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Soc 3326 Only

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Population-The collection(aggregate) of people who inhabit a place

• Population characteristics: birth rates, sex-ration, age at marriage, fertility, migration, mortality
  
  
  

Society-collection of people that is self-sustaining, has long duration, and shares a way of life; a population and its social organization and all that this implies; the social system

• Ethnomethodologists argue that there is no such thing as a society -people define their own "society"
  
  
  

Social Structure-interrelationships among roles, groups, institutions, social classes, and global economic regions.


Social Reproductions-the continuous remaking of society; requires constant interaction between population and social structure


Elements of Social Structure

• Statuses
  
  
• Roles
  
  
• Groups
  
  
• Organizations
  
  
• Institutions
  
  
  

Social Structure of San Cristobal Totonicapan

• Ascribed status (status given to you at birth and during life cycle stages): "Indian", gender, life-cycle stages
  
  
• Achieved status (status you gain through personal efforts): resources you own (land and animals, cortes for women); town/village residence; educational level ("licenciado"); travel guide(smuggler)
  
  
  

Observations concerning social statuses:

1) status often assigned to whole family;

2) migration promotes achieved status

• Roles (set of norms and values that define the expected behavior in a social position)-traditional roles concerning gender, religion, artisan and/or peasant occupations; marriage broker role
  
  
• Role change-migration is affecting traditional roles in a contradictory ways in the municipio; traditional roles greatly affected in the United states(attempts to keep roles anchored back home)
  
  
• Role stress-migrants feel stressed because they cannot carry out traditional roles back home; wives left behind also feel role stress because they have more difficult roles to perform
  
  
• Role conflict-demands of new "modern" roles conflict with demands of traditional role; role conflict may be particularly hard on youth (role conflict among ethnics in multicultural environments)
  
  
  

Groups (frequent structured interaction, common purpose/goals and identity)

• Religious groups in the municipio and Houston
  
  
• Soccer teams
  
  
• Americanized youth group (western clothes, play basketball, into rock music, higher education, town residency)
  
  
• New gangs (deported gang members from United states)
  
  
  

Formal organizations (groups with specific goals and explicit/written rules and regulations)

• Health clinic
  
  
• Alcohol Anonymous chapters
  
  
• Civic association
  
  
• Civil defense patrols
  
  
• Local political parties
  
  
• Schools
  
  
  

Informal organizations

• Courier businesses
  
  
• Smuggling business
  
  
• Musical businesses (sound systems for celebrations)
  
  
  

Social Institutions (long term practices involving groups/organization that provide structure in social life-religious, governmental, educational, etc.)

• Religious institutions
  
  
• Soccer organizations