The purpose of this paper is to compare the way residents of Mexico and the Bushmen of Namibia live. The topics being compared are the social institution of the family, stratification of gender and income distribution. While Mexico and Namibia are very different they do have some similarities. These differences are probably caused by the difference in the type of society they are: Bushmen being a hunting and gathering society, while Mexico is an agricultural and industrial society. By comparing two cultures to each other a better understanding of them can be achieved.
             Social Institutions: Social Institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs. (Sociology 118) Mexico and Namibia share a few of the same social institutions like family, but while they might be the same institutions they don't always fulfill the same purpose. A family is a set of people related by blood, marriage (or some other agreed upon relationship), or adoption who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society. (Sociology 349) The Bushmen live in tribes of their family. While Mexicans tend to live with a nuclear family and very often with some extended family too. Within both cultures family is very important. It is not uncommon in Mexico for young children to have relatives as friends. As children grow up they usually financially support their parents, and if the child is working by the time they are 20 years old, they will most likely have paid back their parents for the cost of raising them. (Global Sociology 88) Bushmen always live with some family relations tribe. In a culture so dependent on sharing one must have trust and close bonds with the people he shares with, and what closer bonds are there then family. Both societies use family as their primary network group. To make new relations out side their own family both cultures developed fake relatives. It is...