Sociability

The concept of sociability (in Latin sociabilitas, a characteristic of the social doctrines of the Christian churches) The term sociability – Geselligkeit – enjoys a distinct semantic weight of its own which distinguishes it decidedly from that of socialization, this term, expresses, in fact, the following concept: both the generic ability of human beings to establish some kind of social relationship with others, which, depending on circumstance, may be spontaneous or organized, supportive or conflicting, instrumental or simply gratifying, and the manifold concrete forms this inclination assumes as groups, associations, communities, crowds, on the basis of certain types of needs and interests. In a nutshell, contrary to the external action of the social control proper to socialization, sociability indicates an internal tendency on the part of people. At the same time, this concept is also distinguishable from that of association, the one closest to it, because, being more comprehensive than the latter, it also includes the dynamics both of “approaches between subjects” and of “dissociation, separation and distance”. Durkheim and Social Fact He defined sociology as the study of social facts, which he said were the actions of society. Social facts are the reason why people within a society seem to choose to do the same basic things; e.g., where they live, what they eat, and how they interact. The society they belong to shapes them to do these things, continuing social facts.  Common Social Facts Durkheim used many examples to demonstrate his theory of social facts, including:  Marriage: Social groups tend to have the same ideas toward marriage, such as the appropriate age to get married and what a ceremony should look like. Attitudes that violate those social facts, such as bigamy or polygamy in the Western world, are regarded with disgust.  Language: People living in the same area tend to speak the same language. In fact, they can develop and pass on their own dialect and idioms. Years later, those norms can identify someone as being part of a particular region.  Religion: Social facts shape how we view religion. Different areas have different religious strongholds, with faith being a regular part of life, and other religions are considered foreign and strange.  According to Renter, “Society is an abstract term that connotes the complex of interrelations that exist between and among the members of the group. In this way, society exists wherever there are good or bad, proper or improper relationships between human beings. These social relationships are not evident, they do not have any concrete form, and hence society is abstract. Wright writes, “Though society is real thing, it means in essence a state or condition, a relationship and is therefore necessarily an abstraction.” Society is organization of relationship: Society is the total complex of human relationships. It includes whole range of human relations. Physical element in social relationship: According to MacIver and Giddings and some other sociologists, social relationships invariably possess a psychical element, which takes the form of awareness of another’s presence, common objective or common interest etc. There is neither any society nor any social relationship, without this realization. Society exists only where social beings behave towards one another in a manner determined by recognition of each other. Only those relationships which are so determined are social. Social relationships differ from relations between other objects, only by virtue of this psychic element. They have in them an element of emotion and feeling, urges, sympathy and sentiments. Famous Greek Philosopher Aristotle remarked that, “Man is a social animal. He who lives without society is either a beast or God.” Hence sociability or sociality of man is main reason why man lives in society. Man learns all his social qualities from the society itself. That is why Prof. Park is right when he opines that “Man is not born human but to be made human.” Hence, there exists a great deal of close relationships between man and society. Both are closely inter-related, interconnected and inter-dependent. Relationship between the two is bilateral in nature. But this close relationship between man and society raises one of the most important questions i.e. in what sense man is a social animal? No doubt Aristotle said so long ago. However man is a social animal mainly because of the following three reasons such as: Man is Social by Nature & Culture Socialises man This is the basic nature of man that “Man is a social animal”, because his nature makes him so. Sociality or sociability is his natural instinct. He can’t but live in society. All his human qualities such as to think to enquire to learn language, to play and work only developed in human society. Primarily man is the only animal who learns culture and learns how to behave properly and live peacefully in the society . He observed the behaviours of others and learns the same . All this developed through cultural interaction with others. One can’t be a normal being in isolation. His nature compels him to live with his fellow beings. He can’t afford to live alone.He learns culture from his family,society , community and lives with cultural influences . To explain this social nature of man famous sociologists like MacIver, K.Davis cited a number of case studies to justify the theory of development of man’s social nature. In these cases human infants were isolated from all social relationships to make experiments on their social nature. The examples show that how man learns culture from the society and how community life is important in his life . Some of these cases are described as: The case study of Kasper Hauser: The first case study to experiment social nature of man was the case of Kasper Hauser. This unlucky child Kasper Hauser from his childhood until seventeenth year was brought up in the forest of Nuremberg in Germany. He was discovered in the year 1925. At that time it was found that he could hardly walk, had the mind of an infant and could be able to mutter only a few meaningless words. In spite of several education and training human nature could not develop in him. Lack of social life could not make him a social being. The case study of Amala and Kamala: The second case was of two Hindu children namely Amala and Kamala were discovered in wolf’s den in 1920. By that time Amala was two years old and Kamala was eight years old. Amala died soon after the discovery. But Kamala who was identified as wolf’s child survived till 1929. He did not behave like a normal individual. She walk on four limbs like a wolf, possessed no language but uttered few wolf like growls. She was shy and afraid of human beings. But it was after careful and sympathetic training she could able to learn some social habits like speech, eating, dressing and the like. It shows how human nature develops within her. The case study of Anna: It is another feral case study studied by sociologists and psychologists to conduct experiment on human nature. Anna was an illegitimate American child who had been placed in a room at the age of six months only and discovered five years later i.e. 1938. She was debarred from all types of social relations from six months till she was discovered. After discovery, it was found that she could not walk or speak and was total indifferent to people around her. But after careful and systematic training it was found that she quickly learn human qualities. But after few years she died. The case study of Issabella: It is another feral case of experiment on human conducted by Sociologist. Issabella was an illegitimate child who was locked in a room with her deaf and mute mother by her Kinsmen to hid her existence. But when she was discovered she knew no words and made only animal like sounds and her mind was undeveloped. But after some special and careful education and training she became able to learn human behavior and learn language. Some changes were marked in his behavior. She was enrolled in a school and became successful in making adjustments with her classmates. Her case further strengthens the fact that man became a social animal only when he lives in society. All the above case studies prove that man is social by nature and he born with social nature and all his social nature only develops in society and in interaction with his fellow beings. The human infant of the above feral cases had the capability to learn and be human being but failed to develop their human qualities in the absence of society and social contacts. Hence it shows that man is social by nature. This social nature is not super imposed on him or added to him rather it is inborn.