TyroCity: Sociology Notes

Dina Sanichar

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Dina Sanichar, named ‘the Indian Wolf Boy,’ is one of the oldest known cases of a feral child. He was believed to be about 6 years old when he was found by hunters in 1867. The hunters saw a pack of wolves enter a cave followed by a human who was running on four legs. The men smoked the wolves out of the cave. The men then went into the cave and found Dina. He was rescued from the jungles of Bulandshahr and put through treatment, though not much existed during his time.

People worked with him to rid him of his animalistic behaviors, which included eating raw meat, ripping off clothing, and eating food that was on the ground. After time he was able to be fed cooked meat, but he never did learn to talk.

Caste inequality

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Class based inequality

‘India lives in her villages, we’re told, in every other sanctimonious public speech. That’s bullshit, just a figleaf. India dies in her villages.’
– Arundhati Roy

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: ie, the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”
– Karl Marx

‘[Classes are] large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it.’- Vladimir Lenin, A Great Beginning – June, 1919

Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy: Entries A-F:

‘The main body of class analysis is based on Marxist and Weberian approaches. The Marxist conception of class defines it as a group of people with a common relationship to the structure of political and economic power within a particular society. The Weberian perspective views class as a group of individuals who are categorized according to common socioeconomic indicators that are termed ‘life chances’. While the Marxist and Weberian approaches differ in many respects they share three important characteristics. First both approaches hold the control of economic resources as central to class analysis. Second the approaches define a particular class location in relation to its links with other class location in relation to its links with other class locations. Third they both view class as an explanatory factor in determining the means and limitations of an individual’s pursuit of material resources such as income’.

‘We can define class as a large scale grouping of people who share common economic resources, which strongly influence the type of lifestyle they are able to lead. Ownership of wealth together with occupation are the chief bases of class differences’- Anthony Giddens.

Erik Olin Wright:

Three types of classes:

Control over investment or money capital
Control over factory and offices
Control over labour power.

Above 85 percent people of the world belong to third category.

Class according to Max Weber

Max Weber argued that class can be understood by understanding people’s access to economic wealth, social prestige and political power( three-component theory of stratification).

Economic wealth: There are people who own property and there are those don’t. And there are those who own very less.

Social Prestige/status: There are people who are highly respected in society because of their status. For example people who occupy certain position are more respected than people who do not occupy that position. For example a professor who owns no car (economic wealth) is more respected in society than a thief who owns three such cars. This is social prestige.

Political power: Sometimes people with no economic wealth and no social status have more power to influence their will in society than those who have (wealth and status). For example a woman without wealth or status can impose her will as against the will of rich or prestigious male in society because such woman may have support from organized sources such as women’s workers’ union. These organized sources may be religious, ethnic, racial, ideological but it is powerful because it can force society to accept their will. Weber sees class divided into class (economic wealth), status (social prestige) and party (political power).

Karl Marx and the theory of class

For Karl Marx there is only two types of classes. One is called the dominant class and another is the dominated class. The main difference between these two is that the dominant class owns the means of production (factory for example) and the dominated class workers on the means of production to produce (work as a factory worker). For Karl Marx the class that owns the means of production (ie wealth) automatically controls political power and social status.

Marx saw different dominant class in different economic society with different means of production. Here are some examples:

Primitive Communism Society

There are no classes in this society

Slave Master Society

Exploited slave class and the slave owning class called the masters class.

Feudalism

Feudal lords (exploiters – ruling class) who owns the agricultural land and serfs (exploited class) who work in these lands. Bourgeois or traders class destroy feudalism. They free serfs from dependence on lords and thus prepare the ground for capitalistic society.

Capitalistic society

Exploitation of workers (proletariat) by capitalists (bourgeoisie).

Socialistic society

Working class who wants socialism and controls the state and former capitalists who want to go back to capitalistic society.

Communistic society

No class

Class system is different from caste, ethnicity and gender:

Class system are not based on religious and legal provisions. For example the people of two different classes can marry.
Individual’s class is achieved and not ascribed.
Class is fluid that means there can be social mobility upwards or downwards.
Class differences are based on economic differences between groups or individuals.

Class structure in Nepal

Ownership of housing units: Altogether, 85.26 percent of the households reside in their own house whereas 12.81 percent in rented, 0.63 percent in institutional and 1.30 percent in other arrangements. In urban areas, 40.22 percent live in rented house. Kathmandu district has the highest percentage (58.65) of households living in rented house.
Type of foundation of house: Nearly ten percent (9.94 %) of total households live in houses with the foundation having RCC pillar, 17.57 percent households in house with foundation made up of cement-bonded bricks, 24.9 percent in wooden pillar, 44.21 percent in mud-bonded bricks and 2.33 in other type of foundations. In urban areas, 28.42 percent of the households live in houses with the foundation having RCC pillars ( reinforced concrete column )

Usual fuel for cooking: About two-third of the total households (about 64 percent) use Firewood as the usual source of fuel for cooking followed by LPG (21.03 percent), cow

dung (10.38 percent). Bio-gas and Kerosene is used for cooking by 2.43 and 1.03 percent

of the total households respectively. Very few households (0.08 percent) use Electricity as usual fuel for cooking. In urban areas, more than two third (67.68 percent) of the total households use LPG as their usual fuel for cooking.

Toilet in the house: More than one third (38.17 percent) of the total households do not have a toilet in their houses. Almost all the households without toilet (95.4%) are in rural areas. More than 75 percent of households in Saptari, Siraha, Rolpa and Rautahat districts do not have a toilet in their houses.

Household facility	Nepal	Urban	Rural
Radio	50.82	53.56	50.17
TV	36.45	60.67	30.66
Cable TV	19.33	53.80	11.10
Internet	3.33	12.11	1.24
Telephone	7.37	22.66	3.72
Mobile phone	64.63	84.07	59.98
Motor	1.57	4.03	0.98
Motorcycle	9.58	23.62	6.23
Cycle	32.38	29.95	32.96
Refrigerator	7.16	23.21	3.33

Absent member in households: One in every four households (25.42%; 1.38 million households) reported that at least one member of their household is absent or is living out of country. Total number of absent population is found to be 1,921,494 against 0 .76million in 2001. The highest proportion (44.81 percent) of absent population is from the age group 15 to 24 years. Gulmi, Arghakhanchi and Pyuthan districts reported the highest proportion of their population being absent (staying abroad).

Percent of households receiving remittance has increased from 23 percent in 1995/96 to about 56 percent in 2010/11

Food: In NLSS-III, around 8 percent of households reported that they could not afford to eat what they normally eat at one or more times during the past 30 days from the day of enumeration. Most of the households that experienced food shortages tried to overcome the situation by resorting to “borrowing the food or money to buy food”.

Nutrition Status of Children

The proportions of children (less than 5 years of age) who are underweight, stunted and wasted are 31, 42 and 14 percent respectively. The corresponding proportions for severe underweight, stunting and wasting among children are 8, 15 and 3 percent respectively.

Land tenure

About 95 percent of the agricultural households own land and 10 percent rent out some or all of their land to others. On the other hand, 32 percent of households operate at least some land rented-in from others. At the other extreme, 5 percent households do not own any land but operate land owned by others on contractual basis.

*Agriculture Equipment *

A large majority of farmers still use locally made agricultural tools. Mechanization of agriculture is at a very low stage. About 52 percent of farmers own the most basic equipment – a plough or improved type of plough (bikase halo). About 33 percent of farmers use bins and containers for grain storage. Only one percent of farmers own tractor or power tiller.

Food

Overall, 16 percent of the respondents think that food consumption in their households is “less than adequate” (or inadequate), while 82 percent say it is “just adequate” and the remaining 2 percent answer “more than adequate”. The percentage of households reporting “inadequacy” of food consumption is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The proportion of respondents reporting “inadequacy” is the highest in the far-western region (25 percent) and the lowest in the central region. Among analytic domains, this proportion is the highest in the mountains and the lowest in the Kathmandu valley urban areas,

Clothing

At the national level, 17 percent of households report to have “inadequate” clothing for their family members while 82 percent report it as “just adequate”. About a third and a fourth of the households in the mid west and the far west development regions respectively report to have less than adequate clothing for their family.

Among the domains, the highest incidence of reported clothing inadequacy is in the mountains (33 percent) followed by the rural mid and far western hills (31 percent) while the lowest incidence is in the Kathmandu valley urban areas (6 percent) followed by the urban Tarai (9 percent). The poorest quintile has the highest proportion of households reporting clothing inadequacy (35 percent) while the top quintile has only 4 percent of households reporting this “inadequacy”.

Health Care

Overall, 18 percent of households perceive their health care to be “less than adequate”. The percentage of households reporting health care as “just adequate” is 79 percent.

Schooling

In Nepal, 16 percent of households in the country think that schooling for their children is less than adequate, 70 percent think to be just adequate, and for 13 percent it is “not applicable” (i.e., they don’t have school-age children). The proportion of households reporting less than adequate schooling is roughly one fourth in each of the following regions: the mountains zone, mid and far west development regions, the rural mid and far west hills, and the rural mid and far west Tarai. A similar proportion of households in the poorest household consumption quintile think that schooling for their children is inadequate .

Income

About 49 percent of the households in the country perceive their total income as less than adequate and 50 percent think it to be just adequate. The percentage of households reporting their income as “more than adequate” is around one percent only

Food Security

In NLSS III, households are asked whether they had experienced any food shortages or shortage of money to buy adequate food for the family in the last 30 days preceding the day of enumeration. They are also asked what coping strategy they had to resort to in case of such shortages. Overall, about 8 percent households in the country report shortage of foods or money to buy foods in the last 30 days; this proportion is double for rural areas than for urban areas. Among the households who experience food shortage, the highest proportion (about 43 percent) faces the shortage for 3 to 5 days and about one-fourth of them face 1 to 2 days of such scarcity. There seems no significant difference between urban and rural areas regarding the proportion of households reporting food shortages for 5 days or less

Stunting Among Children

This is the proportion of children under five that fall below minus two and below minus three standard deviations from median height-for-age of WHO reference population.

Forty-two percent of children under five are stunted and 15 percent are severely stunted. Stunting is slightly higher among females than among males.

Underweight Children

This is the proportion of children under five that fall below minus two and below minus three standard deviations from median weight-for-age of WHO reference population25.

Thirty-one percent of children (less than five years of age) are underweight and 8 percent are severely underweight. Both the rates for females are higher than those for males.

Wasted

Fourteen percent of children are wasted and 3 percent are severely wasted. The wasting rates for females are slightly bigger than those for males.

Vanya Yudin

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

One of the more recent cases of a feral child is Vanya Yudin (referred to by news agencies as ‘the Russian Bird Boy’). It is said that when he was found by Russian caseworkers in 2008, he was 7 years old and unable to speak. He did nothing but chirp and flap his arms as if he had wings, and exhibited a lot of the behavior that you would expect from a bird. He was kept in a two-room apartment with bird cages filled with dozens of birds that were owned by his mother. Galina Volskaya, one of the social workers taking part in the case stated that even though the boy lived with his mother, she never spoke to him and she simply treated him like another one of her pets. When Volskaya attempted to talk to the boy, he didn’t speak, just chirped.

While he was never abused physically, the boy was still treated with similar methods to others on the list due to the lack of human interaction. He was put into an asylum where he received treatment to allow him to become more human-like. After, he was sent to a center for psychological care to further his journey to becoming more socially aware and accepted.

Gender based inequality

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Gender according to sexual orientation

Heterosexual: attracted to individuals of the opposite sex (straight)
Homosexual: attracted to individuals of the same sex (gay, lesbian)
Bisexual: attracted to both sexes
Queer: attracted to the same or both sexes and/or transgendered individuals
Asexual: not experiencing sexual attractions

Types of gender identity

Maleness/Masculine
Femaleness/Feminine
Two-Spirited- an Aboriginal term for an individual who possesses both male and female spirits, and is thus neither male nor female
Transgendered- a person who challenges strict gender norms (may be transsexual, biologically Intersexed, etc.)
Third Gender- individuals who are categorized as neither male nor female (by their own will or social consensus); term also used in societies who recognize more than two genders
Androgyny- a term that refers to a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics

How were women seen in typical society?

Women as Male’s private property (Father’s property in case of Kanyadan)
No one agreed that forced sex in marriage was sex.
- Sexual relation in marriage was to satisfy husband.
- Women was to be enjoyed.
- Her enjoyment was secondary or accidental only.
Woman’s GOD GIVEN PLACE was – in the kitchen
Women who worked outside their home were
- Embarrassment for their husband and father and brother
- Women who earned more than then husband or boyfriend were embarrassing them.
Unmarried mothers were considered as immoral
Boys who flirted with many girls were considered as naughty and natural but girls who did the same were considered as a slut
University
- Educated women goes to university to find educated men

Gender stereotype

Masculine	Feminine
Active	Passive
presence	absence
independent	dependent
organized	scattered
rational	emotional
logical	illogical
intellectual	intuitive/imaginative

Important gender term during the research

Androcentricity
Male-centered research, or approaching the topic from a male-only perspective

Overgeneralizing
Using data collected from one sex and applying the findings to both sexes

Gender insensitivity
The failure to consider the impact of gender at all in the subject matter in question

Double standards
The same standards should be applied to both sexes in order to not distort findings

Interference
This occurs when a subject under study reacts to the sex of the researcher rather than the subject matter under study

Gender

OXFORD DICTIONARY OF SOCIOLOGY: ‘According to Ann Oakley who introduced the term to sociology, sex refer to the biological division into male and female, gender to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity. Gender draws attention therefore to the socially constructed aspects of differences between women and men.

Anthony Giddens: ‘Social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex. Gender does not refer to the physical attributes in terms of which men and women differ, but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity. The study of gender relations has become one of the most important areas of sociology in recent years, although for a long time they received little attention’

Social Construction of Gender

Nancy Chodorow

Both boys and girls are attached to
Revised Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual development: emphasized “pre-Oedipal” period (birth to about 3)
Attachment & identification, not sexual attraction
Both M & F begin “as if” female: develop “feminine” sense of self in experiencing world with & through mother
Females: develop by continuity — sustaining identification with mother
Males: develop by discontinuity — separating from mother and creating new identity
- Misogyny: “masculinity” created via repression / expulsion of “feminine”

Janet Sayers (critique of Nanacy Chodorow)

The theory ignores the need of women to be detached and autonomous.

Women have aggressiveness. This needs to brought out not repressed.

Gender stratification theory

Functionalist approach

Anthropologist George Murdock saw that women should concentrate on domestic and family responsibilities. And men should work outside.

This argument of his was based on his work that involved the cross-cultural studies of more than 200 societies.

He considered the gender based division of labour as the most logical organization arrangement in society.

Talcott Parson:

Talcott Parson studied industrial society.

Women’s role is to socialize children through emotional or expressive roles: caring for others, forgiving etc

Men’s role is to socialize children through rational role like being aggressive, competitive.

Another role of women is to comfort men who are stressed in their work by providing them with emotional comfort.

John Bowlby

Every children needs mother or at least ‘mother substitute’.

This role cannot be performed by male.

Feminist perspective

Raewyn Connel’s theory of The gender hierarchy

Hegemonic masculinity	Social dominance not through violence but through culture. Hetrosexuality Marriage Authority Paid work Strength Physical toughness
Complicit Masculinity	People who are almost like the hegemonic males and enjoy benefit in society due to it.
Homosexual masculinity	Seen as opposite of real man. Rank at the bottom of gender hierarchy
Emphasized feminity	Old women-motherly characteristics Young women: Sexual receptivity Women like dress Someone to accompany the real men.
Resistant feminities	Hidden from history Who revolt against the system

Shulamith Firestone
‘We are no longer just animals. And the kingdom of nature does not reign absolute. … Thus the ‘natural’ is not necessarily a ‘human’ value. Humanity has begun to transcend Nature: we can no longer justify the maintenance of a discriminatory sex class system on grounds of its origins in nature.’

Elimination of Gender: Firestone did not want to eliminate men, although she didn’t like them much. She believed the gender system oppressed men, too. What she wanted was radical equality. The only way to achieve this, she thought, was to eliminate gender entirely.

Elimination of pregnancy: How? At the core of gender — and inequality — was an accident of biology, she theorized. Women are the ones who are physiologically capable of carrying babies. All gender roles have their roots this simple fact. If you eliminate pregnancy and childbirth, you can eliminate gender. So, she argued, we need to devise ways to reproduce artificially. And until then, women ought to be celibate.

Commune taking care of the children.

Firestone didn’t confine her radicalism to her writing. In 1969, while she was living in New York and writing Dialectic of Sex, she co-founded a women’s organization calledRedstockings that published manifestos, ran consciousness-raising meetings, and organized activism on behalf of a number of feminist causes. Their values included leftist beliefs that we don’t today associate with feminism, like a commitment to socialist revolution. But they also believed deeply in, and campaigned for, the right to safe and legal abortions.

Gender issues Nepal

Literacy Rate: Overall literacy rate (for population aged 5 years and above) has increased from 54.1 percent in 2001 to 65.9 percent in 2011. Male literacy rate is 75.1% compared to female literacy rate of 57.4%. The highest literacy rate is reported in Kathmandu district (86.3 %) and lowest in Humla (47.8%).

Female ownership of fixed assets: Altogether, 19.71 percent of households reported the ownership of land or house or both in the name of female member of the household. In urban areas, 26.77 percent of the households show female-ownership of fixed assets while the percentage stands for 18.02 in rural areas.

Household Head: Female-headed households in the country has increased by about 11 point percent from 14.87% in 2001 to 25.73% in 2011.

Sub-divisions of Sociology

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Sub-division of Sociology is also known as branch of Sociology.

Some of the branches of Sociology are given below:-

Historical Sociology
- It is study of cultural- historical facts of Society.
- Sociology usually accepts 50 year's old facts as historical facts. e.g.; Muluki Ain, 1910 B.S – punishment based on caste. New Muluki Ain, 2020 B.S – Abolition of Caste Discrimination.
Sociology of Knowledge
- It is study of knowledge as social product.
- It believes an idea that human society and its very structure can influence knowledge.

e.g.; National Anthem generates love for country in the heart of people.

Maoist's people's song had encouraged Nepalese youth to take part in People's War.

Sociology of Law
- It recognizes law as part of society.
- It studies impact of law in society e.g.; Impact of Muluki Ain, 1910 B.S. in past Nepalese Society.

Impact of Muluki Ain,2020 B.S. in existing Society.

Social or Human Ecology
- It Studies impact of environment upon social life. e.g.; variation of culture, language, dress up, food habit Mountain, Hill & Tarai of Nepal effect of climate change.

Sociology of Education

- It studies education as and agent of transmission of culture.
- It stress upon the social importance of education and meritocracy i.e., rule by the educated and talented persons. Job placement on the basis of shill & educational qualification not by Nepotism or favoritism.
Political Sociology
- It studies relationship between social structures and political institutions, such as government and other organ of state.
- eg; People's aspiration towards freedom determines the government of state as democratic or autocratic.
Economic Sociology
- It is concerned with economic activities.
- Social Structures determines economic activities e.g.; Rural economy, urban economic, etc.
Sociology of Religion
- It analysis the religious behavior of human beings from a sociological point of view.
- Religious belief determines people's dress up, food habit, etc.
Industrial Sociology
- It studies impact of industrialization is Social life.
- The main cause of urbanization is industrialization.
- Rural economy converted over nightly to urban economy because of industrialization.
- It studies industrial relation, i.e. relationship between employer, capital and labor. (industrialist)

Human & Animal Societies

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Need of society for animals and humans

Evolution
Humans and animals both live in society not as their choice between isolation and society but because they are genetically programmed to be living in society. There are of couse exceptional cases in which humans or animals live away from society but in majority of the cases the evolution have made it this way.

Survival
Chances of survival in society is much more present than in isolation. This is true for humans and animals.

Reproduction
After survival the second greatest human instinct is for reproduction. It is easier to find reproduction partners in society than in isolation.

Intelligence

It has been proven through scientific research than human beings and animals learn from experiences of other social mates. This means that if one lives in group then it gives more opportunity for one to learn than when living alone. People and animals learn from each other.

Biological difference between humans and animals

Ability to Speak
The larynx ( voice box) is located at the lower throat in humans than in chimps, one of several features that enable human speech. Human ancestors evolved a descended larynx roughly 350,000 years ago. We also possess a descended hyoid bone — this horseshoe-shaped bone below the tongue, unique in that it is not attached to any other bones in the body, allows us to articulate words when speaking.

Upright Posture
Humans are unique among the primates in how walking fully upright is our chief mode of locomotion. This frees our hands up for using tools. Unfortunately, the changes made in our pelvis for moving on two legs, in combination with babies with large brains, makes human childbirth unusually dangerous compared with the rest of the animal kingdom. A century ago, childbirth was a leading cause of death for women. The lumbar curve in the lower back, which helps us maintain our balance as we stand and walk, also leaves us vulnerable to lower back pain and strain.

Nakedness
We look naked compared to our hairier ape cousins. Surprisingly, however, a square inch of human skin on average possesses as much hair-producing follicles as other primates, or more — humans often just have thinner, shorter, lighter hairs.

Hands
Contrary to popular misconceptions, humans are not the only animals to possess opposable thumbs — most primates do. (Unlike the rest of the great apes, we don’t have opposable big toes on our feet.) What makes humans unique is how we can bring our thumbs all the way across the hand to our ring and little fingers. We can also flex the ring and little fingers toward the base of our thumb. This gives humans a powerful grip and exceptional dexterity to hold and manipulate tools with.

Extraordinary Brains
Without a doubt, the human trait that sets us apart the most from the animal kingdom is our extraordinary brain. Humans don’t have the largest brains in the world — those belong to sperm whales. We don’t even have the largest brains relative to body size — many birds have brains that make up more than 8 percent of their body weight, compared to only 2.5 percent for humans. Yet the human brain, weighing only about 3 pounds when fully grown, give us the ability to reason and think on our feet beyond the capabilities of the rest of the animal kingdom, and provided the works of Mozart, Einstein and many other geniuses.

The human brain is the largest brain of all vertebrates relative to body size
It weighs about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms)
The brain makes up about 2 percent of a human’s body weight

Clothing
Humans may be called “naked apes,” but most of us wear clothing, a fact that makes us unique in the animal kingdom, save for the clothing we make for other animals. The development of clothing has even influenced the evolution of other species — the body louse, unlike all other kinds, clings to clothing, not hair.

Fire
The human ability to control fire would have brought a semblance of day to night, helping our ancestors to see in an otherwise dark world and keep nocturnal predators at bay. The warmth of the flames also helped people stay warm in cold weather, enabling us to live in cooler areas. And of course it gave us cooking, which some researchers suggest influenced human evolution — cooked foods are easier to chew and digest, perhaps contributing to human reductions in tooth and gut size.

Blush
Turns out, the cheek-reddening reaction is a universal human response to social attention. Everyone does it some more than others. Common blushing triggers include meeting someone important, receiving a compliment and experiencing a strong emotion in a social situation.

Blush biology works like this: Veins in the face dilate, causing more blood to flow into your cheeks and producing a rosy complexion. However, scientists are stumped as to why all that happens, or what function it serves.

Long Childhoods
Humans must remain in the care of their parents for much longer than other living primates. The question then becomes why, when it might make more evolutionary sense to grow as fast as possible to have more offspring. The explanation may be our large brains, which presumably require a long time to grow and learn.

Life after Children
Most animals reproduce until they die, but in humans, females can survive long after ceasing reproduction. This might be due to the social bonds seen in humans — in extended families, grandparents can help ensure the success of their families long after they themselves can have children

Cry
How odd that sadness causes water to spill from our eyes! Among all animals, we alone cry tears of emotion.Not only do they serve the purpose of communicating feelings of distress, scientists believe tears also carry certain undesirable hormones and other proteins that are produced during periods of stress out of the body, which may explain the cathartic effect of “a good cry.”

Socio-cultural difference between humans and animals

Respect for the dead
When a human dies, we all feel sad emotions if we felt a strong bond with that person. We often have elaborate burial ceremonies to show respect for our dead. However, animals rarely do such a thing. Only a few animals have been observed to throw a few leaves on their dead. But animals do not routinely bury their dead like us humans.

Animals are mostly driven on instincts
We humans also have instincts, however, we can control them much better. We are mostly driven by reason. Animals are driven much more by instincts, and only use some reasoning. They have it pre-programmed in their minds from birth on what to do in most situations. Most animals from birth know what foods to eat and how to eat them. They know how to reproduce, where to migrate, and more. Even a baby turtle comes out of it’s shell and immediately knows to swim towards the ocean.

Humans are aware of “self,” and contemplate the afterlife
Other animals do not think of the afterlife. They tend to live in the “now.” They live in the heat of the moment. Their main goals all day long are to eat, sleep, mate, and survive. Humans, however, spend a lot of time thinking of the future, past, and present. We think about ourselves and how we relate to life. We think of what happens when we die.

Humans feel a sense of right and wrong
We all have a basic conscience. Animals kill and never think twice. They kill for food, and they kill based on instincts. They do not stop to think about if they have “sinned.” When a human murders another human, it is out of evil pre-meditation. We know better, but we murder someone anyways. That is a huge difference. Most animals kill purely to eat, or to defend themselves.

Humans have a complex language and communication method
Humans can talk, write, read facial expressions, gestures, and more. Some can even speak multiple languages. Animals do communicate, but they cannot communicate with the level of a human.

Humans use their brains in much more complex ways

The cognitive abilities of a human compared to an animal is incredible. Humans can critically think, invent, find solutions to problems, and much more. Animals are much more simple-minded. An anteater looks for ants all day. A bear gets in the water and slaps salmon out. They never stop to think of a more efficient way of doing things. The bear never creates a net or constructs a fishing pole. They find something that works, and will continue doing it. Humans will always seek out more efficient ways, and even invent complex tools. Again, this gets back to our more complex mental faculties.

Technology
We humans have the ability to quickly learn new technology, and adapt and use that technology. We can create machines and computers that help us to do work more efficiently. Even the most complex animals do not share this feature. The only tool you will likely ever see an animal use is a stick or a rock. And even then they look confused and clumsy with it.

Justice
Only human society goes against nature and seeks justice. Natures is for the survival of the fittest. Human society is governed by the philosophy of justice.

Planning
Only human society plan for the future. Not animal societies.

Religion
Only human society have religion.

Protection of the weak
Only human society allows weak to be protected through laws and rules.

Meaning, characteristics and origin of stratification

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

ANTHONIO GIDDENS: ‘The existence of structured inequalities between groups in society in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state based systems do wide differences in wealth and power arise. The most distinctive form of stratification in modern societies involves class divisions’.

‘The term stratification in sociology is usually applied to studies of structured social inequality that is studies of any systematic inequalities between groups of people which arise as the unintended consequence of social processes and relationships. When we ask why there is poverty why Black people or women in United States are disadvantaged vis-à-vis (respectively) Whites and men or what chances someone born into the working class has of achieving a middle class position we are posing questions about social stratification. ’ Oxford Dictionary of Sociology

Meaning of social stratification

Social stratification refers to existing social inequality in a society
This inequality is caused by the way wealth, power, and prestige are distributed
Social stratification exists in all societies

Types of social stratification

1. Open stratification system:

The type of stratification system in which merit and not inheritance (ascribed characteristics) determines social rank of a person.
For example Mrs A is the manager of a company and not Mr B because Mrs A is good in management (achieved status) and not because of her caste or gender.
In this type of stratification achieved status is given importance.

2. Closed stratification system

Stratification system in which inheritance (ascribed status) and not merit determines social rank
A wife is considered as inferior to her husband because of the ascribed status.

Characteristics of social stratification

1. Power: Capacity to impose your will on others, regardless of any resistance
2. Material wellbeing: Involves access to economic resources required to pay for necessities of life and other possessions and advantages
3. Prestige: Average evaluation of occupational activities and positions arranged in a hierarchy

Introduction to Cases of growth of Self and Social Heritage

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

A feral child is a human child who has lived away from human contact from a very young age, and has little or no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language. Feral children are confined by humans (often parents), brought up by animals, or live in the wild in isolation. There have been over one hundred reported cases of feral children, and this is a selection of ten of them.

Sanskritization

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

‘Sanskritization is actually a sociological phenomenon whereby in brief the lower castes take over the practices of Brahmins such as vegetarianism and perform the rituals for the major Hindu divinities’-Krishna B Bhattachan

Sanskritization, Hinduization, and Nepalization took place in Nepal were interconnected and help the development of each other.

The concept ‘Sanskritization’ has been used by various sociologists and anthropologists to study the social change in caste societies in India and later in Nepal. In Nepal scholars like Prayag Raj Sharma and Collin Rosser have used the concept to study the process in which a low caste attempts to rise to a higher caste by adopting the life of the higher caste. The term, for the first time, is defined by M.N Srinivas in his book “Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India” as follows:

“The caste system is far from a rigid system in which the position of each component caste is fixed for all time. Movement has always been possible, and especially so in the middle regions of the hierarchy. A low caste was able, in a generation or two, to rise to a higher position in the hierarchy by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism, and by Sanskritizing its rituals and pantheon. In short, it took over, as far as possible, the customs, rites, and beliefs of the Brahmins, and the adoption of the Brahminic way of life by a low caste seems to have been frequent, though theoretically forbidden. This process has been called “Sanskritization” in this book, in preference to “Brahminization”, as certain Vedic rites are confined to the Brahmins and the two other “twice-born” castes ”.

According Srinivas he found in most Hindu societies the tribal and low caste people trying to imitate Brahmin life style. He called it Brahminization. He later concluded that low caste and tribal people were trying to imitate Brahmin, Kestriya and Vaishya (high castes) life style. He changed the from Brahminization to Sanskritization as the imitation was not limited to Brahmin but high caste Hindu life style itself.

Srinivas has pointed three essential characteristics of Sanskritization:

It is a group process which does not apply to an individual
Few generations are need to successfully complete the Sanskritization
Sanskritization is a process that has never worked for the untouchables because other Hindus cannot accept them as pure no matter how much they sanskritize.

Why Sanskritization is adopted by tribal and low castes:

Economic betterment
The acquisition of political power
Education
Leadership,
A desire to move up in the hierarchy

Sanskritization in the context of Nepal apply to Janajati and Dalits but mostly janajatis:

	From	To
Birth	Tribal, Janajati or Dalit birth rituals	Hindu birth rituals.
Infant	Animist, Buddhist or tribal socialization process of infant socialization	Hindu scripture focused socialization. Pasne is an example of this.
Name	Traditional name	Hindu name
Adolescent	Tribal ritual to	Hindu rituals like Bartamana and Gufa
Marriage	Traditional form of marriage	Hindu rituals in marriage
Death	Traditional cremation of dead	Hindu death ritual
Family	Tribal family Matriarchal	Joint Patriarchal
Language	Mother tongue	Nepali and Hindi
Cloths	Tribal, Janajati and Dalit dress	Hindu dress
Lifestyle		Imitation of Hindu life style
Food	Traditional food such as pork, beef, deer, chicken	No beef, non pork, Hindu foods
Occupation	Traditional occupation that contradicted with Hindu values	Leaving occupations that are considered by Hindus to be inauspicious and impure
Politics	Traditional village head	Village headed by Brahmin or Chetris
Religion	Traditional religions: Buddhism, Animism,	Hinduism Celebration of Hindu festivals.

History of Sanskritization in Nepal

1200-1769 Newar Malla kingdoms flourished in Kathmandu valley.

1743 Prithivi Narayan Shah is officially crowned as the king of Gorkha

1769 King Prithivi Naraya Shah of Gorkha subdues the last Newar Malla kingdom of the Kathmandu valley: origins of modern Nepal

Nathu and Pralad Gurung the two military officers in the Gorkha army had played a key role in the conquest of Kumaon and Garhwal region for the Gorkha Empire.

One the very first thing that Prithivi Narayan Shah’s Gorkha empire did was to ban cow slaughter in Gorkha kingdom which was a beginning of Hindu kingdom.
Each Gorkha army regiment had a Bahun pujari or priest who worshiped for the regiment thus Hinduizing the Janajatis .
In 1761 Prithivi Narayan Shah banned Jaisi Bahun from performing Vedic rituals.
The elite within Adivasi Janajati community were inclined to identify themselves as Hindus because they wanted to be closer to the Hindu ideology dominated Gorkha empire during Shah period, Rana period and Panchyat period.
This shift to Hinduism or what sociologists would call SANSKRITIZATION made Janajatis SPLIT into Hindu and non Hindu communities.
To identify themselves as Hindus the Janajati accepted Kashi Gotra or Aryan ancestry.
Janajati who accepted Kashi Gotra or Aryan ancestry were called as follows:
- Athar Jat among Tamang
- Bara Thar among Sunuwar
- Char Jat among Gurung
- Kutang among Bhotia
- Pradhan among Tharus
- Pukanthali among Chepangs
Janajati who rejected Kashi Gotra or Aryan ancestry and followed Lasha Gotra or Bodic ancestry system were called as follows:
- Bara Jat among Tamang
- Das Thar among Sunuwar
- Sorah Jat among Gurung
- Nighin among Bhotia
- Apradhan among Tharus
- Kachare among Chepangs

1806: Assassination of Rana Bahadhur Shah and rise of Bhimsen Thapa-Prime Minister

Bhimsen Thapa introduced modernization in Nepali army.

1814-1816 Anglo-Nepal war East India Company restricted the alarming growth of the Gorkha empire.

Nepal lost Kumaon, Garhwal and Tarai entire

1837 Bhimsen Thapa was overthrown.

1846 Jang Bahadur Kunwar stages a coup and installs hereditary line of prime ministers: beginning of Rana period

1850-51 Jang Bahadur visits England and France

1854 Promulgation of Muluki Ain, Nepal’s first legal code.

Muluki ain helped sanskritization and hinduization even further

The Syrian Gazelle Boy

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Jean-Claude Auger, an anthropologist from the Basque country, was traveling alone across the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro) in 1960 when he met some Nemadi nomads, who told him about a wild child a day’s journey away. The next day, he followed the nomads’ directions. On the horizon he saw a naked child “galloping in gigantic bounds among a long cavalcade of white gazelles”. The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. He would eat desert roots with his teeth, pucking his nostrils like the gazelles. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal. In 1966 an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children of whom we have records, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions.

George Homans: Social Exchange Theory

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

What is Exchange Theory ?

Basic premise: people will continue to engage in behaviors they find rewarding and cease to engage in behaviors where the costs have proven to be too high in the past.
Self-interest was the universal motive that made the world go around.
A reaction against Parsons, Durkheim, and structural functionalism in general.
Sociology should concern itself with explaining individual behavior and interaction and have little interest in consciousness or large-scale structures and institutions.
Focusing on what people get and what they contribute in turn to the relationship.
Homans believed that in very interaction something is being exchanged. Not only in the economic realm but also come in the form of approval, esteem, love, affection, allegiance, and other nonmaterialistic or symbolic expressions.
In industrial observations, for example.
If workers feel that they are paid unfairly they may form a union, bargain collectively with the employer or strike. But at the same time, they will weigh the potential benefits against the cost. When multiple value are involved, the rational calculation of benefits and costs becomes very difficult.
In short, Homans’ exchange theory “investigaes social behaviors as an exchange or activity, tangible, or intangible, and more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two persons”
He concluded five clear-cut propositions that he felt explains all human behavior. These propositions are the cornerstone of his exchange theory.

Bello of Nigeria

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Bello, sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Chimp Boy by the media, was found in 1996. No one is exactly sure of his age but many estimated that he was about 2 years old when he was discovered. He was found in the Nigerian forest and is both physically and mentally disabled, possibly the explanation for his abandonment at six months of age (a very common practice within the Fulani tribe). At such a young age, Bello of course could not fend for himself but somehow chimpanzees that lived within the forest took him in and raised him. He took on many chimpanzee behaviors, walking like them and displaying many of their animalistic behaviors.

When he was found in the Falgore forest, no one really mentioned the discovery. It wasn’t until about 2002 when popular news media found out and quickly learned that he was living in Tudun Maliki Torrey, a home for displaced children in Kano, South Africa. It was reported that he often disturbed other children within the home, throwing objects as well as jumping and leaping around at night. Six years later he was much calmer, though he still continued to display behaviors of a chimpanzee. Bello never did learn to speak despite the constant human interaction he had within the home, and in 2005 he died of undetermined causes.