Seeing Ourselves : Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology

by Macionis, John J.; Benokraitis, Nijole V.

• ISBN13: 9780131115576
• ISBN10: 013111557X
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

This best-selling collection is the only reader that systematically weaves together three types of articles-classic, contemporary,""" "and cross-cultural-for each general topic typically covered in a sociology course. "Seeing Ourselves "conveys sociology' s diversity of viewpoints and methodologies and includes important issues and debates that capture the fascinating complexity of the social world.

Table of Contents

(NOTE: Readings in bold are new to this edition.)

THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.

1. Classic: The Promise of Sociology, C. Wright Mills.
2. Classic: Invitation to Sociology, Peter L. Berger.
3. Contemporary: How Would a Sociologist Look at Sport? Jay J. Coakley.
4. Cross-Cultural: Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Horace Miner.

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

5. Classic: The Case for Value-Free Sociology, Max Weber.
6. Contemporary: The Importance of Social Research, Earl Babbie.
7. Cross-Cultural: Arab Women in the Field, Soraya Altorki.

CULTURE.

8. Classic: Symbol: The Basic Element of Culture, Leslie A. White.
9. Classic: Manifest and Latent Functions, Robert K. Merton.
10. Contemporary: Cultural Obsessions with Thinness: African American, Latina, and White Women, Becky W. Thompson.
11. Cross-Cultural: India's Sacred Cow, Marvin Harris.

SOCIETY.

12. Classic: Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
13. Classic: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaf, Ferdinand Tönnies.
14. Contemporary: How the Internet Nurtures Long-Distance Relationships and Local Ties, John B. Horrigan.
15. Cross-Cultural: The Amish: A Small Society, John A. Hostetler.

SOCIALIZATION.

16. Classic: The Self, George Herbert Mead.
17. Contemporary: Socialization and the Power of Advertising, Jean Kilbourn.
18. Cross-Cultural: Parents' Socialization of Children in Global Perspective, D. Terri Heath.

SOCIAL INTERACTION IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

19. Classic: The Dyad and the Triad, Georg Simmel.
20. Classic: The Presentation of Self, Erving Goffman.
21. Contemporary: You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Deborah Tannen.
22. Cross-Cultural: The DOs and TABOOs of Body Language around the World, Roger E. Axtell.

GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS.

23. Classic: Primary Groups, Charles Horton Cooley.
24. Classic: The Characteristics of Bureaucracy, Max Weber.
25. Contemporary: McJobs: McDonaldization and the Workplace, George Ritzer.
26. Cross-Cultural: Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business, Boye De Mente.

DEVIANCE.

27. Classic: The Functions of Crime, Emile Durkheim.
28. Contemporary: On Being Sane in Insane Places, David L. Rosenhan.
29. Cross-Cultural: The Code of the Streets, Elijah Anderson.

SEXUALITY.

30. Classic: Understanding Sexual Orientation, Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin.
31. Contemporary: Sex in America: How Many Partners Do We Have? Robert T. Michael, John H. Gagnon, Edward O. Laumann, and Gina Kolata.
32. Cross-Cultural: Homosexual Behavior in Cross-Cultural Perspective, J.M. Carrier.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION.

33. Classic: Some Principles of Stratification, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore with a response by Melvin Tumin.
34. Contemporary: Who Has How Much and Why, Andrew Hacker.
35. Cross-Cultural: The Uses of Global Poverty: How Economic Inequality Benefits the West, Daina Stukels Eglitis.

GENDER.

36. Classic: Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, Margaret Mead.
37. Contemporary: How Subtle Sex Discrimination Works, Nijole V. Benokraitis.
38. Cross-Cultural: Save the Children, Mothers and Children in the World Today, Daina Stukels.

RACE AND ETHNICITY.

39. Classic: The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois.
40. Contemporary: Controlling Images and Black Women's Oppression, Patricia Hill Collins.
41. Contemporary: How Did Jews Became White Folks? Karen Brodkin Sacks.
42. Cross-Cultural: Out of Harmony: Health Problems and Young Native American Men, Jennie R. Joe.

AGING AND THE ELDERLY.

43. Classic: The Tragedy of Old Age in America, Robert N. Butler.
44. Contemporary: How the Grandparent Role Is Changing, Roseann Giarrusso, Merril Silverstein, and Vern L. Bengston.
45. Cross-Cultural: Our Aging World, Frank B. Hobbs and Bonnie L. Damon.

THE ECONOMY AND WORK.

46. Classic: Alienated Labor, Karl Marx.
47. Contemporary: When Work Disappears, William Julius Wilson.
48. Cross-Cultural: Getting a Job in Harlem: Experiences of African American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican Youth, Katherine S. Newman.

POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND THE MILITARY.

49. Classic: The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills.
50. Contemporary: Understanding the September 11th Attacks: A Human Rights Approach, Kathryn Sikkink.
51. Cross-Cultural: Freedom in the World: A Global Survey, Adrian Karatnycky.

FAMILY.

52. Classic: “His” and “Her” Marriage, Jessie Bernard.
53. Contemporary: The Decline of Marriage and Fatherhood, David Popenoe.
54. Cross-Cultural: Mate Selection and Marriage around the World, Bron B. Ingoldsby.

RELIGION.

55. Classic: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber.
56. Contemporary: Seeker Churches: Promoting Traditional Religion in a Nontraditional Way, Kimon Howland Sargeant.
57. Cross-Cultural: Women and Islam, Jane I. Smith.

EDUCATION.

58. Classic: Education and Inequality, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis.
59. Contemporary: Savage Inequalities: Children in U.S. Schools, Jonathan Kozol.
60. Cross-Cultural: Academic Achievement in Southeast Asian Refugee Families, Nathan Caplan, Marcella H. Choy, and John K. Whitmore.

HEALTH AND MEDICINE.

61. Classic: The Social Structure of Medicine, Talcott Parsons.
62. Contemporary: The Health of Latino Families, Ruth E. Zambrana, Claudia Dorrington, and David Hayes-Bautista.
63. Cross-Cultural: Female Genital Mutilation, Efua Dorkenoo and Scilla Elworthy.

POPULATION AND URBANIZATION.

64. Classic: The Metropolis and Mental Life, Georg Simmel.
65. Classic: Urbanism as a Way of Life, Louis Wirth.
66. Contemporary: Urban Sprawl: The Formation of Edge Cities, John J. Macionis and Vincent R. Parrillo.
67. Cross-Cultural: Let's Reduce Global Population, J. Kenneth Smail.

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY.

68. Classic: Why Humanity Faces Ultimate Catastrophe, Thomas Robert Malthus.
69. Contemporary: Rich Planet, Poor Planet: Global Environment and Poverty in 2001, Christopher Flavin.
70. Cross-Cultural: Supporting Indigenous Peoples, Alan Thein Durning.

COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.

71. Classic: On the Origin of Social Movements, Jo Freeman.
72. Contemporary: The Animal Rights Movement as Moral Crusade, James M. Jasper and Dorothy Nelkin.
73. Cross-Cultural: Abortion Movements in Poland, Great Britain, and the United States, Janet Hadley.

SOCIAL CHANGE AND MODERNITY.

74. Classic: Anomy and Modern Life, Emile Durkheim.
75. Classic: The Disenchantment of Modern Life, Max Weber.
76. Contemporary: The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty, David G. Myers.
77. Cross-Cultural: The Price of Modernization: The Case of Brazil's Kaiapo Indians, Marlise Simons.

Excerpts

As a number of analysts see it, the twenty-first century actually began on September 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and killed almost 3,000 people. This assertion is reasonable because this tragic event changed the way most of us look at just about everything, shaking our certainty about the present and challenging our optimism about the future. At the same time, September 11th also renewed our sense of community, reminding us that we are all linked to those around us. In addition, we were prompted to rethink some of our assumptions, realizing, for example, that the work of firefighters is often far more important than that of corporate executives, especially in light of the recent Enron, WorldCom, and other large companies' accounting scandals. In short, those who live in this new century are likely to display a renewed attention to the society around them. Indeed, change and, especially, crisis always encourages the use of the sociological perspective. We hope this new edition ofSeeing Ourselvescan play a small part in the important work of examining the society around us. This revision presents the very best of sociological thought, from the work of the discipline's pioneers to the men and women who are doing today's cutting-edge research. The selections explore both U.S. society as well as global trends. This reader provides excellent material for a wide range of courses, including introductory sociology, social problems, cultural anthropology, social theory, social stratification, American studies, women's studies, and marriage and the family. THE THREE C'S: CLASSIC, CONTEMPORARY, AND CROSS-CULTURAL Since its introduction a decade ago,Seeing Ourselveshas been the most popular reader in the discipline. The new, sixth edition offers seventy-seven selections that represent the breadth and depth of sociology.Seeing Ourselvesis not only the most extensive anthology available, it is the only one that systematically weaves together three kinds of selections. For each general topic typically covered in a sociology course, three types of articles are included:classic, contemporary,andcross-cultural. Classicarticles--thirty in all--are sociological statements of recognized importance and lasting significance. Included here are the ideas of sociology's founders and shakers--including Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Ferdinand Tunnies, as well as Margaret Mead, W E. B. Du Bois, Louis Wirth, George Herbert Mead, Thomas Robert Malthus, and Charles Horton Cooley. Also found here are more recent contributions by Alfred Kinsey, Jessie Bernard, Robert Merton, Erving Goff-man, Peter Bergen Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, C. Wright Mills, Talcott Parsons, and Leslie White. We recognize that not everyone will agree about precisely which selections warrant the term "classic:" We hope, however, that instructors will be pleased to see the work of so many outstanding men and women--carefully edited with undergraduate students in mind-available in a single, affordable source. Twenty-fourcontemporaryselections focus on current sociological issues, controversies, and applications. These articles show sociologists at work and demonstrate the importance of ongoing research. They make for stimulating reading and offer thought-provoking insights about ourselves and the surrounding world. Among the contemporary selections inSeeing Ourselvesare Earl Babbie explaining the importance of sociological research, Becky Thompson on our cultural obsession with thinness, Deborah Tannen on how men and women (mis)communicate, George Ritzer on McDonaldization and jobs, David Rosenhan on diagnosing mental illness, Andrew Hacker on patterns of inequality in the United States, Nijole Benokraitis on subtle patterns of gender discrimination, Patricia H