Macionis, Sociology, 16/e

Chapter 4
Society
Contents
Author’s Note
Late Breaking News
Additional Content in Revel
Learning Objectives
Detailed Chapter Outline
Revel Media
John’s Chapter Close-Up: Who Has Access to New Technology?
John’s Personal Video Selection
Research for a Cutting-Edge Classroom
Supplemental Lecture Material
• The Postindustrial Workplace
• Marx’s and Weber’s Concepts of Alienation versus Durkheim’s Concept of Anomie
• The People that Time Forgot
Essay Topics

Author’s Note for Chapter 4

This chapter is the only one found in this text for which, to my knowledge, there is no
comparable chapter in any competing book. Back in the early 1980s, as I was planning
Sociology, I strongly believed in the importance of teaching theory to beginning students. More
specifically, I thought then (and I still believe now) that a foundation of sociological
understanding requires some familiarity with the classic contributions of Marx, Weber, and
Durkheim, whose thinking influences the discussion of so many topics in our discipline. So this
chapter provides an opportunity for students to grasp the thinking of these sociological pioneers,
which will serve them well as they encounter these thinkers again and again later on.
Before we reach this classical sociology, the chapter begins with a contemporary
sociologist, Gerhard Lenski. Years ago, while attending a meeting of the American Sociological
Association, I ended up sharing an elevator with Professor Lenski and, after he scanned my
name badge, he looked up at me smiling and said, “Thanks for making some people think I must
be as important as Marx, Weber, and Durkheim.” I was honored to have a chance to shake his
hand. The reason for beginning with the work of this great sociologist, of course, is that Lenski
so insightfully researched the broad history of human societies with a focus on how technology
shapes all of society.
In teaching this chapter, my suggestion is to systematically present to the class the four
key factors that help to define a society—technology, social conflict, ideas, and social
integration—stressing commonalities and differences in the theories surrounding them:
 Technology helps define what a society considers to be possible. Lenski’s work helps us
to understand how societies are defined by the productive technology of hunting and

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gathering, pastoralism and horticulture, agriculture, industry, and postindustrial

computing.
 Social conflict, according to Karl Marx, both defines a society and also is the energy that
drives onward the process of social change. What Lenski considers to be a process in
which agriculture gives way to industry, Marx saw as a system of feudal class conflict
transformed by class revolution into a system of capitalist class conflict.
 Ideas shape society. In contrast to Marx’s materialist view of society is Weber’s idealist
approach. Weber explains the power of ideas—specifically, a weltanschauung or
worldview—to define a society. Agrarian or feudal society is, to Weber, built on a
traditional worldview; industrial or capitalist society is marked by a rational worldview.
 All societies hang together but, as Durkheim explains, the basis of social
cohesion shifts over historical time. Agrarian societies are held together by
mechanical solidarity, whereas industrial societies depend more on organic
solidarity based on a more pronounced division of labor.

Late Breaking News

In this new feature, found only in Revel, John Macionis provides new data and points to recent
events that are highly relevant to the chapter at hand. In this chapter, the news bulletin reports a
recent sighting of an isolated, small society deep in the Brazilian rain forest and asks if such
contact is helpful or harmful to the local people who were “discovered.”

Additional Content in Revel

Revel is the electronic version of this text that provides interactive learning, student learning
assessment, and additional readings and engaging video—at remarkably low cost. All of the
Revel content has been developed by John Macionis and is seamlessly integrated into the text.
For each chapter, Revel expands and deepens student learning with rich content including:

Late Breaking News –This brand new feature, available in every chapter, is described above.

In Greater Depth—This interactive graphic allows students to go deeper into the Power of
Society figure at the beginning of the chapter, in this case exploring how access to the internet is
affected by income, gender, political ideology, and region.

In Review—These interactive “drag and drop” exercises allow students to assess their learning.
In this chapter, the In Review exercises helps students master the five types of societies based on
their productive technology, and the four visions of society developed by Lenski, Marx, Weber,
and Durkheim.

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Social Explorer—An interactive exercise that uses social mapping to explore societal dynamics
across the United States. This chapter’s exercise allows students to investigate the differences
industrialization made to communities across the United States.

Video—These short videos present key concepts in engaging ways. In this chapter, students can
access “The Big Picture: What is Sociology?” and also “Social Inequalities: What is
Stratification?”

Read the Document—These primary readings allow students to read important sociologists in
their own words. All readings have been carefully chosen and edited to provide rich learning
accessible to all students. This chapter’s reading is Marx and Engel’s “Manifesto of the
Communist Party.”

Journals—Short student writing exercises. This chapter’s journals encourage students to think
about how class conflict has shaped their own lives (following Marx), how the power of society
shapes everyone’s lives (following Durkheim), and to assess the ideas of Lenski, Marx, Weber,
and Durkheim.

Surveys—These interactive exercises ask students to assess the own attitudes and behavior and
compare themselves to others in the United States or to populations in other countries. This
chapter’s survey focuses on time spent networking with social media.

Interactive Comparison Maps—These interactive graphics allow students to manipulate social

maps to link variables. In this chapter, global comparison maps invite students to explore the use
of high technology by people living in nations at various levels of economic development.

Learning Objectives

4.1: Describe how technological development has shaped the history of human societies.
4.2: Analyze the importance of class conflict to the historical development of human societies.
4.3: Demonstrate the importance of ideas to the development of human societies.
4.4: Contrast the social bonds typical of traditional and modern societies.
4.5: Summarize the contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim to our understanding
of social change.

Detailed Chapter Outline

I. Society
Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share culture. This chapter
explores four important theoretical views explaining the nature of human societies, focusing on
the work of Gerhard Lenski, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim.

II. Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology

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L.O. 4.1: Describe how technological development has shaped the history of human societies.
Gerhard Lenski (Nolan & Lenski, 2010) focuses on sociocultural evolution, the changes
that occur as a society acquires new technology. According to Lenski, the more
technological information a society has, the faster it changes. New technology sends ripples
of change through a society’s entire way of life. Lenski’s work identifies five types of
societies based on their level of technology.
A. Hunting and gathering societies use simple tools to hunt animals and gather
vegetation. Until about 12,000 years ago, all humans were hunter-gatherers. At this
level of sociocultural evolution, food production is relatively inefficient; groups are
small, scattered, and usually nomadic. Society is built on kinship, and specialization is
minimal, centered chiefly around age and gender. These societies are quite egalitarian
and rarely wage war.
B. Horticultural and pastoral societies employ a technology based on using hand tools
to raise crops. In very fertile and also in arid regions, pastoralism, technology that
supports the domestication of animals, develops instead of horticulture. In either case,
these strategies encourage much larger societies to emerge. Material surpluses
develop, allowing some people to become full-time specialists in crafts, trade, or
religion. Expanding productive technology creates social inequality.
C. Agrarian societies are based on agriculture, the technology of large-scale
cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful sources of energy.
These societies initiated civilization as they invented irrigation, the wheel, writing,
numbers, and metallurgy. Agrarian societies can build up enormous food surpluses
and grow to an unprecedented size. Occupational specialization increases, money
emerges, and social life becomes more individualistic and impersonal. Inequality
becomes much more pronounced. Religion underlies the expanding power of the
state.
D. Industrial societies are based on industrialism, the production of goods using
advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery. At this stage, societies begin to
change quickly. The growth of factories erodes many traditional values, beliefs, and
customs. Prosperity and health improve dramatically. Occupational specialization and
cultural diversity increase. The family loses much of its importance and appears in
many different forms. In the early stages of industrialization, social inequality
increases. Later on, while poverty continues to be a serious problem, most people’s
standard of living rises. Demands for political participation also escalate.
1. What Difference Does Industrialization Make? In this discovery exercise,
students will journey back in time, to a point more than a century ago, when
the Industrial Revolution was well underway. They will assess some of the
consequences of industrialization as it proceeded over many decades, in
particular how it affected illiteracy in parts of the United States.
E. Postindustrial societies are based on technology that supports an information-based
economy. In this phase, industrial production declines while occupations that process
information using computers expand. The emergence of postindustrialism
dramatically changes a society’s occupational structure.
F. The limits of technology. While expanding technology can help to solve many
existing social problems, it creates new problems even as it remedies old ones.
G. The Summing Up table (p. 92) provides a summary of this segment of the chapter.

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III. Karl Marx: Society and Conflict

Karl Marx’s analysis stresses social conflict, the struggle between segments of society over
valued resources.
L.O. 4.2: Analyze the importance of class conflict to the historical development of human
societies.
A. Society and production.
1. Marx divided society into profit-oriented capitalists, people who own
factories and other productive enterprises, and the proletarians, people who
provide labor necessary to operate factories and other productive enterprises.
Marx believed that conflict between these two classes was inevitable in a
system of capitalist production. This conflict could end only when people
changed capitalism itself.
2. All societies are composed of social institutions, defined as the major
spheres of social life, or societal subsystems, organized to meet human needs.
3. He considered the economy the infrastructure on which all other social
institutions, i.e., the superstructure, were based. The institutions of modern
societies, he argued, tend to reinforce capitalist domination.
4. Marx’s approach is based on materialism, which asserts that the production of
material goods shapes all aspects of society.
5. According to Marx, most people in modern societies do not pay much
attention to social conflict, because they are trapped in false consciousness,
explanations of social problems that blame the shortcomings of individuals
rather than the flaws of society.
6. Social Inequalities: Social Stratification. This video addresses social
stratification, a system of inequality that ranks individuals, usually on an
economic scale. It compares the notion of the American Dream, of working
hard to achieve success, to the reality that working hard does not always lead
to success.
B. Conflict and history. Marx argued that early hunting and gathering societies were
based on highly egalitarian primitive communism, and that society became less equal
as it moved toward modern industrial capitalism dominated by the bourgeoisie class
(capitalists).
C. Capitalism and class conflict. Industrial capitalism contains two major social classes
—the ruling class and the oppressed—reflecting the two basic positions in the
productive system. Marx viewed class conflict, conflict between entire classes over
the distribution of wealth and power in society, as inevitable.
1. In order for conflict to occur, the proletariat must achieve class
consciousness, workers’ recognition of their unity as a class in opposition to
capitalists and, ultimately, to capitalism itself. Then workers must organize
themselves and rise in revolution. Internally divided by their competitive
search for profits, the capitalists would be unable to unify to effectively resist
their revolution.
2. Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Taken from their classic work, this selection explores the formation of
classes and the political consequences of class struggle.

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D. Capitalism and alienation. Marx also condemned capitalism for promoting alienation,
the experience of isolation resulting from powerlessness.
1. Marx argued that industrial capitalism alienated workers in four ways:
a. Alienation from the act of working.
b. Alienation from the products of work.
c. Alienation from other workers.
d. Alienation from human potential.
E. Revolution. Marx was certain that eventually a socialist revolution would overthrow
the capitalist system.

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IV. Max Weber: The Rationalization of Society

L.O. 4.3: Demonstrate the importance of ideas to the development of human societies.
A society is a community of people living in a particular country or region who share customs,
laws, and organizations. In contrast to Marx’s pessimistic view, Weber’s work reflects the
idealist perspective that human ideas shape society. To make comparisons, he used ideal types,
abstract statements of the essential characteristics of any social phenomenon.
A. Two world views: tradition and rationality. Weber wrote that members of
preindustrial societies embrace tradition, sentiments and beliefs passed from
generation to generation, while industrial societies are characterized by rationality,
deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient means to accomplish a
particular task.
1. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism both reflect the
rationalization of society, the historical change from tradition to rationality
as the main type of human thought.
2. WINDOW ON THE WORLD—Global Map 4–1 (p. 100): High Technology
in Global Perspective. While countries with traditional cultures either cannot
afford, ignore, or sometimes resist technological innovation, nations with
highly rationalized ways of life quickly embrace such change.
3. The Big Picture: What is Sociology? In this video, Dr. Jodie Lawston
explains that sociology is the study of the development, structure, and
function of human society.
B. Is capitalism rational? Weber considered industrial capitalism the essence of
rationality, since capitalists pursue profit in whatever ways they can. Marx, however,
believed capitalism was irrational because it failed to meet the basic needs of most of
the people.
C. Weber’s great thesis: Protestantism and capitalism. Weber traced the roots of modern
rationality to Calvinist Protestantism, which preached predestination and the notion
that success in one’s calling testified to one’s place among the saved. Weber’s
analysis demonstrates the ability of ideas to shape society.
D. Rational social organization. Weber identified seven characteristics of rational social
organizations:
1. Distinctive social institutions.
2. Large-scale organizations.
3. Specialized tasks.
4. Personal discipline.
5. Awareness of time.
6. Technical competence.
7. Impersonality.
E. The growth of rational bureaucracy was a key element in the origin of modern
society.
F. Weber feared that the rationalization of society carried with it a tendency toward
dehumanization or alienation. He was pessimistic about society’s ability to escape
this trend.

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V. Emile Durkheim: Society and Function

L.O. 4.4: Contrast the social bonds typical of traditional and modern societies.
For Emile Durkheim, a social fact is a pattern that is rooted in society rather than in the
experience of individuals. Society is an elaborate, collective organism, far more than the sum of
its parts. It shapes individuals’ behavior, thought, and feeling.
A. The function of a social fact extends beyond its effect on individuals and helps society
itself to function as a complex system.
B. People build personalities by internalizing social facts.
1. Sociology in Focus: What is Sociology? Human behavior cannot be
understood only in terms of the individual. We must also examine the social
forces in society that shape and influence people's attitudes, beliefs, and
decisions.
C. Durkheim warned of anomie, a condition in which society provides little moral
guidance to individuals.
D. The division of labor, or specialized economic activity, has increased throughout
human history.
1. Traditional societies are characterized by a strong collective conscience or
mechanical solidarity, social bonds based on shared moral sentiments that
unite members of preindustrial societies.
2. In modern societies, mechanical solidarity declines and is partially replaced
by organic solidarity, social bonds, based on specialization, that unite
members of industrial societies. This shift is accompanied by a decline in the
level of trust between members of the society.
E. SEEING SOCIOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE BOX (p. 106): Today’s Information
Revolution: What Would Durkheim, Weber, and Marx have Thought? Durkheim,
Weber, and Marx greatly improved our understanding of industrial societies.

VI. Critical Review: Four Visions of Society

L.O. 4.5: Summarize the contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim to our
understanding of social change.
A. What holds societies together?
B. How have societies changed?
C. Why do societies change?

VI. Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life photo essay (pp. 107–108). Use this essay to spark
discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of advance technology.

Revel Media
IN GREATER DEPTH [graphic] The Power of Society to Shape Access to the Internet:
Access to Internet by Age, Income, Gender, Ideology, and Region, found in Module 4.1.
IN REVIEW Five Types of Societies, found in Module 4.2.
SOCIAL EXPLORER Explore the difference industrialization makes in your local community
and in counties across the United States, found in Module 4.3.

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VIDEO Social Inequalities: Social Stratification This video addresses social stratification as a
characteristic of societies around the world and throughout history. It looks at why Horatio
Alger stories are popular and why the American dream continues to capture people’s
imagination despite the reality of social stratification, found in Module 4.4.
READ THE DOCUMENT Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx In this
sociological classic, Marx and Engels point to class conflict as the engine of social change and
analyze the distinctive features of modern capitalism. This article illustrates the economic
materialist approach that contrasts sharply with the more idealist approaches of Weber and
Durkheim, who focused on social integration rather than division, found in Module 4.5.
JOURNAL Personalizing Class Conflict, found in Module 4.6.
VIDEO The Big Picture: What Is Sociology? This video traces the development of sociology as
a discipline, pointing out how it has been guided by the contributions of Auguste Comte, Karl
Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jane Addams, Harriet Martineau, and C.
Wright Mills, as well as modern-day sociologists such as Devah Pager, found in Module 4.7.
COMPARISON MAP High Technology / Economic Development in Global Perspective,
found in Module 4.8.
VIDEO Sociology in Focus: What Is Sociology? This video looks at Durkheim’s principle—that
society shapes people’s attitudes, beliefs, and decision-making processes—and explores how a
sociologist would use that principle to analyze aspects of popular culture, found in Module 4.8.
JOURNAL Finding Society in Ourselves, found in Module 4.9.
SURVEY Hours Spent Social Networking: Rate Yourself Personal Relationships in a Digital
World [graphic], found in Module 4.10.
IN REVIEW Four Visions of Society, found in Module 4.11.
SHARED WRITING Assessing Four Visions of Society, found in Module 4.12.
SEEING SOCIOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE [photo gallery] Does having advanced
technology make a society better? found in Module 4.13.

John’s Chapter Close-Up: Who Has Access to New Technology?

All the thinkers considered in this chapter recognize the importance of technology to shape
individual lives and all of society. Lenski explains that advancing technology expands the range
of societal options as well as increases economic productivity. Marx, too, recognized the
productive power of industry, but was more concerned with how categories of people related to
the means of production and how some benefitted from it far more than others.
In our own age, the most important technological development has been computing. The
information revolution is unfolding as mainframes have given way to personal computers and
ever smaller and more powerful smart phones. Today, gaining the skills to engage in writing,
editing, composing, calculating, and other manipulations of symbols is the key to economic
security.
But does everyone even have access to the Internet? Many of the children growing up in
low-income neighborhoods of our inner cities are not connected to the information economy; nor
are children growing up in may low-income rural communities in Appalachia or on Indian
reservations of the southwest. Look at the Power of Society figure on page 89 of the text. Here
we see that educational inequality in the United States is closely linked to unequal access to

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computer technology. Among college graduates, researchers document that almost everyone has
Internet access—the small share that does not probably has made a choice to stay off the
technological grid. But among those adults who lack a college degree, one-in-five has no
Internet access. And among those who lack a high school diploma, the share without access to
the Internet is about four-in-ten.
An even more striking pattern of is evident globally. Global Map 4–1 on page 100 of the
text shows that access to personal computers is high in most high-income nations. The share falls
significantly in middle-income countries (the Global Map showing high-, middle-, and low-
income nations is found on page 297). In some of the lowest-income countries of the world,
most people have no access to personal computers.
Technology can provide a powerful boost to access to information and economic
productivity. Yet what is possible for some is not always available for others.
_____________________________________________________________________________

John’s Personal Video Selection

One of the interesting observations people have made about human societies is that some of
them are still around and others went away. Why do societies collapse? What factors seem to put
a society at high risk for falling apart? In this short video, scientist and author Jared Diamond
offers insights about what can go wrong. Go to a search engine and look for “Jared Diamond:
Why Do Societies Collapse?”
_____________________________________________________________________________

Research for a Cutting-Edge Classroom

For each chapter of the text, I am happy to share a short, Power-Point based presentation
informed by very recent research. These presentations deal with highly current and typically
controversial issues that are in the news and are part of the country’s political dialogue. Each
presentation provides a clear statement of the issue, several slides that present recent research
findings from organizations including Pew, Gallup, or other organizations, notes that help
instructors develop the importance of the data, and questions for class discussion.

To access these PowerPoint presentations from Revel, after creating a course with either
Sociology 16/e or Society: The Basics 14/e, enter the course and hover over the left-hand
navigation menu. The PowerPoints (as well as the Test Item File, Instructor's Manual, and other
resources) can be found in the “Resources” tab.

From outside of Revel, please go to www.pearsonhigerhed.com and navigate / search

for Sociology 16/e or Society: The Basics 14/e. The PowerPoints can be found under the
“Resources” tab.

In this chapter, the cutting edge classroom presentation examines the so-called “Cuban health
paradox,” by which a relative low-income country has remarkably high levels of public health.

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Supplemental Lecture Material

The Postindustrial Workplace

The challenges that workers must negotiate in a postindustrial society are well documented. On
the other hand this new work world raises new challenges for supervisors. It is harder today to
insist that all employers be at their posts at a specified time and stay there for a specified length
of time. Requests for exceptions, conditions, and special schedules are growing.
Diane Crispell, Executive Editor of American Demographics, offers five rules for managers
to keep in mind when addressing workplace issues. The shift from time-based to task-based
performance is occurring fastest in industries that rely most on online communication. Crispell
points out that this is because workers who use computers “can switch from work to play
seamlessly—playing games, chatting on bulletin boards, and checking the weather forecast
before heading out on vacation.” In an environment conducive to even mild levels of “time
theft,” supervisors are well advised to measure performance in terms of quality and productivity,
not in the number of hours worked or when work is performed. In some areas of the labor force,
performance will always depend on showing up on time and putting in a solid shift (e.g.,
manufacturers, retailers, and construction workers). But in financial services, government, and a
variety of other “information industries,” many workers are already measuring up to quality and
productivity standards instead of punching a clock, and the number is certain to grow.
Crispell also contends that worker’s appearances don’t always count— for “behind-the-
scenes workers,” the quality of work matters much more than the cut of the clothes, how people
wear their hair, or whether workers have wrinkles or gray hair. Even for frontline workers whose
appearance does count, employers need to be flexible about the “uniform” they impose, “lest
they encounter resistance from individually-minded workers.”
Today, the line between individual and organizational responsibility has become blurred.
Employees now expect employers to accommodate their personal lives. To a large extent, baby
boomers and younger workers bring their personal lives to work out of necessity. When both
father and mother are employed, or when a single adult is raising children, work schedules can
be upset at any moment. (According to the Census Bureau, four in ten preschool children live
with two parents who work, and 18 percent live with a single parent who works.) Offering child-
care assistance is an effective way to keep valued workers on the job more often and keep them
focused on their work. Ignoring the issue is certain to bring about increased work absence,
increased turnover, and stressed-out workers worrying about children who are home alone.
Another emerging workplace issue is an increasing number of middle-aged baby boomers
who find themselves responsible for an aging parent. While some may say that elder care is not
as great a problem as the child-care dilemma, caring for older people is increasing in importance
along with the share of the population over the age of sixty-five. Coordinating business travel
with family concerns is one way, according to Crispell, that employers may ease the angst
associated with work-related travel. An employee who can combine a business trip with a visit to
an elderly parent or sibling will be eager to make repeated trips to the area, and will probably be
content to stay there for a longer period of time.
A major challenge in today’s workplace is employers helping employees balance their work
and personal lives, but they also have to balance the needs of workers and customers with those
of the organization. Crispell suggests that “Perhaps the overriding rule should be to minimize the
rules.”

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Source:
Diane Crispell. “How to Manage A Chaotic Workplace.” American Demographics (June 1996),
pp. 50–52.

Discussion Questions:
1. Is it reasonable to expect employers to accommodate employees’ personal life needs?
Why or why not?
2. How do race/ethnicity, social class, and gender impact on issues that employees must
address in conjunction with workplace responsibilities?
3. What are some issues that persons who have their office in their home must negotiate?
What are the pros and the cons of such an arrangement?

Supplemental Lecture Material

Marx’s and Weber’s Concepts of Alienation versus Durkheim’s Concept of Anomie

For Marx, one of the most serious of these problems of modern social life was what he termed
alienation; for Durkheim, the more critical problem was anomie. Both of these important
concepts involve profound human discontent and both seem increasingly common in modern
society. Yet, they are fundamentally distinct and in certain ways antagonistic. An examination of
these two concepts helps to illuminate the underlying differences between the visions of society
developed by these two seminal sociological thinkers.
Marx’s notion of alienation reflects a perception that people in modern society are becoming
increasingly unable to control the social forces that shape their lives. For Marx, a core claim is
that humans collectively create the social world in which we live. Governments, educational
institutions, and, especially, economic systems, are the products of human activity and
consciousness. We created them and, in principle, we can change them. But over time, and
especially as societies become more complex (and more capitalistic), people begin to lose track
of the fact that they have created the society in which they live.
Under a capitalist economy, continued Marx, social institutions are increasingly perceived as
oppressive. Instead of something we shape and create, they come to be experienced as coercive
external realities to which we must conform. Ultimately, we come to feel powerless to influence
the circumstances of our own lives. Marx maintained that this progressive process of alienation
results from the capitalist mode of economic production. Weber, by contrast, linked alienation to
increasing rationality and the large-scale world of capitalism, science, and bureaucracy that all
expressed this world view.
Marx saw modern humanity as alienated in many dimensions of life. For instance, in the
world of work, the assembly line serves as an excellent example of objectified alienation.
Humans created it, yet the individual worker standing on the line feels totally powerless, unable
to alter the character of the task he or she is compelled to perform or even the pace at which the
work must be done. Furthermore, workers lose a sense of how their contribution to the overall
effort promotes the final end of the manufacturing process—they feel not only powerless but
also that their work is meaningless. Beyond that, Marx notes that highly alienated workers also
lose a sense of commonality with their fellow workers. They feel not only controlled, but also
isolated. Ultimately, highly alienated workers come to lose the sense that they can control any
aspect of their lives, whether at work or at home, and become highly self-estranged. Such people

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are profoundly discontent, prone to alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, violence, and the
support of extreme social and political movements, in addition to experiencing other pathologies.
What occurs in the workplace is echoed in other dimensions of life. For example, people
who are politically alienated feel powerless to affect important decisions made by elected
leaders. The government they elect comes to be seen as “they,” not “we.” People no longer
perceive any value in participating in politics, and they no longer derive a sense of shared
identity with others through joint political activity.
Note that, for Marx, alienation ultimately results from a societal situation in which wealth
and power are concentrated among some at the expense of the many. Again, Weber took a
broader view with a focus on rationality rather than capitalism, which Weber saw as just on
expression of this historical trend. Therefore, Weber saw Marx’s socialist solution as even more
rational, even more concentrating of power, and therefore even more alienating.
Durkheim was also critical of modern social life, if less so than Marx (and certainly less so
than Weber). For Durkheim, the problem stems from the destruction of the close ties that bonded
the individual to family, church, and community in the traditional, preindustrial village. In such
a society, high in mechanical solidarity, individuals knew exactly what was expected of them.
There was little normative ambiguity. But with the advent of the urban and industrial revolutions
—the same changes Marx saw as leading to alienation—Durkheim saw the new urban industrial
worker as subject to a breakdown of the moral consensus that was characteristic of the village
community. Thrust into industrial cities in jarring juxtaposition to dozens of different
subcultures, members of the developing modern societies of Western Europe and the United
States became more individualistic and free, but also began to lose their moral compasses.
Especially those who were most free (the affluent more than the poor) found themselves on the
shifting sands of modern social life so that right and wrong were no longer easily defined.
Durkheim called this condition of society anomie, from the Latin a (without) nomos (order). In a
state of anomie, often defined as normlessness, people in modern society drift from one
definition of proper behavior to the next, never sure they are acting as they ought to. The result
of this endemic moral rootlessness, according to Durkheim, is social pathology much like that
envisioned by Marx as the consequence of alienation: drug abuse, family dissolution, high rates
of crime and mental illness, high suicide rates, and so forth.
But while alienation and anomie may both be endemic to industrial societies and may lead to
similar behavioral problems, they are fundamentally different concepts. An alienated individual
is one who is powerless (for Marx) and exposed to too much impersonality and too many rules
(for Weber). From the German point of view, far from being in a state of drift, the alienated
individual is overly steered, overly guided, dominated, and ultimately crushed by the very
society that he and others like him established. In contrast, the anomic individual is in a state of
moral free-fall, desperately anxious for structure or constraint but unable to find enough moral
guidance to be able to know how to live his or her life. The problem is that society is too weak,
not too strong. People who are alienated know exactly what is expected of them, but find the
yoke of these expectations crushing. People with anomie yearn for the guiding hand of society
but find only a chaotic freedom that fails entirely to liberate. For Marx, the problem is capitalism
which confers only powerlessness on the majority. For Weber, it is the numbing and soul-
draining mass scale, impersonality, and quantitative calculus of all institutions that are guided by
a rational world view. For Durkheim, greater personal autonomy is a clear plus, how the specter
of too little moral regulation haunts us.

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Discussion Questions
1. Explain how alienation differs in the Marxist and Weberian analysis of modernity. How does
Durkheim’s concept of anomie contrast to the other two?
2. How can we attempt to remedy the problem of alienation, as Marc and Weber saw it? How
can we try to reduce anomie?

Supplemental Lecture Material

The People that Time Forgot

Deep in the rain forest of Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia in the western half of New
Guinea, live a people whose contact with the modern world has been virtually nonexistent. That
isolation is about to end, however. Vast forests are becoming a natural resource targeted for
cutting. Once they disappear, so will the Korowai, whose existence depends on those trees.
As a matter of fact, the forest itself is where they live, in huts constructed of branches and
bark, high up in the trees, and accessible only by notched climbing poles. For clothing, they use
leaves, palm fronds, and rattan. The forest also provides game for hunting.
The Korowai live as perhaps our ancestors might have lived. Each clan is ruled by a war
chief. Alliances are formed through trade or arranged marriages involving a bride price.
Calling themselves Lords of the Garden, the Korowai combine hunting and gathering
techniques with horticulture and some pastoralism. They raise pigs, cultivate gardens of many
types of banana and sweet potatoes, and tend sago fields where the women work during the day.
The sago is food and, as are beetle larvae, a delicacy. The Korowai chop down palms with stone
axes, then bore holes in the trunks. Scarab beetles lay eggs in those holes. When the grubs hatch,
they are pulled out of the holes and baked, wrapped in banana leaves.
One aspect of Korowai life is the never-ending clan warfare generally fought over women or
pigs, and often part of a chain of old offenses to be revenged. Battles always take place during
the day since spirits at night are hostile. Special arrows designed for killing humans are used. “A
yard of weathered bamboo is lashed with vine to a handspan of bone with six sharp barbs carved
on each side. This ensures the arrowhead will cause terrible damage when removed from the
victim.” Unless the dead are carried away by their own clan, they are then eaten. So are men or
women who transgress against clan members by stealing pigs or committing adultery.
Cannibalism, however, is not the major killer of the Korowai. Accidents, disease, and war
take the greatest toll, and life expectancy is only 35. So poor are the chances for infants, that
children do not even receive names until they are about eighteen months old.
Yet though their way of life may be precarious, the Korowai value it deeply, as is revealed
by the ceremonial overtones of the grub feast. “The grub feast binds us closer, makes us strong.
Always remember you are a Korowai.... Never abandon our way of life.”
Yet soon, as has been prophesied, the lale—the white-skinned ghost demons—will come and
take away the Korowais’ trees, their land. It will be the end of the Korowai world. Just as the
prophecy foretold. . . .

Source:
Raffaele, Paul. (August, 1996). “The People That Time Forgot.” Reader’s Digest, Vol. 149 No.
892, pp. 101–107.

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 Macionis, Sociology, 16/e

Discussion Questions:
1. Using Gerhard and Jean Lenski’s categories, characterize Korowai society, discussing
various social institutions typical for such a society. Should efforts be undertaken to save
their way of life, or is their disappearance acceptable as a function of sociocultural
evolution?
2. In your opinion, if the Korowai are ultimately deprived of the rain forest, what should be
done for them? Is there a way to save them? Can they—or their culture—survive in the
modern world?

Essay Topics

1. Provide a description and an example of each type of society outlined by Lenski. Does
Lenski’s stages of sociocultural evolution correspond to our idea of “progress?” Why or why
not?

2. To what extent is contemporary U.S. society still agrarian? To what extent is it industrial? In
what ways is our society postindustrial?

3. Identify several modern examples of Marx’s idea of false consciousness. What are some of
the consequences of widespread false consciousness in a society?

4. Have you or your friends or family worked in jobs that were alienating? How accurately
does Marx describe the characteristics of these jobs?

5. According to Weber, how does modern social life produce alienation? Why is it reasonable
to say that, of the three classical thinkers, Weber was the most pessimistic about modern
society?

6. What ideas from Marx remain relevant to contemporary society and what ideas must be
discarded in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Marxist societies of
Eastern Europe? What might Weber have said about the last century of global history?

7. How optimistic or pessimistic are you? Do you think societies are getting better or worse?
Why?
8. What are the characteristics of a rational social organization? In what ways has advancing
rationality improved people’s lives? How has it made them worse? How would Weber have
answered these questions?

9. What is Durkheim’s “anomie” all about? How can modern societies reduce the level of
anomie? Can this be done without limiting people’s individual freedom?

10. Provide examples of the bonds of mechanical solidarity in today’s society. What about bonds
of organic solidarity?

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11. In the book Cultural Anthropology: Adaptations, Structures, and Meanings, David Haines
presents a great deal of information about hunting and gathering, horticultural, pastoral, and
agrarian societies (see Chapters 2–5 in the section of the book called “Adaptations”). Select
one of these chapters and write a two-page paper on the important characteristics of societies
that practice the type of subsistence strategy (adaptation) you select. Discuss in your paper
the extent to which Gerhard Lenski’s model of societal development relates to what is
presented in the Haines book.

12. The United States is classified as a postindustrial society. This exercise asks you to go to the
Bureau of Labor’s website at http://www.bls.gov and look at the demographic characteristics
of the U.S. labor force. When you get to the website, look for “Demographics” in the column
on the left side of the screen and click on “Demographic Characteristics of the U.S. Labor
Force.” Write a brief summary of the picture of our nation’s workforce you discover there.

13. Learn more about the Tuaregs at http://www.tuaregs.free.fr/.

14. Learn about the Zabbaleen of Cairo by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabbaleen. For

another example of a people living on the margins of society, Google “smokey mountain
dump” and learn about the history of this landfill in the Philippines in which hundreds of
people lived before it was closed a few years ago. These cases can be used to apply
Durkheim’s “division of labor” model.

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