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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Six Thousand Country Churches (by Gill, Charles Otis)
The Young Man's Guide (by Alcott, William Andrus)
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Civic Education : Sociological Foundatio... (by David Snedden)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)

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

Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Six Thousand Country Churches (by Gill, Charles Otis)
The Young Man's Guide (by Alcott, William Andrus)
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Civic Education : Sociological Foundatio... (by David Snedden)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Psychopathology of Everyday Life (by Freud, Sigmund)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Adolescence Its Psychology Volume-Ii (by G. Stanley Hall)
Mind and Motion and Monism (by Romanes, George John)
Dora an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (by Sigmund Freud)
Totem and Taboo (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
Memories Dreams Reflections (by C. G. Jung)
Self Mastery through Conscious Autosugge... (by Coue, Emile)
The Nervous Housewife (by Myerson, Abraham)
Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Supreme Personality (by Croft, Delmer Eugene)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Freud and the Scientific Method (by Rosenfels, Paul)

Top 100 books on Economics

Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (by De Tocqueville, Alexis)
The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
The Acquisitive Society (by Tawney, Richard Henry)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
On Liberty (by John Stuart Mill)
The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovak... (by Josef Korbel)
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (First E... (by Smith, Adam)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The Trade Unions : An Appeal to the Work... (by Robert Somers)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Nature and Progress of Rent (by Malthus, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Government

Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
Communist Manifesto, The (by Marx, Karl)
The Petition of Right (by Relf, Frances Helen)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Columbia Law Review (by Columbia University. School of Law)
The moral crusader, William Lloyd Garris... (by Smith, Goldwin)
The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts : Rep... (by Massachusetts)
Polybii Historiae (by Polybius)
Lao-Tzu : A Study in Chinese Philosophy (by Watters, Thomas)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)

Top 100 books on Law

Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
Immigration Laws and Regulations. August... (by United States. Laws, Statutes, Etc)
Americans in Eastern Asia; A Critical St... (by Dennett, Tyler)
Your Right to Federal Records Questions ...
A Law Dictionary : Adapted to the Consti... (by Bouvier, John)
Extraterritorial Cases, Including the De... Volume Vol. 1 (by United States. Court for China)
North American Free-Trade Agreement (Naf... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Ways ...)
The Relations between the Laws of Babylo... (by Johns, Claude Hermann Walter)
Crs Report for Congress Received through... (by Doyle, Charles)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
The Path of the Law (by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Democracy in America (by Tocqueville, Alexis De)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Twelve Caesars (by Tranquillus, Gaius, Suetonius)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (by Henry, Patrick)
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedien... (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Republic (by Plato)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
Politics Aristotle (by Ross, W. D.)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The Journal of the Anthropological Insti... (by Royal Anthropological Institute)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
The American Indian: An Introduction to ... (by Clark Wissler)
The Fijians : A Study of the Decay of Cu... (by Thomson, Basil)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
American Anthropologist (by American Anthropological Association)
Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Crime, Its Causes and Remedies (by Lombroso, Cesare)
The Great Rift Valley : Being the Narrat... (by Gregory, John Walter)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
The Positive School of Criminology (by Ferri, Enrico)
The History of Mankind Volume: v.3 (by Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904)
Frederick Webb Hodge, Ethnologist : Tran... (by Hodge, Frederick Webb)