Signs and role of the community. Signs of a clan community. Communities are ...

Communities are groups of people who live in one settlement (city, village, village, settlement) and are connected by common spiritual, political and economic interests. One of their main features is the following: each member realizes that he belongs to a collective different from the others. The community is a form of self-organization of society. We propose to get acquainted with her in more detail.

Community in a broad sense

In a broad sense, communities are any communities of people connected with each other that have developed historically. This relationship is due to the place of residence (urban or rural community), membership of its members to a particular confession (confessional), similarity of occupations (professional). In addition, communities are associations whose members can be connected by a common place of birth or belonging to a particular ethnic group. This applies to people who live outside their historical homeland (country).

Community in the narrow sense

In a narrow sense, communities are forms of social organization of the population, which are considered to be among the oldest. They are characteristic for the early stage of development of all civilizations. One person, or a group consisting of several people in the age of primitive, as a rule, could not survive. It was very difficult for her to provide herself with at least a minimum of resources and necessary products. Therefore, people had to form large communities in order to manage the economy together. At the same time they were united according to blood relationship - the most natural sign. So there was a clan community. Its definition is as follows: it is a collective of relatives who are engaged in joint farming. In the early stages of development of the tribal community, this was a hunt, then - gathering and, finally, cattle breeding and / or farming.

Functions of the community

In a situation where the state did not yet exist, all relations related to religious beliefs, economy, family and family relations were concentrated at the community level. It provided its members with everything necessary, it was a self-sufficient organism. The community consisted of separate families, the nature and size of which depended on what were the features of the development of this civilization. The community at the beginning of its existence often coincided with the clan. The tribe was the union of several communities. This was how society was organized in antiquity.

House, or family community

House, or family community is considered a special kind of ancestral. What are its features? Symptoms of a generic community of this type are as follows. It consists of a large family, consisting of three to five generations of immediate relatives. After cattle breeding or agriculture began to form the basis of the community's economy, the role of its most experienced members increased. They were called elders. They became organizers of collective work, religious leaders, leaders of the military militia. These people had a deserved authority in the eyes of other members of the community. At the Institute of Military Leaders and Elders, scientists today see the germ of future property and social inequality.

Community territorial

Consciousness of the blood connection between members of the community with the increase in the number of relatives weakened. All the more distant members of the family settled next to each other. Some began to create families outside the community. Thus, in the unification of people, not all the signs of a tribal community were observed. To replace it in the course of social evolution came territorial, or neighbor. The unification of people occurred in this case on the basis of the proximity of their residence.

The role of the community after the emergence of the state

The community was made up of individual families who were running their own farm. She had a partial or complete self-government. Most often, the neighboring community united free farmers. In relation to the state, she held a subordinate position.

The community in the countries of the ancient world played the role of the primary link of the social system, indivisible of its cell. It was she who was the subject who paid taxes (taxes) and supplied soldiers for the army. The community often turned into a political-territorial unit of the state. Within its framework, relations were governed by unwritten, customary law, and after a while they were fixed with the help of state laws. As long as the community performed duties to the state, it usually did not interfere in its affairs. This was facilitated by the so-called mutual guarantee, which operated within the community. It meant that all of her members were responsible for the rest.

Nomadic community

The kind of people's occupation depended on the appearance of the neighborhood community. Nomadic, for example, distributed pastures, organized self-help in times of natural disasters or loss of livestock. Nomadic communities had to guard their flocks all the time, so they had a permanent military organization.

The agricultural community

The agricultural community was somewhat different. Its main task was to regulate economic and land relations arising between its members. We note an important feature of the community: the general use of water resources, forest lands and pastures. In each civilization, it had its own characteristics, depending on the form of government and the strength of the state, the availability of suitable land for cultivation. For example, in the peoples of medieval Asia and in the communities of the ancient East, each family received its allotment for the agricultural season. This allotment was the possession of the community, and the state was the supreme owner of the land. In Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, a member of the community had the rights to his allotment. But the way out of it led to their loss. Members of the German early medieval community (the so-called brand) had unconditional rights to allotments. At the same time, the functions of the community were limited to judicial matters and the use of common lands.

Process of loss of functions by the community

Why did this form of uniting people fall apart? Let's look at the main reasons. As a result of the fact that the population of the community increased significantly, there was a shortage of land suitable for processing. Then began to introduce restrictions on the size of the allotment. The peasant allotments became the property of the feudal lord as feudal landownership developed. Various forms of land and personal dependence on the senor began to spread. At this time, the community began to monitor the timely payment of rents to the feudal lords by the peasants. It gradually lost its judicial functions, and its self-government became very limited. However, neither the order of using the lands owned by the community, nor the methods of cultivating the land, practically did not undergo any changes at that time. The professional differences among members of the caste community (India, Ancient Egypt, Tropical Africa, Medieval Japan, Oceania) were fixed by a strict division into castes.

Some common signs of the community

Urgent agricultural work, which required a lot of effort (harvesting, mowing, etc.) in most civilizations was carried out jointly by members of the community. The most important decisions, including questions about the distribution of various duties and state taxes, were taken by men at general meetings. The current affairs were led by the head of the community. He also represented her before government officials.

What signs of the tribal community we forgot to mention? It, as well as territorial, inherent tendencies to equalize the social and property status of farmers. A greater tax burden was borne by its rich members. The strength of the community depended on the number of farmers who were part of it. Therefore, she tried to prevent a situation in which her members would be devastated.

How did the community die?

The community in most civilizations is an indispensable sign of pre-industrial, or agrarian, society. She died in a number of countries in Western Europe as a result of the fact that the feudal lords completely seized the land belonging to her. So the life of the communities was destroyed. However, this process most often occurred as a result of an industrial revolution, the formation of the capitalist way of life, the development of commodity-money relations in the society, and also because of urbanization, that is, the rapid growth of the urban population. The peasants went to work in cities where there were large industrial enterprises. This gradually weakened the community. The burden of the obligations imposed on each of its members grew. At the same time, the gap between the poor and the rich in it increased. The latter were burdened by the restrictions imposed by the community on the use of land, and tried to get out of it. As a result, she lost the most wealthy members. Left without them, the community became unable to fulfill the obligations imposed on it by the state. Therefore, the state sanctioned its dissolution. People ceased to live as a community, the division of its property began. Note that the varieties of the neighboring community still exist in a number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.