Though it cannot be shown yet that a society  is a body of people in the same way that a man is a body of cells. It is clear that any social group is something nore then the sum of its memebers. A society is people living together in a certain pattern of behavior- a pattern which lays down  “channles” determining the future behavior  of the group. Society is not so much a thing as a process of actions which is really indistinguishable from human beings and animals and from life itself. No human organism exists  without male or female  parents is already a society. As a pattern of behavior  society  is above all a system of people in communication maintained by CONSISTENT action. To keep the system going  what is done has to be consistent  with what has been done. The pattern is recognizable as a pattern becuase it goes ahead with reference  to its own past. This is what we call order and  identity, a situation in which trees do not suddenly turn to rabbits and in which one man dose not suddenly behave like another so that we do not know who he is. “Who” is consistent behavior. But in a patten so mobil and volatile  as human society maintaining  consistency of action and communication is not easy. It requires  the most elaborated agreement as to what the pattern is or in other words what the rules are: the consistencies of the system.  Without agreement as to the rules of playing together there is no game. Without agreement as to the words, signs, and gesture  there is no communication.