ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Ascribed Status, Ifalik, Census In Canada
14 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Let"s start with a look at the concept of a social group. A comparative study of social groups showed that they exist predominantly in agricultural and industrial societies. Theorists have proposed that social groups tend to become more numerous and to play a more important social role when the size of the society increases. Social groups are therefore seen as a way in which societies get divided into more manageable units outside of the kinship unit. In other types of societies such as foragers and pastoralists, social groups do exist, but they are less numerous. There are two types of social groups: formal groups. Formal groups have more structure and hierarchy built into them and at times they may seek and obtain legal recognition (charter; by-laws, etc. The first type of informal group consists of what we call age sets".
