human societies
Groups forming cultures
Human societies are the organized groups and communities through which people live together, share culture, and coordinate collective life.
The term encompasses everything from small tribal bands to modern nation-states.
Societies develop institutions—governments, economies, religions, families—that structure how members relate to one another.
Human societies have always grappled with questions of justice and belonging.
The plural often implies comparison across cultures or historical periods: a study of human societies and their environmental impacts.
- customsTraditional practices or import taxes
- ritualsCeremonial repeated practices
- cooperationJoint action toward shared aims
- common goodBenefit shared by all
- artHuman creative expression
community · public square · crowd · heritage · democracy · cultural relativism · collective memory · capitalism · ruling class · conflict resolution · governance · division of labor · kinship · tradition · shared beliefs · market · rites of passage · coming of age
- anthropologyanthropology, fieldwork, ethnography, cultural anthropology, paleoanthropology
- superorganismsant colony, ant colonies, bee colony, bee colonies, termite colony
human societiesinsect colonies
ant colonies · bee hives · alien civilizations · wolf packs · bacterial colonies
human societiesstate of nature
Hypothetical pre-governmental human existence
lawlessness · societal collapse · failed states · barbarism · the wild