Sociology Essay Example

Sociology Essay Example Sociology Essay Sociology Essay In sociology, a sect is a type of religious (or political) group which stands apart from a larger well-established social group. Usually, sects appear as the result of contradictions, misunderstandings and disputes between the members of large social groups on important matters or principles. Historically, members of sects were considered to be heretics and it was quite common practice among our ancestors to condemn and destroy them. From historical perspective, the term sect was greatly explained by famous British sociologist Bryan Williams, who dedicated his life to researching the issues of the relationships between religious minorities and sectarianism. In his book Religion in Sociological Perspective he wrote: In English, it is a term that designates a religiously separated group, but in its historical usage in Christendom it carried a distinctly pejorative connotation. A sect was a movement committed to heretical beliefs and often to ritual acts and practices that departed from orthodox religious procedures. (Williams, 1982) This term was introduced in sociology in 1930s by world’s prominent sociologists Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch. In their theoretical works they described sects as the religious groups, which were formed to protest against some postulates or dogmas of the parental religion. Other sociologists were developing the ideas of Weber and Troeltsch, coming to different conclusions: some considered sects to be the carriers of purified versions of the religious beliefs, and the others argued that sects have â€Å"†¦ a unique and privileged access to the truth or salvation (Wallis, 1977)†. For example John Suburban monkey boy who was abandoned at the age of 2 and the only solicitation for him was with monkeys. Due to the fact that he only had limited solicitation and only with monkeys, he was found doing everything that only monkeys would do at the age of 14 was when he was discovered. Therefore even though his genetics meant he was human, the years of his life spent with the solicitation from monkeys, meant that when he was first found it seemed unreal that he was a human being. Likewise another case similar to this was when a Ukrainian girl who was discovered in the USA, who only had the solicitation of dogs. Therefore when discovered she could eat, wash etc as a dog would do and she wasnt capable of doing any actions a normal human being would be able to as she lacked experience of love, human care or social behavior. Therefore even though every human being has their genes and DNA, feral children that are deprived of the stimulation of human company, stripped of the opportunity to acquire human language in early life are barely recognizable as humans. In further detail culture lows humans to know language and from this comes shared meanings, norms, values, and roles which feral children lack and therefore they are not the same as normal human beings. Evidently sociologist Stuart Hall (1997) stated that humans are able to create meanings and make sense of the world because of language. Shared meanings are an important way to communicate due to the fact that over time each social group builds up shared understandings of the world. For example it is universal when someone waves their hand when meeting someone it is a shared meaning of another way to say hello. Therefore if shared meanings like this example was not there, then people would not communicate effectively. Culture also allows humans to have their own personal values, and therefore people live by their own principles in life such as love, truth etc. Therefore if culture did not give humans values, then people would not have principles to live by from their own beliefs or from their religion etc, because genetics cannot offer humans values. Also culture gives us norms which holds the social expectations of how people should or snouts Deanna. For example tons also ensures unmans nave manners as It Is norms o hold the door open for someone, therefore culture provides basic rules of what is acceptable or not acceptable in society. Moreover culture gives us roles which allows humans to acknowledge and learn what their individual role as a sister, brother, wife, husband etc which is changing over time to suit the generation. Therefore without roles, humans would not be able to acknowledge the important of relationships, which nature of the nature-nurture debate does not provide. Moreover Culture does play a big role in humans becoming completely human, as Norte Alias proves and tastes that throughout time there are changing attitudes towards the body, which ensures that human existence will always survive. For example Alias describes that people became more sensitive to the shame and disgust of bodily functions as they developed good manners and disciplined their bodies to act in a civilized way. This proves why humans are more aware of the importance of hygiene to survive and not have any diseases or viruses due to uncleanness. This proves why people are cleaner in todays society than they were years ago, when people used to throw access over the windows at that time. Genetics would not have been the cause of this change because in the nature argument it is believed that people stay the same throughout time. However if this is the case then there would not have been change towards hygiene and what is clean and not clean, therefore culture is the main reason for this. Another fact as to why Culture plays a big role in society is due to the fact that within different countries there is diversity. For example people in Africa dress and talk differently to people in the United Kingdom. Also not only do humans n different countries dress differently, they also eat different foods, talk in different languages etc. This shows that genetics as part of the nature argument is wrong because surely if everyone had human genes then they should be acting the same, dressing the same, eating the same etc. However because this is not the case it proves that genetics cannot be what makes people human, because there is no explanation of diversity within the nature side of the nature-nurture debate. This is why culture is needed to make a person human, and culture therefore dictates what s normal between one culture to another as there is diversity through places. On the other hand the statement is not completely correct because genetics provides human beings with survival instincts such as needing warmth, food, water etc. Therefore it is genetically wired into human beings, that they need to have these basic needs in order to survive. Therefore if genetics had no role to play within human beings lives then, it is more likely that humans would not exist today as they would not be aware of what their body needs such as food, which meaner they would be starving to death without even releasing. Additionally genetics also provides natural reflexes to human beings as another survival instinct such as flinching. If humans did not have natural reflexes then the outcome would be humans would not know when to move away from danger. For example if a human being touches a hot metal spoon they would automatically flinch away from the danger of burning themselves and this is what genetics provides and not culture. Also genetics does play an important role for people to become human due to the fact that there are identical twin case studies which found twins to be the same despite being operated at birth. For example sisters Paula Bemusement and Else were separated at Dealt Ana pope Y t a D Deterrent parents, never tenet lives were salary as teeny Don edited their high school newspapers, studied Film at University and became Writers. However they did not realizes this until they both met in the year of 2003 at the age of 35. This case study shows that even though the twins had different past histories, different lives and were brought up in different cultures, their personalities were similar. This proves that genetics does have a role in human beings personalities. Another example of identical twin case study is when in 2004, 2 year old Mitchell Socks from Manchester fell off a slide in his back garden and was taken to hospital. When taken to the hospital Mitchell had a check-up and doctors said that he had no problems and that he could go home. A few hours later Mitchell identical twin named Elliot, tripped over and fell off the same slide and had to be taken to hospital. Doctors examined him and the x-ray results showed he had broken his left arm, at the same time at home Mitchell left arm was hurting, when Doctors X-rayed him as well, they found that Mitchell left arm was broken too. Therefore this extraordinary case study proves that genetics does have a big role to play in peoples health and if it is genetically wired that a human being will have some kind of problem with their health, then regardless of their culture it will happen. This surely clarifies that genetics has a role to play and it isnt only culture that makes someone completely human. To conclude Sociologists would say that the statement of children requiring only culture to become fully human and that genes mean nothing is about 75% correct. This is because Sociologists would say that if Culture wasnt existent then owe would people be able to communicate with each other effectively if shared meanings did not exist, because nature of the nature-nature debate would not provide this to human beings. Also without culture sociologists believe that there would be no Values that people live by, no clear roles of how people should be and norms would not exist and this meaner that people would not have social expectations of how they should or should not behave. Sociologists also believe that if culture did not matter in peoples lives then why are there children who do not have primary solicitation with humans and only have solicitation with animals, why are they seen as almost not human in the case of no human solicitation; which surely proves the way people are is due to culture. Another reason as to why sociologists would agree more with the statement is because of the diversity of culture, they believe that if genetics only mattered then why are people different in the way they dress and what they eat in different countries. On the other hand sociologists would disagree with the statement about 25% because genetics provide survival instincts and natural reflexes in order for people to be aware of what their Asia needs are to survive and to stay away from a situation that would endanger their lives, this is what culture fails to provide for humans. Moreover sociologists believe that genetics have some form to play in human beings lives because if genetics didnt play a role then why are there identical twins who have been brought up in different cultures, still the same. Proving that genetics will play a role in human beings lives and personalities, despite different lifestyles and cultures. These are the reasons why sociologists believe that culture and genetics play a role in order to eke people fully human, however that culture has the bigger role. In my opinion I agree with what sociologists would say due to the fact that I believe culture makes us unman as It provides ten world Walt roles, values, Loveliest, snared meanings etc. However to make us fully human, genetics does play a role because without survival instincts and natural reflexes how would human beings even survive. Therefore in my opinion culture is more important in order to make us human, however I believe that genetics plays a role because it determines to some extent our personalities, interests etc.