NCERT solutions for इन्ट्रोडूसिंग सॉसीओलॉजी [अंग्रेजी] कक्षा ११ chapter 3 - Understanding Social Institutions [Latest edition]

Think of examples of how people sacrifice for family, for religion or for the state.

A Telegu expression states: ‘Bringing up a daughter is like watering a plant in another’s courtyard’. Find out other such sayings that are contrary. Discuss how popular sayings reflect the social arrangement of a society,

Find out about the different ways that different societies go about finding marriage partners.

Collect different wedding songs and discuss how they reflect the social dynamics of marriages and of gender relations.

Have you ever seen matrimonial advertisements? Divide your class into groups and look at different newspapers, magazines and the internet. Discuss your findings. Do you think endogamy is still the prevalent norm? How does it help you to understand choice in marriage? More importantly, what kind of changes in society does it reflect?

There was no occupation, which Tiny’s Granny had not tried at some stage of her life. From the time she was old enough to hold her own cup she had started working at odd jobs in people’s houses in return for her two meals a day and cast-off clothes. Exactly what the words ‘odd jobs’ mean, only those know who have been kept at them at an age when they ought to have been laughing and playing with other children. Anything from the uninteresting duty of shaking the baby’s rattle to massaging the master’s head comes under the category of ‘odd jobs’ (Chugtai 2004:125).

Find out more about the various kinds of ‘work’ done from your own observation or literature or even films. Discuss.

Find out the proportion of Indians who are in rural based occupations. Make a list of these occupations.

Find out whether there has been a shift to the service sector in India in recent times. Which are these sectors?

Have you seen a master weaver at work? Find out how long one piece of shawl may take to make?

Make a list of the food that you eat, the materials that were used to make the houses you live in, the clothes you wear. Find out how and who made them.

Find out when women got voting rights in different countries. Why do you think that despite the right to vote and the right to stand for public office, women are so inadequately represented? Will power in its wider sense be a useful concept to understand this under-representation in the Parliament and other bodies? Does the existing division of labour within families and households impact women’s participation in political life? Find out why there is a demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Parliament.

Collect information about different states doing away with social rights. Find out what explanation is given for this. Discuss and see whether you can see the relationship between the economic, political and social spheres.

Collect information of events that show the growth of global interconnectedness as well as instances of divisions along ethnic, religious, national conflicts. Discuss how politics and economics may have a part to play in them.

A study of a kindergarten suggested that children learn that:

• ‘work activities are more important than play activities.’
• ‘work includes any and all teacher-directed activities.’
• ‘work is compulsory and free time activities are called play’ (Apple 1979:102).

What do you think? Discuss.

Discuss how these social institutions interact with each other. You can start the discussion from yourself as a senior school student. And move on to how you are shaped by different social institutions. Are you entirely controlled or can you also resist and redefine social institutions?