Portal:Society

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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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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe, first emerging as prehistoric Vinča in 4800 BC. It was settled in the 3rd century BC by the Celts, before becoming the Roman settlement of Singidunum. It first became the capital of Serbia in 1403, and was the capital of various South Slav states from 1918 until 2003, as well as Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 until 2006. The city lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers in north central Serbia, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula. The population of Belgrade, according to the Serbian census of 2002, is 1,576,124. Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government. Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each of which has its own local council. It is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.

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Credit: Poster: Herbert Agricola; Restoration: Jujutacular

A 1937 anti-Bolshevik Nazi propaganda poster. A man with a skeleton face stands over bloody corpses, wielding a whip. His hat and clothing are Bolshevik in style. Before World War II, Nazi propaganda strategy, officially promulgated by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, stressed several themes. Their goals were to create external enemies (countries that allegedly inflicted the Treaty of Versailles on Germany) and internal enemies. Translated caption: "Bolshevism without a mask – large anti-Bolshevik exhibition of the NSDAP Gauleitung Berlin from November 6 to December 19, 1937, in the Reichstag building".

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Did you know...

... that, at the age of 89, producer and director Abel Gance viewed a restoration of his French epic silent film Napoléon in Telluride, Colorado?
... that British ecologist Arthur Tansley, founder of the British Ecological Society and the journal New Phytologist, introduced the concept of the ecosystem (pictured) in 1935?
... that Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen, author of The Land and Freshwater Mollusca of India, was an early president of the Malacological Society?

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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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“

Society therefore is as ancient as the world.

”

— Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique portatif ("A Philosophical Dictionary") (1764), Policy.

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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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January 28, 2008 – State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush

George W. Bush's address, given on the first floor of the House of Representatives at the Capitol.

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Web resources

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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