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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Six Thousand Country Churches (by Gill, Charles Otis)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
A History of Social Thought (by Emory Stephen Bogardus)

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

Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Six Thousand Country Churches (by Gill, Charles Otis)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
A History of Social Thought (by Emory Stephen Bogardus)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Mind and Motion and Monism (by Romanes, George John)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Psychologie de L'Éducation (by Gustave Le Bon)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
The Interpretation of Dreams (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
History of Psychology; A Sketch and an I... (by Baldwin, James Mark)
The Crowd : A Study of the Popular Mind (by Gustave Le Bon)
Fantasia of the Unconscious (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
Psychological Types or the Psychology of... (by C. G. Jung)
Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
The Freedom of Life (by Call, Annie Payson)
Memories Dreams Reflections (by C. G. Jung)

Top 100 books on Economics

Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovak... (by Josef Korbel)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Capitalism and Slavery (by Williams Eric.)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 (by Bellamy, Edward)
The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Economics of Welfare (by Pigou, Arthur Cecil)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
A Treatise on Probability (by Keynes, John Maynard)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Cecil Rhodes; The Man and His Work (by Le Sueur, Gordon)

Top 100 books on Government

Of the Conduct of the Understanding (by John Locke)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (by Wollstonecraft, Mary)
On Liberty (by Winthrop, John)
On the Law of War and Peace (by Grotius, Hugo)
The Letters of Junius
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Ma... (by Thomas ( Hobbes)
Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Grea... (by Allan, Mary Ann)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
Robert's Rules of Order Pocket Manual of... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
A Treatise on Political Economy : Or the... (by Jean Baptiste Say)
Of the Law of Nature and Nations : Eight... (by Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr Von)

Top 100 books on Law

Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Usa Patriot Act: A Legal Analysis (by Doyle, Charles)
Report on the Right of the Government of... (by United States. Division of Insular Affairs)
Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nat... (by Choctaw Nation. Constitution.)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
Democracy in America (by Tocqueville, Alexis De)
Constitution and Act of Incorporation of... (by Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition o...)
Nuclear proliferation : future U.S. fore... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Inter...)
Introduction to Roman Law (by Hadley, James)
Constitution of the New-England Anti-Sla... (by Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Na... (by Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
Candide (by Voltaire)
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
A Tale of Two Cities (by Dickens, Charles)
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl...

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Ancient Art and Ritual (by Jane Ellen Harrison)
Economic Anthropology : A Study in Compa... (by Herskovits, Melville Jean)
The Scope of Social Anthropology; A Lect... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
The Witch Cult in Western Europe (by Murray, Margaret Alice)
The Study of Man: An Introduction (by Linton, Ralph)
Handbook of American Indian Languages (by Franz Boas)
The Genetic Relationship of the North Am... (by Radin, Paul)
The Great Rift Valley : Being the Narrat... (by Gregory, John Walter)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Catalogue of Works on European Philology... (by Quarich, Bernard)
The Golden Bough Volume Xii : A Study in... (by Frazer, Sir James George)
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)