Why collectivism is a characteristic feature of traditional society. Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies
Traditional society
Traditional society- a society that is regulated by tradition. Preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. Its social structure is characterized by a rigid class hierarchy, the existence of stable social communities (especially in Eastern countries), and a special way of regulating the life of society based on traditions and customs. This organization of society strives to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. Traditional society is an agrarian society.
General characteristics
A traditional society is usually characterized by:
- the predominance of the agricultural way of life;
- structural stability;
- class organization;
- low mobility;
- high mortality;
- low life expectancy.
A traditional person perceives the world and the established order of life as something inextricably integral, holistic, sacred and not subject to change. A person's place in society and his status are determined by tradition and social origin.
In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes prevail, individualism is not encouraged (since freedom of individual action can lead to a violation of the established order, tested by time). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the predominance of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures (states, etc.). What is valued is not so much individual capacity as the place in the hierarchy (official, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.
In a traditional society, as a rule, relations of redistribution rather than market exchange predominate, and elements of a market economy are strictly regulated. This is due to the fact that free market relations increase social mobility and change the social structure of society (in particular, they destroy class); the redistribution system may be regulated by tradition, but market prices are not; forced redistribution prevents “unauthorized” enrichment/impoverishment of both individuals and classes. The pursuit of economic gain in traditional society is often morally condemned and opposed to selfless help.
In a traditional society, most people live their entire lives in a local community (for example, a village), and connections with the “big society” are rather weak. At the same time, family ties, on the contrary, are very strong.
The worldview (ideology) of a traditional society is determined by tradition and authority.
Transformation of traditional society
Traditional society is extremely stable. As the famous demographer and sociologist Anatoly Vishnevsky writes, “everything in it is interconnected and it is very difficult to remove or change any one element.”
In ancient times, changes in traditional society occurred extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for an individual. Periods of accelerated development also occurred in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and upon their completion, society again returned to a relatively static state with a predominance of cyclic dynamics.
At the same time, since ancient times there have been societies that cannot be called completely traditional. The departure from traditional society was associated, as a rule, with the development of trade. This category includes Greek city-states, medieval self-governing trading cities, England and Holland of the 16th-17th centuries. Ancient Rome (before the 3rd century AD) with its civil society stands apart.
The rapid and irreversible transformation of traditional society began to occur only in the 18th century as a result of the industrial revolution. By now, this process has captured almost the entire world.
Rapid changes and departure from traditions can be experienced by a traditional person as a collapse of guidelines and values, loss of the meaning of life, etc. Since adaptation to new conditions and a change in the nature of activity are not included in the strategy of a traditional person, the transformation of society often leads to the marginalization of part of the population.
The most painful transformation of traditional society occurs in cases where the dismantled traditions have a religious justification. At the same time, resistance to change can take the form of religious fundamentalism.
During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).
The transformation of traditional society ends with the demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from the psychology of a traditional person.
Opinions about the need (and extent) of transformation of traditional society differ significantly. For example, the philosopher A. Dugin considers it necessary to abandon the principles of modern society and return to the “golden age” of traditionalism. Sociologist and demographer A. Vishnevsky argues that traditional society “has no chance,” although it “fiercely resists.” According to the calculations of Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor A. Nazaretyan, in order to completely abandon development and return society to a static state, the number of humanity must be reduced by several hundred times.
Links
Literature
- Textbook “Sociology of Culture” (chapter “Historical dynamics of culture: cultural features of traditional and modern societies. Modernization”)
- Book by A. G. Vishnevsky “Sickle and Ruble. Conservative modernization in the USSR"
- Nazaretyan A.P. Demographic utopia of “sustainable development” // Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 2. P. 145-152.
See also
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See what “Traditional society” is in other dictionaries:
- (pre-industrial society, primitive society) a concept that focuses in its content a set of ideas about the pre-industrial stage of human development, characteristic of traditional sociology and cultural studies. Unified theory T.O. Not … The latest philosophical dictionary
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- a society based on the reproduction of patterns of human activity, forms of communication, organization of everyday life, and cultural patterns. Tradition in it is the main way of transmitting social experience from generation to generation, social connection,... ... Modern philosophical dictionary
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- (traditional society) non-industrial, predominantly rural society, which seems static and opposite to the modern, changing industrial society. The concept has been widely used in social sciences, but in recent... Large explanatory sociological dictionary
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- (pre-industrial society, primitive society) a concept that focuses in its content a set of ideas about the pre-industrial stage of human development, characteristic of traditional sociology and cultural studies. Unified theory T.O. Not… … Sociology: Encyclopedia
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- a non-industrial, predominantly rural society, which appears static and opposite to a modern, changing industrial society. The concept has been widely used in social sciences, but in the last few... ... Eurasian wisdom from A to Z. Explanatory dictionary
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- (TRADITIONAL SOCIETY) See: Primitive society ... Sociological Dictionary
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY- (lat. traditio tradition, habit) pre-industrial (mainly agrarian, rural) society, which is contrasted with modern industrial and post-industrial societies in the basic sociological typology “tradition ... ... Political science dictionary-reference book
Society: Society (social system) Primitive society Traditional society Industrial society Post-industrial society Civil society Society (a form of commercial, scientific, charitable, etc. organization) Joint stock... ... Wikipedia
In a broad sense, a part of the material world isolated from nature, representing a historically developing form of human life. In a narrow sense, defined. human stage history (socio. economic. formations, interformation... Philosophical Encyclopedia
English society, traditional; German Gesellschaft, traditionelle. Pre-industrial societies, agrarian-type structures, characterized by the predominance of subsistence farming, class hierarchy, structural stability and a method of socio-cult. regulation... ... Encyclopedia of Sociology
Books
- Islam in the modern East, The authors of this collection examine the politics, law, economics, ideology and culture of such Muslim countries as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, as well as Arab and... Category:
The concept of traditional society
In the process of historical development, primitive society is transformed into a traditional society. The impetus for its emergence and development was the agrarian revolution and the social changes in society that arose in connection with it.
Definition 1
A traditional society can be defined as a society with an agrarian structure, based on strict adherence to traditions. The behavior of members of a given society is strictly regulated by customs and norms characteristic of a given society, the most important stable social institutions, such as family and community.
Features of traditional society
Let us consider the features of the development of traditional society by characterizing its main parameters. The peculiarities of the nature of the social structure in a traditional society are determined by the emergence of excess and surplus products, which in turn indicates the emergence of grounds for the formation of a new form of social structure - the state.
Forms of government in traditional states are fundamentally authoritarian in nature - this is the power of one ruler or a narrow circle of elite - dictatorship, monarchy or oligarchy.
In accordance with the form of government, there was also a certain nature of participation of members of society in the management of its affairs. The very emergence of the institution of state and law determines the need for the emergence of politics and the development of the political sphere of society. During this period of development of society, there is an increase in the activity of citizens in the process of their participation in the political life of the state.
Another parameter for the development of a traditional society is the dominant nature of economic relations. In connection with the emergence of a surplus product, private property and commodity exchange inevitably arise. Private property remained dominant throughout the entire period of development of traditional society, only its object changed in different periods of its development - slaves, land, capital.
In contrast to primitive society, in traditional society the employment structure of its members has become significantly more complex. Several employment sectors appear - agriculture, crafts, trade, all professions related to the accumulation and transmission of information. Thus, we can talk about the emergence of a greater variety of areas of employment for members of traditional society.
The nature of settlements also changed. A fundamentally new type of settlement arose - the city, which became the center of residence for members of society engaged in crafts and trade. It is in cities that the political, industrial and intellectual life of traditional society is concentrated.
During the functioning of the traditional era, a new attitude towards education began to form as a special social institution and the nature of the development of scientific knowledge. The emergence of writing makes it possible to form scientific knowledge. It was during the existence and development of traditional society that discoveries were made in various scientific fields and the foundation was laid in many branches of scientific knowledge.
Note 1
An obvious disadvantage of the development of scientific knowledge in this period of social development was the independent development of science and technology from production. This fact was the reason for the rather slow accumulation of scientific knowledge and its subsequent dissemination. The process of increasing scientific knowledge was linear and required a significant amount of time to accumulate a sufficient amount of knowledge. People involved in science most often did it for their own pleasure; their scientific research was not supported by the needs of society.
Traditional society - sociological concept
The study of various forms of human activity determines that some of them are defined as the most significant and basic for characterizing different types of society. Quite often such a fundamental concept is social production. Since the 19th century, many philosophers and then sociologists have put forward the idea that various types of these activities determine ideology, mass psychology and social institutions.
If, according to Marx, such a basis is production relations, then supporters of the theories of industrial and post-industrial society considered productive forces to be a more fundamental concept. However, they called traditional society the first stage of social development.
What does it mean?
There is no precise definition of this concept in the specialized literature. It is known that for convenience this was used to designate the stage that precedes the industrial society that began to develop in the 19th century, and the post-industrial one in which we live now. What type of society is this? Traditional society is a certain type of relationship between people, which has a weak or undeveloped statehood, or is even characterized by the absence of the latter. This term is also used to describe
tics of rural, agrarian structures that are in a situation of isolation or stagnation. The economy of such societies is described as extensive, completely dependent on the vagaries of nature and based on cattle breeding and cultivation of the land.
Traditional society - signs
First of all, this is the almost complete absence of industry, stable ties between various sectors, a patriarchal culture based on the predominance of religious dogmas and traditions, as well as established values. One of the main cementing aspects of such a society is the dictate of collective aspirations over individual ones, a rigid hierarchical structure, as well as the immutability of a way of life, elevated to an absolute. It is governed by unwritten laws, for violation of which very severe punishments are imposed, and the most powerful lever for regulating the behavior of its members is family ties and customs.
Traditional society and historians
This theory did not gain popularity among historians, who reproached sociologists that such social structure was a “figment of the scientific imagination” or existed in marginal systems such as the Aboriginal tribes of Australia or provincial villages in African or Middle Eastern states. Sociologists represent traditional society as a certain stage in the development of humanity, which dominated until the 19th century. However, neither Ancient Egypt or China, nor ancient Rome and Greece, nor medieval Europe or Byzantium can be imagined as fully meeting this definition. Moreover, many of the features of an industrial or even post-industrial society, such as written law, the primacy of human relationships over man-nature relationships, complex systems of government and social structures, were present in the early period of time. How can this be explained? The fact is that the concept of traditional society is used by sociologists for convenience in order to be able to characterize the changes that occurred during the industrial era.
a non-industrial, predominantly rural society, which appears static and antithetical to modern, changing industrial society. The concept has been widely used in the social sciences, but in the last few decades has become considered highly controversial and shunned by many social scientists. See Agrarian civilization
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
pre-industrial society, primitive society) is a concept that focuses in its content a set of ideas about the pre-industrial stage of human development, characteristic of traditional sociology and cultural studies. Unified theory T.O. does not exist. Ideas about T.O. are based, rather, on its understanding as a sociocultural model that is asymmetrical to modern society, rather than on a generalization of the real facts of life of peoples not engaged in industrial production. Characteristic of the economy T.O. the dominance of subsistence farming is considered. In this case, commodity relations are either absent altogether or are focused on meeting the needs of a small layer of the social elite. The basic principle of the organization of social relations is the rigid hierarchical stratification of society, as a rule, manifested in the division into endogamous castes. At the same time, the main form of organization of social relations for the vast majority of the population is a relatively closed, isolated community. The latter circumstance dictates the dominance of collectivist social ideas, focused on strict adherence to traditional norms of behavior and excluding individual freedom, as well as an understanding of its value. Together with caste division, this feature almost completely excludes the possibility of social mobility. Political power is monopolized within a separate group (caste, clan, family) and exists primarily in authoritarian forms. A characteristic feature of T.O. it is considered either the complete absence of writing, or its existence in the form of a privilege of certain groups (officials, priests). At the same time, writing quite often develops in a language different from the spoken language of the vast majority of the population (Latin in medieval Europe, Arabic in the Middle East, Chinese writing in the Far East). Therefore, intergenerational transmission of culture is carried out in verbal, folklore form, and the main institution of socialization is the family and community. The consequence of this was extreme variability in the culture of the same ethnic group, manifested in local and dialect differences. Unlike traditional sociology, modern socio-cultural anthropology does not operate with the concept of T.O. From her position, this concept does not reflect the real history of the pre-industrial stage of human development, but characterizes only its last stage. Thus, sociocultural differences between peoples who are at the stage of development of an “appropriating” economy (hunting and gathering) and those who have gone through the stage of the “Neolithic revolution” can be no less or even more significant than between “pre-industrial” and “industrial” societies . It is characteristic that in the modern theory of the nation (E. Gelner, B. Anderson, K. Deutsch) to characterize the pre-industrial stage of development, terminology that is more adequate than the concept of “TO” is used - “agrarian”, “agrarian-literate society” "etc.
Plan
Introduction
1 General characteristics
2 Transformation of traditional society
and literature
Introduction
Traditional society is a society that is regulated by tradition. Preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. Its social structure is characterized by a rigid class hierarchy, the existence of stable social communities (especially in Eastern countries), and a special way of regulating the life of society based on traditions and customs. This organization of society strives to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. Traditional society is an agrarian society.
1. General characteristics
A traditional society is usually characterized by:
· traditional economy
· predominance of the agricultural way of life;
· structural stability;
· class organization;
· low mobility;
· high mortality rate;
· low life expectancy.
A traditional person perceives the world and the established order of life as something inextricably integral, holistic, sacred and not subject to change. A person’s place in society and his status are determined by tradition (usually by birthright).
In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes predominate, individualism is not encouraged (since freedom of individual action can lead to a violation of the established order, time-tested). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the predominance of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures (state, clan, etc.). What is valued is not so much individual capacity as the place in the hierarchy (official, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.
In a traditional society, as a rule, relations of redistribution rather than market exchange predominate, and elements of a market economy are strictly regulated. This is due to the fact that free market relations increase social mobility and change the social structure of society (in particular, they destroy class); the redistribution system may be regulated by tradition, but market prices are not; forced redistribution prevents “unauthorized” enrichment/impoverishment of both individuals and classes. The pursuit of economic gain in traditional society is often morally condemned and opposed to selfless help.
In a traditional society, most people live their entire lives in a local community (for example, a village), and connections with the “big society” are rather weak. At the same time, family ties, on the contrary, are very strong.
The worldview (ideology) of a traditional society is determined by tradition and authority.
2. Transformation of traditional society
Traditional society is extremely stable. As the famous demographer and sociologist Anatoly Vishnevsky writes, “everything in it is interconnected and it is very difficult to remove or change any one element.”
In ancient times, changes in traditional society occurred extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for an individual. Periods of accelerated development also occurred in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and upon their completion, society again returned to a relatively static state with a predominance of cyclic dynamics.
At the same time, since ancient times there have been societies that cannot be called completely traditional. The departure from traditional society was associated, as a rule, with the development of trade. This category includes Greek city-states, medieval self-governing trading cities, England and Holland of the 16th-17th centuries. Ancient Rome (before the 3rd century AD) with its civil society stands apart.
The rapid and irreversible transformation of traditional society began to occur only in the 18th century as a result of the industrial revolution. By now, this process has captured almost the entire world.
Rapid changes and departure from traditions can be experienced by a traditional person as a collapse of guidelines and values, loss of the meaning of life, etc. Since adaptation to new conditions and a change in the nature of activity are not included in the strategy of a traditional person, the transformation of society often leads to the marginalization of part of the population.
The most painful transformation of traditional society occurs in cases where the dismantled traditions have a religious justification. At the same time, resistance to change can take the form of religious fundamentalism.
During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).
The transformation of traditional society ends with the demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from the psychology of a traditional person.
Opinions about the need (and extent) of transformation of traditional society differ significantly. For example, the philosopher A. Dugin considers it necessary to abandon the principles of modern society and return to the “golden age” of traditionalism. Sociologist and demographer A. Vishnevsky argues that traditional society “has no chance,” although it “fiercely resists.” According to the calculations of Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor A. Nazaretyan, in order to completely abandon development and return society to a static state, the number of humanity must be reduced by several hundred times.
1. Knowledge-Power, No. 9, 2005, “Demographic oddities”
· Textbook “Sociology of Culture” (chapter “Historical dynamics of culture: cultural features of traditional and modern societies. Modernization”)
· Book by A. G. Vishnevsky “Sickle and Ruble. Conservative modernization in the USSR"
· Book “European Modernization”
· Nazaretyan A.P. Demographic utopia of “sustainable development” // Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 2. P. 145-152.
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