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

The author of the statement above believes that to understand the paramount characteristics of a society we should focus on the study of its major cities. While it is feasible to identify a society with its major cities, I believe considering the small parts, makes grounds for a more comprehensive understanding of the society’s main qualities.

To begin with, the major cities usher us to understand the essential features of a nation; 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 North Korea, which other parts of the country obey and follow. In Baghdad, one would see the political unrest which is the characteristic of the whole Iraq country in this decade. Paris encompasses what anyone needs to know about the France culture and its epicureans, art, science, democracy and so on.

Moreover, the history of a land is not traceable in the marginal regions _ to know the personality of a country_ as far as it can be found in the major cities. This is because every prominent change in a population is predicated upon whether its capital assumed that change. Every reform, paradigm change, and threshold decision emanate its influences in the major cities, otherwise they become null. Furthermore, since samples of different parts of a region are present in the major cities, a sociologist researcher can extrapolate the analysis of a metropolis, to the whole society; going to Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad and enables us to tell about the general religious personality of Iranian communities. Hence, the investigation of the major cities provides us a significant share of information to learn the primal properties of a society.

Finally, in order not to turn a blind eye to the marginal sites, we should bear in mind that in understanding some fundamental 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 grasped 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 most important features of a society we can include the marginal parts too.

In sum, as discussed, relying on the major cities would portray us the essential qualities of a society and helps understanding them. However, assisting the study of small cities also can help us in having a more comprehensive understanding of the key characteristics of a society.