SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Kalahari Desert, Agrarianism, Relate
12 Oct 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
September 17, 2018 / Societal transformation and progress
Societal transformation
• Hunter-gatherer
• Horticultural and pastoral
• Agricultural (allows stratification)
• Feudal
• Industrial (society gets rationalized, mechanized)
• Post-industrial (captures what’s going on now in a lot of countries, economy is shifting
away from producing actual goods because it’s so efficient)
• Post-natural (futuristic ideas)
Problems with “progress” view
• Orders not universal
o There are examples of societies who have skipped certain stages
• Some societal transitions have gone counter to assumed order
o !Kung people in Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa, e.g.
o Assumed these people were very primitive, but more recently, it was discovered
that they were forced into hunter-gatherer lifestyle rejected by agricultural)
• Danger of “reading history sideways”
o Looking to current hunter-gatherers for insight into the lives of ancient hunter-
gatherers
Usefulness of “progress” view
• Synchronicity
o Human history is very long, but agrarianism and industrialization emerged across
the globe at similar times
o “sequencing”
o Notion of direction, progress
• Asymmetric effects of societal transition
o It may be “easier” to industrialize than to de-industrialize, e.g.
Place and the Nation-state
What is a society?
• Tendency to use community to town as template
o Relate to a group of people through shared trait: place
Center versus border
• Two related ways to define a group
• Who am I like? What makes us similar?
o Idealized core of a group holding people together
• Who am I not like? What makes them different?
o Boundary of a group keeping non-members out
o Two sides of same concept, but emphasizing one of the others makes big
difference
The modern nation-state
• Nation: group of people sharing a cultural identity
Document Summary
September 17, 2018 / societal transformation and progress. Societal transformation: hunter-gatherer, horticultural and pastoral, agricultural (allows stratification, feudal, post-industrial (captures what"s going on now in a lot of countries, economy is shifting. Industrial (society gets rationalized, mechanized) away from producing actual goods because it"s so efficient: post-natural (futuristic ideas) What is a society: tendency to use community to town as template, relate to a group of people through shared trait: place. What makes them different: boundary of a group keeping non-members out, two sides of same concept, but emphasizing one of the others makes big difference. Center versus border of the nation-state: sense of unified identity often invoked, and sought by governments. Conflicting schemas: multiple identities at odds with single country, quebec in canada, multiculturalism in canada, claims of unified identity used to question sovereignty, russian annexation of crimea, north and south korean jurisdiction. Nationalism: national unity can become a tool for dominance.
