secret society, organization of initiated persons whose members, purposes, and rituals are kept secret. Human groups throughout history have maintained secret societies. The ceremonies of initiation into such a society typically begin with an oath pledging secrecy as to all proceedings of the society, ascribing special obligations to its members, and assenting to penalties for violation of the oath. This is followed by tests of the candidate's worthiness, including physical courage and even painful mutilations. A dominant theme in the initiation trials of most of these societies is the symbolism of death and rebirth. After the candidate has passed the prescribed tests, the secret knowledge is transmitted to him. Secret societies have served as schools in which the elders instruct the young men in the ways of their society. These initiations are reminiscent of coming-of-age ceremonies. Women have comparable societies, but theirs have never matched those of men in number. (A notable exception was the Hung Society of China, a secret society of women that lasted over 1,500 years.) The mysteries, or secret rites and doctrines, of the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and other ancient peoples were transmitted solely through secret societies. In modern civilizations secret societies such as Freemasonry are numerous. They usually offer various types of mutual aid for their members; there are, for example, special obligations to members who are ill and to the families of deceased members. Some historic secret societies, such as the Bavarian Illuminati, have been the object of massive paranoid speculation, accused of conspiring for world political domination; but the model of the secret society, with its emphasis on absolute commitment and secret truths that set the initiate apart, has been used to explain various political groups from terrorists to Cold Warriors. Some secret societies, e.g., the Mafia and the Ku Klux Klan, under the guise of fraternal benevolence, have defended the interests of their members by violence. See also fraternal orders, fraternity.

affluent society, term coined by John Kenneth Galbraith in The Affluent Society (1958) to describe the United States after World War II. An affluent society, as the term was used ironically by Galbraith, is rich in private resources but poor in public ones because of a misplaced priority on increasing production in the private sector. Galbraith argued that industrial production was being devoted to satisfying trivial consumer needs, in part to maintain employment, and that the United States should shift resources to improve schools, the infrastructure, recreational resources, and social services, providing a better quality of life instead of an ever greater quantity of consumer goods. His critique influenced efforts during the 1960s to improve the quality of public institutions and facilities. The term has lost its original ironic meaning and is now used simply to indicate widespread prosperity.

Triad Society, name given to a number of Chinese antidynastic secret societies by 19th-century Western observers. Most of these groups claimed descent from the Heaven and Earth Society (Taendi hui) or the Triad Society (Sanhe hui), two secret societies of the late 17th cent. that had originated in Fujian prov. The avowed purpose of these societies was to overthrow the alien Manchu Ch'ing dynasty and to restore the native Chinese Ming dynasty. Societies sharing a similar ideology, ritual, and terminology spread all along the SE China coast. In times of peace the secret societies functioned as fraternal organizations, but they often became involved in criminal activities and at times armed conflict with rival groups occurred. Poor peasants, itinerant workers, and others who lacked strong kinship ties found security in the fraternal ties and in the protection offered by the societies. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) brought a revival of secret-society militancy and anti-Manchu sentiment, but local groups continued to function independently and no hierarchic organization was achieved. Branches of the Triads assisted Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries to carry out armed insurrection against the Ch'ing dynasty in the decade before the republican revolution of 1911. The Communist government of China launched (1949-50) a campaign to eliminate secret societies soon after assuming power. Triad societies persisted outside mainland China and among overseas Chinese. For the activities of secret societies in N China during the Ch'ing period, see White Lotus Rebellion; Boxer Uprising.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), in U.S. history, a radical student organization of the 1960s. In the influential Port Huron (Mich.) Statement (1962), the organization, founded in 1960, presented its vision for post-Vietnam War America and called for students to join in a movement to establish "participatory democracy." It was not until later in the decade, however, with the growth of the anti-Vietnam War movement, that the organization became well known. SDS demonstrations against the war drew thousands of protesters. In 1968, SDS sponsored a protest at Columbia Univ. that was ended by the arrest of more than 700 protesters. In that same year, increasingly divided by factional disputes, the organization collapsed, leaving behind a small faction, known as the Weathermen, that advocated violent revolutionary action.

Society Islands, island group (2002 pop. 214,445), South Pacific, a part of French Polynesia. The group comprises the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands (total land area c.650 sq mi/1,680 sq km), two clusters of volcanic and coral islands lying in a 450-mi (724-km) chain. Only eight of the islands are inhabited. The Windward Islands include Tahiti, Moorea, Mehetia, and Tetiaroa; the Leeward Islands include Rai'atea (largest island of the Leeward group), Huahine, Bora-Bora, Maupiti, Tahaa, Maiao, Maupihaa, Tupai, Manuae, and Motu One. The islands are mountainous, and there are breadfruit, pandanus, and coconut trees; the limited fauna includes wild pigs, rats, and small lizards. The major products are copra, sugar, rum, mother-of-pearl, and vanilla. Tourism is extremely important to the economy.

The Society Islands were visited in 1767 by the English navigator Samuel Wallis, who claimed them for Great Britain. A year later, however, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville established a French claim. They were named the Society Islands in 1769 by Capt. James Cook. The group became a protectorate of France in 1843 and a colony in 1880. In 1946, French Polynesia, including the Society Islands, became an overseas territory of France.

Royal Society, oldest scientific organization in Great Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. The Royal Society was first incorporated in 1662 as the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. It was founded in 1660 by a group of learned men in London who met to promote scientific discussion, particularly in the physical sciences. It stimulates research in that field and acts in the capacity of adviser on scientific matters to the government, from which it receives annual subsidies. The Royal Society ranks as the foremost organization of its kind; its membership always includes leading scientists of the world. One of its activities is the publication of its Proceedings and The Philosophical Transactions. Among those who served as president of the Royal Society are Samuel Pepys, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir William Huggins, Lord Rayleigh, Sir Archibald Geikie, Sir William Crookes, Sir Joseph John Thomson, Sir Charles Sherrington, Lord Rutherford, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, and Sir William Henry Bragg.

Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, one of the first consumers' cooperatives, founded in 1844 in Rochdale, England, by 28 Lancashire weavers. Influenced by the theories of Robert Owen, they opened a grocery store that was so successful that they were able to establish a cooperative factory and textile mill (see cooperative movements). Their rules combined a fixed interest on capital with a distribution of profits in proportion to purchases. This has remained the basic structure of consumers' cooperatives.

New-York Historical Society, New York City. Founded in 1804, the society is a repository of art, artifacts, and literature relating to American, especially New York, history. Among its celebrated permanent collections are 435 watercolors by John James Audubon for his engraved folio volumes, The Birds of America, and American paintings from colonial times through the 19th cent. The society's educational programs include changing exhibitions of American cultural subjects, lectures by noted scholars and historians, and a large library facility providing extensive material to scholars on early America.

John Birch Society, ultraconservative, anti-Communist organization in the United States. It was founded in Dec., 1958, by manufacturer Robert Welch and named after John Birch, an American intelligence officer killed by Communists in China (Aug., 1945). The most prominent of the extreme right-wing groups active in the United States, the society was founded to fight subversive Communism within the United States. Its other objectives have included the abolition of the graduated income tax, the repeal of social security legislation, the impeachment of various high government officials, the end to busing for the purpose of school integration, the end to U.S. membership in the United Nations, and the nullification of the treaty that turned over the Panama Canal to Panama. In his book, The Politician, Welch charged to the effect that Dwight D. Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles had actively aided the so-called Communist conspiracy. The society has also contended that an elite international cabal—the U.S. branch of which supposedly includes the Council on Foreign Relations, for many years led by David Rockefeller—is seeking to establish a world tyranny.

Jesus, Society of, religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. Its members are called Jesuits. St. Ignatius of Loyola, its founder, named it Companã de Jess [Span.,=(military) company of Jesus]; in Latin it is Societas Jesu (abbr. S.J.). Today the society numbers about 23,800 members; in the United States, where there were approximately 4,500 Jesuits in 1992, there are many Jesuit schools and colleges (e.g., Georgetown, Fordham, and St. Louis universities).

Among the great organizers and theologians of the order are St. Francis Borgia, Claudio Aquaviva, Saint Robert Bellarmine, Luis Molina, and Francisco Suárez. The order has a tradition of learning and science; e.g., the Bollandists are Jesuits, and Jesuits have made a specialty of the study of earthquakes. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is the most famous Jesuit scientist of this century. The society is also noted for its foreign missionary work.

The Modern Order

The largest single religious order, it is characterized by a highly disciplined organization, especially devoted to the pope and ruled by its general, who lives in Rome. Jesuits have no choral office; like the secular clergy they are under obligation to individually recite the divine office each day. They have no distinctive habit. In principle they may accept no ecclesiastical office or honor.

Jesuit training is famous and may last for more than 15 years. The novice spends two years in spiritual training, after which he takes the simple vows of the regulars—chastity, poverty, and obedience. Then as a scholastic he spends 13 years and sometimes longer in study and teaching, completed by an additional year of spiritual training. Toward the end of this period he is ordained and becomes a coadjutor. He may then take a fourth vow of special obedience to the pope and become professed.

History

The Order's Beginnings

The society had its beginnings in the small band of six who together with St. Ignatius took vows of poverty and chastity while students at Paris. Their first plan was to work for the conversion of Muslims. Unable to go to the Holy Land because of the Turkish wars, they went to Rome and received ordination. Their constitution was approved by Pope Paul III (1540), and St. Ignatius was made (1541) general. The order then immediately began to expand.

In Europe the Jesuits were a major force in the Counter Reformation. They sought to reclaim Protestant Europe for the church and to raise the spiritual tone of the Catholic countries. They enjoyed considerable success in W and S Germany, France, Hungary, and Poland. In nearly every important city the Jesuits established schools and colleges, and for 150 years they were leaders in European education. One of their boldest efforts was the English mission of 1580, distinguished by Saint Edmund Campion. Another celebrated English Jesuit was Robert Southwell.

Missions in Asia and the Americas

One of the most brilliant of all foreign missionaries was St. Francis Xavier (see also missions); his work in the East was continued by a host of Jesuits. The mission in Japan was wiped out by persecution in the early 17th cent., but when Japan was reopened to the West in the 19th cent. a number of Christians were found there, descendants of these martyrs. The most distinguished early figures of the Chinese mission were Fathers Matteo Ricci, Adam Schall, and Ferdinand Verbiest in the 17th cent.; a characteristic of their mission was their popularity at court, where they were revered as men of wisdom and science. There were persecutions and martyrdoms, but the original Jesuit foundation became the nucleus of the Roman Catholic Church in that country. The Indian mission began under the aegis of the Portuguese in Goa, whence it spread over the country; one of the most remarkable Jesuits in this mission was Robert de' Nobili, who, after arduous asceticism and study, won recognition as an equal of the Brahmans.

The Jesuits worked all over Latin America; among their number was St. Peter Claver. The most remarkable missions were in Paraguay. In French North America the Jesuits came frequently into rivalry with the government and the other clergy; their missions among the Huron were especially successful, and they made headway among the Iroquois. The "Black-Robes," as the Native Americans called them, traveled as far afield as Oregon. Some of these Jesuits died as martyrs for their faith (c.1640); six of them have been canonized together, with two of their lay helpers, as the Jesuit Martyrs of North America (feast: Sept. 26). The Jesuit Relations is a firsthand account of Jesuit work in New France. The suppression of the order in Canada in 1791 and its later readmission as a teaching order led to the Jesuit Estates Act.

Suppression and Restoration

The Jesuits eventually became the object of criticism from vested ecclesiastical interests in every Catholic state. The Gallican party in France, being antipapal, was naturally anti-Jesuit. The polemics of Blaise Pascal and the Jansenists against Jesuit casuistry and alleged laxity in confessional practice were damaging. Through their loyalty to papal policies, the Jesuits were drawn into the struggle between the papacy and the Bourbon monarchies.

Before the middle of the 18th cent. a combination of publicists (including Voltaire) and the absolute monarchs of Catholic Europe undertook to destroy them. In 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and its colonies, France suppressed them in 1764, and in 1767 the Spanish dominions were closed to them. Pope Clement XIII denounced these acts, but, in 1773, Clement XIV, under the coercion of the Bourbon monarchs and of some of his own cardinals, dissolved the order, and the Society of Jesus ceased to exist in the Catholic world.

Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great refused to publish the brief suppressing them, and the Jesuits continued to exist in Prussia and Russia, especially as educators. As the 18th cent. drew to a close Catholic Europe, especially Italy, began to ask for restoration of the Jesuits, and, in 1814, Pius VII reestablished them as a world order.

Harmony Society, religious society founded by German Separatists under the leadership of George Rapp. The Harmonists (or Rappites) held property in common and subscribed to the austere doctrines of their leader, including that of celibacy. In 1805 the society founded the village of Harmony, Pa., and developed it into a prosperous agricultural and industrial community. Led by Rapp, the Harmonists moved in 1814-15 to Indiana and founded another Harmony. They prospered there too, but in 1825 they sold their holdings to Robert Owen (see New Harmony) and returned to Pennsylvania to create their third village at Economy (now Ambridge), NW of Pittsburgh. In 1832 a part of the colony, under "Count Leon," a German adventurer, withdrew to form a separate community. The society was weakened by the death of Rapp (1847), dwindled as the members grew older, and went out of existence after 1906.

Greek-letter society: see fraternity.

Great Society, in U.S. history, term for the domestic policies of President Lyndon Johnson. In his first State of the Union message, he called for a war on poverty and the creation of a "Great Society," a prosperous nation that had overcome racial divisions. To this end, Johnson proposed an expansion in the federal government's role in domestic policy. During his administration, Congress enacted two major civil-rights acts (1964 and 1965), the Economic Opportunity Act (1964), and two education acts (1965). In addition, legislation was passed that created the Job Corps, Operation Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Medicaid, and Medicare. Although the Great Society program made significant contributions to the protection of civil rights and the expansion of social programs, critics increasingly complained that the antipoverty programs were ineffective and wasteful. The economic and political costs of the escalation of the Vietnam War, as well as the costs of these programs themselves, soon overtook Johnson's domestic initiatives.

Friends, Religious Society of, religious body originating in England in the middle of the 17th cent. under George Fox. The members are commonly called Quakers, originally a term of derision.

Origins and Early Years

Claiming that no theologically trained priest or outward rite is needed to establish communion between the soul and its God, Fox taught that everyone could receive whatever understanding and guidance in divine truth they might need from the "inward light," or "inner light," supplied in their own heart by the Holy Spirit. Many of his early converts were from among groups of separatists. Calling themselves Children of Light, Friends in the Truth, and Friends, they eventually agreed upon the name Religious Society of Friends.

The Friends regarded the sacraments of the church as nonessential to Christian life. They refused to attend worship in the established church and to pay tithes. They also resisted the requirement to take oaths and opposed war, refusing to bear arms. Believing in the equality of all men and women, Friends would not remove their hats before their alleged superiors. Consequently, they were subject to persecution until the passage of the Toleration Act of 1689.

The Friends in the United States

In colonial America the Friends often met with severe condemnation and some persecution, except in Rhode Island and in Pennsylvania, where in 1682 William Penn settled his famous colony. As religious freedom grew, the Friends sent representatives to the Continent and to America, Asia, and Africa. Although for reasons of conscience Friends could not take an active part in the Revolutionary War, they were loyal in upholding the new national government. They subsequently found a wide field of activity in philanthropic movements, taking the lead in the effort to abolish slavery. Among noted American abolitionists were John Woolman, Lucretia Mott, and John Greenleaf Whittier. The Friends worked for prison reform (e.g., Elizabeth Fry), for improvement in insane asylums, for mitigation of the penal code (especially abolition of capital punishment), and for the betterment of common education.

In 1827 questions arising in connection with the preaching of Elias Hicks divided the American Friends into two groups, the "Hicksites," who placed emphasis upon the individual's belief as guided by revelation to his or her own spirit, and the "Orthodox," who gave to the elders the duty of decision as to soundness of doctrine. At the same time, under Joseph J. Gurney, there was an evangelical revival among Friends in the western states, with a tendency to discard many of the old forms and distinctions. Another break occurred in 1845 in New England, when the adherents of John Wilbur set up a new yearly meeting in protest against what they considered dangerous departures from the teachings and ways of the early Friends. Two superficial marks of the Friends generally disappeared—the plain language, in which they used "thee" to everyone as a mark of equality, and the plain gray dress, the broad-brimmed men's hats, and the women's bonnets.

The Service

Avoiding liturgies and all elaboration that might interfere with the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Friends often meet for worship without set form and frequently without stated leaders, in services known as "unprogrammed" meetings. Any member is at liberty to follow the impulse of the spirit in prayer, praise, or exhortation. A meeting may be spent entirely in silent receptivity and communion. A "programmed" meeting may have some form of ceremonial order. Ministers are not required to have special training; any man or woman who experiences the call to the work and gives evidence of sincerity and ability may be recorded as a minister. In more recent years, however, many of the Friends who seek the ministry have studied at theological schools.

The Organization of the Society

The organization of the Society includes meetings for worship and monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings. In the United States, the old lines of division between Orthodox, Hicksite, and Conservative (or Wilburite) Friends have grown considerably less, and there have been many signs of interest in reunion. The Religious Society of Friends is a member of the World Council of Churches. The Friends World Committee for Consultation is valuable to the international community of Friends, and the organization of the Wider Quaker Fellowship offers to non-Quakers, in sympathy with the Quaker spirit, a chance to aid in the work of the Friends. During the late 1990s, there were around 104,000 members in the United States and approximately 200,000 worldwide.

The Friends have long been workers in the cause of peace and international understanding. The accomplishments in overseas relief and reconstruction achieved by the American Friends Service Committee, organized in 1917, are widely recognized. This body and the Service Council of the British Society of Friends were jointly awarded the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. Educational activity among the Friends has resulted in the establishment and support of a number of schools and colleges.

Fabian Society, British socialist society. An outgrowth of the Fellowship of the New Life (founded 1883 under the influence of Thomas Davidson), the society was developed the following year by Frank Podmore and Edward Pease. George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb joined soon after this and became its outstanding exponents. The group achieved recognition with the publication of Fabian Essays (1889), with contributions by Shaw, Webb, Annie Besant, and Graham Wallas. The Fabians were opposed to the revolutionary theory of Marxism, holding that social reforms and socialistic "permeation" of existing political institutions would bring about the natural development of socialism. Repudiating the necessity of violent class struggle, they took little notice of trade unionism and other labor movements until Beatrice Potter (who later married Sidney Webb) joined the group. They subsequently helped create (1900) the unified Labour Representation Committee, which evolved into the Labour party. The Labour party adopted their main tenets, and the Fabian Society remains as an affiliated research and publicity agency.

Cincinnati, Society of the [Lat. pl. of Cincinnatus], organization formed (1783) by officers of the Continental Army just before their disbanding after the American Revolution. The organization, with a constitution drafted by Gen. Henry Knox, was founded for fraternal, patriotic, and allegedly nonpolitical purposes. George Washington was made president of the national society, and auxiliary state societies were organized. Membership was limited to officers of the Continental Army, certain officers of the French army that assisted the Continentals, and the eldest male descendants of both. The society provoked much opposition among the zealous Republicans of the time, who attacked it as the beginning of an aristocratic military nobility. The Tammany societies of New York, Philadelphia, and other cities were founded partly in opposition to it. Beginning in 1893 a successful revival of many of the defunct state organizations was made, and the society is still active as a patriotic service organization. It has about 3,500 members in one French and 13 U.S. branches (representing the original states).

Audubon Society, National, one of the oldest and best-known U.S. environmental organizations; founded 1886 by George Cird Grinnell and named for John James Audubon. The nonprofit organization, which has a membership of 550,000, operates 100 wildlife sanctuaries and nature centers, as well as camps and other educational programs. Current high-priority projects include protection for wetlands, ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Platte River, an important migratory bird stopover. Its publications include American Bird and Audubon, the society's official magazine.

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A.S.P.C.A.), chartered in 1866 in New York by Henry Bergh to shelter homeless animals, to assist farmers in caring for their livestock, and to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in the prosecution of game-law violators. The A.S.P.C.A. is patterned on the English organization, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, founded in 1824 through the efforts of Richard Martin (1754-1834), an Irish member of Parliament.

American Philosophical Society, first scientific society in America, founded (1743) in Philadelphia. It was an outgrowth of the Junto formed (1727) by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the first secretary of the society, and Thomas Hopkinson the first president. In 1769 it merged with the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge. The combined organization elected Franklin its first president, an office he held until his death. David Rittenhouse and Thomas Jefferson were his immediate successors. The society, which has a notable library located in Philadelphia, confers membership upon people of distinction in all fields of intellectual and scientific study.

American Geographical Society (AGS), oldest geographical society in the United States, founded 1852 in New York City. Its purpose is to advance the science of geography through discussion and publication. The society maintains its collection in the library at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Its archives contain many rare maps and globes, historic letters, and artifacts from explorations. Formerly noted for its support of scientific research and exploration, for its research facilities (extensively used by the federal government during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and again during World War II), and for its cartographic work, the society's work has become chiefly educational and informational. The Geographical Review is its quarterly journal.

American Colonization Society, organized Dec., 1816-Jan., 1817, at Washington, D.C., to transport free blacks from the United States and settle them in Africa. The freeing of many slaves, principally by idealists, created a serious problem in that no sound provisions were made for establishing them in society on an equal basis with white Americans anywhere in the United States. Robert Finley, principal founder of the colonization society, found much support among prominent men, notably Henry Clay. Money was raised—with some indirect help from the federal government when (1819) Congress appropriated $100,000 for returning to Africa blacks illegally brought to the United States. In 1821 an agent, Eli Ayres, and Lt. R. F. Stockton of the U.S. Navy purchased land in Africa, where subsequently Jehudi Ashmun and Ralph R. Gurley laid the foundations of Liberia. The colonization movement came under the bitter attack of the abolitionists, who charged that in the South it strengthened slavery by removing the free blacks. The blacks themselves were not enthusiastic about abandoning their native land for the African coast. The colonization society, with its associated state organizations, declined after 1840. More than 11,000 blacks were transported to Liberia before 1860. From 1865 until its dissolution in 1912, the society was a sort of trustee for Liberia.

Amana Church Society, corporate name of a group of seven small villages in E central Iowa, clustered around the Iowa River NW of Iowa City; settled 1855 by members of the Ebenezer Society. The society originated in one of the Pietist religious groups of 17th-century Germany. Led by Christian Metz (1794-1867), 800 members emigrated to the United States in 1842 to escape persecution at home. Settling first near Buffalo, N.Y., they developed a communal way of life that reached its flowering in Iowa. Amana became one of the most successful of such communities in America. In 1932 it was made a cooperative corporation, with separation of religious and economic administration. Long famous for the products of their woolen mills (especially blankets) and farms, the quaint villages also attract many visitors. The name Amana is used for a refrigerator and appliance company located there; the company is not owned by the society. There are about 500 members of the society today.

Any member of a class that tills the soil as small landowners or agricultural labourers. The peasant economy generally has a simple technology and a division of labour by age and sex. The basic unit of production is the family or household. Peasant families traditionally consume what they produce, though a portion of their output may be sold in the market or paid to a landlord. Productivity per worker and yields per unit of land are usually low. Peasants as a class tend to disappear as a society industrializes, though peasantlike social structures may persist under new economic regimens. Seealso ejido; feudalism; hacienda; serfdom.

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Process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and North America. Industrialization entailed both technology and profound social developments. The freeing of labourers from feudal and customary obligations created a free market in labour, with a pivotal role for the entrepreneur. Cities attracted large numbers of people, massing workers in new industrial towns and factories. Later industrializers attempted to manipulate some of the elements: the Soviet Union eliminated the entrepreneur; Japan stimulated and sustained the entrepreneur's role; Denmark and New Zealand industrialized primarily by commercializing and mechanizing agriculture.

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also called foraging culture

Any human culture or society that depends on a combination of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods for subsistence. Until circa 11,000–12,000 years ago, all peoples were foragers. Many foraging peoples continued to practice their traditional way of life into the 20th century; by mid-century all such peoples had developed extensive contacts with settled groups. In traditional hunting and gathering societies, social groups were small, usually made up of either individual family units or a number of related families collected together in a band. Typically women and children collected relatively stationary foods such as plants, eggs, shellfish, and insects, while men hunted large game. The diet was well-balanced and ample, and food was shared. Hunting and gathering societies had considerable free time to spend on social and religious activities.

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Mutual aid organization formed voluntarily by individuals to protect members against debts incurred through illness, death, or old age. Friendly societies arose in 17th- and 18th-century Europe and England and became most numerous in the 19th century. They trace their roots to the burial societies of Greek and Roman artisans and the guilds of medieval Europe. In attempting to define the magnitude of the risk against which they guarded and to determine how much members should contribute to meet that risk, friendly societies used what is now the basic principle of insurance.

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Activist student organization in the U.S. Founded at the University of Michigan in 1960, its chapters were initially principally involved in the civil rights movement. Its “Port Huron Statement” of principles (1962) called for a new “participatory democracy.” After organizing a national march in 1965 to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, it became more militant, organizing student sit-ins to protest universities' participation in defense-related research. By 1969 the SDS had split into factions; the most notorious was the terrorist-oriented Weathermen, or Weather Underground. By the mid-1970s the group was defunct.

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Archipelago (pop., 2002: 214,445), western French Polynesia, South Pacific Ocean. Its chief island is Tahiti. The Society Islands comprise two groups, the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands. They are volcanic in origin and mountainous. Claimed for Britain in 1767, the islands were visited in 1769 by Capt. James Cook with a scientific expedition of the Royal Society (hence their name). They were claimed by France in 1786 and became a French protectorate in 1842, a French colony in 1881, and a part of French Oceania in 1903. Their chief products are copra and pearls.

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Leading scientific society in Britain and the oldest national scientific society in the world. Founded in 1660, its early members included Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, and Edmond Halley. It has long provided an impetus to scientific thought and research in the U.K., and its achievements have become internationally famous. The society's Philosophical Transactions, the oldest scientific periodical in continuous publication, has published papers since 1665. The society awards several prizes, the most prestigious being the Copley Medal. At the beginning of the 21st century, the society had some 1,300 fellows and 130 foreign members.

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Organization founded in 1958 by Robert H. Welch, Jr. (1899–1985), a retired American candymaker, to combat communism and promote ultraconservative causes. It was named for an American missionary and army intelligence officer killed by Chinese communists in 1945, considered by the society the first hero of the Cold War. Its membership reached more than 70,000 in the 1960s. Its many publications warned of communist infiltration of the U.S. government and called for the impeachment of officials such as Earl Warren. The New American is the organization's biweekly magazine.

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Member of the Roman Catholic order of religious men called the Society of Jesus. First organized by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 at the University of Paris, the order was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540. It discontinued many practices of medieval religious life, such as obligatory penances and fasts and a common uniform, and instead focused on military-style mobility and adaptability. Its organization was characterized by centralized authority, probation lasting many years before final vows, and special obedience to the pope. The Jesuits served as a preaching, teaching, and missionary society, actively promoting the Counter-Reformation, and by the time of Ignatius's death in 1556 their efforts were already worldwide. The success of their enterprise and their championship of the pope earned them much hostility from both religious and political foes. Under pressure from France, Spain, and Portugal, Pope Clement XIV abolished the order in 1773, but it was restored by Pius VII in 1814. The Jesuits have since become the largest male religious order.

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Slogan used in 1965 by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson to identify his legislative program of national reform. In his first State of the Union address, Johnson described his vision of a “Great Society” that would include a “war on poverty” and federal support for education, medical care for the elderly, and legal protection for African Americans deprived of voting rights by state regulations. He also proposed a new department of housing and urban development to coordinate federal housing projects. Congress enacted almost all his programs, the largest number of such measures since the New Deal. Seealso Civil Rights Act of 1964; Medicare and Medicaid.

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known as Quakers

Protestant denomination that arose in England in the mid-17th century. The movement began with radical English Puritans called Seekers, who rejected the Anglican church and other existing Protestant sects. They took their faith from itinerant preachers such as George Fox, who emphasized “inward light,” or inward apprehension of God, as the source of religious authority. Quaker meetings are characterized by patient silence in which members wait for inspiration to speak. The movement grew rapidly after 1650 (when a judge gave them their name because “we bid them tremble at the word of God”), but its members were often persecuted or imprisoned for rejecting the state church and refusing to pay tithes or swear oaths. Some emigrated to America, where they were persecuted in Massachusetts Bay Colony but found toleration in Rhode Island and in the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, which was chartered by Charles II under the sponsorship of William Penn in 1681. Other marks that became characteristic of Quakerism were plain speech and dress, pacifism, and opposition to slavery. The group also emphasizes philanthropy, especially aid to refugees and famine victims; the American Friends Service Committee and (British) Friends Service Council shared the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Socialist society founded in 1883–84 in London, to establish a democratic socialist state in Britain. The name derived from Fabius Maximus Cunctator, whose elusive tactics in avoiding pitched battles led to victory over stronger forces. Fabians believed in evolutionary socialism rather than revolution, and used public meetings and lectures, research, and publishing to educate the public. Important early members included George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. They helped organize a separate party that became the Labour Party in 1906, and many Labour members of Parliament have been Fabians.

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Hereditary, military, and patriotic organization formed in 1783 by officers who had served in the American Revolution. The group's aims were to promote union, maintain war-forged friendships, and help members in need. Membership was offered to all officers and their eldest male descendants. George Washington was its first president. The group took its name from the Roman citizen-soldier Cincinnatus. The city of Cincinnati was named in its honour in 1790.

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