Foundations of sociological thought - functionalism

11 important questions on Foundations of sociological thought - functionalism

What is a social fact?


Social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercisising on the individual and external constraint; or again every way of acting wich is general throughout a given society while at the same time existing in ints own right independent of its individual manifestations.

Gift in ethnology and ethnography

• Ethnography (description): Gift giving as glue between people (interaction,
expectation between people
• Ethnology (comparison): gift giving is seen everywher

What where Durkheim's two main points?

1.     Primitive societies are not simply living fossils, but rather simplified versions of more complex societies in which universal social processes can be seen more clearly.
2.     Some social facts are universal: E.g. all human thought is dualistic, people have a tendency to classify be dividing everything into things and their opposites. In other words, classification in binary opposition.
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According Mauss' article is gift giving a part of....?

Article: gift giving in primitive societies is often part of political and social obligations reflecting or expressing the societies underlying social structure.

Why is social cohesion maintained according to Durkheim?


Social cohesion was maintained because people in societies share the same values and beliefs and reinforced those beliefs through rituals and communal action.

What is mechanical solidarity?


Mechanical solidarity: When a class is divided in 10 groups if one falls away the class continues

Influences of durkheim on mauss

giftgiving as a social phenomenon/social fact
Focus on “archaic” or “simple” societies related to the notion of “mechanic solidarity” – that is, to the notion that in those societies social institutions are less differentiated

What is organic solidarity?


Organic solidarity: if the teacher walks away the class ends  (people need eachother)

The gift's relation to honor and prestige

To give: Mauss draws his analysis from societies in which authority, prestige and political power is essentially dependant on the act of giving generously and abundantly.
• A chief is held to be an incarnation of gods and the ancestors, and he must constantly attest his divine status by showing that “he possesses fortune and is possessed by it. The only way to demonstrate his fortune is by expending it to the humiliation of others, by putting them ‘in the shadows of his name.’” (Mauss, pg. 95)

Sahlin: a demonstration of status of the gift

Marshall Sahlins analysis of Polynesian societies initial contact with the British shows how this pattern is increased by the chiefs’ access to Western goods. Instead of promoting a “corrosion” of traditional cultural schemes, those were re-affirmed: the chiefs, in ever growing possession, distribution and sacrificial destruction of Western goods, attested their divine status.

Obligation of the gift: social consequences

• To accept the gift is to take part in a contract: the receiver of the gift acknowledges the bond of alliance with the giver, and his/her responsibility to repay that gift
• “Failure to give or receive, like failure to make return gifts, means a loss of dignity.”

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