Chapter 3 Understanding Social Institutions

I Introduction

This chapter builds upon the previous discussion about the interaction between individuals and society, acknowledging that individuals hold specific positions or locations within the social structure, defined by their statuses and roles.

However, these statuses and roles are not solely determined by individual choice; they are shaped and influenced by social institutions.

Social institutions are established structures or mechanisms that operate according to widely accepted rules, whether formal laws or informal customs. They significantly influence individuals by imposing constraints and offering opportunities.

Institutions can operate at a macro level (large-scale, like the state) or a micro level (small-scale, like the family).

Sociology and social anthropology study these institutions, examining their rules, functions, and impact on individuals and society.

The chapter introduces some central areas where important social institutions are located: family, marriage, and kinship; politics; economics; religion; and education.

Defining 'institution' broadly, it's a patterned way of doing things based on established rules, whose functioning cannot be understood without acknowledging those rules. Institutions constrain individual behaviour but also provide frameworks for action and interaction.

Some institutions are even seen as valuable ends in themselves, such as family, religion, the state, or education.

Just as with other sociological concepts, there are different perspectives on understanding social institutions, reflecting the broader theoretical debates within sociology (e.g., functionalism vs. conflict theory).

• Functionalist View: Understands social institutions as functional responses to the needs of society. They are complex sets of social norms, values, beliefs, and role relationships that emerge to satisfy basic social requirements and help maintain social order and stability. Examples include informal institutions like family and religion, and formal ones like law and education.
• Conflict View: Argues that society is characterised by inequality, and social institutions operate in ways that serve the interests of the dominant social groups (based on class, caste, gender, etc.). Dominant groups use institutions (political, economic, legal, educational) to maintain their power and ensure their ideas and values prevail, rather than serving the general needs of society as a whole.

Examining social institutions through these lenses helps reveal how they constrain and provide opportunities, and whether they impact different segments of society unequally.

Activity 1 prompts thinking about examples of sacrifice for family, religion, or state, reflecting how individuals can be deeply committed to institutions, which can be seen as ends in themselves from a functionalist perspective.

Ii Family, Marriage And Kinship

The family is often perceived as the most fundamental and unchanging social institution, seemingly "natural" and universal. However, sociological and anthropological research shows that while family, marriage, and kinship exist in all societies, their forms and characteristics vary significantly across cultures and historical periods.

Studies also demonstrate the interconnectedness of the family (often seen as a private sphere) with other public spheres like the economy, politics, culture, and education, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary understanding.

Functionalist Perspective on Family: Functionalists argue that the family performs essential functions that contribute to society's needs and maintain social order. They might suggest a division of labour where one adult (historically often the man) focuses on providing financially ("instrumental role") while the other (historically often the woman) focuses on domestic and emotional care ("affective role").

This view is criticised for being gender-biased and not universally true, as many societies and historical periods show women's significant roles in economic production.

Variation In Family Forms

Family structures are diverse. A common topic of debate is the shift from joint families to nuclear families, especially in modern India.

Sociological research challenges the common sense idea that the joint family is rapidly disappearing. Studies suggest that nuclear families have always existed, particularly among certain castes and classes. Conversely, factors like increased life expectancy may contribute to the growth of joint families as elderly parents live longer and reside with their children.

Family forms vary globally in terms of residence rules and authority patterns:

• Matrilocal Residence: Newly married couples live with the wife's parents.
• Patrilocal Residence: Newly married couples live with the husband's parents.
• Patriarchal Family: Authority and decision-making are primarily held by men.
• Matriarchal Family: Authority and decision-making are primarily held by women. (Note: While matrilineal societies, where descent is traced through the mother, exist, true matriarchal societies are rare or debated).

Families Are Linked To Other Social Spheres And Families Change

Families are not isolated from other parts of society. Economic, political, and cultural processes influence family structures and norms.

An example is the decline in marriage rates in Germany after unification in the 1990s, linked to the withdrawal of state welfare support for families, leading to economic insecurity and people choosing not to marry. This illustrates how macro-level economic and political changes can have unintended consequences on seemingly private institutions like the family.

Family structures and kinship systems are dynamic and undergo change due to broader socio-economic forces, but change often co-exists with continuity of older norms and structures.

An example of adapting family forms is the rise of female-headed households, particularly when men migrate for work or due to widowhood, where women become the primary economic providers.

How Gendered Is The Family?

Family structures often reinforce gender inequality. The belief that sons will provide for parents in old age while daughters will leave upon marriage can lead to families investing more resources (like education) in male children.

This preference can contribute to disparities like higher infant mortality rates among female children in some regions of India, despite biological advantages. The declining child sex ratio in prosperous states further highlights the issue of gender discrimination within the family and society.

Activity 2 suggests exploring sayings about daughters to see how popular culture reflects social arrangements and gender biases, while also noting counter-sayings and discussing the impact of female foeticide on sex ratio statistics.

The Institution Of Marriage

Marriage, a socially sanctioned union, exists in diverse forms across societies and serves various functions (reproduction, social bonding, economic cooperation). Rules and customs surrounding mate selection vary widely.

Forms Of Marriage

Marriage forms are classified based on the number of partners allowed:

• Monogamy: Restricts individuals to one spouse at a time. This is the most prevalent form globally, even where other forms are permitted. Serial monogamy involves marrying sequentially, but only one spouse at any given time (common after death or divorce).
• Polygamy: Allows marriage to more than one mate simultaneously.
  • Polygyny: One husband with two or more wives.
  • Polyandry: One wife with two or more husbands. Polyandry is often found in societies with harsh economic conditions or pressures to limit population.

Activity 3 encourages exploring how different societies arrange marriages, and Activity 4 suggests analysing wedding songs and Activity 5 looking at matrimonial advertisements to understand social dynamics, gender relations, changing norms (like endogamy), and societal changes reflected in mate selection practices.

The Matter Of Arranging Marriages: Rules And Prescriptions

Mate selection varies from societies where parents/relatives decide to those with more individual freedom of choice. Rules governing who can marry whom are often explicitly defined.

Rules Of Endogamy And Exogamy

These rules define marriage eligibility based on group membership:

• Endogamy: Requires marriage within a specific culturally defined group (e.g., marrying within one's caste, class, race, ethnicity, or religious group).
• Exogamy: Requires marriage outside of one's own specific group (e.g., marrying outside one's clan, or village exogamy practiced in parts of North India, where daughters marry into distant villages). Village exogamy traditionally helped ensure the bride's smooth integration into her husband's family without frequent interference from her own relatives, highlighting the link between marriage practices and kinship structures within a patrilineal system. Folk songs often depict the pain of this departure.

Activity 4 analysis of wedding songs can reveal themes related to endogamy, exogamy, and gender roles within marriage.

Defining Some Basic Concepts, Particularly Those Of Family, Kinship And Marriage

• Family: A group of people directly connected by kinship (blood or marriage) who take responsibility for caring for children.
• Kinship Ties: Connections between individuals established through marriage (affines) or descent (blood relatives or consanguinal kin, like parents, siblings, offspring).
• Marriage: A socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between adults. Marriage creates kinship ties between the spouses and connects their wider families.

The family of birth is called the family of orientation, and the family formed through marriage is called the family of procreation.

Consanguinal kin are related by blood, while affines are related by marriage.

The next section on work and economic life will show how family and economic spheres are closely intertwined.

Iii Work And Economic Life

The economic sphere is a central social institution related to the production and distribution of goods and services.

What Is Work?

While in modern times "work" is often equated with paid employment, this is an oversimplified view.

Much work, particularly in the informal economy (transactions outside regular employment, involving cash or direct exchange of goods/services), is unpaid or not officially recorded.

A broader sociological definition of work includes any activity, paid or unpaid, requiring mental or physical effort, aimed at producing goods or services that meet human needs.

The quote about "Tiny's Granny" illustrates the wide range of tasks considered "odd jobs" done for sustenance, highlighting work beyond formal employment.

Activity 6 suggests exploring various types of work through observation, literature, or films.

Modern Forms Of Work And Division Of Labour

Work has been transformed by industrialisation and modernity. In pre-modern societies, most work was in agriculture or livestock care. In industrialised societies, agriculture employs a small portion of the population and is highly mechanised. India still has a large rural, agricultural population, but also sees an expansion of the service sector (Activity 7).

A key feature of modern economies is a highly complex division of labour, where work is broken down into a vast number of specialised occupations.

In traditional craft-based work, individuals mastered all aspects of production through apprenticeship. Modern industrial production involves breaking processes into simple, repetitive tasks performed by specialised workers for wages.

Modern industrial societies are characterised by enormous economic interdependence. Individuals rely on a global network of workers for goods and services (Activity 9).

The location of work shifted from home to factories with the advent of industrial technology, separating home and work life.

Transformation Of Work

Industrial processes were streamlined and precisely timed for mass production, often involving moving assembly lines and surveillance to monitor workers.

Recent trends in the era of globalisation include a shift towards "flexible production" and "decentralisation of work," driven by global competition.

Industries like garment export operate within complex global supply chains where manufacturers have limited control and face pressure to keep costs low to compete internationally. This can impact wages and working conditions. The global nature of markets and customers can influence local labour issues and require international forums to address concerns like fair wages, illustrating the altered economics and politics of contemporary production.

The report on the garment industry in Bangalore highlights how global supply chains limit manufacturers' autonomy and how international opinion/pressure might be needed to improve conditions, showing the link between global economic structures and local work realities.

Iv Politics

Political institutions are concerned with the distribution and exercise of power within society. Key concepts for understanding political institutions are power and authority.

Power is the ability of individuals or groups to enforce their will, even against opposition. It implies a relational aspect, where wielding power means others do not. Power exists in various contexts, from family dynamics to workplace management and political leadership.

Political activities involve the exercise of power.

How is power made effective? Compliance with power is often based on authority – a form of power that is accepted as legitimate, right, and just. Authority is institutionalised because it is based on this legitimacy. People comply with authority because they perceive it as fair. Ideologies often help legitimise authority.

Stateless Societies

Social anthropological studies of stateless societies show that social order can be maintained even without a formal government apparatus, through mechanisms like balanced opposition between groups, cross-cutting alliances based on kinship/marriage/residence, and shared rituals.

While modern states have formal structures, some of these informal mechanisms can still be observed operating within state societies.

The Concept Of The State

A state is a political institution with a government apparatus (parliament, civil service) ruling over a defined territory, backed by a legal system and military force.

• Functionalist View: Sees the state as representing the interests of all sections of society.
• Conflict View: Views the state as primarily serving the interests of the dominant social groups.

Modern states are characterised by sovereignty (undisputed political rule over a territory), citizenship, and often nationalism.

Citizenship in modern states grants various rights:

• Civil Rights: Freedoms of movement, speech, religion, property ownership, and legal justice.
• Political Rights: The right to vote and hold public office (achieved through struggles like revolutions and independence movements, as universal suffrage was initially limited). Activity 10 asks about women's voting rights and under-representation in politics, linking it to broader power dynamics and the division of labour within families, suggesting the need for reservations.

• Social Rights: The right to a minimum standard of economic welfare and security (health benefits, unemployment allowances, minimum wage). These led to the development of the welfare state, particularly after WWII in Western societies. Today, social rights are often viewed as economic burdens. Activity 11 encourages finding examples of states reducing social rights and linking this to economic and political contexts.

Nationalism is a sense of collective identity, pride, and belonging to a single political community (the nation-state). While people have always identified with groups, nationalism emerged with the modern state. The contemporary world sees both increasing global interconnectedness and strong nationalist/ethnic conflicts (Activity 12).

Sociology studies power broadly, not just within formal government, but also its distribution among social groups (parties, classes, castes, ethnic/religious communities) and its operation within various institutions (schools, banks, religious bodies), ranging from international movements to local factions.

V Religion

Religion is a social institution that has been subject to study and reflection for a long time. The sociological study of religion differs from religious or theological studies.

A sociological approach to religion involves:

• Empirical Study: Examining how religions actually function in society and their relationship with other institutions, without making judgmental evaluations of beliefs.
• Comparative Method: Studying religions across different societies to identify variations and commonalities, reducing bias.
• Relating Religion to Other Aspects of Society: Investigating religious beliefs, practices, and institutions in connection with domestic life, economic life, political life, and culture.

Religion exists in all known societies, though beliefs and practices vary culturally.

Common characteristics of religion:

• A set of symbols that evoke reverence or awe.
• Rituals or ceremonies (praying, chanting, fasting, etc.) oriented towards religious symbols, distinct from ordinary habits. Rituals can be personal or collective, often performed in special sacred places.
• A community of believers who share common beliefs and practices.

Sociologists, following Durkheim, are interested in how societies distinguish the sacred realm (set apart, often involving awe and reverence, sometimes linked to the supernatural) from the profane realm (ordinary, everyday life).

Studying religion sociologically allows asking questions about its relationship with other social institutions.

Religion has historically been closely tied to power and politics, sometimes motivating movements for social change (e.g., anti-caste movements).

Religion is not just a private matter; its public character influences other institutions. Classical sociology (like Durkheim) predicted secularisation – that religion's influence would decline with modernisation. However, contemporary events show its persisting role in various aspects of society.

Max Weber's work demonstrated the influence of religion on economic behaviour. He argued that Calvinism's emphasis on hard work for God's glory, frugality, and viewing worldly success as a sign of divine favor influenced the spirit of capitalism, where investment and profit-making became central values. This showed how religious ethics could impact economic development.

Religious institutions are influenced by social forces (political debates, economic situations, gender norms). Conversely, religious norms shape social understanding and behaviour. Sociology also examines the relationship between religion and specific segments of the population, such as women.

The extract provided gives a sense of how sociology studies the interplay of religion with socio-economic changes, such as the impact of new employment opportunities on traditional religious specialists in Nasik and the shift of craftspeople to industry/business due to economic changes, while still maintaining religious connections.

Vi Education

Education, a lifelong process, involves formal institutions like schools and informal learning.

School education is seen as a pathway to higher education, employment, and acquiring necessary social skills, driven by a perceived need for formal learning.

Sociology understands education as the process of transmitting the group's heritage and knowledge to the next generation, which is common to all societies but differs in form between simple and complex societies.

• Simple Societies: Formal schooling was not needed. Children learned customs and way of life by participating directly in activities with adults.
• Complex, Modern Societies: Marked by increased division of labour, separation of work from home, need for specialised skills, rise of state/nation systems, and complex knowledge. Informal learning by participation is insufficient. Education needs to be formal, explicit, and institutionalised.

Modern societies also rest on abstract, universalistic values (treating everyone according to general rules) in contrast to simple societies based on particularistic values (based on specific ties like family, kin, caste, religion). Schools in modern societies are designed to promote uniformity, standardisation (e.g., uniforms), and universalistic values.

Durkheim argued that education is essential for societal survival, inculcating shared ideas, sentiments, and practices in all children regardless of social background, and preparing them for specific occupations while internalising core societal values.

Functionalist View on Education: Education maintains and renews social structure, transmits and develops culture. It functions as a mechanism for selecting and allocating individuals to future roles based on their abilities, seen as a ground for proving oneself and achieving status based on merit.

Sociological Perspective on Education & Inequality: For sociologists who view society as unequally stratified, education is seen both as a cause and product of social stratification.

Education can function as a main stratifying agent, as access to and quality of education vary significantly based on socio-economic background. Children from privileged backgrounds attend different types of schools, acquiring advantages and opportunities not available to others.

Inequality of educational opportunity is also a result of existing social stratification; factors like caste, gender, and socio-economic status can prevent children from attending school or cause them to drop out, perpetuating the cycle of inequality.

The report cited illustrates how gender and caste discrimination limit educational opportunities for girls and children from Scheduled Castes/Tribes, often due to household responsibilities or need for income generation, demonstrating how social institutions (family, caste) intersect with education to shape life chances, echoing the initial discussion in Chapter 1.

Activity 13 encourages discussing the implied lessons learned by children in kindergarten (like valuing work over play, following teacher direction) to explore how schooling socialises children into certain norms and values.