The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to society:
Society – group of people sharing the same geographical or virtual territory and therefore subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Such people share a distinctive culture and institutions, which characterize the patterns of social relations between them. Large societies typically develop social stratification and dominance patterns among its subgroups. A given society may be described as the sum total of social relationships among its members. The branch of science that studies society is sociology.
A society can be described as all of the following:
Social institution – Any persistent structure or mechanism of social order governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community. The term "institution" is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public services.
Sociocultural evolution – below are listed some typical and some potential stages of progression in the evolution of cultures and societies: