To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.(3)

The author of the statement above believes that to understand the main important characteristics of a society we should focus on the study of its major cities. While the study of the major cities is helpful in understanding the characteristics of a society, I think with considering the other small parts we can have a comprehensive understanding of a society’s main qualities.

To begin with, the major cities can usher us to understand the main characteristics of an entire society; major cities have had a prominent role throughout the history and the marginal regions were chiefly passively following the major cities. When we go to Pyongyang, we see the strict communism characteristic of the entire North Korean society which other parts of the country obey and follow. In Baghdad, we would see the political unrest which is the characteristic of the whole Iraq country in this decade.

Moreover, the history of a land is not traceable in the marginal regions _ to understand the personality of a society_ as far as it can be found in the major cities. This is because every prominent changes in a society is predicated upon whether the major cities assumed that change. Every reform, paradigm change, and threshold decision emanate their influences in the major cities, otherwise they become null. Furthermore, since samples of different parts of a society are present in the major cities, we can extrapolate the study of major cities to the whole society in order to understand the major characteristics of it. In Iran, for instance, one can go to Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad and tell about the general religious characteristics of Iranian society. Hence, the study of the major cities provides us a significant share of information to understand the main characteristics of a society.

Finally, in order not to turn a blind eye to the marginal sites, we should also keep in mind that in understanding some main features of a society, the study of marginal parts can serve effectively. Major cities are exposed to modernity and the impacts of globalization dilute some of main national features. Such features can be better understood in the marginal parts. Take Iranian national characteristic in clothing. While the major cities are subjected to the sweeping changes of the aforementioned factors, in smaller parts we can find such national characteristics more in the color and the design of the people’s clothing. Therefore, to have a more comprehensive understanding of the important features of a society we can also include the marginal parts.

In sum, as discussed, chiefly relying on the major cities would portray us main important characteristic of a society to help us understand them. However, assisting the study of small cities also can help us in having more comprehensive understanding of the main characteristics of a society.