WORDS

SOCIETY

A society is a grouping of individuals which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society may be a particular people, such as the Nuer, a nation state, such as Switzerland, or a broader cultural group, such as Western society.

The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.

CULTURE

Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the arts and gastronomy.

Various definitions of culture reflect differing theories for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity. Edward Burnett Tylor writing from the perspective of social anthropology in the UK in 1871 described culture in the following way: "Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

SYSTEM

System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek σύστημα systēma) is a set of entities, real or abstract, where each entity interacts with, or is related to, at least one other entity.

There are natural and man-made (designed) systems. Natural systems may not have an apparent objective. Man-made systems normally have purpose, objectives. They are “designed to work as a coherent entity”.

Any object which is not part of that system is part of the system environment. Systems usually interact also with some objects in their environment, by means of some of their components.

So, what distinguishes a system entity from an entity in the system environment? A system — like a set— is a way of thinking of the world; a mental model. We determine a set by choosing the relevant membership criteria. Likewise, we determine a system by mentally choosing the relevant interactions we want to consider, plus choosing the system boundary —– or, equivalently, choosing external entities. We choose the “system of interest”, for natural systems, and we define and design our system of interest, for designed systems.

TRADITION

A tradition is a practice, custom, or story that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. Tools to aid this process include poetic devices such as rhyme and alliteration. The stories thus preserved are also referred to as tradition, or as part of an oral tradition.

Traditions are often presumed to be ancient, unalterable, and deeply important, though they may sometimes be much less "natural" than is presumed. Some traditions were deliberately invented for one reason or another, often to highlight or enhance the importance of a certain institution.Traditions may also be changed to suit the needs of the day, and the changes can become accepted as a part of the ancient tradition. A famous book on the subject is The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger.

GOVERNMENT

A government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]

Depending on closeness to those who are governed and their holds all the power, a government consists of different levels including: local governments, regional governments and national governments. This category includes absolute monarchies, as well as dictatorships.

• In oligarchies power is held by a small group of people who share the same interests.

• Democracies are governments where the people as a whole, hold the power. It may be exercised by them (direct democracy), or through representatives chosen by them (representative democracy).

• Anarchy is a lack of government or imposed rule.

The boundaries between the above forms of government are not absolutely clear. For example, during the 19th century, many proclaimed "democracies" restricted voting rights to a minority of the population (e.g. property-owning males). This could qualify them as oligarchies, rather than as democracies. On the other hand, the non voting minority was often quite large (20-30% of the population) and its members did not form a voting group with common interests. This is seen as the hallmark of most oligarchies. Thus, this form of government occupied a space between democracy and oligarchy as they are understood today.

PEOPLE

People denotes a group of humans, either with unspecified traits, or specific characteristics (e.g. the people of Spain or the people of the Plains).

The term people is often used in English as the suppletive plural of person. However, the word persons is sometimes used in place of people, especially when it would be ambiguous with its collective sense (e.g. missing persons instead of missing people). The term people can collectively refer to all humans or it can be used to identify the citizens of a nation, or members of a tribe, ethnic, or religious group. "People of color" is an archaic and potentially derogatory phrase used to describe people with skin color darker than that of white people.

INDIVIDUAL

Individual:As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person."