Definition of society
A society as define by Onokerhorage (1988:101) as ‘’a group of people who have lived together, sharing common values and general interests, long enough to be considered by others and by themselves as a unit. ‘’He states that this communal identity might arise out of blood or kinship ties, out of possession of a common culture or religion either out of attachment to a certain neighborhood, commonly – out of some combination of these.
From the above definition children are members of a community, but they are not members of the society until they have learnt, and are conscious of the way the society function and know their right and duties as full citizens of the society in a nutshell, children are potential members of society and education assists them become full members of the society. A society is never static, the people always look towards the future through organized way of life and a set of techniques for bringing up their children.
Society can also be defined as the community of people living in a particular region and having shared customs laws and organizations
Factors that ensure the survival of a society
- It must be self sufficient system that has the capability of existing longer than the life span of its individual.
- It must be make of people or group that must interact together.
- The members of the society must always have certain things with common interest, geographical territory religious belief and a general feeling of belongingness
- Members must be social conscious of their model of life and be united by common set of arms and values.
- They must have a communal identity which might arise out of blood or kinship ties, out of possession of a common culture of religion, either out of attachments to a certain neighbor-hood and common territory.
- Language is an important part of any society, because it enables people to communicate and express themselves. When a language dies nut future generations loose a vital part of the culture that is necessary to completely understand it. This makes language vulnerable aspects of cultural heritage, and it becomes especially important to preserve it.
- Social development theory attempts to explain qualitative changes in the structure and framework of society, that help the society to better realize its aims and objectives.
- Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment (most notably its physical factors such as land forms and / or climate) determines the patterns of human culture and society development.
- Summarily, for a society to survive, it must inbide the altitude of the following Cohesion, conformity cooperation, participation, and interaction.
- Well articulated value system for regulating.
- Normative regulatory system
- Language preservation
- Survival of the fittest
- Social development theory
- Environmental determinism
- Maternal education as a strategy for children’s survival and health communication.