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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
The Young Man's Guide (by Alcott, William Andrus)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Capital : A Critique of Political Econom... (by Marx, Karl)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)

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

The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
The Young Man's Guide (by Alcott, William Andrus)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Capital : A Critique of Political Econom... (by Marx, Karl)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)

Top 100 books on Psychology

A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
Illusions : A Psychological Study (by Sully, James)
The Psychology of Beauty (by Puffer, Ethel D.)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)
Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery (by Lawrence, Robert Means)
Contemporary Schools of Psychology (by Woodworth, Robert S.)
Studies in Forensic Psychiatry (by Glueck, Bernard)
An Introduction to the Theory of Mental ... (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
The Secret Places of the Heart (by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George))
Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Fantasia of the Unconscious (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Ethical Systems (by Wilhelm Wundt)
Quit Your Worrying! (by George Wharton James)
The Sociology and Psychology of Terroris... (by Hudson, Rex A.)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Morality of Capitalism
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)
Woman under Capitalism (by Tichenor, Henry Mulford)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Conquest of bread, The (by Kropotkin, Peter)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovak... (by Josef Korbel)
The Abolition of Poverty (by Hollander, Jacob Harry)
Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)

Top 100 books on Government

Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the... (by Marquis De Lafayette)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Histories of Polybius. Translated fr... (by Polybius)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Democracy in America I (by Tocqueville, Alexis de)
The Declaration of Rights of the Stamp A... (by Stamp Act Congress)
The Works of Walter Moyle: None of which... (by Walter Moyle, Thomas Sergeant)
Institutes of Natural Law : Being the Su... Volume Vol. 1 (by Rutherforth, T., Thomas)
Why wars come; or, Forms of government a... (by Niblack, Albert Parker)
Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deli... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (by Adam Ferguson)

Top 100 books on Law

Human Rights (by Carter, Jimmy)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
Amendments to the United States Constitu... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Report on the Right of the Government of... (by United States. Division of Insular Affairs)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Usa Patriot Act: A Legal Analysis (by Doyle, Charles)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
Sovereign Immunity : Hearing before the ... Volume Part: 1 (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On Indi...)
Conflict of Laws; Or, Private Internatio... (by Minor, Raleigh C)
Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
The Path of the Law (by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.)
The Foreign Relation of China: A History... (by Pao, Ming-Chien)

Top 100 books on Politics

Wealth of Nations, Book 1, The (by Smith, Adam)
Philosophy of Right (by Hegel, G. W. F.)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Democracy in America (by Alexis De Tocqueville)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, J. S.)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
Free Thought and Official Propaganda (by Russell, Bertrand)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Proposed Roads to Freedom : Socialism, A... (by Russell, Bertrand)
Uncle Tom's cabin : or, Life among the l... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The Prehistoric World : Or, Vanished Rac... (by Allen, E. A.)
Ancient Art and Ritual (by Jane Ellen Harrison)
Anthropology and a Lifetime of Observati... (by Colson, Elizabeth)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 4 Volume Vol. 4 (by American Anthropological Association)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Early Civilization : An Introduction to ... (by Alexander A. Goldenweiser)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
Anthropology in North America (by John Reed Swanton)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
The History of Mankind (by Ratzel, Friedrich)
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth... (by Powell, J. W.)
The American Indian: An Introduction to ... (by Clark Wissler)
The Andaman Islanders; a Study in Social... (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald), 1881-195...)
Sex and Repression in Savage Society (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)