SSU 1023

Basics of Anthropology &

Sociology
Pioneers in Socio-
cultural thoughts
 This week…

Pioneers in Socio-cultural thoughts

 Lewis Henry Morgan
 Edward B. Tylor
 Auguste Comte
 Karl Marx
 Herbert Spencer
 Emile Durkheim
 Max Weber
 In the 19th century the discipline
of Anthropology was formally
instituted.
 Founding fathers:
 Edward Burnett Tylor – University
Reader at Oxford, 1884
 Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) –
lawyer turned ethnographer
 Anthropology was intended to be a
true science that applied natural
sciences methodology to the study
of human society
 Progression of human
society/culture:
evolutionary/unilinear – barbarism
to savagery to civilisation
 Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

 Coined the term “sociology” (1838)

 Latin socius (companion, associate) +
Greek logia (study) = sociology
 Sought to create a science of society
that could explain laws of the social
world – apply rigorous scientific
methods to study society
 His own sociological scheme was
typical of the 19th century; he
believed all human life had passed
through the same distinct historical
stages and that, if one could grasp
this progress, one could prescribe
the remedies for social ills.
Comte’s was suspicious of individuality, believed
in the redemptive qualities of society.
According to Comte, progress is a result of social
order. Supported order, hierarchy, spirituality,
social supremacy over the individual.

What is Social order?

Social structures/institutions/practices which
directly or indirectly control individual behaviour
 Comte & Positivism

Comte’s vision for sociology was influenced by

Positivism: science should be concerned only with
observable entities that are known directly to
experience
 Society operates under its own laws
A positivist approach to sociology believes in the
production of knowledge about society based on
empirical evidence drawn from observation,
comparison and experimentation
 Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Witnessed the inequalities

that resulted from the
growth of factories and
industrial production
Analysed and criticised
industrial capitalism
Most of his work
concentrated on economic
issues – connects
economic problems to
social institutions
 Marx: Theory of class & class conflict

Class = “any aggregate of persons who perform the

same function in the organisation of production”
Class is not determined by occupation or income
but by the position an individual occupies and the
function performed in the process of production

Example:
Two carpenters.
One shop owner, the other his paid worker.
Do they belong to the same class?
Why?
 Marx: Theory of class & class conflict

Marx’s ideas contrast sharply with those of

Comte
Thought of society as an area where different
groups struggle and compete for survival and
improved livelihood, and generated social
change
For Marx, “The history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggles” (The
Communist Manifesto)
 Marx: Alienation

ALIENATION: refers to feelings of indifference and

hostility not only to work, but to the overall
framework of industrial production within capitalist
setting
Speculated that the development of modern industry
would reduce many people’s work to dull,
uninteresting tasks
Division of labour alienates human being from their
work
 Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Unlike Comte, who used the

term “progress”, Spencer
used “evolution”: because
“progress” carries an
anthropocentric meaning
Argued that man does best
when not artificially interfered
with  the best government
is one that governs least

How is this different from

Comte’s opinion?
1859: Darwin publishes The Origin of Species,
which Spencer adopted and praised
Spencer coined the term “survival of the fittest”
(1864): the conquest of one people over another has
been the conquest of the social over the anti-social,
the more adapted over the least adapted
Spencer was a firm believer in the scientific study of
society:
“There can be no complete acceptance of sociology so long as the
belief in a social order not conforming to natural laws
survives”
Individualism
 Comte (social) vs Spencer (individual)
 Society is merely a vehicle for the advancement of a
individual’s purposes

“There is no way of coming at a true theory of society,

but by inquiring into the nature of its component
individuals – Every phenomenon exhibited by an
aggregation of men originates in some quality
of man himself”
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Is regarded as the first real
practitioner in the science of
society
Also the first Professor of
Sociology (Sorbonne)
Major theories:
 Social Facts
 Social Solidarity
 Mechanical
 Organic
 Anomie
 Etc etc….(Suicide, Theory of religion,
Morality, Crime & Punishment)
 Durkheim: Social Facts

Social fact = an external social power that controls

people’s behaviour
Examples of social facts:
 The state of the economy
 Family and religious observances
 Public morality
First principle of sociology: “study social facts as things” 
means, social life could be analysed as rigorously as objects or
events in nature
“Things” = empirical phenomena, not concept
The study of social facts – instead of studying individuals,
sociology should examine aspects of social life that shape our
actions as individuals
 Durkheim: Social Solidarity
Two types of solidarity:

Mechanical solidarity
 Traditional cultures with low division of labour are characterised by
mechanical solidarity
 Communities are uniformed: Most members of society are involved in
similar occupations, have similar values
 Bound together by common experience and shared beliefs

Organic solidarity
 Division of labour, specialisation of tasks and individualism would lead
to organic solidarity
 Society is held together by economic interdependence
 Relationships of economic reciprocity and mutual dependency would
replace shared beliefs in creating social consensus
 Durkheim: Anomie
Organic solidarity is a product of the industrial era
An optimistic view: Specialisation would strengthen social
solidarity (Functionalism!)

However, Durkheim was also aware of the potential harmful

effects:
 Social solidarity could be disrupted if change occurred too rapidly. ???
 Sense of normlessness = Anomie
In modern societies, traditional norms and standards are
undermined without being replaced by new ones.
Anomie exists when there are no clear standards to guide
behaviour in social life.
Durkheim: when anomie occurs, people feel disoriented and
anxious.
 linked anomie to suicide (crime and deviance…to be discussed later in the
semester).
 Max Weber (1864-1920)

Major theories:
 Study of social action
 Rationalization
 Bureaucracy
 Sociology of religion
 Weber: Study of Social Action

Sociologists should focus on social action, not

structures
Human motivation/ideas were the forces behind
change – ideas, values and beliefs had the power to
bring about transformation
As opposed to Marx and Durkheim, who believed
that structures existed external to or independent of
individuals
 Weber: Rationalization

With the emergence of modern society, people were moving

away from traditional beliefs (superstition, religion,
custom)  (social action!)
Instead, people were increasingly engaging in
rationalization that took into account efficiency and future
consequences.
Rationalization: the organization of social and economic life
according to principles of efficiency and on the basis of
technical knowledge
 Development of science
 Development of modern technology
 Development of bureaucracy
According to Weber, evidence of trend towards
rationalization:
 Industrial Revolution
 Rise of capitalism
Capitalism is not dominated by class conflict as Marx
believed, but by the rise of science and bureaucracy
(the only way of organising large numbers of people
effectively)

Is there a drawback to rationalization?

Weber: Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy = a means by
which a government rule
Weber was fearful of the
potentially suffocating and
dehumanizing effects of
bureaucracy and its
implication for the fate of
democracy
A highly bureaucratic
social order = “iron
cage” in which people are
trapped!
 Weber: sociology of religion

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

(1930)
Weber noticed that Protestants possessed more
wealth than other religious groups, notably Catholics
is there any connection between
Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism?
Weber was also interested in the other religion of
the world. Whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam
etc. hindered or facilitated the development of
capitalism. ????
END