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Understanding Social Institutions – Class 11 Sociology notes, important questions and MCQs

NCERT Class 11 Sociology, chapter 3. Notes, key terms, important questions with answers and MCQs.

Chapter overview

Social institutions are established patterns of rules and behaviour that meet basic needs of society. The major institutions are family, marriage and kinship; work and economic life; politics; religion; and education. Functionalists see institutions as meeting social needs and maintaining order, while conflict theorists see them as reflecting and reproducing inequality.

Family, marriage and kinship

Families may be nuclear (parents and unmarried children) or extended (several generations living together); residence may be patrilocal or matrilocal, and descent patrilineal or matrilineal, as among the Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis of Meghalaya.
Forms of marriage include monogamy and polygamy (polygyny and polyandry); rules include endogamy (marrying within a group) and exogamy (marrying outside a group).
Kinship ties are based on blood (consanguineal) or marriage (affinal).

Work, politics, religion and education

Work in modern societies involves a complex division of labour and wage labour; work is also being transformed by technology and flexible production.
Politics concerns power and authority; Max Weber distinguished traditional, charismatic and legal-rational authority; the state claims a monopoly of legitimate force.
Religion involves beliefs and rituals about the sacred (Durkheim distinguished the sacred and profane); education transmits knowledge and values and can promote both mobility and inequality.

Key terms

Social institution: an established set of norms and practices that meets a social need
Nuclear family: a family of parents and their unmarried children
Endogamy: marriage within a specific group
Exogamy: marriage outside a specific group
Authority: power that is accepted as legitimate

Important questions with answers

What is the difference between endogamy and exogamy?2 marks

Endogamy is the rule of marrying within a specific group, such as one's caste or religion. Exogamy is the rule of marrying outside a specific group, such as one's own gotra, clan or village.

What are Weber's three types of authority?3 marks

Traditional authority rests on long-established customs and beliefs, as with kings and chiefs. Charismatic authority rests on the extraordinary qualities of a leader. Legal-rational authority rests on formal rules and laws, as in modern bureaucracies and elected governments.

Describe the family as a social institution and its forms.5 marks

The family is a basic social institution responsible for reproduction, care and socialisation of children, emotional support and economic cooperation. It takes many forms. By structure, families may be nuclear, consisting of parents and their unmarried children, or extended or joint, in which several generations or brothers' families live together and share property and resources. By residence, families may be patrilocal, where the couple lives with the husband's family, or matrilocal, where they live with the wife's family. By descent and inheritance, families may be patrilineal, tracing descent through the father, as in most of India, or matrilineal, tracing descent through the mother, as among the Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis of Meghalaya. By authority, families may be patriarchal or matriarchal. Marriage, which forms families, may be monogamous or polygamous, and is regulated by rules of endogamy and exogamy. Families are changing with urbanisation, industrialisation, migration, education and women's employment; nuclear families have become common in cities, though kinship ties remain important, and new forms such as single-parent families are emerging.

Quick revision

Institutions meet social needs.
Family: nuclear, extended; patrilineal, matrilineal.
Marriage: monogamy, polygamy; endogamy, exogamy.
Work, politics (authority), religion (sacred), education.

Exam tips

Make a chart of family types by structure, residence and descent.
Learn Weber's three types of authority with examples.

Practice MCQs

A family of parents and unmarried children is a
1. joint family
2. nuclear family
3. extended family
4. clan
Show answer
Answer: (b) nuclear family. It is common in cities.
Marriage within one's own group is called
1. exogamy
2. endogamy
3. polyandry
4. monogamy
Show answer
Answer: (b) endogamy. Caste endogamy is an example.
Power accepted as legitimate is called
1. force
2. authority
3. violence
4. wealth
Show answer
Answer: (b) authority. People obey it willingly.
The Khasis of Meghalaya follow
1. patrilineal descent
2. no descent system
3. bilateral descent only
4. matrilineal descent
Show answer
Answer: (d) matrilineal descent. Property passes through women.
A woman having more than one husband is called
1. polygyny
2. polyandry
3. monogamy
4. endogamy
Show answer
Answer: (b) polyandry. It is a rare form of polygamy.
Authority based on a leader's exceptional qualities is
1. traditional
2. legal-rational
3. charismatic
4. economic
Show answer
Answer: (c) charismatic. Weber gave this type.
The distinction between the sacred and the profane was made by
1. Weber
2. Marx
3. Durkheim
4. Comte
Show answer
Answer: (c) Durkheim. He studied religion as a social fact.
How do conflict theorists view education
1. it can reproduce existing inequalities while claiming to offer mobility
2. it always creates equality
3. it has no social role
4. it only teaches religion
Show answer
Answer: (a) it can reproduce existing inequalities while claiming to offer mobility. Access and quality differ by class.

All chapters of Class 11 Sociology

Written by Kundali IQ from standard, well-established facts to help with revision. This is not an official NCERT publication; always read your textbook too.