Social Contract

In this fast-paced world where individualism plays an important role, not all of us have the time to read a complete page on Medium. For me, a community and its parts play a huge role.

For me, being with my family and my community makes a difference because I care about their welfare while they seek my support. Societies have always functioned this way, and until crazy things happen, a touch of that will last forever.

Social

- An informal social gathering, especially one organized by the members of a particular club or group.

- Needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities.

Why do Traditions still make relevance to us?

What brings people together as a society? Why do we want to be independent and yet have a support system? What is the bond that holds a community together? Why do we live in a community? Why is a community vital to create?

You. Me. We are a Family.
We, humans, are the biggest family on Plant earth

When did it start?
The lifestyles and methods of early man have shown us again and again where we came from, how we began to live as nomads, wandering in search of food, hunting, developing tools and clothing, and eventually settling near bodies of water to ensure a constant supply of water and food. This happened over centuries and not just in a few lines. Together, humans created everything we see today and destroyed everything they could not feed. Over time, early humans began to gather around hearths and shelters to eat and socialize. Expanding social networks eventually led to the complex social life of modern humans.

“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in the chain” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Before we understand what happens in the human community,
let us understand a few terms.

• Community A gathering of people in a geographical area; may also include the idea that the gathering has a social structure and a sense of community spirit or belonging.
• Social structure Recurring and structured relationships among individuals, organizations, nations, or other social units.
• Individualism A belief in the rights and responsibilities of the individual.
• Society A group of people with a common and somewhat distinct culture who live in a particular area feel they belong together as a group and are distinct from other people.
• Culture The common heritage shared by the people of a society, consisting of customs, values, language, ideas, and artefacts.
• Family Two or more people who are related and live together by blood, marriage, adoption, or a serious long-term commitment. They usually form an economic unit, and the adult members take care of the dependents.
• Ideology A system of ideas that reflects rationalizes and defends the interests of those who believe in it.
• Religion A set of shared beliefs and rituals common to a particular community that focus on sacred and supernatural forces.

For many generations, the understanding of science and many other aspects of life that we now consider important were superfluous as a man simply lived his happy life.

Today we live in a generation of logic where we have not only studied the physical sciences but also mastered human behaviour in all its forms. This is great, is not it? We have a reason for all our actions. So we no longer just live a happy life but have precise reasons and patterns for that happiness.

Why is an Individual so vital to Society?

The individual is the atom of a molecule, you always need atoms to form matter. Here I want to answer the question, “Why do individuals need to adhere to a community and a society?” What if I was born with animals? Either they eat me or I grow up like their young, but not like the so-called civilized human being we are all supposed to be.

I become what I am only because of the environment around me, which is supported by the gene store that helps me develop. When a person begins to live in a society, he accepts that society and learns from it, while he is the one who shapes the society and influences the other people around him. He learns his culture, values, morals, traditions, norms, way of life, habits and livelihood from that society. This society is very important for him, for his identity. Man values the sense of belonging and is satisfied when he finds common ground with the people around him. When we live in a new place, we always find signs that connect us with our origin or with a community to which we belong.

Why do we follow traditions & customs?

Traditions and customs have lately become either trendy terms to brag about, or they are associated with a sense of constraint that people do not want to adhere to.

We know that actions speak louder than words. Our behaviour defines who we are, and our behaviour evolves from our habits and traditions.

Let us understand this better.

“Almsgiving or the sharing of wealth institutionalizes a sense of social responsibility by establishing a fixed proportionate (2%) wealth tax. It requires the more fortunate members of the Islamic community to share their wealth with the less fortunate.” — The Islamic Tradition

Is it not human to share what you have with people who have less of it?

Today we have to be taught this, but for the followers of Islam, it is a tradition. They not only make sure that their community is doing well but also try to help another community.

‘Do the opposite of what the pagans do, keep the beards and cut the moustaches short.’ — The Islamic Tradition

We all as human beings make some changes to distinguish ourselves from other people. One such feature of a Muslim gives a man the jovial appearance of a practising pious Muslim, so you can clearly distinguish a fellow Muslim from the crowd. And the moustache is cut short so that when you eat a meal, the moustache does not touch the meal you eat and keeps it pure.

‘Marrying in the same community is a deep-rooted tradition in India, in many communities & religions.’

In the ancient medieval caste system of India, the entire community is divided into the four castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vysyas, and Sudras, according to occupation.

Marriage in the same caste Girls from the same caste have an idea of their father’s profession and this knowledge helps their husbands in their work. People from different castes have different knowledge in their professions and cannot help each other and work together professionally. Moreover, it would be easy for the girl to adapt as there are similar customs in her new house as in her house.

Iyer, Patel, Rao, Naidu, Kulkarni, Patoli, Kota, Paidya, Golla, Reddy, Varma, Navlani, Rasal, Makasare, Ghandi, Rathod, Rathore, Gupta, Nawab, Khan… But why this?

One could also identify their caste by the customs and traditions like the family deity (different castes pray different gods), festivals (how and when they celebrate), food habits (vegetarian, kind of food they cook), accent (different castes speak with a slightly different dialect — a mix of words), traditional dress (especially during weddings and in temples and prayers).

With modernization though, there have been changes — but the practice of endogamy, caste surnames and (some) caste symbols have been retained.

Especially when you attend religious ceremonies, marriages, birth/death ceremonies, and festivals the cooking styles (vegetarian/non-veg/pork etc) and the sari-wearing style indicate caste traditions and region a person from a particular locality is probably a particular caste.

Based on the socio-economic education level, you can guess whether they belong to the upper caste or not.

This feature of identifying your caste system was useful in identifying a person’s habits and occupation, but in modern times it is not as necessary as our ancestors thought it was. Our surnames are such an identification of our origin, but in the process of modernization, we have been misled and see it as a difference between people, which often leads to unhappiness.

Why does a community's feeling matter?

One of the many things common to people in all cultures is the need to belong and to be accepted by others. This is one of the reasons people want to spend time with family, friends, hobbyists, sports fans, and religious communities.

First, let us clarify something: Do we need a sense of belonging?

The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

Social psychologists have been studying our need to belong for well over a century. One of the most famous studies on the subject was by Abraham Maslow, who proposed in 1943 that this human need for belonging is one of the five basic needs necessary for self-actualization. He placed the need for belonging on the next level up in his “hierarchy of needs” after physiological needs (such as food and sleep) and safety needs.

As we will see, without the need for belonging, not only would we never get past infancy, but we probably would not be nearly as evolved as we are today!

This is true if you look at it from different perspectives:

Evolutionary perspective

• Hunting together to take large prey that one person alone could not have taken. Many years later, people worked together on farms and were able to grow and share a wide variety of nutritious foods thanks to the principle of “many hands make light work.”
• Thus, it was typical for the women to prepare the freshly killed animals and the men to have more time to gather food for the community.
• Helping each other build shelters meant that the task could be done more quickly and easily than if done alone.
• Safety in numbers meant that people could protect and save each other together.

Motivation-based perspective:

• Today, evolutionary and developmental reasons are still valid, but one of the main reasons for our need to belong is “reward and punishment”
• The reward of helping each other in times of need: if you are helped in difficult times, you are much more likely to return the favour and want to help others who are in a similar situation in the future.
• It pays to leverage each other’s particular strengths and skills to move the group forward: This is true in any industry. An example of how social groups leverage other people’s skills is as follows: Without people who know electricity, society’s scholars would have no light to study, and without scholars who find cures for diseases, many of us would perish from disease.
• If everyone took care of himself, everyone would concentrate on acquiring the general knowledge he needs to survive, and there would be no time or opportunity to specialise in any particular field. The result? Progress in any field would be severely hampered.

Psychological rewards of feeling needed

• Belonging to a group can boost self-esteem.
• The group can provide a sense of identity
• Belonging to a group can provide a direction in life. If you do not know what you want to do with your life, social comparison and discussion with other group members can give you direction.
• Groups that hold the same values you want to express help us express ourselves, especially people who are prone to oppression. Expression is important for good mental health.

Religious perspective:

From a Christian and biblical perspective, man was created not only as part of a couple (a small group), indicating that God desires that man be a social being, but also as a being who belongs to God. Belonging began when God created Adam and Eve, and this belonging unites every human being in the group that is “God’s creation”.

- Deviations from the Norm

There are cases where people resist belonging or have difficulty belonging, such as spiritual people who become hermits and meditate alone on mountains for months without human contact; people who suffer from an avoidant personality disorder, social anxiety, or autism spectrum disorders.

We are always part of a community, whether we have chosen the community by our origin, religion or by our professions and interests. When we are in a new place, we do seek familiarity, but we tend to adapt to the new. This newness is our new community, which teaches us new cultures and binds us together in a community.

Credits & Source
Web source

\http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/introtosociolgy/Documents/Glossay
\ https://www.wired.com/2011/11/humans-social/
\ http://www.sociologyguide.com
\ http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/social-life
\ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_community
\ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sociology

Books

The Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau