ABSTRACT
To be a society, a social system must have its “center of gravity”within itself, i.e., it must have its own system of authority within its own boundaries. It must also have its own culture. Part of its culture it will necessarily share with other societies from which it derives and with which it has intercourse—but part of this culture will be particular to itself. Some of this particular culture will be about itself. It will consist of beliefs about the history and nature of the society, its relationship to certain ideal or transcendent entities or values, its origin and destiny. It will include beliefs about the rightfulness of its existence as a society and about what qualifies its members to belong to society.
