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Credits

8
Preface
College students today are more anxious about their futures than in the past, particularly
with respect to their places in the world of work. The social contract that promised
steadily increasing wages and secure employment has unraveled, leaving many
uncertain about their lives and livelihoods. In these times, a sociological perspective on
work is more important than ever. Analysis and understanding of the societal conditions
that shape people’s work lives may be the best tools for conquering their anxiety and
uncertainty. To prepare for and reshape the future demands knowledge of the social
forces that influenced the past and help structure the present.
The study of work is central to the discipline of sociology. From the Industrial
Revolution to the service economy, sociologists have contributed much to our
understanding of the forces shaping workers’ lives and the workplace. This anthology
contains a sampling of some of the best that sociologists of work have to offer. Through
a variety of methods and approaches, the readings address several pertinent questions
about the American workplace: What are the most significant factors shaping workers’
lives and workplaces in the twenty- first century? How has the workplace changed in the
past few decades? What trends are likely to be most influential for the workplace of the
future? By examining how sociologists have pursued answers to these questions, I hope
students will acquire tools to address their own concerns and come away better equipped
to make sense of their past, present, and future work experiences.
Selecting the readings for this anthology was both a challenge and a pleasure. It was
challenging because my colleagues have produced such a tremendous amount of
valuable research on the workplace that I could have filled several volumes easily;
deciding what to exclude was a difficult task. At the same time, compiling these readings
provided me an opportunity to explore and appreciate sociologists’ contributions to our
knowledge about workers and work. This process reaffirmed my belief that a sociological
perspective remains the best vantage point from which to understand the social world.
In the end, the readings that appear here were selected with several considerations in
mind. First, I aimed for a degree of comprehensiveness in the coverage of topics. While
no anthology can address everything, anthologies remain one of the best vehicles for
presenting information to students on a range of topics. Second, I wanted to present the
key pieces of research in a particular area. I include some classics, but primarily use
examples of contemporary research that have made an impact. Third, attending to
gender, racial, and ethnic differentiation in the workplace was important to me. Hence,
these issues are addressed throughout the anthology. Finally, I selected readings with a
student audience in mind. When all is said and done, this anthology is for them.

9
Changes to the Fourth Edition

The American workplace is constantly changing, and the selections in this fourth edition
aim to capture some of those developments. With the exception of Part I, all of the
readings in this edition are new. Despite this change, the book remains true to the
themes guiding earlier editions, while showcasing recent research on the contemporary
workplace:

There is no one single issue that characterizes the new economic era. The four
readings in Part II aim to capture some of this era’s most distinctive elements,
such as the global division of labor, the 24/7 economy and the growth of a
flexible, contingent workforce, and the continuing commodification of personal
life.
Services make up a significant proportion of the US economy. The wide-ranging
collection of service occupations discussed in Part III provides an opportunity to
explore many aspects of the organization and experience of work in today’s
economy.
The readings in the “Work and Inequality” section examine enduring issues of
workplace inequality across multiple dimensions, including gender, race, sexual
orientation, and immigrant status. This section also takes a look at Americans’
beliefs about income inequality and how these beliefs have changed over time.
The complex and increasingly blurred relations between work and family
represent one of the most salient features of the new economic era. The readings
in Part IV examine these issues from the perspectives of mothers, fathers, and
employers and consider strategies and prospects for workplace change.
The “General Introduction” has been revised. Discussion questions appear at the
conclusion of each part.

As with previous editions, the amount of cutting-edge sociological research on the

workplace far exceeds what I have been able to include here. Nevertheless, I hope that
the selections I have included will inform and inspire readers to think more critically
about the contemporary workplace and the global society in which we live.

10
Acknowledgments

Intellectual work is, at its best, a collective enterprise. In editing this anthology, I
benefited from the valuable comments and suggestions of many colleagues around the
country. I would like to thank Dean Birkenkamp at Paradigm for his enthusiastic support
for this new edition and his persistence in helping get it off the ground. I am especially
grateful to all of the book’s contributors, whose research and writing on workers and the
workplace made this anthology possible.

—Amy S. Wharton

11
General Introduction
The global economy is emerging from the greatest economic slump since the Great
Depression. In previous recessions, a relatively rapid return to business-as-usual was the
norm. Recovery from the recession of 2007–2009 has been much slower. Unemployment
in the United States has gradually declined from its peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009,
but has not yet returned to pre-recession levels (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012).
Further, US unemployment rates at the end of the recession were higher than in most
other industrialized countries (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012). Almost 11 million
people in the United States were unemployed as of December 2013 (Wood 2014). Wages
for all but the highest earners have stagnated, and income inequality is an issue that has
inspired social movements and gained worldwide attention (McCall 2013). Uncertainty
about the economy and the labor market is high.
Predicting the future is never easy. It is impossible to know whether the slow
economic recovery signals a long-term change in the US labor market and what the
future holds for the next generation of workers. However, in times of prosperity or
recession, in periods of uncertainty or stability, a sociological examination of work
provides a platform from which to understand the larger social and economic landscape.
Though this anthology focuses mainly on the contemporary workplace, it also looks at
workplaces of the past and the future through a critical sociological lens.
Work is among the most important social institutions. Toward the end of the
nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century, sociologists Karl Marx,
Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim placed work at the center of their theoretical
frameworks. Contemplating the development of capitalism in the West and the
burgeoning Industrial Revolution, these foundational sociological theorists understood
that the organization of work helps to determine the fates of both individuals and the
societies they make up.
Three major themes guided the selection of readings for this anthology. One reflects a
methodological concern, one stems from an empirical observation, and the third
emphasizes conceptual and theoretical issues. Each theme has continuity with past
efforts to understand the American workplace, yet each also directs attention to
important questions about the present and future. The first theme is that workers’ lives
are shaped not only by daily life on the job but also by larger trends that are
transforming work in the country and around the globe. This theme has methodological
implications because it suggests that any study of work must concern itself not only with
workers’ experiences but also with the larger historical, economic, and social contexts
within which these experiences occur. Multiple levels of analysis are thus necessary to
address the important questions in the sociology of work. A second major theme relates
to the composition of the workforce and the characteristics of workers themselves. The
twenty-first-century labor force is demographically more diverse than ever, and this

12
changing demography plays an important role in the organization and experience of
work. Like society as a whole, the American workplace comprises people from different
racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages, religions, and sexual orientations—to name
but a few characteristics. Sociologists believe that we cannot fully understand work
without also considering the characteristics of the people who perform it.
A third theme of this book is perhaps the most significant to sociologists: Work is not
strictly an instrumental activity, nor can it be understood only in economic terms.
Instead, as Friedland and Robertson (1990, p. 25) explain: “Work provides identities as
much as it provides bread for the table; participation in commodity and labor markets is
as much an expression of who you are as what you want.” Moreover, from this
perspective, work is not an isolated institution, closed off from the rest of society, but is
profoundly interconnected with the larger social world. Not only are its boundaries
permeable, subjecting the workplace to influences from other institutions, but the
influence of work on other aspects of society is also great. Indeed, work shapes every
aspect of life—from people’s conceptions of self to the degree of inequality in a society.
Through the years, sociologists of work have disagreed over which effects of work they
consider most important, but there has been no dispute with the basic premise that the
study of work is a vehicle for examining some of the most fundamental aspects of social
life.

13
Linking Micro and Macro in Sociological Studies of Work

Like the field of sociology as a whole, teaching and scholarship in the sociology of work
reflect a range of approaches, which typically have been characterized as either micro or
macro. Micro-level approaches tend to focus on individuals or small groups in a
particular workplace and examine processes or outcomes that operate at these levels of
analysis. Though micro-level research is by no means all ethnographic, many of these
researchers prefer qualitative methodologies that allow for close, in-depth scrutiny of
particular social phenomena. Indeed, there is a long and rich tradition of micro- level,
ethnographic research in the sociology of work. This research has provided useful
accounts of many jobs, offering students a way to vicariously experience life as a worker
in a machine shop, a medical student, a flight attendant, or an employee of McDonald’s
(Roy 1959; Becker, Geer, Hughes, and Strauss 1961; Hochschild 1983; Leidner 1993).
In contrast, macro-level studies in the sociology of work tend to be less concerned
with workers’ experiences and more attentive to larger processes, trends, and outcomes.
Studies of this type typically analyze data collected from representative samples of
people, jobs, or workplaces and seek to identify patterns and relationships between key
variables. Macro-level research thus is often quantitative, driven by the desire to test
hypotheses or produce generalizable results. Sociological studies of wage determination,
for example, attempt to explain what factors determine the “worth” of jobs and account
for why some jobs command higher wages than others (Tomaskovic-Devey 1993).
Micro and macro research traditions are often perceived as distinct, and sometimes
even conflicting, approaches. Courses in the sociology of work have thus sometimes
emphasized one or the other, but not both. Ideally, however, micro and macro studies
should inform one another, as no single approach can ever address everything.
Moreover, in my view, important sociological questions cannot be answered by only one
type of study or approach. For example, to understand the role of race in the workplace
we need both fine-grained, ethnographic studies and large-scale, quantitative analyses.
The former can help us understand such issues as workers’ experiences of discrimination
(e.g., Wingfield 2010), while the latter may address such questions as the racial gap in
earnings or the structure and consequences of racial segregation in the workplace
(Stainback and Tomaskovic-Devey 2012). This view is reflected in this anthology, as it
incorporates studies employing diverse methodologies and approaches. By studying both
the micro and the macro dimensions of work, we can begin to see how work is shaped
by its social context and, conversely, how workplace dynamics may shape the larger
society.

14
The Changing Demographics of the
Workplace
Demographic changes are reshaping the workplace in the United States and elsewhere.
The baby boom generation is aging, and those workers are moving out of the labor force
in large numbers. One result of this has been a steady decline since the late 1990s in the
overall rate of labor force participation in the United States (Toossi 2012). The
composition of the labor force is also continuing to change. Not only is the labor force
older than in earlier decades, it contains more women than in the past and continues to
become more diverse along racial and ethnic lines. The share of the labor force that is
white, non-Hispanic continues to decline. By 2050, white, non-Hispanics are projected to
account for just over 50 percent of the US labor force, down from 73 percent in 2000
(Toossi 2012). Despite this diversity, jobs and workplaces continue to be highly
segregated along gender, racial, and ethnic lines. The continuing association between
jobs and workers of a particular gender, race, or ethnic background suggests that these
social categories are as powerful in shaping life inside the workplace as they have been
shown to be in shaping other societal institutions.
Gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace are often studied through a focus on
discrimination and inequality, and this remains an important set of topics. Despite
widespread social changes, as well as the passage of legislation and social policies
designed to prevent discrimination and reduce inequality, the costs and rewards of work
remain unevenly distributed across social categories. The desire to understand the
sources of these work-related inequalities, the forces that perpetuate them, and the
consequences of these inequalities for workers and their families has generated a
tremendous amount of research. We thus know a great deal about some aspects of
gender, racial, and ethnic inequality in the workplace. Changes in the organization of
work brought on by a global economy and the changing demography of workers raise
new questions for analysis, however.
The impacts of gender, race, and ethnicity on the workplace are not confined to their
role in producing inequality and discrimination, nor do these factors only affect the
personal consequences of work. Rather, at a more fundamental level, sociologists argue
that the structure and organization of work also reflect the influences of gender, race,
and ethnicity. From this perspective, gender, race, and ethnicity are not just
characteristics of workers but may also be considered characteristics of work roles and
jobs, or seen as embedded in work structure and organization (Acker 1991).
Understanding how the workplace is gendered and racialized commands significant
attention from sociologists of work. Addressing these issues requires us to examine how
work structures and practices that may appear neutral in design or application may
nevertheless contribute to the construction and maintenance of gender and racial

15
distinctions in the workplace. By including issues pertaining to gender, race, and
ethnicity throughout this anthology, instead of concentrating them exclusively in a
section on discrimination, readers can see the many ways in which these social
categories shape work experience and organization.

16
Work and Society

Viewing work through a sociological lens enables consideration of the varied ways in
which work and society interrelate. For example, at the individual level, work shapes
identity, values, and beliefs, as well as a host of other outcomes ranging from mental and
physical health to political attitudes. Negative health consequences have been associated
with working too many hours or working too few, and both extremes are common in the
current economic era (Jacobs and Gerson 2004). For many professionals or managers,
work is a “greedy” institution, with ever-increasing demands on people’s time, emotional
energies, and commitments (Moen, Lam, Ammons, and Kelly 2013). For others, work is
precarious and insecure. A lack of access to employment creates its own set of problems,
especially for US workers who depend on employers for access to insurance and other
types of benefits (Kalleberg 2011).
One often overlooked feature of work is that it typically brings people into contact
with others—coworkers, subordinates, supervisors, and, increasingly for many, the
public. Social interaction and intergroup relations are just as important in the workplace
as they are in other social arenas. An early, influential sociological study first called
attention to the ways that the social relations of work shaped workers’ reactions to their
jobs (Mayo 1933). For contemporary researchers, this insight is reflected in studies of
work teams, coworker relations, and especially interactions between workers and their
clients and customers (Lopez 2010). The content and quality of workplace relationships
matter for understanding the consequences and significance of work. Workplaces are
settings in which both expressive and instrumental ties between people are important,
not only for understanding workers’ responses to their jobs, but also for understanding
the broader ways in which work shapes meanings and life experience.
Although the workplace has never been truly separate from other societal institutions
and trends, its interdependence with the larger environment has perhaps never been
greater. Societal changes, such as women’s rising labor force participation, declining
birth rates, and changing gender roles, have transformed relations between families and
work. Juggling work and family commitments is a challenge for families across the
occupational spectrum and has drawn attention from employers and policy-makers
throughout the industrialized world (Moen and Roehling 2005). Technology has also
contributed to changed relations between work and nonwork. By enabling people to
work anytime, anywhere, mobile devices have helped to blur, if not completely
eliminate, the boundaries between these two realms (Perlow 2012). These trends have
pushed sociologists to develop new conceptual approaches to understanding relations
between work and other institutions. The field has moved away from rigid dichotomies,
such as public and private or impersonal and personal, that compartmentalized work and
family life toward more complex portrayals of these social institutions and those who

17
negotiate work-family boundaries. Neither work nor family, or the relations between
them, are static, but rather they reflect and are responsive to developments in the wider
society.
Peoples’ lives in all economic eras are largely dependent on forces emanating from the
workplace. The organization, availability, and quality of work determine the social and
economic wellbeing of individuals, neighborhoods, cities, and societies. Work is thus
among the most important social institutions, with influential consequences for all
arenas of social life.

18
References

Acker, Joan. 1991. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations.” Pp.
162–179 in The Social Construction of Gender, edited by Judith Lorber and Susan A.
Farrell. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Becker, Howard S., Blanche Geer, Everett C. Hughes, and Anselm L. Strauss. 1961. Boys
in White: Student Culture in Medical School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 1983. The Managed Heart. Berkeley: University of California
Press.

Jacobs, Jerry A., and Kathleen Gerson. 2004. The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender
Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kalleberg, Arne L. 2011. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious
Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s. New York: Russell Sage
Foundation.

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1977. Work and Family. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Leidner, Robin. 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of
Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lopez, Steven Henry. 2010. “Workers, Managers, and Customers: Triangles of Power in
Work Communities.” Work and Occupations 37: 251–271.

Mayo, Elton. 1933. The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization. New York: The
Macmillan Company.

McCall, Leslie. 2013. The Undeserving Rich: American Beliefs about Inequality,
Opportunity, and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Moen, Phyllis, Jack Lam, Samantha Ammons, and Erin L. Kelly. 2013. “Time Work by
Overworked Professionals: Strategies in Response to the Stress of Higher Status.” Work
and Occupations 40: 79–114.

Moen, Phyllis, and Patricia Roehling. 2005. The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American
Dream. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Perlow, Leslie. 2012. Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and
Change the Way You Work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

19
Roy, Donald. 1959. “‘Banana Time’: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction.” Human
Organization 18: 158–168.

Stainback, Kevin, and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. 2012. Documenting Desegregation:

Racial and Gender Segregation in Private-Sector Employment Since the Civil Rights Act.
New York: Russell Sage.

Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald. 1993. Gender and Racial Inequality at Work. Ithaca, NY: ILR
Press.

Toossi, Mitra. 2012. “Labor Force Projections to 2020: A More Slowly Growing Labor
Force.” Monthly Labor Review 135: 43–64.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2012. The Recession of 2007–2009. Retrieved from:

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/recession/pdf/recession_bls_spotlight.pdf.

Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2010. “Are Some Emotions Marked ‘Whites Only’? Racialized
Feeling Rules in Professional Workplaces.” Social Problems 57: 251–268.

Wood, Catherine A. 2014. “Unemployment Continued Its Downward Trend in 2013.”

Monthly Labor Review. Retrieved from:
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/unemployment-continued-its-downward-
trend-in-2013.htm.

20
Part I
Conceptual Foundations

21
1
Alienated Labour
Karl Marx

We have proceeded from the premises of political economy. We have accepted its
language and its laws. We presupposed private property, the separation of labor, capital
and land, and of wages, profit of capital and rent of land— likewise division of labor,
competition, the concept of exchange value, etc. On the basis of political economy itself,
in its own words, we have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and
becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker
is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production; that the necessary
result of competition is the accumulation of capital in a few hands, and thus the
restoration of monopoly in a more terrible form; and that finally the distinction between
capitalist and landlord, like that between the farmer and the factory worker, disappears
and that the whole of society must fall apart into the two classes—property owners and
propertyless workers.
Political economy starts with the fact of private property; it does not explain it to us. It
expresses in general, abstract formulas the material process through which private
property actually passes, and these formulas it then takes for laws. It does not
comprehend these laws—i.e., it does not demonstrate how they arise from the very
nature of private property. Political economy throws no light on the cause of the division
between labor and capital, and between capital and land. When, for example, it defines
the relationship of wages to profit, it takes the interest of the capitalists to be the
ultimate cause, i.e., it takes for granted what it is supposed to explain. Similarly,
competition comes in everywhere. It is explained from external circumstances. As to
how far these external and apparently accidental circumstances are but the expression of
a necessary course of development, political economy teaches us nothing. We have seen
how exchange itself appears to it as an accidental fact. The only wheels which political
economy sets in motion are greed, and the war among the greedy, competition.
Precisely because political economy does not grasp the way the movement is
connected, it was possible to oppose, for instance, the doctrine of competition to the
doctrine of monopoly, the doctrine of craft freedom to the doctrine of the guild, the
doctrine of the division of landed property to the doctrine of the big estate. For
competition, freedom of the crafts and the division of landed property were explained
and comprehended only as accidental, premeditated and violent consequences of
monopoly, of the guild system, and of feudal property, not as their necessary, inevitable
and natural consequences.
Now, therefore, we have to grasp the intrinsic connection between private property,

22
greed, the separation of labor, capital and landed property; the connection of exchange
and competition, of value and the devaluation of man, of monopoly and competition, etc.
— the connection between this alienationand the money system.
Do not let us go back to a fictitious primordial condition as the political economist
does, when he tries to explain. Such a primordial condition explains nothing; it merely
pushes the question away into a grey nebulous distance. The economist assumes in the
form of a fact, of an event, what he is supposed to deduce— namely, the necessary
relationship between two things—between, for example, division of labor and exchange.
Thus the theologian explains the origin of evil by the fall of Man—that is, he assumes as
a fact, in historical form, what has to be explained.
We proceed from an actual economic fact:
The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his
production increases in power and size. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity
the more commodities he creates. The devaluation of the world of men is in direct
proportion to the increasing value of the world of things. Labor produces not only
commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity—and this at the same rate
at which it produces commodities in general.
This fact expresses merely that the object which labor produces—labor’s product—
confronts it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer. The product of
labor is labor which has been embodied in an object, which has become material: it is the
objectification of labor. Labor’s realization is its objectification. Under these economic
conditions this realization of labor appears as loss of realization for the workers[1];
objectification as loss of the object and bondage to it; appropriation as estrangement, as
alienation.[2]
So much does the labor’s realization appear as loss of realization that the worker loses
realization to the point of starving to death. So much does objectification appear as loss
of the object that the worker is robbed of the objects most necessary not only for his life
but for his work. Indeed, labor itself becomes an object which he can obtain only with
the greatest effort and with the most irregular interruptions. So much does the
appropriation of the object appear as estrangement that the more objects the worker
produces the less he can possess and the more he falls under the sway of his product,
capital.
All these consequences are implied in the statement that the worker is related to the
product of labor as to an alien object. For on this premise it is clear that the more the
worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes the alien world of objects which he
creates over and against himself, the poorer he himself—his inner world—becomes, the
less belongs to him as his own. It is the same in religion. The more man puts into God,
the less he retains in himself. The worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no
longer belongs to him but to the object. Hence, the greater this activity, the more the
worker lacks objects. Whatever the product of his labor is, he is not. Therefore, the
greater this product, the less is he himself. The alienation of the worker in his product
means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists

23
outside him, independently, as something alien to him, and that it becomes a power on
its own confronting him. It means that the life which he has conferred on the object
confronts him as something hostile and alien.
Let us now look more closely at the objectification, at the production of the worker;
and in it at the estrangement of the object, the loss of his product.
The worker can create nothing without nature, without the sensuous external world. It
is the material on which his labor is realized, in which it is active, from which, and by
means of which it produces.
But just as nature provides labor with [the] means of life in the sense that labor
cannot live without objects on which to operate, on the other hand, it also provides the
means of life in the more restricted sense, i.e., the means for the physical subsistence of
the worker himself.
Thus the more the worker, by his labor, appropriates the external world, sensuous
nature, the more he deprives himself of the means of life in two respects: first, in that the
sensuous external world more and more ceases to be an object belonging to his labor—to
be his labor’s means of life; and, second, in that it increasingly ceases to be a means of
life in the immediate sense, means for the physical subsistence of the worker.
In both respects, therefore, the worker becomes a servant of his object, first, in that he
receives an object of labor, i.e., in that he receives work, and, secondly, in that he receives
means of subsistence. This enables him to exist, first as a worker; and second, as a
physical subject. The height of this servitude is that it is only as a worker that he can
maintain himself as a physical subject and that it is only as a physical subject that he is a
worker.
(According to the economic laws the estrangement of the worker in his object is
expressed thus: the more the worker produces, the less he has to consume; the more
values he creates, the more valueless, the more unworthy he becomes; the better formed
his product, the more deformed becomes the worker; the more civilized his object, the
more barbarous becomes the worker; the more powerful labor becomes, the more
powerless becomes the worker; the more ingenious labor becomes, the less ingenious
becomes the worker and the more he becomes nature’s slave.)
Political economy conceals the alienation inherent in the nature of labor by not
considering the direct relationship between the worker (labor) and production. It is true
that labor produces for the rich wonderful things—but for the worker it produces
privation. It produces palaces—but for the worker, hovels. It produces beauty—but for the
worker, debilitation. It replaces labor by machines, but it throws one section of the
workers back into barbarous types of labor and it turns the other section into machines.
It produces intelligence and culture—but for the worker, stupidity, and idiocy.
The direct relationship of labor to its products is the relationship of the worker to the
objects of his production. The relationship of the individual of means to the objects of
production and to production itself is only a consequence of this first relationship—and
confirms it. We shall consider this other aspect later. When we ask, then, what is the
essential relationship of labor we are asking about the relationship of the worker to

24
production.
Till now we have been considering, the alienation of the worker only in one of its
aspects, i.e., the worker’s relationship to the products of his labor. But the estrangement
is manifested not only in the result but in the act of production, within the producing
activity, itself. How could the worker come to face the product of his activity as a
stranger, were it not that in the very act of production he was estranging himself from
himself? The product is after all but the summary of the activity, of production. If then
the product of labor is alienation, production itself must be active alienation, the
alienation of activity, the activity of alienation. In the estrangement of the object of labor
is merely the summary of the alienation, in the activity of labor itself.
What, then, constitutes the externalization and alienation of labor?
First, the fact that labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his intrinsic
nature; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does
not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but
mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside
his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He feels at home when he is not
working, and when he is working he does not feel at home. His labor is therefore not
voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labor. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is
merely a means to satisfy needs external to it. Its alien character emerges clearly in the
fact that as soon as no physical or other compulsion exists, labor is shunned like the
plague. External labor, labor in which man alienates himself, is a labor of self- sacrifice,
of mortification. Lastly, the external character of labor for the worker appears in the fact
that it is not his own, but someone else’s, that it does not belong to him, that in it he
belongs, not to himself, but to another. Just as in religion the spontaneous activity of the
human imagination, of the human brain and the human heart, operates on the individual
independently of him—that is, operates as an alien, divine or diabolical activity—so is the
worker’s activity not his spontaneous activity. It belongs to another; it is the loss of his
self.
As a result, therefore, man (the worker) only feels himself freely active in his animal
functions—eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling and in his dress.; and
in his human functions he no longer feels himself to be anything but an animal. What is
animal becomes human and what is human becomes animal.
Certainly eating, drinking, procreating, etc., are also genuinely human functions. But
taken abstractly, separated from the sphere of all other human activity and turned into
sole and ultimate ends, they are animal functions.
We have considered the act of estranging practical human activity, labor, in two of its
aspects.
(1) The relation of the worker to the product of labor as an alien object exercising
power over him. This relation is at the same time the relation to the sensuous external
world, to the objects of nature, as an alien world inimically opposed to him.
(2) The relation of labor to the act of production within the labor process. This relation
is the relation of the worker to his own activity as an alien activity not belonging to him;

25
it is activity as suffering, strength as weakness, begetting as emasculating, the worker’s
own physical and mental energy, his personal life—for what is life but activity?—as an
activity which is turned against him, independent of him and not belonging to him. Here
we have self-alienation, as previously we had the alienation of the thing.

We have still a third aspect of estranged labor to deduce from the two already
considered.
Man is a species-being[3], not only because in practice and in theory he adopts the
species (his own as well as those of other things) as his object, but—and this is only
another way of expressing it—also because he treats himself as the actual, living species;
because he treats himself as a universal and therefore a free being.
The life of the species, both in man and in animals, consists physically in the fact that
man (like the animal) lives from inorganic nature; and the more universal man (or the
animal) is, the more universal is the sphere of inorganic nature on which he lives. Just as
plants, animals, stones, air, light, etc., constitute theoretically a part of human
consciousness, partly as objects of natural science, partly as objects of art—his spiritual
inorganic nature, spiritual nourishment which he must first prepare to make palatable
and digestible—so also in the realm of practice they constitute a part of human life and
human activity. Physically man lives only on these products of nature, whether they
appear in the form of food, heating, clothes, a dwelling, etc. The universality of man
appears in practice precisely in the universality which makes all nature his inorganic
body—both inasmuch as nature is (1) his direct means of life, and (2) the material, the
object, and the instrument of his life activity. Nature is man’s inorganic body—nature,
that is, insofar as it is not itself human body. Man lives on nature— means that nature is
his body, with which he must remain in continuous interchange if he is not to die. That
man’s physical and spiritual life is linked to nature means simply that nature is linked to
itself, for man is a part of nature.
In estranging from man (1) nature, and (2) himself, his own active functions, his life
activity, estranged labor estranges the species from man. It changes for him the life of the
species into a means of individual life. First it estranges the life of the species and
individual life, and secondly it makes individual life in its abstract form the purpose of
the life of the species, likewise in its abstract and alienated form.
For labor, life activity, productive life itself, appears to man in the first place merely as
a means of satisfying a need—the need to maintain physical existence. Yet the productive
life is the life of the species. It is life- engendering life. The whole character of a species,
its species-character, is contained in the character of its life activity; and free, conscious
activity is man’s species- character. Life itself appears only as a means to life.
The animal is immediately one with its life activity. It does not distinguish itself from
it. It is its life activity. Man makes his life activity itself the object of his will and of his
consciousness. He has conscious life activity. It is not a determination with which he
directly merges. Conscious life activity distinguishes man immediately from animal life
activity. It is just because of this that he is a species-being. Or it is only because he is a

26
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Title: The alligator and its allies

Author: A. M. Reese

Release date: December 30, 2023 [eBook #72548]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

ALLIGATOR AND ITS ALLIES ***
 Please see the Transcriber’s Notes
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New original cover art included with
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Copyright, 1907, by Doubleday, Page & Company

Alligator Mississippiensis. (After Ditmars.)
(Reproduced by Permission of Doubleday, Page & Company.)
 The
Alligator and Its Allies

By

Albert M. Reese, Ph.D.

Professor of Zoölogy in West Virginia University
Author of “An Introduction to Vertebrate Embryology”

With 62 Figures and 28 Plates

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1915
 Copyright, 1915
BY

ALBERT M. REESE
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
 PREFACE
he purpose of this volume is to bring together, in convenient
T form for the use of students of zoölogy, some of the more
important details of the biology, anatomy, and development of
the Crocodilia. For obvious reasons the American Alligator is the
species chiefly used.
In the first chapter the discussion of the alligator is largely the
result of the personal observations of the author; the facts in regard
to the less familiar forms are taken from Ditmars and others. The
description of the skeleton, with the exception of short quotations
from Reynolds, is the author’s.
The chapter on the muscular system is a translation from Bronn’s
Thierreich, and the author has not verified the descriptions of that
writer.
The description of the nervous system is partly the author’s and
partly taken from Bronn and others.
The chapters on the digestive, urogenital, respiratory, and vascular
systems are practically all from descriptions by the author.
The chapter on “The Development of the Alligator” is a reprint, with
slight alterations, of the paper of that title published for the author by
the Smithsonian Institution.
The bibliography, while not complete, will be found to contain most
of the important works dealing with this group of reptiles.
The author is grateful to Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars and to his
publishers, Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co., and Messrs. Sturgis &
Walton, for the use of a number of plates; to the Macmillan Company
and to the United States Bureau of Fish and Fisheries for the same
privilege; to the National Museum for photographs of the skull of the
gavial; and to the Smithsonian Institution for the use of the plates
from researches published by them and included herein.
Proper acknowledgment is made, under each borrowed figure, to
the author from whom it is taken.
Morgantown, W. Va.
May 1, 1915.
 CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I
The Biology of the Crocodilia 1
CHAPTER II
The Skeleton 46
CHAPTER III
The Muscles 90
CHAPTER IV
The Nervous System 131
CHAPTER V
The Digestive System 150
CHAPTER VI
The Urogenital System 192
CHAPTER VII
The Respiratory System 197
CHAPTER VIII
The Vascular System 201
CHAPTER IX
The Development of the Alligator 226
Bibliography 343
Index 349
 ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
Alligator Mississippiensis. (In color.) Frontispiece
FIGURE
A. Skull of Belodon 5
1. Map Showing the Present
Distribution of Crocodilia 6
2. Heads of American Alligator and
Crocodile Facing 7
3. Alligator Joe in the Everglades Facing 10
4. Alligator Hunter in the
Okefinokee Facing 10
5. Nest of C. Porosus Facing 21
6. Jackson Slough Facing 21
7. A Typical Alligator Hole Facing 23
8. Alligator Nest, Made Chiefly of
Grass Facing 25
9. Alligator Nest, Made Chiefly of
Flags Facing 27
10. Two Species of Caiman: Broad-
Nosed Caiman, Spectacled
Caiman Facing 35
11. Two African Crocodiles: Nile
Crocodile, West African
Crocodile Facing 39
12. Salt Water Crocodile Facing 41
13. Skull of Gavial, Ventral View Facing 43
14. Skull of Gavial, Lateral View Facing 43
15. Alligator Skins Facing 46
16. Entire Skeleton of Crocodile 50
 17. First Four Cervical Vertebræ of 52
Crocodile
18. Thoracic and Sacral Vertebræ of
Crocodile 55
19. Dorsal View of Skull of
Alligator Facing 60
20. Ventral View of Skull of
Alligator Facing 63
20A. Longitudinal Section of Tooth of
Crocodile Facing 66
21. Lateral View of Skull of
Alligator 69
22. Posterior View of Skull of
Alligator Facing 70
23. Sagittal Section of the Skull of
Alligator 71
24. Dorsal View of Lower Jaw of
Alligator Facing 74
25. The Hyoid Apparatus 77
26. The Sternum and the Associated
Membrane Bones 79
27. The Pectoral Girdle and
Anterior Limb 82
28. The Pelvis and Sacrum 85
29. The Posterior Limb 87
I. Plate I. The Shoulder Muscles Following 130
II. Plate II. The Muscles of the
Anterior Region Following 130
III. Plate III. The Muscles of the
Posterior Region Following 130
IV. Plate IV. The Muscles of the
Posterior Region Following 130
V. Plate V. The Muscles of the
Posterior Region Following 130
30. The Brain of the Alligator Facing 132
31. The Brachial Plexus of C. Acutus 140
32. The Crural Plexus of A.
Mississippiensis 142
33. Interior of the Mouth of the
Alligator Facing 151
34. The Digestive System of the
Alligator 152
35. Outline of the Digestive Tract of
the Alligator 158
36. Covering of the Anterior Region
of the Tongue 160
37. Covering of the Posterior
Region of the Tongue 161
38. Gland from the Posterior Region
of the Tongue 162
39. Gland from the Posterior Region
of the Tongue 164
40. Covering of the Roof of the
Mouth 166
41. Transsection of the Anterior
Region of the Œsophagus 169
42. Transsection of the Posterior
Region of the Œsophagus 170
43. Epithelium of Anterior Region of
Œsophagus 172
44. Epithelium of Anterior Region of
Œsophagus 173
45. Transsection of Wall of Pyloric
Stomach 176
46. Glands of Fundus of Stomach 177
47. Transsection of Wall of Anterior
Region of Small Intestine 181
48. Transsection of Wall of Middle
Region of Small Intestine 182
49. Transsection of Wall of 183
 Posterior Region of Small
Intestine
50. Mucosa of the Anterior Region
of Small Intestine 184
51. Transsection of the Wall of the
Middle Region of the Small
Intestine 185
52. Transsection of the Wall of the
Anterior Region of the Rectum 186
53. Epithelium of the Anterior
Region of the Rectum 187
54. Female Urogenital System of
Alligator 193
55. Male Urogenital System of
Alligator Facing 195
56. Male Organ of Alligator Facing 195
57. Respiratory Organs of Alligator 198
58. Heart of Alligator Facing 202
59. Veins of the Posterior Region of
Alligator 204
60. Veins of the Anterior Region of
the Alligator 209
61. Arteries of the Posterior Region
of the Alligator 213
62. Arteries of the Anterior Region
of the Alligator 215
VI.-XXVIII. Plates VI to XXVIII. A Series of
Figures to Illustrate the
Development of the American
Alligator Following 342
THE ALLIGATOR AND
ITS ALLIES
 CHAPTER I
THE BIOLOGY OF THE CROCODILIA

Classification
s in most groups of animals, there is considerable difference of
A opinion as to the proper classification of the Crocodilia.
One of the older textbooks (Claus and Sedgwick) divides
the order Crocodilia into three sub-orders: the Teleosauria,
Steneosauria, and Procœlia, the last only being represented by living
forms. The Procœlia or Crocodilia proper are divided into three
families,—the Crocodilidæ, the Alligatoridæ (including the caiman as
well as the alligator), and the Gavialidæ.
This division into families seems to be based mainly on the shape
of the head, or, at any rate, it throws those forms together that have
heads of the same outline.
It is this outline of the head that Ditmars (Reptiles of the World)
uses in classifying the Crocodilia, which, he says, are all included in
the single family—Crocodilidæ. The following list, taken from his
Reptiles of the World (pp. 68-69), will give a clear idea of the
number, distribution, and maximum size of the members of the order
Crocodilia. More will be said of some of the members of this list later.

Max.
Habitat Size
A. Snout extremely long and slender, extending from
the head like the handle of a frying pan
Gavialis gangeticus, Indian Gavial Northern India 30 ft.
Tomistoma schlegeli, Malayan Gavial Borneo and Sumatra 15 ft.
B. Snout very sharp and slender; of triangular outline
Crocodilus cataphractus, Sharp-nosed W. Africa 12 ft.
Crocodile
 Crocodilus johnstoni, Australian Crocodile Australia 6-8 ft.
Crocodilus intermedius, Orinoco Crocodile Venezuela 12 ft.
C. Snout moderately sharp; outline distinctly
triangular
Crocodilus americanus, American Crocodile Fla.; Mexico; Central 14 ft.
and S. America
Crocodilus siamensis, Siamese Crocodile Siam; Java 7 ft.
Crocodilus niloticus, Nile Crocodile Africa generally 16 ft.
Crocodilus porosus, Salt-water Crocodile India and Malasia 20 ft.
D. Snout more oval; bluntly triangular
Crocodilus robustus, Madagascar Crocodile Madagascar 30 ft.
Crocodilus rhombiferus, Cuban Crocodile Cuba only 7 ft.
Crocodilus moreletti, Guatemala Crocodile Guatemala; 7 ft.
Honduras
E. Snout short and broad; conformation barely
suggesting a triangular outline
Crocodilus palustris, Swamp Crocodile India and Malasia 12 ft.
Osteolæmus tetrapis, Broad-nosed Crocodile W. Africa 6 ft.
D′. Outline of head similar to that of Section D
Caiman trigonotus, Rough-backed Caiman Upper Amazon 6 ft.
Caiman sclerops, Spectacled Caiman Central and S. 7-8 ft.
America
Caiman palpebrosus, Banded Caiman Tropical South 7-8 ft.
America
F. Snout very broad; bluntly rounded at tip
Caiman latirostris,[1] Round-nosed Caiman Tropical South 7-8 ft.
America
Caiman niger,[2] Black Caiman Tropical South 20 ft.
America
Alligator mississippiensis, American Alligator Southeastern United 16 ft.
States
Alligator sinensis, Chinese Alligator China 6 ft.

[1] These species are exceptions in their genus. The snout is blunt like that
of the genus Alligator.
[2] Alleged to grow to this size by competent observers.
 Gadow in the Cambridge Natural History (p. 450) agrees with
Boulanger in believing that the recent Crocodilia cannot be
separated into different families, yet he describes seven families of
Crocodilia, two of which, the Gavialidæ and Crocodilidæ, include the
living members of the order; the former includes the gavials, of
course, and the latter the crocodiles, alligators, and caimans.
Though “doctors disagree” thus in regard to the scientific
classification of this small group of animals, this fact does not in the
least diminish the intense interest in the individual members of the
order.

Ancestry
Although the huge dragon-like dinosaurs or “terrible reptiles,”
some of which were probably more than one hundred feet long,
became extinct during the Mesozoic epoch, perhaps millions of
years before man made his appearance upon earth, we have one
group of reptiles still living in certain parts of the earth of which the
Mesozoic lords of creation need not feel ashamed. While most of the
living Crocodilia are mere pigmies in size, compared to the
Atlantosaurus, there are a few representatives of the living group, to
be discussed later, that are said to reach a length of thirty feet, which
length makes pigmies, in turn, of most of the other living reptiles.
Considering the extinct as well as the living Crocodilia, Gadow
says it is very difficult to separate them from the Dinosauria. In the
Mesozoic Crocodilia the fore limbs were much shorter and weaker
than the hind limbs, as was often the case with the dinosaurs; they
were almost entirely marine, but gave indications of descent from
terrestrial forms.
Various facts point, thinks Gadow, “to some Theropodous
Dinosaurian stock of which the Crocodilia may well form an aquatic,
further developed branch” (Cambridge Natural History, p. 432).
 Skull of Belodon. A, from above; B, from below. A, orbit; Bo, basi-occipital; Ch,
internal nares; D, pre-orbital fossa; Exo. exoccipital; Fr. frontal; Ju. jugal; La.
lacrymal; Mx. maxilla; Na. nasal; Pa. parietal; Pl. palatine; Pmx. pre-maxilla; Por.
post-orbital; Prf. pre-frontal; Pt. pterygoid; Qu. quadrate; S, lateral temporal
fossa; S′, superior temporal fossa; Sq. squamosal; Vo. vomer. (From Zittel.)