1. Understanding Social Structure
Miss Lynch
6th Grade Social Studies

2. Basic Needs Three basic needs are: food, clothing, and shelter.
What else does a society need to provide its members?
Protection against outside groups
Maintain cooperation among its members
Raise and educate its young people

3. Customs Customs are: Customs include:
A societies pattern of behavior to meet their needs.
The ways that members of a society do things.
Customs include:
What they eat
How they dress
How they build their homes
Holidays they celebrate

4. Roles Roles Gender Roles
Based on rules for the proper behavior of individuals in particular positions and situations.
Gender Roles
Are roles that are assigned separately to men and women.

5. Institutions
Organizations, known as institutions, are developed by each society to make social roles clear and take care of social needs. The main types are:
Families
Schools
Government

6. Social Structure
People who shares similar wealth and power are usually in the same social class.
There are several types of social classes:
Upper-Class: group that often inherits wealth and is in leadership
Middle Class: group is educated and successful
Working Class: group is made up of manual labor workers.
Peasants: farm workers with little education.
Lower Class: group is uneducated and unskilled, often poor.
Social Mobility
The ability to move from one class to the other.

7. Belief Systems
Every society has a set of beliefs, which are often closely tied to religion
Most religions have 3 common elements:
A set of beliefs about the nature of the universe and the existence of God/gods.
A set of practices relating to worship and proper conduct in life.
An organization, such as a church, which oversees the conduct of religious practices.