CHAPTER 3

UNDERSTANDING
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

60
Points To Remember
Functionalist perspective on social institution

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• Social institutions a complex set of social norms, beliefs, values and role
relationship that arise in response to the needs of society.
• In other words social institution exists to satisfy social needs.
Conflict perspective on social institution
• All individuals are not placed equally in society. All social institutions will

•
ID
operate in the interest of dominant sections of society.
The dominant social section not only dominates political and economic
institutions but also ensures that the ruling class idea become the ruling
ideas of a society.
U
Types of social Institution
YG

Informal Formal
E.g. Family, Marriage, E.g. Law, Education,
Kingship Religion etc.

I. Family is a group of persons directly linked by kin connections, the adult

members of which assume responsibility of caring for children. Diverse
D

family forms are found in different societies.

Types of Family
U
ST

On the basis of On the basis of On the basis of On the basis of On the basis of
Dominance Residence Structure Descent Kinship
(a) Matriarchy (a) Matrilocal (a) Nuclear (a) Matrilineal (a) Family of
Family Family Family Family Orientation
(Family of birth)
(b) Patriarchy (b) Patrilocal (b) Joint Family (b) Patrilineal
Family Family Family (b) Family of
Procreation
(Family in which a
person is married)

XI – lekt’kkL= 24
 Families linked to other social spheres and families change:
• Family, household, its structure and norms are closely linked to the rest of
society.
• Example:- Unintended consequences of the German unification. During
the post – unification period in the 1930s Germany witnessed a rapid
decline in marriage because the new German state withdrew all protection

60
and welfare schemes which were provided to the families prior to the
unification.
How gendered is the family?
• The belief is that the male child will support the parents in old
age and the female child will leave upon marriage results in families

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investing more in a male child.
• Despite the biological fact that female baby has better chances of
survival than a male baby the rate of infant mortality among
female children is higher in comparison to male children in lower age
group in India.
•

-
-
ID
Kinship ties are connections between individuals, established either
through marriage or through blood.
Kin who are related through 'blood' are called Consanguinal kin,
Kin who are related through marriage are called Affines.
U
• Marriage is a socially acknowledged and approved sexual union
between two adult individuals.
YG

Different Forms of Marriage

Monogamy Polygamy
(restricts the individual to (marriage to more than one
one spouse at a time) male at one time)
D

Polygyny Polyandry
(one husband with (one wife with two
U

two or more wives) or more husbands)

Serial Monogamy: In many societies individuals are permitted to marry again

often on death of the first spouse or after divorce. But they cannot have more
ST

than one spouse at one and the same time. Such monogamous marriages are
termed as serial monogamy.
Why is marriage considered a universal institution?
• Marriage has got religious sanctity as it is prescribed in our vedas and
puranas as one of the most important ashrams of life (Grihastha ashram).
• Marriage helps in taking the family name forward.

25 XI – Sociology
 • Validity is given to procreation after marriage.
Rules of Marriage:
• Endogamy - marriage within culturally defined group.
• Exogamy - requires the individual to marry outside of his/her own group.

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Types of kinship:
(1) Affinal Kinship : The relatives linked by marital bond.
Example:- Husband & Wife, Wife's Mother, Daughters's Husband,
Parents in Law, Son in Law are all affinis.

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(2) Consanguineous Kinship : The relatives linked by blood or
common ancestry.
Example:- Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Brother, Sister,
Father's Brother, Father's Brother Son, Grand Children are all
Consanguineous Kin.

•
ID
II. Work can be defined as the carrying out of tasks requiring the expenditure
of mental and physical effort which has as its objective - the production of
goods and services that cater to human needs.
Characteristics of economic system of modern society
(a) highly complex division of labour.
U
(b) Trained people perform specialised task and receive a wage for this
work.
YG

(c) Managers supervise the work to enhance worker's productivity and

discipline.
(d) Shift in the location of work.
(e) Advances in industrial technology.
(f) Factories owned by capitalist enterpreneurs.
(g) Enormous expansion of economic interdependence.
D

• Transformation of work:
(a) Industrial processes were broken down into simple operations.
U

(b) Mass production demands mass markets.

(c) Significant innovation was the construction of a moving assembly
line.
ST

(d) Flexible production and decentralisation of work.

III. Political institutions are concerned with the distribution of power in
society.
• Two important aspects of political institutions are
(a) Power - The ability of individuals or groups to carry out their will even
when opposed by others.

XI – lekt’kkL= 26
 (b) Authority - Power is exercised through authority. Authority is that
forms of power which is accepted as legitimate.
A society is called stateless if it :-
(i) has no rigid boundary or permanent physical territory;
(ii) follows oral traditions, and the bureau cratic aspect is absent from it;
(iii) has a single person holding several major powers of religious,

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economic and political offices within the society;
(iv) there is no fixed rigidly spelt out ideology and has simple economy.
• Thus, in a stateless society: The absence of rules and regulations in
society prove chaotic leading to the collapse of social system in other

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words a society which lacks formal institutions of government.
(a) Modern states are defined by sovereignty, citizenship and the ideas
of nationalism.
(b) Sovereignty - The undisputed political rule of a state over a given
territorial area.
• ID
Citizenship: It is a permanent membership acquired by individual after
continuous stay of five years within a country. Citizenship rights may
include civil, political and social rights.
Citizenship rights includes:
U
(i) Civil rights-freedom of speech and religion etc.
(ii) Political rights - right to participate in election etc.
(iii) Social rights - health benefit, social and welfare rights.
YG

• Nationalism: It arises when different elements are joined together such

as language, religious, history and symbols. All these give a sense of
being part of a single political community. All the modern societies are
'nation-states' 'Nation - States' are the states in which the great masses
of population are citizens who regard themselves as a part of single
nation.
D

IV. Religion refers to unified system of belief and practices related to

supernatural power.
U

• Common characteristics shared by all religious groups are:

(i) Set of symbols, invoking feelings of respect.
(ii) Rituals or ceremonies.
ST

(iii) A community of believers.

• Rituals associated with religion are very diverse.
• Sociology and Religion
(i) Religion has a very close relationship with power and politics.
(ii) Views of classical sociologists, Max Weber, Calvinism demonstrate
how sociology looks at religion.

27 XI – Sociology
 (iii) Social forces always and invariably influence religious institutions.
Conversely, religious norms influence social understanding.
Durkheim's perspective on religion:
• He has defined it as a 'unified system of beliefs and practices related to
sacred things that is things set apart and forbidden beliefs and practices

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which unite one single moral community called a church.
• According to Durkheim in every religion a distinction is made between
sacred and profane
• Sacred things include an element of supernatural.
• Profane things are kept at distance from sacred and are considered

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away from religion.
Max Weber's perspective on religion:
• He started his theory of religion in his book entitled " The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism”
• ID
Calvinism (protestants) exerted an important influence on the emergence
and growth of capitalism characterized to earn money and to re-invest
profit as a mode of economic organization.
• The Calvinist believed that the world was created for the glory of god that
U
any work in this world has to be done for his glory, making even mundane
work's acts of glory.
• Calvinist also believed in the concept of pre destination which meant
YG

whether one will go to heaven or hell was pre ordained.

• The money earned was not to be used for worldly consumption rather the
ethics of calvinism was to live frugally.

V. Education is a life long process involving both formal and informal

institution of learning.
D

• Education functions as a stratifying agent

(a) different kinds of schools depending on our socio-economic
U

background.
(b) intensifies the existing divide between the elite and the masses.
• Children going to priviledged schools learn to be confident as compared
ST

to the deprived ones who cannot attend school or drop out.

• Gender and caste discrimination impinges upon the chances of
education.

XI – lekt’kkL= 28
 Types of Education:
Formal Education Informal Education
• It is imparted in institutional • It is imparted in non
settings. Institutional settings.
• It has a systematic and well • It has no curriculum and is

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planned curriculum. spread over entire period of
one's life.
• E.g. - school • E.g. - family

Education in Ancient Society Education in Modern Society

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• No formal schooling. • Formal schooling.
• Children learned customs and • Need for specialized learning
broader way of life by participating and skill attainment.
in activities with adults.

1. Citizen:
ID
TERMS AND CONCEPTS

• A member of a political community, having both rights and duties

associated with that membership.
U
2. Division of Labour:
• All societies have some rudimentary form of division of labour.
YG

• It involves the specialisation of work tasks.

• Different occupations are combined within a production system.
• With the development of industrialism, the division of labour becomes
more complex than in any earlier type of production system.
• In the modern world, the division of labour is international in scope.
3. Gender:
D

• Gender is seen as a basic organising principle of society.

• Social expectations about behaviour regarded as appropriate for the
members of each sex.
U

4. Empirical Investigation:
• Factual enquiry carried out in any given area of sociological study.
ST

5. Endogamy:
• When marriage is within a specific caste, class or tribal group.
6. Exogamy:
• When marriage occurs outside a certain group of relations.
7. Ideology:
• Shared ideas or beliefs, which serve to justify the interests of dominant
groups.

29 XI – Sociology
 • Ideologies are found in all societies in which there are systematic and
engrained inequalities between groups.
• The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since
ideological systems serve to legitimise the differential power which
groups hold
8. Legitimacy:

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• The belief that a particular political order is just and valid.
9. Monogamy
• When marriage involves one husband and one wife alone.
10. Polygamy:

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• When marriage involves more than one mate at one time.
11. Polyandry:
• When more than one man is married to a woman.
12. Polygyny:

13. Service Industries:

ID
• When more than one woman is married to man.

• Industries concerned with the production of services rather than

manufactured goods, such as the travel industry.
U
14. State Society:
• A society which possesses a formal apparatus of government.
YG

15. Stateless Society:

• A society which lacks formal institutions of government.
16. Social Mobility:
• Movement from one status or occupation to another.
17. Sovereignty:
D

• The undisputed political rule of a state over a given territorial area.

LEARNING CHECKS 1 MARK QUESTIONS

U

Correct the statement:

1. For the functionalists. individuals are not placed equally in a society.
ST

2. The joint family is seen as the unit best equipped to handle the needs of an
industrial society.
3. Polygamy restricts the individual to one spouse at a time.
4. Power and authority are not inter-related concepts.
5. Village exogamy is practiced to ensure daughters remain close to the
family.

XI – lekt’kkL= 30
 Fill in the Blanks:
1. .................. allows a man to have only one spouse at a given time.
2. The existing divide between the elitland the masses in intensified by the
........................... system.
3. The dominant social section not only dominates ............. institutions and

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................... institutions but also ensures that the ruling ideology become
the ruling ideas of society.
4. A sociologist .................. remarks that in post-independent India, the joint
family has steadily increased.
5. The rule of....................... requires an individual to marry within a culturally

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defined group.
Tick the correct option:
1. Identify the structure of the family where men exercise authority and
dominance
• Patriarchy
• Matriarchy
• Polygamy
ID
• Patrilineal
U
2. The reason for the sudden decline in sex ratio can be attributed to -
• Female foeticide
YG

• Life expectancy rate

• Son preference
• Maternal mortality rate
3 The socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between two
individuals is known as -
• Family
D

• Marriage
• Kinship
U

• Procreation
4. Who wrote the pioneering work ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism’?
ST

• Karl Marx
• Anthony Giddens
• Max Weber
• Emile Durkheim

31 XI – Sociology
 5. The form of power considered legitimate is -
• Authority
• Political Party
• Welfare State
• Sovereignty

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2 MARKS QUESTIONS
1. What do you understand by the term social institutions?
2. Cite examples of formal and informal social institutions?
3. What is family?

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4. What is marriage?
5. Differentiate between monogamy and polygamy forms of marriage?
6. Give the meaning of the term 'kinship' ?
7. Who are consanguinal kins?
8.
9.
What is affines? ID
What do you understand by 'work'?
10. Give the meaning of the term 'decentralisation of work'.
U
11. What is a political institution?
12. What do you understand by the term nationalism?
13. What is sovereignty?
YG

14. What do you mean by 'stateless societies'? Do they exist in

contemporary world?
15. State the characteristics that all religions share?

4 MARKS QUESTIONS
D

1. Explain functionalist and conflict views to understand social institutions.

2. Family and kingship have undergone a change due to economic
processes. Discuss with examples.
U

3. Explain female headed households with suitable example.

4. Explain the rules related to marriage.
ST

5. Distinguish between polyandry & polygyny.

6. Write a note on diverse family forms that exist in different societies.
7. Census reveals family is gendered in India. Explain.
8. Power is exercised through authority. Discuss.
9. Citizenship rights include civil, political and social. Discuss.

XI – lekt’kkL= 32
 10. Sociological study of religion is different from theological study of religion.
Explain.
11. Rituals associated with religion are very diverse. Explain.
12. Highlight the importance of religion in society.
13. Highlight the views of different sociologist in regard to religion.

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14. How does education function as a main stratifying agent in society?
Explain.
6 MARKS QUESTION
1. Marriage is a social institution. Elaborate.

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2. Highlight the distinctive characteristics of the economics system of
modern societies.
3. Elaborate on the concept of state.
4. Education is a life long process. Discuss.

HOTS
•
ID
Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
U
Enumerate the different factors that give rise to female headed house
holds in the rural areas.
YG
D
U
ST

33 XI – Sociology