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HUL 272: Sociology of India - Key words glossary

Dr Vibha Arora
Caste:

A form of social stratification which involves a system of hierarchically ranked, closed,


endogamous (marrying within the group) strata, the membership of which is ascribed (from
birth) and between which contact is restricted and mobility theoretically impossible. Although it
reflects economic inequalities, by virtue of the occupations typically followed by or permitted to,
members, caste stratification is ultimately rooted in non-economic criteria.

Class:

i. The hierarchical distinctions that exist between individuals or groups (e.g. occupational
groups) within a society. In this general sense class is an alternative general term to social
stratification. The term ‘social class’ is also widely used as a general synonym for ‘class.’
ii. Any particular position within a social stratification system or class system, e.g. ‘middle
class,’ ‘working class.’

Group:

Any collectivity or plurality of individuals (people or things bound by informal or formal criteria
of membership. A social group exists when members engage in social interactions involving
reciprocal roles and integrative ties. Contrast can be drawn between a social group and a social
category (the latter referring to any category of individuals sharing relevant characteristics like age
or sex).

Institution:

An established order comprising rule bound and standardized behaviour patterns. The term is
widely acknowledged to be used in a variety of ways, and hence often ambiguously. Social
institution refers to arrangements involving large number of people whose behaviour is guided by
norms and roles.

Development:

Any change which results in increased economic productivity and prosperity and new and more
complex forms of social structure and organization. In contemporary work, ‘economic and social
development,’ is usually used to refer to the specific process of industrialization in both its
socialist and capitalist forms.

Society:

i. The totality of human relationships.


ii. Any self perpetuating human grouping occupying a relatively bounded territory,
possessing its own, more or less distinctive culture and institutions, e.g. a particular
people such as the Nuer or a long or well established nation state such as the U.K or U.S.

Action:

Any unit or sequence of social activity or behaviour, e.g. action of a trade union or action of an
individual.
Identity:

The sense of self that develops as the child differentiates from parents and family and takes a
place in society.

Democracy: (Greek: Rule of the people)

In modern times, those forms of government in which all full, adult members of a society or
organization make up the policy making body – direct democracy – or are represented by others
who they elect to such a body – representative democracy.

Division of labour:

i. The process whereby productive tasks become separated and more specialized.
ii. The process of occupational specialization in society as a whole, and the separation of
social life into different activities and institutions such as family, state and economy
denoted by the term ‘social division of labour.’

Elite:

Literally the ‘best’ or most talented members of society (e.g. educational elite), however in Sociology the
term most usually refers to political elites. Here the assumption of elite theory has been that a division
between elites and masses is an inevitable feature of any complex modern society.

Family:

A group of people, related by kinship or similar close ties, in which the adults assume
responsibility for the care and upbringing of their natural or adopted children.

Hegemony:

i. The power exercised by one social group or another.


ii. The ideological/ cultural domination of one class by another achieved by engineering
consensus through controlling the content of cultural forms and major institutions.
iii. Used by Gramsci to criticize the narrowness of approaches which focussed only on the
repressive potential of the capitalist state.

Culture:

The human creation and use of symbols and artefacts. Culture may be taken as a constituting way
of life of an entire society and this will include codes of manner, dress, language, rituals, norms of
behaviour and systems of belief. Sociologists stress that human behaviour is primarily the result of
nurture (social determinant) rather than nature (biological determinant)

Ideology:

i. Any system of ideas underlying and informing social and political action to a system of
ideas which justifies or legitimates the subordination of one group by another.

Kinship:

The social relations and lineage groups characterized by and bound together through a system of
well defined customs, rights and obligations. Kin relations may either be from descent or may be
established through affinity. In Sociology kinship has been given less priority as in the main
modern industrial societies it has little influence.
Justice:

i. The general principle that individuals should receive what they deserve.
ii. Legal justice: sometimes called corrective justice, the application of the laws and
administration of the legal institutions, which in modern societies are mainly operated by
trained and legal professionals.

Language:

i. A system of symbolic communication, that is of vocal (and written) signs, which


arguably distinguishes human beings from all other species.
ii. The crucial signifying practice in and through which the human subject is constructed
and becomes a social being.
iii. The most important but not the only sign system of human society.

Matriarchy:

Any social organization based on female power. The literal meaning refers to the rule of the
mother as the head of the family, and can therefore be contrasted with the term ‘patriarchy,’
referring to the rule of the father.

Patriarchy:

i. A form of social organization in which a male acts as head of the family/ household,
holding power over females and children.
ii. Any system whereby men achieve and maintain socio-cultural and economic dominance
over females and younger males. The term may refer to a pattern of organization within
the family and households etc. or within a whole society.

Marriage:

A socially acknowledged and sometimes legally ratified union between an adult male and an adult
female. Some societies recognize polygamy – either polygyny in which a man may be married to
more than one woman, or much more rarely, polyandry, in which a woman may be married to
more than one man. Monogamy however is by far the most common form of marriage even in
societies in which polygamy is permitted.

Migration:

The movement of people from one country to another and who declare an intention to reside in
the latter. Emigration refers to the movement of people out of a country, immigration refers to
the movement of people into a country.

Multiculturalism:

The acknowledgement and promotion of cultural pluralism is a feature of many societies. In


opposition to the tendency in modern societies to cultural unification and universalization,
multiculturalism both celebrates and seeks to protect cultural variety (minority languages), while
at the same time focussing on the often unequal relationship of minority to mainstream culture.

Nationalism:

i. The belief in, and feeling of belonging to, a people united by common historical,
linguistic and perhaps racial or religious ties where this people is identified with a
particular territory and either constitutes a nation state or has aspirations to do so.
ii. Any related ideology which promotes the nation state as the most appropriate form of
modern government.

Colonialism:

The political rule either directly or indirectly of one country, society or nation over another.
Colonialism however, involves more than just political rule. In the 20th century it has been
particularly associated with one ethnic group dominating another within the dominated group’s
territory.

Occupation:

i. A job or profession.

ii. The action, state, or period of occupying or being occupied by military force.

Peasants:

Small agricultural producers who with the help of simple equipment and labour of their families,
produce mostly for their own consumption, direct or indirect and for the fulfilment of
obligations to holders of political and economic power.

Political Party:

Any association set up with the objective of gaining political power usually, but not always by
electoral means. In contrast with pressure groups which seek to influence political events by
acting on governments and public opinion, parties can be distinguished as seeking to wield
government power directly.

Civil society:

Market and economic relations (in contrast with activity of the state); a realm of intermediate
between the family and the state. More generally, the realm of wider social relations and public
participation, as against the narrower operations of the state and economy.

Modernism:

Any cultural preference for the ‘modern,’ for the recency of thought, of style etc. especially in
architecture, music and art.

Pressure Groups:

Any organized association of persons with the aim of influencing the policies and actions of
governments or simply changing public opinion. In contrast with political parties, pressure
groups do not seek to become the government. The term interest group is interchangeably used
with pressure group.

Race:

A scientifically discredited term previously used to describe biologically distinct groups of persons
who were alleged to have characteristics of an unalterable nature. Social scientists now recognize
that race is exclusively a socially constructed categorization which specifies rules for identification
of a given group.
Religion:

i. The belief in spiritual beings (Tylor) and institutions and practices associated with these beliefs.

ii. A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, things set apart and held in awe,
which unites the believers into a moral community or church.

Ritual:

i. Any formal action which is set apart from profane action and which expresses
sacred and religious meaning.
ii. Bodily action in relation to symbols.

Social Change:

The difference between the current and antecedent condition of any selected aspect of social
organization or structure, e.g. the family, voting patterns, religious attitudes, economic activity
etc. They study of social change involves as a logical minimum, the identification of the
phenomenon to be studied, and the use of a historical perspective in order to identify the changes
which it has undergone.

Social movement:

Any broad social alliance of people who are associated in seeking to effect or to block an aspect of
social change within society. Unlike political parties or some more highly organized interest or
pressure groups, such movements may be only informally organized, although they may have
links with political parties and more institutional groups.

Skill:

i. Capabilities acquired by a person in their education and working life which may
include one or more of the following: cognitive abilities (capacity for abstract thought,
memory and concentration), manual dexterity, knowledge, and interpersonal abilities.

ii. (Social Construct) A label attached to certain types of work or occupation as


being superior as a result of custom and practice.

Social mobility:

The movement of individuals (or sometimes groups) between different positions in the
hierarchies of social stratification within any society. Within modern societies class positions
within the occupational structure are usually of prime interest in studies of social mobility. In
Sociology the main focus has been on differences in the volume and character of inter-
generational mobility within different societies.

Social stratification:

The hierarchically organized structures of social inequality (ranks, status groups etc.) which exist
in any society. As in Geology, the term refers to a layered structuring of strata, but in Sociology
the layers consist of social groups, and the emphasis is on the ways in which the inequalities
between groups are structured and persist over time.

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