Social Level

Human beings depend on one another and form communities of various sizes. These organized groups of individuals constitute the social level of organization.

At the social level, this site examines the codes and standards that govern the relations among individuals, and the institutions that result from these relationships. These institutions promote the establishment of sub-groups based on shared cultural, religious, linguistic, professional, economic, and other characteristics.

To understand them, we draw on disciplines such as ethnology, anthropology, political science, history, and sociology.

Human societies also maintain relationships with their immediate ecosystems and with all the other plant and animal species in the biosphere. Though higher levels of organization (such as the solar system or the galaxy) can be defined, the social level is the highest one we look at on this site.