Associations

Man has been defined as a complex of certain biological and socio-psychological drives.An individual human being is not in a position to satisfy all the needs himself.He must cooperate with other fellow human beings and engage in organized behavior.A solitary isolated human being will probably lose his existence  or failing that happening immediately will lose his humanity.So the need for forming associations which is the coming together of groups of human beings to engage in organized behavior for a designated goal and in conformity with a designated set of rules and norms must have come naturally to man as that for satisfying hunger and allied needs the two set of needs being inter dependent.An association is to be differentiated from a community in so far the former is deliberately formed and depends upon human initiative and action for its emergence whereas the latter emerges spontaneously out of physical proximity and a consciousness of kind.

Age,sex,occupation,rank and status are various universally true bases for the formation of associations.There are two other principles the voluntary and the political principles of integration.The latter brings together the tribe as a cultural and political unit but such a consciousness of kind may not be present as it to be found in modern societies.However voluntary associations are as common in primitive as in modern societies and these are of immense cultural,socio economic and even political significance.Schurtz have pointed to the existence of  voluntary associations in primitive society.He stated that those who form associations because of like mindedness ,of the same sex and age.However no association is completely voluntary as degrees of compulsion always operate.This compulsion often results from the interrelatedness of the various principles of integration in their role as bases of associations.Lowie says that a distinction should be made not between voluntary and compulsive associations but between those based on kinship and residence and other factors.This latter type he calls the sodality.Various types of sodalities have been found to exist in different primitive socieities ,secret societies,exclusive clubs,age classes and so on.