maasai tribe of Kenya, Africa are an
example of an existing pastoralist society still dependent upon animal herds and natural resources to
sustain their livelihood. Another example of successful nomadic/pastoralist societies in Central Asia are
the Mongolian tribes who travel from one mountain to the other and from one meadow to the other in
search of better pastures for their herds. They also travel along with the portable tents they live in, called
‘Yurt’ in order to escape from extreme weather conditions such as droughts, snow and other calamities.
They are excellent equestrians and grazed their herds of animals across the vast, fertile meadows of the
Steppes in Central Asia.
c) Horticultural societies : as humans learnt how to grow and care for plants and trees, the pastoralist societies
developed into horticultural societies. The humans that belonged to the horticultural societies were the first
to settle down in one location permanently, in contrary to their predecessors, the pastoralists and the hunter
gatherers. An increase in the knowledge of cultivating crops and breed animals provide them with the power
to form lasting settlements, such as those along favourable natural resources like rivers and fertile lands. The
other few conditions that allowed them to form settlements were a steady and ample amount of rainfall, plots
of land rich in fertile soil resulting from the river beds around them etc.
d) Agricultural societies (10,000 BC) : the horticultural society progressed into the agricultural society that
was also marked by an important event called the ‘Agricultural Revolution’ or sometimes called the ‘Dawn
of Civilization’. The Agricultural Revolution had the following features that made it a breakthrough in the
development and evolution of human societies:
➢ The most prominent feature of agricultural societies was the development of small to large, well-planned
and permanent settlements all across the habitable areas in the world. A major example was the
development of successful civilizations such as Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations along
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East; what is now modern
Iraq and some parts of Iran. These were highly flourishing empires that were coming up around 3000
BC. The people who belonged to these civilizations possessed immense knowledge of astronomy,
science, medicine and artistry.
➢ Another important aspect of these agriculturalist civilizations was well thought town planning. Humans
belonging to these societies were among the first to plan layouts of towns and cities, had knowledge of
proper sanitation and waste disposal and also had plans laid out in case of natural emergencies and other
threats such as warfare. Military and a primitive banking system for both currency and food was another
prominent aspect of the agriculturalist societies.
➢ Farming was the main occupation and livelihood of most people in agriculturalist societies. Methods
such as crop rotation, reusage of fertilizers, better knowledge about crop patterns and crop requirements
made it possible for the people of these societies to produce surplus of food and also store them is
granaries, silos etc.
➢ Tools also became advanced as these people moved from simple hand driven transportations to animal
driven transport such as bullock carts. The barter system was abandoned and currency made out of copper,
bronze and gold was introduced as the unit of exchange in most parts of the world and people started
taking up specialized occupations such as poetry, musicians, philosophy etc. Creative professions and
artisans saw a popularization.
➢ Social classes came into existence during this time. People started dividing themselves into the nobility,
the middle class or the merchants and the poorer common people on the basis of wealth and social
standing.
e) Feudal societies : the feudal society was the most common type of society during the medieval times, during
the 9th century. These feudal societies were characterized by land ownership, which meant the landowners
were the most powerful people belonging to these societies. The society was divided into the Lords (the
nobility) and their vassals (those under the protection of the Lords). These vassals were allowed to live on
 Page |7

these lands owned by the Lords under the condition that they serve the Lords and maintain their land. This
phenomenon was known as fiefdom.
Some parts of land were passed down upon succession from generation to generation.
The feudal society was soon replaced by capitalism and advancements in technology and the rise of the
Industrial revolution.
2) Industrial societies - the industrial societies came into being with the advent of the Industrial Revolution of
the 18th century, especially in England and other parts of Europe. It began in 1765 in Great Britain and
colonialism helped spread these industrial views across to the rest of the world. The main features of the
industrial societies in response to the Industrial Revolution are as follows:
a) The increased efficiency and productivity that rose in relation to the Industrial Revolution allowed more and
more people to form better settlements and helped humans spread out to different parts of the world,
encouraging globalization.
b) The advent of the steam engine, invented by James Watt and Matthew Boulton in 1782 brought about
revolutionary changes in transportation and goods carriage. Steam engines helped operate power mills and
drive pumps. This also decreased manual labour requirements, thus increasing efficiency and increasing
productivity. Textile mills and the innovation of power looms helped people produce cloth much easier and
with an improved quality.
c) Industrial societies were a lot more progressive than their pre-industrial counterparts as farmers began
investing in better machines for agriculture and improved their crop yield with knowledge about crop
maintenance. Food could be stored much more safely and for longer periods of time.
d) Education and healthcare saw a growth which immensely increased knowledge and life expectancy among
people. Community culture rose in popularity which further strengthened the society culture.
e) Urban centers and capitalism were two important features of the period of Industrial Revolution. Traveling
to other cities or countries for employment increased as people looked for a better lifestyle. This resulted in
cities becoming more metropolitan and more crowded. Newer generations started focusing on wealth and
resource accumulation. This in turn led to social mobility. Capitalistic mindset among most people saw a rise
during this period. The sole goal of every person was to achieve a better social standing. The societies
basically became wealth centric and classism also rose.
f) Apart from all the negative consequences associated with the Industrial Revolution, these societies also saw
the advent of a few positive effects, such as:
➢ Slavery was finally abolished with the consistent efforts made against it by Abraham Lincoln in the
United States of America.
➢ Monarchies came to be discarded slowly as the sole authority in a nation and countries transcended into
democracies and other authoritative political systems.
➢ The Women’s Suffrage movement was an important event in the history of the evolution of societies into
the Industrial societies as people started fighting for the equal rights for women and the upliftment of
children and women both.
➢ The right to vote came to be declared absolute in the process of choosing a government during this time
period.
3) Post-Industrial society - humans are currently living in the post-industrial societies which is characterize by
an importance on knowledge, information and digitized technology. It is also sometimes referred to as
“information society” or “digital society”. The following are the key characteristics of a typical post-
industrial society:
a) The main emphasis is on knowledge and provision of information in an easy and efficient manner. Nowadays,
most people are heavily dependent upon digital gadgets and other technological services. The whole lifestyle
is dependent upon how much information one has at hand and the power that comes with this information
instead of just the desire to accumulate wealth, like in industrial societies.
 Page |8

b) Technical knowledge and digitization of most occupations and services is the main aspect of post-industrial
societies. Jobs pertaining to attaining information such as business people and software engineers possess the
c) highest social and financial stability in post-industrial societies. Skills are given more priority instead of just
academic knowledge.
d) Apart from all these key characteristics, post-industrial societies has also witnessed a rising trend in higher
quality of life, associated with better food and water provisions across developed nations, better sanitation
and disease control which helped increase the life expectancy than that during the industrial and pre-industrial
times. Population explosion is however a growing side effect of better living conditions and improved
technology.
e) The concept of inclusivity and more protection for those classes of people who require it are emphasized on
in post-industrial societies. Laws safeguarding the rights of everyone regardless of their class or caste or
religion, especially those of women and children have been strengthened. Pre-industrial and industrial
societies on the other hand, saw the practice of classism, untouchability etc.

IV. Conclusion

Humans have always been learning and evolving to the best of their capabilities. They have also consistently
been a social species and have gathered themselves into societies and communities. These societies share a
common culture and can range from one type to another on the basis of availability of resources, the level of
knowledge possessed by humans and the innovation and discoveries made in each time period. Societies can
either be hunter-gatherer based where humans used to be completely dependent upon nature to fulfil their needs
or they can be agriculturalist where civilizations came into existence and was marked by general growth in
knowledge and production.
Or societies can be industrial and dependent upon machinery which allows to shift the focus from manual labour
to mechanized processes that make productivity much more achievable. On the other hand, some societies are
completely digitized and rely on computerized services and processes for an easier and better quality of life.
In conclusion, the various different types of societies showcases how humans came to evolve in their communal
structure and how it has impacted the overall existence of humans as a species. It not only provides knowledge
about the social perspective of human life but also helps to appreciate and understand the uniqueness and variety
of human cultures all across the world.