A community is a group of individuals engaged in continuous social interaction, or a large social group that shares the same geographical or social area, and is usually subject to the same political authority and prevailing cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinct culture and institutions; a society can be described as the sum of these relationships among its components. In social sciences, the larger society often presents stratified patterns or dominance in subgroups.