3

LECTURE
• What is institution?
Institution
• Something that works according to rules or customs.
– It control on individuals
– It gives individual opportunities
There are social institutions that constrain and
control, punish and reward.
• ‘macro’ social institutions -state
• ‘micro’ -family.

• 1. Family, Marriage, Kinship

• 2. Politics
• 3. Religion
• 4. Education
• 5. Economics
Functionalism Conflict theory
• Karl Marx

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• A functionalist view
– social institutions as a complex set of social norms, beliefs,
values and role relationship that arise in response to the needs
of society.
• Social institutions exist to satisfy social needs.

• We find informal and formal social institutions in societies.

– informal social institutions
• family and religion
– formal social institutions.
• Law, education
 Conflict view
• all individuals are not placed equally in society.
• All social institutions whether familial, religious, political,
economic, legal or educational will operate in the
interest of the dominant sections of society be it class,
caste, tribe or gender.
• The dominant social section not only dominates political
and economic institutions but also ensures that the
ruling class ideas become the ruling ideas of a society.
The important social institutions are :
Family,
Marriage
and
Kinship

family, marriage and kinship

Education. Politics (informal)
Social law, education, etc. (formal)
Institutions

Religion;
Economics;
and
 Family, marriage and kinship
Family
• A family is a group of persons
directly linked by kin
connections
• Basic unit of the society

• Simplest form of society

• Latin origin: ‘famulus’ and

‘familia’ –means servant and
household.
Economical

Educational

Political

Cultural
Functions of family
• Affectional
• Economic
• Protective
• Religious
• Educational
• Socialization
 Human society cannot function without family.
A child learns the norms and culture in the family
Sociologist consider the family as the
cornerstone of the society.
It is universal, found in all communities.
It is based on emotion and sentiments .

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• It moulds the character of its members and
influences the whole life of society.
• It is permanent
 Functionalists View on Family:
• Performs important functions,
• Contribute to society’s basic needs
• Helps maintain social order.
• They also argue that nuclear family is best to handle the
demands of Industrial Society
• Ie, Husband adopts instrumental role as bread winner and
wife assuming affectionate, emotional role in domestic
settings.
Discussion
• Female headed households

widows

Migration abroad

households
 Variation in family form
• Modern societies there is a shift from
nuclear families to joint families
 Discussion
Family and Gender
How gendered is the family?
• The belief is that the male child will support the parents in the old age and the
female child will leave on marriage results in families investing more in a male
child.
• Despite the biological fact that a female baby has better chances of survival
than a male baby the rate of infant mortality among female children is higher in
comparison to male children in lower age group
Male-headed Family Female-headed Family
 Nuclear Family Structure Extended Family

• A nuclear family consists of only one set of parents and their children.
• An extended family (commonly known as the ‘joint family’) - more than one couple, and
often more than two generations, living together.
Patrilocal Family Residence Matrilocal Family
Newly married couple stay with
the bridegroom’s parents.

Newly married couple lives

with the bride’s parents.
 Inheritance

Family’s inheritance through father Family’s inheritance through Mother

 Patriarchal Family Matriarchal Family

Authority

In the family men exercise Women play major role in decision making
authority and dominance
 Forms of family (Various Dimensions)

Father, Mother and Unmarried children only Nuclear

Structure
Minimum three generation live together Joint

Residence Newly married couple stay with the bridegrooms parents. Patrilocal
Newly married couple lives with the brides parents. Matrilocal
In the family men exercise authority and dominance Patriarchal
Authority
Women play major role in decision making Matriarchal

Family’s inheritance through father Patrilineal

Inheritance
Family’s inheritance through Mother
Matrilineal

Family of
Family of Birth
orientation
Orientation
Family of
Family formed through marriage
procreation
 Marriage

• Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock,

• It is a socially or ritually recognized union or
• legal contract between spouses that establishes rights
and obligations between them

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• Men and women get social sanction to live
together through the institution of the
marriage.
• It is universal
 • Forms of marriage
Monogamy
Polygyny
Polygamy
Polyandry
Marriage Endogamy

Exogamy

Arranged
Marriage
 Forms of Marriage
Monogamy
• One person marries one women
• Most common form of marriage
Polygamy
• One person marries more than one person of opposite sex at one time.

• Man can marries more than one women and Women can marries more than one
men.

Polygyny Polyandry
• One Men marries more than one • One women marries more than one
Women men.

• Eg: Tibetans, Todas, Kotas tribes in

India.
 Polygyny
Monogamy

Polyandry
Serial Monogamy
• Individual can marry again on the death of
first spouse or after divorce at the same time
they cannot have more than one spouse.
Arranged marriage
• In some societies parents or relatives
arrange partners and the girl and boy
has no choice.
 Rules of Endogamy and Exogamy
Endogamy
• Life partners can be selected only from within their group.
• Marrying a person from within one’s own group
– (cast, class, religion, tribe, village etc.)

Exogamy
• Some one marries from outside the group
• Marriage form within group is not allowed
• Marriage between close blood-relation is not permitted.
– Exogamy brings people of different castes, races and religion together.
• Village exogamy ensured that daughters were married into
families from villages far away from home.
Discussion……..
• Is endogamy Still prevalent?
• What changes in society do the ads
reflect?
 Kinship
• It is connection by blood or marriage or adoption.
• “the bond of blood or marriage which binds people together in
group”

• Kinship bonds are very strong in tribal societies and rural

communities.
Types of Kinship
– Affinal Kinship
– Consanguineous Kinship

1. Affinal Kinship
 Kinship by Marriage
 When a man marries, he establishes a relationship not only with the
women he marries but also with a number of other people in her family.
Vise versa.
 Eg: Husband and Wife
 Father- in- law
 Mother- in- law
 Daughter- in- law
 Son –in-law
2. Consanguineous Kinship
 Relation by blood or common ancestry.
 The bond between parents and their children
Economic Institutions
Work and Economic Life
 What is Work?
 ‘Work’ refers to “paid or unpaid, is the carrying out
of tasks that require expenditure of mental and
physical effort and which aims at production of
goods and services for human needs”.
In pre-modern forms of society most people
worked in the field or cared for the livestock.
Industrialised-machines-expansion
of the service sector.

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• In pre-modern forms of society most people worked in the field or cared
for the livestock.
• Industrialised-machines-expansion of the service sector.
• highly complex division of labour. Work has been divided into an
enormous number of different occupations in which people specialise.
• Modern society also witnesses a shift in the location of work.- machinery
operating on electricity and coal.
• People seeking jobs in factories were trained to perform a specialized
task and receive a wage for this work.
• Managers supervised the work, for their task was to enhance worker
productivity and discipline.
• One of the main features of modern societies is an enormous expansion
of economic interdependence.
Transformation of Work
• Industrial processes were broken down into simple
operations.
• Mass production demands mass markets.
• Construction of a moving assembly line.
• Modern industrial production needed expensive
equipment and continuous monitoring of employees
through monitoring or surveillance systems.
• ‘flexible production’ and ‘decentralisation of work’.
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Modern forms of work and Division of Labour
 Trend
• In industrialized society few people work in
agriculture and farming.
• The economic system of modern societies is
characterized by a complex division of labour.
• After the industrialization there was shift of
work from home to workshop or factories.
• Different machinery using steam power or
electricity made production easy and less
laborious.
Shawl making
Transformation of work
 Industrial processes
were broken down into
simple operations.

Significant innovation
was production through
assembly line.
Mass production
demands mass
markets.

Decentralization
of work.
 POLITICS
• Political institutions are concerned with the
distribution of power in society.
 Society must have control over people.

In primitive societies,
the family control over
the people.

The state has the Modern society, social

legitimate power to pass control comes through
laws to control the people. laws- both written and
unwritten.
• Political institutions perform a twofold
function.
– It implements the rules and regulations in the
country
– It punishes the lawbreaker
Two concepts, which are critical to the understanding of political institutions, are power and
authority.

Power Authority
Power
 Power and Authority

Power
• It is the ability of individuals or groups to carry out their will even
when opposed by others.
• There is a fixed amount of power in a society and if some wield
power others do not.
• An individual or group does not hold power in isolation, they
hold it in relation to others.
– The principal has power to maintain discipline in school. The president
of a political party possesses power to expel a member from the party.
Authority.
Authority
• Power is exercised through authority.
• Authority is that form of power, which is
accepted as legitimate.
 The concept of the State.
• A state exists where there is a political apparatus of ruling over a given territory. Meaning:
• According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (1994), ‘The state is a distinct set of institutions that has the authority to make
rules which govern society.’ These institutions, according to Miliband (1969), are the government, the administration (the civil
service), the judiciary and parliamentary assemblies. State power lies in these institutions.

• Max Weber defined it as ‘the social insti­tution that holds a monopoly over the use of force’. It has a ‘monopoly’ of legitimate
violence ‘within a specific territory”. Hence, the state includes such institutions as the armed forces, civil service or bureaucracy,
police, judiciary and local and national councils of elected representatives, such as parliament.

• Consequently, the state is not a unified entity. It is rather a set of institutions which describe the terrain and parameters for
political conflicts between various interests over the use of resources and the direction of public policy.

• Sociologists have been particularly concerned with the state, but they have examined it in relation to society as a whole, rather
than in isolation. Their main concern is the description analysis, and explanation of the state as an institution which claims a
monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a given territory.

• What are the state’s interests or the boundaries of the state? It is very difficult to identify them clearly, since different parts of the
state apparatus can have different interests and conflicting preferences. Because of this diffi­culty, there are frequently conflicts
between elected politicians and non-elected civil servants or the judiciary over policy and resources.
Characteristics of State
Population

Definite area
State
Government

Sovereignty
Stateless Societies
 Order is maintained without a modern
governmental apparatus.
 It maintained through alliances, kinship
marriage etc.
The functionalist perspective
State as representing the interests of all
sections of society.

The conflict perspective

State as representing the dominant sections
of society.
 Modern states are
very different from traditional states.

• 1. Population
• 2. Territory
• 3. Political Sovereignty
Characteristics • 4. Government
of Modern • 5. Permanence
State • 6. Legal Personality
• 7. Recognition
• 8. Head of State
 Sovereignty

Sovereignty refers to the

undisputed political rule of a state
over a given territorial area.
 Citizenship

Citizenship rights include

• Civil rights:- the freedom of individuals to live where they choose; freedom of speech and
religion; the right to own property; and the right to equal justice before the law.
• Political Rights:- the right to participate in elections and to stand for public office.
• Social rights:- health benefits, unemployment allowance, setting of minimum level of wages.
 Nationalism

 It can be defined as a set of

symbols and beliefs providing
the sense of being part of a
single political community.
 Thus, individuals feel a sense of
pride and belonging, in being
‘Nigerian’,‘British’, ‘Indian’,
‘Indonesian’ or ‘French’.
 Modern states are
very different from traditional states.

• Sovereignty
Characteristics • Citizenship (Civil, Political, Social
of Modern Rights)
State • Nationalism
Politics

Power
Authority
State
Stateless society
Characteristics of modern state
Sovereignty
Citizenship (Civil, Political, Social)
Nationalism
 Religion
• Religion is a system of belief in the existence
of supernatural beings.
The sociological study of religion is
different from a religious or
theological study of religion in many
ways.
• It conduct empirical studies
• It uses a comparative method.
• It investigates religious
believes, practices and
institutions in relation to other
aspects of society and culture.
 Family

Social Religion
Economic

Political
Religion exists in all known societies, although religious
beliefs and practices vary from culture to culture.
Common Characteristics of all Religion:-
 Set of symbols, Invoking feelings of reverence or
awe
 Rituals or ceremonies
 A community of believers.
 set of symbols
rituals or ceremonies;
´ a community of believers.
The rituals associated with
religion are very diverse.
 The term religion (from Latin: religio meaning "bind, connect") denotes a set of
common beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural (and its relationship to
humanity and the cosmos), which are often codified into prayer, ritual, scriptures,
and religious law. These beliefs and practices are typically defined in light of a
shared canonical vocabulary of venerable traditions, writings, history, and
mythology.
 Religion is mediated by institutions and technologies, and also by the body and the
senses.
 The brain shapes thinking and feeling. It orients adherents in time and space and
shapes how sensory input is classified and how emotions are expressed.
 The embodied experience of religion is expressed through sound, smell, taste,
touch, and sight.
 Religion is also expressed in diverse cultural forms.
 There are eight modes of religious expression: experiencing, imagining, making,
narrating, conceptualizing, enacting, performing, and gathering.
Emile Durkheim,
• Sociologists of religion, following Emile Durkheim, are interested in
understanding this sacred realm which every society distinguishes
from the profane.

Profane
Studying religion sociologically : the
relationship of religion with other social
institutions.
 Religion has had a very close
relationship with power and
politics.
 For instance periodically in
history there have been
religious movements for social
change, like various anti-caste
movements or movements
against gender discrimination.
 Religion is not just a matter of
the private belief of an
individual but it also has a
public character.
Classical sociologists believed that as societies
modernised, religion would become less influential over
the various spheres of life. The concept secularisation
describes this process.
Max Weber (1864-1920) demonstrates
how sociology looks at religion in its
relationship to other aspects of social and
economic behaviour.
Comparative Study
(a branch of Protestant Christianity)

world was created for

the glory of God, any
work in this world had
whether one will go to heaven or hell to be done for His glory
was pre-ordained. Since there was no
way of knowing whether one has been
assigned heaven or hell
 investment became something
like a holy creed
if a person in whatever
profession, was consistent and
successful in his or her work, it
was interpreted as a sign of God’s
happiness. At the heart of capitalism is the
concept of investment.
 To conclude…
• Religion cannot be studied as a separate entity.
• Social forces always and invariably influence
religious institutions.
• Political debates, economic situations and gender
norms will always influence religious behaviour.
• In traditional societies, religion usually plays a
central part in social life.
 EDUCATION
• Education is a life long process, involving both
formal and informal institutions of learning.
 Simple Society Complex Society

Children learnt customs and the increasing economic

broader way of life by participating division of labour,
in activities with their adults. separation of work from
home
How do you get educated
informally in such a context?
Functionalists (Education)
• education maintain and renews the social
structure transmits and develops culture.
• The educational system is an important
mechanism for the selection and allocation of
the individuals in their future roles in the society.
• It is also regarded as the ground for proving
one’s ability
• Selective agency for different status according to
their abilities.
Conflict theorists
• education functions as a main
stratifying agent.
• The inequality of educational
opportunity is also a product of social
stratification.
Religion

Sociological study of religion (Empirical, Comparative, Relation)

Common features of religion (Symbols, rituals or ceremonies, believers)
Emile Durkheim- Sacred and Profane
Relationship with power and politics.
Max weber- Religion – Social and Economic relation (Calvinism)

Education
Life long process
Formal and informal
Functionalist and Conflict