Industrial Societies Hunting and gathering societies are societies in which all of the dietary intake of the members of the society is obtained by some combination of hunting, trapping, collecting shellfish, fishing and collecting edible plant materials. Horticultural societies are those societies in which the major portion of the dietary intake of the members is obtained from crops which are grown on land which is cleared by the slash and burn technique. Pastoral societies are societies in which the major portion of the livelihood of members is derived form the products obtained from herds of domesticated animals. Agrarian societies are societies which are based uponcrops which are produced in conjunction with the use of the plow technique. The relatively high level of agricultural productivity in this type of society provides a situation favorable for the development of complex systems of social stratification and large permanent cities.
Industrial societies combine science and technology with the utilization of energy to run machines.
The Postindustrial societies is characterized by the use of electronic manipulation and transmission of information. The advent of radio followed by the television, along with the development and evolution of the computer, are fundamental technological developments associated with the development of the postindustrial society. How to use the concept of Ideal Types Ideal Types are used in a classification system which is composed of two ideal types each of which form the opposite extremes of the classification system. The two ideal types are exaggerations of reality and are ussed only for reasons of comparisions. In reality nothing conforms perfectly to the characteristicsof the ideal types.