Question

Individuals, ____ societies, and the world change through times of conflict and cooperation

Answer 1

In the first sentence you have a gap, and I think it should be filled with "cultures: individuals, cultures and societies".

The distinct characteristics of any society are: culture, economics, religion, politics (but these might be different from the kinds we see today)

I think that the lessening of a punishment here is called indulgence - it was the forgiving of sins that the Church practiced.

Answer 2

The correct answers are:

1) Cultures

2) Relgion, Culture, Economics and Politics

3) Indulgence

Explanations:

1) Culture, which comprises set of beliefs, values, norms, symbols etc., through times of conflict and cooperation. Due to globalization and cooperation, many cultures have adopted things of other cultures. One simple example could be symbols in culture. LOL, ROFL, YOLO etc. They were not cropped up as the universal phenonema. Such symbols have been adopted by other cultures. For the conflict part, you can think of two countries have conflict with each other and their beliefs about one another. How things have changed for France and Germany in terms of their beliefs about each other. I can go on, but I hope you get the gist.

2) Four distinct characteristics of any society are:

1. Religion

2. Culture

3. Economics

4. Politics

Religion is the fundamental characteristic for few societies. For example, those living in Israel or Pakistan. Without culture, a society cannot survive; so it is the integral characteristic of any society. Economics and politics also is the fundamental characteristic of any society (Examples could be the societies that support capitalism or communism or democracy or dictatorship).

3) The lessening of punishment for a wrongdoing is called an indulgence. Historically, in the Roman Catholic Church, the pope could cancel or lessen the punishments for the wrongdoings or sins, and the phenomenon is called indulgence.