TyroCity: Sociology BA LLB

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

Social Control

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

What Is Social Control?

Any action, deliberate or unconscious, that influences conduct toward conformity, whether or not the persons being influenced are aware of the process.
The primary function of law is to establish and maintain social control.
Why is social control necessary?
- Peaceful coexistence
- Predictable coexistence

Meaning of Social Control

The Social Control Theory instead of asking what drives people to commit crime or rebel (as in case of Marxist and feminists), they ask why do most people not commit crime( or do not rebel against the injustice in society as in case of Marxists).
All human beings suffer from innate human weaknesses which make them unable to resist temptation to commit crime and rebel but they don’t. This theory or different theories tries to answer the why part.
The theory is focused on analyzing the restraining or “controlling” factors that are broken or missing inside the personalities of criminals (as in case of normal social control theories) or inside rebels (as in case of Marxists and other left oriented theories).
Control theory investigate the ways in which our behavior is regulated, including the influences of family, school, morals, values, beliefs, etc.
It is this regulation that is seen as leading to conformity and compliance with the rules of society

Emile Durkheim, 1858-1917

Emile Durkheim studied societies during the peak of the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. It was a type of society in which the social solidarity or what he called mechanical solidarity or a sense of bond and attachment people had with each other had collapsed. Due to this the individuals were alone and culturally lost.

Nature of social control
Durkheim was very clear in his argument that social control was stronger in rural areas and in non industrialized societies. In rural society people had strong attachment with the group and as a result they did not feel alone and lost. In urban setting people had organic solidarity which was the weakening of the “collective force of society”. Due to this there was weakening of social bonds. This led to extreme individualism and caused suicide (anomie led suicide). Anomie is a social condition of normlessness under which individuals feel less or almost no pressure to conform to social norms. This leads to deviance.

Purpose of social control
Durkheim argued that the modern individual in industrialized urban societies were insufficiently integrated into society because of the weakening bonds, collapse of social and the controlling influence of society on the animal desires and interests of the individuals. The purpose of social control is to control these wild instructs of people and integrate them into society. If these wild instincts are not controlled then individuals lose interest in society and as a result die of anomie (meaning and purposelessness)

Mechanism of social control
Durkheim argued that religion and education are some of the major mechanisms of social control. Religious ceremonies he argued brought people together and gave them a sense of solidarity. Durkheim believed that education served as an instrument to reinforce social solidarity. School is a society in miniature: it has a similar hierarchy, rules, expectations to the “outside world,” and trains people to fulfill roles. Durkheim was clear that anomie is a social construct not an individual attribute (anomia).Social control comprises all mechanisms at preventing anomie

Max Weber’s authority as social control

Nature of social control
Traditional society is controlled by traditional values and sometimes by values of new charismatic leaders. But social control in traditional society is by traditional authority. In modern system however the social control is done through rational authority. That means a highly rational and calculative system controls modern society.

Purpose of social control
The purpose of social control in society is goal attainment through efficient system . The goal attainment could be profit or power.

Mechanism of social control
In traditional society, the mechanism was traditional organizations like family, religion.

In modern society, the mechanism is bureaucracy based on meritocracy and rationality.

Karl Marx

Nature of social control
Those who control the economy are the exploiters. They need to create superstructure (law and ideology) to secure the economic system.

Purpose of social control
The purpose of social control is to prevent the exploited class from revolting against the system so as to run the system in a smooth manner.

Mechanism of social control
Marx argued that all ideology manufacturing institutes like religion, law, and education were controlled by the economic elites hence the ideology and education they manufactured were aimed at producing people who could not revolt against the system.

Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman

In the book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. The two authors talk about media as social control.

Nature of social control

The model suggests the existence of a set of news “filters”, which dilute the raw news content into a content that suits the dominant corporate and governmental interests. Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model” describes five editorially distorting filters applied to news reporting in mass media:

FILTER 1: Corporate ownership:Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large firms which are run for profit. Therefore they must cater to the financial interest of their owners – often corporations or particular controlling investors. The size of the firms is a necessary consequence of the capital requirements for the technology to reach a mass audience. The media is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of private companies, owned by wealthy individuals.
FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising: Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertising(not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a “de-facto licensing authority”. Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the interest of the working class.
FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information: Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring […] and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become ‘routine’ news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers.”
Flak and the Enforcers: “Flak” refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet’s public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g. think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.
Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the “War on Terror”, as the major social control mechanism.

Purpose of social control
The purpose of social control is to prevent people from having access to the truth so that they will accept society as it is.

Mechanism of social control
Social control is through media which is controlled by economic elites.

Ivan Nye

Nature of social control
Ivan Nye argued that there are three types of social control in society:

Direct control, by which punishment is imposed for misconduct and compliance is rewarded. For example a thief is sent to jail or a coldblooded murder is given death sentence.
Indirect control, by which a individuals refrains from delinquency because such acts might cause pain/disappointment to their loved ones or significant others
Internal control, by which a individuals are taught that to violate social norms is bad. They feel guilty when they are engaged in delinquent acts

Purpose of social control
The main purpose of social control is to prevent youths from performing deviant or delinquent behavior.

Mechanism of social control
Family is the most important agent of social control according to him. The more young individuals need for affection, security, and recognition through the family, the less they will deviate from social norms.

Travis Hirschi’s social bond theory

Nature of social control
Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory may be the most popular criminological theory in criminology. It was first presented in 1969. Hirschi questioned why people do not commit the crime. Hirschi theorized that crime is more common among individuals who had a weak relationship with social institutions such as family and religion.

Purpose of social control
For Hirschi, the purpose of social control was to control delinquency and crime.

Mechanism of social control
Travis Hirschi assumes that all people have the capacity to be delinquent. Preventing most people from engaging in law-breaking is a “bonding” to society. Hirschi identifies 4 elements to the social bond which can prevent crime:

1. Attachment:

Attachment to parents, teachers, peers (attachment to parents is the most important).
Attachment deters criminal activities

2. Commitment:

The more an individual is attached with parents or loved ones the more he or she is committed to social goals.
The more an individual is attached to social goal the more likely that a person will not commit crime as the crime could disturb her from achieving the social goal

3. Involvement:

A person who wants to achieve a social goal will be busy in the activities that help him to achieve his social goal.
People who are involved with social goal-oriented activities will not be able to find time to commit a crime

4. Belief:

People who believe that laws and social values are good for them and for society will respect the law and will not break it.

Basically, Hirschi is arguing that if a person is bonded to society, they are not as likely to break the law.

they have too much to lose
they have little time to break the law
they are too sensitive to the feelings of others to victimize them

David Matza and Gresham Skyes' neutralization theory

Nature of social control
Matza and Skyes argue that criminals do not enjoy or feel good when they are committing crime. They actually feel guilty when committing crime. They, however, have developed a psychological technique called neutralization to justify their criminal activities.

Purpose of social control
The purpose of social control for Matza and Skyes is to control delinquency or crimal behavior.

Mechanism of social control
Criminals according to Matza and Skyes used neutralization as an instrument to justify their crime. These neutralization techniques are as follows:

1. Denial of Responsibility – behavior is due to forces beyond their control

For example, an exploiter in a factory may claim ‘I have to exploit workers otherwise I will not be able to send my children to expensive private schools. I can’t help it’

2. Denial of Injury – no one was hurt

Paying less money to the workers is okay because they can still send their children to schools that are less expensive. Less expensive schools also have good teachers so my exploitation of workers is okay and not that injurious to them.

3. Denial of the Victim – they deserved it

I have to exploit workers. If today I raise their wages or salaries then tomorrow they might demand extra holiday. I have to exploit them.

4. Condemnation of the Condemner – they made me do it.

I had to beat my servant. He was not working properly. He made me hit him.

5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties – I had no choice. If I don’t beat my servants then they will not work. If they don’t work then my money is wasted. So I have to beat him.

Containment Theory of Walter Reckless

Nature of social control
This theory was developed in the 1950s by Walter Reckless. Reckless proposed that positive self-concepts imposed by society on an individual such as being a good daughter could protect individuals from committing crimes. These concepts were instilled by one’s immediate family and other social forces.

Containment Theory assumes that almost every individual can be prevented from committing crime by using outer and internal containment. Reckless suggests that the probability of deviance is directly related to the extent to which internal pushes and external pulls are controlled by one’s inner and outer containment. The primary containment factor is found in self-concept.

Purpose of social control
To prevent people from committing crime.

Mechanism of social control
Criminal behavior can be controlled by outer and internal containment

Internal social control lies within the individual and is developed during socialization. You are practising internal social control when you act according to your conscience (ie. you do something because it is the right thing to do).
- Most people act according to this internal social control (ie. they do the right thing) – most of the time.
- The process of socialization does not ensure that all people will conform all of the time. For this reason, external social control must also be present.
External social control is based on social sanctions – rewards and punishments designed to encourage desired behavior.
- Positive sanctions (eg. smile of approval, awards, raises) are used to encourage conformity.
- Negative sanctions (eg. criticism, fines, imprisonment) are intended to stop socially unacceptable behavior.

Albert J. Reiss

Nature of social control
Delinquency is a result of the failure of individuals to internalize socially accepted norms and behavior.

Purpose of social control
To prevent people from delinquent behavior.

Mechanism of social control
Social control can be activated by creating internal control by convincing people that breaking the law is wrong or by social rules which control people by telling them how they are punished for breaking these social rules (the family, the school, and other important social groups).

Caste & Ethnic based inequality

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

Caste

Anthonio Giddens: ‘A form of stratification in which an individual’s social position is fixed at birth and cannot be changed. There is virtually no intermarriage between the members of different caste groups’

H.H Risley defined caste as ‘…a collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name, claiming common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, following the same hereditary calling, and regarded as forming a homogeneous community.’ (HH. Risley cited in Dwivedi 2012:111).

The varna consist of four categories, each ranked differently in terms of social honour. Below these four groupings are the ‘untouchables’, those in the lowest position of all. The jati are locally defined groups within which the caste ranks are organized… Those in the highest varna, the Brahmins, represent the most elevated condition of purity, the untouchables the lowest. (Giddens 1989: 213).

The term ‘caste’ is derived from the Portuguese word ‘casta’. Portuguese explorers in the 15th century used the term casta to describe the social organization they encountered among the Hindus of South Asia.

H.H Risley defined caste as ‘…a collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name, claiming common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, following the same hereditary calling, and regarded as forming a homogeneous community.’
Anthony Giddens (1989: 735) ‘an individual’s social position is fixed at birth and cannot be changed’.

‘The varna consist of four categories, each ranked differently in terms of social honour. Below these four groupings are the ‘untouchables’, those in the lowest position of all. The jati are locally defined groups within which the caste ranks are organized… Those in the highest varna, the Brahmins, represent the most elevated condition of purity, the untouchables the lowest. (Giddens 1989: 213).’

Major divisions in caste

Brahmin: Only the children of Brahmin is a Brahmin. This is the caste of Hindu priests whose high status is based on their purity by birth which gives them exclusive religious right to perform Hindu rituals. They also enjoy special rights to arbitrate between what is religiously wrong and right. Their caste also compels them to live in a strict discipline allowing them only vegetarian food, making it compulsory for them to learn Sanskrit language, and to learn Hindu rituals. ‘The Brahmin priesthood was originally a class only, which grew into a close hereditary caste on the strength, mainly of their special possession of ancient hymns and their knowledge of how these were to be employed with due effect in various offices of religion’(Whitney cited in The Vedas 2003:22)

Kshatriya: is the second highest category in Hindu varna system. This is the caste belonging to warriors. Most of the Kshatriya believe that they are the descendants of Kshatriya warriors of the past. They believe that their duty is to protect not only the ethical values as defined by Hindu sacred scriptures but also the caste system based social order itself.

Vaisya: This category is the third highest caste. The duty they are ascribed to are trade, agriculture and money lending.

Shudra: Shudra are believed to impure caste whose sole duty is to serve the top three castes in Hindu society.

Panchammas: The fifth caste in Hindu caste system are called by different names. Some called them Panchamas (the fifth varna), others call them Asprushya (“untouchables”) but they prefer to define themselves as ‘Dalit’ which means “suppressed” in Sanskrit language. The word Dalit was first used by Indian social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Govindrao Phule around mid-1800s. Many social rights activists from Shudra caste also define themselves as Dalits.

Further division

Four Varna was categorized into two mainly two categories: (i) Savarna and (ii)Avarna (Dwivedi 2012:112). In the beginning the Shudra castes were included in the Savarna category along with Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaisya and differentiated them from Avarnas which included ‘conquered people, servants, and Yavans (non-Aryan invaders from the west, including Greeks, Persians and others)’ (Dwivedi 2012:112). The Shudras were later dropped from the Sarvana category(Dwivedi 2012: 112).

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.

Oxana Malaya

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

In 1991, Oxana Malaya, who lives in Ukraine, was found and considered to be a feral child. At the time she was found, she was only 8 years old and is said to have lived amongst dogs since she was 3 years old. She was kept in a kennel in the backyard of her home. Because of this she picked up common behaviors that dogs exhibit: barking, growling, and even protecting the pack, so to speak. She even walked on four legs as a dog does and sniffed out her food before she ate it. When authorities came to rescue Oxana, the other dogs growled and attempted to attack them while Oxana barked and growled as well. Because of her lack of human interaction, Oxana had no vocabulary except the words “yes” and “no.”

She was of course put through intensive therapy to attempt to help her to learn necessary social and verbal skills. She was able to learn how to speak, though therapists say she has deep issues with attempting to communicate and express herself emotionally. Today she lives at the Baraboy Clinic in Odessa and spends a lot of her time tending to the cows at the hospital’s farm, though she has expressed that she really feels best when she is around dogs.

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.

Effects of the social contract

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

Hobbes: People will live in peace but without rights except for the right to self-defense
Locke: The three natural rights which exist in the State of Nature will be easier to enforce by the government. Those who have given express consent will be bound by the contract; those who have given tacit consent can opt out and leave.
Rousseau: Life will be fair for all if we employ the general will and set aside our personal interests.
Kant: The people will be fairly represented by the Sovereign without actually having to participate.
Rawls: We will have decided on a system that is fair for everyone, using the “Veil of Ignorance.”

Kamala and Amala

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

The story of two young girls, Kamala and Amala, is one of the most famous cases of feral children. Kamala was 8 years old and Amala was said to be 1 ½ when they were found in 1920. Both girls had spent most of their lives abandoned and alone. The two were found in Midnapore, India in a wolves’ den. Despite being found together, those who investigated the case believe that the two were not sisters but were simply abandoned around the same time or taken by wolves. The girls were found after stories spread throughout the village of two “ghostly spirit figures” that were often seen with the wolves that lived in the Bengal jungle. The local villagers were scared of the said spirits and called in a Reverend, Joseph Singh, to get to the bottom of it all. To see what was really going on, Singh hid in a tree above the cave and waited. When he saw the wolves exit the cave he waited and then saw two hunched over figures peek their heads out of the cave. He wrote down what he saw, describing them as “hideous looking with foot and body like a human being.” He said that the girls ran on all fours and had no real traits of being human.

Singh eventually captured the girls, though he had no experience in rehabilitating them. The girls slept curled together, growled, tore off their clothing, ate nothing but raw meat, howled, and were physically deformed. The tendons and joints in their arms and legs shortened, making it impossible to walk upright. The two also had no interest in interacting with humans. Some say that their senses were impeccable, especially when it came to hearing and seeing, but even their sense of smell was sharp. Amala eventually died due to a sickness, which then caused Kamala to go into a long-stage of mourning. Singh thought she would die but she did not and he started a rehabilitation program to help heal her- she eventually learned to walk upright and say a few words. She died of kidney failure in 1929.

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.

Sociology and other Social Sciences and Its Relation

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

Relationship of Sociology with other Social Science

1. With Political Science

Sociology studies with social relationship, political science studies political relationship. e.g.; relationship between government & opposition in parliament.
Sociology studies social structure e.g.; family, community, society and its interrelationship and political science studies political structures, such as state, political parties, constitute, political Ideology , ruler etc.
Sociology studies social rules, norms & values. Political science studies political rules like rules relating to formation of government, election. Vote, protest , political events and its influence

2. With History

Sociology studies social relationship at present.
History studies social relationship in the past.
Sociology studies social facts.
History studies historical facts.
Historical Sociology studies impact of historical facts in social relationship.
History is informative & descriptive in nature and it keeps record / human experience, link between future & present.
History is the past sociology and sociology is the present history.

3. With Economics

Sociology studies social relationship. Economics studies economic relationship and activities.
Economy says people are wealth gather & wealth disposer.
Sociology studies impact of economic structure in social relationship eg; study of relationship between rich & poor, industrialist and labor.
Economic studies scarce means and unlimited end of society.
Economics studies conversion of resources into goods or serves for social use. That means it studies production & distribution relationship of society.

4. With Psychology

Sociology studies social behavior.
Psychology studies human or behavior.
Psychology studies the way in which personality and behavior are influenced by the social context e.g.; Impact of religious behaviors in human psychology. Peoples love for non-violence being guided by Buddhism.

5. Relation between Sociology & Law

Sociology of Law looks at law and legal system as a part of society and also as social institutions related to other institutions and changing with them .It regards law as one means of Social Control.

Sociology studies society.
Law function (operates) in society.
Sociology studies relationship between crime and society (criminals).
Law controls crime and punishes retribution criminals.
Law provides compensation (restitution) to the victim.
Sociology studies social institutions such as marriage.
Law governs social institutions such as marriage registration.
Sociology studies relationship of society or an individual with property.

Law governs relationship of society with property eg; ownership or right upon property.

Traian Caldarar

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

Another recent case of a feral child, Traian Caldarar (found in 2002) is often referred to as ‘the Romanian Dog Boy’ or ‘Mowgli,’ after the main character in the Jungle book. He had lived apart from his family for 3 years since the age of 4. When he was found at the age of 7 he was said to be the size of an average 3 year old due to a lack of proper nutrition. His mother was a victim of domestic violence who left her husband. It is believed that Traian also ran away from the home sometime afterwards. Traian lived in the wild and when he was found in 2002 in Brasov, Rom?nia. He found shelter in a cardboard box covered with a sheet. Traian had a severe case of rickets, poor circulation, and infected wounds. Because of his age, those who discovered Traian believed that stray dogs helped to keep him alive.

Traian was only found because a car belonging to a shepherd named Manolescu Ioan broke down and he had to walk through pastures, during which he spotted the boy. When he was found, the body of a dog was found nearby and many assume that he was eating the dog as a way to stay alive. Once he was taken into care, he would sleep under his bed instead of on it and would often want to eat. When he didn’t have food he became very irritable and often slept right after meals.

In 2007, it was reported that Traian was doing well under the care of his grandfather and in grade 3 at school. When asked about his school, he said “I like it here, coloring, play and learn to write and read. We have toys, cars, teddy bears, and the food is very good,” (translasted from Romanian newsite

Modernization

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

‘…modernization involves change in the basic values of society. In particular it means the gradual acceptance by groups within the society of universalistic and achievement-based norms, the emergence of loyalties and identifications of individuals and groups with the nation-state, and the spread of the assumption that citizens have equal rights against the state and equal obligations to the state.’

-Samuel P. Huntington

Features of modernization

Dominance of Rational culture
Use of science and reasoning in lifestyle work and education
From traditional to democratic nation state
Highest loyalty to the nation state than to religion, tribe, ethnic group or political organization.
Goal achievement based culture
State laws are more powerful and dominant than religious and tribal laws.
Use of meritocracy in recruitment (education or employment).
From family based management of organization to professional based management.
Use of science and technology in economic, political and cultural sectors of society:

Economic sector: Use of technology in agriculture.
Politics: Use of electronic voting system during elections or use of mass media for election campaign
Cultural sector: The use of internet to study Vedas, Quran or Torah or Bible etc.

Dominance of this life and this world attitude.

Modernization in Nepal

Modernization of the state
- From absolute monarchy to military dictatorship
- Military dictatorship to Panchayat dictatorship
- Panchayat dictatorship to democratic state
Modernization of education
- Religious and tribal education to formal education
- From propaganda based state led Panchyat education to facts based education
- From facts based to more reasoning and critical thinking based education.
Modernization of culture
- From belief in caste system to the belief in the equality of everyone
- From belief in male superiority to the belief that men and women are equal.
- Mono-cultural tendency to multicultural
Modernization of economy
- From agricultural to trade, service and industry based economy
- From use of traditional equipment to the use of modern technologies.
Modernization of infrastructure
- Traditional roads to roads that are planned by engineers and sociologists.
- Traditional transportation system (horse, elephants) to modern motors, planes etc.
- Traditional source of light to electricity and solar based electricity.
Modernization of Law
- Law based on religion to law based on human rights and democratic principals.
Modernization of health
- From use of shamans to the use of doctors
- Hospital services in village level