INTRODUCTION TO RURAL SOCIOLOGY

Introduction to Rural Sociology

What is Sociology?
Sociology, in the broadest sense, is the study of society. Sociology is a very broad discipline that
examines how humans interact with each other and how human behaviour is shaped by social
structures (groups, communities, organizations), social categories (age, sex, class, race, etc.), and
social institutions (politics, religion, education, etc.). The basic foundation of sociology is the
belief that a person's attitudes, actions, and opportunities are shaped by all of these aspects of
society.
The sociological perspective is fourfold: Individuals belong to groups; groups influence our
behaviour; groups take on characteristics that are independent of their members (i.e. the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts); and sociologists focus on behavior patterns of groups, such as
differences based on sex, race, age, class, etc.

sociology is the scientific

study of society. (August
Comte)

Sociology is the study

of social action. (Mex
Weber)
Sociology is
the study of
collective
behavior.
(Park &
Burgess )

What Is
Sociology?

Sociology is the
study of humans
living together.
(Tonnies)

Sociology is
the study
of social
facts
through
social
institutions
.
Sociology is the
(Emile
scientific
Durkhiem)of
study
social
aspects
of
human life.

(Mack Young)
Sociology is the
study of social
Origins groups on the
Sociology originated from and was influenced by the industrial revolution during the early
basis of social
nineteenth century. There are seven major founders of sociology: August Comte, W.E.B. Du
interaction.
Bois, Emile
Durkheim, Harriet Martineau, Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, and Max Weber.
August Comte is thought of as the "Father of Sociology" as he coined the term sociology in
(Simmel)
1838. He believed that society should be understood and studied as it was, rather than what it
ought to be. He was the first to recognize that the path to understanding the world and society
1

was based in science. W.E.B. Du Bois was an early American sociologist who laid the
groundwork for sociology of race and ethnicity and contributed important analyses of American
society in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War.
Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, and Weber helped define and develop sociology as a science and
discipline, each contributing important theories and concepts still used and understood in the
field today. Harriet Martineau was a British scholar and writer who was also fundamental to
establishing the sociological perspective, who wrote prolifically about the relationship between
politics, morals, and society, as well as sexism and gender roles.
Development of Sociology: Transition to Modernity
Traditional (rural)
Modern (urban)
Agriculture
Industrialization
Rural
Urban
Informal
Formal/bureaucratic
Control
systems of power
(face-to-face; family ties)
Religion/
Secular; based on science;
Tradition
Society is man-made therefore changeable
About 1900, the first sociology department was founded at the University of Chicago to study
social problem resulting from industrialization, urbanization, and other social changes.
The country life commission created by US president Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 identified the
main social problems of rural America and hired many other groups to perform rural social
surveys.
These investigations fostered the emergence of rural sociology as problem-oriented and applied
study. The first Journal of Rural sociology had been published in 1937.
Current Approaches
Today there are two main approaches to studying sociology. The first is macro-sociology, or the
study of society as a whole. This approach emphasizes the analysis of social systems and
populations on a large scale and at a high level of theoretical abstraction.
Macro-sociology does concern individuals, families, and other aspects of society, but it always
does so in relation to the larger social system to which they belong. The second approach is
micro-sociology, or the study of small group behavior. This approach focuses on the nature of
everyday human interaction on a small scale. At the micro level, social status and social roles are
the most important components of social structure, and micro-sociology is based on the ongoing
interactions between these social roles. Much contemporary sociological research and theory
bridges these two approaches.
Areas of Sociology
Sociology is a very broad and diverse field. There are many different topics and scopes in the
field of sociology, some of which are relatively new.
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The following are some of the major areas of research and application within the field of
sociology:
Globalization- The sociology of globalization focuses on the economic, political, and
cultural aspects and implications of a globally integrated society. Many sociologists focus
on the way capitalism and consumer goods connect people all over the world, migration
flows, and issues of inequality in global society.
Race and Ethnicity- The sociology of race and ethnicity examines the social, political,
and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. Topics
commonly studied include racism, residential segregation, and the differences in social
processes between racial and ethnic groups.
Consumption- The sociology of consumption is a subfield of sociology which places
consumption at the center of research questions, studies, and social theory. Researchers in
this subfield focus on the role of consumer goods in our everyday lives, their relationship
to our individual and group identities, in our relationships with other people, in our
culture and traditions, and the implications of consumer lifestyles.
Family- The sociology of family examines things such as marriage, divorce, child
rearing, and domestic abuse. Specifically, sociologists study how these aspects of the
family are defined in different cultures and times and how they affect individuals and
institutions.
Social Inequality- The study of social inequality examines the unequal distribution of
power, privilege, and prestige in society. These sociologists study differences and
inequalities in social class, race, and gender.
Knowledge-The sociology of knowledge is a subfield devoted to researching and
theorizing the socially situated processes of knowledge formation and
knowing. Sociologists in this subfield focus on how institutions, ideology, and discourse
(how we talk and write) shape the process of coming to know the world, and the
formation of values, beliefs, common sense, and expectations. Many focus on the
connection between power and knowledge.
Demography- Demography refers to a population's composition. Some of the basic
concepts explored in demography include birth rate, fertility rate, death rate, infant
mortality rate, and migration. Demographers are interested in how and why these
demographics vary between societies, groups, and communities.
Health And Illness- Sociologists who study health and illness focus on the social effects
of, and societal attitudes towards, illnesses, diseases, disabilities, and the aging process.
This is not to be confused with medical sociology, which focuses on medical institutions
such as hospitals, clinics, and physician offices as well as the interactions among
physicians.
Work And Industry- The sociology of work concerns the implications of technological
change, globalization, labor markets, work organization, managerial practices, and
employment relations. These sociologists are interested in workforce trends and how they
relate to the changing patterns of inequality in modern societies as well as how they affect
the experiences of individuals and families.
Education- The sociology of education is the study of how educational institutions
determine social structures and experiences. In particular, sociologists might look at how
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different aspects of educational institutions (teacher attitudes, peer influence, school

climate, school resources, etc.) affect learning and other outcomes.
Religion- The sociology of religion concerns the practice, history, development, and roles
of religion in society. These sociologists examine religious trends over time, how various
religions affect social interactions both within the religion and outside of it, and relations
within religious institutions.

Rural Sociology
Rural Sociology is a specialized field of sociology. It is the study of life in rural environment,
which systematically studies rural communities to discover their conditions and tendencies to
formulate the principles of progress. It is limited to various aspects of rural society in the study
of rural social relationships.
Meaning of Rural Sociology
According to F. Sturat the sociology of rural life is a study of rural population, rural social
organization and the social processes operative in rural society.
According to Desai (1978), Rural Sociology is the science of rural society.
So, it is clear that rural sociology is related to the organized and scientific study of the life of
rural people and their personal inter-relationships.
The knowledge of rural sociology is very important in agricultural extension for the following
reasons:
The basic purpose of agricultural extension is changing the behaviour of farmers as
desired. Therefore, knowledge and understanding of rural people (farmers) is essential. It
is the rural sociology which provides this knowledge and understanding about the farmer
vis--vis rural social system in which he lives.
It helps in devising an agricultural extension plans for farmers.
It helps in identifying the groups, individuals, organisations and leaders.
Besides this, the interrelationship between agricultural extension and rural sociology also
highlights the importance or rural sociology in agricultural extension.
Some of the points shared by most of the rural sociologists, economists and social
anthropologists are as under:
1. Social life all over the world is divided into two divisions:
(i) Rural division, and
(ii) Urban division.
Though, there is interaction between the two divisions, each division has its identifiable traits.
2. It is further agreed that the social life in rural division is conditioned by the rural environment
physical, social and cultural. Rural life has a historicity, composition and interaction. This
specificity and individuality makes the rural division highly distinct.

3. All the scholars share the view the prime objective of rural sociology should be to make a
scientific, systematic and comprehensive study of the rural social organisation, of its structure,
functions and objective tendencies of development and on the basis of such a study to discover
the law of its development.
4. It is agreed that in the developing parts of the world, such as Latin America, Africa and Asia, a
new significance of rural sociology has emerged. All the developing countries are engaged in the
task of nation-building. Such an objective invariably includes the development of the people at
the grass root who are closer to the soil.
Definitions/Description of Sociological Terms
At the introductory level in many universities in particular and in Africa in general many
students of rural sociology have not had any previous important learning experience in the area
of sociology. The aim of this is to enhance a basic understanding of the terms used in the
discussion of sociology by experts in the field. Some of the terms are defined and described
below.
Rural Sociology
It is the scientific study of rural life. It is the systematic body of knowledge which has resulted
from the application of the scientific method to the study of the rural society, social processes,
basic social systems, society organisation, institutions and group dynamics. It is a discipline
which studies the influence of physical, biological and cultural factors on the sociology of groups
of persons considered to be rural or non-urban. Rural sociology might be the sociology of rural
life, environmental sociology or social ecology, the sociology of rural development.
Rural
This is defined as remote area or place far away from the seat of government and having no
verified infrastructural facilities, that is, the countryside and the people living in the villages
(Mumdi 2006). It also refers to areas with low population density, small size, and relative
isolation, where the major economic activity is largely agricultural production. The areas
considered rural are the settlements that have between 100 and 200 households.
Culture
It is one of the characteristics of a society. It is a social phenomenon that is learned through the
collective experiences of members of a society. Therefore, new members of a society are raised
within the given culture and are thus different from members of other societies. What members
of the society learn consists of the ways and means by which the groups deal with the basis and
recurring facts of their existence.
Culture is a social phenomenon which is learned through the collective exercise of members of a
society from generation to generation through education and its special forms termed
socialisation. Basic aspects of culture such as ideas, beliefs and values are abstract and are called
non-material culture. However, non-material cultures are reflected in tangible or material culture
such as housing, clothing and technology.

Norms
Norms are the customary rules and behaviours established as standards for guiding a society.
They are the rules which prescribe what is socially acceptable or unacceptable in any social
system. Some norms may differ from one community to another, while others prevail all over the
country. Mores are customs or inventions which people regard as important for the welfare and
stability of the society. The violations of mores are viewed with more seriousness than the
violations of norms. A few examples of norms in the Nigerian society include the following: It is customary in some communities that pregnant women should not go to the river in
the afternoon or birth at night, or sit under the shade of tree, or see masquerade etc
Strangers especially in Hausaland and Igalaland cannot meet the Emirs and chiefs
directly
In some parts of Hausaland, it is forbidden for a married woman to converse with another
man other than her husband.
An understanding of these norms of the society is very crucial in the adoption of new changes by
people or farmers.
Statuses and Roles
Status is a position in the system of social relationships. In rural communities social statuses
include father, mother, rainmaker, diviner, councilor, partrilineal head, schoolteacher, course
facilitator among others. Closely related to the concept of status is role. A role is a set of
expectations applied to an occupant of a status and is characterised by certain obligations
(functions or duties) and privileges (rights).
Sociologists often utilise the term status roles to indicate that both concepts are concomitant or
simultaneous. An example is, a father (the status) provides the capital educational and security
needs of his child (rights or privileges). The child on the other hand is expected to show some
respect to the father, carry out some tasks for him and participate in farm work (obligations). The
same person can have more than one status and play more than one set of roles.
Values
These are standard views about what is acceptable, desirable and what should be, independent of
the circumstance or specific situation. Values are generally derived from beliefs, which are
convictions about the ways things are. They differ from norms, which are rules that control
interrelationships. Among the rural Igala or Bassa-nge in Kogi State some cherished values
include, respect for elders, hard work and respect for constituted premarital virginity among
others.
Beliefs
These are ideas held by members of a society to be true. That is, beliefs are the acceptance of any
statement or idea as true or existing, regardless of whether they are in exact conformity with the
existing standard or not. Beliefs differ from one community to another, but each of them holds
fast to their own as the most perfect. Examples of beliefs among some people in rural include:
A person sitting on a grinding stone will develop boils
A hen that hatches just one chick will bring bad luck to the owner
Putting food into mouth with a knife will result in a double row of teeth
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Beating a male child with a broom will make him impotent.

These are two kinds of beliefs:

(a) Superstitions
These are derived from ignorance or fear of the unknown. For example, among rural people
sighting a giant rat, a nocturnal animal in day light portends the death of a family member; a
child fed on egg will grow up a deviant (stealing).
(b) Taboos
These are practices or objects forbidden because of beliefs attached to them. For example, some
animals such as snakes, fish, and civet cats are not eaten in different rural communities. Also, it
is forbidden for any child to speak bad words against his parents.
Power
It comprises influence and authority and it is the ability to influence or control the action of
others in a social system. For example, the village head has a lot of influence and authority in his
area of jurisdiction. He is the only one mandated by the people to enforce obedience into any
member of the community that goes out of social order. The village subheads have power but no
authority. They can influence the actions of other community members as well as that of the
overall head of the house.
Boundary Maintenance
Is the process by which certain groups of people who are native to their registered domiciliary
choose to maintain their identity within the larger group. They do this in order to preserve their
cultural values and norms, so that they will not be submerged by the natives or the larger group
in the community. For example, all the Sabon Gari area in the northern part of Nigeria is
occupied by the Yoruba. Similarly, all the Sabo areas in Yoruba land are occupied by the Hausa.
This is done so that the people can preserve their cultural heritage and prevent it from being
suppressed by the larger society. Inter-marriages between these two groups are not allowed, but
as a result of civilisation, the situation is now gradually changing.
Systemic Linkage
This process can be made possible by providing common facilities for the two groups possibly
on a neutral ground. Any device that can create communication link between the two groups can
be utilised, e.g. a demonstration plot, housing facilities, hospitals, a place of worship and any
other important facilities that can bring the two groups together.
Systemic linkage can be described as using one stone to kill two birds. The system is necessary
for sociological work because of the lack of resources to provide different facilities for different
groups in a community.
In carrying out this process, it is very essential for the rural sociologist to study the prevailing
situation in the community. This system may not work where the relationship between the
different social groups have not been very cordial. If the relationship between the groups is
cordial, the system will save the resources, time, and energy of the sociologists.
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Indigenous Knowledge
Every society or culture has its knowledge systems including knowledge that enables members
to cope with daily life whether in the areas of aquaculture, health, education and economics or
any other area of human endeavour. The term indigenous knowledge was first used to describe
knowledge that is generated and transmitted by communities overtime, in an effort to cope with
their own agro-ecological and socio-economic environments. The term has been variously
referred to as traditional knowledge, local knowledge, community knowledge or rural peoples
knowledge. Therefore, the new attention being given to traditional knowledge system has given
rise to new areas of study viz ethno-medicine (traditional medicine), ethno-veterinary medicine,
ethno-botany, ethno-husbandry among others. The implication is that in the quest for
modernisation, there are certain knowledge/practices or innovations existing in developing
communities/societies that can be adopted into Western systems in order to ensure sustainability.
Indigenous knowledge (I.K) is local knowledge. It is unique knowledge to a given culture or
society. Some indigenous knowledge is not written down. It is held in peoples heads and
transmitted from one generation to the next by word of mouth. Areas of concern about
indigenous knowledge are:
Indigenous technologies
Knowledge systems (such as taxonomies)
Decision making systems (such as what crops to grow on certain soils)
Organisational structures (such as farmers groups).
Other Basic Concepts/Definitions
Change Agent
These are persons who attempt to facilitate changes in the behaviour of their constituents or
areas.
Cosmopolites
They are individuals who are and often interact with urban communities.
Ethno Centrism
It is the tendency to value highly a persons own culture and regard it as superior to the cultures
of others.
Incest Taboo
This is the prohibition of marriage or sexual intercourse between certain relatives such as mother
and son, brother and sister.
Institution
It is a structural aspect of culture which satisfies some fundamental needs and functions of a
society.
Some Basic Characteristics of Rural Sociology
1. Rural sociology is multi-dimensional; it has orientation to sociology and social anthropology.
It has different traditions in US, Europe and Asia. Rural sociology in Asia is more sociology and
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social anthropology than rural sociology. It draws subject matter, scientific nature and
methodology from both sociology and social anthropology.
2. By design and functioning rural sociology, is interdisciplinary.
3. Sociology studies interactions and interaction systems. When this perspective is applied to the
analysis of rural society it becomes rural sociology.
4. Rural sociology is the study of small places, such as villages and tribal habitations. The
empirical abstractions made out of the little or small places help to construct theoretical
constructions: the studies made by Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Boas and
Bourdieu elaborately show that theories of repute have come out of the studies of grass root
people-people living in highlands, forests and small villages.
Rural Sociology as the name itself indicates is that branch of Sociology that studies the society of
the villages or Rural Society. This branch of sociology studies the social interaction, institutions
and activities and social changes that take place in the rural society. It is a systematic study of the
rural society. The interactions and the changes that are seen in the rural aspect of the society are
studied under this branch. This is what Dr. Desai has said:
Rural Sociology is the science of the law of development of Rural Society.
Difficult to separate Urban and Rural Society: although Rural Sociology studies the rural life and
the development in rural Society, but it is difficult to separate completely the urban society and
the Rural Society, but it is difficult to separate completely the urban society and the Rural
Society. People living in Rural Society may be progressive and urban in outlook while people
living in cities may have complete rural or village outlook. Anderson has said:
Whatever may be pleasant for ruralism, urbanism seems to be a border-crossing phenomenon.
Every modern community is urban to a degree. One can study a city and limit the research to the
municipal area, but urbanism itself is not so confined. One can study the rural community using
the city as a background for rural urban comparison. But a line cannot be drawn between the
urban and the rural.
Thus Rural Sociology does not study the Rural Society. Form a geographical point of view, but it
studies the Rural Society from a particular angle or point of view. There are certain standards of
rural and urban society, and Rural Sociology studies the rural social life and the standards and
the factors that influence the social structure of the Rural Society.
Definition of Rural Sociology: different sociologists have defined rural sociology in different
ways. Given below are a few definitions of this branch of sociology
1) Rural Sociology as defined by Sanderson
Rural Sociology is the sociology of rural life in the rural environment.

2) Rural sociology as defined by A.R. Desai:

Rural Sociology is the science of Rural Society in general can aid us in discovering the special
laws governing a particular society. Rural Sociology is the science of the laws of the
development of Rural Society.
3) T.L. Smith has defined the Rural Sociology in the following words:
Some investigators study social phenomena that are present only in or largely confined to the
rural environment, to persons engaged in agricultural occupation. Such sociological facts and
principles as one derived from the study of the rural social relationship may be referred to as
Rural Sociology.
4) F. Stuart Chapin has defined Rural Sociology as given below.
The sociology of rural life is a study of the rural population rural social oragainisation, and the
social process comparative, in Rural Society.
5) Rural Sociology as defined by Lowry Nelson:
The subject matter of Rural Sociology is descriptive unless of course of various kind as they
exist in rural environment.
6) Bertrand has defined Rural Sociology as given below:
In its broadest definition, Rural Sociology is the study of human relationship in rural
environment.
Rural Sociology
Rural Sociology is therefore the study of rural environment and social facts and social
interactions that are to be found in Rural Society. It is the study of the countrys rural population
in the mass. It is concerned to answer the large and important questions confronting the country
at large as they affect to that population.
As a scientific study, it studies the social organisation, structure and set up. It provides us that
knowledge about the rural social phenomena which can help us in making contribution to the
development.
Origin of Rural Sociology:
Rural Sociology, comparatively speaking is a new branch of sociology which saw its origin in
United States of America around 1820. Within the century a good deal of literature had been
produced about this branch of knowledge and main contributors to the development of Rural
Sociology are Charles Anderson of the Chicago university, Butter fields of the Michigan
University, Ernest Burnham of the Michigan state College, John Morris Gillian of the North
Dermot University, Marking H. Giddings of the Columbia University and Thomas Nixon Carver
of the Harvard University.
It was President Roosevelt who through the appointment of country Life Commission gave a
good encouragement and fillip to the development of the Rural Sociology in the 20th century.
The report of this Commission was aimed at encouraging the studies of the Rural Society and
can rightly be called Magna Carta of the Rural Sociology.
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In 1917, the department of Rural Sociology was set up by the American Sociological Society and
in 1919; A Rural Sociology Department was established under the aegis of the Bureau of
Agriculture Economics. Dr.C.J. Golpin headed the department and the Bureau. Later on, its
name changed to Rural Population and Rural Life. The Social Science Research Council not
only encourages but helps the research of study of the Rural Sociology.
In 1930, due to depression this branch of sociology got a good deal of fillip and encouragement.
In 1936, a quarterly (magazine) called. Rural Sociology was published in 1938 Rural
Sociological Society was established. Then came the Second World War which brought a good
deal of devastation and destruction.
This destruction had to be mending and reconstructed. This reconstruction work, brought further
encouragement of Rural Sociology America under its point 4 programme sent rural
sociologists to work in under-developed countries and science then Rural Sociology has been
growing and gaining ground every day.
Newly Acquired Significance of Rural Sociology
One of the common observations of the masses of people in the society is that the village people
are excessively immobile. They die on the same soil where they are born. The village society is
characterised as highly static society.
But, this kind of common understanding is, believed in the context of large scale five year plans
and liberalisation and the revolution in mass media. The earlier village life which did not have
any political and economic power, has now acquired adult franchise, democracy and accelerating
transformation.
During the last five decades rural people have witnessed massive changes. Study of rural life,
now, no more continues to be full of natural life, hills and forests, streams and rivers, and
folklore and folk-tales. The village life has today reached a stage where the glamour of urban life
has made its inroads inside the village life.
Despite the inroads that urban society has made in the rural areas, however, the facilities,
comforts and the sources of income found available in urban community are in a degree wanting
in rural community. It is this disparity which makes rural communities different from urban
communities. Admittedly, in the domain of religion and culture, the difference in the two
communities might not appear conspicuous.
Whatever advanced societies we see today, whether US or French, they originate from the village
society. The general process is that rural society turns into a town society, then shifts to city,
mega city and metropolitan community. However, the systematic origin of rural sociology goes
back to 19th century. Generally, when the feudal society took to capitalism, it gave rise to the
systematic study of rural sociology emphasising the impact of industrialisation and capitalism on
rural economy and the subsequent need for studying rural society
A.R. Desai observes:
The impact of the capitalist-industrial civilisation upon the rural economy and the social
structure in various parts of the world forced the attention of scholars to the study of the trends of
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rural social development. Research in the subject of the origin and the nature of village
community which was undergoing transformation was launched.
The Concept of Rurality
The concept of rurality is a branch of sociology upon which rural sociologists have their basis.
According to the 1969 Kenyan Census, the official designation of rural is a 75% population.
Rural communities should not be considered to be homogenous units.
The Indicators of Rurality
There are three indicators for determining the degree of rurality namely, community size,
amenities found within the community and proportion of male heads of households engaged in
farming as primary occupation.
Population density may be included. Another indicator is infrastructure facilities; example is
socio-cultural characteristics of the population. Rural can be defined as a remote area of distance
far away from the seat of government; that is, the country side and the people living in villages.
In rural areas, they lack good amenities like good roads, electricity, pipe borne water etc. All
these things are found in abundance in the urban areas, big towns or cities. Historically, Rural,
referred to areas with low population density, small size, and relative isolation, where the major
economic activity was agricultural production, and where the people were relatively homogenous
in their values, attitude and behaviour.
The Sociological Imagination as a Concept
The sociological imagination is the concept of being able to think ourselves away from the
familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew.
Mills defined sociological imagination as the vivid awareness of the relationship between
experience and the wider society. It is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and
influence each other. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away
from the situation and think from an alternative point of view.
The Sociological Perspective
Sociology can be defined simply as the study of society, but the practice of sociology is much
more than a field of study; it is a way of seeing the world. Understanding the sociological
perspective is crucial to understanding the field itself, social theory, and why and how
sociologists conduct the research we do.
When sociologists look at the world and try to understand why things are the way they are, we
look for relationships, and not just those between people. We look for relationships between
individuals and the social groups they might identify with or be identified with, like race, class,
gender, sexuality, and nationality, among others; connections between individuals and the
communities they live in or affiliate with; and, relationships between individuals and institutions,
like media, religion, family, and law enforcement. Within sociology this is known as looking at
the connections between the "micro," individual aspects of social life, and the "macro," large
scale groups, relationships, and trends that compose society.
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Sociologists look for relationships because we want to understand the causes of trends and
problems in society so that we can make recommendations for how to address them. At the core
of sociology is the recognition that social structures and forces, like those described above and
others too, shape a persons worldview, beliefs, values, expectations, sense of what is normal,
and right and wrong. In doing so, social structures and forces shape our experiences, how we
interact with other people, and ultimately, the trajectories and outcomes of our lives.
Most social structures and forces are not immediately visible to us, but we can find them when
we look beneath the surface of everyday life. Introducing students to the field, Peter Berger
wrote, It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this things are not what they seem.
The sociological perspective urges us to ask the unasked questions about the things we consider
normal, natural, and inevitable, in order to illuminate the underlying social structures and forces
that produce them.
Sociologists seek complex answers to what many would consider simple questions. Berger
suggested that there are four key questions at the heart of sociology that allow us to see the
connections between everyday life and social structure and forces.
1. What are people doing with each other here?
2. What are their relationships to each other?
3. How are these relationships organized in institutions?
4. What are the collective ideas that move men (sic) and institutions? Berger suggested that
asking these questions transforms the familiar into something otherwise unseen, and leads to a
transformation of consciousness.
C. Wright Mills called this transformation of consciousness the sociological imagination. When
we examine the world through this lens, we see how our current moment and
personal biographies sit within the trajectory of history. Using the sociological imagination to
examine our own lives, we might question how social structures, forces, and relationships have
given us certain privileges, like access to wealth and prestigious schools; or, how social forces
like racism might make us disadvantaged as compared with others.
The sociological perspective always includes historical context in its view of society, because if
we want to understand why things are the way they are, we have to understand how they got that
way. So, sociologists often take the long view, by, for example, looking at the shifting nature of
the class structure over time, how the relationship between the economy and culture has evolved
over centuries, or, how limited access to rights and resources in the past continues to impact
historically marginalized people today.
Mills believed that the sociological imagination can empower people to make change in their
lives and in society because it allows us to see that what we often perceive as personal
troubles, like not making enough money to support ourselves or our families, are actually
public issues problems that course through society and are a product of flaws in the social
structure, like inadequate minimum wage levels.
13

The empowering nature of the sociological imagination points to another fundamentally

important aspect of the sociological perspective: that society and all that happens within it is
made by people. Society is a social product, and as such, its structures, its institutions, norms,
ways of life, and problems are changeable. Just as social structures and forces act on us and
shape our lives, we act on them with our choices and actions. Throughout our daily lives, in
mundane and sometimes momentous ways, our behavior either validates or reproduces society as
it is, or it challenges it and remakes it into something else.
Example of Applying the Sociological Imagination
We can apply the concept of the sociological imagination to any behavior. Take the simple act of
drinking a cup of coffee for example. We could argue that coffee is not just a drink, but rather it
has symbolic value as part of day-to-day social rituals.
Often the ritual of drinking coffee is much more important than the act of consuming the coffee
itself. For example, two people who meet to have coffee together are probably more interested
in meeting and chatting than in what they drink. In all societies, eating and drinking are
occasions for social interaction and the performance of rituals, which offer a great deal of subject
matter for sociological study.
A second dimension to a cup of coffee has to do with its use as a drug. Coffee contains caffeine,
which is a drug that has stimulating effects on the brain. For many, this is the reason why they
drink coffee. It is interesting sociologically to question why coffee addicts are not considered
drug users in Western cultures while they might be in other cultures. Like alcohol, coffee is a
socially acceptable drug whereas marijuana is not. In other cultures, however, marijuana use is
tolerated, but both coffee and alcohol use is frowned upon.
Still a third dimension to a cup of coffee is tied to social and economic relationships. The
growing, packaging, distributing, and marketing of coffee are global enterprises that affect many
cultures, social groups, and organizations within those cultures. These things often take place
thousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Many aspects of our lives are now affected by
worldwide trading exchanges and communications and studying these global transactions is
important to sociologists.
A fourth dimension to a cup of coffee relates to past social and economic development. The
coffee relationships currently set in motion were not always there. Like tea, bananas, potatoes,
and sugar, coffee only became widely consumed after the nineteenth century. These relationships
developed gradually, and might well break down in the future due to change.
Possibilities for the Future
There is another aspect to the sociological imagination which Mills discussed in his book and
which he laid the most emphasis, which are our possibilities for the future. Sociology not only
helps us analyze current and existing patterns of social life, but it also helps us to see some of the
possible futures open to us. Through the sociological imagination, we can see not only what is
the case, but also what could become the case should we desire to make it that way.

14

NATURE AND SCOPE OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY

Nature of Rural Sociology
Sociology is considered as a social science. Though, there are debates on the nature of sociology
in international social sciences. By and large, sociology is a science. There are scholars like C.
Wright Mills, Peter Berger and others who consider sociology as an imagination only as an art.
The debate is not new. It starts from the period when social sciences parted their company with
philosophy.
In its earlier period, sociology was considered as positivistic science. At a later stage, it was
realised that sociology could not be like any natural sciences because of its subject matter.
Without entering into the debatable nature of sociology it could be observed that the nature of
sociology is scientific.
There is a controversy whether the sociology can be regards as science with his own subject
matter. Science may be defined as body of systematized knowledge or synthesized body of
knowledge. In the collection of facts for any knowledge, when we apply a scientific method it is
called as a science. Science goes with the method and not with the subject matter. Scientific
method consists of systematic observation, classification and interpretation of data. It is believed
that rural sociology employs the scientific method.
The nature of rural sociology as a science can determine on the basis of following facts:
1. Use of Scientific Method: It is uniform fact that rural sociology employs the scientific
method. Almost all the methods of scientific study viz. observations, interview schedule,
questionnaire method, case study, statistical methods etc. are employed in the study of rural
sociology. In the absence of scientific approach the village problems cannot be studied. On such
studies we formulate generalized principles and laws on which we forecast future trends.
2. Factual Study: It studies the social events, social relationship and process in a factual manner.
It also studies and analyzes the facts and the underlying general principles and theories.
3. Discovery of Cause and Effect: Rural sociology formulates its theories and laws on the basis
of cause and effect relationship.
4. Universal Laws: The laws formulated by rural sociology are universal in nature. Because
under normal or similar condition they prove to be correct and produce the same result.
5. Predictions: Since the laws formulated by rural sociology by rural sociology are based on
cause and effect relationship. It is possible to predict the result.
On the basis of conditions enumerated above, it is said that rural sociology is by nature a science.
However, there are some factors which limits the scientific sociology is by nature a scientific
nature of the subject.

15

Limitations of Rural Sociology

1. Lack of Objectivity:
It is not possible to have objectivity in the study of rural sociology as in case of natural science.
While in the study of rural sociology and its problems the investigator continues to remain as a
part of the society he is studying. He has own ideas and are influenced by the subject matter.
2. Lack of Laboratory:
Rural sociology is not studied in laborites as a natural science. Because of this it is not possible
to verify and test the theory and principles of rural sociology.
3. Lack of Measurement:
There is no definite and standard measurement for measuring units of rural sociology.
4. Lack of Exactness:
It is lack of objectivity and different to follow its laws and principles universally. They are not
acceptable at every point.
5. Lack of Prediction:
Because of lacks objectivity and exactness the principles formulated by the rural sociology are
not always correct. As such predictions are not possible.
6. It is not possible to draw a line between the rural and urban areas. There is no sharp
demarcation to tell where rural area ends and urban area begins.
7. The science of rural sociology is not fully developed.
Characteristics of Rural Sociology:
1. Rural sociology is of recent origin and a very new discipline. Here sociological principles are
applied for studying rural society.
2. Rural sociology is multi-dimensional in character.
3. Rural sociology is scientific and systematic in character.
4. It has acquired an inter-disciplinary status over a period of time.
5. It emphasises on micro studies.
6. It employs comparative method.
The development of rural sociology in India has not attained a scientific level. It is to be hoped
that there will be a development in this direction in the future.
Importance of the Study of Rural Sociology
The importance of rural sociology can be evaluated properly when it realize the importance of
rural society. Rural society presents a scientific picture of rural life. Villages are important
because they are the springs to feed urban areas. As long as the villages and the rural society
assume importance, the rural sociology shall continue to acquire importance. Man has an urge to
know human relationship and this can be satisfied through rural sociology. The value of rural
sociology can be understood by the following points:

16

a) Rural Population is in a Majority:

In almost all the Countries of the world majority or the world resides in villages in villages. It is
more true that over 80% population of India resides in villages.
b) It Gives Complete Knowledge of Village Life:
Rural sociology gives us complete knowledge of village life. Village is the first unit of
development in country. It is a centre of culture of any country.
c) Rural Reformation
Rural reformation is the primary aim of rural sociology. In this context it helps in following
works.
i) Organization:
Village unit which are dis-organized and can be organized through rural sociology. It improved
in the co-ordination of various units and helps in bringing an improvement in economic, social
and health conditions.
ii) Economic Betterment:
Through detailed study of village problems and observation rural sociology gives stress on the
importance of increasing the quantity and quality of production. This results in to raising the
standard of living.
iii) Provide Technology and Systematic Knowledge and reforms in Farm Production:
Main occupation of 80% population of village is agriculture. In order to improving this main
occupation of rural people. The earlier researches in rural sociology were made in agricultural
college.
iv) Solutions of Pathological Social Problems:
Rural sociology examines the social pathological problems and it suggests ways for the
improving these problem.
v) Education:
The improvement t, the development of any community depends on its education. Rural
sociology lays stress on education in rural problems.
vi) Planning for Development:
Rural sociology encourages the development of various plans for any rural development
programme. The work must be carried out according to these plans for the progress in rural
society.
d) Rural Sociology Development Relationships of Village with Industry.
e) Rural Sociology is most important in Agricultural Countries
About 90% of world progress is based on agriculture. It is only in agricultural countries that
people realize the importance of rural sociology. India is mainly agricultural country. For its all
sided development the development of rural sociology is very important.
17

Scope of Rural Sociology

The scope of rural sociology refers to the boundary or subject matter of this discipline.
Regarding the subject matter, A.R. Desai is of the opinion that it is a developing science, a young
science at the stage of infancy and its subject matter is yet to be determined.
Prof. Nelson says about the scope of rural sociology that rural sociology is the description and
analysis of progress of various groups as they exist in rural environment.
T.L. Smith also says that the field of rural sociology is the study of pattern of association,
groupings and group behaviour of the people who mainly live on agriculture and agriculture is
their means of livelihood.
It is concluded from the above opinion that the scope of rural sociology is the study of rural
societies and complexities of rural social life. Indian rural community is a veritable mosaic of
different communities. In case of every social science, controversies have taken place.
Kenya being an agricultural country and village is a basic and important unit of the society. After
independence the process of rural reconstruction was started and importance of the rural
sociology was recognized. The need of development of the villages and speed of education in the
villages were understood and to achieve this community development programme was started. It
can be achieved when the planners and administrator correct knowledge of the rural life.
1. It is very essential to develop village because Indias development depends upon the progress
of the villages.
2. India is agriculture country and poverty can be removed through improvement in agriculture.
3. Solutions of rural problems can bring the change in the rural society.
4. The country and its society can be reconstructed only through rural developments.
5. For successful implementation of democratic decentralization the village community is to be
studied in detail.
6. Rural sociology can help to organize the disorganized Indian in detail.
7. The extension worker must know the rural culture, rural institutions, problems, resources etc.
for successful transfer of technology for improvement of agriculture. It can be achieved through
the study of rural sociology.
8. Through the technology and communication methods are known to the extension workers. The
study of rural sociology helps the extension worker to transfer the technology.
9. For successful implementation of the community development programmes the knowledge of
rural sociology is very essential.
In connection to scope, there are four main controversies. They are:
1. Rural sociology is a science or an art.
2. Whether rural sociology is a scientific subject matter or special subject matter or it is a
synthesis of different social sciences.
3. Whether rural sociology deals with only village community or includes urban communities.
4. Whether rural sociology includes only the formulation of different laws or includes Follow-up
action.
18

Rural sociology is the scientific, systematic, comprehensive study III rural social organisations,
its structure, functions and objective tendencies of development. It deals with the systematic
study of social relationship and various problems concerning the rural society mid rural life.
(i) A Study of Rural Community:
Rural sociology is concerned with the characteristics, features, nature and human ecology of
village community. It is also the study of activities of rural people. Through these activities we
know the institutional objects of the community.
(ii) A Study of Rural Social Structure:
Rural sociology studies the various components of rural social structure. For example, village
community, caste, class, dominant caste, jajmani system, caste and politics, awkward class etc in
India
(iii) A Study of Rural Institutions:
Rural sociology studies the structure, characteristics and functions of rural social institutions. It
studies the institutions like family, marriage, kinship, religion, caste etc. in the rural context.
(iv) A Study of Rural Social Organization:
In rural sociology rural social organisations are unavoidably studied. It includes the study of rural
family pattern, marriage, rural social stratification, educational system, religion, cultural
institutions etc.
(v) A Study of Rural Problems:
The subject matter of rural sociology includes the problems of rural life such as social,
economic, political and cultural problems. Rural social problems are increasing day-by-day. It is
essential that these should be solved in a planned way.
It requires separate analysis because the cause and consequences of these problems are different
from the problems in general. These, problems include poverty, illiteracy, religious superstitions,
traditionalism, inadequate housing, rural unemployment etc.
(vi) A Study of Religion and Culture:
In rural society religion and culture of rural people are given more emphasis. Because these are
the indispensable part of their lives. Religion plays an important role in rural society. Rural
society is basically religion oriented society.
It acts as an informal means of social control. The rural people follow all the rules and
regulations related to religion and culture. Culture includes old customs, traditions, folkways,
norms, values, etc. Rural sociology studies the complexity of rural culture, cultural patterns etc.
(vii) A Study of Rural Social Process:
Social process indicates the fundamental ways through which these people can interact with
other groups. IL includes associative and dissociative processes. Co-operation as an associative
social process can be observed more than any other processes. Competition and conflict can also
19

be seen in rural society. These processes take place in peculiar way in rural society and studied
separately from a particular angle.
(viii) A Study of Rural Social Control:
Rural sociology is also a study of rural social control. Social control is the control over the
society. It starts from the family level. Rural sociology significantly studies the infernal means of
social control like customs, traditions, folkways, mores, norms, religion etc.
Social controls are more social than legal. The fear of boycott from the social function is more
powerful control than any other legal punishment. Social control may be conducted in various
ways. It varies from society to society.
(ix) A Study of Social Change:
Social change is the change in the social relationships; the changing aspect of any system of the
society. Due to the impact of modern education, means of transport and communication,
modernisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, the rural society is now undergoing tremendous
changes.
Only through change, the way of progress and change can be possible. Rural sociology studies
the various factors responsible for social change in a very systematic way.
(x) A Study of Rural Reconstruction:
Rural reconstruction is an important aspect of life and without which development is impossible.
Rural sociology studies various plans and programmes relating to community development
programmes. It also studies different laws of government regarding the reconstruction of village
community.
Rural society needs rural planning and reconstruction in a systematic and planned manner. Rural
sociology serves the purpose and provides guidelines to the institutions and organisations which
are engaged in developmental tasks. Thus planning and reconstruction of rural society forms the
subject matter of rural sociology.
(xi) A Study of Rural- Urban Continuum and Contrast:
Rural sociology studies rural urban contrast and continuum on the basis of social, economic,
religious and cultural point of view. Both village and city hypothetically are two contrasting
modes of community life. It has to be studied in a scientific manner. By studying the comparison
between these two, it can meet different plans and programmes for the development of rural
community.
(xii) A Study of Planning:
Rural sociology is a study of social planning relating to rural society. Community development
projects, Panchayati Raj, Co-operative movements are coming under this study. Their success
and failure can only be measured by the study of rural sociology. It is the prime objective of rural
sociologist to show exact position of different plans and programmes which have been
implemented in the rural areas.
20

Thus, the scope of the study of rural sociology is very wide and comprehensive. Although it is a
young and developed science, it studies various aspects of social life and social problems
concerning rural life and rural society to a great extent.
Now many new studies have been included within the scope of rural sociology, these are:
environmental decay and erosion of ecology; problems and structure related to land and
agriculture, study of tribal, forest and village people. Rural sociology also studies the
stratification pattern which has emerged from the working of developmental programmes.
Subject Matter of Rural Sociology:
The subject matter of rural sociology has never been static. In the earlier days of its development,
during 18th and 19th centuries, it studied the society of aboriginals and primitive people. The
colonial countries of south and central Africa along with India were the target countries for the
study of primitive people.
The British Raj along with its anthropologists approached these countries for discovering new
markets and spreading Christianity. The British administrators turned to the study of primitive
people. We have in our country administrators-turned sociologists and anthropologists who
studied the primitive people and the indigenous institutions of village, caste and culture.
The initial subject matter of study for social anthropology and in this respect rural sociology was
the life of village people and the forest dwellers. In fact, rural sociology remained restricted to
the small places of the type of villages or clusters of neighbourhood.
Henry Maine, the British administrator, was perhaps the first person to study an Indian village.
He characterised an Indian village as a republic in itself. Theoretically, such a kind of portrait of
village life can be criticised vehemently.
Yogendra Singh (1986) provides a critique to such an understanding of village life because here
Maines emphasis was on showing how each of these social entities (villages) affirmed the
principles of segmentation and autonomy rather than being parts of an organic whole.
The subject matter of rural sociology during the colonial period remained confined to the study
of hill and forest people the tribal, the villages and a few of the traditional institutions such as
family, clan, council of elders, chiefdoms, intercommunity-clan wars, kingdoms, and caste which
were pervasive in the small places.
Soon after independence there was a sudden shift and emphasis in the subject matter of rural
sociology. It was unhistorical to prepare a constitutional agenda for the development of more
than its 10 people in a given village.
The Constitution made it obligatory that the state shall spare no efforts for the development of
villages. The Constitution also laid emphasis on the development of urban and rural areas. Now,
in the real sense, the idiom of our development became the development of village.
The government policy, thus implemented, created the need for the study of village life. With this
context historically created in village development, there came a flood of village studies by the
21

middle of 1950 to the end of 1960. The subject matter of rural sociology, thus, consisted of the
study of tribal people, relief supplies in the villages, caste and village communities.
The subject matter of rural sociology, according to Srinivas, consisted to the unity of village,
caste and other village institutions. The contributors to this work argued that the many rural
villages had a traditional unity. The villagers who lived in a restricted area at some distance from
other similar groups, with extremely poor roads between them, a majority of them were engaged
in agricultural activities. They closely depended upon each other economically and otherwise.
They shared a vast body of common experience and this fostered what is called as the unity of
the village. It was the dominant caste in the village which supported and maintained the total
village system.
However, the development programmes and the forces of technology, industrialisation,
urbanisation, market, and a host of other factors brought about tremendous change in the
community. This provided a new set of subject matter to the body of rural sociology.
Land reforms, land ceiling, land tenure, and above all agrarian relations constituted new issues
for intensive study. The process of democratisation, created a new awakening among the people.
Agricultural capitalism, as is manifest in green revolution, provided a new stratification pattern
to the village society. The village peasantry witnessed widening social differentiation in the form
of big or kulak farmers, small farmers, marginal farmers and landless labourers. The peasant
struggles became more than frequent. There emerged rural leadership and rural conflicts. All
these areas constituted a new discourse on subject matter of rural sociology.
Beyond the new subject matter, rural sociology has begun to study the role of village people at
the state and national level politics. There is a distinct village lobby working in national politics.
The village politics is yet another theme forming part of rural sociology.

Importance of Rural Sociology in Kenya

Kenya is predominantly an agricultural and rural Country from ancient times. Village is the basic
and important unit in the organization of Indian Society. After independence the process of
reconstruction of the country has been started and the importance of rural sociology was
recognized. If India is to achieve the progress, the villages are to be improved and education has
to be spread in these villages. In order to this every attempt is being made to improve the villages
of this country in community development programme. This object can be achieved only when
the administrators and planners have the correct knowledge of the rural life.
The importance of the Study of Rural Society in India can be evaluated under the Following
Heads:
1. The village is the basic source of Kenyan culture. India lives in villages. The birth and
development of its culture took place from the villages. Kenyas progress is based on the
progress of villages. Thus it is necessary to develop the villages.
22

2. Kenya is an agricultural country and poverty of this country can only be removed when the
agriculture is improved.
3. Solution of rural problems can bring about change in rural society.
4. The country and its society can be reconstructed only through rural reconstruction.
5. In the interest of democratic decentralization, village community is to be studied in a totality.
6. Rural sociology can helps in organizing the disorganized Indian rural structure.
What is rural?
This is defined as remote area or place far away from the seat of government and having no
verified or infrastructural facilities, that is, the countryside and the people living in the villages. It
also refers to areas with low population density, small size, and relative isolation, where the
major economic activity is largely agricultural production. The areas considered rural are the
settlements that have between 100 and 200 households.
The Rural Socio-Demographic
Most rural societies are relatively integrated, in the sense that the various components of life
(e.g. agricultural and non-agricultural, economic, social and political, religious and secular) are
closely interrelated. Rural people do not easily recognize the distinctions which planners,
extension workers and other government officials make between, for example, the
responsibilities of different agencies or economic and social planning, because in their own lives
all these things affect each other. This is why an integrated approach to planning is essential at
this level and why projects or programmes which are planned from only one point of view (eg.
the agricultural or the economic) frequently fail because they do not take account of other related
aspects.
Socio-demographic Changes
In the 1990s the United States experienced one of the most robust growth cycles in the economy
since World War II. Major indicators of socioeconomic well-being show that rural regions have
benefited from the economic expansion. Favorable changes in rural demographics and economic
conditions both promise opportunities and raise questions about public programs, including rural
schools. This Digest, which draws information from federal statistics, summarizes changes
relevant to rural education and calls for more research into their impact on rural education.
Aggregated information often masks local diversity. Readers should keep in mind that this Digest
is merely an overview of nationwide changes in rural conditions. Local policymakers must
employ in-depth analysis of unique local circumstances as viewed against the background of
broader developments outlined here.
Due to the farming and rural manufacturing industries' close ties to the global marketplace, rural
economies are vulnerable to the impact of changes in the volatile international market. Local
policymakers and educators need to be prudent in planning for their schools' long-term
development.
Employment and Income Grow in Rural Areas
The nation's economy has continued to grow throughout this decade, though it slowed recently
under the influence of the international financial crisis. Inflation has not accelerated, consumer
prices remain stable, and employment rates continue to be high. Remarkably, while economic
23

expansion in the 1980s left rural areas behind, in the 1990s, rural areas have been growing at the
same rate if not faster than the nation overall. Benefiting from the steady growth of employment,
income, and local revenue, some rural schools now seem poised to improve their financial
conditions, though such improvement is not certain.
The rural economy is sensitive to fluctuations in manufacturing and export rates. Rural workers
are largely employed in manufacturing industries and many farm products depend on export. The
strong-to-moderate growth of manufacturing in the past two years helped to raise the rural
employment and real income levels. The demand for American exports and agriculture-related
services has also led to growing employment in the rural labor market. The tight rural labor
market may result in further income growth in rural areas. How long such growth can be
sustained, however, seems unclear in light of the dramatic downturn of the global economy in
1998. Local education planners must use caution when making decisions related to large-scale
projects requiring a prolonged supply of resources.
Annual average employment growth was 1.6 percent in nonmetro areas over the past several
years, twice the rate in urban areas (Hamrick, 1997). More than two million nonmetro jobs were
added in the past four years.
The tight labor market led to rising earnings in rural areas (Gibbs, 1997). Real weekly earnings
for rural wage and salary workers rose 1.8 percent between 1990 and 1996. Rural earning growth
was especially strong in the Midwest and South, at 3.8 percent and 2.3 percent respectively, but
was stagnant in the Northeast and West.
Rural earning gains were uneven across demographic groups. Women in rural areas saw their
earnings rise 6.2 percent, compared with virtually unchanged earnings among rural men. This
gender difference could be attributed to rural women having attained more education and,
therefore, better-paying jobs than rural men. More women have delayed marriage and
childbearing, completed more schooling, and participated in the labor force (Rogers, 1996).
In the same period, rural Hispanics and Blacks averaged real income gains of 3.4 percent and 3.1
percent respectively, better than the gains by rural Whites (1.5 percent), and in sharp contrast
with the loss among urban Hispanics and Blacks (-4.2 percent and -1.2 percent respectively).
Completing high school did not make as great a difference to rural earnings as it did to urban
earnings.
The rural workforce in general, however, still earns less than its urban counterpart. In 1996, rural
workers earned only about four-fifths of what urban workers earned.
While the general population has gained in real income in the 1990s, teaching professionals-especially those in rural areas and inner cities have not (National Center for Education Statistics,
1998). State and local policymakers have to face this issue if they want to use the increases in
local revenue for school improvement.
Poverty and the Working Poor in Rural Areas
A severe challenge facing rural schools is continuing high poverty and its complex distribution
among the rural population. Rural poverty seems to be mildly alleviated amid the economic
24

growth, though still widely uneven across demographic categories (Nord, 1997). The overall
poverty rate in rural areas declined slightly since 1993. In 1995, the rural household poverty rate
was 15.6 percent, compared to the urban rate of 13.4 percent. This rural-urban gap has remained
constant since 1991. Moreover, a large portion of rural residents (26.3 percent) lived just above
the poverty line, compared with the urban rate of 18.2 percent. Such a large proportion of the
population having a marginal income status makes rural families particularly vulnerable to
changes in national and regional economies and setbacks in their personal lives.
Rural Blacks and Native Americans suffer from more prevalent poverty. The groups' poverty
rates were 34.8 percent and 35.6 percent, compared with 12.2 percent among rural non-Hispanic
Whites. Yet, because of the large White majority in rural areas, almost two-thirds of the rural
poor were non-Hispanic Whites. The poverty rate for rural children in 1995 was 22.4 percent,
equivalent to 3.2 million children living in families below the poverty line. Among people living
in rural female-headed families, the poverty rate was 39.3 percent in 1995. More than 60 percent
of the rural poor were in families with one or more working members.
Poverty reduces children's opportunity to learn, both in the family and at school. Schools in rural
areas need to find effective strategies to alleviate the difficulties facing poor children. Even more
importantly, state governments and local officials must work out broader programs to offer more
generous support for the poor, including social services and job opportunities with decent wages.
Population Growth and Net Migration Gains in Rural Areas
Rural school enrollment may grow over the coming years due to the emerging pattern of
population growing faster in rural areas than in other places. In step with the rising economic
tide, the population of rural America has grown since 1990, largely due to migration (Beale,
1997). Between 1990 and 1996, the nonmetro population grew by 5.9 percent, which is more
than twice the increase that occurred during the entire 1980s (2.7 percent). Half of the nonmetro
population growth since 1990 is attributable to a net inflow of 1.5 million people from metro
areas (Hansen, 1997). The net gain from migration contributes to the rising per capita income
because in-migrants have a higher average income than do out-migrants, especially in counties
with amenities such as mild climate, beaches, or lakes (Cromartie, 1997).
While almost all rural counties had some population growth, the following types had relatively
greater growth: counties with economies focusing on services and trade, retirement destination
counties, and counties with high levels of recreational activities. On the other hand, counties
specializing in manufacturing and counties depending on farming and mining have experienced
modest to slow growth in population.
In rural America, the number of younger people (under age 65) is growing faster than is the
number of older people (over age 65). The current age-differentiated growth rate sharply differs
from that of the 1980s, when the number of older people increased at rates many times higher
than that of younger people. These statistics suggest that the 1990s population rebound in rural
areas largely involves younger people. Presumably, the school-age population in rural areas will
increase as a result of this demographic change. Program planning for rural schools may entail
examining local population trends against the national pattern, in order to predict future
enrollment and allocate related resources.
25

Immigrants and Minorities in Rural Areas

Education for immigrants and minorities, who are characterized by young age and low education
compared to their counterparts elsewhere, is a pressing issue for rural adult education programs
as well as elementary and secondary school systems. During 1980-90, rural minorities fell
behind rural whites and urban minorities on key measures of social and economic conditions,
including poverty, income, occupational status, and educational attainment. A comprehensive
report of federal census data concerning rural minorities in that period is available (see Swanson,
1996). New data regarding rural minorities in the 1990s, though not systematic, suggests mild
improvement of socioeconomic conditions among Blacks and Hispanics.
While most immigrants (about 95 percent) settle in large metro areas, those who move to rural
areas concentrate in a few locations (Effland & Butler, 1997). For example, in the South, Texas is
home to 17 percent of the total nonmetro immigrant population of the United States. The West
accounts for about 7 percent of the nation's nonmetro immigrants. Overall, immigrants to rural
areas comprise only 2 percent of the total rural population. The single largest group of rural
immigrants is Mexican, whose share in nonmetro immigrants has increased from 48 percent in
the 1980s to 57 percent in the 1990s.
Recent immigrants in rural areas tend to be younger than immigrants in metro areas; they are
also, on average, younger than rural natives. This demographic feature demands greater spending
in rural public schools, especially in places with concentrated immigrant populations.
Significantly, immigrants in rural areas have attained, on average, less education relative to urban
immigrants. High school completion rates, for example, are lower among rural immigrants aged
25 and older than among their urban counterparts. And this gap seems to be widening; metro
immigrants who have entered the country since 1980 report increasingly higher rates of high
school completion, whereas completion rates among recent nonmetro immigrants remain low.
Thus, adult basic education and job training are in heavy demand in rural areas. These programs
often require other services such as instruction in English as a second language, job location, and
child care. With limited albeit reviving rural fiscal capacities, local resources will not be
sufficient. Federal and state support must be provided to help rural school systems serve
communities with concentrations of immigrant families and children.
Implications for Rural Schools
Rural communities face both opportunities and challenges that result from the recent
demographic and economic developments. On the one hand, rural areas enjoy the relatively
strong economic recovery that followed the depression of the 1980s, as illustrated in the many
baseline indicators. Policymakers and communities should take advantage of this upswing to
provide new resources for school improvement, ranging from facility maintenance, staffing, and
curriculum improvement to serving special needs of at-risk groups. Telecommunications
technology now makes it possible for professionals to work away from urban centers. Rural
communities must take advantage of both the current economic recovery and technological
developments to sustain their growth. They should focus on updating school programs to prepare
youngsters for future development.
26

On the other hand, uneven growth across geographic regions and demographic categories
prompts many serious questions. As a recent California study illustrates, intertwined issues of
immigration, poverty, and substandard work and living conditions among rural working families
put tremendous pressures on public services, including schools (Taylor, Martin & Fix, 1998). In
communities with extractive industries (e.g., farming and mining) or places with large numbers
of working poor and recent immigrants, depression has persisted for decades. School systems in
those communities are fiscally very weak and typically face grave problems of deep poverty and
poor academic performance. The future still looks gloomy for children there. The need for strong
state and federal support seems inevitable. Active collaboration across levels and agencies of
government could remove the barriers blocking these children and their families from reaching
educational equity.
Importance and Significance of Rural Sociology
After Independence it is very much necessary for our country to have a systematic study of the
rural social organization, its structure, function and evolution. Prof. A. R. Desai, while
highlighting the importance of rural sociology, observes, It is, however, urgently necessary to
make a scientific and systematic study of rural society; of its economic foundations, social and
cultural superstructure, of its institutions and functions, of the problems arising from the rapid
process of disintegration which is undergoing and which even threatens its breakdown.
The practical value of the study of rural sociology is widely recognized today. Rural sociology
which aims at providing systematic and scientific approach to rural problems and life is
assuming great significance because in India rural society after independence has acquired new
significance.
India is a classic land of agriculture; the economic foundation of village community centre
around agriculture. It is with the help of rural sociology that it can be possible to find out what
are the causes of break-up of the self-sufficiency of the village community.
It is necessary to understand and to act according to the laws prevailing in the village in order to
achieve progress of the villages. This necessitates a special study of the rural society. In our
country, the emphasis of rural sociology is to analyse the implications of traditional rural society
in the modern context.
Having now, gained some idea of what rural sociology is, let us go ahead to identify and explain
more its needs or significance to any developing country like Kenya:
Exposes the characteristics and problems of realities: It brings to light the main
characteristics and problems of rural areas which enable us to interact with them
Provides direct change programme: Rural Sociology provides a change programme
designed to meet the needs of the rural man. The change programme should be a direct
one such as Governmental Rural Development Programmes (GRDP) containing relevant
information needs about rural people
Provides feedback to the agricultural agencies on the progress made so far and the
modifications needed in their change programmes
Acts as a change agent interaction with rural people: Interaction of any change agent with
rural people with sociological knowledge on leadership, power, roles, norms, culture,
27

family organisation etc, enables him perform his job/work more effectively because of
experience and understanding acquired from them
Develops greater understanding: The purpose underlying the study of rural sociology is to
develop greater understanding of the behaviour of rural people and rural society
Equips students with tools of understanding: It equips students with tools of
understanding to enable them analyse behaviour of rural people in their relationship with
others in rural society. It helps an individual understand himself and his own social
nature, his relation to people in the society
Helps to develop a scientific attitude: Rural Sociology helps develop the scientific
attitude of thinking critically and objectively with precision. This attitude is useful for
future occupation
Provides professional training for a future career as a rural sociologist: Rural Sociology
can provide a beginning professional the required training for a future career as a rural
sociologist. For example, (a) as a teacher or researcher following academic interest in the
field and (b) as a consultant of change and rural analyst in rural community development
The teaching of Rural Sociology helps to introduce the learners or students to
sociological concepts and the application of such concepts to the analysis and
understanding or rural social organisation, rural economic problems and the responses of
ruralites to social change
It must be emphasised here that we cannot do without the rural areas because they form
the most important sector of the economy since a large majority of people live there. For
a country to develop, it must arise and tackle the problems in the rural areas and because
agricultural productivity is indeed the cornerstone in the economic development and
social progress of any developing country
Rural sociology lays great stress on systematization and scientific analysis. Many studies
have been made but many of them now are in monograph or article form. Some of the
studies seriously lack proper analysis and solution.
Vast majority of population lives in the villages which has its own problems. Even today,
two-third of the world population lives in rural areas. Rural sociology aims at studying all
those problems and life of rural people.
Rural society is the fundamental basis of human civilization and culture. People who are
living in urban areas they are mainly the migrants from the rural areas. So rural area or
village is the well-spring of our culture and civilization. Thus to know about the life of
urban community it is essential to know their original place of living, that is rural
community
The basic importance of rural sociology has to find out the laws of development and
those principles only can be discovered by studying rural communities in detail
The importance of rural society cannot be ignored in studying rural problems in India.
India is a country of villages, therefore, rural sociology is comparatively more important
here than in any other country of the world. The importance of true Indian culture can be
found only In the Indian villages
Now India is facing with problems of social, economic and political reconstruction.
Unless, one understands what rural India is, one cannot understand the problems of India
as a whole and its ancient tradition, customs, culture and ways of life.
28

The importance of rural sociology is increasing day by day. The reasons are:
1. Social life in many societies is mostly the rural life.
2. About 80% of Indian population lives in villages.
3. Rural sociology provides us knowledge about the study of rural problems and their solutions.
4. Rural society is the store house of ancient cultural heritage. Its study is having importance.
5. Agriculture is the livelihood of the country.
6. Unique nature of transformation of Indian society.
7. Greater interest of democratic decentralization. Scientific study of village community is a prerequisite for it.
8. Village is the basic unit of study.
9. Growing influence of modernization, industrialization and urbanisation.
10. Rural sociology is a means of mass media exposure with regards to rural reconstruction.
11. In recent years, the rural sociologists have attached supreme importance to the study of
agrarian relations, land reforms, peasant movements, rural stratification system, rural leadership
etc.
The importance of rural sociology cannot be ignored or underestimated. The role of rural
sociology in understanding the solving of rural problems is well emphasised by all. To-day, it is
the slogan, Back to the villages. If village will prosper, we will prosper and if village will
perish, India too will perish. The importance of rural sociology is becoming more and more
popular in our society. It is considered as a progressive social science.
Major Consequences of Rural Indebtedness
Rural indebtedness is having many evil consequences. It comes in the way of social change and
progress. The nine major consequences of indebtedness are 1. Increase in Poverty 2. Slavery and
Bonded Labour 3. Problem of Health 4. Loss of Social Prestige 5. Deterioration of Agriculture 6.
Psychological Problems 7. Lowering of Economic Standard and Others.
Increase in Poverty
Most explicit result of Indebtedness Is the Increase in the poverty of the poor people.
Poverty becomes their life-long companion. Due to indebtedness they are not in a position to
save money and become poorer. Once he becomes entangled in debt, he remains poor, no matter
how much he may exert himself.
Slavery and Bonded Labour
Indebtedness is resulted into slavery and bonded labour. Due to fulfillment of the social
obligation, in order to repay the ancestral debt, the poor farmer falls in prey to slavery and
bonded labour.
Problem of Health
Rural indebtedness leads to the poor health of the debtor. Due to poverty and indebtedness the
farmer cannot have any nourishing diet and good food. They also cannot afford to have medical
facilities for themselves and for their children. All these leads to lowering of their health
standard.
Loss of Social Prestige
29

Due to indebtedness the farmer feels himself very much inferior in front of the moneylenders. So
it becomes his loss of social prestige.
Deterioration of Agriculture
As a result of indebtedness, the condition of agriculture also deteriorated, because most of the
farmers had to work on their moneylenders land as servants. The farmers also cannot give proper
attention to the lands where they have cultivated. So it leads to the deterioration of agriculture.
Psychological Problems
The effect of indebtedness leads to frustration, depression, mental imbalance and mental conflict
of the poor farmer. Due to heavy burden of loan, the farmers are neither able to repay the loan
nor able to improve their economic condition. They remain in a dilemma. Sometimes they
commit suicide out of extreme frustration.
Lowering of Economic Standard
Due to indebtedness, farmers purchasing power are reduced, they cannot meet their own and
their familys basic need. With this, economic standard of the fanner considerably comes down
and down.
In-dignified Exploitation of Man by Man
Due to ignorance and illiteracy the farmer easily falls into the prey of the moneylender. The
moneylender tries to exploit him in many ways. Due to lower social prestige, he cannot raise his
voice against the moneylender. So, indebtedness results in In-dignified exploitation of man by
man. At times even the whole family of the borrower is forced to work for the moneylender.
Increase in Landless Labour
Increase in landless labour is also because of rural indebtedness. Once a farmer is in the trap of
the moneylenders, gradually the amount with Interest goes on increasing. A stage comes when
the poor farmer has no other alternative but to sell his small piece of land to the moneylender and
joins the ranks of landless labour.
Characteristics of the Rural Society
The following are the main characteristics of the rural community are as follows:
Size of the Community
The village communities are smaller in area than the urban communities. As the village
communities are small, the population is also low.
Density of Population
As the density of population is low, the people have intimate relationships and face-to-face
contacts with each other. In a village, everyone knows everyone.
Agriculture is the Main Occupation
Agriculture is the fundamental occupation of the rural people and forms the basis of rural
economy. A farmer has to perform various agricultural activities for which he needs the
30

cooperation of other members. Usually, these members are from his family. Thus, the members
of the entire family share agricultural activities.
Close Contact with Nature
The rural people are in close contact with nature as most of their daily activities revolve around
the natural environment. This is the reason why a ruralite is more influenced by nature than an
urbanite. The villagers consider land as their real mother as they depend on it for their food,
clothing and shelter
Homogeneity of Population
The village communities are homogenous in nature. Most of their inhabitants are connected with
agriculture and its allied occupations, though there are people belonging to different castes,
religions and classes.
Social Stratification
In rural society, social stratification is a traditional characteristic, based on caste. The rural
society is divided into various strata on the basis of caste.
Social Interaction
The frequency of social interaction in rural areas is comparatively lower than in urban areas.
However, the interaction level possesses more stability and continuity. The relationships and
interactions in the primary groups are intimate. The family fulfills the needs of the members and
exercises control over them.
It is the family, which introduces the members to the customs, traditions and culture of the
society. Due to limited contacts, they do not develop individuality and their viewpoint towards
the outside world is very narrow, which makes them oppose any kind of violent change.
Social Mobility
In rural areas, mobility is rigid as all the occupations are based on caste. Shifting from one
occupation to another is difficult as caste is determined by birth. Thus, caste hierarchy
determines the social status of the rural people.
Social Solidarity
The degree of social solidarity is greater in villages as compared to urban areas. Common
experience, purposes, customs and traditions form the basis of unity in the villages.
Joint Family
Another characteristic feature of the rural society is the joint family system. The family controls
the behaviour of the individuals. Generally, the father is the head of the family and is also
responsible for maintaining the discipline among members. He manages the affairs of the family.
The village is the unit of the rural society. Its people carry on the business of living together
within a distinctive framework of caste and social custom. Caste is a dominant social institution
permeating social and economic relations. Traditional caste occupation mostly prevails. Cooperative labour of different castes is required not only for agro-economic activities but also for
31

socio-religious life. The large villages have within its population all the occupational castes, have
a comparatively more integrated and self sufficient economic as well as socio-religious life than
smaller villages.
The village as a social and cultural unit possesses a basically uniform organisation and structure
of values all over India. Many problems are common to the entire country side or society.
The ethnic, linguistic, religious and caste composition of a village largely determine its character
and structure. Some villages of hamlets are inhabited almost exclusively by certain castes as in
the case of Agraharams for Brahmins. Even in a village with mixed population the different
castes usually live in different sections of the same village. Inter caste rivalries are present.
Women do not have full equality with men in several aspects of life.
Rural society is predominantly based on agriculture. Possession of land carries with it social and
prestige value, besides being considered as an economic asset. In many villages, the land is
mostly distributed between two or more castes, or among a few families, or between one big land
owner and the rest of the community. Landless labourers and tenants constitute a considerable
part of the population depending on agriculture.
Every village has its own organisational set up, authority and sanctions. It has its growing body,
the panchayat, based on local tradition since long, but now constituted on a regular basis
Social distance or isolation has a bearing on the nature of the organisation of a village and of its
view on the world. Availability of or nearness to modern means of transport or communications
also modifies the setting and fabric of a village.
Village settlements are generally governed by certain regional and local traditions. The layout of
the village, construction of the house, the dress, the speech, and manners follow the set pattern of
the cultural area. Each village possesses an individual of its own. Some have a reputation for
generosity, hospitality and fair play, while others are notorious for their meanness and corruption.
Some villages are known for their co-operatives, while some are noted for their litigations and
factions.
The important characteristics of the Indian villager was summarised by Reddy (1985) as
hospitality, feminist traditionalism, fatalism, religiousness often combined with superstitious
beliefs, leisure attitude to life, and low standard of living. Nevertheless most villagers are
capable to change and will respond to the teachers whom they trust even though their past sad
experiences make them conservation and hopelessness about the future. They are eager to learn
how to help themselves and they represent paternalism.
Rural Society and its Important Characteristics
Village community is a group of rural people living within a continuous geographic area, sharing
common values and feeling of belonging to the group, who come together in the common
concern of daily life. Village in general terms refer to settlement which originated many thousand
years ago, during the early period of human society.
32

Village is a historical necessity and the factors like land, water, climate, conditions of agriculture,
economy, peace and security have played a very important role in the growth of village
community. The primary forms of human association are far older than the secondary. Earliest
men apparently lived in relatively small bands, formed on the basis of family and blood ties.
Their economy consisted of seed and food gathering, of hunting and fishing.
Today, from two-thirds to three-fourths of the worlds people are living in rural communities.
Their culture stands intermediate between that of the band or tribe and urban patterns. A village
community can be defined as a group of rural people living together in a continuous geographic
area in such a way that they share, not this of that particular interest, but the basic conditions of a
common life.
Interrelationship between Rural Sociology and Agricultural Extension
Agricultural extension and rural sociology are extremely close to each other. Both fields are
greatly concerned with the study of rural life. However, following are the major points which
clearly indicate the relationship.
Rural sociology is the scientific study of rural mans behaviour in relationship to other
groups and individuals with whom he interacts. Agricultural extension is a non-formal
education for farmers (rural people) with a view to develop rural society on desirable
lines.
Rural sociology studies the attitude and behaviour of rural people whereas agricultural
extension seeks to modify or change the attitude and behaviour of farmers.
Rural sociology studies the needs and interests of rural society and agricultural extension
helps farmers to discover their needs and problems and build educational programmes
based on these needs and wants.
Rural sociology analyses rural social relationship or group or organisation and leaders in
rural areas. Agricultural extension utilises the knowledge pertaining to groups,
organisations and leaders to achieve the objective or agricultural development.
Rural sociology studies social situation s and collects social facts of rural society.
Agricultural extension makes uses of such social data as basis for building up extension
programmes for farmers.
Rural sociology investigates the social, cultural, political and religious problems of rural
society. Agricultural extension also studies these problems with special reference to their
impact on agricultural extension work in the village.
From the above interrelationship between the rural sociology and agricultural extension, one
could understand that rural sociology will help the extension agent to identify problems of
farmers and develop an extension programme to help in solving the problems of farmers. Thus it
can be concluded that both sciences are closely related and benefited with each other by sharing
the knowledge of each other.
Rural society of Kenyans in the 19th and 21st Centuries
Sociological Rural Development
33

Three Sociological Perspectives

Challenges to Rural and Community Identity
Unpredictable Directions of Rural Population Growth and Migration
i)

Features of Village Life

Isolation and Self-sufficiency
The villages are mostly more or less-contained, isolated, and self-sufficient almost till the middle
of 19th century. The inhabitants of the village had very little to do with people outside. All of
their essential needs were satisfied in the village itself.
However, changing political and economic conditions are putting an end to the isolation and self
sufficiency of the villages. The rapid development of means of transport and communication has
broken the barriers between the village and city.

ii) Peace and Simplicity

The atmosphere in villages is of simplicity and calmness. The villagers lead a simple life, dress
simply. But now the old order is yielding place to a new one. Fashion is making its inroads in the
life of young men and women in villages. However this change is gradual and slow.
iii) Conservatism
The inhabitants of village are strongly attached to old customs and traditions. Their outlook is
primarily conservative and they accept changes with reluctance. They love old ways of marriage
and other customs.
iv) Poverty and Illiteracy
Probably the most glaring and also depressing features of village community are the poverty and
illiteracy of the village people. They are generally poor with a very low income. Beside poverty,
the village people are steeped in ignorance and illiteracy. The opportunities are meagre in the
villages.
Now governments both at the centre and states have launched schemes for liquidating illiteracy
and removing poverty of people living in the villages.
v) General Environment
Rural people are closely related to natural environment. So they have to face the vagaries of
nature like rain, heat, snow and drought etc. - over which they have no control. Due to this they
build up their beliefs and convictions about nature.
vi) Size of community
The rural communities are smaller as compared to urban communities. The land to man ratio is
higher in rural areas as most of the rural people depend on agriculture. The density of per square
mile is low as compared to urban areas.
Characteristics of Rural Life
34

Rural people are different from those in living in urban areas. The distinctive characteristics of
rural life can easily be shown by comparing them with those of urban (city) life. The difference
in cultures or subcultures of these two areas differences in attitude and behavior and perhaps in
dress and dialect (language use in a region or area). The cities are large, impersonal and complex
in social structure, while rural communities are small, intimate and simple in organization.
Though there are differences, there are also common attitudes and behaviors that both rural and
urban people share as a member of larger culture. Common elements between urban and rural
life is:
1. Common language, literature, philosophy etc.
2. Common institutions like religion, education, family life business and political organizations
etc.
Both rural and urban people have own characteristics. The characteristics of rural life can best
and most easily recognized by comparing those or urban life. Following are the some rural
urban differences:
Difference between Rural and Urban Life
Environment effects human life to a greater extent. Human beings live into two types of
environments- namely rural and urban. There is a difference in the social life of both these
environments. The simplest summary of the differences between the two types of social
organization is to say they tend to be opposites: Where as rural community is homogeneous, the
urban community is heterogeneous and so on. There is sharp difference between the city and
village life though with the expansion of urban influence on the villages, this difference is
becoming more and more a matter of degree. However in spite of the recent trends of
urbanization the village still retain many traditional features and present a sharp contrast with the
urban life.
Rur Urb
al an
Life life
1

Env Gre
iron ater
men isol
t: atio
Clo n
se /fro
dire m
ct natu
cont re.
act Pre
withdom
natu inan
re. ce
Prel of
imi man
nari mad
es e
infl (arti
uen ficia
ced l

35

by envi
natu ron
ral men
envi t).
ron
men
tal
ele
men
ts
like
rain
,
heat
,
dro
ught
,
fros
t,
sow
etc.
over
whi
ch
ther
e is
no
cont
rol.
2

Occ No
upat fun
ion: dam
Agr enta
icultl
ural occ
is upat
the ion.
fun Mos
dam t of
enta peo
l
ple
occ eng
upat age
ion. d in
Maj prin
orit cipa
y oflly
pop in
ulatiman
on ufac
is turi
eng ng,
age mec

36

d inhani
agri cal
cult purs
ure. uits,
Nei trad
ghb e
ors com
of mer
Agr ce,
icultprof
uristessi
are ons
also and
agri othe
cult r
uristnon
agri
cult
ural
occ
upat
ions
.
3

Size Size
of of
Co com
mm mun
unit ity
y: is
Size larg
of e in
com size
mun.
ity Urb
is anit
veryy
sma and
ll insize
size of
.
com
Agr mun
icultity
ural are
ism posi
and tivel
size y
of cocom relat
muned.
ity
are
neg
ativ

37

ely
corelat
ed.
4

Den Size
sity of
of com
Pop mun
ulatiity
on: is
Den larg
sity e in
of size
pop .
ulatiUrb
on anit
is y
low and
er. size
Den of
sity com
and mun
rura ity
lity are
are posi
neg tivel
ativ y
ely coco- relat
related.
ed.

Ho Mor
moge
enei hete
ty roge
and neo
hete us
rogethan
neit rura
y ofl.
pop Urb
ulatianit
on: y
Mor and
e hete
homroge
oge neit
nou y
s inare
soci posi
al, tivel
raci y

38

al coand relat
psy ed
chol (Dif
ogic fere
al nt
trait type
s. of
Neg pop
ativ ulati
e on
co0-is
relatseen
ion in
withcitie
hete s,
rogediff
neit eren
y. t
(Mo plac
st es,
are reli
agri gion
cult s,
uristcast
s e,
are clas
dire s
ctly race
con ,
nect com
ed mun
withity,
agri eco
cult nom
ure) ic
.
and
cult
ural
diff
eren
ces,
occ
upat
ions
and
beh
avio
ral
patt
ern
also
diff
eren
t).

39

SociHig
al h
Diff degr
eren ee
tiati of
ons: soci
Lo al
w diff
degreren
ee tiati
of on
soci
al
diff
eren
tiati
on

SociLes
al s
Stra rigi
tific d
atio Urb
n: an
Mor com
e mun
rigi ity
d is
Few muc
er h
eco mor
nome
ic, strat
occ egic
upat than
iona the
l, rura
and l
soci with
opolhavi
itica ng
l
muc
clas h
ses. mor
Les e
s eco
soci nom
al ic,
strat occ
ificaupat
tion iona
than l
urbaand
n. soci
al

40

poli
tical
clas
ses.
8

SociSoci
al al
Mo mob
bilit ility
y: is
Mo mor
bilit e
y isinte
less nsiv
inte e.
nsiv Peo
e. ple
Terr cha
itori nge
al, occ
occ upat
upat ion
iona and
l
eve
and n
othe leav
r e
for plac
ms es
of in
soci sear
al ch
mobof
ility new
of and
the bett
pop er
ulatiocc
on upat
are ion
less
inte
nsiv
e.
The
y
foll
ows
sam
e
occ
upat
ion,
stay
in

41

the
sam
e
villa
ge
9

SociMor
al e
Inte num
ractierou
on: s
Les cont
s acts
num.
erouAre
s a of
cont inte
acts racti
.
ons
The is
area wid
of er,
inte the
ractirelat
on ion
syst are
em sup
is erfi
narr cial
owe and
r. shor
Mor te live
prof d.
essi The
onal pop
,
ular
sim are
ple, mor
face e
to for
face mal
.
and
Info sho
rma wy.
l,
sinc
ere
relat
ions
.

10 SociSoci
al al

42

Soli soli
dari dari
ty: ty is
Sociless
al stro
soli nger
dari than
ty rura
or l,
coh diss
esiv imil
enesariti
s es,
and divi
unit sion
y of
are labo
mor ur,
e inte
stro rdep
ngerend
/
enc
grea e,
ter spec
than ializ
urbaatio
n. n,
Co imp
mm erso
on nal,
trait stric
s, tly
simi for
larit mal
y ofrelat
exp ions
erie hips
ncesresu
,
lts
com com
monpara
aim tivel
s y
and less
pur sens
pos e of
es, belo
com ngin
mong
cust and
oms unit
and y.
trad
itio
ns
are

43

the
basi
s of
unit
y in
villa
ge.
Stro
ng
sens
e of
belo
ngin
g
and
unit
y.
11 SociCon
al trol
Con is
trol: mor
Socie by
al for
pres mal
sure imp
by erso
com nal
munmea
ity ns
is of
stro law
ng. s,
Con pres
for crib
mit ed
y ofrule
nor s
ms and
is regu
mor latio
e byns.
info
rma
l
soci
al
pres
sure
.
12 SociUrb
al an
Cha soci

44

nge: al
Rur life
al is
soci und
al er
life con
is stan
relatt
ivel and
y rapi
stati d
c soci
and al
stab cha
le. nge
13 Cult Sec
ure: ular
Sacr(No
ed n(Rel reli
igio giou
us) s)
cult cult
ure. ure.
14 Lea Cho
ders ices
hip of
Patt lead
ern: ersh
Cho ip is
ice com
of para
lead tivel
ersh y
ip less
mor on
e onthe
the basi
basi s of
s ofkno
kno w
wn pers
pers onal
onal qual
qual ities
ities of
of indi
indi vidu
vidual
al,
due
to

45

grea
ter
face
to
face
cont
acts
and
mor
e
inti
mat
e
kno
wle
dge
of
indi
vidu
al.
15 Gro Urb
up: an
Rur soci
al ety
soci is
ety com
is plex
sim mul
ple tiUnitgro
- up
gro soci
up ety.
soci
ety
16 SociNu
al mer
Instious
tuti ena
ons: cted
Mosinsti
t oftuti
the ons.
insti
tuti
ons
are
natu
ral
outg
row
th

46

of
rura
l
soci
al
life.
Les
s
ena
cted
insti
tuti
ons.
17 StanIn
dardurba
of n
Livi area
ng: s
Ho suc
me h
con con
veni veni
enc enc
es, es
publand
ic facil
utili ities
ties, are
edu pro
cati vide
onal d
recr due
eati to
onal grea
reli ter
giouden
s, sity
med of
ical, pop
com ulati
munon
icati
on
and
othe
r
facil
ities
for
livi
ng
can
be
pro

47

vide
d if
sup
port
ed
by
suff
icie
nt
pop
ulati
on
base
18 StanStan
darddard
of of
livi livi
ng ng
is is
low. high
.

These can further distinct in the following:

Distinction in social organization;
The biggest distinction between rural and urban society is that of social organization. These
exhibits in the following respect:
i) Family
In the villages the families are comparatively stronger than families in the towns, where greater
importance is attached to the individual.
In the villages the system of joint family is to be found in greater measure than in the towns.
In the villages there is greater control, intimacy and organization than the families in the towns.
ii) Marriage
In towns, compared to villages, one finds a greater number of love marriages and divorces. In
towns freedom is allowed in the selection of life partner.
iii) We feeling
In rural community the we feeling is found to be far stronger than in the urban community. The
influence of community on the individual in the village is greater than in the towns.
iv) Neighbourhood
In the villages the neighborhood has a greater importance than it does in the towns. In the towns,
sometimes people dont even know their neighbours.

48

v) Position of women
Generally the women in the villages are not much, if at all, educated and their social status is also
low.
vi) Social solidarity
The degree of social solidarity is greater in the villages. Common experiences, common aims,
common purposes, common customs and traditions are the basis of the unity in the rural society.
In cities, the social relations are secondary and formal. They can be called indirect. Degree of
intimacy is lesser in urban areas.
vii) Smaller is Size
The village communities are smaller in size in comparison with urban communities. The
agriculture is the fundamental occupation in the rural society. For agriculture, some land is
required. So the land to man ration is higher in rural society whereas in urban areas there is
scarcity of land.
Distinction in Economic Life
There is great difference between lives of the villages and towns. In this respect major
differences are the following.
i) In the villages the major occupation is agriculture while in towns the major occupations are of
industrial nature.
ii) Standard of living in the villages is lower than that of towns, because the means of earning
money are limited in the villages.
Distinctions in Cultural Life
i) Culture is more static in the villages than the towns.
ii) In the village the basis of culture is caste and purity. In the cities it has a secular basis.
iii) Traditions have a very important place in rural culture, while urban culture does not attach
much important to them.
Difference in Social Restrictions
i) In the rural community custom is the king, the folkways and mores control most of the
behaviour. But the control of police, law, court etc. is greater in the towns than in the villages.
Difference in social mobility and stability
i) There is greater social disintegration in the urban towns than in the villages. Sorokin and
Zimmerman have written, The rural community is similar to calm water in a pale and the urban
community to boiling water in kettle. The degree of social mobility is greater in cities. The
people in urban areas frequently shift from one occupation to another or from one place to
another place.
Difference in Social Relations
i) In comparison with the social relations found in the cities those in the villages are more
personal.
49

ii) In the village the relation of the individual is usually with primary groups, family, near
relatives etc. In the cities their relations tends more towards secondary groups.
Factors Responsible for Rural-Urban Differentiation
The following factors are responsible for the general differences between rural and urban places.
1. Size of the Place
Rural communities are usually smaller than urban communities. Size, is referred to here,
particularly to areas actually inhabited rather than the total area of land available for use.
2. Population Density and Composition
As rural areas have larger expanse of land with relatively small population, the population
density (i.e the number of people per unit area of land) is rather low. This is in contrast to urban
areas where a larger number of people occupy relatively small unit areas. This is evident by the
fact that tall buildings are more in number in urban than in rural areas.
3. Occupation
Farming, pastoral and collecting enterprises form the basis of rural economy. Some rural people
are engaged in petty trading, arts, craft, weaving, pottery and primary industries; only a few tend
to take these as sole occupations. Instead they tend to combine these with farming and a large
number are full time farmers. In contrast, people in urban areas are mainly engaged in
manufacturing, commercial and administrative occupations.
4. Culture Simplicity
The legends, proverbs, folklore, fashion etc. of the ruralites are based on their local experiences
and their relatively poor cultural base. Similarly, their tools, utensils, furniture and other material
inventions are simple, based on uninvestigated scientific ideas and relatively less efficient. In
contrast, the culture of urban areas is more complex and varied. The fact that the urban area is
usually heterogeneous ethnically makes it the melting pot of various cultures.
5. Social Integration
This refers to a patterned relationship of one person with another through expressions of ideas,
thought and action aimed at achieving concrete goals. Social contacts are greater in quantity,
quality and variety in urban than in rural areas.
In rural area, interaction takes place at water sites, market days, religious worship areas, cultural,
marriage and naming ceremonies. The quality and type of interaction among the urban dwellers
is much more than that of rural dwellers. However, both the urban and rural dwellers are
interdependent in the area of farm produce buying at the farm gate and traditional services.
6. Social Stratification
This has to do with the manner in which the society ranks its members into various social classes
or hierarchy on the basis of wealth, birth, status etc. The difference between the social classes in
urban from the rural areas are:
Social classes are fewer in rural area than the urban
Social classes in rural areas are closer than in the urban area.
There is more rigidity in caste and class principles or close systems in rural areas than in
the urban areas.
50

7. Social Differentiation
This is the tendency of social interaction to generate social differences among people. This may
be differences in status, ranks, and functions among others. Social differentiation is more
complex in urban areas than in rural areas. Urban areas comprise of all forms of professionals
with a high level of integration and interdependence via a network of specialisation and division
of labour. The market woman, motor driver, tailor and carpenter are all interdependent in a
complex system of relationships in the urban area or city.
The rural area is made up of many relatively independent families, communities and
neighbourhoods. The rural dwellers deal with people of identifiable traits such as other farmers
of the same religious groups, cultural, social and economic level.
8. Social mobility
This is the movement of an individual from one social class or group to another. People may
move vertically from a lower to higher or higher to lower class via specific achievements viz.
success in economic pursuits, education, political change, or job creation. Improvements in
social infrastructure are bound to be more in the urban areas than in the rural areas. Social
mobility is rather slow in small areas.
9. Social Control
The behaviour of individuals in the rural areas tends to be guided more by the internalisation of
societal norms and values. Informal means such as ostracism and gossips are used or applied to
effect control on violation while instant justice is determined in cases of the violation of mores.
Urban areas tend to depend more on formal institutions such as the police, traffic wardens among
others for the maintenance of law and order.
Social Groups
Every human being from birth until he dies is associated with one or other group, by one or the
other ways. These groups directly or indirectly have impact on the psychology of an individual.
These groups influence the attitudes, thinking and behaviour of the people throughout the life
period. These groups deeply influence the development of the personality and play a role in the
socialisation. Every individual is born in the family. Afterwards other groups outside the family
interact with various ways. From birth period and from family he interacts with neighbourhood,
school, community and great society. These groups contact, expands outward as individual
develop and assumes various roles as a member of the society.
A social group is a unit of two or more persons in the reciprocal interaction or communication
with each other.
Characteristics of Group
1. A group always consists of at least two or more persons.
2. Each group must have a communication and interaction among its members.
3. The communication among the members should be always two ways. One way
communication does not constitute the group interaction, which should influence each other.
4. The duration of the group exists only as long as there is reciprocal psychological interaction.
51

5. Continuity of a culture from one generation to other helps for the formation of a group.
6. Common interests, shared values and norms may be important constituents of a group.
7. The formation of group is affected by many forces i.e. blood, marriage, religion, caste,
common possessions, common areas, common interacts, responsibilities and occupation etc.
8. Different groups have different durations and purposes.
Types of Groups
Even though completely adequate classification has been developed, different types of groups
based on group attributes or characteristics have been identified. Although the types are not
inclusive and do overlap. Some of the major types of groups are described here.
Primary and Secondary Groups
The persons in the primary group have face to face relationships, such as family and playgroup.
A secondary group is one where the relationships are indirect. The members of secondary group
have little personal affection and their relationships are governed by the fulfillment of some
objectives. The specific characteristics of primary and secondary groups are compared here.
Pri Sec
marond
y ary
gro gro
ups ups
1.

Sma Lar
ll,
g
mos e
tly
r
less
i
than n
20
s
to
i
30
z
pers e
ons
are
me
mbe
rs

2.

Pers Ind
onal i
and
r
inti
e
mat
c
e
t
relat r
ions e
hips l
amo a
ng
t

52

the
me
mbe
rs

3.

i
o
n
s
h
i
p
s
w
i
t
h
l
i
t
t
l
e
p
e
r
s
o
n
a
l
a
f
f
e
c
t
i
o
n

Fac Co
e to n
face t
cont a
act
c
t
t
h
r
o
u
g
h
m
o
s
t
l
y

53

o
t
h
e
r
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
m
e
d
i
a
4.

Mos Te
tly
m
per
p
man o
ent
r
me
a
mbe r
rshi
y
p
m
e
m
b
e
r
s
h
i
p

5.

Rel The
atio
r
ns
e
amo l
ng
a
the
t
me
i
mbe o
rs
n
mos i
tly
s

54

info
rma
l

6.

m
o
s
t
l
y
f
o
r
m
a
l

Rur Ur
al
b
soci a
ety
n
s
o
c
i
e
t
y

Formal and Informal Groups

This classification is based on mode of organisation and functions of group.
Formal: These groups have a name, title, written purposes and place. There are definite rules
and procedures, awards and punishments and standard discipline is followed here.
Informal: Informal groups like friends, neighbours, community members do not have such
characteristics. There is no organisation, rules etc. and no definite mode of functions is followed
here.
Reference Group
This is a group of persons whom an individual consult before taking an important decision. Here
the members may be form primary, secondary, formal and informal groups. Sometime an
individual may not have reference group, but may be consulting some experienced person in a
society to seek the advice.
Cultural Interest Group
These groups are created for the development of special interest like economic, religious,
political, educational, or recreational interest etc.
Temporary and Permanent Groups
Group for short period is called temporary group i.e. Crowd. The groupings living in a common
geographic area for longer period are called as permanent group i.e. Village, State, Religion,
Tribe etc.
Factors Considered in the Formation and Organization of Group
55

A group may be organized at any time when some individuals feel that there is need that cannot
be satisfied individually and there is no group already in existence to meet that need. A new
group may be organized even if similar groups are located elsewhere or these cannot serve their
interests. A group may be organized with or without a stimulus from outside.
In organizing groups for action the needs, interests and goals of the individuals are made to
subservient and channeled to the needs, interests and goals of the group. A minimum amount of
cooperation amongst the group members is essential to hold the group together and act as a unit.
In a democratic group, decisions are generally based on majority opinion. Compromise decision
or decision by consensus may sometimes be required to make to avoid conflict situation in the
group. The group process is an important as the group decision.
Examples of communication in groups are result demonstration, method demonstration, group
meeting, small training, field day or farmers day, study tour etc.
Motivation in Group Formation
Motivation means movement or motion, an inner state that energizes, activates or moves and
directs human behavior towards goals. It is need satisfying and goal seeking behavior. To get
work done by others is probable the most difficult task. It is always easy to motivate others in
groups. Because in groups people think that they are doing things collectively and they take
risks. By taking this in mind extension people form social groups to communicate with people
because they know that in groups the communication will be more rewarding than individual
persons.
People can be motivated to form groups;
To secure themselves as far as economic. social, psychological and spiritual security is
concerned
To satisfy their physiological needs
To satisfy their need for achievement
To adopt new practices by convincing
Role of Social Group in Agricultural Extension
An individual needs group participation because he has grown up in a group and has acquired
wants that can only be satisfied by other persons. Some groups that have common interests,
others have divergent interests. The extension workers need this information about groups in the
village to gain their rapport in disseminating information and for other aspects of his work. These
groups like women at drinking water well, men sitting at blacksmiths shop, self help groups,
youth clubs are important in decision making. The extension workers are required to know about
these groups and should plan the strategy of his approach in accordance with the influence of
these groups.
Social groups have following roles in agricultural extension;
it enables the extension agent to have face to face contact with a number of people at a time
people can be easily motivated to accept change due to group influence
less expensive than others method in stimulating action
56

 In groups people can be enhanced and members of groups can be involved for in-depth
discussion.
Social Inequality and Poverty
Globalization and Economics of Rural Life
Social structure and interaction; models of society
The rise of poverty in rural society
Why poverty and marginality continue
Globalization and Economics of rural life continued
Social control, crime, and deviance
Homelessness, rural poverty and housing insecurity
Social Stratification; Functions of Stratification; Bases for Stratification
Forms of Social Stratification;
The Meaning of Settlement Patterns and Village Organisation
A settlement pattern is the manner in which a population distributes itself within the geographical
space it occupies. With specific relation to the rural people, the term refers to how the people
locate themselves on their farms. Village organisation on the other hand, could be referred to as a
settlement pattern but it involves more than the distribution of the population on the land it
occupies. It includes the patterns of social interaction, ordering and the governance of the people
within that settlement.
Settlement Patterns and their Associated Factors
The settlement pattern of any group of people can be related to some factors.
These include:
Social conditions such as the need for defense against external aggressors, type of family
organisation, arrangement of economy-particularly in the case of landlords, feudalistic
etc. These conditions tend to determine whether people live in clusters or in scattered
settlements.
The nature of physical conditions such as land, farms or topography, soil type, water
availability, type of vegetable among others. These conditions determine how much land
will be available to the population both for habitation and the practice of its economic
pursuits.
The nature and organisation of the prevailing agricultural economy. That is, whether
permanent or semi-permanent, nomadic type of farming is practiced. The decision of a
group of people to occupy a particular land area is generally determined by the physical,
57

natural or geographical conditions of the area whereas the pattern of settlement might be
affected by a combination of the foregoing factors.
There are two main types of settlement patterns in Kenya. These are the cluster or nucleated or
compact village and the scattered or dispersed settlements.
The Cluster or Nucleated Settlements
These types of settlements are more thickly populated and highly urban. Examples are Kisumu,
Eldoret, Nakuru, Mombasa, Nairobi towns and villages in the outskirts of these towns. They
typically comprise clusters of located compounds each of which might be separated by mud
walls or reeds fences. Cluster settlements have their origin from the peoples need in the past, for
self defense against quarrelsome neighbours.
The entire village may be surrounded with a high mud wall like in the part of Teso District, or a
wall and thick euphorbia hedges as in the villages of Nyakach or Ahero locations. Such
settlements may contain over 20,000 people thereby generally overcrowded. The farms are
located outside the settlement areas and farmers have to walk long distances to their farms. In
some instances, farmers establish farm camps where they spend parts of the week and then return
to their villages on weekends and on festival days.
Merits of the Clustered Settlements: These include:
Security from attack by either wild animals or external enemies
Closer social interaction due to proximity which also gives individuals some
psychological security
There is easier transmission of information on technologies (innovations) to a large
number of people within a short time
There is enhancement of a more efficient use of social amenities. That is, more people
have access to a single social amenity in such settlements.
Demerits/Limitation of Clustered Settlements
The system encourages gossips and undue interference in the private life of neighbours
The system worsen the problems of sanitation and makes such settlements susceptible to
epidemic outbreaks
In case of fire outbreak, more destruction of life and property is likely to occur in a
clustered or nucleated settlement than in a scattered settlement area
Farmers have to travel long distances to get to their farms. This discourages mixed
farming (raising of crops along with rearing of livestock). Kenyan farmers usually live in
clustered settlements to maintain their animals within the same environment that they
themselves inhabit.
Some Typical Village Organisations
The structural organisation of Kenyan villages and their internal governments have social
physical as well as historical backgrounds. Historically, a village may have been founded merely
on its own. It may have been a branch village to another village elsewhere or it may have been
58

established to serve as a camp. Where a settlement is a temporary camp either for migrant
farmers or road side traders it may have a recognised village head. Below are brief discussions of
some typical village organisations.
Village Organisation of the Luos
The Luo ethnic group live in the western part of Kenya (former Nyanza Province). The various
lineages that constitute the modern Luo settled their current homeland in Kenya in an extremely
complex and lengthy series of migrations that began in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century and
continued through the end of the nineteenth century.
The regional settlement pattern consists of individual patrilineal and patrilocal extended family
homesteads scattered over the landscape without any larger traditional concentrations of
population (although the multi-ethnic lake port city of Kisumu was established in Luo territory
during the colonial period, as were a number of small administrative and market centers). Each
homestead (dala; plural mier) is occupied by an extended (usually polygynous) family. A man
must always marry in the homestead of his father, rather than that of his grandfather;
consequently, when a man's eldest son is ready for marriage, he will move out from his father's
dala and found a new one of his own.
Thus, each homestead has a three-generation life cycle. When the last of the original inhabitants
of a homestead has died, the settlement (now called gunda; plural gundni) will be left fallow for
a period and then used as farmland by the sons of the former head of the homestead. The
landscape also shows traces of significantly larger gundni with earthen ramparts (gunda
bur) dating to the nineteenth century and earlier. In South Nyanza, there is also evidence of large
gundni surrounded by stone walls called ohinga. A gunda bur is identified by the name of an
ancestor-inhabitant, and they frequently serve as anchors for lineage claims to territory.
Each dala is bounded by a euphorbia hedge-fence and the houses are arranged in a highly
ordered pattern on the interior. The spatial and temporal organization of the Luo homestead is a
complex symbolic representation of the genealogical structure and the relations of authority in
both the homestead and society. Lines of structural opposition and alliance between co-wives,
and within the broader kinship and political system, are correlated with house placement on
alternating sides of the homestead. Relations of seniority and authority are also represented and
naturalized through temporal sequences of house construction, repair, and a host of daily
activities and rituals that take place in the homestead.
In terms of interaction among members of each of the other ethnic groups in Kenya the Luo are
closer than with other non-members. For example, marriage, rituals, chieftaincy can occur
among members of each ethnic group, and in fact, more frequently among members of each sub
ethnic or dialectic group than with non-members. This has today changed and intercommunity
marriages are widely practiced.
The Luo village is often the compact type of village. It often consists of a square and walls
covered with corrugated iron sheets and thatched roofs as well. Many of the walls are mud
plastered, while some which are owned by well-to-do farmers who are financially buoyant,
particularly cotton farmers, are plastered with cement. Only very few buildings are painted. The
59

buildings are often arranged in an irregular fashion with little consideration given for village
planning.
According to Jibowo (1992), a typical Luo village consists of the following structures:
1. Industrial centres on the village for processing palm oil in particular. The cattle slaughter slab
is located at the end of a fairly big village. The reason for locating the industries at the end of the
village is to facilitate the disposal of the industrial wastes into the bush conveniently and avoid
messing up the village with industrial wastes and odour.
2. Residential houses as described in the preceding paragraph, where people rest after the days
work. The houses of well-off farmers have kitchens and walled backyards where cooking,
processing of some agro-industrial products such as garri, cracking of palm-kernel, drying of
farm products on a cement slab e.g. cassava flutter, parboiled rice take place.
3. The centre of the village where the house of the village head could be located. The house of
the village ancestor, a community shrine, a town hall or other symbiotic structures could also be
located in the village centre.
4. Village shrines which are located at the end of the village or in a nearby bush outside the
village at times.
5. Churches, shrines, Mosques for Muslim worship which are frequently located inside the
village. Churches (Kanise) for Christian worship are often situated in conspicuous places, such
as road sides within or outside the village.
6. When the village is large, a small market place is established at the end or centre of it. Village
people and those from nearby smaller villages converge at the specified market place every five
or nine days to sell their farm products to buyers from bigger towns and neighbouring
communities.
The Luos are a predominantly urban people. They often live in large towns and cities but they
work on farms. Their commitment is largely to the towns and cities.
Subsistence Economy
Luo subsistence depends upon a mixture of agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing.
Subsistence agriculture is performed almost exclusively by women in scattered multiple small
plots in the general neighbourhood of the homestead. Primary agricultural production to feed her
family is considered the duty of every rural Luo wife, and there is little dependence on purchased
food (aside from small-scale "target" selling and buying of foodstuffs at the local markets and the
purchase of a few imported items such as tea, sugar, and salt). Hoe agriculture is predominant,
but oxplows are found in some areas. The primary grain crops include sorghum, maize, and
millet; cassava and sweet potatoes are major root crops. Sorghum and cassava are especially
valued for their resistance to drought.
These starches are complemented by various kinds of beans, lentils, and greens. In the higher
elevation zone bananas are also grown. The early Luo settlers in Kenya had a pastoralist
60

orientation, and cattle have remained very important as a symbol and unit of wealth; they have
long been, for example, the central component of bride-wealth exchanges (now augmented or
partially replaced with cash). The cattle are generally eaten only in the context of feasting rituals,
but their milk forms an important part of the ordinary diet. Sheep, goats, and chickens are a less
valuable and somewhat more commonly consumed source of meat. Fish of several types and
sizes (tilapia, Nile perch, etc.) are also a much-appreciated source of protein. They are caught in
the waters of the Winam Gulf and traded throughout the market system.
Commercial Activities
The Luo were forcibly drawn into a monetary economy at the beginning of the twentieth century
by the colonial imposition of "hut" taxes designed to stimulate a supply of native workers for the
farms of English colonists and for railroad construction. In fact, the most important source of
cash has continued to be migratory wage labor by Luo men, such that about a third of middleaged Luo men live outside the Luo area at any given time. The Luo have been notoriously
resistant to cash cropping, especially in Siaya District. However, small-holder cash cropping of
tobacco, cotton, sunflowers, coffee, peanuts, and a few other items is somewhat more prevalent
in parts of southern Nyanza and the area around Kisumu. Large sugar plantations exist in the area
north of Kisumu, but these are owned by outside agents who employ Luo workers. Other
commercial activities oriented more toward a local market include such things as fishing, the sale
of beer and chang'aa (an illegal distilled liquor), and motor-transportation services (especially
the running of matatus, or "bush taxis").
Industrial Arts
Luo artisans make a wide variety of crafts that are largely consumed locally rather than directed
toward a tourist market. Pottery is a thriving craft performed entirely by women. Less than 1
percent of all women are potters, yet they manage to supply nearly all Luo homes with a diverse
range of forms to serve a common set of cooking, serving, and storage functions. Potters live in
clusters of homesteads centered around clay sources scattered throughout the Luo area and they
sell pots at local markets. Other local craft products sold at markets include baskets (for storage,
food-processing, eating, and fishing, etc.), forged iron goods (agricultural tools, ornaments, etc.),
and such things as ropes, brooms, reed mats, wooden tool handles, and oil lamps made from
recycled cans.
Trade
A system of regular periodic markets exists throughout the Luo area and serves as a focus for
both trading and social activities. This system developed in the early twentieth century out of the
prior practice of sporadic famine markets under the influence of the developing cash economy.
Markets serve as centers for the exchange of local crafts and foodstuffs as well as for the
distribution of imported goods (e.g. clothing, kerosene, salt, plastic and metal containers).
However, they do not usually serve as major collection points for large amounts of local produce
flowing out to distant urban or international markets. The Luo do trade with neighboring peoples
at border markets, and they are, for example, major suppliers of pottery to the Kisii/Gusii and
some other non-Luo groups. Moreover, some of these products are distributed further afield by
middleman traders.
Division of Labour
61

The primary division of labor is genderbased. Subsistence agriculture, childcare, cooking, and
domestic maintenance are all female tasks. Women are also the primary or exclusive contributors
to several kinds of craft production (especially pottery), although men contribute to some crafts
(e.g. basketry) and are the exclusive producers of others (e.g. iron working). Men are the
predominant ritual, political, and oral history specialists. In the pre-colonial era they were also
the warriors. External wage labor and cash cropping also tend to be predominantly male
activities. Market traders, on the other hand, are predominantly women, but men are also
involved in the selling of some items, especially goods coming from outside the Luo area.
Land Tenure
The traditional system of land tenure was one in which land was corporately held by
patrilineages and was not individually alienable. This included farmland, pasture, water,
firewood, and clay sources. Women received usufruct rights to agricultural plots and other
resources by virtue of their husband's membership in a patrilineage. These rights were distributed
among the women of a homestead by the husband or senior co-wife (mikayi), and they depended
upon various dimensions of seniority relations.
According to Achola Pala's ("Women's access to land.", 1983) calculations, the majority of
women work between three and five small, scattered parcels of land totaling 4-11 acres (1.5-4.5
hectares) but spread over a wide area. However, this system has been subjected to various kinds
of pressure from increasing population density (hence land shortage), and from land tenure
reform programs implemented by the colonial and, especially, postcolonial states. The goal of the
reform programs is primarily to consolidate land holdings and register individual title to land.
The effect has been to transform land into an alienable commodity in a system of almost
exclusively male individualized ownership with little concern for women's access to it. The sale
of land for cash has created serious moral tensions as well as sometimes leaving aged mothers
and widows landless.
Kin Groups and Descent
Kinship has a powerful role in structuring Luo social life, identity, and politics, as well as the
landscape. Luo maximal lineages (dhoudi; singular dhoot), sometimes called "clans" in the
anthropological literature, are exogamous land-holding units. Descent is patrilineal and women
remain members of their father's lineage after marriage. A cluster of maximal lineages occupying
a distinct territory (piny) is called oganda (plural ogendni). These clusters are often referred to as
"sub-tribes," or even, by one source, Evans-Pritchard (1949), "tribes." All these groups claim
descent from a common ancestor named Ramogi. Their genealogical relationship to each other is
a product of a long and continuing history of fluid segmentation of lineages. Each cowife's
house (ot) in a polygynous homestead is seen as the potential kernel of a future lineage. A
person's identity is viewed as depending upon nested membership in the family of a particular
father (jokawuoro) and grandfather (jokak-warn) within some distinct minimal lineage that is a
segment of a given dhoot and oganda.
Marriage
The Luo are markedly polygynous (doho) in both ideology and practice. Post-marital residence is
patrilocal in the strictest sense of the term: that is, the wife goes to live with the husband in the
homestead of the husband's father. Marriage involves a protracted series of exchanges and
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ceremonies between the families of the bride and groom, and most crucially the payment of
substantial bride-wealth to the bride's family. Formerly this involved cattle (and, in the precolonial era, iron hoes); now it involves cattle and cash. Once bride-wealth has been paid, the
children produced by the marriage are considered to belong to the husband's lineage. Divorce
necessitates a return of bride-wealth. Marriage is not simply an individual affair: it establishes an
enduring relationship of mutual obligations between affines that can be invoked for aid in times
of hunger or other need.
Domestic Unit
The basic domestic unit is the polygynous household. Each co-wife must have her own house
(ot) in the homestead (dala) occupied by the patrilineal polygynous extended family. The
husband, considered the wuon dala (head of the homestead), rotates among the houses of his
wives for eating and sleeping, although he often has a small independent house (duol) for
entertaining other male guests. Each house, occupied by a woman and her children, also has its
own granary and is responsible for raising its own subsistence, although there is often a great
deal of cooperation among cowives or neighbors in labor of various kinds.
Inheritance
Inheritance is patrilineal. Sons inherit cattle and other forms of wealth, as well as rights to the
land of the father's gunda, from their father. A woman generally does not inherit wealth from her
father or husband: the property of the husband passes to his brothers. Women do sometimes
inherit small household items from their mothers-in-law.
Socialization
Caring for young children is shared by mothers, grandmothers, and older siblings. By the end of
the twentieth century, school also played an important role in socialization. From the time they
reach the age of puberty until they marry, boys live together in a house called samba just inside
the main gate of the homestead. For women, who typically marry young (traditionally before age
sixteen), there is a great deal of post-marital resocialization in which the mother-in-law plays an
authoritative role. The spatial organization of the settlement itself has an important part in
channeling the flow of social relations and inculcating beliefs and attitudes about proper
behavior, authority, and relationships. The Luo have no formal initiation rites to mark the
transition to adulthood and they are not circumcised. However, until the 1970s it was a common
practice to extract six lower front teeth at some point in the pre-adult phase of the life cycle.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization
Lineage membership is the primary structuring principle of social organization. The distant past
is perceived as the history of successive segmentation of patrilineages from a common Luo
ancestor (Ramogi) resulting in a dendritic system of connections among all Luo lineages.
Membership in a lineage implies a specific social distance from all other Luo lineages which is
calculated on the basis of the temporal distance of the segmentation event. This temporal and
social distance has practical significance in structuring personal interaction, as it determines
whom one can marry, where one can expect political allies, with whom one is expected to share,
whose funerals one must attend, where one has rights to land, and other relations.

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Generational time structures relationships between individuals within lineages or lineage

segments. For example, two males of identical chronological age may stand in the relationship of
either "brothers" or of "father" and "son," depending upon the temporal depth of their
genealogical connection. This structural relationship will have a great deal to do with the
behavior considered appropriate between the two and will have much more to do with
determining seniority than the relative times of birth.
Political Organization
Although at the beginning of the twenty-first century they live with an administrative system of
local "chiefs" imposed by the British colonial government and continued by the postcolonial
Kenyan state, the Luo have traditionally had a strongly egalitarian political ethos and lacked
centralized authority. They do, however, have an indigenous term, ruoth, that is used to refer to
modern chiefs. In the precolonial era this term more likely meant something closer to "leader" or
"man of influence" than to the institutionalized political role it has come to signify. However,
oral histories indicate that the degree to which individuals in the past were able to transform their
informal influence within councils of elders into naturalized positions of authority and power
varied somewhat from region to region. Traditionally, there was no pan-Luo centralized political
authority or formal political hierarchy. Rather, the Luo are considered to be a classic example of
a segmentary lineage system with fluctuating ad hoc alliances among lineages structured by
genealogical distance between the disputants. The modern administrative boundaries within Luo
territory, which were defined during the colonial era, effectively froze into static form what had
previously been a series of highly dynamic factional and territorial struggles between competing
subgroups organized according to lineage affiliation and military expediency.
Social Control
Belief in witchcraft and the potentially lethal supernatural consequences of violating cultural
codes has been a powerful traditional force for social control. In this strongly egalitarian society,
ostentatious accumulation of riches and deviation from the obligation to share are thought to
provoke jealousy and the attention of witches, resulting in sickness and death. Moreover,
violation of a range of cultural practices (especially temporal sequences of ritual acts that
emphasize relations of seniority and authority and codes of personal interaction between classes
of kin and affines) is thought to result in a state of supernatural illness called chira, which can be
fatal, sometimes for entire families, if not expiated through appropriate rituals.
In the precolonial period, the arbitration of disputes within the smallest local territorial unit, the
(village) gweng, was handled by a council of elders (jodongo). The possibility to become an
influential leader in this context required the building of prestige and moral authority, and these
qualities were acquired from several possible sources. The most immediate criteria were
genealogical position and the strength of the lineage: the most genealogically senior member of
the dominant lineage of the gweng had responsibilities to settle disputes within the gweng, and
he met with other similar leaders to attempt to resolve disputes between gwenge. Disputes that
could not be settled peacefully were resolved by fission and migration, or by armed conflict.
Pragmatic alliances often formed in which strong lineages would secure the support of
weaker jodak (tenant) lineage groups that had settled in their territory after being forced out or
fissioning elsewhere. Chiefs appointed by the Kenyan state now fulfill many of these local
conflict mediation roles and the law courts are the locus of higher level disputes.
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Conflict
From the late fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, the Luo, in the course of their
southward migration and intrusion into the territory of Bantu-speaking peoples, were frequently
engaged in armed conflict. There was little to distinguish internal and external fighting since in
the segmentary lineage system fighting could be directed at one time against other Luo lineages
(such as the earlier settlers) and at other times it would be against Bantu speakers. Fighting
mostly ceased with the imposition of British colonial rule. With the exception of occasional
isolated skirmishes, territorial disputes have since been displaced into the court system and the
legislature. A number of Luo men were also drawn into larger conflicts when they were
conscripted into the British colonial army during World Wars I and II.
Religious Beliefs
Religion among the Luo exhibits a complex creative hybridity of traditional beliefs and practices
and those imported by Christian missionaries of a wide range of competing sects. Both Catholic
and Protestant missions of European and American origin have been active in the area since the
end of the nineteenth century. Even more numerous are the independent African churches (of
which over 220 are officially registered in Kenya) that have splintered off from the Euro
American churches. Many of these independent churches actually originated among the Luo and
they are extremely popular. Nearly 90 percent of Joluo are professed adherents of Christianity in
one or another of these manifestations. The charismatic independent churches, such as Roho and
Legio Maria, often incorporate traditional Luo beliefs in such things as spirit possession with
Christian symbols and practices. However, even adherents of the more orthodox Euro American
Christian churches often see no contradiction in maintaining or adapting traditional beliefs and
practices. On the other hand, churches of both types sometimes target specific traditional
elements (e.g. drinking) for prohibition as a way of positioning themselves as a force capable of,
for example, liberating people from witchcraft. Traditional beliefs include various forces
called juogi (spirits), tipo (shadows), and kwere (ancestors), which can act positively or
negatively, as well as a creator or life force god (Nyasaye or Were).
Religious Practitioners
Traditional religious practitioners include several kinds of witches, sorcerers, or magicians and
diviners. These go by various names depending upon their attributes. Those who use medicines
are called jobilo. They are feared and respected for their powers of divination and their ability to
use killing magic on enemies. Ajuoke is a more general term for witches or sorcerers,
while jopuok/jajuok is used for "nightrunners" and those (usually women) who have the power to
cause sickness through the "evil eye" (sihoho). Witchcraft and magical powers can be inherited
or learned, depending upon the circumstances and type of powers. The independent African
churches have a range of parallel religious specialists (priests, bishops, popes, prophets, etc.)
derived from the Christian tradition. Leadership roles in these churches tend to be predominantly
male, while church membership is predominantly female.
Ceremonies
The largest and most ostentatious Luo ceremonies are funerals. These can last for several days,
during which time the host family must supply a large gathering of kin and affines with a steady
supply of food and beer. The ritual involves a parade of the cattle owned by the deceased and a
great feast accompanied by dancing and praise songs. A person's prestige can be measured by the
65

number of people who attend his or her funeral. There are a host of other important ceremonies
that are less elaborate than funerals, including marriage, twin-birth rituals, rites for establishing a
new homestead, and harvest festivals. These all involve feasts with beer (and often chang'aa).
Arts
Oratory is one of the most admired and highly developed arts among the Luo. This includes the
ability to tell stories and proverbs, to engage in formal praise speeches, and to marshal eloquent
skills of political persuasion. There are also professional musicians who play the nyatiti (a
plucked string instrument) to accompany songs that include both praise and witty satire of
patrons and other influential men. Dancing also plays an important part in most festivities and
rituals. Among the plastic arts, potters and basket-weavers are notably skilled.
Medicine
The Luo have a rich lore of herbal and other natural medicines. Some plants and their uses are
known by everyone. Others (especially those used for harmful magic) are the domain of
specialists (jobilo). Much curing is also done, after divination of the causes, by rituals that are
not based upon plant medicines.
Death and Afterlife
The ancestors are a strong force in the life of the living. The spirits of the dead can be very
dangerous if they have died under troubled circumstances or if they have been offended by the
behavior of the living. However, they can also be a positive force. Children are often renamed
after an ancestor who appears in a dream or who is invoked by a diviner. Most Luo also hold
views of death and the afterlife influenced by their participation in Christian religions. Adults are
buried within the homestead, while infants and those who have died in some spiritually
dangerous limnal state may be buried outside the settlement. It is imperative that even those Luo
who live in distant cities be brought back to their homestead for burial out of their own house.
The famous legal dispute following the death of S. M. Otieno in 1985 (in which his non-Luo
wife objected to his being returned to his homeland for burial) is a dramatic demonstration of the
force of this belief and of the potential conflict between traditional law based upon collective
rights and the law of the state based upon individual rights.
Language
The indigenous language of the Luo, referred to as Dholuo, is for most people the language of
preference in the home and in daily conversation. Dholuo is taught in primary schools
throughout Luoland. Most Luo young people are fluent in English, Kiswahili, and Dholuo. This
is particularly impressive because these languages are from three very distinct language families
with drastically different grammatical principles and vocabulary.
Children enjoy playing language games in Dholuo. Among these is a tongue-twister game. For
example, children try to say without difficulty, Atud tond atonga, tond atonga chodi, which
means, "I tie the rope of the basket, the rope of the basket breaks." Acham tap chotna malando
chotna cham tapa malando means, "I eat from the red dish of my lover and my lover eats from
my red dish." Most Luo, irrespective of educational attainment and occupation, prefer to speak
Dholuo at home and continue to teach this language to their children. Even young Luo teenagers,
66

who nowadays live in Nairobi and rarely visit Luoland, nevertheless have learned to speak
Dholuo fluently.
Children are given names that correspond to where they were born, the time of day, or the day of
the week. Even the kind of weather that prevailed at the time of a child's birth is noted. For
example, one born during a rain storm is called Akoth (female) or Okoth (male). Just about every
Luo also has a pet name used among close friends.
The Village Organisation of the Kalenjin
Endo: Chebleng'. Keiyo: Elgeyo. Kipsigis: Lumbwa, Sotek. Kony: Bong'om, Bok, Elgon Maasai,
Elgonyi, Sabaot. Marakwet: Cherang'any, Maragweta, Sengwer. Nandi: Chemwal, Teng'wal.
Okiek: Akiy, Dorobo, Ogiek. Pokot: Pakot, Suk. Sebei: Kipsorai, Mbai, Sabaot, Saping', Sor.
Terik: Nilotic Tiriki, Nyang'ori. Tugen: Cherangani, Kamasia.
The typical settlement pattern is scattered.Groups of family homesteads make up a neighborhood
(Nandi: koret), and today (in Kenya) several neighborhoods are combined into a sublocation, the
smallest unit of government administration. Neighborhood size varies, but twenty to fifty or sixty
households is typical. Among the Nandi, Kipsigis, pastoral Pokot, and Sebei, local communities
historically were not, or were only to a limited extent, kin-based; among some other Kalenjin,
they were based on patrilineal clans.
Most Kalenjin combined neighborhoods to form apororiet,a unit with mutual-defense functions.
Old-style houses are round, of wattle and daub, thatched, and divided internally into two rooms;
the back room traditionally sheltered sheep and goats. Modern houses (still the minority) are
usually square and of permanent material, with iron-sheet roofs. A typical household consists of a
small extended family, or a nuclear family with some attached nonnuclear kin, living in a
compound composed of several individual houses facing each other.
Identification
The Kalenjin are related East African peoples (Kipsigis, Nandi, Keiyo, Tugen, Marakwet, Endo,
Sabaot, Terik, Okiek) who form one branch of the Highland Nilotes, formerly referred to as
"Southern Nilo-Hamites" or sometimes "Nandi-speaking peoples." This description focuses on
the Nandi; about one-third of all Kalenjin and second-largest of the Kalenjin subgroups, they are
geographically the most centrally located.
Location
The Kalenjin live mainly in the highland of western Kenya, although the Sebei and some Pokot
are located in eastern Uganda. Physical environment and ecological adaptation vary throughout
Kalenjin country. The Nandi and Kipsigis live primarily on high plateaus with good agricultural
potential: average elevation of 1,800 to 2,000 meters, thick topsoil, and 150 to 200 centimeters of
rain annually distributed over the entire year. Many of the Kalenjin groups (Keiyo, Tugen,
Marakwet/Endo) live along escarpments in the Rift Valley system, and the Sabaot on Mount
Elgon. In these cases, most cultivation occurs between 1,350 and 2,000 meters, animals are
herded in low-lying plains, and some communities may be situated at elevations of over 2,700
meters. The pastoral Pokot, the northernmost Kalenjin, live in arid lowlands where little
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cultivation is possible. The Okiek, mountain-forest-dwelling Kalenjin speakers, historically are

foragers.
Demography
There are probably just over 2 million Kalenjin, at least 95 percent of whom live in Kenya. The
Kipsigis were 32 percent of all the Kenya Kalenjin in the 1969 census, followed by the Nandi
(27 percent), Pokot (13 percent), Tugen (8.6 percent), Keiyo (8.5 percent), Marakwet (6 percent),
Sabaot (42 percent), and Okiek (less than 1 percent by official census figures, but perhaps
undercounted). The number of Uganda Sabaot (Sebei) is close to their number in Kenya. In the
1979 census, there were 1,652,243 Kalenjin in Kenya. They were the fifth-largest ethnic group
10.8 percent of the population. The vast majority of Kalenjin are rural, and population density
differs greatly throughout Kalenjin country owing to highly varied ecological conditions.
Linguistic Affiliation
Although the Kalenjin are regarded as a unit on the basis of speaking a common language, there
are numerous dialects. All of them, it seems, are mutually intelligible with practice, although not
necessarily immediately. Nandi and Kipsigis are distinguished by small sound and terminology
differences, similar to the difference between English as spoken in Britain and the United States.
Speakers of these dialects cannot immediately understand Pokot, Sabaot, and regional variants of
Marakwet. Greenberg (1963) classifies Kalenjin as a Southern Nilotic language (Eastern Section,
Nilotic Branch, Eastern Sudanic Language Family). Aside from Tatoga, which is spoken by a
few small peoples of northern Tanzania, the nearest language to Kalenjin is Maasai.
The oral traditions of all the Nilotic peoples of East Africa refer to northern origins. There is a
consensus among historians and linguists that the Plains and Highland Nilotes migrated from a
region near the southern border of Ethiopia and Sudan shortly before the beginning of the
Christian Era and diverged into separate communities shortly thereafter. Ehret (1971) believes
that pre-Kalenjin who already were cattle keepers and had age sets lived in the western Kenya
highlands 2,000 years ago. Presumably, these people absorbed other populations already living in
the region. From some time after a.d. 500 to about a.d. 1600, there seems to have been a series of
migrations eastward and southward from near Mount Elgon. Migrations were complex, and there
are competing theories about their details.
The Nandi and Kipsigis, in response to Maasai expansion, borrowed from the Maasai some of
the traits that distinguish them from other Kalenjin: large-scale economic dependence on
herding, military organization and aggressive cattle raiding, and centralized religious-political
leadership. The family that established the office of orkoiyot (warlord/diviner) among both the
Nandi and Kipsigis were nineteenth-century Maasai immigrants. By 1800, both the Nandi and
Kipsigis were expanding at the expense of the Maasai. This process was halted in 1905 by the
imposition of British colonial rule.
Introduced during the colonial era were new crops/techniques and a cash economy (Kalenjin
men were paid wages for their military service as early as World War I); conversions to
Christianity began (Kalenjin was the first East African vernacular to have a translation of the
Bible). Consciousness of a common Kalenjin identity emerged to facilitate action as a politicalinterest group during and after World War IIhistorically, the Nandi and Kipsigis raided other
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Kalenjin as well as the Maasai, Gusii, Luyia, and Luo. The name "Kalenjin" is said to derive
from a radio broadcaster who often used the phrase (meaning "I tell you"). Similarly, "Sabaot" is
a modern term used to mean those Kalenjin subgroups who use "Subai" as a greeting. Nandi and
Kipsigis were early recipients of individual land titles (1954), with large holdings by African
standards because of their historically low population density. Economic development schemes
were promoted as independence (1964) approached, and afterward many Kalenjin from more
crowded areas resettled on farms in the former White Highlands near Kitale. Today's Kalenjin
are among the most prosperous of Kenya's ethnic groups. Kenya's second president, Daniel arap
Moi, is a Tugen.
The typical settlement pattern is scattered. Groups of family homesteads make up a
neighborhood (Nandi: koret), and today (in Kenya) several neighborhoods are combined into a
sublocation, the smallest unit of government administration. Neighborhood size varies, but
twenty to fifty or sixty households is typical. Among the Nandi, Kipsigis, pastoral Pokot, and
Sebei, local communities historically were not, or were only to a limited extent, kin-based;
among some other Kalenjin, they were based on patrilineal clans. Most Kalenjin combined
neighborhoods to form a pororiet, a unit with mutual-defense functions. Old-style houses are
round, of wattle and daub, thatched, and divided internally into two rooms; the back room
traditionally sheltered sheep and goats. Modern houses (still the minority) are usually square and
of permanent material, with iron-sheet roofs. A typical household consists of a small extended
family, or a nuclear family with some attached nonnuclear kin, living in a compound composed
of several individual houses facing each other.
Subsistence and Commercial Activities
The Kalenjin are essentially semipastoralists. Cattle herding is thought to be ancient among
them. Although the real economic importance of herding is slight compared to that of cultivation
among many Kalenjin groups, they almost all display a cultural emphasis on and an emotional
commitment to pastoralism. Cattle numbers have waxed and waned; however, cattle/people
ratios of 5:1 or greater (typical of peoples among whom herding is economically dominant) have
been recorded only for the pastoral Pokot. In their late-nineteenth-century heyday of pastoralism,
the Nandi and the Kipsigis approached this ratio; 1-3:1 is more typical of the Kalenjin, and in
some communities the ratio is even lower than 1:1.
The staple crop was eleusine, but maize replaced it during the colonial era. Other subsistence
crops include beans, pumpkins, cabbages, and other vegetables as well as sweet and European
potatoes and small amounts of sorghum. Sheep, goats, and chickens are kept. Iron hoes were
traditionally used to till; today plows pulled by oxen or rented tractors are more common. The
importance of cash crops varies with land availability, soil type, and other factors; among the
Nandi and the Kipsigis, it is considerable. Surplus maize, milk, and tea are the major cash crops.
Kalenjin farms on the Uasin Gishu plateau also grow wheat and pyrethrum.
In most communities there are a few wage workers and full-time business persons (shopkeepers,
tailors, carpenters, bicycle repairmen, tractor owners) with local clienteles. It is common for
young married men to be part-time entrepreneurs. Historically, women could brew and sell beer;
this became illegal in the early 1980s. Some men work outside their communities, but labor
migration is less common than elsewhere in western Kenya.
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Industrial Arts
Traditionally, there were no full-time craft specialists. Most objects were manufactured by their
users. The blacksmith's art was passed down in families in particular localities, and some women
specialized in pottery.
Trade
Traditionally, women conducted a trade of small stock for grain between pastoral-emphasis and
cultivation-emphasis (often non-Kalenjin) communities. Regular local markets were rare prior to
the colonial era. Today large towns and district centers have regular markets, and women
occasionally sell vegetables in sublocation centers.
Division of Labour
There was little traditional division of labor except by age and sex. Men cleared land for
cultivation, and there is evidence that married men and women cooperated in the rest of the
cultivation process. Husbands and wives did not (except during a limited historical period) and
do not typically cultivate separately, other than the wife's vegetable garden. Today women do
more cultivation if their husbands are engaged in small-scale business activities. Children herded
cattle close to the homestead, as well as sheep and goats; warriors (young initiated men) herded
cattle in distant pastures. Women and girls milked, cooked, and supplied water and firewood.
Today boys are the main cowherds, and girls are largely responsible for infant care. The
children's role in domestic labor is extremely important, even though most children now attend
school.
Land Tenure
In Nandi, individual title to land replaced a system in which land was plentiful, all who lived in a
community had the right to cultivate it, and a man could move with his family to any locality in
which he had a sponsor. Land prepared for cultivation, and used regularly, was viewed as
belonging to the family that used it, and inherited from mother to son. The tenure systems of
other Kalenjin were mainly similar. The Kerio Valley groups cultivated on ridges and at the foot
of ridges, using irrigation furrows that required collective labor to maintain. This labor was
provided by clan segments, which cleared and held land collectively, although cultivation rights
in developed fields were held by individual families.
All Kalenjin have patrilineal clans, but clans do not universally have strong cooperative
functions other than regulating marriage (with various rules). Specific patrilineal links are traced
for only three to four generations.
Kin terminology is basically Omaha. The most common sibling terms do not differentiate gender.
There are a large number of specific terms for types of affines.
Marriage
Traditionally, marriage took place in two stages: ratet, a small ceremony after which the couple
lived together, and tunisiet, a large public feast held only at the completion of bride-wealth
payment. Among the Nandi, these stages have typically occurred in rapid succession since about
the turn of the twentieth century; among some other Kalenjin, at least during certain periods, a
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separation of many years has been customary, probably depending on availability of cattle or
other livestock. Most Kalenjin with some exceptions, notably the Okiek pay bride-wealth in
cattle. Once payment is complete, marriage is theoretically irrevocable. Traditional divorce
grounds and proceedings exist, but divorce is in fact extremely rare, even in modern times.
Permanent separations occur but do not technically negate marriage.
Polygyny is prestigious and, in the 1970s, was practiced by about 25 percent of ever-married
Nandi men. Christians were monogamous slightly more frequently than non-Christians. Womanwoman marriage, found among Nandi, Kipsigis, and, since about the mid-twentieth century,
among Keiyo, is not customary among other Kalenjin. Both women and men are active in
negotiating marriages and reconciling separated couples. Husbands are jurally dominant, with
the right to beat wives for certain offenses. Wives are publicly deferential; private relations are
more nearly egalitarian. Leisure is spent with same-gender companions more than with one's
spouse.
Domestic Unit
Each wife has her own field, cattle, and house within the family compound. A separate farm for
each wife is the ideal. Compounds may include the husband's parents or mother, and other kin,
depending on circumstances. Brothers and their wives may share a compound, although this is
rare.
Inheritance
Traditional norms of cattle inheritance have been extended to land, money, and other property.
Each wife's house-property consists of cattle given to her at marriage, acquired by her on her
own, or given as bride-wealth for her daughters. These may be inherited only by her own sons
(or, in Nandi and Kipsigis, the sons of her wife). A man's other property is inherited in equal
shares by each wife's house. Failing lineal heirs, a man's property reverts to his brothers or their
sons, a woman's to her co-wives' sons.
Socialization
Infants are treated indulgently, but strict obedience (enforced by corporal punishment) is
expected from children by about the age of 6. Routine care of infants and toddlers is largely the
responsibility of girls between ages 8 and 10. Children are economically important and have
heavy responsibilities. It is common to spend a part of childhood fostered by a relative, helping
with domestic work in exchange for board and school fees.
Adolescent initiation (circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls, and instruction for
both) is a key feature of Kalenjin life and ethnic identity. These are sex-segregated rituals for
most, but not all, Kalenjin groups. Adolescents are allowed a period of license to indulge in
courtship and sexual play before initiation for girls and afterward for boys. Girls marry directly
following initiation; boys become warriors. Today some (mostly highly educated) girls refuse
initiation.
Social Organization
Rotating age sets formerly existed among all Kalenjin, with the same or nearly the same names
in all groups. There were eight sets among the Tugen, Marakwet, and Sabaot and seven among
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the Keiyo, Nandi, and Kipsigis (with some evidence that there may have been eight formerly).
The Marakwet, Tugen, and Sabaot have formalized age sets for women, and other Kalenjin
probably once had them. Members of younger age sets defer to members of older age sets. Men
initiated together have a very high level of solidarity: they spend much time together, form work
teams, try to live in the same neighborhood and marry sisters (wife's sister's husband is an
important reciprocal kin type), and may not marry each other's daughters. Aside from territorial
units and clans, there were no other formai associations.
Political Organization
Most political action took place in the kokwet, or council of the locality (today, sublocation
council). Theoretically, any married man could be an active participant; in fact, a small group of
influential elders formed the core. Women could observe but not speak unless invited. Local
councils sent representatives to occasional meetings of pororiet councils. Such councils continue
to be important under the leadership of a government-appointed sublocation chief.
Traditionally, there were no central authorities, although the Nandi and Kipsigis came close to
having chiefs in the head orkoiyot. All the Kalenjin had men called orkoiyot, believed to have
power to control weather and foretell events. The nineteenth-century Nandi and Kipsigis came to
rely on one central authority to coordinate warfare (through representatives on pororiet councils)
and predict the success of raids. The orkoiyot was rewarded with a share of the booty of
successful raids, and his family became wealthy and powerful. For its short existence, this office
was passed from father to son.
Social Control
Internal conflicts and norm violations are brought before neighborhood elders' courts. In modern
Kenya, serious offenses are automatically matters for the police and government courts; other
disputes can become police matters if someone files charges, but the elders' court is still the main
arena for litigation. Offending parties would normally comply with fines imposed by elders;
elders could also order punishments (e.g., beating) to be administered by offenders' age sets.
People convicted of witchcraft were ordered to be put to death by their own kin. Traditionally,
local groups of women could sanction men deemed guilty of "crimes against women."
Conflict
Cattle raiding was extremely important in the social life of the pastoral Kalenjin. The warrior age
grade (youngest initiated age set) was responsible for defending cattle, and acquiring their own
fortunes in captured cattle. War was not specifically for territory, but the Nandi and the Kipsigis
did expand territorially at the expense of the Maasai. Whereas the Nandi and the Kipsigis did not
raid each other, they did at times raid other Kalenjin.
Religious Beliefs
The statistical majority of Kalenjin are nominally Christian, but many still follow traditional
beliefs and practices. They believed in one god, with many names, identified with the sun and
now believed to be identical to the Christian God. Prayers were addressed primarily to God.
Theoiik (sing. olindet ), or spirits of dead ancestors, were also believed able to intervene in
human life. They were occasionally, but not systematically, propitiated. Thunder was another
named supernatural being. Inchoate evil spirits were believed to lurk on pathways, especially at
night, and cause harm.
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Religious Practitioners
Every neighborhood has elders who serve as ritual experts. Diviners foretell events by patterns of
pebbles poured from a calabash. The Kalenjin also believe in an array of different named types
of sorcerers and witches.
Ceremonies
Formerly, there was an important communitywide festival,kipsunde, after the harvest. The major
ceremonies now are the life-cycle rituals, many (e.g., those for for newborns) restricted to the
family. The most important larger ritual is initiation.
Arts
The most highly developed visual art is decorative beadwork. Expressive culture and leisure
activities include storytelling, singing and dancing, beer drinking (for men), and games of
strategy. A lyrelike stringed instrument traditionally accompanied singing but is now becoming
rare.
Medicine
Traditionally, "doctors" (male), with primarily supernaturally based skills, could ascertain the
cause of bad luck or illness and treat it. These practitioners still treat patients, particularly for
mental illness. Female herbalists' and midwives' skills are more technical than supernatural.
Death and Afterlife
Death customs varied. The Nandi buried only infants and elders. Corpses of adults were left to be
consumed by hyenas. In some Kalenjin groups (e.g., Marakwet), only barren people were left for
scavengers. Death was polluting, and corpse handlers (sons or other close kin) had to be ritually
purified and compensated from the estate. Many stories refer to an afterlife that is an idealized
version of precolonial Kalenjin life. In a family ceremony, elders decided which ancestral spirit
has been reincarnated in a newborn infant.
Implications of the Different Village Organisations in Kenya for Initiating Technological
Change
The various patterns of village organisations among the different ethnic groups in Kenya should
be taken cognisance of in designing and implementing programmes of social and economic
change for technology (innovation).
1. The change agents can reach the rural Luo in groups in the village via the village head. This is
because they live in compact villages to which they return for rest after the days work on the
farm. The Ruoth, Mlango (jaduong gweng) who is the head visits the residents on matters of
public interest. The elders and family heads could be called by the public crier in large family
villages.
2. To work effectively in Hausa and Fulani villages, the change agent should obtain permission
from the district head who will authorise the village heads to allow the people to work effectively
with the change agent. Female change agents are needed to go into the gweng to work with such
female during the day who professes the same religion as themselves.
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3. Among the Ibo, the change agent can work with individual farm families. He defines and
clears his mission with the village head, who legitimises this with the heads of households.
4. The dispersed farmsteads make it possible to work with individual farm families. The mission
also has to be cleared by the change agents with heads of groups of farmsteads.
5. The change agents can go via the village heads in working with Edo village residents. There is
no frequent need of working through the merry go round or women gatherings because of
functional flexibility of attachment of the villages to Benin City.
6. Cultural attributes and language differ among the various ethnic groups. It is necessary to use
the advice of a change agent who understands the languages and cultures of each group to
facilitate effective working on programmes of change with the groups for technological change.

74

RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Definition and Characteristics of Rural Infrastructure
Rural infrastructure, according to Idachaba and Olayide (1980) is defined to include the system
of physical, human and institutional forms of capital which enable rural residents to better
perform their production, processing and distribution activities as well as helping to improve the
overall quality of life. The most basic elements of infrastructure comprise rural roads, markets in
rural towns and rural water supply facilities. Rural infrastructure also includes social
infrastructure, most significantly rural health and education facilities.
At some higher level development, it includes rural electrification, telecommunication facilities
and access to electronic mass media. Rural Infrastructure is a very loose concept however,
sometimes conceived narrowly to include only roads and water supply as well as social
infrastructure. The definition here is broad to capture the concept that the inputs necessary to
develop agriculture the major occupation of the ruralites and reduce poverty, are indeed all
embracing.
Agriculture cannot be developed in isolation from physical infrastructure development, rural
health and education or even from sound urban development policy (World Bank, 1993). Rural
Infrastructure as defined above possesses certain characteristics. These are heavy capital
equipment beyond the reach of the average individual rural resident, huge initial capital
expenditures, benefits accrue to all members of the society (or non-excludability in usage) and
stocks of capital yielding streams of services over a number of years.
Typology of Rural Infrastructure
There are four major types of rural infrastructure. These are:
1. Rural physical infrastructure
2. Rural social infrastructure
3. Rural institutional infrastructure
4. Rural farm infrastructure
Rural physical infrastructure is defined to include:
a) Transportation systems such as feeder roads, access roads, rail roads, bridges, ferry services,
boats, ports, footpaths, etc.
b) Processing facilities such as public processing facilities, machinery, equipment, buildings, etc,
and
c) Communication systems such as rural telephone services postal agencies, etc.
Rural social infrastructure is defined to include:
a) Health facilities such as hospitals, dispensaries, maternity health services among others.
b) Educational facilities such as primary schools, secondary schools, adult education facilities
etc. and
c) Rural utilities such as rural electrification, power supplies and waters supplies. The adequate
provision of these services will tend to raise the productivity of small farmers as well as stem the
rising rural-urban drift.

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Rural institutional infrastructure includes:

a) Rural organisations such as cooperatives, farmers unions, etc.
b) Rural-based projects such as community projects, etc.
c) Financial institutions such as credit societies, banks, government credit institutions, post office
saving banks, etc.
d) Agricultural research facilities such as research substations, experimentalout lying farms,
schools of agriculture, demonstration plots, etc.
e) Agricultural extension services
f) Crop-animal protection control-grading services.
g) Soil conservation services (Olajide and Falusi 1999)
Essentially, the institutional facilities have to be mobilised or fully financed, or promoted as the
case may be by the public sector or government. It is the ineffective promotion, financial support
and mobilisation of these facilities by government in various parts of Kenya, which is also
responsible for the dearth of small farmers.
Rural farm infrastructure is defined to include:
a) Storage facilities such as silos, warehouses, go-downs, farm bins, open-air storage facilities,
etc.
b) Irrigation water facilities such as dams, irrigation canals and tributaries, bore-holes, drainage
systems, etc.
c) Land clearing and preparation systems
d) Farm inputs supply systems such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
e) Farm roads development/improvement facilities. It is the rural farm infrastructure that is of
direct benefit to the small farmers. It is this class of infrastructure that has to be given immediate
attention as a means of increasing the productivity and aggregate output of small farmers in
Kenya. Most rural dwellers in Kenya derive water from streams and shallow ponds. Bicycles
service as a very important means of transporting rural products to urban market
Effects of Rural Infrastructure
Production Effects
There are three classes of production effects of rural infrastructure. First are the direct production
effects. These include important contribution to increased production of farm and nonfarm
goads, enhancement of productive ability of rural people through better health facilities, better
decision-making by producers through education that provides access to information and
functional literacy, and better farm products arising from the results of research institutions.
Second are the indirect production effects that come from the facilitating role of rural
infrastructural facilities. These include the effects of education on production-distribution
management and the effects of improved facilitates on access to opportunities in decisionmaking, marketing and farm supplies or inputs.
Third is the stabilisation of agricultural production. These effects include farmer operation at
near equilibrium levels of optimum production, control of erratic fluctuations in farm production
through the interplay of research and extension services, stable production and distribution
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arising from workable farm calendar and market outlook information systems, and stable release
of produce arising from provision of dependable storage facilities for the marketable surpluses.
Income Effects
Rural infrastructures direct production effects are translated or transformed into enhanced
incomes emanating from increased output and farm produce due to adequate storage facilities. It
ensures the stabilization of rural farm and non farm incomes. The provision of rural educational
credit and institutional facilities combine to progressively eradicate rural poverty through access
to sources of rural wealth and income generation opportunities.
Welfare Quality of Life Effects
Rural communities require more commodity and input programmes that significantly raise and
stabilise rural incomes in addition to the need for dignity, self-respect, belongingness, social
recognition and social participation to ensure continual improvement in the quality of rural life.
The supplies of communication facilities such as television and redifussion, electricity,
vocational schools and water in rural communities improve the quality of rural life as well as
promote socioeconomic integration. Adequate and timely information via efficient
communication systems helps to develop national consciousness in rural communities and
therefore ensures socio-economic and social stability.
Employment and Resources Allocation Effects
The adequate provision of rural infrastructures creates new employment opportunities through
construction or establishment operations, and direct-indirect effects on farm and non farm
production. There is additional effect of the elimination/reduction of underemployment through
the provision of off-peak nonfarm employment opportunities that facilitate all-season use of rural
labour resources. Furthermore, Rural Infrastructure guarantees and continually improves the
allocation of such resources as land, labour, capital and water in farm and nonfarm rural
enterprises.
Provision of Rural Infrastructure
Considering the above listed benefits and salutary effects of Rural Infrastructure to rural
productivity and socio-politico-economic welfare of our communities, the need arises for an
examination of probable methods of providing adequate the facilities. These probable methods
will be discussed briefly in terms of five major efforts.
1. Governmental efforts: It is essential that governmental awareness of the importance and
effects of rural infrastructure should be matched by equally important expenditures on their
provision.
National state and County government in Kenya will need to ensure that about ten percent of
planned expenditures in the 1990s will to be allocated to rural infrastructural development to
ensure rapid and successful integrated rural development in Kenya.
2. The class of community efforts at contributing positively and significantly to the adequate
provision of rural infrastructure: In the field of environmental hygiene-wealth facilities, rural
77

roads, processing facilities and community development projects, the role of self help
mechanisms with governmental matching grants cannot be overemphasised. The village
approach to the stimulation of community efforts promises the most powerful strategy and tools
for adequate provision of rural infrastructures.
3. Cooperative efforts: Here again, the village approach through cooperatives promises an
effective mechanism for the supply of rural infrastructure. Multiple purpose and single-purpose
cooperatives can through service associations provide rural infrastructure at cost. Examples
include rural electrification, rural water supplies, irrigation supplies, rural telephone services,
rural health clinics, rural transportation services, etc. processing and credit cooperatives
organised on intra-village and inter-village basis constitute an effective mechanism for the
provision of rural infrastructure.

78

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

The Concept of Marriage and Family
The family is usually defined as a kinship group linked by blood and marriage and occupying a
common household. A household is not the same thing as the family. It refers to all persons
occupying the same house. These include relatives as well as lodgers.
The family as a social group is made up of a man, his wife or wives and children living under a
common roof, interacting and influencing the behaviours of each other in a more intimate
manner than with others who do not belong to it.
As a social institution the family entails the formalised, regular and patterned way or process by
which family life is carried out. It involves:
A set of common procedures such as betrothal or engagement, courtship, honeymoon,
wedding
A common set of values and norms e.g. incest taboo which forbids sexual intercourse
with blood relations thereby necessitating marriage outside the immediate family
(exogamy), love between husband and wife in a way different from that which is
expected between brother and sister.
Marriage involves choice of mates. Marriage allows the social relationship in which sexual
expression is expected to take place for the major purpose of procreation. But if much sexual
expression within and outside marriage is for the purpose of sexual urge gratification rather than
procreation, then sex plays an important role in self-fulfillment in both rural and urban areas.
Marriage is sanctioned by the society. It provides the social systems within which social roles
and statuses are prescribed.
Features of the Rural Family
The rural family is characterised by many features such as familism, production and
consumption of goods and services, continuity, size, child bearing and rearing, socialisation,
participation in family decision making, marital expectations and evaluation.
Familism could be described as the degree to which members of the family show solidarity in the
process of performing the multifarious role of the family institution. It involves the following
factors:
The extent to which personal goals are made secondary to be consistent with family goals
The extent to which control is exerted over individual members so that family values are
imposed on each member, who in turn accepts the values
Personal security of individual members of a family which shows familism is generated
by members through their deep sense of integration into the family
It embodies an intergenerational family group in which many generations live under one
roof near one another
Existence of family property such as land, house, shares in companies, animals and farm
crops. This practice discovers ages individualism among members
Continuity of the family ensures that members bring in their children into the fold so that
it does not discontinue when certain members die
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Mutual help exists among members who are assisted to set up their own farms, pay
education costs, dowries, burial and other forms of expenses when the need arises.

The advantages of familism include:

Keeping the children in greater contact so as to deepen affection for one another.
Exercising control over members to protect the family integrity; ethnic and rural
standards; apprenticeship in the family early occupation, which is frequently farming in
the rural area
Assistance in financing early education, purchase of work equipment and marriage
expenses, feeding, clothing and other personal expenses
The disadvantages of familism include:
Self centeredness, which makes a family to always look for the interest of its members,
while it frequently closes its eyes to the consideration of other families
Members tend to be narrow-minded and parochial; the personalities of members are at
about the same level
Families limit chances of allowing members in rural families to take up other occupations
The system of seniority frequently adopted lowers the rate of self-realisation of talented
family members
Whenever a family member violates the norms, the family image rather than that of the
individual is considered as tarnished.
Functions of the Family
The family performs many societal functions to ensure the welfare and progress of its members.
The functions include:
Reproduction of the human species. That is grant life
Care and rearing of the young offspring particularly at infancy and years of dependence.
Education of the children.
Protection from enemies, danger and psychological isolation, provision of love and
affection to reduce tension and frustration.
Care of the aged and disabled family members.
Production and consumption of goods and services.
Moral and financial support to family members in time of joy and trouble.
Social, psychological and material support in time of bereavement, disaster or other
forms or adversities
Provide socialisation. That is, the family equips the individual with the knowledge which
he/she will need in order to plan his/her roles in the society.
Stages in the Family Life of a Rural Farmer
The family life and the farm business life of a rural farmer are intricately interwoven. The
success of one highly influences the viability of the other. However, some stages are
distinguishable in the life a farm family.

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Forms of Marriage
It was earlier said that marriage involves choice of mates. This may be done outside ones group
or blood relations in which case it is described as exogamy, or within some specified group, the
case of which could be described as endogamy.
Where one man and one woman are involved, the marriage is described as monogamy. Where
more than two people are involved, it is called polygamy. Polygamy can assume three forms.
One is the case of one man married to two or more women. This is called polygamy. This is most
common among traditional villagers. This second form of polygamy is one involving one woman
and two or more men. This is known as polyandry and has been identified among very few tribes
in the world.
Levirate Marriage
This is a type of marriage which involves the inheritance of a widow by the deceased husbands
male relations. This form of marriage is based on reasoning that a wife is part of the possessions
of the husband which are passed down the extended family line on his demise. Levirate marriage
is a secondary form of marriage and entails no elaborate ceremony.
Factors Associated With Polygamous Marriage
Polygamous marriage in Kenyans could be attributed to many factors.
Significant among these are:
1. Economic Reasons
In societies where little mechanisation is practised, most economic production is carried out
manually. Therefore, the greater the number of hands available, the greater the productivity of
the family. People who have large areas of farm land usually marry more than one wife so as to
enhance the available free labour force.
2. Religious Beliefs
The Moslem religion permits its adherents who are able, to take as many as four wives. The wellto-do among them have married more than one wife.
3. The Need for Children
Sometimes a man may take a second or third wife if the first is not productive or fruitful. In the
traditional practice, a barren woman in fact, went out of her way to marry another woman for her
husband. In addition, in the traditional society a mans prestige was enhanced by the number of
children in his compound and so the more women he acquired, the larger his compound grew. In
some cases, the need for a male child who would inherit the property of the family also
encourages men to take additional wives.
4. Social or Cultural Obligations
Some men in Nigeria have found themselves with more than one wife purely due to social or
cultural reasons. A successful businessman or traditional leader may be given a girl gratis by
someone who desires to pay homage, indicate respect, seek favour or just seek a closer
relationship with him. Culture warrants that such a gift be accepted gratefully. Similarly, tradition
81

may require that the widows of a relative be inherited by the surviving next of kin. The man may
have married his own chosen wife already, thus he becomes obliged by tradition to take on the
widows of his relations.
5. Gratification of Sexual Needs
Mens sex needs are known to be more imperious than womens sex urge. Thus, men who desire
socially approved sexual outlets when their wives are either pregnant or menstruating take on
additional wives.

82

EDUCATION IN THE RURAL SOCIETY

The Concept of Education
Education is the process of transmitting the socially approved cultural heritage of any society
from one generation to another. It is also the process by which the new knowledge is spread
among members of a society. The cultural heritage and knowledge are transferred through
education. Education as an activity is the process of transmitting and acquiring the socially
approved aspects of cultural heritage.
The school is the social organisation in which education takes place. The process of socialization
or culture learning usually starts informally in the family, churches, mosques, the community and
then formally in schools. Education in the formal sense has come to mean systematic training by
specialists within the formal organisation of the school.
Functions of Education
The functions of educational institutions include the following:
1. The transmission of the culture from one generation to another. This is the normal socialisation
function which involves the teaching of societal values, norms, taboos, rotes, folk ways among
others to the new entrant into the society (Ekong, 1988). This function can be executed within
the family, by peer groups and other primary groups in a community.
2. Bringing about social change via the modification of cultural heritage and development of new
knowledge skills, arts and artifacts.
New knowledge is acquired through research and present experience has shown that
technologically advanced nations invest more on research than developing nations.
3. Training of people for specialised adult roles. This involves learning of new skills through
apprenticeship, acquisition of knowledge, tutorship or indoctrination, or by formal educational
institutions.
This level of education is mostly obtained outside the family and, informal school settings with
some expert teachers (Ekong, 1988).
4. Provision of a setting for school interaction. The school brings people from diverse
background into constant interaction. This thereby fosters the formation of peer groups and
associations which help in moulding the character and future of the individuals involved.
5. Differentiation of people in the society and validation of their social status. In most
contemporary society, the acquisition of formal education and possession of some certificate
ensure the entry of individual into prestigious jobs. That is, the higher the certificate, the more
highly placed the individual within his profession. Therefore the proliferation of professions and
skills and the graduation of diplomas help to put people into various categories. Thus, education
has become a source of class formation as well as social mobility.
Types of Education in Rural Society
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There are various forms of formal educational facilities in rural areas.

These include the followings:
1. Extension Education
This is an informal out-of-school education given to rural families by experts in agriculture,
home economics, health, small-scale industries among others. This type of education is often
known as extension education.
2. Adult Education
This is semi-formal literacy education organised for adults who had no opportunity to acquire
formal education at earlier age.
3. Formal Education
This is the type of education offered at the primary and secondary levels to rural children and
adolescents. At the primary level, two main types of education can be identified. These are the
western type of education
Problems of the Rural School System and their Solutions
The rural school is of fundamental importance in the life of any nation. This is because it is the
area in which basic values, attitudes and other cultural dimensions of a society are transmitted to
the succeeding generations of citizens. Most of these citizens invariably move to the urban areas
to constitute the cream of the society. The rural school experiences many problems when
compared with their urban counter parts. Some of these include:
The pupil teacher ratio is lower in the rural than urban areas.The anxiety to send children to
school is still lower in rural areas than in urban areas. In agrarian societies some reasons are
responsible for this. Some parents want their children to help them on the farm; some parents do
not have sufficient money to give their children even for daily feeding at school; some are not
interested in formal education because they believe that it takes children out of the home after
graduation; instead they prefer their children to remain with them on their farm. In many rural
parts, many parents do not want their children to go to formal school
The average salary of the rural teacher is lower than that of the urban teacher. This is because the
average qualification and experience of the rural teacher is lower than that of the urban teacher.
The average rural teacher is saddled with a heavier teaching load than his urban counterpart. This
is because of frequent shortage of teachers in many subjects, particularly at the high school level.
Teachers, who specialise in a field such as agricultural science, may be required to teach related
science subjects such as chemistry and biology. In the elementary school, many schools in fact
required the same teacher to teach all the subjects because he is considered as competent enough
to handle all the subjects at that level. The outcome is over-loading of the teacher, which
frequently results in inefficiency.
The staff-turn over in rural school is much higher than that of urban school. Staff in rural schools
frequently disturbs the school supervisors to post them to urban schools. Married female teachers
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in particular, prefer to stay with their husbands who frequently live in urban area. Such teachers
are frequently posted to the urban area at the earliest available opportunities.
The physical and teaching facilities in rural schools such as buildings, laboratories, sporting
facilities, toilet and sanitary facilities are often smaller and less efficient than those in cities.
For example, lighting facilities are not in existence in many rural schools whereas urban schools
are supplied with electricity. Pipe-borne water supply is absent in many rural schools, but are
present in many urban schools.
Myopic, limited, traditional and outdated curricula/syllabi often feature in small schools. Much
of the curriculum is not related to solving rural problem. Agriculture and livestock rearing are the
most common occupations in rural areas. Agricultral science was not taught in many rural
secondary schools.
Supplementary materials for teaching in rural schools are marginal or nonexistent. Libraries are
poorly equipped or nonexistent.
Social promotion, a system of moving the students along so as to give chance for the in-coming
group prevails. Such a system results in ill-educated students.
The rate of failure is higher in rural schools than in urban schools. This leads to unfavourable
image of the rural schools to such an extent that educated members of the society are not willing
to end their children there.
Schools are more broadly separated from the homes of the students in rural areas than urban
areas. Some students have to trek about 1-6 kilometers or more from their homes to school. Only
a few rural secondary schools provide buses for their students.
Students in rural schools are often more exposed to manual work than those in urban schools.
They are often asked to spend some hours in the school garden, cutting school fields, sweeping
the school compound, cleaning the school toilet, washing the desks and tables at the beginning of
each semester or term.
Such jobs are often given to hired labourers in some urban schools. Some teachers in both urban
and rural schools at times ask students to work on their personal farms even after school hours.
These types of activities make the students to be too tired to do their assignments or get enough
rest for the following days academic work.
Solution to the Rural School Problem
There are two possible approaches to providing solutions to the problems of rural schools. First
is to alter or change the structure of the rural schools from what they are at present, the other is to
continue with the present arrangement but improve on them. Altering the structure involves
consolidation of schools.
In the United States, since 1879 when the National Education Association Report of the
committee of twelve on rural schools was released, there has been a general agreement among
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educators and social scientists in the country that schools had problems which could be largely
corrected through consolidation of schools. Consolidation is expected to bring the following
merits:
More qualified teachers, more effective supervision and school administrations;
More adequate school located centrally
Use of the consolidated school plant as a natural social centre for its arena;
A large and more heterogeneous range of contacts for rural children;
Increase school attendance;
Improved educational programme based on the social needs of rural children and aimed
at improving them mentally and physically;
Adequate number of children in schools to facilitate healthy competition and social
stimulus in school work, development of group and project work and satisfaction of
extra-curricular activities;
Improvement in adult programmes in areas served by the consolidated schools;
The demerits/criticisms of consolidation are:
Students from low socio-economic background might bring in unwarranted attitudes to
influence other students;
It brings students together in one school with disregard to community interest;
Putting students in buses from one community to another for long periods of the day is
not in their interest. Schools which are consolidated within each community will
eradicate much of the demerits.
The second possible approach to providing solution to the problems of rural schools is to
continue with the present school structure, but improve on it via community efforts. The parentteacher association may take the responsibility for providing solutions to some of the constraints.
This will be in form of cooperative relationship between the school and the community. If the
parents want good quality education for their children, they should play an active role in the
process of providing such education.
The third approach is the establishment of private schools to run side by side with those of
government. Many groups and individuals such as missionary organisations, philanthropic
organisations and private individuals could be allowed to established schools. The government
should give guidelines which are to be followed by these groups and individuals for quality
assurance.
A new approach to providing high quality education at the rural level is the establishment of rural
schools by philanthropic organisations such as the International Lions Club and Rotary Club.
Some of these organisations are so rich and endowed with so many talented members that they
could go into community improvement, which is their major goal through the establishment of
high quality rural schools.

86

RELIGION IN RURAL SOCIETY

The Meaning of Religion
Religion is defined as consisting of institutionalised systems of beliefs, values and symbolic
practices which provide groups of men with solutions to their question of ultimate meaning
death, difficulties, suffering, etc. Milton (1996) has also defined religion as the attempt to bring
the relative, the temporary, and the painful things of life into relation with what is conceived to
be permanent, absolute and cosmically optimistic. Religion is a universal human institution. It
entails a set of basic beliefs and ritualistic practices.
These beliefs and practices however vary from one religious organisation to another and
responsible for the multiplication of religious organisations in society.
Religious practices and thoughts are often associated with descriptions such as power, invisible,
mighty, all-pervasive omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, mysterious, miraculous, supernatural and everlasting being. There is a belief that God who is worshiped through religion does
good things only. There is also a belief that God can do evil to those who violate his rules.
Rural Religion in Kenya
Like in many parts of the developing world, religion is an important aspect of the social life of
Nigerians in both rural and urban areas. There are three major forms of religion namely,
Christianity, Islam (Mohammedanism) and the traditional religion. The first two have many
denominations, while the third has many sub-types.
Christianity
Christianity was introduced during the period of colonialism, first into the southern part of the
country. Today it has spread to many other parts of the country. However, there is a larger
concentration of Christians in the south than in the northern states.
Different Christian denominations have been introduced from Europe and the United States.
These are the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, the Christ Apostolic Church and the
Apostolic Faith. Several indigenous church denominations have been formed also. Some of these
are the African Church, the African Methodist Church, and Church of the Lord, the Cherubim
and Seraphim Church, and the Celestial Church of Christ.
Some other new Churches introduced are the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Students
Christian Movement and the Four Square Gospel Church. The old denominations and the
indigenous groups are more common in rural areas than the new introductions which are largely
restricted to the urban areas.
The rural branches of the denominations are frequently accountable to the church district and
their urban parent bodies. In small towns and cities, the church continues to attract massive
following. With increase in social change of rising aspirations among urban residents, there has
been corresponding increase in crime rate, armed robbery, cases of hired assassinations, and
motor accidents among others. People believe that by moving closer to God, they could be
87

spared of these sources of disaster. Others believe that by moving closer to God, their welfare
and success in life could be ensured.
The Traditional Religion
This religion is observed mainly in the rural areas. The rural inhabitants of the various states still
place much premium on the continued worship of traditional religions. Some of those who claim
to be Christians and Muslims still have traditional gods in their rooms which had been passed to
them from their ancestors to be worshipped.
Functions of Religion
Religion fulfils certain universal functions which include:
1. The explanation of the unknown and irregular physical occurrences e.g. flood, earthquakes,
drought, lightening, etc.
2. The justification of human existence by stating the nature and role of man in terms of supernatural design.
3. Promotion of group solidarity as religion is a cultural possession.
4. The celebration of human achievement. That is, most rituals are connected with some crucial
periods in the society. Examples are puberty, planting of crops, harvest, etc.
5. Strengthening of moral order and promotion of social control.
6. Support for other social organisations and institutions, e.g. schools, hospital, welfare agencies,
etc.
7. The rationalisation of individual suffering in the material world thereby making such suffering
bearable.

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POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AMONG RURAL SOCIETY

The Concept of Political Institutions
Political institutions serve the people of a nation in form of governments in their traditional and
modern forms which exist at the local, state and national levels. They serve executive, legislative
and judiciary functions at each level and also relate citizens to each level of government in the
performance of these functions. Each level of government also relates to the other in a systematic
and coordinated fashion, frequently ensuring a division of labour. A system of political
organisation is fashioned within which the philosophy and methodology of governance and
selection of active participants in the political process evolve.
In more developed societies like the United States, the rural local government is frequently a
continuation of the state or national government political structure. However, the native Indian
tribes had their own system of rural local governance prior to the arrival of immigrants from
Europe and during the early years of European settlement in that country.
Today, much of such structures have been obliterated by the forces of modernisation which have
swept across United States particularly during the last two centuries. Less developed nations or
countries like Nigeria still retain much of their traditional political forms at the local level,
although the modern political structure exists side by side with the traditional forms. The latter
which had influenced the lives of the citizens over a much longer period than the former, still
controls much of the daily activities of the local people.
Unlike some African countries, Kenya did not have institution of political chiefs prior to the
arrival of the British colonialists in that country. Most of the communities were ruled via a
council of elders. In 1902, the colonial administration passed the village headmen ordinance,
which among the other things, provided for the appointment of headmen by the colonial
administrators. They were to rule on behalf of the colonialists at the local level.
Japanese rural area fiefs during feudal times were divided into districts. These were administered
by magistrates who were appointed by the fief government. The districts consisted of villages
Mura. In the urban areas were cities which consisted of wards and villages. Wards were
subdivided into neighbourhoods of five to ten houses, gonin gumi or junin gumi. The district
magistrates linked the fief administration with the people. They exercised legislative, executive
and judicial powers.
Features of the Local Government in Rural Areas
The following features characterise the rural local government in many societies:
1. Resistance to Change
The local government is the institution through which the local people show their political
expressions, thus like other rural institutions it is highly resistant to change. The traditional rural
local governing processes in many societies have remained the same over centuries.

89

Prior to the introduction of the western systems of government in many African countries, the
traditional system of government had even remained the same.

2. Informality
Local government structures and processes are highly informal. They are governed by traditional
mores, practices and relationships.
3. A High Degree of Autonomy
The local government enjoys a high degree of autonomy irrespective of the state or national
government which could be a monarchy, republic, democracy or an oligarchy. This is because
comprehensive local affairs cannot be supervised by the central government which is far from
the local sense. The influence of the central government becomes more effective in governing the
area with increase in transportation and communication, although the high degree of autonomy is
still common in most rural districts of the world.
4. A High Degree of Stability
Even in terms of rapid social change brought about by the activities of the modern central
governments which open up projects in rural areas, change in the traditional rural system of
government is often gradual.
5. Rule by Discretion
This is a common feature where mores predominate the ruling process. Taxation, administration
of justice, maintenance of facilities such as schools, roads and bridges are informally executed.
However, such traditional political institutions have been largely replaced by central
governments with growing difficulties of virtually all societies.
6. Lack of Specialised Political Leadership
Those who lead in other spheres of rural life frequently take the mantle of political leadership.
Seniority in terms of age, wisdom, membership of the lineage of leaders in the community and
social standing, are some of the criteria for becoming a political leader of a village ruling
council. In many Latin American countries like Colombia, there is no financial gain. This is true
of many other rural local governments in other countries.
7. Complement of Formal Local Government
The traditional rural local government frequently helps the formal government in implementing
some of the programmes at the local level. For example, collection of taxes, criminals
identification, prevention of crime; security and safety of the rural dwellers are best ensured by
the village governments, prevention of crime, for example, is carried out by engaging nightwatchmen or vigilantes who are paid by the village residents to help keep vigil, prevent and fight
crime. The number and effectiveness of the police force is so limited, in many other less
developed countries, that their influence in crime prevention is virtually non-existent at the
village level.
8. Subjection to the Control of the Central Government
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The rural local government takes instructions from the formal local government, which it
frequently implements. The formal local government in turn receives instructions from the state
government.
9. Lack of Formal Means of Enforcing its Regulations
The traditional village government depends on mores, folkways, imposition of fine, and similar
informal means of enforcing its regulations. Although its regulations are frequently obeyed
because of the existing spirit of sodality among the inhabitants, disobedient members can
occasionally be forced to comply. With increasing influence of formal political activities at the
village level, disobedient members who are bolstered by party loyalty frequently put the council
in positions of powerlessness to enforce its rulings.
10. Definite Pattern of Governance
The rural local government has its own pattern of governance, communication and decisionmaking. A village crier is instructed by him to call meetings of village heads of households on
important occasions.
Rural Political Participation
The farmers indicate a considerable interest in political participation in their villages. Political
gatherings and campaigns are occasions for large assemblages of rural people to meet. This
encourages solidarity among the rural people. The campaign meetings are accompanied by
drumming, dancing and acrobatic displays to meet important political figures.
Speech-making in support of a political party whose leaders are on such campaign tours is the
main item on the agenda for convincing eligible voters. State and local government level leaders
of political parties meet with village leaders and the electorate from time to time to discuss
political issues. There are frequent occasions for speech making and merriment by farmers,
farmers leaders, state and local government political parties. As rival political supporters
sometimes clash during campaigns, and for the safety of politicians who sometimes attack one
another, thugs are often hired to protect the politicians. This is because police protection is often
inadequate, and because of the design of some politicians to use the thugs to cause trouble for
members of the opposing political party.
The casting of ballot to elect their representatives is a common practice in many countries, apart
from those in which military governments have forced themselves into political power for the
greater part of the history of nationhood. Rural people vote more in relation to the number of
people of voting age than the urban people.
Rural people vote more for personality rather than the party. One party is also more likely to be
favoured by majority of the rural people than urban people who are more likely to divide
themselves among the parties favoured. In Nigeria, party support among rural people has been on
ethnic basis.

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ECONOMIC INSTITUTION AMONG RURAL SOCIETY

The Meaning of the Economic Institution
The economic institution in any culture is often concerned with the
arrangement of relationships between people for the sustained
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services within
that culture or between it and another culture (Mbiti 2003). The family
as we have earlier discussed, is the basic economic unit in any society.
That is, it acts as the basic unit of production and consumption. As a
society advances and becomes more complex, specialisation of
functions often sets in to the extent that the function of production and
distribution of goods becomes transferred to industrial and commercial
firms. The family however, still plays the important role of providing
the labour or manpower for production and distribution within these
organisations.
The basic factors of production in any economy have been identified as
land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Karl (1992), however, holds
that of all these, labour is the most crucial and that labour produces
capital and entrepreneurship. In addition to labour, land is equally very
important.
3.2 The Significance of economic Institutions to Rural
Farmers
The economic institution is one of the most significant dimensions of
rural life. The institution provides the need of the rural farmers in
different ways through provision of credit, provision of land, provision
of labour, purchase of equipments and supplies, and marketing of farm
produce.
These needs are provided in rural communities where family farms
predominate. In this situation, the initiatives of individual and family
farmers are mobiliaed to look for these services for their farm
development.
The foregoing economic services are often performed in rural areas
through established rural organisations such as:
1. Cooperative societies performed through cooperative efforts of
the rural farmers;
2. Government of privately established institutions serving the rural
area like rural banks, government parastatal organisations such as
agro-service centres where farming inputs such as improved
seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, tractor services are made available to
farmers at subsidized rates, cooperations which are established by
the government to produce and market agricultural products,
marketing companies and commodity boards which are to
purchase agricultural commodities from producers and other
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large scale buyers (Akingbade 2003);

3. The efforts of individual farmers who look for these services
from other individuals and groups.
We are now going to discuss each service in more detail.
a) Provision of Farm Credit
Farm credit is money provided to farmers to meet the cost of executing
various operations on their farm enterprises. The money is often spent
on aspects such as project farm planning, acquisition of land where it
cannot be obtained, land survey, labour, procurement of farm inputs and
marketing. Credit is therefore needed at all stages of agricultural
production process.
Credit is provided to farmers in two ways. First is cash credit, which is
money loaned to farmers. Second is credit in kind, which consists of
farm inputs like improved seeds, agro-chemicals, fertilizers and
herbicides, which are given to farmers to cover a part of the loan granted
to farms.
Cash credit is often provided by the Banks. Agricultural Credit
Cooperation and Nigeria Agricultural Cooperative and Rural
Development Banks (NACRDB) in many States in Nigeria, give credit
in both cash and kind to farmers. Collateral security is however required
at times.
b) Acquisition of Land
This is the second manifestation of the significance of the economic
institution in the rural area. Acquisition of land for agricultural and other
economic purposes is of paramount importance. The system of land
tenure in the world falls into two major parts:
i) State ownership and control, and
ii) Individual ownership and control. The former has developed
largely in the communist countries; the latter is predominant in
other parts of the world (Njike 2000). Under the state ownership
of land, allocation of this resource by groups and for various
purposes is usually done by the government. Under individual
ownership, land acquisition is frequently through rent, lease,
borrowing or outright purchase of land.
c) The Land Use Degree
The Ogun State of Nigeria Gazette 27 (1978) was one of the instruments
which published the decree. It stated that it was in the public interest that
the right of all Nigerians to the land of Nigeria be preserved by law. In
addition, it was in the interest of the public that the rights of all
Nigerians to use and enjoy Nigerian land and its natural fruits in enough
quantity to sustain themselves and their families should be preserved.
The right to allocate land to applicants and withdraw such land when
necessary was vested in the Governor of each state. A land use and
allocation committee was set up in each state to advice the Governor on
the implementation of the decree. A land use advisory committee was
setup in each Local Government Area to advise on lands in rural areas
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(Jibowo 1992).
The major criticism of the decree is that it allows the rich land
developers to acquire large areas of land in various parts of the country
without paying much money. The provision of the decree which limits
the area of land which could be acquired should be enforced and
possibly reviewed to reduce the area further which each person could
acquire, so that land could be available for prospective users.
d) Supply of Labour
Rural labour supply for agricultural development in various parts of the
world is through these major sources such as human labour, farm animal
sources, and use of modern machines namely ploughs, harrows,
harvesters mounted on tractors. The source of labour appears to be
indicative of the level of development of each nation. In the
underdeveloped and developing parts of the World, which include the
major parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, reliance is placed on
human labour to execute many farm operations in the rural areas. Land
clearing, cultivation, planting of crops, maintenance operations,
harvesting and haulage are carried out manually (Baldwin 1997).
The tools used include hoes and cutlasses which demand much human
labour. Basket is used for haulage of products from the farm. This
involves carrying of products on shoulder or heads. Transportation
involves trekking on most occasions.
e) Acquisition of Technological Equipment and Supplies
The major essence of agricultural technology is the acquisition of
equipment and supplies for the improvement of agricultural enterprises.
Technology is appropriately described as the study, mastery, ultilisation
and systematic application to industrial arts of the knowledge of
manufacturing methods (Makanjuola,1998). Agricultural technology
may then be defined as the systematic study and application of the
knowledge of manufacturing methods to the development of agriculture.
Agricultural technology exists in many forms. According to Olayide
(1990), agricultural technology falls into one or a combination of many
forms. First is tool-embodied technology, which is symbolised by many
tools and machine such as hammers, weeders, planters, stumping
machines and sprayer. Second is process-embodied technology which is
found as plans, formulae, blue-prints and procedures embodied in the
production and processing of farm goods and services into final
products. Third is process oriented technology which assumes detailed
knowledge of properties of chemicals or physical elements and
accumulated experience of sequence to follow in production. Fourth is
decision oriented technology which encompassed practical knowledge
used by planners, technicians, engineers and producers in analysing
bodies of information to determine the practical sequence which might
be meaningfully arrived at from such information. Many of the tools and
equipment used by the small and large scale farmers belong to the first
form of technology as classified above.
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The technology chosen by the small farmers has to meet some basic
requirements if it is to be effective.
a) Technically Feasibility
It should be able to increase productivity by employing its
technical elements;
b) Social Acceptability
It should be compatible with community structures norms, values
and beliefs;
c) Economic Feasibility
It should be characterised by profitability, compatibility with the
existing farming practices and systems, dependability and
potential for risk minimisation;
d) Infrastructural Compatibility
It should be capable of accommodation by the existing level of
the infrastructure;
e) Other Requirements
It should have employment enhancing and generating potential. It
should make optimum use of basic production resources such as
land, labour, water, capital and entrepreneurship so as to
maximise output.
f) Marketing of Farm Produce
In more developed nations, marketing of agricultural commodities is
carried out largely by specialised marketing agencies. Examples are
food crops, livestock and dairy. Some individual farmers or groups of
farmers engage in the production and marketing aspects of agriculture.
In many less developed countries, however, many farmers operate on a
small scale. They frequently combine both production and marketing of
their farm enterprises.
Storage and transportation of agricultural enterprises are carried out on
the farm. Marketing is carried out at the wholesale and retail levels. In
Nigeria storage is only for some months or short period. Some farmers
use their crops as collaterals for obtaining loans from traders. Food
crops are stored in pots, soil, jute bags, and rafters, hung above the fire
place. Only a few farmers use the steel or concrete silos provided by the
government.
Transportation of food crops in Nigeria is done mainly by head and
lorries. Rail and water transportation are minimal. Water transportation
is common in riverine areas of the country. Transportation costs vary
according to the means used. Transportation problems such as bad
roads, irregularity and excessively high charge of lorries and other
transport facilities prevent smooth transportation of agricultural
commodities from the farm or village to the markets.
Like in many other less developed countries, marketing efficiency is low
in Nigeria. This is because of many problems such as:
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i) Low level of technical efficiency in processing;

ii) Constant price fluctuations;
iii) Inadequate transportation and storage,
iv) Poor market knowledge and information, and
iiv) Lack of standardised quality and quantity measures which
prevents responsiveness of marketing system to consumer
direction and lower efficiency of commodity pricing
(Adeyokunnu 1990).
To improve marketing of agricultural commodities:
(i) The government should establish storage, transportation and
processing facilities at low rate for farmers or by individuals or
groups of farmers themselves;
(ii) Cooperative marketing by producers, traders and consumers
should allow greater systematisation and standardisation of
marketing;
(iii) Marketing education and information should be made available to
all people concerned with marketing so as to arrive at judicious
marketing decisions.
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN RURAL SOCIETY
The Concept of Interaction
Social interaction entails interpersonal contact, reciprocal response and
inner adjustment of behaviour to the action of others (Wood Ward
1991). Social interaction which assumes a repetitive pattern becomes a
social process. Park and Burgress( 1981) defined the social process as
those respective forms of behaviour commonly found in social life.
Commonly identified in this category are the processes of cooperation,
competition, conflict, accommodation, assimilation and acculturation.
This may be grouped further as associative and antagonistic social
processes. The associative types include co-operation, accommodation
and assimilation while the antagonistic types include competition and
conflict. It is however, necessary to note that in practice, these social
processes are not strictly mutually exclusive but exist as reciprocal
aspects of the same social experience.
When some cultures coexist in a society through mutual adaptation, they
are able to do this through the process o accommodation. One culture
may absorb the other through assimilation, when two cultures are
blended, the process involved is acculturation. When all the components
of a culture are uniformly distributed throughout a society, the process
involved is homogenisation. It is thus important that a student of rural
sociology should understand how these and other rural social processes
are operating.
3.2 Types of Social Interactions
3.2.1 Cooperation
As a result of human limitations in respect of time, energy, expert
knowledge and other resources, both individual as well as group goals
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can be more efficiently and less strenuously attained via combined

efforts of two or more individuals. This form of social interaction in
which two or more people work together as a team to achieve a common
goal(s) is termed cooperation.
People cooperate for different reasons. Among these is the need to
obtain personal advantage of benefit as a result of working with others
which the individual would otherwise have found difficult to attain
working all by himself. Cooperation can also arise due to the need to
attain group goals e.g. in community development activities and village
improvement unions.
Situations or circumstances may call for cooperation even among
otherwise antagonistic groups or individuals, e.g. families, village
groups and clans have been known to corporate. They abandon their
differences temporarily in order to jointly fight a common cause.
Physical hazards like flood, landslide, locust infestation or menance of
wild beasts affecting contiguous villages who are otherwise at war with
each other, may call for temporary cooperative action to eradicate the
common annoyance.
Cooperation is thus an interaction which is oriented towards specific
goal(s). This goal may be a shared goal in which case the ultimate
reward is a joint reward and there is a solitary relationship between the
cooperators as in the case of communal land clearing for joint
cultivation. The goals may just be convenient while the rewards are
purely personal in which case the relationship between the cooperators
would be symbolic in nature. The relationship between the doctors and
patients typify this kind of cooperation. The patient needs cure or relief
from pain and disease while the doctor wants the enhancement of his
personal prestige, that of the hospital organisation he works and that of
his profession. These two need each other in order to realise their
individual rewards.
Symbiotic cooperation exists in human interaction. Cooperation is
usually classified as either formal or informal pending upon the level of
spontaneity or deliberate plan involved.
Formal cooperation involves deliberate and rational interaction between
persons or groups. The cooperators may not necessarily be acquired
intimately but cooperate on contractual basis with the expected mutual
obligations being spelt out in advance. In some instances of formal
cooperation, other elements of compulsion or coercion may be involved.
For example in such communal labour as village road maintenance,
village members are supposed to cooperate but any one who fails to turn
up for the work may be fined.
Informal cooperation is more or less spontaneous solidarity behaviour
among members of such primary groups as the family and
neighbourhood. It entails no formal compulsion or contract but may
grow out of the need to give assistance, strengthen filial bonds or for
mere companionship. Generally the cooperators in this case are known
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to one another on an intimate, face-to-face basis and can lay claims on

each others assistance at any time. In Nigeria, among the Ibibio of the
south western part, young girls may combine to do weeding on their
parents farms. Men also cooperate in supplementary labour such as
house building. Rural people in Nigeria cherish cooperation and practice
it in various forms.
3.2.2 Competition
Competition is that form of social interaction in which people struggle
for the possession of material and non-material rewards which are in
limited or scarce supply. In polygamous families, the wives compete for
the affection of the husband and children often compete for the attention
of their parents. In village, people compete for offices and recognition
and occasionally also compete for fame through organised sports and
games. In Nigeria today, the number of people requiring place in
schools and universities far out numbered the existing facilities thereby
leading to competition for admission. Therefore, entrance examinations,
aptitude tests, interviews, and payment of non-refundable deposits are
all methods of eliminating competitors to the barest minimum.
Competition thus serves to allocate scarce resources. It also sharpens
individual initiative and may enhance productivity.
In its ideal form, competition should be impersonal. That is, the major
focus of attention should be the scarce reward rather than other
competitors. When the reward is very limited in quantity however,
competition tends to be keen thereby engendering hostility between
competitors. This personalised form of competition is often known as
rivalry.
The negative aspect of competition is that it may breed hostility and
animosity on the part of the loser towards the winner. Thus rather than
foster systemic linkage, competition, may lead to systemic isolation.
Systems that must work together must therefore minimise competition.
People generally do not like competition. Monopoly, division of market,
price fixing and fair-trade laws are techniques for reducing business
competition. In some bureaucratic organisations, promotion on the basis
of seniority rather than productivity has been utilised to limit
competition. In some cases, these anti-competitive practices are
supported by governmental action while in some others, they are
opposed.
3.2.3 Conflict
Conflict is a form of social interaction in which the actors seek to obtain
scarce rewards by eliminating or weakening other contenders (Ekong
1988). This may take the form of a fist fight, threats, legistilation or total
annihilation.
In Nigerian village communities conflict may arise where there is
difference of opinion between group leaders or in situations where one
group tends to be exploiting the other. Conflict between personalities
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may lead to group quarrel and the division of the village into several
fractions. Challenge to the security of the village may also engender
conflict, for example land dispute. This often triggers off a strong group
defence reaction resulting in the reappearance of old alignments with
each group trying to obtain dominant position over the other.
Relationship to a single act by an individual if followed with a rebuttal
may soon grow into group conflict e.g quarrels between children often
bring the mothers into conflict.
In community work, proposed changes or innovation may be viewed
apprehensively and as a challenge to the status quo thereby engendering
conflict. Similarly, the use of pressure group by a certain part of the
community to gain an advantage over the rest may result in conflict. The
change agency may be regarded by the disadvantaged section or part of
the community in such a case as biased.
Individual conflicts may entail intensive feeling of animosity towards
each other. Conflicting individuals may refuse to greet each other or do
anything together. However in group conflict, there may not be illfeelings
against any particular individual. The interest of the group as a
whole rather than individual relationship determines conflict alignment.
Conflict has both negative and positive effects. Its negative effects
include the disruption of social unity; generation of bitterness which
may lead to destruction and bloodshed, generation of inter-group
tension; disruption of normal channels of cooperation and the diversion
of members attention from group goals.
Until there is an overt conflict, people may not know that certain wrongs
or nagging issues exist. Therefore, conflict leads to a clear definition of
issues. Once such issues have been identified they can then be amicably
resolved. During conflict, group cohesion and solidarity increase and
this positive effect can be directed for a more efficient attainment of
group goals. In addition, conflict keeps the group alert to members
interest and such awareness helps to prevent future conflicts.
3.2.3.1 Conflict Resolution
Persons and groups who must work together must minimise conflict
between them. There is no specific formula for resolving conflict but
there are certain general procedures and approaches which might be
used either by themselves or in combination. Generally, the first aim in
conflict resolution is to minimise the feeling of difference and calm
down the contending parties thereby creating a conducive atmosphere
for the parties to coexist or work together until a more permanent
solution could be found for their difference. This temporary working
agreement between parties in conflict is the process of accommodation.
It enables two strangers or parties to live together and form a family.
Accommodation may take different forms depending upon the
circumstances and the qualities of the group involved. Gupta (1989)
identified eight major forms. These include the truce, displacement,
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institutionalised release of hostility, compromise, super ordination,

segregation, third party roles in compromise and toleration.
1. Truce
This is a term used to describe a temporary cessation of hostilities
without the issues being settled so as to give the conflicting parties time
to either re-group, attend to certain religious rites or observance or for
solution to the conflict to be ironed out. Therefore, a truce may be
declared for a specific number of days or for an indefinite period. For
example, during the Nigerian Civil War, a truce period was often kept
whenever a major peace conference was to be held.
2. Displacement
This is a process of ending one conflict by replacing it with another
usually via a process of scapegoating. For example, a woman may pick a
quarrel with her husband or man friend for infidelity or unfaithfulness
only to later make up by blaming a third party for peddling unfounded
stories which led to the misunderstanding in the first place. By so doing
they transfer the hostility between them to a third party, who now is the
scapegoat. Scapegoating results in immediate redirection of hostilities
and may lead to a more lasting resolution of the conflict if the
contending parties are firmly convinced of the culpability of the
scapegoat.
3. Institutionalised Release of Hostilities
This is a process whereby parties in conflict are given the opportunity to
release their hostilities either on each other or on other objects. Usually,
the process is either formally arranged and or guided by certain
expressed or implicitly understood norms. Among many ethnic groups
in Nigeria, wrestling matches are organised both for entertainment and
as occasions for formal release of hostilities. Disputants in some cases
may engage in the use of abusive language on each other. However, in
all instances, the disputants are bound by societal norms. Similarly in
wrestling and boxing, the rules of the game must be observed.
4. Compromise
When domination or complete defeat is unlikely to be attained by either
of the parties in conflict, they may want to accept less than the full goals
they had originally aimed at in order to end the conflict. This is the case
of compromise. Compromise often occurs between equally powerful,
antagonists. When one party is more powerful but continued conflict
seems disadvantageous, compromise can still be reached but with the
more powerful party conceding less to the weaker party.
5. Super-ordination
This involves the ending of conflict through the total defeat and
submission of one group by another. Institutionalised methods of
releasing hostilities may lead to super ordination as one party may be
declared the champion. However, super ordination may or may not on
its own, involve fighting according to rules (i.e. it is not
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institutionalised). When people are given the chance to release their

hostilities, the immediate objective may not be that of establishing
speaking order among them but that of giving vent to their annoyance.
6. Segregation
In situations, where parties in dispute stubbornly refuse to yield to any
conciliatory moves by third parties, they may be segregated or placed far
apart from each other either to allow tempers cool down or place a
permanent distance between them in order to maintain peace in a social
system. In the past, segregation in most traditional Nigeria communities
used to take the form of banishment or exile, or selling of the unyielding
party to slavery.
7. Third Party Roles in Compromise
In rural areas generally, whenever there is quarrel, other members of the
family compound and neighbours would intervene to bring peace
between the disputants. The third party may be an individual, usually an
elderly person than either of the disputants or a group of people, who
have some influence over them. In marital disputes for instance,
extended family members on either side may play the third party.
8. Toleration
In this case, the contending parties agree to disagree knowing that
neither of them can or should win. People accept each others right to
differ because certain values may be too much cherished to be
compromised or victory may be too costly to bear. Most social systems
maintain their identities because of the willingness of people to tolerate
each other.
3.2.4 Accommodation
This is the adjustment by a person or group to a conflict or threat,
resulting in the recognition and acceptance of the relations which define
the status of a person or persons in the groups or a larger social
organisation. Subordination and super-ordination accompany
accommodation when people mix up or mingle. In the rural family, the
father is the superior. He normally controls the actions of others. In his
absence, the mother steps into his shoes. In her absence, the eldest child
takes over the mantle of family leadership. When the culturally
acknowledged leader speaks, others accept his authority, listen and obey
his instruction. The existing pattern of accommodation has enabled each
person to accept his status in the group.
The share-cropping system is that in which a farm is given temporarily
for a share cropper to maintain on behalf of the farm owner. Each has
accepted his position in the process of accommodation involved. This
process is still practised in many rural areas of the world. It was widely
practised in the United States rural areas immediately after the civil war,
but has been abandoned since the world war after widespread
mechanisation began (Jibowo 192).
Another form of accommodation between the labourers and the farm
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owners was to receive cash wages from the farm owners for labours
carried out on the field. This form of accommodation is widely in use in
many developing countries. In Nigeria, hired labourers are frequently
paid agreed-upon wages on daily basis. Such a rate differs slightly from
one community to another depending on economic situation of each
place. In general, the nearer a rural area is to a large city, the higher the
labour wage rate. Also, the nearer a rural community is to an industrial
community, the higher the rate of hiring labourers.
3.2.5 Assimilation
This is the process by which people of diverse cultural and racial origins
achieve enough social solidarity in the same geographical territory to
maintain a nation. An immigrant has been assimilated when he has
acquired enough cultural traits with others. Assimilation involves a
socio-political connotation as well. A person may acquire all the cultural
traits of the new society, but may not be accepted or assimilated for
socio-political reasons. According to Smith and Sopf (1990), some black
people have acquired all the while peoples culture in the United States,
yet they have not been assimilated into the society. Similarly, the sharecropping system in the southern United States about 3-4 decades ago
assimilated the white share croppers into the share-cropping culture. The
social class, expectations, labour and other features which characterised
the black share-croppers also characterise the white share-croppers.
In Nigeria, many people of the Ibo origin from states such as Imo and
Anambra have been assimilated into the Yoruba subculture. They were
born in Lagos, spent most of their lives there, except that they
occasionally visit their home towns for Easter and Christmas
celebrations. They went to school and picked up employment among the
Yoruba people in Lagos. When they speak Yoruba, wear Yoruba dress
and interact with Yoruba people, it is not easy to know that they are of
Ibo parentage. Some of them have also been assimilated into the Hausa
subcultures. These were the children of those who went to the north to
trade. The rate of assimilation of Ibo into Hausa culture was reduced by
the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 and religious crises of the 1990s,
which made many Ibo people to leave the north for their homes.
Assimilation of Yoruba into Ibo and Hausa subcultures as well as Hausa
into Ibo and Ibo subcultures is also going on, but at a slow pace.
3.2.6 Acculturation
This is the acquisition of new cultural traits by individuals or groups and
the use of these in their new patterns of living. Acculturation has no
biological connotation involved in it. However to some sociologists,
assimilation involves some biological mixing of people with the new
culture. Introduction and diffusion of new agricultural innovations
(technologies) is a form of acculturation in many societies because it
involves blending the culture of the country from where the technology
was developed with that of the recipient society, in relation to the
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specific farm practice. An example is the introduction of the hybrid

maize into Nigeria through the Institute of International Tropical
Agriculture (IITA). IITA is expected to have a widespread impact on the
maize production culture in Nigeria. The techniques of producing this
maize is expected to influence the cutlass-hoe system of maize
production by many farmers in Nigeria.
Acculturation also refers to changes in culture arising from constant
contact with other cultures. In Nigeria today, European modes of
dressing and a number of other forms of foreign culture have greatly
changed the indigenous culture due to constant contact.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
The Meaning of Rural Development
Rural Development is the transformation of the rural community into socially, economically,
politically, educationally, orderly and materially desirable conditions, with the aim of improving
the quality of life of the rural population. The workshop on Rural Development in Africa and the
workshop group on integrated approach to Rural Development (1996) defined Rural
Development in terms of uniform distribution of national resources.
It conceived of Rural Development as a comprehensive way of social transformation which
recognises that national development must involve all parts of the population. Furthermore, it
was defined as a socio-economic process which seeks to bring about a more equitable
distribution of resources and incomes within a society.
It involves the integration of the rural poor, which constitutes the large majority of the population
of most developing countries, into the national economy. In many developing countries,
agriculture constitutes the occupation of a large majority of rural people. Therefore, agricultural
development is an important aspect of Rural Development. Many industries also use agricultural
raw materials. For example, the textile industries use cotton; canning industries use fruits and
vegetables; beverage industries use cotton, cocoa, coffee and tea; vegetable oil industries use
vegetables; animal products industries use diary, cheese, butter, broiler, sugar industries utilise
sugarcane. Rural industrialisation is thus a significant aspect of rural development.
Goals of Rural Development
Rural Development aims at attaining some goals or objectives in the rural community. Some of
these are:
1. Improved distribution between the rural and urban areas to bridge or narrow the differences
between the two parts of the society.
2. Provision of welfare needs in forms of housing, health and infrastructural facilities such as
clean and regular water, motorable roads and supply of electricity.
3. Full and productive employment in rural area/community. This is to change the situation in
which many rural people are under-employed and operate only at the subsistence level, so that
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they can apply their full productive capacities and generate commensurate benefit from their
efforts.
4. Increased productivity via sensitisation of the rural people to their potentials for development,
and acquiring education and training needed to translate the potentials into productive efforts.
5. Increased food production. This is the primary agricultural development dimension of rural
development. It is expected to lead to a state of improved quality and quantity of food available
to the citizens.
6. Wide diffusion of literacy so as to allow rural people participates intelligently in the political,
economic and social activities of their society.
The foregoing goals can be achieved through coordinated planning and implementation of rural
development programmes at the local, state and national levels. National integrated philosophies,
policies and procedures for rural development will help facilitate the efforts.
Strategies for Rural Development
A rural development strategy is a systematic, comprehensive and reliable tool aimed at bringing
about desirable rural transformation. A strategy for rural development is expected to produce
results; therefore it is tested and found effective under certain circumstances before being
introduced under similar circumstances in another setting.
Its expected effectiveness could be due to the fact that it is developed from tested variables. It
could also be because it is developed on the basis of experience which had worked.
The strategies which have been adopted for rural development by many developing countries,
according to Williams (1998) include:
1. Community development
2. Agricultural extension, and
3. Integrated rural development.
Community Development
Community development aims at using the rural people to develop themselves through selfinitiative and motivation, with minimum assistance from government. It aims at social
development such as prevention and control of juvenile delinquency, and community
development through self-help projects, health and nutritional improvement projects and similar
projects. It involves community members in planning and implementing programmes for their
own development.
It stimulates or encourages government and other development agencies to provide technical
advice and materials in planning and implementing the projects. The multi-purpose community
development agent who is trained in many aspects of community life such as health, agriculture,
education, cooperatives, is stationed at the local level where he works with local people.

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To achieve this, the community development worker needs to make use of the services of
specialised agencies of government in the rural areas. This is because it is not easy for an agent
to be skilled in different areas calling for development attention in the rural sector.
The problems in utilising this approach include these:
a) There is often no formal coordination between the agencies working at the local level, thus the
community development agent has no power to enforce cooperation by other development
agencies;
b) It is not very easy for one person to be effectively trained in all sectors of rural development;
hence the community development agent may become ineffective.
Education which is the cornerstone of all forms of development should be provided. Therefore, it
is advisable that rural people are educated on how to develop themselves. Even when
infrastructural facilities are provided, the rural people should still be educated on how to
maintain them and even introduce others to them.
Agricultural Extension
Agricultural extention aims at helping rural farmers to bring about agricultural development. It
achieves this by facilitating education of farmers to improve their skills, knowledge and attitude
as related to agricultural development.
It passes the results of research on how to solve the problems of agriculture to farmers and
encourages the application of these as well as other improved technical knowledge in agriculture
by farmers. It takes the problems of farmers to the research institutions for solutions. It uses
demonstration farms, farm visit, audiovisual aids and methods in teaching farmers.
Agricultural extension concentrates on agricultural development and encourages related
development agencies to extend their services to the rural areas; community development tries to
provide some of the services. The trainings received by the village level agricultural extension
worker and community development agents are thus aimed at equipping them to perform their
various roles.
Ineffectiveness in promoting agricultural development is a glaring deficiency of the agricultural
extension strategy. The main reasons for this include.
a) Inadequate number of extension agents who are to teach farmers improved farm practices;
b) Inadequate credit facilities to buy farm inputs;
c) Lack of proper use of local leaders to assist extension agents in teaching farmers;
d) Lack of adequate planning of extension programmes;
e) Inadequate motivation of extension agents. If these and similar problems are vastly solved,
extension should become an effective instrument for agricultural development.
Integrated Rural Development
Integrated rural development strategy combines the development of the various areas of the rural
society including educational, agricultural, health nutrition, rural electrification, rural water
supply and cooperative simultaneously. The strategy also aims at improved employment, access
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to production resources, access to social services, and management of development resources.

The distinguishing feature of this strategy is that the various development sectors are considered
jointly together rather than in isolation in order to see their relationship clearly.
The utilisation of this strategy involves increased mobilisation and motivation of rural people to
participate actively in decision-making process concerning their progress and in the development
activities.
There should also be established institutional relationships which will facilitate the development
of the sectors. Rural development councils should be set up at the national, state and local
government levels to educate people, clarify difficulties and mobilise moral and financial support
for rural development. Government has set up a directorate of foods, roads and infrastructure
which is charged with the responsibilities for specially facilitating food production, road
construction and provision of other rural infrastructural facilities such as electricity and pipeborne water supply to the rural area.
Many agencies and institutions employ the integrated-strategy for rural development. Some
church denominations have agricultural and related rural development projects in Nigeria.
Universities have also embarked on integrated rural development on experimental basis.
Approaches to Rural Development
Approaches to rural development are the geographical and the subject matter of rural
development. Three approaches could be identified namely:
1. The sectorial approach
2. The holistic approach and
3. The regional approach
The Sectoral Approach
In the sectorial approach, rural development efforts are geared towards developing the different
sectors of the rural society. Efforts are made to identify the significant sectors such as the
agricultural, health, education and infrastructural sectors of the rural society. Development
efforts are then focused on one sector.
This tradition had tended to favour the development of agricultural sector, which had been
regarded as the most important sector of the rural society in developing countries, because
majority of the rural population of these countries are engaged in it.
Experience with this approach had led to some problems such as:
a) There had been strong criticism of this approach by the professionals from the other nonagricultural sectors.
b) The agricultural sector has not been substantially developed partly because of its relationship
with other sectors which have not been assisted or supportive.
The Holistic Approach
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This approach attempts to develop all the sectors in a given area simultaneously. The
agricultural, health, education, and infrastructural sectors are developed at the same time. The
problems with this approach are:
(a) Inadequate coordination of the development activities in the various sectors;
(b) Inadequate number of specialised and technical manpower to implement the prgrammes, and
(c) Inadequate financial resources to implement development programmes
Regional Approach
In the regional approach to rural development, a society is stoned into development regions
which are most suited for establishing certain development projects.
In Kenya, for example, while production of potato might be developed in the dried savanna parts
of the country, cocoa, kola nut and oil palm production are naturally encouraged in the rain forest
areas of the country. Infrastructural facilities are developed all over the country.
The major demerits of this approach is that it ignores the fact that scientific rural development
aims at bringing development facilities to rural areas where they do not exist originally, apart
from developing the potentials where they naturally existed. Example of this is that water could
be channeled into the desert for crop, livestock and human consumption. Also, fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides, improved seeds and other scientific inputs are similarly introduced to
boost production.
This results in establishment of human settlement, institutions, organisation and industrial
establishments. Another constraint is that some regions might be ignored while others are
developed or favoured on the ground of political advantage
Stages of Rural Development
The change agent should first of all clarify the concept of rural development to be embarked
upon. This must be compatible with the needs and aspirations of the community to be helped. An
adequate concept of rural development in a democratic and developing society like Nigeria
should aim at permanent development of the skill, knowledge, attitude, sensitivity, consciousness
required to improve the target system educationally, socially, economically and psychologically
along with the physical and biological features of their environment.
When this concept is clarified the worker can then embark on five stages of rural development
namely:
1. Enquiry
2. Planning
3. Implementation
4. Adjustment, and
5. Evaluation.
Enquiry
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At the stage of enquiry, emphasis should be on how to obtain reliable and valid information
about the community where the programme is to be implemented and the neighbouring
communities. The resources available within and outside the community in terms of number and
quality of personnel, local and external financial aid available have to be determined.
The characteristics of the community and its surroundings, their needs and aspirations among
other information should be determined. The information can be collected through personal
observation, survey, history and records of local events.
Planning
The planning stage should depend widely on the information collected at the enquiry stage in
formulating rural development objectives and methods of implementing them. You should
evaluate the results which the programme might generate. The planning stage should involve the
administrators of the programme, the change agents, farmers representatives and related officials
of the agency.
The planned project is kept as a flexible and modifiable document to allow changes for
improvement. Too much emphasis on agricultural development is avoided unless the programme
is conceived mainly as agricultural development project. Industrial development and nonagricultural vocations, saving and investments, cleanliness, environmental sanitation and
beautification might be added. Adjustment programme should be included in the plan.
Implementation
At this stage the plan is followed with concrete action. Infrastructural development should be
given priority at this stage. Where a substantial amount of infrastructural facilities and natural
resources existed before the statement of the programme, success would be better assumed.
Rural development is a complex assignment which requires full-time staff.
The role of any part-time staff should be supplementary to the major role needed to realise the
objectives of the programme.
Adjustment
For effectiveness, the change agent has to understand the community and its resources and start
within the framework of the existing social structure. Even when the programme implementation
is in progress, collection of information on the progress of the programme continues.
The timing of the project along with other areas of the plan and calendar of work have to be
followed. When modifications or adjustments are made, they have to be communicated to all
people concerned with the project. Change could be traumatic. It is thus necessary to implement
the programme designed to assist the target population adjust to the development exercise.
Evaluation
This should in fact be a continuous exercise. The programme should be at least evaluated about
half way in its implementation to make necessary in-process modification and at the end to
determine accomplishments and provide information from which the programme could benefit in
future.
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Predicaments of Rural Development

In spite of the efforts which various institutions have made in trying to develop the rural area,
there is the general dissatisfaction that the rural area is still generally backward in many
societies, especially the less developed countries. This state of limited development could be
associated to many constraints which have confronted rural development planning and
implementation.
The following problems in the rural development planning by African governments were stated
in the report of an international workshop on designing rural development strategies (1995).
1. Poor statistical base for effective planning
2. Wrong view of small farmers who are considered as irrational and incapable of making
progress on their own initiatives, although small farmers produce most of the food consumed in
Africa. 3. Lack of commitment to rural development as indicated by expert oriented planning at
the expense of local food production for local consumption.
4. Top-down planning in which few top administrators make decision on rural development
programme planning and disseminate this down for implementation.
5. Planning without implementation and implementation without planning of programmes.
6. Lack of plan monitoring and evaluation, thus there is no systematic way of determining
programme accomplishments, facilitating effectiveness and efficiency. In addition to the
foregoing design problems, other rural development problems are stated below:
7. Rural development programmes on one hand traditionally concentrated on agricultural
development to the neglect of the other sectors and projects, a situation which has resulted in the
problem of over-loading and consequent ineffectiveness and inefficiency.
8. Rural development projects being carried out by educational and research institutions suffer
from lack of full attention of the researchers and educators to rural development. This is because
their primary concern in the community is much.
9. Many rural development projects also suffer from shortage of resources and infrastructure.
When plans are made for delivery of these, hardly are the plans adhered to. Resources such as
land, labour, personnel, buildings, equipment and financial capital are scarcely obtained as
anticipated.
10. Inadequate understanding of the rural community such as its structure of influence,
communication and decision-making, patterns, existence of functions, norms and values by the
change agent. This is because they rarely live with the rural people. However, adequate
understanding is an important foundation for collective work in rural communities.
11. Lack of follow-up. Many rural development programmes have collapsed shortly after the
withdrawal of the change agent system. This is due to lack of systematically implemented follow
up after the expiration of the initial period planned for the programme.
The main aim of rural development workers is to provide and implement solutions to the above
related problems. It is then that the state of dissatisfaction can change to relative satisfaction with
advances in rural development.

Poverty reduction in Rural Bangladesh through microfinance and poultry development

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Bangladesh is a global centre of excellence in microfinance. Its microfinance programmes have

been acclaimed worldwide for their success in providing poor people with access to credit. It has
been shown that a series of successive micro-loans can not only lift a household out of poverty,
but with over 90 percent of the loans being to women, also lead to considerable empowerment
and improvement in the position of women at the household level. In 2006, Dr. Muhammad
Yunus and the Grameen Bank, the pioneers of microfinance in Bangladesh, were awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
The role of PalliKarma-SahayakFoundation in microfinance
Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) is the worlds largest apex lending and capacitybuilding institution in the field of microfinance. It presently services about 200 microfinance
institutions, many of them NGOs. The loan portfolio is US$ 275 million and the total number of
members is 7 million. On the assumption of five members per household, this indicates an
outreach to 35 million people. In microfinance programmes the borrowers repayment rates are
typically high at 98 percent or even higher. PKSFs repayment rate to the government is 100
percent.
PKSFas a partner in the use of poultry as a development tool
PKSF has worked with donor and development organizations such as the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), Danida and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in projects
that use, or have used, poultry as a tool in human development. The background to this is that
poultry production adds more value than any other industry accessable to poor women and their
families. The following points are also important:
that the government has declared poultry as a thrust sector and classified it as an agro-based
industry;
that the government has liberalized its policies by introducing easier loan procedures, lower
interest rates, and tax holidays; and
that poultry production contributes to poverty reduction, to the generation of new employment,
and to peoples nutritional status.
The Joywo Platform for Women Development in Rural Kenya
JOYWO is a Kenyan registered non-governmental organization (NGO) formed to empower
Kenyan women economically and enhance house-hold food security among them through
supporting their involvement in livelihood projects. JOYWOs flagship projects have been
providing financial resources to women to engage in livelihood projects through a scheme
known as TABLE BANKING. This continues to be one of its core strategic interventions as it
also addresses other key issues viz a viz; access to markets for livelihood projects, enhancing
growth of womens small scale investments and finally strengthening identification and
incubation of diverse livelihood projects. Four years since its establishment, Joyful Women
Organization has grown steadily to support the welfare of women countrywide in the fight
against poverty. This intervention scope sets JOYWO on the path of realization of its mission.
Strategic Intervention Areas.
1. Strengthening livelihood projects.
2. Enhancing access to financial resources.
3. Strengthening market access.
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4. Supporting investment growth.

5. Enhancing capacity of JOYWO.
Table-banking is a group funding strategy where members of a particular group meet once every
month, place their savings, loan repayments and other contributions on the table then borrow
immediately either as long term or short term loans. The women use the money borrowed as
capital for their livelihood projects.
The interest gained from the loans remains with the group and is eventually shared as bonus and
dividends. The women use the money borrowed as capital for their livelihood projects. Tablebanking was initially developed by the Poverty Eradication Commission (PEC) under the former
Ministry of Planning and Vision 2030, targeting MDG 1 on eradicating abject poverty, especially
in rural settings in Kenya. Table-banking takes on the model of the Grameen bank of Bangladesh
and the village savings and loans schemes of Zanzibar.
Table-banking was first piloted in Gatanga and Bondo constituencies. The results were very
impressive but the government did not continue with the roll out there after. JOYWO adopted
and implemented it in Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Kakamega, Trans-Nzoia, Bungoma and Nairobi.
Reports from the said areas indicated ever-rising demand for Table-banking. The success stories
from these areas have been impressive necessitating the need for a Country-wide roll-out of the
programme.
Capacity building has been one of the activities used as a tool to empower our members on
issues related to group dynamics, entrepreneurship, business skills, record keeping and many
other areas relevant to our area of operation. With the help of our development partners, we have
been successful in diversifying agricultural production and entrepreneurship skills. Women now
own companies, doing horticulture, green house farming, passion fruit and chili, together with
the normal maize, wheat and dairy production.
Issues of Rural Development and the SACCOs
SACCOS (Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies) as of now are predominant form of
external financing for small and micro enterprises in most of the developing counties (Kenya and
Tanzania inclusive). Contemporary studies show that SACCOS role towards developing these
small enterprises is increasing rapidly. Considering their contributions; this paper also unveils the
constraints to SACCOS development in these countries.
In Kenya, SACCOS have been noted to contribute over 45% GDP, and it is estimated that at least
one out of every two Kenyans directly or indirectly derives his /her livelihood from these kinds
of cooperative movements. On the other hand, in Tanzania cooperatives (including SACCOS)
through financing of SMEs contributes about 40% to the countrys GDP and employs 94.7% of
school leavers every year, majority of these SMEs in rural areas depends on co-operative
movements for external financing. The rapid development of SACCOS in both countries has
been caused by growth of the private sector; which hugely demands external financial resources.
SACCOS in the two countries have more or less similar constraints including: lack of welltrained
officials and proper administrative framework, bureaucracy, inability to raise vast financial
resources and many others.
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THE RURAL COMMUNITIES

The Concept of a Community
A community is an aggregation of families habitually living together within a definite
geographical location, more or less rooted on the soil they occupy, living in a state of mutual
interdependence, supporting some basic social institutions and having some measures of political
autonomy in relation to other communities. The term community has been used equally to denote
something both psychological and geographical. Psychologically, it implies shared interests,
characteristics or association as in the expression Community of interests, the business
community, the academic community or a farming community.
Geographically, it denotes a specific area where people cluster. However, the sociological
definition of a community combines the two meanings and denotes a people within a common
locality having shared interests and behavioural patterns. Such shared interests and behavioural
patterns show mainly in the areas of:
1. Production, distribution and consumption of good
2. Socialisation
3. Social control
4. Social participation and
5. Mutual supports (Warren 1996).
The community is particularly characterised by the organisation of these functions on a locality
basis. A locality group, the community is made up of families living together within a definite
location and interacting on a face-to-face basis. However, in large communities, all members
may not know each other to interact on a face-to-face and effective manner, but members interact
in the use of common institutions and facilities, and maintain a consciousness of oneness through
the sharing of common values, norms, traditions, prejudices and sentiments.
Farm people live in village communities; some of these are small while others are large. In either
case, they interact and affect each others behaviour in a manner which is different from the way
they affect those who do not belong to these communities.
Community Life Process
This is the process in the life of a community, by which the people plan and act together for the
satisfaction of their felt needs. Its primary purpose is to bring about change for better living,
through the willing cooperation of the people.
Its aims are:
1. To educate and motivate people for self-help;
2. To develop responsible local leadership;
3. To inculcate a sense of citizenship and a spirit of civic consciousness;
4. To initiate self-generative, self-sustaining and enduring process of growth;
5. To introduce and strengthen democracy at the grassroots level;
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6. To enable people to establish and maintain cooperative relationships;

7. To bring about gradual and self-chosen changes in the life of a community.

Its significant components are:

1. Agriculture;
2. Irrigation;
3. Education-including literacy;
4. Rural industries;
5. Health programmes;
6. Housing programmes;
7. Social welfare programmes;
8. Youth programmes;
9. Womens programmes;
10. Cooperative;
11. Training of village leaders and
12. Employment programmes.
Characteristics of a Community
1. Shared Bonds of Fellowship
This is a feature that distinguishes some people from others. It may be typified by the demand of
obligations from citizens and the conferment of benefits upon them.
2. Set Standards or Patterns of Behaviour
This refers to the psycho-social situation that arises when people perform mutual actions and
reactions upon one another. Such interaction is incessant, and no citizen can wholly cut himself
off from such social relations.
3. A Common Culture
This is the aggregate of the social, ethnical, intellectual, artistic, governmental and industrial
attainments of a community, and by which it can be distinguished from any other community.
4. Shared Territory
A community occupies a territorial area, within which its members live and develop the ways of
life that give the community the different features that tend to make its identity easily
recognisable.
5. Shared Beliefs
Shared beliefs are nurtured and cherished by the people in the development of their common
ideals, objectives, attitudes and values.

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RURAL SOCIAL CHANGE

Political Change
This deals with the change on the distributions and operating mechanisms of social and political
power within the social system. For example, some of our traditional societies had a monolithic
power structure with recognised chieftains
With the arrival of the British, chiefs were created where none ever existed; later on with
independence, provinces, regions, districts, local government areas among others were
introduced which completely changed the preexisting political boundaries and structures. The
laws of the land became a centralised issue and law enforcement and maintenance of peace and
order were removed from the immediate jurisdiction of the traditional leaders. Therefore
erstwhile powerful traditional rulers have now been reduced in power status to mere titular
heads.
Western concept of democracy has also been introduced into the political system thereby making
citizens of today more aware of their rights and to challenge and eschew any form of
authoritarianism. These are all, political changes.
Technological Change
Technology entails ways of applying scientific and other organised knowledge to practical task.
Technological change therefore is a continuous process of change within technical material and
physical practices in a culture.
Technological changes are evident in our society in the areas of:
a) Transportation, where river crafts have been modernised for greater speed and comfort, head
portage and use of animals have been replaced with lorries, trucks, railway trains etc, narrow foot
paths have been replaced by wide mechanised thoroughfares;
b) Communication, where oral transmission of messages by personal contact or through
messengers has been replaced by the postal system, newspapers, wireless and electronic media;
c) Health, where traditional healing based on superstitions beliefs in supernatural forces has been
largely replaced by scientific medicine and hospital care;
d) Education, where socialisation by imitation and direct teaching of basic skills has been
enriched by formal instructions in schools using books containing scientific knowledge and other
scientifically designed audio-visual equipment;
e) Economy, where traditional farming has been transformed through the introduction of cash
crops, improved breeds of crops and livestock, agricultural chemicals, improved processing and
storage techniques;
f) Leisure, where specific scientific knowledge has been applied in the enrichment of the quality
and variety of leisure and recreational facilities now abounding in our society. The cinema,
television, various games and sports, etc. are direct results of technological change;
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g) Housing, where traditional houses constructed with mud, sticks and leaves are gradually
giving way to permanent structures constructed out of cement blocks, iron, glass and other
products of modern technology. These are just a few areas where a great deal of change has taken
place as a result of technology.
Cultural Change
Culture consists of material and non-material aspects. Cultural change is thus interactions in the
non-materials and artifacts of the society. The material aspects of cultural change are mainly
technical. Examples are use of aluminum cooking pots instead of clay pots, use of metal eating
plates and utensils instead of clay plates and wooden utensils, use of clucks and wrist watches to
observe time instead of observing the position of the sun and relying on cock crow.
The change in non-material aspects of culture are also numerous. If the institution of the rural
family is considered as social system in terms of its elements and processes, the cultural changes
which had taken place can be elucidated with some examples. The norm of not calling elders by
their name still persists as a reflection of the value of respect for age which is universally
resistant to change.
Premarital virginity has declined as a value with increased contact of rural females with more
people beyond their communities. Sanctions, are exercised largely by the police and the courts
when these are beyond the control of the family and the community elders. The change from the
traditional way of worship which entailed the recognition of several gods (Polytheism) to
Christianity and Islamism which emphasise one god (monotheism) is a good example of cultural
change.
Behavioural Change
This may also be regarded as part of cultural change but it specifically embraces changes arising
from the influence of education on the attitude and overt reactions of people. Behavioural change
includes favourable change in the knowledge, skill, and attitude of people as a result of their
exposures to educational experiences.
Residents of rural areas are often exposed to information which had led to acquisition of better
knowledge, skill and attitude in the economic and social spheres. Agriculture is the major
occupation of rural people. Improvements in knowledge of crop and livestock pest and disease
control measures, higher yielding crop varieties, better spacing of crops, weeding, cultivation,
harvesting storage and marketing operations had taken place.
The skill to practice such knowledge is also taught largely by extension workers via the method
demonstration technique, various attitudes such as clearing of livestock pens without getting
scared by the odour of droppings, handling young animals such as piglets without developing the
goose skin, waking up early in the morning to take care of livestock, are also learned.
Characteristics of Social Change
A basic characteristic of every society is change in nature. Societies are in a continued state of
change. We have to always be conscious of the time frame and identify the time span and take an
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analytical assessment of what people have written before arriving at a conclusion. Social change
has the following characteristics:
Space and Time Characteristics
In analysing any change process, the researcher must specify both the geographical location and
the period of time. If it is not done, level of generalisation becomes very high.
Resistance to Change
In any change process, there will be some forces which will be resistant to change. These forces
tend to promote status quo even though there may be very strong forces working towards change.
Forces like industrialisation, urbanisation or scientific innovation will promote change. But
processes like socialisation and social control will attempt to maintain the same status quo. In
any change that you want to introduce, there must be resistance.
Differential Rate of Change
It is important to understand that not all societies or all parts within a given society change at the
same speed. Urban areas may change faster than rural areas; educational characteristics may
change faster than religious characteristics. We have to realise that societies change at different
rates.
Change is Inevitable
It is normal, necessary and expected. Since people have different ideas, there are bound to be
changes.
Unchanging Elements in a Changing Society
We do have certain bias, beliefs (religions) that we do hold on to, something that can give a
certain kind of meaning. We hold on to them as a kind of security. There are certain things that
people hold onto even though the society keeps on changing. The importance is that when there
is a change and the rural people still hold on to their beliefs and values, you have to realise that
there are some elements of importance to it and allow them to hold on to it.
Subjective Nature of Progress
Change itself can be evaluated objectively, but progress requires a subjective evaluation as to
what is an improvement. What you may see as progress may not be progress at all to others.
Improvement must not be from the agricultural agents perspective alone but from the ruralites
perspective too.
Planned and Unplanned Changes
Many of the changes societies go through are unplanned but as the societies become more
complex with different challenges they meet, the need for planning becomes more acute.
Therefore, it is no longer acceptable to simply wait for what will happen or to hope for the best,
but we must actively seek for solution to our increasing complex problem.
Sources of Change in the Society
Social changes are brought about mainly through invention, diffusion and discovery.
Invention
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This involves the recombination of existing cultural traits to fashion new things and the rate at
which this takes place is directly related to the existing cultural base;
Discovery
It is the sharing with others of a perception of a fact, object or relationship which has always
existed but was not known. Therefore, discovery can enhance the cultural base in a society and
thus the rate of invention.
Diffusion
It involves the spread of cultural traits from one group to another. Cultural diffusion takes place
both at the material and non-material levels and this process has been enhanced today by:
a) Increased and more efficient communication facilities
b) The speed at which people can now travel from one part of the world to another and c) The
existence of specially trained personnel for the diffusion of innovations.
Other sources of social change in the Nigerian society include:
Religious Institutions
These have brought changes mostly in the world view of individuals through formal preaching,
indoctrination and the use of metaphors to convert people from one way of life to another, and by
the opening and support of formal educational institutions where a great number of Nigerians
have submitted to instructions in many aspects of life which together has remolded the benefiting
population.
Government Polices
A number of changes have been brought about in the Kenya society generally, via governmental
policies.
Application of Science and Technology
Technology implies the application of scientific knowledge to the solution of specific task. The
patterns of daily life in most rural settlements have changed considerably today as a result of
rural electrification and water supply schemes. A variety of alien food and cash crops have been
accommodated within the traditional farming systems and we now raise and enjoy exotic breeds
of livestock all as a result of research and improved technology.
Natural Physical Forces
These include natural forces like wind, flood, drought, erosion, insect and pest infestation and all
such elements of the physical and biological environments. Erosion and floods have necessitated
the relocation of villages while excessive droughts have caused the migration of the whole
population within a region. These physical forces generally inflict disaster (which is a change in
its own right) which then calls for the application of other mechanisms to bring about solution.
Urbanisation
The growth of urbanisation or cities has meant the attraction of youths and school leavers to
urban areas. Within the cities themselves, increase in population, rise of industries, increase in
retail and wholesale trades, etc. have called for great adjustments on the part of urban dwellers.
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Factors Influencing the Rate of Change

The rate at which a society changes and the magnitude of change at any particular time differs
from society to society depending upon a number of factors viz:
Physical Environmental Factors
These include climatic changes, winds, soil erosion, floods, landslides and earthquakes, etc.
which may drastically change the way of life of a people or cruse great reduction in their
population.
Migration and Population Changes
The movement of people from one place to another brings them in contact with new cultural
traits prevalent in other areas. Therefore social and cultural changes are greater in societies where
there is constant emigration and immigration. Small rural societies which are more or less closed
to strangers generally change more slowly.
The Culture and Structure of Society
When specific cultural traits become tightly inter-woven with others in a mutually
interdependent manner, change in that direction becomes almost impossible For example, to the
cow Fulani, the cattle is not only an economic asset but a cultural object. His prestige or respect
in the society depends upon the size of his herd and he obtains a wife with the exchange of cattle
as the bride price.
Asking him to reduce the size of his herd for any reason at all would become a direct challenge
to his social status and he would strongly oppose such a change. Similarly, societies in which
tradition and custom dictate responses to present issues, very old people are given leadership
positions and status mainly ascribed, and tend to change much more slowly than one in which
individualism is accepted, and status is achieved and stratification is low and flexible.
Prevailing Attitudes and Values
A society that changes rapidly is one in which its members are critical and skeptical of aspects of
its traditional culture and are ready to accommodate and experiment with new ideas. Therefore a
society which censors the art, music, ideas or technology originating externally and suppresses
all those that do not conform to its internal norms and values will change more slowly than one
which is liberal.
The Emergence of Great Men
Occasionally, great men appear in some societies-i.e. men with a mission and vision, strong
willed men. In the Luo Community, there were men associated with supernatural spirits e.g.
Lwanda Magere (whose power was in his shadow), Gor Mahia (who could turn into anything he
wanted in order to avoid people). The emergence of such men may cause a great deal of change
within the society. In contemporary Africa, military leaders have emerged from time to time
sweeping changes in their different countries. Where such men have arisen more social and
cultural changes have taken place than other places, where there has been relative stability under
the same leadership.
Perceived Needs
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The types of changes which a society emphasises are determined by the need it perceives. If
Nigeria perceives food storage as a problem, it will emphasise changes in the agricultural
production system, if its perceived need is in the area of science and technology, it will tend to
concentrate its power and investment in that direction.
Relative Isolation and Contact
Societies which have close contact with other societies change more rapidly than those that are
isolated. Areas of inter-cultural contact are thus centres of change whereas isolated areas are
generally centres of stability and conservatism.
Cultural Base
This refers to the accumulated knowledge, techniques and trait in a culture. As knowledge
techniques and traits accumulate, an increasing number of inventions become possible within the
society. In some cases important socio-cultural changes have had to wait until the supporting
gaps in knowledge and technique are filled. For example, the cure for sickle cell anemia, cancer
and other terminal diseases which would greatly influence the longevity of millions of people are
still waiting research and new knowledge.
Discoveries and inventions in one field usually cross fertilize other fields. For example, the
various inventions and discoveries arising as by-products of the space programme in the U.S.A.
have enriched advances in agriculture, medicine and other technical areas.
Theories of Social Change
Theory has been described by Homans, (1950) as the form in which the results of observation
may be expressed. It is thus a generalized conceptualization, a body of logically interdependent
generalized concepts with empirical reference. Parsons has identified two functions of theory,
description and analysis.
Analysis involves causal explanation and the generation of general laws. Social thinkers have
from antiquity formulated broad theories of social change. Among early theories are those that
base change on divine determination, holding that changes occur in the social world on the basis
of mans obedience or disobedience to the will of God.
Man was blessed for good deeds and punished for his ill deeds and changes for improvement or
deterioration of his lot in his social world accordingly took place through divine determination.
Early Greek social philosophers explained change as development from the original nature of
man; man was considered social by nature and changes evolved because of such nature. Others
felt that man, while born well as a creation of God, degenerates by his own actions. Thus change
was conceived as a departure or development of man from his original nature.
Social change through a series of developmental stages, theological, metaphysical and positive,
was the theory of August Comte, the father of sociology. Darwins theory of biological evolution
influenced the thinking of sociologists, like Gumplowicz, Ward, Sumner, Keller and
Ratzenhoffer, who applied such thinking to social change. The various explanations of social
change may be classified as belonging to theories of causation, theories of process or theories of
functional analysis.
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Theories of Causation
These major theories can be grouped on the basis of four factors:
1. Geographic determinism
2. Biological determinism
3. Economic determinism
4. Cultural determinism
Theories that explain social change in terms of some feature or features of the natural
environment constitute theories based on geographic determinism. Arnold Toynbee and
Ellswooth Huntington are among the leading exponents of such theories. Theories that explain
social change on the basis of traits or characteristics of the human organism are referred to as
biological determinism. Included in such theories are those contained in doctrines of racial
superiority and inferiority.
Such theories generally were popularized by writers, and Adolf Hitler followed this theory in his
book Mein kampf. Theories that consider economic factors such as production, demand and
supply as the bases of social change are referred to as economic determinism. Cultural
determinism refers to theories that seek to explain social change as a result of some element or
elements of cultural heritage. Max Weber and Williams, F. Ogburn are two sociologists who have
expended theories based on cultural determinism.
While contributing much to early understanding of social change, these four single factor
theories are now largely without support.
Theories of Process
These theories of social change have been classified into:
1. Linear theories conceive of social change as an unfolding line. The concept of evolution is the
basic influence in the formulation of the linear theory. August Comte, Lewis Henry Morgan, and
Hebert Spencer are among the formulators of such evolutionary theories of social change.
Sociology actually began with evolutionary theory, and much of contemporary sociology bears
the imprint of the 19th century evolutionary theories.
Evolutionary theory in the 19th century drew heavily upon the biological sciences; although few
theorists went so far as Comte in drawing analogies between the social organism and its
biological counterpart, the biological sciences clearly provided many models for would be
science of society. Karl Marxs theory of development of a classless society may also be
classified under linear theories. Conflict theorists conceive of social organization, as arising in
response to a scarcity of desired resources. For Marx, these resources were economic in nature
the means of subsistence, or property generally. Marxs propositions concerning the historical
development of class conflict derive from his observation of historical data and seem to fit the
data well.
2. Cyclic theories stress the undulating character of social change. Each phase of the cycle
emerges from the previous phase and gives birth to the next phase. Toynbees cyclic theory
consisted of three phases - the state of social equilibrium, the transition to disequilibrium, and the
disequilibrium leading to a new state of equilibrium.
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3. The trend model is another way expressing the linear theory. Social change is characterised by
an overall trend that exists in spite of minor fluctuations and variations. The trend of movement
of society was described by Tonnies as transition Gemeinschaft to Gessellschaft or communal to
associational society. The sacred traditional orientation of communal society in its trend gives
way to associational society that is characterized by secularism, rationality and a more pragmatic
approach
Theories of Functional Analysis
Social change is conceptualized as a social function. Functional analysis emerged from
evolutionary theory, but Durkheim gave it its present form. The determination of function is
necessary for the complete explanation of social phenomena. To explain a social fact, Durkheim
writes, is not enough to show the course on which it depends, we must also show the functions in
the establishment of social order. Radchiffe-Brown (1949) later reasserts this Durkheimean
conception when he argues that the function of any social phenomena should be perceived in
terms of the contribution of those phenomena to maintenance social order. Rather than engage in
the formulation of theories of social change, sociologists instead follow the approach of studying
change as a class of social phenomena. Following this approach, efforts are to identify, describe
and measure social change to be able to identify the social and other environmental conditions
that underlie it. The phenomena comprising social change are thus subjected to study and
analysis as other social phenomena that are the object of sociological study.
Modernization Theory
Interest in the concept of development flourished after the Second World War. This interest was
however more consciously influenced by the work of liberal economists, although the ideas of
evolution, progress and stages characteristic of work of the earlier philosophers remained
important elements in the understanding of the concept.
The work of economists became influential because the problem of development came to be
specifically associated with the issue of alleviating the problems of non-Western Societies as
these problems were perceived by Western nations and indigenous leaders. In the post-war era
many of these nations were gaining political independence from their colonial masters and it was
understood that changes must occur within these societies where they would break out of the
depressing cycle of unemployment, illiteracy, diseases, poverty, and so on. In short they must be
set on the path of development, with the assistance of theory and empirical studies in their
problems.
Modernization is not a fixed condition. It is often seen as a period, a period of transition during
which a society sheds its traditional characteristics and become dominated by Modern types of
institution and action. The functionalist theory of social change is the theoretical foundation of
all the modernization perspectives.
Theories of Social Change:
Among the theories of social change we shall study the theories regarding:
(i) the direction of social change and (ii) the causes of social change.
The Direction of Social Change:
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Early sociologists viewed the culture of primitive peoples as completely static, but this was
abandoned with the appearance of scientific studies of preliterate cultures. Anthropologists now
agree that primitive cultures have undergone changes although at such a slow pace as to give the
impression of being stationary.
In recent years the social change has proceeded at a very rapid rate. Since World War I numerous
countries have passed through profound changes not only in their political institutions but in their
class structures, their economic systems, their modes of living. Various theories have been
advanced to explain the direction of social change. We take a brief consideration of each of them.
Theory of Deterioration:
Some thinkers have identified social change with deterioration. According to them, man
originally lived in a perfect state of happiness in a golden age. Subsequently, however,
deterioration began to take place with the result that man reached an age of comparative
degeneration. This was the notion in the ancient Orient.
It was expressed in the epic poems of India, Persia and Sumeria. Thus, according to Indian
mythology man has passed through four agesSatyug, Treta, Dwapar and Kaliyug. The Satyug
was the best age in which man was honest, truthful and perfectly happy.
Thereafter degeneration began to take place. The modern age is the age of Kaliyug wherein man
is deceitful, treacherous, false, dishonest, selfish and consequently unhappy. That such should be
the concept of history in early times is understandable, since we observe deterioration in every
walk of life today.
Cyclic Theory:
Another ancient notion of social change found side by side with the afore-mentioned one, is that
human society goes through certain cycles. Looking to the cyclic changes of days and nights and
of climates some sociologists like Spengler believe that society has a predetermined life cycle
and has birth, growth, maturity, and decline.
Modern society is in the last stage. It is in its old age. But since history repeats itself, society
after passing through all the stages, returns to the original stage, whence the cycle again begins.
This concept is found in Hindu mythology, a cording to which Satyug will again start after
Kaliyug is over. J.B. Bury in his The Idea of Progress, pointed out that this concept is also found
in the teachings of stoic philosophers of Greece as well as in those of some of the Roman
philosophers, particularly Marcus Aurelius.
The view that change takes place in a cyclical way has been accepted by some modern thinkers
also who have given different versions of the cyclical theory. The French anthropologist and
biologist Vacher de Lapouge held that race is the most important determinant of culture.
Civilization, he maintained, develops and progresses when a society is composed of individuals
belonging to superior races and declines when racially inferior people are absorbed into it.
Western civilization, according to him, is doomed to extinction because of the constant
infiltration of foreign inferior elements and their increasing control over it. The German
anthropologist Otto Ammon, the Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain and American
Madison Grant arid Lothrop Stoddard also agreed with the view of Lapouge which may be called
the theory of biological cycle.
Spengler developed another version of cyclical theory of social change. He analysed the history
of various civilizations including the Egyptian, Greek and Roman and concluded that all
civilizations pass through a similar cycle of birth, maturity and death. The western civilization is
now on its decline which is unavoidable.
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Vilfredo Pareto propounded the theory that societies pass through the periods of political vigour
and decline which repeat themselves in cyclical fashion. The society according to him, consists
of two types of peopleone, who like to follow traditional ways whom he called rentiers, and
those who like to take chances for attaining their ends whom he called as Speculators.
Political change is initiated by a strong aristocracy, the speculators who later lose their energy
and become incapable of vigorous role. Thus ruling class eventually resort to tricks or to clever
manipulations and they come to possess individuals characterized by the rentier mentality. The
society declines, but at the same time speculators arises from among the subjugated to become
the new ruling class and overthrow the old group. Then the cycle begins.
F. Stuart Chapin gave another version of cyclical change. He made the concept of accumulation
the basis for his theory of social change. According to him, cultural change is selectively
accumulative in time. He wrote, The most hopeful approach to the concept of cultural change
would seen to be to regard the process as selectively accumulative in time and cyclical or
oscillatory in character. Thus, according to Chapin, cultural change is both selectively
accumulative and cyclical in character. He postulated a hypothesis of synchronous cyclical
change. According to him, the different parts of culture go through a cycle of growth, vigour and
decay.
If the cycles of the major parts, such as government and the family, coincide or synchronize, the
whole culture will be in a state of integration, If they do not synchronize, the culture will be in a
disintegrated condition. Growth and decay, according to Chapin, in cultural forms are as
inescapable as they are in all living things.
Relying upon data drawn from the history of various civilizations, Sorokin concluded that
civilizations fall into three major types namely, the ideational, the idealistic and the sensate. In
the ideational type of civilization reality and value are conceived of in terms of a supersensory
and super-rational God, while the sensory world appears as illusory.
In a word, ideational culture is god-ridden. In the idealistic type of culture, reality and value are
regarded sensory as well as supersensory. This is a synthesis of ideational and the sensate. The
thought and behaviour of man are partly anchored in the materialistic and are partly anchored
with the other world.
In the sensate type of culture the whole way of life is characterized by a positivistic, materialistic
outlook. Reality and value are merely what the senses perceive and beyond sense perception
there is no reality. The western civilization, according to Sorokin, is now in an overripe sensate
phase that must be supplanted by a new ideational system.
In recent times Arnold J. Toynbee, the noted English historian, has also propounded a cyclical
theory of the history of world civilization. He maintained that civilizations pass through three
stages, corresponding to youth, maturity and decline. The first is marked by a response to
challenge, the second is a time of troubles, and the third is characterized by gradual
degeneration.
He was also of the view that our civilization, although in the state of final downfall, can still be
saved by means of proper guidance by the creative minority by which he meant a select group
of leaders who withdraw from the corrupting influences, commune with God, become spiritually
regenerated and then return to inspire the masses.
The above concepts of the cyclical nature of social change may be called theories of cultural
cycles. They are as a matter of fact the result of philosophical rather than scientific studies. The
authors of these concepts begin with presumptions which they try to substantiate by marshalling
a mass of data from history.
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They are philosophical doctrines, spun from the whole cloth, however heavily documented and
illustrated by distorted historical evidences. Barnes, while appraising Toynbees work, wrote, It
is not objective or even interpretative history. It is theology, employing selected facts of history
to illustrate the will of God as the medieval bestiaries utilized biological fantasies to achieve the
same results. Toynbee s vast materials throw far more light upon the processes of Toynbees
mind than upon the actual process of history.. He writes history as he thinks it should be to
further the cause of salvation, rather than as it has really been.
Linear Theory:
Some thinkers subscribe to the linear theory of social change. According to them, society
gradually moves to an even higher state of civilization and that it advances in a linear fashion
and in the direction of improvement. Auguste Comte postulated three stages of social change: the
Theological, the Metaphysical and the Positive.
Man has passed through the first two stages, even though in some aspects of life they still
prevail, and is gradually reaching the Positive stage. In the first stage man believed that
supernatural powers controlled and designed the world. He advanced gradually from belief in
fetishes and deities to monotheism.
This stage gave way to the Metaphysical stage, during which man tries to explain phenomena by
resorting to abstractions. On the positive stage man considers the search for ultimate causes
hopeless and seeks the explanatory facts that can be empirically observed. This implies progress
which according to Comte will be assured if man adopts a positive attitude in the understanding
of natural and social phenomena.
Herbert Spencer, who likened society to an organism, maintained that human society has been
gradually progressing towards a better state. In its primitive state, the state of militarism, society
was characterized by warring groups, by a merciless struggle for existence. From militarism
society moved towards a state of industrialism. Society in the stage of industrialism is marked by
greater differentiation and integration of its parts. The establishment of an integrated system
makes it possible for the different groupssocial, economic and racial, to live in peace.
Some Russian sociologists also subscribed to the linear theory of social change. Nikolai K.
Mikhailovsky opined that human society passes through three stages; (1) the objective
anthropocentric, (2) the eccentric, and (3) the subjective anthropocentric. In the first stage, man
considers himself the centre of the universe and is preoccupied with mystic beliefs in the
supernatural. In the second stage, man is given over to abstractions; the abstract is more real to
him than the actual. In the third stage, man comes to rely upon empirical knowledge by means of
which he exercises more and more control over nature for his own benefit. Solo-view conceived
of the three stages as the tribal, the national governmental, and the period of universal
brotherhood.
Pritirim Sorokin in his concept of variable recurrence has attempted to include both cyclical and
linear change. In his view culture may proceed in a given direction for a time and thus appear to
conform to a linear formula. But eventually, as a result of forces that are internal within the
culture itself, there will be a shift of direction and a new period of development will be ushered
in. Perhaps the new trend is also linear, perhaps it is oscillating, perhaps it conforms to some
particular type of curve. At any rate, it also reaches limits and still another trend takes its place.
The description given by Sorokin makes room for almost any possibility, deterioration, progress
or cyclical change and, therefore, sociologists find little quarrel with his description. But at any
rate, Sorokins variable occurrence is an admission that the present state of sociological
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knowledge does not warrant the construction of theories regarding the long-run trend or
character of social change.
Whether contemporary civilization is headed for the scrap-heap via internal disintegration or
atomic warfare, or is destined to be replaced by some stabler and idealistic system of social
relationships cannot be predicted on other than grounds of faith. The factual evidence which is
available to us can only lead us to remark that whatever direction social change takes in future,
that direction will be determined by man himself.
The Causes of Social Change:
Above we have discussed the direction in which social change has taken place according to the
writers. But none of the above theories strikes the central question of causation of change.
Among the causal theories of social change the deterministic theory is the most popular. Now we
take a brief review of this theory.
Deterministic Theories of Social Change:
The deterministic theory of social change is a widely accepted theory of social change among
contemporary sociologists. According to this theory there are certain forces, social or natural or
both, which bring about social change. It is not reason or intellect but the presence of certain
forces and circumstances which determine the course of social change.
Sumner and Keller insisted that social change is automatically determined by economic factors.
Keller maintained that conscious effort and rational planning have very little chance to effect
change unless and until the folkways and mores are ready for it.
Social change is an essentially irrational and unconscious process. Variation in the folkways
which occurs in response to a need is not planned. Man can at most only assist or retard the
change that is under way. It was Karl Marx who, deeply impressed by the German philosopher
Hegels metaphysical idealism, held that material conditions of life are the determining factors of
social change. His theory is known as the theory of economic determinism or the materialist
interpretation of history.
Briefly put Marx held that human society passes through various stages, each with its own welldefined organisational system. Each successive stage comes into existence as a result of conflict
with the one preceding it. Change from one stage to another is due to changes in the economic
factors, namely, the methods of production and distribution.
The material forces of production are subject to change, and thus a rift arises between the
underlying factors and the relationships built upon them. A change in the material conditions of
life brings changes in all social institutions, such as state, religion and family.
It alters the primary socio-economic relationships. To put in his own words, Legal relations as
well as forms of state could neither be understood by themselves, nor explained by the so- called
general progress of the human mind, but they are rooted in the material conditions of life
The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political
and spiritual process of life.
It is not the consciousness of man that determines their existence, but on the contrary, their social
existence determines their consciousness. Thus the economic factor is a primary one in society,
for all social phases of life are dependent upon it and are almost entirely determined by it.
According to Engels, a close associate of Marx, The ultimate causes of all social changes and
political revolutions are to be sought not in the minds of men, in their increasing insight into the
eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the mode of production and exchange. According to
Marx, the social order has passed through five phases called the oriental, the ancient, the feudal,
the capitalistic, and the communistic.
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The modern capitalistic system has been moving towards its doom because the conditions it
produced and the forces it unloosed make its disintegration inevitable. In it the class struggle is
simplified, revealing itself more and more into the clear-cut conflict of two great classes, the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
As Marx puts.. The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the
ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. But not only has the bourgeoisie forged, the
weapons that bring death to itself, it has called into existence the men who are to wield those
weaponsthe modern working class, the proletarian. Coker has beautifully summed up the
tendencies of capitalism in the following words.
Thus the capitalist system enlarges the number of workers, orings them together into compact
groups, makes them class conscious, supplies them with means of inter-communication and cooperation on a worldwide scale, reduces their purchasing power, and by increasingly exploiting
them arouses them to organised resistance. Capitalists acting persistently in pursuit of their
natural needs and in vindication of a system dependent upon the maintenance of profits, are all
the time creating conditions which stimulate and strengthen the natural efforts of workers in
preparing for a system that will fit the needs of working mens society,
The resulting social order will not reach its full development at once but will go through two
stages. In the first, there will be a dictatorship of the proletariat during which the proletariat will
rule despotically and crush out all the remnants of capitalism. In the second, there will be real
communism, during which there shall be no state, no class, no conflict, and no exploitation.
Marx visualized a society in which the social order will have reached a state of perfection. In that
society the prevailing principle will be from each according to his capacities, to each according
to his needs.
Marxs theory of determinism contains a great element of truth but it cannot be said to contain
the whole truth. Few deny that economic factors influence social conditions of life but few hold
that economic factors are the only activating forces in human history. There are other causes
obviously also at work.
There is no scientific proof that human society is going through the stages visualized by Marx.
His claim that man is destined to attain an ideal stage of existence is little more than visionary.
His theory of value and its corollary of surplus value, his theory of the sole productivity of labour
as such, and his law of the accumulation of capital are derived from an outmoded, abstract and
narrow doctrine of the equivalence of price and cost which has been now rejected by modern
economists.
Moreover, Marxs thesis of the relation between social change and economic process is based
upon an inadequate psychology. In a way it may be said that an inadequate psychology is
perhaps the fatal weakness of all determinisms. He does not tell us as how change is reproduced
in the modes of production. He speaks as though the changing technique of production explained
itself and was a first cause.
He gives a simple explanation of social change and ignores the complexities of habituation on
the one hand and of revulsion on the other. He simplifies the attitudes that gather around
institution; the solidarities and loyalties of family, occupation and nation are subjected to those of
economic class. He as a matter of fact has not squarely faced the intricate question of social
causation. That the economic changes and social changes are correlated, none may deny. But to
say that the superstructure of social relationships is determined by the economic structure is
going too far.
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Russell writes, Men desire power, they desire satisfactions for their pride and their self-respect.
They desire victory over rivals so profoundly that they will invent a rivalry for the unconscious
purpose of making a victory possible. All these motives cut across the pure economic motive in
ways that are practically important. The deterministic interpretation of social change is too
simple.
A number of social thinkers opposed to the theory of economic determinism consider nonmaterial elements of culture the basic sources of social change. They regard ideas as the prime
movers in social life. The economic or material phenomena are conceived to be subordinate to
the non-material. Gustave Le Bon, George Sorel, James G. Frazer and Max Weber held that
religion is the chief initiator of social changes. Thus Hinduism, Budhism and Judaism have had a
determining influence upon the economics of their adherents.
The theory of religious determinism has been criticised by Sorokin in his Contemporary
Sociological Theories. He posed the question; If all social institutions change under the
influence of the changes in religion, how, when and why does religion change itself? According
to Sorokin change is caused by the interaction of the various parts of a culture, none of which
may be considered primary.
It means that change is pluralistic rather than monistic in origin. But this pluralistic theory of
social change is initiated in the material culture and thence spreads to other spheres. Change is
caused not only by economic factors but is also largely automatic in nature.
A number of sociologists have held that social change can be brought about by means of
conscious and systematic efforts. Thus, Lester F. Ward asserted that progress can be achieved by
means of purposive efforts of conscious planning. Through education and knowledge intellect
can assert itself over the emotions so that effective planning is made possible.
Natural evolution, according to Ward, is a slow process, whereas intelligent planning accelerates
the processes of nature. Charles A Ellwood agreed with Ward that progress is promoted by
education and knowledge. Lund-wig Stein, a German sociologist and philosopher, and L.T.
Hobhouse, an English sociologist, also expounded theories closely resembling Wards.
They expressed the view that progress can be achieved through the control of material factors by
the mind. Human affairs are amenable to control by reason and, therefore, rational element in our
nature must be developed so that it may be utilized as a factor in the evolutionary process.
IV. Processes of Social Change:
The term Social change itself suggests nothing as far as its direction is concerned. It is a
generic term describing one of the categorical processes. It only suggests a difference through
time in the object to which it is applied. Social changes are of various types and can be explained
by different terms such as Growth, Progress, Evolution, Revolution,- Adaptation, and
Accommodation, etc. Here we shall consider only two terms, i.e.. Progress and Evolution.
The Meaning of Evolution:
Evolution is a process of differentiation and integration. The term evolution comes from the
Latin word evolvere which means to develop or to unfold. It is equivalent to the Sanskrit
word vikas. It means more than growth. The word growth connotes a direction of change but
only of a quantitative character, e.g., we say population grows.
Evolution involves something more intrinsic, change not merely in size but at least in structure
also, for example when we speak of biological evolution, we refer to the emergence of certain
organisms from others in a kind of succession.
Evolution describes a series of related changes in a system of some kind. It is a process in which
hidden or latent characters of a thing reveal themselves. It is an order of change which unfolds
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the variety of aspects belonging to the nature of the changing object. We cannot speak of
evolution when an object o system is changed by forces acting on it from without.
The change must occur within the changing unity as the manifestation o forces operative within
it. But since nothing is independent of the universe, evolution also involves a changing
adaptation of the object to its environment, and after adaptation a further manifestation of its own
nature. Thus, evolution is a continuous process of differentiation-cum-integration.
The concept of evolution as a process of differentiation-cum integration was first developed by
the German sociologist Von Bae and subsequently by Darwin, Spencer and many others. Spence
writes, Societies show integration, both by simple increase c mass and by coalescence and
recoalescence of masses. The changes from homogeneity to heterogeneity is multitudinously
exemplified; from the simple tribe, to the civilized nation full of structural and functional
unlikeness in all parts. With progressive integration and heterogeneity goes increasing
coherence simultaneously comes increasing definiteness.
Social organisation is at first vague; advance brings settled arrangement which grow slowly more
precise; customs pass into laws, which while gaining fixity, also become more specific in their
application to variety of actions, and all institutions, at first confused] intermingled, slowly
separated at the same time that each within itself marks off more distinctly its component
structures. Thus in all respects is fulfilled the formula of evolution. There is progress towards
greater size, coherence, multiformity and definiteness.
Herbert Spencer thus prescribes four principles of evolution these are:
(i) Social evolution is one cultural or human aspect of the law of cosmic evolution;
(ii) Social evolution takes place in the same way in which cosmic evolution takes place:
(iii) Social evolution is gradual;
(iv) Social evolution is progressive.
Social evolution does not always proceed by differentiation:
But the point at issue is whether this process of differentiation-cum-integration is sufficient to
explain the general march of society excluding thereby any other kind of interpretation. Ginsberg
writes, The notion that evolution is a movement from the simple to the complex can be, and has
been, seriously disputed. In every field where we find the forces of differentiation at work, there
the opposite trends are also manifest.
Thus, in the development of languages where the process of differentiation has been stressed we
have many disconcerting facts. The modern languages derived from Sanskrit like Bengali or
Gujrati cannot be compared in their structure with the richness and diversity of their origin. Here
the process is not towards differentiation but towards simplification.
In the development of religion too the transition from fusion to differentiation is difficult to see.
The state has made inroads into the institutions once administered by the church. Many of the
functions once performed by the church are now being absorbed by the state. Instead of
differentiation there is fusion between state and religion.
In the economic system too we find the state controlling more and more the economic activities
of the people, the period of laissez-faire being over. On the whole we find that social evolution
does not always proceed by differentiation, but also by simplification and synthesis.
To define, social evolution is the process by which individuals are detached from or fail to be
attached to an old group norm so that ultimately a new norm is achieved. According to
Hobhouse, Social evolution is development, planned and unplanned of culture and forms of
social relationships or social interaction.
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Looking to the difficulties about the version of social evolution the French sociologist, ClaudeLevi-Strauss was of the opinion that sociology should relinquish every attempt at discovering
origins and forms of evolution. However, in spite of the various difficulties the concept of
evolution still retains its usefulness.
MacIver to has angry supported the principle of social evolution. He has Criticized the practice
of believing social evolution to be imaginary. Social evolution is a reality. Nadel writes: We
need the concept of evolution as it were, to satisfy our philosophical conscience; but the law of
evolution is of too huge a scale to help us in understanding the behaviour of Toms, Dicks and
Harrys among societies and culture, which after all is our main concern. Perhaps indeed there are
no particular laws of evolution, but only one law, or postulate if you like, that there is
evolution.
The Idea of Progress:
In the earlier theories of biological evolution the idea of progress was closely associated with
that of evolution. For the social evolutionists of the nineteenth century social evolution was in
effect social progress. The technological advance of the same century led many philosophers and
sociologists to conclude that the major trends of social phenomena made for social progress. But
from what has been discussed in these pages it is clear that the idea of progress is different from
that of evolution.
Differentiation between evolution and progress:
What, in fact, do we mean by progress is a development or evolution in a direction which
satisfies rational criteria of value According to Ogburn, progress is a movement towards an
objective, thought to be desirable by the general group, for the visible future. According to
MacIver, By progress we simply not merely direction, but direction towards some final goal,
some destination determined ideally not simply by the objective consideration at work.
According to Burgess, Any change or adaptation to an existent environment that makes it easier
for a person or group of persons or other organised form of life to live may be said to represent
progress. According to Lumley, progress is change, but it is change in a desired or approved
direction, not any direction.
The nature of progress depends on two factors: the nature of the end and the distance at which
we are from it. Thus, when we say that we are progressing, we mean that society is flourishing
both materially and morally. Evolution is merely change, the change may be for the better or the
worse. When we speak of social evolution we refer to the emergence of certain institution. The
emergence of the institution may or may not be welcomed by the people. The reference is to an
objective condition which is not evaluated as good or bad.
But when we speak of progress we imply not merely direction, but direction towards some final
goal, some destination determined ideally. Progress means change for the better, and hence
implies a value judgment. It is not possible to speak of progress without reference to standards.
Hobhouse writes. By evolution I mean any sort of growth, by social progress the growth of
social life in respect of those qualities to which human being can attach or can ration ably attach
values.
According to Mazumdar, H.T. progress must at least contain six ingredients:
(1) enhancement of the dignity of man, (2) respect for each human personality, (3) ever
increasing freedom for spiritual quest and for investigation of truth, (4) freedom for creativity
and for aesthetic enjoyment of the works of nature as well as of man, (5) a social order that
promotes the first four values, and (6) promotes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, with
justice and equity to all.
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Now it is easy to see why evolution cannot be progress. It is not logically necessary that
evolutionary process, should always move in the direction of progress. That society has evolved,
all agree. That society has progressed, all would not agree because we cannot speak of progress
without reference to standards, and standards, as we know, are eminently subjective. If the
process of evolution satisfies also our sense of values and if it brings a fuller realization of the
values we cherish then for us it is also progress.
Different people may look differently on the same social changes and to some they may spell
progress, to others decadence. Evolutionary changes are welcomed by some and are opposed by
outers. Civil marriages, divorce, womens participation in public life, free mixing of young boys
and girls may appear to some to be in line with progress while, to others it may seem
retrogression because they have different values.
Primitivism has always had its champions and it still has them today. Many of the conditions on
which important human values such as contentment, economic security, honesty and freedom
depend are not often realized more adequately in the more evolved society. Industrialization led
to urbanization and urbanization led to congestion, epidemics, poor health, and more accidents
on the road. Similarly, competition, rivalry, corruption and dishonesty are the other effects of
industrialization.
In fact, strong indictments have been drawn against civilization on the basis of social and moral
values. Clearly, therefore, we cannot associate progress with evolution. In short, no single
criterion can be used as a test of progress. Societies are complexes made up of many important
elements. Progress is achieved if, in a society, all aspects of social life move in a coordinated
manner towards desired ends.
To briefly put the characteristics of progress are the following:
(i) Progress is change a change in some direction:
(ii) Change can be called progress only when it fulfills the desired aim:
(iii) Progress is communal i.e., related to social system,
(iv) Progress is volitional. It requires desire and volition;
(v) The concept of progress is variable. What is considered today the symbol of progress may
tomorrow be regarded as sign of regress.
(vi) There are no limits to human progress.
Have we progressed?
To the question whether we are progressing or not or whether we are more cultured than our
ancestors, no absolute answer can be given. Comte, it may be recalled, believed in the
perfectibility of society, although he considered that perfection was something that men would
have via science. Marx also advanced the thesis that progress was a law of society. Nothing
could prevent the coming of communism where all men would share alike and all would be
content. In those days progress was regarded as a cultural compulsion.
Of recent, the social philosophers have changed their mood. They consider the modern
civilization as a failure or as an experiment doomed to failure. Standards of morality are no
respecters of technical achievement. However, the answer to whether we have progressed or not
depends upon our standards of moral value.
Our parents do not share many of our moral standards, for standards are not objective. In the near
past, progress was taken for granted; now in some circles, the very idea arouses indignation, and
the multitudinous deficiencies in human social conduct are pointed lo with something
approaching triumph.
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The national wealth of the county has gone up, but is the acquisition of wealth progress? We
have invented aeroplanes and other fast-moving mobiles, but does it bring more security of life?
Our country is on the way lo industrializalion but does this bring health, happiness or peace of
mind? Some people marvel at our material achievement but often question whether it really
represents progress.
Thus, there can be much difference of opinion about whether we have progressed or not.
Progress in science is possible but no one is obliged to regard progress in science as a good thing
in itself. Evidence of progress in morality from preliterate society to modern civilization is
simply lacking. In spite of the many technological achievements, big industries and imposing
dams the fact remains that in India the evils of unemployment, crime, violence and disease have
not lessened.
The family bonds have loosened. More marriages break now than yesterday. The social evils like
drug-addiction, dowry system, prostitution, alcoholism, child exploitation and delinquency have
increased manifold. We are politically hypocrites, economically corrupt, socially dishonest and
morally unfaithful. In the face of these multitudinous defects in our social conduct it would be
hard to maintain that we have progressed.
Thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi and Aurobindo Ghose have warned mankind against moral
degeneration.
No universal standards of progress. But as stated above it is all a question of ones standard of
moral value and outlook, if we think that increased scope for personal development is really
better than opportunity for only a few, if we think that education makes for more enlightened
judgment and further if we believe that in India more people have now scope for development
than before, then we may justly say that we have progressed. Nobody would deny that we have
progressed in the case of technology. Tools have become more varied and efficient.
Whether the influence of tools on society has been for human happiness or not is a question to
which no definite answer can be given for there are different standards for different people to
measure human happiness. Conceptions of happiness differ as to ideals of what is good for a
people. In a word it is difficult to find clear and definite standards that all people would accept
and to formulate definite conceptions of progress which may apply to all time and to all cultures.
While general principles do serve as tools to be used in thinking out the course of action we wish
to pursue, they do not afford specific guidance. While considering social progress, it is well to
note the time and place qualifications. Thus, abolition of female labour at night may be deemed a
step in the direction of progress but may not be so deemed a hundred years hence.
It may be interesting to speculate on the probability of change in the future. Some thinkers are of
the opinion that men have all what they need in material goods and that there is no need for
further invention. However, it would be unwise to assert that further inventions be stopped
because mankind has all the material goods it needs. Mans wants are limitless. Changes will
continue in future also.

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Social Stratification
If we look around us, we find that society is heterogeneous in nature. Here are the rich, there the
poor; here are the industrialists, there are peasantry; here are the rulers, there the sweepers.
Everywhere society is divided into classes, economic, social, political and religious. Social
stratification means division of society into different classes.
Murray, Social stratification is the horizontal division of society into higher and lower social
units.
Gisbert, Social stratification is the division of society into permanent groups or categories
linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and subordination.
Maciver and Page, This understanding of social class on a distinct status group provides us
with a precise concept and is generally applicable to any system of social stratification wherever
found. It is the sense of status, sustained by economic, political or any other power and by the
distinctive modes of life and cultural expressions, corresponding to them that draw class apart
from class, gives cohesion to each class and stratifies a whole society.
Social stratification thus divides society into various sections. Some individuals are ranked
higher than others on the basis of opportunities and privileges which they enjoy. It may therefore
be seen that inequality of status is the distinguishing feature of social stratification. Thus we may
define social stratification as division of society into classes on the basis of status.
Status is very important element in the concept of social stratification. It involves some special
combination of social privileges. Therefore privileges determine the standard of living and the
way of life of the members of each class. The upper class is thus accorded a high status.
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Maciver, status is the social position that determines for is possessor, apart from his personal
attributes or social service, a degree of respect, prestige and influences.
Functions of Stratification
A Means of Accomplishing Jobs in Society
In society social stratification contributes as a essential mean to get some of its jobs by
distributing different amounts of prestige and privilege to various strata. An university is an
example of stratification with clearly defined strata, each marked with visible symbols denoting
status , specific roles and role expectations, norms and prescribed standards of behaviour and
interrelationships all clearly organised to do a job. The society gives rewards to serve as
incentives to get the various jobs accomplished. These rewards are economic, aesthetic,
materialistic and psychological.
Regulation and Control of Individual and Group Relationships
Stratification regulates and control human relationships in society by defining the roles and roles
expectations. Whatever an individuals position, whether high or low, social stratification
regulates his participation in certain areas of social life. Social stratification tends to regulate
participation of groups and individuals in the total life of society, giving them access to certain
areas and restricting them to others.
Contribution to Social Integration and Structure
Stratification in society has a strong integrative function, serving to co-ordinate and harmonise
units within social structure because in stratified society members are dependent one another.
Simplification
Stratification of society categorises people into different strata. Every status has its particular
role. Thus role expectations simplify mans world in respect to his relations with other people.
Bases for Stratification
In the system of stratification differential position or status of members are found in all societies
all over the world from the most primitive to the most modern. Members differ in the roles and
status ascribed to them by society. There are two different sources from which stratification is
society has developed either ethnic, or social.
Ethnic stratification occurs in society in which two ethnic or racial groups exist and one
dominates the other over a long period of time.
Social basis for stratification in society involves the growth of a system of ranked strata within
society. The social factors that give status to individuals of groups are criteria socially
determined, based on the value system and social values of society. The presences of the factors
which are considered of social worth contribute to ones prestige and high status varies from
society to society. In some societies , occupation, income and wealth, education are considered;
in other societies, ownership of landed property, ancestry and family name may be most
important; in still others education, caste, creed and powder or influence with authorities may
rank high as social values. The universal criteria for determinants of status are wealth, ancestry,
functional utility of the individual, religion, biological characteristics.
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Forms of Social Stratification

All over the world there is existence of similarities and differences in various systems of
stratification in all societies. The differences in societies are somewhere rigid and somewhere
flexible. In some systems different strata are easily identifiable, while in others the boundaries
are hard to locate. Considering the various societies that have existed and do exist in the world,
certain recurrent forms of social stratification generally can be identified.
Slavery: The term slave is used to denote a man whom law and custom regard as the property
of another. In slavery every slave has his master to whom he is subjected. The masters power
over the slave is unlimited. Slaves are in lower condition and have no political rights. The basis
of slavery is economic.
Estates: The feudal estates of medieval period have been the basis of social stratification. The
feudal estates were legally defined. They represented a broad division of labour having definite
functions to perform. The feudal estates were also political groups.
Caste: Caste system is peculiar to India. In the first place caste is connected with economic
differentiation. It is more apparent when we consider the four traditional varnas where there is a
clear specification of occupations. In India Caste is also occupational group.
Social Class: A social class system is based on economic considerations. It represents the group
of industrial societies. Thus the industrial society is divided into upper class, middle class and
lower class.
Types of Role Differentiations
Age, Sex, Heredity, Economic Allocation, Political Allocation, Religion Knowledge Slidarity,
Status
Caste System in India
Every society has its caste system, which is an integral part of its social system. It is more or less
impossible to away with the system. Caste system is an important characteristic of Indian society.
It determines the relationship between the various groups and individuals. It is therefore
necessary to have some knowledge about caste system in order to understand the structure and
functioning of the Indian society. Caste system in India is based upon the birth while in other
advanced countries. It is based upon the colour or the skin and wealth etc.
What is Caste System? According to Risley, A caste may be defined as a collection of families
or group of families bearing a common name which usually denotes or is associated with specific
occupation claiming common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, professing to
follow the same professional calling and are regarded by those who are competent to give an
opinion as forming single and homogeneous community. A. W. Green while defining caste says,
Caste is a system of stratification in which mobility, mobility, movement up and down the status
ladder at least ideally may not occur.
Difference between Class and Caste System
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Caste is a social category whose members are assigned a permanent status within given social
hierarchy and whose contacts are restricted accordingly. It is the most rigid and clearly graded
type of social stratification and has been often referred to as the extreme form of closed class
system. An individual is born into the caste of his parents can rise no further, with few exceptions
he cannot fall to a lower caste, but if he violates taboos and other mores of his caste, he may be
expelled from his caste group. Personal qualities or ability have no part whatever in determining
the caste of an individual, with lineage being the only criterion. The following are the
characteristics of rigid caste system.
1. Membership in the caste is hereditary and unchangeable for life.
2. Marriages must be made within the caste line.
3. There is a caste name and each caste has its particular customs.
4. Contacts with other castes or sub castes in all aspect of life are strictly regulated and limited
by mores.
5. The hierarchy of caste is well understood and strictly enforced according to its local variations.
Class-Social classes are defined as abstract categories of persons arranged in levels according to
social status they possess. There are no firm lines separating one category from the other. Classes
are loosely organized groupings, whose members behave towards each other as social equals.
The classes may be based on power, prestige, wealth or a combination of these and other factors.
1. Defined classes are culturally defined groups recognized as such by society e.g. tribal and nontribal classes. Economic classes are groups engaged in different economic activities or standing
in different relationships to the means of production in a society e.g. business, service farmer and
other classes.
3. Political classes are groups formed on the basis of political power e.g. Senate, Parliament,
Congress, and County Assembly.
4. Self identified classes are conceived in terms of the identification of their members e.g. Rotary
Club, Lions club etc.
Differences
The fundamental points of difference between class and caste are the following:
I. Open vs. Closed
Class is more open than caste. A man can change his class and status by his enterprise and
initiatives but in case of caste system it is impossible to change ones caste status. Once a man is
born in a caste he remains in it for his life-time and makes his children suffer the same status. A
caste is thus closed class. The individuals status is determined by the caste status of his parents,
so that what an individual does has little bearing upon his status. On the other hand the
membership of a class does not depend upon heredity basis; it rather depends on the worldly
achievements of an individual. Thus class system is an open and flexible system while caste
system is a closed and rigid system.
II. Divine vs. Secular
The caste system is believed to have been divinely obtained. In the India the Creator is said to
have apportioned the duties and functions of the four castes. An individual must do duty proper
to his caste. Caste system in India would not have survived for so many centuries if the religious
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system has not made it sacred and inviolable. On the contrary, there is nothing sacred or of
divine origin in the class stratification of society. Classes are secular in origin. They are not
founded on religious dogmas.
III. Endogamous
The choice of mates in caste system is generally endogamous. Members have to marry within
their own castes. A member marrying outside his caste is treated as outcaste. No such restrictions
exist in class system. A wealthy man may marry a poor girl without being outcaste. An educated
girl may marry an uneducated partner without being thrown out from the class of teachers.
IV. Class Consciousness
The feeling of class consciousness is necessary to constitute a class but there is no need for any
subjective consciousness in the members of caste.
V. Prestige
The relative prestige of the different castes is well established but in class system there is no
rigidly fixed order of prestige.
Characteristics of Caste System in India
1. Hereditary:
Caste status of an individual is determined strictly by his heredity, i.e. the caste into which one is
born. No amount of personal accomplishments or efforts can alter his caste status.
2. Endogamous
It endogamous character strictly prohibits inter-caste marriages. Accordingly a person born in
low caste can never hope to marry someone in higher caste. Each individual is supposed to marry
within his caste and sub-caste. Marrying outside caste makes an individual or without a caste
which is the lowest category even below Shudra.
3. Hierarchal:
Caste system has a system of superiority and subordination. According to Hindu Caste hierarchy.
Brahmin occupies the highest followed by kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
4. Fixed Occupations:
Members of any caste are obligated to adopt the professions of their caste. Having developed
from Varna system the occupation in caste system is definite; son of blacksmith persues the
occupation of his lather, son of carpenter becomes carpenter and so on. (With development of
industries people belong to many castes have lost their occupation and have taken agriculture or
some other occupation).
5. Restricted Food Habits:
Higher castes try maintaining their traditional purity by different food habits. Thus Brahmins will
only take Satwil or Pure food. Kshtriya and Vaishya will take Royal food. A Shudra takes
Tamsi food. Each individual caste has its own laws which govern the food habits. There is no
restriction against fruit, milk, butter, dry fruit etc. but food can be accepted only from the
members of ounces own or higher caste.
6. Untouchability:
In Indian caste system Shudra and out castes are considered to be untouchables. In certain times
of day even seeing a shudra is considered to be pollution. Even if shadow of a low caste falls on
a Brahmin, latter is said to have been polluted.
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7. Absence of Vertical Mobility:

In a caste system, there is no mobility movement of its members, up or down, the social status
ladder. A persons status at birth is his life time status.
8. Reinforcement by Religious Beliefs:
Religious beliefs have played a significant role in making caste system unavoidable. Religion has
described Brahmin as sacred and also an element of reverence and awe is attached to him. In
absence of religious support such rigid caste system was not possible.
Advantage or Merits of Caste System
1. Preservation of Culture:
Caste system helped in preservation of culture and these were passed on from generation to
generation.
2. Preservation of Purity:
Caste system, because of its endogenous nature, permitted marriage only within the caste and
thus preserved purity of each caste.
3. Division of Labor:
Caste system required each individual to do the work prescribed for his caste, i.e. Brahmins job
was to teach, Kshatriyas to fight war, Vaishyas to run trade and Shudras to serve other castes.
This division of labor ensured smooth functioning of society.
4. Co-operation within Castes:
Caste system fastened cooperation with each caste. They co-operated with each other to preserve
their culture and protect it from degradation by other castes.
5. Absence of Competition:
As social status was hereditary and no amount or personal accomplishments could change it,
there was no competition to improve status. People, therefore, utilized their energies for general
benefit of society rather than Personal advancement.
6. Panchayat System:
Panchayat system is an outcome of caste system. All disputes within a caste were referred to the
caste Panchayat. Panchayats though secular in outlook exist even now in rural India.
7. Increased Professional Proficiency:
Caste system helped in increasing proficiency in each vocation because accumulated experience
of and store was handed over by father to son.
8. Healthy Social Life:
Caste system made people disciplined and co-operative. People carried out the duties assigned
due to their caste with responsibility. There was social amity between members of same caste.
9. Protected the Society:
Rigidity of our caste system was responsible for protecting our society from cultural invasion by
alien societies.
10. Permanency and Continuity:
Each casts had a permanent body of constitutions to guide his social behaviors and action. The
customs and beliefs were passed on from generation the generation. Thus caste system had
permanency and continuity.
11. Improved Living Standards:
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Each caste struggled hard to maintain and improve living standards of its members to retain its
superiority over subordinate castes. This resulted in overall progress and prosperity.
12. Social Life Not Dependent on Political Conditions:
Caste system was predominantly influenced by religion. It was totally independent of prevailing
political conditions and, therefore provided stability in society.
Disadvantage or Demerits of Caste System
1. Undemocratic:
Caste system denied equal opportunity for advancement to persons belonging to different castes.
It is, therefore, undemocratic.
2. No Vertical Mobility:
Caste system expected every individual to adopt the occupation prescribed for his caste, which
purely hereditary. Any amount of struggle could not change cast status. Therefore, these were no
upward or downward mobility of labor.
3. Encouraged Untouchability:
Caste system prohibited any physical Contact or communication between Brahmin and Shudra.
Even if a Shudra was sighted by a Brahmin at certain house it was considered pollution. Shadow
of Shudra failing on Brahmin would defile him. This it encourages untouchability.
4. Created a Class of Idlers:
Brahmins who were well entrenched at the top of social hierarchy stopped devoting themselves
to study and teaching and started living on alms provided by other castes. Thus they become
parasites of society.
5. Oppression of Low Caste People:
Restrictions were imposed on low caste people regarding their place of living, their movements
and other activities by high caste people so that former may not defile the latter. This resulted in
low caste people being huddled together in a limited area having no access to community and
facilities leading a miserable life. Brahmins became virtually tyrants.
6. Encouraged Conversion:
The caste system was solely responsible for large conversion of people to Christianity and even
Islam to extent. Low castes people who no hope of any honorable life had found that by
conversion to Christianity they could lead a respectable life.
7. Against Integrity of Nation:
Caste system made people more faithful and devoted to their castes than to their nation. Thus
caste system made national unity and integrity difficult task.
8. False Sense of Superiority and Inferiority:
In caste system Brahmin was superior being, simply because he was born as a Brahmin. This was
not necessarily matched by his intellectual development and wisdom. On the contrary, any one
born in a low caste was inferior. Members of high caste considered themselves sole possessors of
intellect and wisdom and expected the lower castes to seek their advice before doing anything.
This created bad feeling between castes.
9. Hind Erance to Socio-economic Progress:
As there was no social mobility. People lost all initiative and this resulted stagnancy in socioeconomic conditions.
10. Nation Not Benefited:
Affairs of the nation were run by a few high caste people. Thus the nation was deprived of
benefit of wisdom of the masses.
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11. Encouraged Treason:

Continuous oppression of low caste people by high caste ones made some of them rebets in the
society. They even went to the extent of committing treason and helping invaders against their
nation.

What is Culture?
Man alone of all the animals creates and transmits a social environment. It is his unique
characteristic; other animals can acquire behavior pattern by initiating other animals or by
resorting to trial and error. They do not transmit their learned activities to future generations
through languages and other symbolic systems neither they can make physical objects to use as
tools in their efforts to get food, shelter and other goods nor they pass them on to succeeding
enervations. Man in adjusting to the natural environment and to his fellows fashions vast
quantities of physical and biological materials and large bodies of through and action pattern. All
these he uses to fulfill his desires and needs which make it possible for him to satisfy present and
expanding wants, to satisfy new values, to express creative desire, to store product for future use
and to transmit them to succeeding generations.
The total content of this produced social environment of a society its culture. It is the integrated,
interdependent whole of these socially produced and inherited action patterns built around a
body of socially created physical and biological material. The culture of society therefore the
total environment of the physio-social, bio-social and psycho-social universes, man has produced
and socially created mechanisms through these social products operate.
Cultural Concepts
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Culture is one of the most important constituent as well as tool of the study of sociology. Our
society is continuously changing, new ideas and experiences are acquired by the units of the
society. These experiences or learned behaviour are shared by the members in the society. The
culture is the sum total of the thought and behaviour, leading to total way of life of people in
society. Therefore, culture may be defined as, socially standardized ways of feeling, thinking
and acting, which an individual acquires as a member of the society.
Characteristics of Culture
1) It is dynamic in nature: continuously changing.
2) It is a learned behaviour. An individual learn the various ways of thinking, values and
attitudes from the family itself.
3) It is an organization of phenomena of acts (pattern of behaviour), objects (tools, things made
with tools), ideas and sentiments. Because of this character, culture is easily and readily
transmitted from one human organism to another.
4) It satisfies ones biological and socio-cultural needs, not only for food, shelter and clothing
but various relationships.
5) It is integrative in nature. Some forces may sometime tend to pull it in different directions,
even there is a general tendency towards integration, so that the society is held together.
6) It is adaptive to various external forces. It must try to maintain its structure and functions in
spite of all external forces.
7) It builds certain norms, rules and actions for creating harmony among various members of a
particular group or society. As it provide common interests and needs. It helps the individual
to come closer in touch to share their various day to day interests.
8) Culture is reality of human beings; it produces informal attachments with other members of
the same group.
Types of Culture
1. Material Culture: Material culture refers to the tangible aspects of culture, those things that
can be seen or touched; e.g. temples, bridges, furniture etc.
2. Non-Material Culture: Non material culture consists of the abstract aspects of culture, which
cannot be directly seen or touched; e.g. values, folkways, ways of thinking and feeling etc.
Custom is a social phenomenon. It refers primarily to practices that have been repeated by a
multitude of generations, practices that tend to be followed simply because they have been
followed in the past. In a day to day talk custom is used as synonymous with habit, but here are
vital differences between the two. Habit is a personal phenomenon while custom is a social
phenomenon.
Custom is an important mean of controlling social behavior. They are so powerful that no one
can escape their range. There is no country or community wherein customs are not found. In
some communities they are regarded so sacred that their violation cannot be even thought of. The
society wishes us to follow them.
Folkways are socially acceptable ways of behaviour, the customary norms of society that do not
imply moral sanctions; e.g. Good Manners. Folkways are customary ways of behaviour in
society in which society exerts some and some, force for conformity. Persons who do not
conform may subject to criticism or to be considered strange, but would not necessarily
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penalised; e.g., in north Indian villages people are expected to enter home only after the removal
of shoes.
Mores are socially acceptable ways of behaviour that do involve moral standards, violation may
result in severe social action such as ostracism; e.g., inter-dining of an orthodox high caste
Brahmin with an outcaste Hindu Harijan in India. Mores are the pattern of behaviour considered
essential by society. They are rigidly enforced, and if not followed, the individual incurs severe
penalty from society. Of course, clear lines of distinction between mores and folkways are not
often distinguishable, and borderline cases certainly occur.
Taboo refers to anything (food, place, activity) which is prohibited and forbidden. The
observance of a taboo has the social sequence of binding a social group together behind common
rituals and sentiments. The taboo is a symbol of group membership.
Ritual is any formal action, following a set pattern, which express through symbol in public or
shared. Rituals are typically the practical aspects of a religious system and they express sacred
values rather than seek to achieve some utilitarian end. For example, ritual is often used to refer
to any regular pattern of interaction how do you do? As a routine method of starting
conservation it could be regarded as ritual of everyday interaction.
Tradition refers to any human practice, belief, in-situation or artifact which is handed down
from generation to the next. While the content of tradition is highly variable, it typically refers to
some element of culture regarded as part of the common inheritance of a social group. Tradition
is often regarded as a source of social stability and legitimacy. But, appeal to tradition may also
provide basis for changing the present.
Role of Cultural Concepts in Agricultural Extension
Cultural concepts are important tools for understanding and analyzing society. Before starting
any development programme extension worker analyze the situation, where programme has to be
executed. Cultural concepts have practical implications for programmes of promoted change
such as rural community development. In this way cultural concepts play a role in agricultural
extension and extension worker cannot ignore their importance and role in their developmental
programmes.
Most of the farm practices are also heritage generation to generation. Their old practices are also
being tested for their reliability I todays concept and are being fed back by the extension wing to
the scientists for teaching etc. the traditionalism serve as a base for the proposed modern
agricultural practices.
Families in society; Changes in Agriculture; farm crisis and land crisis as central issues in rural
areas
Functions of Culture
1. Culture provides us with design for living. It is always learned and acquired.

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2. Culture provides a series of pattern by which biological and socio-cultural demands of group
members are met e.g. food, shelter, and reproduction and relationship with group and
individuals.
3. Culture provides a set of rules to ensure co-operation of the individuals of a group in
adjusting environmental situation.
4. Culture provides individual a set of ready-made definition of situation.
5. Culture helps in understanding and predicting the human behavior and also it provides
channels of interaction for individuals within the group.
6. Culture provides us a guidepost or kind of map for all our life activities. It defines the pattern
of behavior for individuals so that he acts according to the behavior pattern prescribed and
defined by culture.
7. Culture acts as a means of social control through norms, folkway, and moves laws.
Thus culture functions to deeply influence control and direct behavior and life of the individual
and of group. All these functions are controlled through norms or rules made in society. These
norms may be governed by sanctions or punishment, so the study of norms, mores, folkways,
laws etc. is necessary for knowing the culture of society.
Social Values and Attitudes
Social values constitute what is right and important in society. Those feelings which constitute
assumption of what is right and important are abstract and often unconscious. The sharing of
feeling or attitudes is of vital importance to the operation and functioning of society. Attitudes
held by society that define what society considers correct and of relative importance are referred
to as social values.
Social values have been defined in various ways by sociologists
According to Rogers, abstract and often unconscious assumption of what is right and wrong.
Social values are attitudes, held by individuals, groups or society as a whole, as to whether
material or non-material objects are good, bad, desirable or undesirable.
Types of Social Values
Ultimate Values
These are often referred to as dominant values. These values constitute the core of societys
value system. Ultimate values express the general views of society and found most easily in
social institutions such as family, religion and government. These are abstract and often not
attainable.
Intermediate Values
Intermediate values are derived from ultimate values and can be categorised into more
reasonably attainable category e.g. freedom of speech, religious freedom, free public education,
non-discrimination, housing etc. in framework of social institutions such as religion, government
and education.
Specific Values
The sub-division of in values are called specific values and are almost unlimited in members.
Specific values must be in conformity with the total value system of which they form the
smallest unit.
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1. Ultimate: Good Academic Record, Character

2. Intermediate: Discipline, Attainable
3. Specific: Decent, Respectful to society, Punctual
Attitudes
Attitudes is or feeling of like, dislike, attraction, repulsion, interest or apathy toward other
persons, objects, situation or ideas. Attitudes are essentially acquired and learned. Learning or
acquisition or attitudes may be conscious or unconscious.
Role of Social Values and Attitudes in Agricultural Extension
Social values and attitudes both resist and accelerate change. So, both have important role in
agricultural extension. Understanding of social values and attitudes will allow extension workers
to analyse and assess rural situations with greater effectiveness and accuracy and make for more
successful promotion of change among the people. Human behaviour is said to result from
attitudes that people have about ideas, objects, situations or other people. Individual live within
the context of a society, certain values and shared with other members of the society and these
common social values of the society also fashion and govern behaviour. A person acts in
conformity with the rules and regulations or norms of society which are based on social values.
Values and attitudes in society make it easy or difficult for people to adopt new practices e.g. or
society holding attitudes and values which are strongly negative to choose piggery as or
profession will present serious obstacle in the planned development of rural society. So, in the
path of desired change the importance role of social values of particular group, community and
society cannot be ignored. But people are always reluctant to indicate their attitudes and social
values. Hence, extension worker should understand and appreciate the vital role played by values
and attitudes in behaviour of both rural and urban people.
Social Institutions
Social institutions are created by man from social relationships in society to meet basic needs
such as stability, law and order and clearly defined roles of authority and decision making. These
are organised systems of behaviour to meet basic needs of society.
Horton (1964) defined institution as an organised system of social relationships which embodies
certain common values and procedures and meets certain basic needs of society. According to
Landis, social institutions are formal cultural structures devised to meet basic social needs.
Major Institutions in Rural Society
Generally, five basic institutions are recognised in rural society: the family, religion, the
economic, government and education.
The family
It is the most multifunctional of all institutions in society, and is a system of organised
relationships involving workable and dependable ways of meeting basic social needs. Family
commonly fulfils the following tasks in society:
I. Sex regulation
II. Reproduction and perpetuation of the family and human race,
III. Socialisation
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IV. Provision of economic maintenance and livelihood in many cultures

V. Provision of love, affection and security to individuals and
VI. Provision of class status to the individual of the family into he has been born
Within the basic institution of the family are secondary institutions such as engagement,
marriage, courtship and relationships with the family into which marriage has taken place.
Religion
Religion provides a foundation for mores in society. The function of religion is to provide means
where man can face the crisis with strength and fortitude. Most religions of the world have the
following elements:
I. A set of beliefs regarding the ultimate power in the universe
II. A set of beliefs regarding the ideal and proper pattern of behaviour
III. A set of ceremonial ways of expressing these beliefs
Government
It is also referred as the political institution. It administers the regulatory functions of law and
order and maintains security in society. Within this major institution are secondary institutions
such as military systems, political forces, legal systems, and diplomatic relations with other
countries.
Economy and Maintenance
Such institutions provide basic physical subsistence for society and meet basic needs for food,
shelter, clothing and other necessities. Included are the economic institutions of production
agriculture, industry, and the distribution, exchange and consumption of commodities, goods and
services necessary for human survival. Secondary institutions included within the major
economic institutions are credit and banking systems, advertising, cooperatives etc.
Education
Educational institutions are those institutions which seek to socialise individuals in society or
introduce them in formal ways into their social and cultural world. Every new generation must be
prepared and trained to play a role in society. This process referred as the process of
socialisation, commences informally at home and then formally in the institution of education
Social Organisation
Social organisations are classes of human relationship structures wherein people purposefully
associated in systematically arranged units to promote and achieve some common purposes or
interests that are not specifically expressed in the institution. In organisation each member has a
formal status and role.
It may be defined as a group with special concern and interests that have developed a structure
involving specific roles for various members, and that have a more or less formal set of rules and
regulations for operation.

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An organisation differs from an institution by its focus on a narrowly limited purpose. It is group
of people organised to pursue specific objectives. Organisation may operate within institution
e.g. Alumni Association of or College, Rural Youth Club.

Types of Organisations
Organisations may be classified in many ways:
1. On the basis of motives of participation
Individuals expect organisations either to provide them personal satisfaction and pleasure or to
enable them to be service of others. Thus, organisation may be classified into those provide
personal pleasure and satisfaction (such as recreational clubs) and service and civic clubs.
2. On the basis of admission to membership
Three categories may be identified.
(a) Inclusive-open to anyone who is interested in the purpose of organisation and meets its
requirements, e.g. recreational clubs.
(b) Restricted-open to those persons who possess predetermined classification e.g. an association
of agricultural graduates.
(c) Exclusive-where admission is limited through selection by members of the organisation e.g.
Rotary International when membership is at the discretion of members of the club within its
constitutional provision.
3. On the basis of organisational operations.
Select: where secrecy is maintained regarding goals and membership.
Open: Open organisations are generally of public knowledge.
Role of Social Organization in Agricultural Extension
In rural areas of developing countries the number of, and membership in organizations is
increasing, fulfilling the rapidly expanding interests of individuals. Organizations influence the
behaviour of rural people which varies in many ways depending on membership or the life of
organization itself. They perform the following important functions:
1. An outlet for individual interests:
An organisation enables a group of persons sharing a common interest in society to associate
with one another, working together toward realisation of their interest.
2. A channel for purposeful action:
Unfulfilling its goal, an organisation may influence social decision and effect or stimulate social
change e.g. a farmers organisation may be instrumental for pinging about land reform and other
such measures to benefit rural people.
3. As a testing ground for new programmes
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Because of their modest size and flexibility, organization can test new programmes and projects
for possible advantages.
Social Control
Social control is the control of society over individual. Social control includes those laws by
which an individual behaves in concurrence with the mores of the group. It is by the social
control that every particular group and individual member outcomes tensions and conflicts.
Mannheim has defined social control as, the sum of those methods by which a society tries to
influence human behaviour to maintain a given order.
Features of Social Control
1. Social control is influence. The influence may be exerted through public opinion, social
suggestions, religion, appeal to reason, or any other method.
2. The influence is exercised by society. It means that the group is better able to exercise
influence over the individual than a single individual is. The group may be the family, church,
the state, the club, the school etc.
3. The influence is exercised for promoting the welfare of the group as a whole. Social control is
exercised for some specific end in view. The end is always the welfare of the whole.
Importance of Social Control
Every society has tried to control the behaviour of its members. In the earliest and primitive
society social control existed as a powerful force in organizing socio-cultural behaviour. From
birth to death man is surrounded by social control of which he may even unaware. In modern
times social control is mostly exercised through an appeal to reason. Today mans behaviour is
controlled by showing him through education and propaganda the consequences of his action.
The aim of social control is always the welfare of the society. So we cant ignore its importance
in modern society.
Means of Social Control
The numerous means of social control, some formal others informal, have been listed by
sociologists. Gossip, sympathy, resentment, the sense of justice, public opinion, folkways and
mores are some of the informal means of social control. Informal means of social control are
very powerful in primary social groups where interaction is on permanent basis. The
effectiveness of informal devices of social control is lessened in modern larger communities
where contact tends to be impersonal. In modern times the informal methods have given place to
formal ones such as laws, coercion and codes. In modern times social control is mostly exercised
through an appeal to reason. Modern society does not favour the use of force through coercive
methods; these are quite often used in making individuals obedient to the system. Mens
behaviour today is controlled by showing him through education and propaganda the
consequences of his action. Education has also been playing memorable role in the field of social
control. Law has also been used in various countries for the purpose. Leadership has also become
a great controlling force in modern times. The leaser controls the mob mentality in times of crisis
and excitement. Among the several means of social control the important ones are folkways and
mores, custom, law fashion, religion and morality.
Informal means of social control
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Folkways are socially acceptable ways of behaviour, the customary norms of society that do not
imply moral sanctions; e.g. Good Manners. Folkways are customary ways of behaviour in
society in which society exerts some and some, force for conformity. Persons who do not
conform may subject to criticism or to be considered strange, but would not necessarily
penalised; e.g., in north Indian villages people are expected to enter home only after the removal
of shoes.
Mores are socially acceptable ways of behaviour that do involve moral standards, violation may
result in severe social action such as ostracism; e.g., inter-dining of an orthodox high caste
Brahmin with an outcaste Hindu Harijan. Mores are the pattern of behaviour considered essential
by society. They are rigidly enforced, and if not followed, the individual incurs severe penalty
from society.
Of course, clear lines of distinction between mores and folkways are not often distinguishable,
and borderline cases certainly occur.
Social Values are attitudes held by the society; those define what society considers correct and of
relative importance are referred to as social values.
According to Young, abstract and often unconscious assumption of what is right and wrong.
Green defined social value as, Relatively enduring awareness plus emotion regarding an object,
idea, or person
Social values do constitute society preferences or estimate of worth in respect of material or nonmaterial objects in society.
An individual may develop his set of ideas, outside of the area of the value system of society;
that determines personal likes or dislikes. These personal or individual values function within an
individual value system, which usually do not conflict with the value system of society and
operate within the personal sphere of decision making; a farmer may reject the profession of
piggery not because it violates societys value system, but because it is not in keeping with his
personal set of values.
Norms are the accepted an approved forms of behaviour that are based on and consistent with
dominant social values in society. Thus, values and norms go together. A set of social values will
always have an accompanying set of social norms or rules that uphold and support values. Norms
are closely associated with values but are clearly differentiated from them. Values are attitudes,
held by an individuals, groups or society as whole, as to whether material or non-material objects
are good, bad, desirable or undesirable, the rules that govern action directed towards achieving
values are called norms: e.g. Religious worship and respect of God usually is considered a value;
the observance of religious festivals and performance of rituals and worship and other relevant
activities are an important part of the norms of the society.
Need of social control
Society is an organised body of individuals and groups, having structure and function, with a
complex of form or systems of social relationships involving social roles, values and norms. The
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components are so organised that they are normally held together in various relationships that
enable them to operate effectively towards the achievement of societal goals. But, changes in the
normal routine of life create a disturbance in the balance in the functioning of the existing parts,
and the customary and socially approved ways of the life no longer prevail and this situation
refers as social disorganisation.
Disorganised society can only be organised by practicing social control. From birth to death man
is surrounded by social control of which he may even unaware. In modern times social control is
mostly exercised through an appeal to reason. Today mans behaviour is controlled by showing
him through education and propaganda the consequences of his action. The aim of social control
is always the welfare of the society. So we cant ignore its need in society.
Social Change
Social change refers to an alteration in the material and non-material culture of a society. It refers
to change that occur in the structure and functioning of a social system, thus pointing to change
in:
The roles individuals perform;
Values and norms;
Social structure and institutions;
Social relationships among people;
Pattern of social interaction;
Functions performed by different groups and institutions.
By social change is meant only such alterations as occur in the social organisation i.e. the
structure and functions of society. Davis
Nature of Social Change
1. Only such changes are designated as social change that affects the bulk of the community.
Minor alterations in social life don not usually constitute what is generally accepted as social
change.
2. Social change is a universal process. It is founded in all societies and all stages of social
evolution.
3. Social change does not always depend on the willingness of society and its members.
4. Speed of social change differs from society to society and in the same society. Many tribal and
rural societies change at much slower pace than industrial societies. However, the pace of change
of contemporary societies is much faster now than in the earlier stages.
5. Social change has both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Increase in number of household is
an example of quantitative change. Changes in the composition of households or changes in roles
are the examples of qualitative change.
6. Change is not synonymous with development; it may or may not lead to development.
7. Most of social change that took place in the earlier years was unplanned and undirected. Now
planned or directed social change is gaining in importance as a means to achieve societal goals in
shorter period in a more orderly fashion.
8. Social change is the result usually of both internal (endogenous) factors (the community itself
recognises the need for change) and external (exogenous) factors, e.g. industrialisation, land
reforms and urbanisation.
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Dimensions of Social Change

A thousand years ago, the face of society was vastly different from that with which we are
familiar today. Since the outbreak of World War I, numerous countries have passed through
profound changes, not only in their public institutions but in their class structures, their economic
systems, their mores and modes of living-in short, in all the fundamental relation of man to man.
Social inventions bring social change. Invention and discovery are significant characteristics of
our age. The present age is often called the age of power, the scientific age. Mechanisation
have changed not only the economic structure of the society but was also profoundly altered our
modes of life and thought. The changes in the means of transport and c communication have
affected our social relationships. As the means of transport have changed, the spatial
relationships have also changed. The rapid means of transportation and communication have
encouraged the growth of international trade and interdependence of countries. Today, there is
greater mobility of population. The rapid means of transport and communication have broken the
barriers of cultural isolation and played a significant role in the diffusion of cultural elements.
Different people may look on the same social changes differently and to some they may spell
progress, to others decadence. Social changes are welcomed by some and are opposed by others.
Planned social change i.e. social change by planning has a very great importance in our life.
Civil marriages, divorce, womens participation in public life free mixing of young boys and
girls are the best examples of social change in our lives.
Factors of Social Change
Social change is a historical process based on various factors of environment and human
ingenuity to create conditions for better survival. Major factors of social change are the
following:
The Physical Environment
Physical factors also known as geographical factors include all conditions of natural environment
namely climate, earths surface, water, season, storms, earthquakes that are permanent and
independent of human existence. Many changes take place in natural environment and these
changes are regardless of human activities. Many social geographers have analyzed the impact of
natural conditions on social life. Floods, earthquakes, droughts, famine and storms, change of
season etc. have significant effect on the social relationships and these are modified by such
natural occurrences.
Cultural Factors
The main cause of social change is the cultural factor. Changes in the culture are accompanied by
social changes. Culture gives speed and direction to social change and determines the limits
beyond which social change cannot occur. The pace of change of material and non-material
culture are not the same although they affect each other. Non material factors are affected by the
material culture.
Population Factors
Even changes in the quality of population have an effect on the social organisation as well as
customs and traditions, institutions, associations etc. increase and decrease of population, a
change in the ratio of men and women, young and old, have an effect on social relationships.
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Decrease or increase in population has an immediate effect upon economic institutions and
associations. The ratio of men to women in society effects marriage, family and the conditions of
women in society. In the same way the birth and death rate also influence social change.
Psychological Factors
Most sociologists regard psychological factors as important elements in social change. The cause
of social change is the psychology of man himself. Man by nature is a lover of change. He is also
trying to discover new things in the sphere of his life, and is always anxious for novel
experience. Because of this tendency, the mores, traditions, customs etc. of very human society
are perpetually undergoing change. This does not mean that man always considers the new
superior to the old. While he is always, attending to what is new and unique; he wants to
preserve what is old. Change is the law of life. When changes do not occur at the appropriate
time revolution takes place, wars are fought, epidemics spread, and changes are violently
introduced.
Biological Factors
Biological factors too have some indirect influence upon social change. Among the biological
factors is the qualitative aspect of the population related to heredity. The qualitative aspect of
population is based upon powerful and great men and their birth is dependent largely on heredity
and mutation. Hence, biological factor play a part in social change in that extent.
In the course of human history, it is remarked that there are physical and mental differences
among population distributed in the different countries of the world. This amounts to hereditary
differences in races leading to ethnocentrism.
Technological Factors
The technological factor has immense influence in social change. To quote Ogburn,
Technological changes society by changing our environment to which we in turn adopt. This
change is usually in material environment and adjustment we make to the changes often modifies
customs and social institutions. In this way, the increase in the machines and methods due to new
discoveries has had a very great influence upon social relationships. The form of society is
undergoing change because of the development and invention of electric, steam and petrol driven
machines for production, the means of transport and communication, and various mechanical
appliances is everyday life. Even institutions like family and marriage have not remained
immune to the effect of these developments. The explicit effects of the technological advance are
labour organisation, division of labour, specialisations, high speed of life, increase in production
etc. in modern age; technological factors are among the predominant causes of social change.
Other Factors
In addition to above mentioned factors, another factor of social change is the appearance of new
opinions and thoughts, e.g. changes in the attitudes towards dowry, caste system, female
education etc., have resulted in widespread social variations and modifications. In fact, a
majority of social revolutions takes place because of the evolution of new ways of thinking.
Similarly, war is also a cause of social change because it influences the population, the economic
situation, and ratio of male to female etc.
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Rural Family
Family can be defined as a relatively permanent and socially sanctioned group of parent, and
children. It may all so include near relatives of husband or wife as in case of joint family. The
members of the family are relate to each other by blood or by marriage. The family as basic unit
of all the societies. Almost all the human beings are born into family. When they matured they
marry and establish families of their own. Membership in the family is permanent except for the
withdrawal of the adult children or in case of family disorganization by divorce. Sometimes the
term family includes all the members of group of person other than mother, father and their
children who occupies a common dwelling place.
According to Maclver family is a group defined by sex relationship sufficiently precise and
enduring to provide for procreation and upbringing of children. Ogburn and Nimkoff say,
Family is more or less durable association of husband and wife with children or of a man and
women alone.
Classification of Family
The families can be classified according to various criteria:
a) On the Basis of Lineage:
1) Patrilineal Family: When properly inheritance and reckoning descent along the male line
(father).
2) Matrilineal Family: When it is along the female (mother) line.
b) On the Basis of Headship:
1) Patriarchal Family: In this case father is head of the family.
2) Matriarchal Family: In this case mother is head of the family.
c) On the Basis of Transfer of Bride Groom:
1) Patrilocal Family: There are the families where wife transfer to the husbands house after
marriage.
2) Matrilocal Family: Where husband transfer to the wifes house after marriage.Matrilineal
families are matrilocal families.
d) On the Basis of Number of Mates:
1) Monogamous Family: In this case the husband marries only one wife.
2) Polygamous Family: In this case the husband can marry more than one wife.
3) Polyandrous Family: In this case the wife can marry more than one husband.

Nuclear or Conjugal or Individual Family:

Such a family consists of married couple and their children, and is well separated from other
relatives who may pay short visits if at all.
Consanguineal Family:
Such a family consists often of grandparents, their sons, their sons wives and even their sons
grand children. Consanguincal literally means of one blood. Eldest male member is the head of
family.
Functions of Family
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1. It helps in perpetuating the race through procreation.

2. It provides for a means to satisfy sexual needs of man and woman.
3. It helps in socializing the children and make them acceptable to the society.
4. It means the basic needs of its member.
5. It is the starting point of division of labor.
6. Family as a primary economic unit ensures that economic activities are shared by the family
members.
7. It provides for education and vocational training of members so that they can share the
economic burden.
8. It arranges to regulate the sex activities of unmarried members of a family in line with the
restraints imposed by the society.
9. Family provides the children with a status till he becomes economically independent.
10. Children learn about customs, mores, superstitions and religion while they live in family and
thus these are passed on from generation to generation.
11. The family carries out certain recreational activities for the benefit of young children and thus
educates and broadens their outlook.
12. Family provides a sense of security to its members.
13. Family contributes towards preservation and enrichment of cultural heritage.
14. Family looks after its aged and disabled members.
15. Family disciplines its members so that the family is held in high esteem.
16. Family nourishes its member with mutual love and affection.
Characteristics of Kenyan Rural Family
1. The Rural Family is Patriarchal in Nature:
Father is head of the family. He shoulders the responsibility towards, government, societies etc.
He possesses some authority and takes all the decisions. He settles the marriages of other subordinate members of the family and distributes the work. If father is not alive then mother or
elder brother act as a head of family.
2. Rural Family is Orthodox in Nature:
They generally do not want to change their ways of behavior because of limited education,
limited sources, and their occupation depending upon nature. They cannot afford to take risk and
hence they follow the old ways of living.
3. Family Works as the Unit of Production and Unit of Consumption:
All the members of the family members work as a team. The adult family members carry out
heavy and major operations in the field like ploughing, sowing, transplanting etc. while children
help than in to field operations like watching crops, looking after cattle, picking of fruits,
harvesting of vegetables etc. Ladies also helps by carrying the meals to fields. Whatever
produces family gets from farm is kept for his own consumption.
4. Dominance of Family Age:
In the rural area there notices what is known as feminization: The rural people are religious as
well as family minded. They always think about the well being of the family. The family
pervades in to all acts of individual members of family. They tries to protect food name of the
family even with the biggest sacrifice. In Urban area people are less attached to the family.
Familization is that act in which the name of the family pervades in to all action.
5. Rural Family is Joint Family:
This joint pattern is showing sends of breaking still however it is a common form in rural area.
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6. Rural Family is Based on Peasant Households:

The family has also peasant neighborhood. All the neighbors of rural family are farmers. They
always come in contact with each other and talk is generally cantered around the agriculture and
alide subject.
7. Rural family is more homogenous, stable, integrated and organically functioning than urban
family. The ties, bindings of the members of rural families for instance the husbands and wife
parent and children are stronger and last longer than.
8. There is greater discipline and interdependence in the rural families.
Joint Family System
The joint family is prevalent in India since the times immemorial. This institution was introduced
in India and some other countries by Aryans. It consists of a group of people of common descent,
living together under one roof, who worship a common deity, hold common property. It
comprises of male members having a common male ancestors, unmarried female children and
females married to male members. The eldest male member is the head of family and its absolute
rural. The members of family contribute their labor and receive their share of produce to meet
their basic minimum needs
Characteristics of Joint Family
1. The head of family is its absolute rural.
2. The family owns a common property and the head of family is the trustee of the property.
3. The landed property is prevented from fragmentation. An agricultural family finds it
economically profitable to sow larger lands using the lager manpower by joint family.
4. In a joint everyone is assured of meeting his basic minimum needs in turn everyone performs
the work allotted to him by the head of family.
5. Commonality of place of living saves lot of expenses which would have otherwise to be made
on houses rent of cost of constructing house and cost of the articles of daily use.
6. There is little chance of children going astray as there is always somebody to look after them,
even when parents are away for work.
7. In a joint family every member has to do limited work. Everybody gets more time for
recreation and leisure.
8. The family has clear-cut division of labor. The members do their work efficiently.
9. In rural India joint family is still considered a matter of pride.
Disadvantages of Joint Family System
1. The joint family under the strict control of head of family tends to be conservative and
orthodox. It cannot change with times.
2. Member of family lack initiative because fruits of their initiative will ultimately be shared by
other members who may be lazy and idle. Therefore, nobody puts in hard labor, which is so
necessary for advancement in standard of living.
3. Due to lack of initiative in its members, the economic condition of the joint family goes on
deteriorating.
4. There is disharmony due to generation gap in the family which affects the progress of the
family adversely.
5. In a joint family the women look after household chores. Thus their talents are wasted and
their lives are rendered miserable
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6. The common property is looked after by none and its condition worsens for want of proper
attention.
7. Due to diverse temperaments, there is always conflict between males and females and young
and old.
8. As a large family has to live in limited space, there is no privacy.
9. Members tend to spend more and more due to the feeling that expenses will be scared by the
whole family. This makes the economic condition of family worse.
10. Because of presence of numerous other members of family a harmonious relationship based
of mutual love and affection cannot develop.
11. As the responsibility for upbringing of children is shared, there is uncontrolled reproduction.
As a result of this the family economy goes down.
12. When a joint family disintegrates, the commonness of property leads to family founds and
often to litigation in courts of law.
Changes in and Dis-Integration of the Joining Family
The joint family structure came into being in India because of its agricultural economy and
because of the needs of the agriculture. Now the situation has changed. The country is getting
industrialized. The population has gone up. The houses have become shall and the process of
urbanization has changed the socio-economic conditions. Because of all these factors, the
institution of joint family has started changing. In certain respects it has even dis-integrated.
There are reasons for it. The important factors that have brought about the change in the joint
family structure are:
1. Industrial development or industrialization.
2. Development of the means of communication and scientific and technological development.
3. Increase in population.
4. The process of urbanization.
5. Impact of western civilization and culture.
6. Education and development of individualism.
7. Dis-integration of village industries.
8. Social movements.
9. Social legislations, particularly those pertaining to the status of women.
Forestry communities; Fishing communities; mining communities; farming communities
The Harambee Spirit in Kenya; the Concept of Harambee
Many African countries have now been independent for ten years or more. Planning-and
implementation-for development has brought challenges, some success and some frustration.
Much of the frustration and the frequent inability to achieve broadly based rural development
have to do with failure to grasp how development is perceived by the small man. Many
government programmes, some of them aided and prodded by foreign donors, rest on very weak
ground in terms of knowledge and appreciation of the aspirations of those who are to be
"developed". The scale and scope of such programmes are often irrelevant or even alien to the
nature of grass-roots development effort.

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This realization has in most countries led to attempts at "bottom-up" development, assumed to
improve self-reliance by more use of indigeneous resources, and assumed to improve
performance by ensuring some popular participation and project design geared to local needs.
Harambee is a term used in the discussion of economic and social development in Kenya, just as
similar concepts are used in many other developing countries all over the world. Similar terms
used elsewhere include such terms as "Ujamaa" in Tanzania and "humanism" in Zambia.
Harambee is more than a propaganda phrase and contrary to some opinions, Harambee is not a
means by which peasants in Kenya are manipulated by the elite. Especially in rural areas of
Kenya, Harambee self-help is estimated to contribute over 30 per cent of development
investment and is an important way of life which is found on indigeneous social institutions.
The Kenyan Harambee Self-help movement offers an interesting example of "bottom-up"
development of more than one decade, with little and often no government financial support. The
movement appears to reflect pragmatic local priorities and offers an opportunity to test what
local people "really want". Harambee self-help existed before the ideological calls for self-reliant
development, and raises the issue whether in fact ideological build-up can or should precede
actual development efforts.
Almost everybody arriving in Kenya, dealing with Kenyan development prospects and problems,
teaching students and doing research, or trying to explain about Kenya to outsiders, will find it
necessary to know something about Harambee self-help as a development strategy, a way of
filling needs, and a way of working and living in Kenya.
The Concept of Harambee
Harambee as a concept, meaning collective effort, "pull together", is not new to Kenya. The
concept embodies ideas of mutual assistance, joint effort, mutual social responsibility,
community self-reliance. It is applied in day-to-day life in such ways as collective
neighbourhood house-building, weeding, bush clearing, irrigation, harvesting and fund raising.
The term is found in the languages of many tribes of Kenya; the Luo call it Konyri kendi, the
Luhya call it Obwasio, the Kikuyu call it Ngwatio, the Kamba call it Mwethia and the Masai call
it Ematonyok.
The concept of Harambee is indigeneous to Kenya. It was applied to the activities of a village or
neighbourhood, in the activities of age and sex groupings and was supported by the value of
mutual self-assistance. The basic social units involved in this form of social exchange were
female groups differentiated in terms of functions by age and often by kinship and mixed kin
groups such as clans, neighbourhood or village groups. Although very structurally specific, the
associations were voluntary and hence to maintain a high degree of solidarity and effectiveness
the group norms, membership and participation values and other criteria were very specific.
Thus, before independence Harambee was a grass-roots form of social exchange of labour and
other forms of mutual assistance. The concept became a national slogan, a motto on the national
crest and a rally cry on Madaraka Day in June 1963 when the President of Kenya, Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta formally made it such. After this day, Harambee is used to denote collective effort,
community self-reliance, cooperative enterprises and all forms of collective self-reliance.
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Nationally, Harambee self-help development effort is distinct from other development activities.
Some of the generalized characteristics of Harambee which will be tested later in the book
include the following:(a) Harambee self-help projects reflect a bottom-up rather than a top-down development project
initiation. Harambee projects are normally initiated, planned, implemented and maintained by
local communities.
(b) Harambee self-help activities are heavily biased towards the use of local resources such as
human labour, local power such as oxen, donkeys, camels, the use of local materials in
construction such as wooden structures, earth-bricks, grass thatch, and the use of donations in
kind such as donations of livestock, food, individual material property.
(c) The participation of individuals in Harambee self-help is guided by the principle of the
collective good rather than individual gain. In emphasising the principle of collective good,
participation is organised in such a way that the self-image of each individual is reinforced and
enhanced. This is often through public praise of each contributor. The effort then is meaningful
to the individual in terms of his psychological needs for identity, commitment, re-assurance and
worth and also in terms of the individual's membership in active traditionally and politically
legitimate groups.
(d) The choice of projects is guided by the principle of satisfying the immediate need of
participating members and groups. This local level ideology, which can be summarized as
"enlightened community and collective self-interest, is a very typical criterion for project
choice. In most cases, it is what the group feels is needful which determines whom the group
associates with, which resource mobilization strategy would be effective and what incentives,
catch phrases would be appropriate to increase commitment.
Rural Development and Gender, race, and ethnicity
The Rural Environment; Agriculture and environment; land and farm crises
Prospects and Problems; effects of rural life on personality; revision

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