Historical types of society

Historical Society types of sociology highlights the diversity of societies that exist now or ever.They are united on the basis of similar criteria.

For example, if the main sign is written, the historical society divided into types of written and dopismennnye.The former have the alphabet and record his speech in books, computers or other media.But preliterate able to speak, and record sounds - no.After all, these days there are uncivilized tribes.

According to the second classification, historical types of societies are grouped into simple and complex.This distinction is based on the degree of stratification in society and on the number of management levels.Simple society - is primitive tribes.They have no division into rich and poor, subordinates and supervisors.Complex societies have several levels of management.Social strata of its population are arranged in descending order of income.You can draw an analogy and say that preliterate society coincide with the simple, and written - with the complex.

third classification is based on the method of procuring the means of existence.According to her, the historical types of society are of several types.The oldest and longest (hundreds of thousands of years) - gathering and hunting.They lived during the protoobschestva or human herd.Over time, the hunt turned into herding and gathering - in horticulture.It happened when people realized that it is cheaper to domesticate animals, and not always kill them and more profitable to grow plants, not just to collect.

Along with the transition to a settled way of life from nomadic, agriculture originated with the state.There were classes, cities, writing - the main features of a civilized society.In place of the agrarian civilization over two hundred years ago, I came to the industrial.Its main symptoms - smokestack factories and urban neighborhoods.Some experts distinguish even post-industrial society, the shift to industrial developed countries in the late 20th century.It is no longer dominated by the industry and the service sector and information technology.Its symptoms - large supermarkets, computerized production, space stations.

These types of society in sociology at the present stage is a synthesis of all the previously known classifications.The founder of the new model recognized by the American scholar Daniel Bell.Divided into three stages of modern history: the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial, he identified and the corresponding historical types of society.Change one other stage entails changes in technology and methods of production, ownership, social institutions, political regimes, culture, lifestyle, number of population, the structure of society.For the traditional (pre-industrial) society is characterized by agriculture as a determining factor in the development, and the church and the army as the main institutions.In industrial production dominated, led by firms and corporations.In the post-industrial society the main factor of development - theoretical knowledge, which focus in universities.At this historic triad there are many options offered by other well-known sociologists.

So, the above leads to certain conclusions.The development of mankind is divided into three stages, which correspond to three types of society: the pre-industrial, industrial and postindustrial.The transition from a traditional to a primitive phase is called the Neolithic revolution.And the transition from pre-industrial to an industrial society - the industrial revolution.