Sources of Indian Constitution.

Indian constituion is the largest constitution in the world. By the time of its creation, the tradition of written constitutions was a centarian already, and the norms and procedure had been standardised. The forefathers of modern India studied different constitutions throughout the world and selected the best features from across these various constitutions to suit the locals needs, to best degree.

Following is an excerpt of the various inspirations for out constitution.

-Government of India Act 1935,
The office of Governors, Public services comission, Judiciary, Federal scheme, administrative details and emergency provisions.
Here we observe a clear stamp of british will of governing india. Most of these are related to the framework under which the people will be ruled and law and order maintained; the exoskeleton for the executive. Federal scheme ->administrative details ->emergency provisions-> (judiciary, governor, public services commission)

-British Constitution,
Rule of law, Parliamentary government, single citizenship, legislative procedure, cabinet system, prerogative writs, parliamentary privileges and bicameralism.
Parliamentary form of governemt was both comfortable and inclusive for a nation like India. A large number of above ideals are relating to this only viz. parliamentary government, cabinet system, bicameralism, marliamentary privileges. The other set of ideals relate to conflict in civil life viz. Rule of law,legislative procedure, single citizenship and prejorative writs.

-USA's Constitution-
Independent Judiciary, Judicial review, Removal of judges of supreme/high courts, Removal of Vice president, Impeachment of President, Fundamental rights,
The major inspirations here are in the areas of Judiciary; its independence and powers. Also we see the process to remove the centers of power on proven incapacity.

-Irish Constitution-
Directive principles of state polity, nomination of members to Rajya sabha, and method of election of president.
Ireland had been a good inspiration of freedom struggle and the ideals represented from there are inclusiveness and responsible governance.

-Canadian Constitution,
Federal government with strong center, residuary power with center, appointment of state goernors from center, advisory jurisdiction of supreme court.
Canada like India has a lot of diversity due to french-british history. Thus they evolved a system focussed on keeping the nation united and handle the diversity with a balanced hand.

-Australian Constitution,
Concurrent list, freedom of trade, commercy and intercourse, and joint sitting of the two houses of parliament.
Australia has a true federal sturucture and have an evolved power sharing sturucture. The ideals are useful in striking a balance between states and center and conflict resolution.

-Weimar constitution of Germany.
Suspension of rights during emergency.
Weimar republic came to existance after the second world war; during quite troubled times for Germany. It is to tackle these tough times and still hold the nation together that these ideals were integrated. In India too, due to the vastness of geography and multitudes of ethnicities and subcultures that these ideals exist, to hold the nation together at times of distress.

-Soviet Constitution,
Ideal of justice ( economic, political and social).
Soviet Union was born of the russian revolution, based on the ideals of an utopian socialist society, which would offer justice to the masses. Given the long period of supression of genuine greivances of Indian people it was imperetive to the founding fathers to strive to similar objectives.

-French Constitution,
Republic, ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.
French constitution was inspired by the french revolution, which strived to rid the nation of class differences and create a society without distinctions. Similar seggregation exists in India too.

-South African Constitution,
Procedure of amendment of constitution and election of members of Rajya Sabha.
Inclusiveness and stability?

-Japanese Constitution,
Fundamental duties.
Along with Fundamental rights it was found that people should also have duties to help preserve the notion of a nation.

2.2 The Nature of Society

2.2      

            Concept of Society-A human society is a group of people involved in persistent interpersonal relationships, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society may be illustrated as an economic, social, industrial or cultural infrastructure, made up of, yet distinct from, a varied collection of individuals. In this regard society can mean the objective relationships people have with the material world and with other people, rather than people themselves conceived as others.Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society can be a particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.

Society and Culture-Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This latter term institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social activities. Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work, and health care.Popularly speaking, being culturedmeans being well‐educated, knowledgeable of the arts, stylish, and well‐mannered. High culture—generally pursued by the upper class—refers to classical music, theater, fine arts, and other sophisticated pursuits. Members of the upper class can pursue high art because they havecultural capital, which means the professional credentials, education, knowledge, and verbal and social skills necessary to attain the “property, power, and prestige” to “get ahead” socially. Low culture, or popular culture—generally pursued by the working and middle classes—refers to sports, movies, television sitcoms and soaps, and rock music. Remember that sociologists defineculture differently than they do cultured, high culture, low culture, and popular culture.Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture. The cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to shared beliefs, values, and activities. The term society can also have ageographic meaning and refer to people who share a common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in arctic climates developed different cultures from those living in desert cultures. In time, a large variety of human cultures arose around the world.Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. When the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world worked and lived in small groups in the same locale. In today's world of 6 billion people, these terms have lost some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of people interact and share resources globally. Still, people tend to use culture and society in a more traditional sense: for example, being a part of a “racial culture” within the larger “U.S. society.”

            Social Institutions-Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and function of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence; that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved.
As       mechanisms of social interaction, institutions manifest in both formal organizations, such as the U.S. Congress, or the Roman Catholic Church, and, also, in informal social order and organization, reflecting human psychology, culture, habits and customs, and encompassing subjective experience of meaningful enactments. Most important institutions, considered abstractly, have both objective and subjective aspects: examples include money and marriage. The institution of money encompasses many formal organizations, including banks and government treasury departments and stock exchanges, which may be termed, "institutions," as well as subjective experiences, which guide people in their pursuit of personal well-being. Powerful institutions are able to imbue a paper currency with certain value, and to induce millions into production and trade in pursuit of economic ends abstractly denominated in that currency's units. The subjective experience of money is so pervasive and persuasive that economists talk of the "money illusion" and try to disabuse their students of it, in preparation for learning economic analysis.

            Social groups-

A social group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop, or people waiting in a line. Characteristics shared by members of a group may include interests, values, representations, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. Kinship ties being a social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption. In a similar vein, some researchers consider the defining characteristic of a group as social interaction.

Social psychologist Muzafer Sherif proposed to define a social unit as a number of individuals interacting with each other with respect to:

Common motives and goals

An accepted division of labor, i.e. roles

Established status (social rank, dominance) relationships

Accepted norms and values with reference to matters relevant to the group

Development of accepted sanctions (praise and punishment) if and when norms were respected or violated

Social stratification-
In sociology, social stratification is a concept involving the "classification of people into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions." When differences lead to greater status, power or privilege for some groups over the other it is called social stratification. It is a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. Social stratification is based on four basic principles:

• Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.
• Social stratification carries over from generation to generation.
• Social stratification is universal but variable.
• Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well

2.1 The Nature of Culture

William G. Sumner created the term "ethnocentrism" upon observing the tendency for people to differentiate between the in-groupand others. He defined it as "the technical name for the view of things in which one's own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it." He further characterized it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one's own group's superiority, and contempt of outsiders. Robert K. Merton comments that Sumner's additional characterization robbed the concept of some analytical power because, Merton argues, centrality and superiority are often correlated, but need to be kept analytically distinct.

Anthropologists such as Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski argued that any human science had to transcend the ethnocentrism of the scientist. Both urged anthropologists to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in order to overcome their ethnocentrism. Boas developed the principle of cultural relativism and Malinowski developed the theory of functionalism as guides for producing non-ethnocentric studies of different cultures.

Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism are the two flip sides of one coin where both of these rather philosophical notions are intertwined. Ethnocentrism landed as a concept amongst different nations earlier than cultural relativism which got to be devised to counter ethnocentrism. And, the most significant feature related to these notions and ideas is the fact that both of these come with specific sect of followers which can be specific individuals and specific nations as well.

Cultural Relativism

Cultural relativism is that notion that allows to see the different habits, traits and values of an individual in the relevance of his or her cultural values. All the nations come up with their specific sects of cultural and ethnic values and norms. And, all such cultural values differ from one ethnic group or nationality to the other. Cultural relativism grants that cushion where no culture gets to be termed as superior or inferior one. All the values, norms and traits get to be seen in the cultural relevance where it being understood that one value appropriate for one specific culture can be inappropriate for the other. So, this very notion does not propagate becoming judgmental or harsh towards any specific cultural value and norms.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism on the other hand is the extreme opposite of cultural relativism. The follower of this philosophy will happen not only to consider his or her culture the most supreme of all but that person will judge other cultures by comparing these to his or her specific culture. This notion falls in deep and sharp contrast to cultural relativism which focuses on the better and unbiased understanding of other cultures and the related values.

Cultural relativism is considered to be more constructive and positive conception as compared to ethnocentrism. It permits to see an individual’s habits, values and morals in the context of his or her cultural relevance not by comparing it to one’s own cultural values and by deeming these the most superior and greater of all.

Functionalism

Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system".

1.8.b Prehistoric Archeology

Lower Paleolithic culture-

The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Pre-chellan, Chellan and Acheulean ages. The users of these tools werent humans but rather the ancestors like Homo Habilis; the first species of genus Homo and homo erectus.(2.5 M -70k yBP)

Pre-chellan- Defined by rough and unwieldy hand axes and flakes.

Chellan- Large core tools with made by knocking off big flakes.

Acheulean- Balanced core tools with significant edge and piont.

Middle Paleolithic culture- The period is marked by frequent changes in the climate. The mousterian period attached to middle paleolithic age belongs to Homo Sapien Neanderthalensis. This species of humans existed in Europe, near east and africa ( new finds in Russia and upper China). The period is marked by improved tool making technique. Tools were made by percussion technique and the flakes were refined by pressure method. The main apparatus are- stone levelers, knives, lance and spear.(70 -40k yBP)

Upper Paleolith is the period when we see the arrival of modern human beings. This period sees the emergence of blades and core tools virtually disappear. Along with stone tools the other prominent characteristic is the usage of bone, ivory and horns as weapons and artwork. Other striking features are the lifelike artwork in the form of paintings on the walls and figurines (especially venusian). This shows entry of magic and religion into the human life. Fire usage was prevalent during the period. (70 -20k yBP)

Mesolithic age- It was the short period between upper paleolith and neolith, marked by the end of wurm glaciation. Most of the advancements in art and tool making technology degraded. We find loops used for catching fish in the period. A rough form of cultivation and domestication may also have emerged during the period. The one marked improvement of the period was the emerges of settled sedentious life.(20 -11.5k yBP)

Neolithic period  means the new stone age. Two revolutionary changes took place in the period; domesticaion of animals and agriculture. Plough and potters wheel too were invented in the period. Cotton was domesticated and art of clothmaking emerged. Fishing in the current form with harpoons and hooks emerged.(9.5 -3.5k BC)

Further reading-

http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/bill.schell/civweb101/prehistory.htm

Bronze Age-

soon after the discovery of copper people discovered that mixing it with tin, they could get bronze, a metal much stronger and useful. The stone tools from neolithic times continued to be used but the knowledge of bronze was common.The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. (3.5-1.5 BC)

Iron age-

The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of these materials coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles. The Iron Age as an archaeological term indicates the condition as to civilization and culture of a people using iron as the material for their cutting tools and weapons.

In historical archaeology, the ancient literature of the Iron Age includes the earliest texts preserved in manuscript tradition. Sanskrit literature and Chinese literature flourished in the Iron Age. Other texts include the Avestan Gathas, the Indian Vedas and the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible. The principal feature that distinguishes the Iron Age from the preceding ages is the introduction of alphabetic characters, and the consequent development of written language which enabled literature and historic record.(1.5- date BC))

1.8.a absolute and relative dating methods.

Absolute dating is the process of determining a specific date for an archaeological or palaeontological site or artifact. Some archaeologists prefer the terms chronometric or calendar dating, as use of the word "absolute" implies a certainty and precision that is rarely possible in archaeology. Absolute dating is usually based on the physical or chemical properties of the materials of artifacts, buildings, or other items that have been modified by humans. Absolute dates do not necessarily tell us when a particular cultural event happened, but when taken as part of the overall archaeological record they are invaluable in constructing a more specific sequence of events. 

Absolute dating contrasts with the relative dating techniques employed, such as stratigraphy. Absolute dating provides a numerical age for the material tested, while relative dating can only provide a sequence of age. 
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Before the advent of absolute dating in the 20th century, archaeologists and geologists were largely limited to the use of relative dating techniques. It estimates the order of prehistoric and geological events were determined by using basic stratigraphic rules, and by observing where fossil organisms lay in the geological record, stratified bands of rocks present throughout the world. 

Though relative dating can determine the order in which a series of events occurred, not when they occurred, it is in no way inferior to radiometric dating; in fact, relative dating by biostratigraphy is the preferred method in paleontology, and is in some respects more accurate. 

1.5 Characteristics of Primates

Important video to see the calssifications and adaptations of primate evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTjn9JSJV5E

skeletal changes in due to bipedalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skeletal_changes_due_to_bipedalism

1.4.c.2 Terms used in evolution.

Cope's rule, - Organisms through the process of evolution increase in size. This increase can render them a number of advantages viz. Lesser threat of predation, better heat retention, larger brain sizes and ease of reproduction. It has however few disadvantages viz. longer gestation periods, slower rates of evolution, more requirement of food.
Gause's rule, - when two different species compete for the same resources, in the long run one with even the slightest advantage will dominate, pushing the other to extinction or to adapt to some other ecological niche.
parallelism, When two species from a common ancestors develop similar traits. It is a vague concept overlapping with convergence.
convergence, When two species different from each other under adaptive pressure develop similar phenotypes.
adaptive radiation, When a single species in a short span of time gives rise to multiple new species to take advantage of new ecological niches created by environmental changes.
and mosaic evolution, when certain traits of an organism develop at a faster rate than (or with no change in) other physical traits. Example is development of bipedalism in Australopithecus without a substantial growth in brain size.
Allele- The different variation of a single gene found with in a species.
Microevolution - The change in frequency of occurence of an allele within a population of a species over a short period of time. Effected by mutation, selection, genetic drift and gene flow.
Macroevolution - The change in the gene pool of an organism over a long period of time. It is like microevolution but over geological time scale.
Genetic drift- The change in frequency of occurence of an allele within a population due to random sampling.
Gene flow- The transfer of genes or alleles from one population to another.