In this paper I will try to explain the puzzle of whether individuals are
products of society or society is a product of individuals. I believe that in
general, and in the beginning, the answer to this question, is that society is a
human product. I will start by presenting early man, the hunter and gatherer as
an early form of society, but lacking critical qualities of a society. Then I
will continue to support my theory by analyzing the beginning of known society
some three and one half thousands years ago. I will present the individual as
creation of society, or more precisely, an ongoing social recursive
conditioning. I will also present society as creation of individuals. Finally, I
will conclude my paper with some thoughts on the paradox of who is the product
and who is the producer of the individual and society. EARLY MAN According to
Charles Darwin, man developed from the ape. Darwin▓s theory of evolution
appears to be unsupported though, because for thousands of years these apes have
been there, but none of them have developed into human beings nor did Darwin
ever find the missing link. Although unproved, there must be a process of
evolution. And if there was evolutionary process, a few of the steps in-between
still must be missing. Since man is not asexual, man did not, and could not,
survive or prosper by himself. Early man grouped together with other hunters and
gathers to form a family which brought order, direction, and stability to his
life. According to Rousseau, ⌠the earliest and only natural societies are
families (Primis 192).■ The point here is that the individuals choose to
become a part of something larger than the individual. But if Rousseau is
correct, there was a time when the individual gave up certain freedoms to find
security within a group. This is contra to Thomas Hobbes view. It was not until
significant scientific advances in the nineteenth century that the view of this
seventeenth century philosopher Hobbes has his views rejected. Hobbes stated
that the life of early man was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Hobbes
thought that early man was scarcely even human and a club-wielding savage. At
either rate, early man lacked the qualities that were considered by John Locke
as necessary to begin a society even though it is believed that groups and
families existed. Society as Product of Individuals Some three and one half
thousands years ago a group of individuals gathered their resources together to
form the first civilization named Sumer. The people that lived there were called
Sumerians. The Sumerians began as a primitive race stemming from the hunters and
gatherers who came to the area known as southern Mesopotamia to form the first
permanent human settlement. By the end of their occupation in Mesopotamia, they
had created the beginnings of society as we know it today. It has been said by
the locals that this place is the fabled Garden of Eden and also according to
tradition, Eden existed in the marshes of this fertile land that is today known
as Iraq today. The lands of Sumer were fertile and in close relationship to two
major rivers which are known as the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers today. The
fertile lands were feed by the rivers and allowed the settlers to stop the
migratory habits of their predecessors or early man. The constant migration of
early man had prevented any real education to exist as they were always on the
move in search of food and shelter. Early man was only concerned with survival,
which meant that they did not have the leisure time to give thought to the
development of academia. The Sumerians, which found the development of
agriculture an easy task in this land, found that they had time to develop
culture and devote time to academic studies. The Sumerians conceived and began
development of mathematics, reading, writing skills and the written text on
cunieform tablets, the wheel and agricultural technology, which are heavily
relied upon in today's society. By 3,000 BC, the written script of the Sumerians
had evolved into a full syllabic alphabet. The Sumerian's gift of writing made
possible for the recording of history for the first time. The recording of
literature, science, society and history is a lasting legacy of the Sumerians
and our society. The individuals in the Sumer originated the development of
society through the codes of law that was written as, and to be, social policy.
These were the first written laws and law is what defines the norms within our
society. This is a defining point as to whether individuals are products of
society or society is a product of individuals. Since these individuals
conceived what society shall represent, then it is clear that originally society
is a product of individuals. It was not only the codes of law that were created
by the Sumerians, but tens of thousands of cunieform texts that contain
lullabies, poetry, ledgers, administration and property records. The theory that
John Locke presents is that man must agree to join society and the community
living peaceably and secure in the fact that his personal property is protected
by the community by the laws and property records against any that are not of
the community. The social concept that began in Sumer would change the face of
history. Individuals as Product of Society Society is the unconscious collective
of the morals and values of individuals that formed that society, but society is
only a word. It was there before the individual was born, and it will be there
after their death. Society is not tangible although individuals that formed it
are. Society has no soul and the individual would find it hard too change
anything about it. Yet society has the ability to change the individual based on
previous individuals influence on society. The social effect as far as the
individual is concerned, I envision as a ceaseless externalization of the
individual in the course of their perpetual edification while society is
absorbed through social control. But, I also see society is an outgrowth of the
individuals particular previous generations, or more precisely, an ongoing
recursive human production through which social institutions manifest themselves
without intervention of the individual. Therefore I feel that social
institutions clearly have a coercive power over the individual. Individuals that
adhere to the morals and values cannot be created instantaneously or by using
the same edification principals for great lengths of time. There is no magic
that will create the perfect individual based on the norm, nor is there any
institution that is capable of doing this. This is where continuing education
plays its social role. Education as well as other social institutions always has
a history, of which they are the products, but they also must be able to adapt
to the constant change of the social environment. Understanding the historical
process that produced a social institution is needed before it is possible to
understand the institution. Part of that history is that institutions control
the individuals conduct by setting up predefined patterns of conduct, which are
channeled against the many other deviations that are ideological possible. The
given existence of an institution is basic proof of social control of the
individual and as such proof that the individual is a product of society, but
only of the society past individuals have created. That is, man and his social
world interact with each other by which the product acts back upon the producer
and the producer act upon the product. Society is a human product and society
and an undeniable reality, but the individual is by themselves a social product.
Although this is external to the individual, institutions are there, whether the
individual likes it or not and inescapable persistent reality. The existence of
institutions is not diminished if the individual does not adhere to its social
constraints for it has far reaching power. Who is the Producer The paradox of
whether individuals are products of society or society is a product of
individuals is controversial at least. It is the case that the individual is
capable of producing a world that the individual experiences as something other
than a human product. It is argumentative the individual is the producer of
society or that society is the producer of the individual, but maybe they are so
inter-linked that they are indistinguishable. This is a different situation when
an individual separates themselves from society. It is apparent that an
individual in isolation could not conceive of or build a society. Society is
built upon the collective of the morals and valves of the individuals within
society, but a singular individual does not have a collective opinion. An
individual in isolation can only look at the world from an internal perspective.
Only through individual externalization can an individual view the social world
as their others that transcended into social conformity. For society to
persevere, society must perpetuate its values to further too present and future
generation. I have tried to explain the puzzle of whether individuals are
products of society or society is a product of individuals. I then presented
early man, but have shown that early man was not the product or producer of
society. I have shown that Sumer was the beginning of society and that society
was a human product. I then presented the individual as a product of ongoing
social conditioning of the institutions of society. I feel that presented
difficulty in trying to solve the paradox of who is the product and who is the
producer of the individual and society.

BibliographyPrimis Social Science. McGraw-Hill Publishing. Columbus, OH