Key Definitions - Sociology

Status- The position a person has Agency- The capacity of Structure – An abstract concept The other- Anthropologists use the within a social system- this may human beings to act in derived from all social institutions term “other” to describe the wa...

Status- The position a person has Agency- The capacity of Structure – An abstract concept The other- Anthropologists use the within a social system- this may human beings to act in derived from all social institutions term “other” to describe the way be ascribed (beyond an meaningful ways that a6ect and social relations existing in a people who are members of a individuals control) or achieved their own lives and others. society. Generally seen as the particular social group perceive other (acquired on the basis of merit). Agency may be constrained by resilient, regulating aspects of people who are not members. For Persons statuses are usually class, gender, religion and society that constrain the actions of example, non-Muslims may perceive multiple and come with sets of social and cultural factors. This its members. A structure centred Muslims as “the other” rights, obligations, behaviours and term implies that individuals approach would view social actions duties that individuals of certain have the capacity to create, as determined by social and positions are expected to perform change and influence events material context. Ethnocentrism- The tendency to Class-Division of people in a society view the world only from the based on social and economic perspective of one’s own culture; the status inability to understand cultures Key definitions di6erent from one’s own Gender- The culturally Ethnicity- A social group is The self- The individuals social self Ritual- A formalised event, the rules constructed distinctionsd connected by a shared is the product of social interaction of which are determined by the between males and females understanding of cultural identity and not the biological preconditions traditions of a social group, of that interaction. The “self” is the characterised by symbolism and socially constructed understanding performance. Religion is a significant of individual and cultural identity context for the practice of rituals, but that, in peoples thinking, the scope of ritual behaviour extends distinguishes them from the other. to other areas. The body can be ritualised, when it is the focus of ritual practice