Social Roles

Each of us occupies at least 2 or 3 positions in society. An individual may be pupil,

tailor, housewife, or lawyer depending on the kind of work done; the same
individual may also be son, daughter, mother, or father depending on the place in
the home.
Whatever the position, we expect the person who fills it to behave in a
particular way. Our expectations of such behavior define what we call the
ROLE of that person.
In very simple societies, where people spend most of their time trying to
keep alive, roles are few, but very clearly defined. Certain kinds of role, for
instance, can be filled only by men, others only by women. In more complex
societies, too, we find that a persons role often depends on the income
groups to which his family belongs. Roles such as doctor, bishop, professor
and naval officer tend to be filled by people from middle-income homes;
roles such as waiter, plumber, shop-assistant, and porter tend to be filled by
people from poorer homes.
Whatever their background, most people live, work and even( ?) in
GROUPS. They are able to act as groups simply because each persons role
is defined in relation to the other roles in the groups. But as organization
becomes more and more complex the network of roles is subjected to
increasing strain.
BEHAVIOUR
Why and when are there/may be conflict between roles in our society?
We expect a nurse to take care of the sick
We expect a teacher to instruct children => in fact, we expect each
individual in society to act in a certain way according to his sex, age,
profession, and so on. This constitutes his/her role in society. And
organization even a simple one depends on the roles of its members
being clearly defined. As a society becomes more complex, the pattern of
these roles becomes more intricate and in a large-scale society roles are
highly interdependent.

What is a role?

No matter what organization we belong to a ship at sea, a football team, or a
nation each of us has a part to play to perform specific tasks. And our role in
the organization depends on the kind of tasks we must do.
Some roles, such as a priest, doctor, or architect, are very clearly defined.
Other roles, such as being a citizen of a nation or a member of a community are
vaguer and harder to define. Each of us is fairly free to make what we wish of our
vaguer roles.
Such freedom of interpretation is far less likely in a small-scale, or simple
society where organization is centered on the major problem of how to keep
alive (Kalahari Desert or Siberian tundra)
Where conditions are better and there is no need for everyone to fill the role
of food gatherer, many members of the community can concentrate on other
kinds of activity.
As the number of different jobs increases, so does the number of roles. And
those roles have to be carefully co-ordinated into a pattern that people can
depend on
A girl in various roles:
As a chorister (member of a team/group)
As a friend (relationship of equals)
As pupil (subject to authority)
As ballerina (solo performer)
As daughter (subject to another kind of authority)


Basic Roles

Every society expects each person to play certain roles according to a fairly strict
set of rules. We call such well-defined roles BASIC because they depend on our
basic human qualities of sex, age, and kinship, which apply to everyone alike.
Basic roles take account of a persons individual abilities. Each of us is either male
or female, a baby or an adult, a nephew, a grandmother, or whatever; and, as such,
certain standardized behavior is expected of us.
Basic roles play a larger part in the organization of small-scale societies than in
that of the more complex ones. Such societies (Amazonia, Bushmen) leave little
room for conflict or dissention about basic roles. In such simple societies a mans
career is marked out for him by age -> infant, adolescent, adult male.
Among such a people as the COMANCHE Indians, once a war-loving
people of the North American plains, a young man was always
expected to be aggressive. He seized what he could and held it
without caring for the rights of people weaker than he. But when he
grew older, he was forced to assume the new role of elder, which
demanded very different behavior. His task was then to give advice,
settle disputes and prevent the tribe from making unnecessary
enemies. He had to be wise and gentle, willing to overlook
discourtesy and eventually endure abuse.
Since basic roles follow automatically from age and sex, they give a sense of
CONTINUITY- and thus of SECURITY. A very simple society treats
people as if they were all pegs of the same shape and size. Since each
individual is trained from birth for his role, he has a chance to learn to fill it
well. This training from birth for a basic role is found also in more complex
societies where selection for roles is based on heredity. But a very complex
society needs more flexible ideas about role-filling.
A complex society that overemphasizes the importance of basic roles
may become too rigid in its organization. A color bar is an example of
this. In South Africa and some of the Southern states of the U.S.,
people used skin colour to define basic role. In such places everyone
used to be born into a racial category and was expected to stay there.
So in a wide range of situations the way people were (and sometimes
still are) treated depended simply on their color. Talented Negroes
who could make a greater contribution to society were (are?)
prevented from doing so. Many Whites, on the other hand, got (and
still get?) a distorted sense of their own importance. Any such society
is bound to sacrifice a great deal of its potential flexibility and
resilience.

RIGHTS+chances
American Indians (USA, Canada)
Natives (Australia, New Zealand)
Gypsies (Europe); Europe itself West and East
Males and Females
DISCRIMINATION

One of the most rigid of all forms of social organization is the caste system
of traditional India. All the members of one caste have the same kind of job
and .?...... They cannot marry or eat .?...... even where racial prejudice
is not a serious social problem.
Think of the reactions in Italy ()against Romanians, Gypsies.
A system of unchanging basic roles may work well enough, but it can lead to
a waste of human talent. In most highly industrialized societies today, people
are given a chance to use and develop their special talents through the
development of specialized roles.




Specialized Roles

In large-scale societies each person gets a good chance to do the kind of work he is
best suited for. Unlike small-scale societies, with their necessary emphasis on basic
roles, large-scale societies rely to an ever-increasing extent on specialized roles.
The larger an organization, the more specialized its roles must become if people
are to co-operate with one another.
Consider the imaginary case of John Smith and his wife, who open a
roadside caf. At first he does the cooking and his wife serves the customers.
His business prospers, so he has to hire a girl to help wash the dishes. Then
he must hire another to help prepare the food. Now he must start keeping
account of what he spends and earns.
Soon the little restaurant becomes so well known that Smith builds a new
dining room and takes on more staff. No longer can he do the cooking
himself. He employs a chef, a vegetable cook, a specialist in salads, more
kitchen workers and waitresses. He can no longer run the restaurant as a
small family business. Now, whether he wishes, or not, Smith has to appoint
supervisors, work out menus, and consult with trade-union leaders over
wages and conditions of work. Everyones role must be clearly defined in
order to avoid confusion.
The more the business grows, the more specialized the roles get, and the
greater will be the difference between the earnings of Smith and the
managers at the top and those of the cleaning woman at the bottom.

Not many people have the temperament or the skill to manage a large
organization. Such a job demands intelligence, an ability to make important
decisions, self-confidence to go ahead with unpopular measures, and training
and experience.
In complex societies, it becomes increasingly important to try to pick the
right people for the more responsible specialized roles. Applicants for a
particular job may have to take intelligence and aptitude tests. But selection
is not the only problem. Even the most carefully selected candidate may fail
in his new role. There must, therefore, be some means of relieving
unsuitable people of their roles.
To make sure that people come forward to fill all the specialized roles in a
complex society, we must use both the carrot and the Stick. The
possibility of higher wages lures people to compete for the better roles. The
fear of dismissal prevents them from taking their duties too lightly.
People in complex societies too, must be willing and able to move
from one role to another, and from one place of work to another. A new role
may mean moving up or down the social or economic scale for the person
who assumes it. And he may be obliged to start a new home in a new place.
In a system where only basic roles really matter, the individual can be
sure of his future. Obviously, this is not equally true, where specialized roles
become important. It is much easier to predict the future of a big
organization within such a society than to predict the future of an individual.
It it is to survive, the xyz motor-car company cannot risk depending too
strongly on any one man. The duties of every man in the group must be
clearly defined so that if one man leaves, another can take his place. Or if a
person becomes ill, one of his colleagues can go to the files and find out how
matters stand. So, the role itself becomes more important than the question
of who plays it.
-> specialized roles tend to make the personal touch between specialized
workers hard to maintain. It seldom matters in our modern world whether
you can read the signature at the bottom of the letter, provided that the letter
clearly comes from the proper office.
The identity of the office or the organization becomes far more important
than the identity of the letter writer. In this kind of situation, people seek
new ways to emphasize their identity
-> in a complex society specialized roles tend to become anonymous, and a
bus conductor is a number more than a name. But such a society has a high
regard for talent and widely respects an individual



Role Symbols
In a small society, where everybody knows everybody else, when one member
meets another, he/she need not always display a symbol, such as a distinctive type
of dress, to show what his/her basic role is or how he/she will behave. But in a
large-scale society, such as a city, nobody can hope to know more than a few
people. If we meet a stranger, we can distinguish his/her specialized role in our
society only if he/she displays some sort of symbol- a policeman: uniform, for
instance, or a clerical collar. In large-scale societies, therefore, his/her specialized
role in our society only if he/she displays some sort of symbol- a policeman:
uniform, for instance, or a clerical collar. In large-scale societies, therefore,
symbols of role-supply vital information.
A uniform is one of the most obvious role symbols, but there are many
others:
Some indicate an occupational role- like the judges robe of office, the
doctors white coat, the miners helmet.
Other role symbols are of different kinds. A man may wear a coloured scarf
or a rosette that tells you he supports the local football club or plans to cast
his vote for a particular political party.
Symbols of basic roles can also be very striking. All over the world men and
women wear clothes and ornaments designed to identify them by sex; but
clothes as basic-role symbols can differ from nation to nation.
In China, for instance, women used to wear trousers and men skirts;
Clothes and ornaments and ornaments are also symbols of age.

In Western society young people tend to dress in gay, bright colours, while
older people generally wear conservative, somber clothes.
Roles are also symbolized in set forms of conduct. In company, there are all sorts
of conventions that people observe in order to acknowledge and make plain each
persons role. If someone enters a crowded room, some people stand up while
others remain seated.
Introductions are made and drinks are offered in a certain order of
precedence- the most distinguished guest being given priority. => In fact, almost
every detail of social behavior expresses something about the pattern of roles.
The Bushmen are not the only people among whom men and women sit on
different sides of the fire. Most of the peasant societies of Europe have a
similar custom.
In orthodox Jewish synagogues, the men sit together on the ground floor, the
women in the balcony.
In the Scottish Highlands, gin is still considered a womans drink; a man
drinks whisky;
=> when role symbols change, it is likely that fundamental changes have
taken place in the role itself.
In most countries today a woman wears a ring when she becomes engaged,
to show that she is promised to a man. At marriage, she receives another
ring, drops the title of Miss, and acquires the title Mrs.
In most societies a womans role undergoes its greatest change when she
marries and has children; but there-after it changes little until her children
have grown up. Her duties, unlike those of a man, are confined primarily to
the home. A mans role, on the other hand, changes less with marriage,
because he carries on his duties outside the home.
-> in large-scale societies we still keep symbols to identify basic roles: men
dress differently from women, and so on. But such symbols are less sharply
defined than they were 10 years ago, (and now even more), because male
and female roles are now less sharply defined.
Today, women wear trousers in many situations without fear of arousing
comment. And men wear wedding rings in bright colour, or use perfumed
after-shaving lotions with no stigma attached.
=> as a society becomes more complex, basic roles tend to become more and
more blurred and their symbols to lose their original significance.



Role changing

As people grow older, or win promotion, or move from one job to another, they
may change many of the roles they play. Once a person changes from one role
to another
From teacher to businessman, say, or
From child to adult
He must adjust to a new set of conditions. In addition, people expect him to behave
differently.
Initiation (secret societies) and Ritual ()
In the most complex societies of the Western World kings are crowned,
presidents are installed, and bishops are enthroned with impressive
ceremony. The ceremonials are always witnessed by others who, by their
presence, recognize that the honoured individual has assumed a new role.
They very fact that everyone expects him to behave in an entirely new way
makes it much easier for him to do so. That is why even the most unlikely
people often grow to fit their new offices and roles.
Marriage is a more familiar role-changing ceremony. The period of
engagement, the solemn wedding ceremony and change of name, the
merrymaking and the honeymoon away from friends and neighbours-all
make it easier for the young couple to assume their new identities. Such
ceremonies help the brides mother, too. She often finds it difficult to
acknowledge her daughters independence; a dramatic ceremony makes
acceptance of her daughters change of role a bit easiear. What about the
bridegrooms mother?
Funerals are also ceremonial affairs in every type of society. By burying or
burning the body, people dramatize the fact that the dead is gone and that his
social life has come to an end.
->some communities believe that the ceremony makes it easier for the dead
man to take on his new role in the spirit world
-> in some societies, those who have lost a close relative disfigure
themselves or wear mourning for a set period. This tells everyone that they
are undergoing a period of readjustment to life without their kinsman; and it
ensures that for a little while they will be gently treated. When this time is
over, the survivors themselves must assume new roles since they take on
new responsibilities toward one another.
-> in our modern societies only some of us celebrate marriages, funerals,
and christenings with as much pomp and fuss as did our grandparents. Some
still do. Our society has become so fluid that age, sex and social standing are
no longer barriers to role changing that they were a generation ago. (->
Prince of Monaco father married and actress, G. Kelly; Son= a lady from
S. Africa; the king of Sweden)
-> For example, nowadays we regard it as commonplace for women to take
an interest in politics, business, and other spheres that were previously
regarded as male territory.
=> As roles have become more various and role changing more frequent, the
definitions of basic roles have become more blurred, and we feel less need to
dramatize changes than did our ancestors. (But still, we feel the need for
rituals. We like themwe need them)

Role conflict

As a society becomes more and more complex, relying more and more on a tightly
organized network of specialized roles. Some people find themselves playing 2 or
3 roles that do not fit well together.

The roles of a brother and sister in Western society. While they are infants,
both children are equally dependent on their parents. But as the children
grow up, their roles develop differently and not always clearly.
The girls may find it easy to help with household tasks, because
she identifies herself with her mother and so learns to dust, make beds, and
so on. But what is the boy to do? Quite early in life, he learns to identify
with his father. He may not want to help in the way his sister does or to
respect the feminine virtues of tidiness, cleanliness, or quietness. But he is
not strong or skilful enough to do all the jobs his father does around the
home-stoking the boiler, mending a fuse, working in the garden, and so on.
Thus it is that many a modern boys idea of the sort of role he ought to play
as a male may come in conflict with the only constructive role open to him
in the house. When he grows older and can do the same sort of jobs as his
father, he can then feel that his contribution is appreciated by the rest of the
family.
-> the sharpest conflict in role definition for both sexes is likely to come
during adolescence.
In small-scale societies, where a sometimes rigorous ceremony marks the
change to adulthood, this period presents few or no problems. (traditional
society). But in large-scale, complex societies, the dividing line between
childhood and adulthood is often blurred. In some situations, people expect
an adolescent to behave as if he/she were filling the role of an adult; in
others, as if he/she were filling the role of a child.
In most complex societies a young girl/man is not allowed to vote until
he/she is 21; on the other hand, he/she can be called up at 18 for military
service, and so find himself/herself stationed overseas long before he can
vote in a national election.

Young people may count as adults for a movie seat, at 16 for
the right to smoke, at 18 for the right to drink. They are supposed to know
about sex but not to engage in it. So, especially between the ages of 17 and
21, a European or American is almost certain to be confused about the role
he is expected to play in society.
If, by about the age of 17, a young man is independent of his parents and
earning his own living, he may feel secure in his role as a grown-up person. But if
he/she remains a STUDENT and still dependent on his parents, the role is blurred.
Physically mature, the 17-year-old wants to be treated as an adult. But his parents
are likely to maintain that he/she is still their child and still unready to make
sensible decisions.
Sometimes the different roles that a full-fledged adult is expected to
play conflict with one another and make it hard for him/her to reach decisions. In
his/her role as a CITIZEN, a father/mother should feel obliged to report a crime to
the authorities; but if the crime has been committed by his/her own son, he/she
may feel bound by family loyalty to conceal it.

Diagram comparing the ages in various countries at which
Men are liable for military service
People are permitted by law to marry
People may vote
Drinks may be bought in licensed premises
Persons may be executed for capital offences

1. B
razil
2. E
gypt
3. F
rance
4. I
ndia
5. I
srael
6. I
taly
7. J
apan
8. N
orway
9. P
oland
10.
11. 12.
13. 2
14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.
20. 1
5
21. 2
22. 23. 24. 25.
26. 4
27. 28. 29.
30. 1
6
31. 32. 33. 34.
35. 2
36. 37. 38. 39.
40. 1
7
41.
42. 2
43.
44. 2
45.
46. 2
47.
48. 2 49. 2 50. 1
8
51. 1 52. 1 53. 1 54. 1 55. 1
56. 57.
58. 4 59. 4
60.
61. 62. 63. 64.
65. 3
66. 67. 68. 69.
70. 71. 72.
73. 5 74. 5
75.
76. 5
77.
78. 5
79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.
86. 1
87.
88. 1
9
89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94.
95. 2
96.
97. 1 98. 2
0
99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105.
106. 3
/4
107.
108. 3 109. 3 110. 3 111. 3
112.
113. 3
114.
115. 3
116.
117. 2
1
118.
119. In industrial societies, we can point to many examples of people
whose specialized roles embrace two sets of loyalties.
The manager of a factory expects his foreman to exert managerial
control of the workers.
The workers, on the other hand, who probably belong to a trade-
union, often expect the foreman to take their side against the manager
when disputes arise in the factory.
The foreman then becomes a man in the middle, subject to contrary
pressures.
=> Such role conflicts make many responsible people irritable and
difficult to get along with. The main source of the trouble lies in the
social organization that throws such a strain upon those in authority.
Comedians have long joked about the tension between a man and his
mother-in-law. The tension arises because of the brides conflictual
ideas: she has loyalties to both her mother and her husband. When the
mother tries to exercise her old authority over her daughter, the
husband protests at what he regards as interference. Many societies
throughout the world prevent such friction by compelling the mother
to avoid her son-in-law: if the two never meet, the cannot quarrel.
Other societies- in India, for instance handle the problem rather
differently: the bride is taken away from her own mother and put
under the control of her husbands!
-> Role conflict also occurs when people move from one level (rung)
in the social business ladder to another. Those who move up and those
who move down may be embarrassed when they meet old friends and
are uncertain of their new role, for their loyalty is divided between the
groups they have left and the group they are joining. To understand
such difficulties, he must look more closely at the way complex
societies in even the most democratic of countries are divided into
classes. To a large extent, 21
st
century man still interprets his various
roles in accordance with his position in society.
7.Status and class.
People in every type of society regard certain roles as more important or
more valuable than others. In Western societies there is special esteem for the head
of the state, doctor, scientist or engineer; and those who fill such roles tend to get
high rewards and to have what we call a high status in the community. At the other
end of the ladder are the low-status roles: garbage collector, manual labourer, or
farm worker. Everybodys status is the outcome of how other people assess his
roles and the way he plays them.
In the past, STATUS used to depend not on ability but on birth. The
son of a great landowner had high status, the son of a servant low status. Rarely did
the former sink very low or the latter rise very high in the social scale.
In todays industrial societies, which rely so much on specialized roles, such
a way of fixing a persons status has largely disappeared. Employers
increasingly seek talent wherever they can find it, regardless of the accident
of birth.

Nevertheless, we do find that the people who get to the top in a complex society
are not necessarily the most gifted. If your parents are rich, they can send you to
an expensive school. Here you may acquire not merely a good education, but
also the kind of manners and outlook that most appeal to employer. So you start
your career with an advantage over the boy/girl whose parents could not afford
to give him the right training. People who have had expensive schooling still
tend to fill many of the highest-status roles. Obviously, then, personal ability is
not the only factor that determines status in todays complex societies; wealth-
or the lack of it is perhaps equally important.
In Western Europe and the United States, a persons status is inextricably
bound up with what, for want of a better name, we still call class. Just what is
it that raises one class above another is hard to say. It may be wealth, or
ancestry, or a certain type of education, or a particular manner of speech or a
combination of many factors. Throughout much of the Western world, the
possession of great wealth is the surest guarantee of entry to the proper class
(the group with the highest status). But it is not the only guarantee.
To come of good family, for instance, continues to be a considerable asset
in countries such as Italy, Spain, France, and Britain, while even in newer
countries like Canada and the United States a mans ancestry count for a
good deal.
Thus, though we might think that a persons status today depends largely on
his wealth, the picture is seldom so simple. Throughout Western Europe and
North America the white collar office worker earns very little more or
even less- than the manual labourer in a factory. But the office worker has
always enjoyed a higher social status. While both types of worker are in
about the same income group, the office worker generally considers himself
of better social class than the labourer.
In societies that allow movement from one class to another, people often
want to display the progress they have made.
The housewife feels this need most strongly. Her husband gets emotional
satisfaction from his job and from the esteem of his colleagues. His wife,
denied this sort of reward, may well want to compensate by displaying the
symbols of success in her home: new furniture, kitchen gadgets, and so on.
Only a minority can afford expensive cars or costly household equipment, so
such things become symbols of wealth-> usually, people do buy the best
equipment they can for its own sake; they want efficient washing machines
for washing clothes, not for impressing their neighbours. But no matter why
people buy them, expensive and sleek possessions do tell the onlooker
something about the purchasers style of life.
Just as such status symbols indicate the class that a person has attained or hopes
to attain, the very way he/she talks may do the same thing.
Eliza Doolittle, the working-class girl in Bernard Shaws Pygmalion, for
instance, could not hope to enter upper-class society until she had learned
to speak appropriately. Accent is almost as important in England today as
it was years ago, when Shaw wrote his play.
But manner of speech matters far less in America and in such other
European countries as Norway and Germany, where practically
everybody goes to the same sort of school and gets a chance to learn
educated speech.
=> In those countries, then, the way a person talks tells you almost
nothing about his class. Indeed, a railway clerk earning only a small wage
may use exactly the same manner of speech as a university professor
earning 3 times as much.
=> To run smoothly, all societies have to organize their essential activities- play,
work, ceremonial, and so on on the basis of the formal status that goes with the
roles people play. Most of us use accepted ideas about status and class as clues for
working out how our own roles relate to those of others in our society, for every
society is a network of interrelated roles.
In Western world today, a Picasso painting, or gowns and jewels made by
famous firms/designers, will almost always be looked upon as marks of
wealth and prestige.