How did Pre-Industrial society both alter and depend upon their natural environment?

INTRODUCTION

Pre-industrial societies are societies that existed before the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some remote societies today may share characteristics with these historical societies, and may, therefore, also be referred to as pre-industrial. 

In general, pre-industrial societies share certain social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization, including limited production, a predominantly agricultural economy, limited division of labor, limited variation of social class, and narrowness at large. While pre-industrial societies share these characteristics in common, they may otherwise take on very different forms. Two specific forms of pre-industrial society are hunter-gatherer societies and feudal societies,(Kelly, R.L. 1995).

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

Pre-industrial society refers to specific social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. It is followed by the industrial society,(Knauft, B. 1987).

Pre-industrial societyis oldest and simplest type of society characterized by small and sparse population, a nomadic way of life and a very primitive technology. They have the most primitive tools such as stone axes, spears and knives, Shankarrao, C.N (2006).

Features of Pre-industrial societies

Small in size, hunting and gathering societies consists a very small but scattered the environment in which they live cannot support a large concentration of people.  They depend upon whatever food they can find or catch from one day to the next.  They live in small primary groups and sometimes they number does not exceed 40 to 50 members.

Nomadic in nature, this people are constantly on the move because they have to leave one area as soon they have exhausted its food resources.

Absence of political institutions, in these institutions the difference between the ruler and the rules is not there, because political institutions are not found here.  Statuses in these societies are essential equal and hence the difference between the leader and followers is not there. Most decisions are made through group discussions. Welfare is unknown to this people, partly because they have virtually no property and therefore have very little to fight out. 

Limited or no division of labour, there is no scope for division of labour in this societies expect along the lines of age and sex.  Men and women, young and old performed different roles, but there are no specialized occupational roles.  There is gender based division of labour but there is no gender inequality as such.  Most of people do match the some things most of time hence they share common life experiences and values.  Production is communal and cooperative and the distribution system is based on sharing.

Simple religious beliefs, religion developed among these people into complex institutions.  Their religion does not include a belief in powerful god or gods who are active in human affairs.  On the contrary, they tend to see the world as populated by unseen sprits that must be taken into account but necessarily worshipped. 

The pre-industrial societies both alter and depend on their natural environment due to the following reasons;

Weather and climatic change, the pre-industrial societies were altering and depending on their natural environment depending on the weather and climatic changes for instance when the animals left the area, the plants died, or the rivers dried up, the society had to relocate to an area where resources were plentiful. Consequently, hunting and gathering societies, which were typically small, were quite mobile. In some cases, where resources in a place were extraordinarily plentiful, small villages might form. But most hunting and gathering societies were nomadic, moving constantly in search of food and water.

Population change, as it known that the pre-industrial societies totally depended on their natural environment especially on hunting and gatheringtherefore increase of people due to birth rate in various areas during that time leadto the scarcity of natural resourcesand also the needs were increase in access that most of them tend to shift other places for the searching of food and water. For instance when these people shifted due to scarcity of resources in the destination areas were engaged in other activities depending on the nature of the environment.

Creativity and innovation, as the population rose up during the pre-industrial societies there was also the emergence of people who were innovators and creators in various things such as modification of the means of hunting and collecting food for example first those people used very low methods of food collection such digging by using crude tools like stones and sticks but due to the development of creativity and innovation they modified those crude tools by sharpening them which also simplified ways of food collection.

Division of labor, the pre-industrial societies particularly on the division of labor based on gender and sex whereby males probably traveled long distances to hunt and capture larger animals while females hunted smaller animals, gathered plants, made clothing, protected and raised children, and helped the males to protect the community from rival groups. As men were moving in different places searching food they reached at different areas which contain other natural resources such as rivers where also they decided to migrate and live in those areas for fishing activities.

Presence of dangerous animals,as hunter and gather were mobile there were also depend on nature settlement like caves to sleep, other places where there were no caves they have to sleep on think forest. Due to presence of dangerous animals some of them were eaten by those predators.Therefore materials available in the wild like trees and grasses used to construct shelters on naturally occurring shelters like extend also Shelters give them protection from predators.

Language, communication was very important during pre-industrial societieswhere symbols were began much earlier than this time, earlier symbols were probably much less effective as instruments for the acquisition, storage, and transmission of information but also the use of language especially click language facilitated much to the advancement of technology as they were able to share knowledge and skills which also spore out to other generation.

CONLUSION

The presence of pre-industrial societies paved the way of coming new society which was industrial society. In this society Population increase causes the increase of the demand for supplying the basic needs ofthe population also Industrial society as characterized by the presence of modern industries also there is high needs of raw materials from different areas which lead to environmental destruction. Therefore, environmental conservation is no longer a trend; it is a need for thepopulation, industry and organizations need to obtain wellbeing and comfort, and still preserve resources for future generations,

REFERENCES

Kelly, R.L. (1995). “The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways”

                                   Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press.

Knauft, B. 1987. “Reconsidering violence in simple human societies”, homicide among the

Gebusi of New Guinea.Curr. Anthrop. 28(4):457-500.

Macions, J.J and Plumer, K (2008), “Sociology A grobal introduction”, 4^th Edition Pearson

Education Ltd England.

Schaefer, R.T. (2008), “Sociology A brief introduction”, 7^th Edition. McGraw Hill Companies.

Shankarrao, C.N (2006) “Principles of sociology with an introduction to social thought” India

Schand and company Ltd.

 Written By AUSI CHIWAMBO (2014)-Teofilo Kisanji University