Portal:Society

The Society Portal

A society (/səˈsaɪəti/) is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.

Human social structures are complex and highly cooperative, featuring the specialization of labor via social roles. Societies construct roles and other patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or concepts acceptable or unacceptable—these expectations around behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. So far as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual basis.

Societies vary based on level of technology and type of economic activity. Larger societies with larger food surpluses often exhibit stratification or dominance patterns. Societies can have many different forms of government, various ways of understanding kinship, and different gender roles. Human behavior varies immensely between different societies; humans shape society, but society in turn shapes human beings. (Full article...)

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Same-sex marriage in Spain was legalized in 2005. In 2004, the new Socialist government, led by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, began a campaign for its legalization, which would include adoption by same-sex couples. After much debate, a law permitting same-sex marriage was passed by the Cortes Generales (Spain's bicameral parliament composed of the Senate and the Congress of Deputies). Same-sex marriage officially became legal in Spain on Sunday, 3 July, 2005. The ratification of this law has not been devoid of conflict, despite support from 66% of Spaniards. Catholic authorities in particular were adamantly opposed to it, fearing the weakening of the meaning of marriage. After its approval, the conservative People's Party challenged the law in Constitutional Court. Approximately 4,500 same-sex couples have married in Spain during the first year of the law.

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Credit: Holger Motzkau

The royal wedding between Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling took place on 19 June 2010 in Stockholm Cathedral. Westling—now known as Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland—became the first commoner to obtain a new title or rank as the spouse of a Swedish princess since the Middle Ages. He is the first Swedish man to use his wife's ducal title.

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Did you know...

... that the desert plants pale wolfberry (pictured) and Berlandier's wolfberry were both used by native Americans for medicinal purposes?
... that the Central Committee of the Commission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia included only one woman?
... that in 1992 the leader of the Gambela People's Liberation Movement, Agwa Alemu, was killed by his own troops?

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Anniversaries this month

1 and 2 November - Day of the Dead tradition (pictured) among Mexican people
15 November 1982 - Chinese Society Halls on Maui placed on the National Register of Historic Places
17 November 1989 - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society was formed as the IEEE Neural Networks Council
26 November 1825 - Foundation of the Kappa Alpha Society, the progenitor of the modern fraternity system in North America

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“

The virtues of society are the vices of the saint.

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— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series (1841)

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Lev Chernyi (Russian: Лев Чёрный, IPA: [ˈlʲef ˈt͡ɕɵrnɨj] ^ⓘ; died September 21, 1921) was a Russian anarchist theorist, activist and poet, and a leading figure of the Third Russian Revolution. His early thought was individualist, rejecting anarcho-communism as a threat to individual liberty. In 1917, Chernyi was released from his political imprisonment by the Imperial Russian regime, and swiftly became one of the leading figures in Russian anarchism. After strongly denouncing the new Bolshevik government in various anarchist publications and joining several underground resistance movements, Chernyi was arrested by the Cheka on a charge of counterfeiting and in 1921 was executed without trial. (Full article...)

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1860 – Au Clair de la Lune

This 1860 phonautogram by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville is the earliest known recording of the human voice, though it was never intended to be played back.

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Definition of Society from the OED.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Industrial Revolution
"The Day the World Took Off" Six part video series from the University of Cambridge tracing the question "Why did the Industrial Revolution begin when and where it did."
BBC History Home Page – Industrial Revolution
National Museum of Science and Industry website – machines and personalities
Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living by Clark Nardinelli - the debate over whether standards of living rose or fell.

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