This article responds to a GRE prompt : To Understand the Most Important Characteristics of a Society, One Must Study Its Major Cities.
Society is a group of people connected by some social systems as well as sharing resources and benefits. Each society has its unique characteristics. Some societies are small, some are enormous. No matter what size a society is, it is too complicate to gain understanding of a society's characteristics by investigating its major cities. For the better way to learn about a society, one may learn from the society's components such as its traditions, laws, artworks, and so on. Also, one can investigate different aspects of a society from different cities, not only the major places. Moreover, one need to consider people as the most important characteristic of a society, not its places.
Important components of a society are, for instance, its traditions, laws, artworks, and beliefs. Each component can convey attributes of the society. For example, "wai", a Thai tradition of paying respect to older people or people who has higher status, can convey Thai society's value. Thai people "wai" by putting both hands together in front of one chest and low one's head a little bit, to greed someone they respect. The tradition is telling that Thai people value the seniority and social statuses. In contrast, in USA where people value freedom and equity more, people can say "Hello" to everybody regardless the difference of ages and social statuses.
Furthermore, one can misunderstand a society not only because he ignore some social components mentioned above, but also concentrate too much on geographical locations of a society. Major cities are usually important cities in term of politics and economic. For example, major cities of US are such as Washington DC, New York, and California. Washington DC is a capital of US, New York is one of the biggest business cities, and California is one of the most attractive tourist cities. However, these cities cannot demonstrate the whole important characteristics of US society which is one of the most diverse society. Some less famous cities in Midwest region such as Illinois, Missouri, and Akasas also transfer some important characteristics of US society such as agricultural characteristics and some local lifestyles that cannot be found in those major cities mention earlier.
In addition to that, characteristics of a society can be observed by learning about its people. One do not need to go to some specific physical places to learn about people a society. One can observe people behaviors, attitudes, opinions, and so on from some traditional and online media such as newspaper, television, Facebook, and Twitter. Not only from media, social characteristics can be investigated from talking with people on the street, listening to public speeches, and so on.
Studying a society is a complicate issue and cannot be done by going to and learning about a society's major cities. Other components such as traditions, laws, and artworks can be a good source of information. In some society especially societies with diversity like US, information from distinct places are critical. Nevertheless, human is the most important component of a society and cannot be overlooked in social study.
