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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Taboo and genetics, a study of the biolo... (by Knight, Melvin Moses)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Structure of Social Action; A Study ... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)

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

What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Taboo and genetics, a study of the biolo... (by Knight, Melvin Moses)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Structure of Social Action; A Study ... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Ten Days in a Madhouse (by Bly, Nellie)
Psychological Types or the Psychology of... (by C. G. Jung)
Criminal Psychology (by Gross, Hans)
Memories Dreams Reflections (by C. G. Jung)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
Dream Psychology : Psychoanalysis for Be... (by Sigmund Freud)
Quit Your Worrying! (by George Wharton James)
Fantasia of the Unconscious (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism (by Silberer, Herbert)
Why Worry? (by George Lincoln Walton)
Psychologie de L'Éducation (by Gustave Le Bon)
The Secret Places of the Heart (by Wells, Herbert George (H. G.))
Freud and the Scientific Method (by Rosenfels, Paul)
Malignant Self Love (by Vaknin, Sam)
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (by Sigmund Freud)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Abolition of Poverty (by Hollander, Jacob Harry)
The Morality of Capitalism
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Rober... (by Ricardo, David)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Autobiography of Mother Jones, The (by Jones, Mary Harris)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
Essays on Political Economy (by Frédéric Bastiat)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Woman under Capitalism (by Tichenor, Henry Mulford)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)

Top 100 books on Government

Laws (by Plato)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Declaration of Arbroath
The Constitutional History of the United... (by Cocke, William Archer)
Observations on the Importance of the Am... (by Richard Price)
Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
A Plea for Religious Liberty and the Rig... (by George Ticknor Curtis)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Of the Law of Nature and Nations : Eight... (by Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr Von)
Lao-Tzu : A Study in Chinese Philosophy (by Watters, Thomas)
Polybii Historiae (by Polybius)
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (by Adam Ferguson)
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Discourses Concerning Government Volume 1 (by Sidney, Algernon)

Top 100 books on Law

The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
Nuclear proliferation : future U.S. fore... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Inter...)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Bracton's Note Book. A Collection of Cas... Volume Vol. 1 (by Great Britain. Courts)
Codex Hammurabi (by Hammurabi, King of Balonia)
Confucianism (by Anonymous)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
The Usa Patriot Act: A Legal Analysis (by Doyle, Charles)
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall ... (by Melville, Herman)
Codification, Annotation, And Revision o... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Revis...)
Translation of the Law of Criminal Proce... (by Cuba)
Constitution of the New-England Anti-Sla... (by Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
Crs Report for Congress Received through... (by Doyle, Charles)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
The Wealth Of Nations (by Adam_Smith)
Proposed Roads to Freedom : Socialism, A... (by Russell, Bertrand)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
Reflections on the Revolution in France (by Burke, Edmund)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
Souls of Black Folk, The (by Du Bois, W.E.B.)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
Uncle Tom's cabin : or, Life among the l... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
History of the Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

International Catalogue of Scientific Li... (by Royal Society, Great Britain)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
The American Beaver and His Works (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 06 Part 0... Volume Vol. 06 Part 04 (by American Anthropological Association)
The Gift; Forms and Functions of Exchang... (by Mauss, Marcel)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Ridgeway, William, Sir)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Man from the Farthest Past : Volume 7 (by Bishop, Carl Whiting)
The Great Rift Valley : Being the Narrat... (by Gregory, John Walter)
Traditions of the Tinguian; A Study in P... (by Cole, Fay Cooper)
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)