Following are the types of society
1. Static Society. A type of society that experiences little or no changes from one generation to another. A simple and non-literate society is considered to be static society. These kinds of societies remained so far thousands of years. Little changes are taking place in simple societies because of the transportation and communication systems, the spread of knowledge etc.
2. Folk or Traditional Society This is an ideal society having abstract model developed by Rovert Redfiled. A folk society is small, isolated, non-literate and homogeneous with s strong sense of group solidarity. This has fewer social institutions, simple culture with old ways of life exists, old means of communication, slow social changes, and population is not much and homogeneous social life is found. There is no formal legal system.
3. Industrial Society It refers to a system of economic and social organism established by industrial revolution. Industrial society is characterized by the replacement of hand-made produce by the production of standardized automatic plants. Most of the people are engaged in nonagricultural occupations and professions in an industrial society. Interaction patterns are complex, secondary and formal. Economic activity is organized and there is a large scale manufacturing of goods. It is large modern political and social unit. Individual identity and social integration is related to the development of modern transportation and communication system. There is higher social mobility, division of labour, specialization and differentiation as compared to rural and folk societies.
4. Nomadic Society Nomadic societies have no permanent place of settlement. The people change their place with their luggage. They usually use camels, donkeys and other animals as a source of transportation. The cultural traditions have very forceful binding upon he members.
5. Sedentary Society It is opposite to nomadic, where people have permanent settlement in rural and urban areas.
6. Gemeinschaft Given by Ferdinand Tonnies a German sociologist, it is a German word means community. It is a generalized or ideal type of society in which social bonds are based on close personal ties of friendship, close association and kinship. It is closely approximated by rural agricultural societies.
7. Close society It refers to a social class is based primary on family status rather than personal abilities, capabilities and achievements. It is an intermediate form between an open class and a caste society system. The chances of achieved statuses are very limited in the fields of occupation, educational, religious, economic and political institutions. The chances of social mobility are lesser as compared to an open class.
8. Primitive Society One of the types of society refers to a non-literate one. The cultural environment controls the entire human activities. The culture has simple technology, cultural homogeneity and isolation from larger cultural influences.
9. Rural Society It is sparsely populated. The profession is mostly agriculture, can be called as agricultural society. They live in farmstead settlement. They are dispersed their farms. It. consists of less than 5000 populations. There is informal social system. The people have homogeneity in profession, dress, language and customs of social life is usually found, there is slow rate of change
10. Urban society Given by Robert Redfield Having a large heterogeneous population, complex division of labor, impersonal social relations, relation are also casual, secondary, complex and formal. There is formal social control. There is diversity in profession, education, religion etc.
11. Modern Society It is based on expansion of education, technology, and industry urban life. It has a complex culture. Heterogeneous social life is found.
12. Secular Society It is primarily a non-religious one in the sense that there is no official (state) religion. The example is USSR to a great extent. The extreme type of secular one is supposed to be highly unstable. Pragmatism is the cultural ethos of such a society. It is a heterogeneous one.
13. Sacred society This type of society is primarily homogeneous, integrated and stable. Human relationship and value systems are regarded as absolute, natural, rigid and fixed. Most of the societies of the “third” world countries could be placed under this category, although no society could come up to the ideal standard of such a sacred society. Religion is the cultural ethos of a sacred society. Societies at Makkah, Madina, and Vatican State etc. are the typical examples of sacred societies.