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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Li... (by Durkheim, Emile)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Theories of Social Progress, A Critical ... (by Todd, Arthur James)
Professional ethics and civic morals (by Durkheim, Emile)

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

White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Li... (by Durkheim, Emile)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Theories of Social Progress, A Critical ... (by Todd, Arthur James)
Professional ethics and civic morals (by Durkheim, Emile)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
How to Use Your Mind (by Kitson, Harry D.)
The Elements of Psychology (by Edward Lee Thorndike)
Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psych... (by American Psychological Association)
Adolescence Its Psychology Volume-Ii (by G. Stanley Hall)
The Origin and Nature of the Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
Ten Days in a Madhouse (by Bly, Nellie)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Charles Mackay)
Dreams (by Henri Bergson)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
Malignant Self Love (by Vaknin, Sam)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (by Freud, Sigmund)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
The Trade Unions : An Appeal to the Work... (by Robert Somers)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Two Treatises of Government (by Locke, John)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
Jungle, The (by Sinclair, Upton)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Acquisitive Society (by Tawney, Richard Henry)
The Morality of Capitalism
Autobiography of Mother Jones, The (by Jones, Mary Harris)
The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Minorities Versus Majorities (by Goldman, Emma)

Top 100 books on Government

The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
A Plea for Religious Liberty and the Rig... (by George Ticknor Curtis)
Lao-Tzu : A Study in Chinese Philosophy (by Watters, Thomas)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Observations on the Importance of the Am... (by Richard Price)
The Charlotte Town Resolves (by Charlotte Town Committee)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the... (by Marquis De Lafayette)
The Works of Walter Moyle: None of which... (by Walter Moyle, Thomas Sergeant)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
The Declaration of Rights of the Stamp A... (by Stamp Act Congress)
The Works of Aristotle : Volume 12 (by Aristotle)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The Mayflower Compact
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Law

Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall ... (by Melville, Herman)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
Terrorism, The Future, And U.S. Foreign ... (by Lee, Rensselaer)
Your Right to Federal Records Questions ...
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy in Asi... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Inter...)
The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Bank Secrecy Act : Implementation of the... (by Bonner, Robert C.)
Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nat... (by Choctaw Nation. Constitution.)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The Age of Reason (by Thomas Paine)
Report to Congress in Accordance with 35... (by United States Department of the Treasury)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Capital : A Critique of Political Econom... (by Marx, Karl)
An Introduction to the Principles of Mor... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The Wealth Of Nations (by Adam_Smith)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
Areopagitica (by John Milton)
The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The Races of Man : An Outline of Anthrop... (by Deniker, Joseph)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices (by Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston))
Pedagogical Anthropology (by Montessori, Maria)
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
Types of Mankind, Or, Ethnological Resea... (by Nott, Josiah Clark)
The Journal of the Anthropological Insti... (by Royal Anthropological Institute)
Economic Anthropology : A Study in Compa... (by Herskovits, Melville Jean)
Ethnography of Ancient India (by Shafer, Robert)
The Fijians : A Study of the Decay of Cu... (by Thomson, Basil)
Crime, Its Causes and Remedies (by Lombroso, Cesare)
An Anthropologist at Work; Writings of R... (by Benedict, Ruth)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)