3.5.2 Functions of Social Institutions
The term "institution" in its social usage implies a way or thought or action which is embedded in the habits or customs of a group of people. The range of institutions is as wide as the interests of mankind. Any informal body of usage (such as common law, higher education, moral code, etc.) is an institution in the sense that it lends sanctions, imposes taboos/ forbidden and lords it over some human concerns. Any formal organisation like the government, the church, the university and the trade union imposes commands, lays out penalties and exercises authority over its members. All these are examples of social institutions. They may be rigid or flexible in their structures, strict or lenient/ tolerant in their demands, but all of them constitute standards of conformity from which an individual member may depart only at his peril/ danger . Our culture is a synthesis or a collection of institutions. Each of these institutions has it own domain and its distinctive office. The function of each social institution is to set a pattern of behaviour and to fix a zone of tolerance for various activities related to the institution. Etiquette/ forms of civilized manners or decorum , for example, decrees/ to decide or determine by sentence in law the rituals/ relating to, which must be observed in all polite social intercourse. Education, on the other hand, provides civilizing exposures through which the potential capacities of individuals are developed into the abilities for performance, appreciation and enjoyment. The institution of marriage gives propriety to the sex union, bestows/ to give or confer (a reward, distinction, etc) regularity upon procreation/ to generate , establishes the structure of the family and creates a balance between personal ambition and social stability. A number of social institutions may combine or compete to impress character upon the mass of human endeavour/ an attempt or trial and to give direction to it. Thus, the state claims primary obedience and imposes some order upon the activities of mankind. The institution of law determines the outmost limits of acceptable actions by punishing offenders and settling disputes. The community is made up of such overlapping provinces of various social institutions. It is the social institution in its role of organiser which makes this world a social world.
3.5.3 Origin and Development of Social Institutions
It is almost impossible to discover a legitimate origin for such an organic and complex entity as a social institution. Its origin may lie in an accidental, arbitrary or a conscious action. A man (savage or civilised) strikes a spark from flint/ a variety of quartz , makes an image from mud or brews/ to prepare by infusion a concoction/ to fabricate . The act is repeated and then multiplied; ideas, sanctions and habits from the existing culture get attached; and gradually there develops a ritual/ relating to of fire, a ceremonial for appeasing/ to placate by making or effecting concessions gods, or a cult of healing/ to cure . In all societies, however forward or backward, the roots of even the most elementary arrangements like barter/ to give in exchange , burial, worship, work life and sex union run far back into the unknown past and embody the knowledge, ignorance, hope and fear of people. In fact, a social institution has no origin apart from its development, since an institution is an aspect of a continuous social process. A social institution emerges form the impact of novel circumstances upon ancient custom and it is transformed into a different group of usage by cultural change. In the growth of a social institution, the usual may give way to the unusual so gradually as to be almost unnoticed. As an institution develops within a culture, it responds to changes in the prevailing/ to be victorious sense and reason. The public regulation of business consistently reflect the prevailing thinking on the relation between the state and the industry. Similarly, the pages of law reports reveal the ingenuity with which the same old rules
and standards are reinterpreted to serve the changing notions/ an idea of social necessity. In this continuous process of adaptation by an institution to the prevailing intellectual environment, an active role is assumed by the common sense, i.e., the body of ideas taken for granted by a society during a particular period. Because common sense determines the climate of opinion within which all other institutions must operate, it is the dominant institution in a society. In an even broader way, an institution is accommodated to the folkways of culture in a society. As circumstances impel/ to urge forward and common opinions in a society change, an institution held in high esteem earlier (e.g., piracy) may fall from grace/ easy elegance in form or manner , while another under taboo (such as birth control) may at first win tolerance and later general acceptance. As one social system passes into another and the values of life change, one social institution gives way to another that is better adapted to the times. An institution that survives, such as matrimony, has to respond to cultural changes and adapt to them. In the social process, the life of an institution depends upon its capacity for adaptation to changing social conditions. The same process of development applies to an institution introduced from an alien society. The act of borrowing a social institution from another society merely gives the opportunity for its modification to suit the needs of the adopting society. When Russia appropriated the industrial Revolution, it stripped away the enveloping business arrangement and converted it into an instrument to serve as a national social economic system. The act of transplantation/ to transfer of a social institution into another society may at first retard its growth, but eventually it is lively to promote it.
Next |
