Chapter 3 Understanding Social Institutions Solutions
Question - 1 : - Note what are the marriage rules that are followed in your society? Compare your observations with these made by other students in the class. Discuss.
Answer - 1 : -
Every society comprises several types and rules of marriage. Our society particularly follows monogamy. Monogamy is a system of marriage wherein one man can marry only one woman, and one woman can only marry one man. People are only allowed to re-marry after the death of their spouse or after a divorce. Thus, they cannot have more than one spouse at the same time.
Generally, the marriages are fixed by the parents and this is known as arrange marriage. Parents choose the relevant partners for their sons and daughters. However, some people also prefer love marriages and their partners are self chosen.
Some societies also practice the rules of polygamy and polygyny, wherein the men and women can have multiple partners as their wives and husbands respectively. However, this practice is not allowed in laws of marriage of some religions.
Question - 2 : - Find out how membership, residence pattern and even the mode of interaction changes in the family with broader economic, political and cultural changes, for instance migration.
Answer - 2 : -
Family is an institution where its members live together under one roof and have cordial relationships. It is affected by broader political, economic and cultural activities of the society. Some examples of the way these activities of the society affect the family are:
Cultural Change
With the change in culture, the membership, residence pattern and mode of interaction within a family also changes. For example, in a matrilineal society the women play a major role in decision-making in the family. However, in a patriarchal society, men exercise authority and dominance over the family.
Another example of cultural change is the preference or resistance towards individualism. If the members of a family are individualistic, then there are chances of having a nuclear family. On the other hand, increase in the inter-personal relationships leads to a joint family.
Political Change
During post-unification period in the 1990s, Germany witnessed a rapid decline in the number of marriages because the new German state withdrew all the protection and welfare schemes which were provided to the families prior to the unification. This is an example of broader political change influencing the family.
Economic Change
When a society undergoes economic changes, even the family gets affected indirectly. For example, industrialisation has led to the emergence of nuclear families and women have also adopted instrumental roles in the family.
Migration
Due to economic instability in a society, people migrate in search of work. For example, people from a flood affected village migrate to cities in search of new homes and new jobs. In some cases, women stay at their village and perform household activities, while the husbands migrate to the city for work.
Migration also leads to a change in the housing pattern because the people who migrate from villages have to live in slums and in tents. Similarly, in village they live with their parents and other relatives but in the city they either have to stay alone or with their husband or wife and children only. This change depicts a change in the membership pattern of the family.
Question - 3 : - Write an essay on `work’. Focus on both the range of occupations, which exist and how they change.
Answer - 3 : -
Work means carrying outactivities that require expenditure of mental and physical effort and can bepaid or unpaid. It has the objective of production of goods and services thatcater to human needs. Mainly, paid work is considered as real work and paidworkers are referred to as being employed.
There aretwo types of occupations, namely informal and formal.
Theinformal employment is found in the unorganised sector of the society, whereasthe formal employment is found in the organised sector of the society.
Informalemployment is mostly unrecorded and the workers are not paid on a regularbasis. Also, the payment is made either in terms of money or as goods orservices.
Informalemployment mostly includes physical work, whereas in the formal employment bothphysical and mental work is involved. Also, workers are paid a regular salaryin terms of money.
Beforeindustrialisation, in traditional societies, the work was performed in houseitself. This formed the informal employment. However, after industrialisation,with the advancement of technology, work shifted from home to factories andoffices, forming the formal sector of employment.
Theseoccupations change gradually. For instance, as the variety of work expanded andbecame complicated, it led to a specialised division of labour. Human labourwas replaced by machines and Industrialisation broke down processes into simpleoperations that could be precisely timed, organised and monitored.
Question - 4 : - Discuss the kind of rights that exist in your society. How do they affect your life?
Answer - 4 : -
There are three kinds of rightsthat exist in our society:
(i)Political rights such as participation in the formation of the government bycasting vote.
(ii)Civil rights, such as freedom of speech, choice of religion, the right to equaljustice before the law. The citizen has the freedom to live anywhere in thestate territory and has the right to own property irrespective of his/hergender.
(iii)Social rights, such as health benefits, unemployment allowance, and setting ofminimum level of wages. The citizen can enjoy a minimum standard of economicwelfare and security.
Theserights help in the smooth functioning of life of individuals, as they help in thegrowth of personality. For instance, the individual can go for higher studiesof his/ her subject of interest, he/she can learn any form of music and dance,and can also practice any religion. Therefore, the individual has right to makehis/her own choice and can also demand justice by appealing to the court.
Question - 5 : - How does sociology study religion?
Answer - 5 : -
Sociology studies religion as an institution and conducts it in three ways:
(i) An empirical study on the various functions of religion and its interrelatedness to the society.
(ii) It uses a comparative method.
(iii) It investigates the religious beliefs and practices in relation to other aspects of the society.
There are different groups of religion that originated with the change and need of the society such as Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Jainism, etc.
Religion has certain beliefs, norms, rules and regulations that are expected to be followed by its members, which govern and regulate their behaviour.
Further, religion has had a very close relationship with power and politics. There have been many social movements which were carried out on the basis of religion.
Classical sociologists believed that as societies have modernised, the influence of religion on the lives of individuals has decreased, which has led to secularism.
Many thinkers of sociology have presented their theories upon religion and their origin. For example, Max Weber in his study, The Protestant Ethic and The Rise of Capitalism viewed that capitalism was a result of Calvinism and their thinking of increasing the economic activity, in order to please the god.
Similarly, Emile Durkhiem presented the view of differentiating the sacred from the profane that existed in religious societies.
Further religion is not only a private matter of individual but it also has a public character, as it holds strong ties with other institutions like politics, economics, education and marriage and kinship.
Question - 6 : - Write an essay on school as a social institution. Draw from both your reading as well as your personal observations.
Answer - 6 : -
The need for education gave riseto schools, and sociology terms this need as a process of transmission orcommunication of group heritage, which is common to all the societies.
Theschools function in order to discipline and regulate human behaviour. Hence,acting as a permanent and binding character.
Furthermore,Ginsberg defines the established institutions as “the recognized and establishedusage governing the relations between individuals and groups”, and schools areestablished institutions that provide formal education to students.
They havetheir own norms and values and certain rules and regulations that are to befollowed.
Accordingto Durkheim, for its survival, a society needs a common base − a certain numberof ideas, sentiments and practices which education must inculcate in allchildren indiscriminately.
Forfunctionalists, education system maintains and develops the social structureand culture. For those who perceive society as unequally differentiated,education functions as one of the main stratifying agent.
Accordingto common sense knowledge of a lay man, schools provide with one of the basiccomponents of socialisation. As a child grows and learns to become a part ofthe group amongst his/her peers, this process of inculcating the values andnorms of the society starts. Thus, the individual becomes a part of thesociety.
Question - 7 : - Discuss how these social institutions interact with each other. You can start the discussion from yourself as a senior school student. And move on to how you are shaped by different social institutions. Are you entirely controlled or can you also resist and redefine social institutions?
Answer - 7 : -
All the social institutions ofmarriage, family and kinship, politics, education, economics and religioninteract and affect each other.
Forinstance, religion had its deep impact on the various spheres of social andcultural life of the individuals affecting the family, marriage, kinship andeducation. The religious institutions were so strong that they even had theiraffect on political and economic institutions of the society.
Thereligion gave way to the capitalism and had the strongest position in thesociety. However, in modern societies religion comparatively has become lessinfluential. But still has its hold on marriage, family, kinship and politics
Even incontemporary societies, family, kinship and marriages are affected by religion.Similarly, the family and marriages are getting affected by economic andpolitical policies of the state as well. The functions of the family members arealso indirectly decided by the policies of the state leading to thefragmentation of family.
Theseinstitutions offer many new opportunities while some even constrain theindividuals. It is very difficult to resist and redefine any social institutionbut this can be done through social movements and protests.