ABSTRACT
A society is more than a mere aggregation of individuals; it is an organization, a system. It is a complete and autonomous whole, rather than a part of a system. We would therefore call a tribe or a nation a society, but a clan, a guild of artisans, or a class of nobles would be but a part of a society. A society, or social system, is composed of parts—individuals, segments, classes, etc.—each of which is related to all the others, the relationship of part to part being determined by the relationship of part to whole. Societies may be human or subhuman, large or small, loosely or highly integrated. They may be homogeneous or highly differentiated structurally, specialized or unspecialized functionally. The concept of society embraces, therefore, the whole realm of living beings, plants as well as animals, and all social systems, from the simplest, such as a colony of single-celled organisms, to the most complex civilization in the world today—or tomorrow.
