Sociocultural system
Encyclopedia
A sociocultural system is a "human population
viewed (1) in its ecological context and (2) as one of the many subsystems of a larger ecological system".
A sociocultural system may be described as having an infrastructure
, a structure, and a superstructure
. "A society's infrastructure (or material base) is its system of production and reproduction, which is determined by a concatenation of ecological, technological, environmental, and demographic variables." A society's infrastructure shapes its structure and superstructure. "A society's structure is its domestic economy (social organization, kinship, division of labor) and its political economy (political institutions, social hierarchies), while its superstructure consists of the ideological and symbolic sectors of culture; the religious, symbolic, intellectual and artistic endeavors."
Each sociocultural system depends on the ecosystem of which it is a part. If a sociocultural system functions in a way that constantly degrades the carrying capacity
of the ecosystem, that degradation will eventually lead to the collapse of the sociocultural system. See Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
The term "sociocultural system" embraces three concepts: society, culture, and system. A society is a number of interdependent organisms of the same species. A culture is the learned behaviors that are shared by the members of a society, together with the material products of such behaviors. The words "society" and "culture" are fused together to form the word "sociocultural". A system is "a collection of parts which interact with each other to function as a whole". The term sociocultural system is most likely to be found in the writings of anthropologists who specialize in ecological anthropology
.
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
viewed (1) in its ecological context and (2) as one of the many subsystems of a larger ecological system".
A sociocultural system may be described as having an infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, a structure, and a superstructure
Base and superstructure
In Marxist theory, human society consists of two parts: the base and superstructure; the base comprehends the forces and relations of production — employer-employee work conditions, the technical division of labour, and property relations — into which people enter to produce the necessities and...
. "A society's infrastructure (or material base) is its system of production and reproduction, which is determined by a concatenation of ecological, technological, environmental, and demographic variables." A society's infrastructure shapes its structure and superstructure. "A society's structure is its domestic economy (social organization, kinship, division of labor) and its political economy (political institutions, social hierarchies), while its superstructure consists of the ideological and symbolic sectors of culture; the religious, symbolic, intellectual and artistic endeavors."
Each sociocultural system depends on the ecosystem of which it is a part. If a sociocultural system functions in a way that constantly degrades the carrying capacity
Carrying capacity
The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment...
of the ecosystem, that degradation will eventually lead to the collapse of the sociocultural system. See Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
The term "sociocultural system" embraces three concepts: society, culture, and system. A society is a number of interdependent organisms of the same species. A culture is the learned behaviors that are shared by the members of a society, together with the material products of such behaviors. The words "society" and "culture" are fused together to form the word "sociocultural". A system is "a collection of parts which interact with each other to function as a whole". The term sociocultural system is most likely to be found in the writings of anthropologists who specialize in ecological anthropology
Ecological anthropology
Ecological anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that deals with relationships between humans and their environment, or between nature and culture, over time and space. It investigates the ways that a population shapes its environment and may be shaped by it, and the subsequent manners in...
.
See also
- Cultural systemCultural systemA cultural system may be defined as the interaction of different elements of culture. While a cultural system is quite different from a social system, sometimes both systems together are referred to as the sociocultural system....
- Systems theorySystems theorySystems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...
- Systems thinkingSystems thinkingSystems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
- Societal collapseSocietal collapseSocietal collapse broadly includes both quite abrupt societal failures typified by collapses , as well as more extended gradual declines of superpowers...
- Conrad KottakConrad KottakConrad Kottak is an American anthropologist. He earned his Ph.D from Columbia University, and he did extensive research in Brazil and Madagascar, visiting societies there and writing books about them...
- Marvin HarrisMarvin HarrisMarvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism...
- Roy RappaportRoy RappaportRoy A. Rappaport was a distinguished anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.-Biography:...