Sociologists have distinguished between different types of society. It should be noted, however, that while the different categories are broadly similar, considerable variations exist within each group. In hunter-gatherer societies , the people do not grow crops or keep livestock, rather they live by gathering plants and hunting animals. Tribal societies are held together socially, culturally, and physically by blood relations, and they may be pastoral or agrarian. In pastoral societies , the raising of domesticated animals provides the major source of livelihood.
Agrarian societies depend on the cultivation of fixed plots of land.
Larger, more developed agrarian societies may form traditional states . A distinct type of agrarian society is feudal society in which unfree peasants hold land on condition of payment of rent in labour, in kind or in cash. In western Europe, between the 15th and 18th centuries, feudal societies were succeeded by capitalist societies . Capitalist societies are based on the private ownership of the means of production and an economy geared to making profit. In eastern Europe, for most of the 20th century, feudalism was succeeded by communist societies , based on the principle of the absence of private property.