Agrarian society: the concept and the main features

The scientific literature contains many definitionsconcepts of "society". So, in the narrow sense - this is a group of people united for performing any activity and communication, as well as a specific stage of the historical development of the country or people. In the broad - part of the material world, detached from nature, but closely associated with it, consisting of individuals with consciousness and will, including forms of people's association and ways of their interaction.

In the 20th century R.Aron put forward a theory of industrial society, which was later refined by American sociologists and political scientists A. Toffler, D. Bell, Z. Brzezinski. It describes the progressive process of developing a backward society to the advanced. There were 3 stages in all: agrarian (preindustrial), industrial and postindustrial.

Agrarian society is the first stagecivilized development. In some sources it is also called traditional. Characteristic of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, it is inherent in some states at the present time. To a greater extent the countries of the "third world" (Africa, Asia).

The following signs of an agrarian society can be singled out:

• The economy is based on primitive craft andrural subsistence farming. Used mainly hand tools. The industry is either very poorly developed or completely absent. The greater part of the population lives in the countryside, engaging in agriculture.
• Domination of state, communal formsproperty; but private inviolability is not. Material wealth is distributed depending on the position occupied by a person in the social hierarchy.
• The rate of economic growth is low.
• The social structure is practically unchanged. A person is born in a certain class or caste and does not change his position throughout his life. The main social cells are the community and the family.
• Conservativeness of society. Any changes occur slowly and spontaneously.
• Human behavior is regulated by beliefs,customs, corporate principles and norms. Independence and individuality are not encouraged. The social group defines the norms of behavior for the individual. A person does not analyze his position, he seeks to adapt to the environment. Everything that happens to him is evaluated from the position of the social group to which he refers.
• The agrarian society assumes strong authority of the army and the church, the ordinary man is removed from politics.
• A limited number of educated people, the predominance of oral information over written.
• The priority of the spiritual sphere over the economic sphere, human life is perceived as the realization of divine providence.

As a result of economic, political,social and spiritual development, the agrarian society in most countries has moved to the industrial stage, characterized by the growth in labor productivity in agriculture and industry, an increase in the volume of fixed capital, and an increase in the incomes of the population.

There are new classes - the bourgeoisie and the industrialproletariat. The number of peasants in the population is decreasing, urbanization is taking place. The role of the state is growing. The agrarian society and the industrial one confronted each other in all directions.

For the post-industrial stage, developmentsphere of services, putting them at the forefront, increasing the role of knowledge, science and information. There is an erasure of class differences, the share of the middle class is increasing.

Agrarian society, from the Eurocentric pointview, is a backward, closed, primitive social organism to which industrial and post-industrial civilizations are opposed by Western sociology.