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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Introduction to the Science of Sociology (by Park, Robert Ezra)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Pure Sociology : A Treatise on the Origi... (by Ward, Lester Frank)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)

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

Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Introduction to the Science of Sociology (by Park, Robert Ezra)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Pure Sociology : A Treatise on the Origi... (by Ward, Lester Frank)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Varieties of Religious Experience (by James, William)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Ten Days in a Madhouse (by Bly, Nellie)
Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
The teacher's word book (by Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee))
The Intermediate Sex; A Study of Some Tr... (by Carpenter, Edward)
Pavlov and His School the Theory of Cond... (by Professor Y. P. Frolov)
The Nervous Housewife (by Myerson, Abraham)
Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery (by Lawrence, Robert Means)
Dora an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (by Sigmund Freud)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Sociology and Psychology of Terroris... (by Hudson, Rex A.)
The Psychology of Beauty (by Puffer, Ethel D.)
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the... (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
Profits, Wages, and Prices (by David Friday)
Communism in the United States (by Browder, Earl Russell)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Mackay, Charles)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Essays on Political Economy (by Frédéric Bastiat)
Minorities Versus Majorities (by Goldman, Emma)
Democracy in America I (by Tocqueville, Alexis de)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)

Top 100 books on Government

The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
The Declaration of Arbroath
Laws (by Plato)
1581 : The Dutch Declaration of Independ... (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
The Commonwealth of Oceana (by Harrington, James)
Democracy in America I (by Tocqueville, Alexis de)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deli... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
Observations on the Importance of the Am... (by Richard Price)
Machiavelli (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Britton (by Francis Morgan Nichols)
The Letters of Junius
The Petition of Right (by Relf, Frances Helen)

Top 100 books on Law

Bracton's Note Book. A Collection of Cas... Volume Vol. 1 (by Great Britain. Courts)
Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort;... Volume Year 1970 (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
Changing Boundaries of Law Enforcement :... (by Mcdonald, William F.)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
Crs Report for Congress Received through... (by Doyle, Charles)
Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The United States Patent Law. Instructio... (by Munn and Company (New York, N. Y.))
Laws, Decisions, And Regulations Affecti... (by United States)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Na... (by Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma)

Top 100 books on Politics

Politics (by Aristotle)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
The Souls of Black Folk (by Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt)
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
Review of the management of our affairs ... (by China, China. Appendix. - History & Politics.)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The races of man, and their geographical... (by Peschel, Oscar)
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Minda... (by Cole, Fay Cooper)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
Ancient Art and Ritual (by Jane Ellen Harrison)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Bulletin (by United States Bureau of Labor)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
Sex and Repression in Savage Society (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
Anthropology and Modern Life (by Boas, Franz)
Kon Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft (by Thor Heyerdahl)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Growing up in New Guinea; A Comparative ... (by Mead, Margaret)
An Anthropologist at Work; Writings of R... (by Benedict, Ruth)
The Races of Man : An Outline of Anthrop... (by Deniker, Joseph)