Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 1983"

Liminal to liminoid, in play, flow, and ritual: an essay in comparative symbology.

Abstract: First I will describe what 1 mean by "comparative symbology" and how, in a broad way, it differs from such disciplines as "semiotics" (or "semiology") and "symbolic anthropology," which are also concerned with the study of such terms as symbols, signs, signals, significations, icons, signifiers, signif ied~, sign-vehicles, and so on. Here, I want to discuss some of the types of sociocultural processes and settings in which new symbols, verbal and nonverbal, tend to be generated. This will lead me into a comparison of "liminal" and "liminoid" phenomena, terms which 1 will consider shortly. According to Josiah Webster's lexicographical progeny, the people who produced the second College edition of Webster's New World Dictionary, "symbology" is "the study or interpretation of symbols"; it is also "representation or expression by means of symbols." The term "comparative" merely means that this branch of study involves comparison as a method, as does, for example, comparative linguistics. Comparative symbology is narrower than "semiotics" or "semiology" (to use Saussure's and Roland Barthes's terms), and wider than "symbolic anthropology" in range and scope of data and problems. "Semiotics" is "a general theory of signs and symbols, especially, the analysis of the nature and relationship of signs in language, usually including three branches, syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics." 1) Syntactics: The formal relationships of signs and symbols to one another apart from their users or external reference; the organization and relationship of groups, phrases, clauses, sentences, and sentence structure. 2)Semantics: The relationship of signs and symbols to the things to which they refer, that is, their referential meaning. 3) Pragmatics: The relations of signs and symbols with their users. In my own analyses of ritual symbols, "syntactics" is roughly similar to what I call "positional meaning"; "semantics" is similar to "exegetical meaning"; and "pragmatics" is similar to "operational meaning." Semiology seems to have rather wider aspirations than semiotics, since it is defined as "the science of signs in general" whereas semiotics restricts itself to signs in language, though Roland Barthes is now taking the position that "lin-

The Power of Business in America: A Re-appraisal

Abstract: Over the past fifteen years, there has been a steady stream of books and articles on business-government relations describing the ‘privileged position’ occupied by the business corporation in the American political system. Taking issue with the pluralist paradigm that dominated writing and research on American national politics in the two decades after the Second World War, these writers have argued that business is not simply another interest group. Instead, they have suggested that its role in American society is more akin to that of a dominant class, power elite or private government: it thus possesses a degree of influence that invariably exceeds that of any other class or interest group. This appraisal of the political dominance of business in contemporary American society primarily rests on four sets of interrelated observations. These include the ability of business to define the political agenda; the extent to which business gains disproportionate benefits from the political process; the need for elected officials to maintain a high degree of ‘business confidence’; and the superior capacity of business interests to mobilize political resources, work closely with each other and shape the climate of public and elite opinion.

Identity: Its Emergence within Sociological Psychology*

Abstract: Identity is an oft used technical term in sociological social psychology. Yet, its rather recent emergence remains uncharted. Discussion of its origin in the post World War II period from the writings of Erikson leads to recognition of its rapid development in the 1960's and 1970's. Five theoretical sources are currently informing the development and use of the concept. Its continued strength is apparently in response to the need to interpret contemporary American society. By the 1980's, identity serves as a powerful bridging concept stretched across micro and macro levels of theory and reaching from laboratory analyses to cultural criticism.

Sports Violence and the Media

Abstract: Although the notion that spectators enjoy violence in sports seems to be a truism in contemporary society, it has received scant scholarly attention. In this chapter we consider the nature and consequences of sports violence; present popular notions, formal proposals, and empirical evidence for the enhancement of spectators’ enjoyment of sports contests through aggressive play; and examine ways in which the media exploit sports violence.

Modern patron-client relations and historical clientelism. Some clues from ancient Republican Rome

Abstract: Much has been written in the last two decades on clientelism and patron-client relations. From a concept of relatively marginal concern in the social sciences, clientelism has gained analytical clarity and has been applied with greater precision to political and social relationships found in many contemporary societies.

The coming of a leisure society

Abstract: It may be too early to speak of the advent of a leisure society, though the breakthroughs of microtechnology are bringing it very close. Two relevant theories are critically examined: the one, that of leisure, in contrast to consumption and work, as the unique arena for self-expression; and the other, that of post-industrial society, reflecting the two opposing perspectives of the ‘work centralist’ versus the ‘convivial’ vision. Both theories are found wanting. While projecting much that is objectively true, they give the emergent ‘leisure ethic’ insufficient attention. They also fail to adequately take into account the underlying factors of social structure, power, and class.

The plains truth: The impact of colonialism on Indian women

Abstract: Somewhere between fact and fancy, between competing perspectives and interpretations, lies the truth. No extreme position can totally reflect the data, but neither does interpretation collapse into relativism. In these pages I have noted that as Plains society became increasingly enmeshed in production for the fur trade, a simple yet significant degree of specialization of labor emerged, forged along traditional lines. Women were precluded from contributing to hunting, a situation fostered by the effects of the horse on their foraging economy. Private property relations both resulted from and compounded this situation by assuring men a degree of control over distribution, exchange, and production unknown in the previous century. The result was the relative decline in the position of women. An historical materialist framework succeeds here. In adopting it we avoid outlining the problem in a one-dimensional way by interpreting homeostatic function and conflict diachronically. Most significantly, historical materialism does not present the problem in a simplistic (either functionalism/or conflict theory) framework, but rather seeks to argue from the former to the latter via an examination of the relations of production. In tribal society, unlike class society, relations between the sexes do not lend themselves to overt political expression in the context of massive movements which have revolution or social change as the sole end. The institutions of kinship and family, and their reproductive functions, effectively prohibit this antagonistic splintering of society Patricia C. Albers, \ldExpansion and Flexibility in Dakota Familial Structure,\rd paper delivered to the Family History and Heritage Symposium, Brigham Young University, 1975. . And this is even more the case where we find both family and wider kin groupings looming importantly in economic matters. Contemporary society can readily make for feminist issues, precisely because families are increasingly superfluous; the result being that the exploitative relations between the sexes are more sharply defined and given expression. In tribal society, however, kinship is the fulcrum of social life and is the modality of all institutions. To the degree that Plains Indian women could seek status within, and identify with, the domestic unit or band, the social schisms forming in Plains society could remain smoldering beneath the surface. The very nature of kinship society precludes the kind of class conflict which occurs in centralized or formative state systems. But it is no guarantee against structurally significant discontent.

Nursing's newly emerging social contract

Abstract: Social contracts are the mechanisms by which society legitimizes professions and grants them authority and autonomy to carry out their functions. The nursing profession is currently renegotiating its contract with society in a manner which clearly reflects a change from physician dominance, and emphasis on ‘illness care’ to increased independent and autonomous functioning within a newly developing framework of nursing science which emphasizes ‘health care’. In return for their services, nurses are also negotiating for those benefits which historically they have not received. These include legitimization of their newly acquired autonomous role functions, and adequate reimbursement mechanisms and structures. When the contemporary role of the nurse is fully legitimzed, the impact on contemporary society and health care is likely to be enormous.

Changing Directions: West and East German Literature in the 70s

Abstract: The shift in the direction of West and East German literature in the 1970s is discussed in the background of the student protest movement of 1969. Several examples of literary texts are presented to highlight that the prevalent notion of existential alienation in contemporary society made the older generation of writers change their practice of writing about the war and Germany's history to write about political issues, identity and alienation.