No 'the' for society

Some students asked if there are some exceptional cases for the word 'society' with the determiner 'the', even though the word stands for the environment we are living in. For example, we are talking about something very specific to a society such as its particular member.

The answer is definitely no. Perhaps I give you one more convincing example after all. In 2009 UE Reading Comprehension, in the article there is one sentence as follows:

'Two young children pretending together that a stick is a horse have thus taken their first step not only on an imaginary journey, but also toward becoming a functioning member of society.’

Even in the above specific expression, there is no need to add 'the' in front of 'society'. See!?