Society is a set of beings that coexist in an organized way. The word comes from the Latin societas, which means “friendly association with others”.
Human societies are the object of study of Sociology and Anthropology, while animal societies are studied by Sociobiology and Ethology.
The concept of society presupposes a coexistence and joint activity of man, ordered or organized consciously. It is the general object of the study of the ancient sciences of the state, today called social sciences. The concept of society is opposed to that of community in considering social relations as links of conscious and established interests, while community relations are considered as organic articulations of natural formation.
A human society is a collective of citizens of a country, subject to the same political authority, to the same laws and norms of conduct, socially organized and governed by entities that care for the well-being of that group.
Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. They can also belong to different levels or social classes. What characterizes society is the sharing of interests among members and the mutual concern directed towards a common goal.
The term society can also refer to an institutional system formed by partners who participate in the capital of a company, for example, corporation, civil society, society by quotas, etc. In this business aspect, a company is a contract whereby two or more persons undertake to contribute goods or services for the joint exercise of a certain economic activity in order to share the profits resulting from that activity.
A group of people with common interests, organized around an activity, obeying certain rules and regulations, is also called society, for example: society of physics, society of merchants, etc.