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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Taboo and genetics, a study of the biolo... (by Knight, Melvin Moses)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)

Organizing Relationships: A Sociology Exhibit

Many disciplines beyond Sociology, such as Mathematics and Psychology and Economics, are utilized in the Social Sciences. In our Collections under these and other topics, contain hundreds of titles by writers and theorists who have dedicated to their lives to the study of human society. Featured books in the following collections include Herbert Spencer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Talcott Parsons and David Emile Durkheim.

Sociology of Past Power Structures

Throughout history, all sub-disciplines of Sociology, as well and religious and government groups have been studied and experimented with different methods of social organization of population. Sometimes, these attempts at social definitions and control have been tempered, but at other times, rigid – some men have use groups for their own gain. Ultimately, however, if social organization is to be implemented, it has to be understood.

From the beginning of time, both men and animals have used verbal and non-verbal cues and strategies to enforce hierarchy. With chimpanzees, it is the Alpha Male. With men: Domesday Books, mathematics and accounting, psychology and linguistics. The word “organization” is derived from the Greek word organon, which means "organ." Therefore, studies of how groups of people (with a common goal) structure themselves, is the study of mankind and its relationships as a collective.

The Domesday Book, created under the reign of William the Conqueror, has been studied to understand the role of documentation in asserting authority and also to facilitate taxation. According to Young Folks’ History of England, William the Conqueror was a Norman who conquered England. In 1086, he ordered the documentation of land, livestock and taxes under the administration of the previous rulers, to find out what would be transferred over to Norman rule. Whatever was recorded in the Domesday book could not be appealed. The data that William the Conqueror collected into the Domesday book revealed his tendency for control. In the book titled, William the Conqueror, it is said that “William would not set...over any part of his dominions before his time, and it was his policy to keep his children dependent on him. While he enriched his brothers, he did not give the smallest scrap of the spoils of England to his sons” (William the Conqueror, World Heritage Encyclopedia). Robert, his son, was angry about this and fought his father in a battle, but later asked for his pardon. Today, the Domesday Books is considered an artifact of sociological research. Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886 examines how this document changed the course of history in the United Kingdom (Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886, Edward P. Dove).

Debates in Defining Sociology

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet was a 19th-Century Belgian mathematician, statistician and sociologist who introduced statistical methods into the social sciences. He assigned variables to the complexity of social phenomena, in order to measure the statistical laws underlying crime, marriage or suicide rates. Other scientists thought his ideas were controversial because it contradicted freedom of choice (“Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

The author of Adolphe Quetelet, A Statistician discusses Auguste Comte as another researcher of social physics and sociology, but that Quetelet invented the method of investigation for “social physics” (Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician, Frank Hamilton Hawkins). So Comte reinvented the term sociologie (sociology) to differentiate it from Quetelet’s collection of statistics (“Adolphe Quetelet,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Comte believed that there was an order of nature, not of man, which could be scientifically understood by unifying history, psychology and economics. Social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, or using a broader philosophy that methodologically orders scientific observations (Outlines of Sociology, Lester Frank Ward). In this book, Ward writes Comte’s use of the term “hierarchy” did not imply subordination. “There is genetic affiliation without subordination. The more complex and less exact sciences may be regarded as the children of the more simple and exact ones, but between parent and offspring there is no difference or rank.” Additionally, he wrote that Comte “laid the foundations for understanding the more complex sciences by acquainting himself with the simpler ones upon which the other sciences successively rest” (Outlines of Sociology, Lester Frank Ward). Other social scientists like Karl Marx also mixed scientific methods to measure social impacts of industrialization occurring in Europe, documented in his work Wage Labour and Capital ("Wage Labour and Capital," Karl Marx).

Studying Social Life

David Émile Durkheim was a 19th century French sociologist who believed that sociology should study phenomena attributed to society at large, rather than being limited to the specific actions of individuals. Barbara Anne Mendheim however, applied sociology differently in The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom. She writes that people gain knowledge of the social world by identifying typicality and finding language to order their social experience. For example, girls understand that being a girl means being personally relevant and intimate with other people. Boys understand being a boy through being powerful and competent in the world (The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom, Barbara Anne Mendheim). However, in Woman: Her Charm and Power, Robert Downes uses sociological methods to explore how women in Egyptian and Iranian society were given opportunity for education and in leadership. But in Roman culture, women’s roles were to birth children. Women’s positions in society are influenced by the dominant culture’s definition of their functions and role in society (Woman: Her Charm and Power, Robert Downes).

Sociology has also been used to study group relations. Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism discusses how entrepreneurs used religion to spread the system of capitalism. By tapping into religious belief systems, he proffered, people could work toward their profit making motive.

Works Cited

"August Compte." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

“David Émile Durkheim.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"Domesday Book." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Dove, P. Edward. "Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886." London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1886.

Downes, Robert. Woman: Her Charm and Power. London: The Epworth Press, 1900.

Hawkins, Frank Hamilton. Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician. New York: Columbia University Press, 1877.

“Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Marx, Karl. "Wage Labour and Capital." Neue Rheinische Zeitung, April 1849. Reproduced: World Public Library, 2002. Web.

Mendheim, Barbara Anne. The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom. Diss. University of Florida, 1979.

“Norman People.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"Sociology." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Ward, Lester Frank. Outlines of Sociology. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1921.

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Scribner, 1930

“William the Conqueror.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Yonge, Charlotte Mary. Young Folks’ History of England. Boston: Estes and Lauriet, 1879.

Sociology Collections

"Organizing Relationships: A Sociology Exhibit" demonstrates how sociological methods have been used to study the configuration of power, through documentation, analysis of order, and social effects. Sociology brings together different methods of thinking, to understand the complexity of society more accurately, and why we should always be vigilant of power.

Learn more about how the discipline of sociology is used, in these collections:

Top 100 books on Sociology

Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Taboo and genetics, a study of the biolo... (by Knight, Melvin Moses)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of th... (by Bergson, Henri)
The Nervous Housewife (by Myerson, Abraham)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)
The Elements of Psychology (by Edward Lee Thorndike)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
Studies in Forensic Psychiatry (by Glueck, Bernard)
Animal Intelligence : Experimental Studi... (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
The Psychology of Arithmetic (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
Applied Psychology for Nurses (by Mary F. Porter)
Why Worry? (by George Lincoln Walton)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Cumulative Record (by Skinner, B. F.)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psych... (by American Psychological Association)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)
The Economics of Welfare (by Pigou, Arthur Cecil)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
Communism in the United States (by Browder, Earl Russell)
Woman under Capitalism (by Tichenor, Henry Mulford)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Rober... (by Ricardo, David)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)

Top 100 books on Government

The Constitution of the United States (by United States. Constitution)
Select Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero (by Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Assize of Arms
The Rights of the British Colonies Asser... (by Otis, James)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
A Treatise on Political Economy : Or the... (by Jean Baptiste Say)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
Politics Aristotle (by Ross, W. D.)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
An Introduction to the Principles of Mor... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
Britton (by Francis Morgan Nichols)
The Charlotte Town Resolves (by Charlotte Town Committee)
Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
The Works of Aristotle : Volume 12 (by Aristotle)
The Declaration of Arbroath

Top 100 books on Law

The Republic of Cicero (by Marcus Tullius Cicero)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Crime and Punishment (by Doestoevski, Feodor)
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Changing Boundaries of Law Enforcement :... (by Mcdonald, William F.)
A Law Dictionary : Adapted to the Consti... (by Bouvier, John)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
North American Free-Trade Agreement (Naf... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Ways ...)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Na... (by Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Soci... (by Corey, Lewis)
Capital : A Critique of Political Econom... (by Marx, Karl)
Apology of Socrates, The (by Plato)
The Human Condition : Volume 5 (by Arendt, Hannah)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
History of the Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)
Traditions of the Tinguian; A Study in P... (by Cole, Fay Cooper)
The Fijians : A Study of the Decay of Cu... (by Thomson, Basil)
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
The Andaman Islanders; a Study in Social... (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald), 1881-195...)
Adolescence : Its Psychology and Its Rel... Volume Vol. 1 (by Hall, Granville Stanley)
Boas Anniversary Volume; Anthropological... (by Laufer, Berthold)
An Anthropologist's Life in the Twentiet... (by Foster, George Mcclelland)
African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald))
Pedagogical Anthropology (by Montessori, Maria)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Ridgeway, William, Sir)
Kon Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft (by Thor Heyerdahl)
The Gift; Forms and Functions of Exchang... (by Mauss, Marcel)
The Great Rift Valley : Being the Narrat... (by Gregory, John Walter)