Different Types of Societies and Their Major Characteristics
1. Foraging Societies
When human beings did not know how to dominate land and domesticate the animals, they had to live together, share work, use fresh water carefully and also migrate gregariously if anything went wrong, for example, if rivers dried up or they run out of animals. Usually men were hunters and women were gatherers in those societies and this caused matriarchy because men were always in danger during hunting and generally hunter members returned home -cave- with limited numbers. Labour in hunting and gathering societies was divided equally among the members because they were so small and mobile.
2. Pastoral Societies
In this type of societies, approximately 12,000 years ago, people lived in a certain place and started to pasture animals for transportation and permanent food. Those types of societies still exist in Somalia, Ethiopia and North Africa countries where horticulture and manufacturing are not possible (Samatar, 1989: 35), hunter-gatherer society did domesticate animals because they realized that using animals´ wool, milk, and fertility was more beneficial than hunting and wasting them.
3. Horticultural Societies
Similar to pastoral societies, horticultural societies first appeared 10,000 to 12,000 years ago but these societies cultivated vegetables, fruits and plants. Depletion of the land’s resources or dwindling water supplies, for instance, forced the people to leave. Since, they were mobile and small like hunter-gatherer societies; there was not a non-survival class and not trade as well.
4. Agricultural Societies
What cause horticultural societies to extinguish, were the late agricultural inventions around the 8,000’s. With the new inventions, food supplies increased and people settled together. Population grew up rapidly, villages came up and farmers, land owners and also warriors who protect farms in exchange for food against enemies aroused firstly.
5. Industrial Societies
With usage of the steam power, human beings started to use machines and advanced technologies to produce and distribute goods and services. Industrial revolution process began in Britain and then spread through Europe and to the rest of the world, industrial societies started to develop.
6. Postindustrial Societies
The countries that the industrial revolution began, -Britain, France, the USA and Japan- now became the postindustrial countries. These countries are users of advance technologies like developed computers, satellites, microchips. In short, those societies are affected by the technologies at first hand. In comparison with horticultural societies, it can be easily understood that how technology is important to shape and characterize a society.