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The influence of culture on society
Durkheim and the science of sociology
The influence of culture on society
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Durkheim focus on social explanations rather than individual explanation for things. He looked at economic inequality. Durkheim came up with social facts which was norms, cultures and values. Durkheim believe social facts affect one another and affect people. Durkheim believed that Social facts couldn’t be understood. Durkheim believe in social explanations. Durkheim used two metaphors to describe the different bases of solidarity, or social order, in pre-modern society and modern society. He saw pre modern society as mechanical solidarity and he saw modern society as organic solidarity. Pre modern society would be that everyone is the same and do the same thing and they all have same values. Modern society there are different people each
Maus tells a story of Spiegelman’s, Vladek, and his experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus gives us a detailed look at the ways Jews were persecuted in German-occupied territories during World War II. The Jews were seen as inferior, disposable and deprived of the most basic human rights. Instead of drawing the characters as human, Art Spiegelman, in his graphic novel Maus, chooses to merge the different identities and draw each character through a definitive scope of animals: Mice were used to represent the Jewish people, cats to represent the Germans, pigs to represent the people of Poland and dogs to represent Americans. He uses metaphors which are figures of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren't alike but do have something in common, in this instance animals. Mr. Spigelman strategically chose the animal characters and had a stereotypical relation to the character the animals depicted in the story. Mr. Spiegelman convincingly argues that he was using “Hitler’s pejorative attitudes against themselves,” and that using animals “allowed me to approach otherwise unsayable things” (Gardner 2011, p 2). There are many times throughout the text
...fitting from modern capitalism as they increase profits through the labour theory of value, while exploiting the proletariats. On the other hand, the proletariats are at danger, as they become alienated through mass production and the labour theory of value does not work in their favour. Durkheim views the specialization of labour to be effective until it is pushed too far, resulting in a state of anomie. The division of labour can be seen as beneficial to society as it allows mass production, increased profits, and creativity and interests to be used among individuals, keeping their human identity. At the same time, the division of labour can be seen as dangerous, as over specialization leads to anomie. Through both Marx and Durkheim, we can conclude that modern capitalism has both its benefits and dangers towards individuals and societies in a capitalist economy.
Emile Durkheim uses a functional approach when understanding religion, the function of a religion and not a belief system. Durkheim looks at what religion does for society as a whole and how it creates social cohesion. Social cohesion is defined as the result of a community rallying around a totem, which can be a sacred object that ultimately creates a religion within society. For example, the traditional Christmas tree that Christians put up every year to honour the birth of Jesus Christ is a totem that creates social cohesion. Much like Mircea Eliades, Durkheim focused on the division between the sacred and the profane. The scared as the community, which brings social cohesion and the profane being the activities, those are not about maintaining community but about the individual. Therefore, the sacred and the profane are connected unlike Eliades. Durkheim saw primitive people as being closer to a more original form of religion, which ultimately brings out the essential function of religion.
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY Take Home Exam One Questions 5 and 6 By Shylynn E. Calbert MW 5:45-7pm DR. FORD 5. Discuss abortion using applications of Durkheim?s conception of social facts. How would Durkheim research the issue and explain it in sociological terms?
In the story “A Worn Path”, Eudora Welty describes an old African American woman named Phoenix Jackson walks into the town to get her grandson’s medicine. Her name “Phoenix Jackson” is the most important metaphor. Her name alludes to the mythological bird “Phoenix”. Phoenix is the unique bird which lives for five to six hundred years. When its body becomes old and it is time for them to die, Phoenix bursts into flames and then reborn from its own ashes to live through another cycle. Phoenix’s startling ability to regenerate itself is the symbol of immortality. A Phoenix can represent sun, fire, pain, birth, death, rebirth, sacrifice, and power.
The different parts of anomie are the structural strain, status frustration, and institutional anomie. The structural strain is about the social struggles in social class and the boundaries set on those on working class, not giving the lower classes a chance to move upward in social structure to get to the middle/higher class. While status frustration Status frustration stems from a structural strain, because of the structural strain they become frustrated. With that frustration, individual become desperate and will be more likely to deviant acts to get their basic needs meet. Institutional anomie is when a situation when the social institution has lost their moral integrity and their legitimacy. Mertain and Durkheim's different main different views are that anomie is created from, structural boundaries and poverty crime. However, Derkiem does not focus on the middle class on acting out of deviance with Mertain looks at the society as a whole. When looking at anomie it is good to focus on all social classes instead of one to see where social structures or social norms are breaking down. durkheim looks more at a Macro type of looking instead of a micro which is looking at the individuals instead of the
“Durkheim assumed that society defines and direct individual wants, desires, and goals. Lacking adequate social regulation, individuals cannot organize their lives in a stable and coherent way” (Seidman 44). I agree with Durkheim’s argument of social facts having an existence on their own. Society controls everything including individuals and individuals need the norms of society to continue their lives harmoniously. “He made an argument that there are certain ways of thinking, feeling and behaving prior to any individuals birth and live on after that person dies” (Instructors comments 3). I truly agree with this statement because before I was born many things were set up for me. For example respect is something that was set up in a society even before we were born. We have to be respectful to older people, we have to be careful when talking to elderly people, and we cannot just talk to an older person the way we talk to our friends. This is a norm that is exist and we just learn that. Another example to that would be the language and culture we are born into.
Sin has existed for as long as humans with a moral code have. Sins dictate the morality of a person, and affect the way society sees them. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne appears to be enthralled by sinners and the consequences caused by those sins. In his novel The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne writes of a house built on a plot cursed by a witch and haunted by spirits, where the transgressions of past members of the Pyncheon family live on to the members of the following generations. When the villainous descendant of the unjust Colonel Pyncheon, the originator of this inherited sin, dies, it allows for a marriage between rival families to end the curse. In Hawthorne’s following novel, The Blithedale Romance, the utopian community of Blithedale
Durkheim was concerned with studying and observing the ways in which society functioned. His work began with the idea of the collective conscious, which are the general emotions and opinions that are shared by a society and which shape likeminded ideas as to how the society will operate (Desfor Edles and Appelrouth 2010:100-01). Durkheim thus suggested that the collective ideas shared by a community are what keeps injustices from continuing or what allows them to remain.
In the book Metaphors We Live By, authors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson address the traditional philosophic view denouncing metaphor's influence on our world and our selves (ix). Using linguistic and sociological evidence, Lakoff and Johnson claim that figurative language performs essential functions beyond those found in poetry, cliché, and elaborate turns of phrase. Metaphor permeates our daily experiences - not only through systems of language, but also in terms of the way we think and act. The key to understanding a metaphor's effect on behavior, relationships, and how we make sense of our environment, can be found in the way humans use metaphorical language. To appreciate the affects of figurative language over even the most mundane details of our daily activity, it is necessary to define the term, "metaphor" and explain its role in defining the thoughts and actions that structure our conceptual system.
Much like the later structural functionalists that he would inspire, such as Radcliffe-Brown, Durkheim’s grounding in science led to a methodological strength. By focusing on understanding a single aspect of society, such as division of labor or suicide rates, Durkheim could focus on empirical data to create a testable hypothesis based on statistics. This makes it easy to refute and/or refine statements he made, but also made them easier to compare cross-culturally to see if variation exists.
To relate this to Durkheim’s theory, in a sense, it’s a norm that we have poverty in America because then we have people who can and will work the jobs that no one wants to, such as garbage collectors, janitors, and more. We need people to work these jobs so that society continues to function. However, one of the weakness of Durkheim’s functional theory is how do we define which job, talent, or function is more important and why. This is related to poverty because we have jobs that are low-paying jobs, but because we know with such bad social conditions, people are willing to contribute to the functional society by taking the less skilled jobs, also the least appreciated jobs as well. Relating this back to Marx’s theory on wages being lowered and proletariats accepting it because they need to mean their need of subsistence. However, in a sense, it can be argued that according to Durkheim, that there is a need for people in poverty because then no one would willingly take the low-paying
Emile Durkheim’s Functionalist Theory is predicated on the ideologies that society is composed of components that are dependent on each other. Auguste Comte developed functionalism; Durkheim compared society to the human body. The body consists of different, interrelated organs that support it to survive; society consists of different workings that enable it to survive. There is a state of stability within society and if any component of that society alters it will reorganize itself to maintain stability. Functionalism will interpret the components of society in terms of contributions to the stability of the whole society. Social accord, direction and integration are paramount views of functionalism; society will endure and grow due to the shared norms and values; all individuals have a goal and vested interest to conformity and thus conflict is minimized (Pope, 1975).
In society, we come across shared meanings and these shared meanings produce some type of social order. In order for social order to be constructed, we as individuals must be able to communicate with each other. Also, we need a system where all of us individuals as a whole are willing to cooperate. But where do these shared meanings come from within societies? Marx and Durkheim have come up with theories about how shared meanings are produced. Marx believes are ideas come after the production of materials. While Durkheim believes it is society itself as a moral authority where all individuals are willing to share the same idea.
Talcott Parsons have some of the same views of sociology as Durkheim, he believed that social life is categorized by social cooperation. Parsons also believed that commitment to common values maintains or...