Beruin, Laurence C. Dr.

Alex Tenorio, PhD

MA-TSS
1. What is the context of “human sociality as multisocial” in terms of biological,
behavioural, and cultural aspects?
Human sociality is considered as multisocial as he/she can be a member of
any collective in any given period. The level of sociality is on par among other
species in the animal kingdom since one can belong to a nation, church, firm,
interest club, or a political affiliation in a society, simultaneously. Multisocial, in this
situation, can mean one’s affinity to any social group at any given place and time.
If we look at it closely, the idea of being multisocial can be divided into three
aspects, namely: biological, behavioural, and cultural.
Biologically speaking, two fundamental factors that may affect the how
multisocial a human can be depends on physical characteristics and gender
orientation. Differences on a person’s anatomical structure (overall size, skin color,
and physical appearance) leads to varying degrees of interactions in a social
setting. Individuals with larger physique are more likely to get accepted in any
physically-demanding work/occupation, athletics/sports programs, and more
challenging activities that require more physicality than individual’s with average
physique. Caucasians are more likely to be the executive of a company, part of
humanitarian organizations, better treatment in Asian countries, and likely to
engage in wanderlust all over the globe. Additionally, individuals with better
physical appearance are more inclined to random small talks and can gain more
affiliations from different groups in a society, particularly the ones in need of
attractions. On the other hand, gender orientation plays a significant role on a
person’s degree of multisociality. While most modern societies are starting to
present more equal opportunities to male and female, it is a known fact that there
are occupations, jobs, and even affiliations that adheres to the males rather than
females.
In terms of behavior, with the intensifying degree of specialization in the
modern age, the division of labor created a multiplicity and overlapping of roles
and occupations. As man lives in an elaborate social system, his/her behavior
greatly affects all those around him like a farmer producing only corn products from
other people’s use or consumption. We can imagine that the farmer is not
essentially a farmer only but can also be a member of town council that protects
their rights, and even a member of a religious ministry. The idea is promoting a
cooperative system that each one of us satisfy wants and needs of another.
Moreover, humans also tend to associate themselves with other people of the
same occupation, socioeconomic class, religion, ethnicity, and so on, such that
each associations can promotes a community and a collective that they can feel
belonged.
 As far as a particular culture is concerned, focusing on the concept of
multiculturality or having many human cultures, simply creates endless
possibilities for an individual to connect in this heavily-interconnected world. While
culture is relative to certain geographical areas, formation of cultural melting pots
(e.g. USA) proves the importance of creating great artistic and intellectual richness,
of which can be found to diverse social groups and institutions that are formed to
satisfy different audiences all at the same time.

2. What is correlation between (human) sociality and social science?

Since human sociality is the degree of socialness among humans, humans
need each other to survive in this world. Despite the development and advances
in technology and overall quality of living, collectivity is still an important aspect of
human survivability. Part of it came from our long history of needing each other’s
back in order hunt or forage for food, and even taking down wild beast trying to
destroy one’s settlements. Cooperation and continued interaction amongst each
other can lead to a better living situations from a developing country, up to a more
developed nations. In that pre-text, it’s important for social scientist to have a better
grasp of the multidisciplinary approach in understanding the problems and issues
that the world is facing. Interaction, or in this case the use of, each disciplines in
social sciences to analyze how extensive and complex systems work so that the
they can understand its defects and deficiencies to create probable solutions.
Looking at it further, the five types of (human) sociality are basically the
levels as to how the disciplines came into being as multidisciplinary approach to
understand the society. Gregariousness is the foundation of each discipline
(sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc.) to focus on their areas of study (referred
to as preferential association). Hierarchy possibly reflects the stage when each
discipline was founded such with Philosophy as the starting point, every discipline
shall use its theories and framework to comprehend their areas of study. For the
biological differentiation, the emphasis is on redefining their focus on more specific
fields and subject matter to distinguish each disciplines’ differences and
constructing more comprehensive analytical tools and research methods.
While the first three types (or levels) focuses on building each respective
disciplines on their own, the final two types focuses on the interdisciplinary/
multidisciplinary approach. Functional specialization focuses on each discipline
understanding their focus or subject matter yet in relation with other disciplines.
They started to work hand in hand as a cohesive approach in hopes of
understanding the social complexities and finding solutions to problems in the
society. Such is a take on altruistic behavior, devoid of criticisms in self-interest as
focal point in making decisions or taking actions.