Understanding Social Institutions
EXERCISES
1. Note the marriage rules that are followed in your society. Compare your
observations with these made by other students in the class. Discuss.
2. Find out how membership, residence pattern and the mode of interaction
changes in the family with broader economic, political and cultural
changes, for instance migration.
3. Write an essay on ‘work’. Focus on both the range of occupations, which
exist and how they change.
4. Discuss the kind of rights that exist in your society. How do they affect
your life?
5. How does sociology study religion?
6. Write an essay on school as a social institution. Draw from both your
reading as well as your personal observations.
7. 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?
