9
Family, Marriage and Kinship
The difference between a living and a dead social system—of whatever size, be it the largest or the smallest—is the presence, or the disappearance (due to death or migration), of its members.
A social system lives through its membership. Individuals who belong to it may die or withdraw; their replacement is a must if a system is to survive. Since a social system is a plurality of interacting individuals, the first functional prerequisite, as we noted in Chapter 8, is the presence of individuals-in-interaction. Since individuals have a limited life span compared to a social system—particularly a society or a community—the system must ensure their replacement when they die or move out.
Every social system has to attend ...
Get Sociology now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
