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

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

• ISBN13: 9780205733163
• ISBN10: 0205733166
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-13
• Publisher: Pearson

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 Ourselvesconveys sociology's diversity of viewpoints and methodologies and includes important issues and debates that capture the fascinating complexity of the social world.

Author Biography

John J. Macionis  was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

John Macionis' publications are wide-ranging, focusing on community life in the United States, interpersonal intimacy in families, effective teaching, humor, new information technology, and the importance of global education.

 

In addition, John Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis have edited the best-selling anthology Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology. Macionis and Vincent Parrillo have written the leading urban studies text, Cities and Urban Life (Pearson). Macionis’ most recent textbook is Social Problems (Pearson).

 

John Macionis is Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Sociology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he has taught for almost thirty years. During that time, he has chaired the Sociology Department, directed the college’s multidisciplinary program in humane studies, presided over the campus senate and the college’s faculty, and taught sociology to thousands of students.

 

In 2002, the American Sociological Association presented Macionis with the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, citing his innovative use of global material as well as the introduction of new teaching technology in his textbooks.

 

Professor Macionis has been active in academic programs in other countries, having traveled to some fifty nations. He writes, “I am an ambitious traveler, eager to learn and, through the texts, to share much of what I discover with students, many of whom know little about the rest of the world. For me, traveling and writing are all dimensions of teaching. First, and foremost, I am a teacher—a passion for teaching animates everything I do.”

 

At Kenyon, Macionis teaches a number of courses, but his favorite class is Introduction to Sociology, which he offers every semester. He enjoys extensive contact with students and invites everyone enrolled in each of his classes to enjoy a home-cooked meal.

 

The Macionis family—John, Amy, and children McLean and Whitney—live on a farm in rural Ohio. In his free time, Macionis enjoys tennis, swimming, hiking, and playing oldies rock-and-roll (he recently released his first CD). Macionis is as an environmental activist in the Lake George region of New York’s Adirondack Mountains, working with a number of organizations, including the Lake George Land Conservancy, where he serves as president of the board of trustees.

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Nijole V. Benokraitis, professor of sociology at the University of Baltimore, has taught the marriage and family course for almost 25 years. It’s her favorite class, but her courses in racial and ethnic relations and gender roles run a close second. Professor Benokraitis received a B.A. in Sociology and English from Emmanuel College, an M.A. in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

 

She is a strong proponent of applied sociology and requires her students to enhance their study through interviews, direct observation, and other hands-on learning methods. She also enlists her students in community service activities such as tutoring and mentoring inner-city high school students, writing to government officials and other decision makers about specific social problems, and volunteering research services to nonprofit organizations.

 

Professor Benokraitis, who immigrated to the United States from Lithuania with her family when she was 6 years old, is bilingual and bi-cultural and is very empathetic of students who try to balance several cultural worlds. She has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited eight books, including Contemporary Ethnic Families in the United States: Characteristics, Variations, and Dynamics; Feuds about Families: Conservative, Centrist, Liberal, and Feminist Perspectives; Modern Sexism: Blatant, Subtle, and Covert Discrimination; and Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology.

 

Dr. Benokraitis has published numerous articles and book chapters on such topics as institutional racism, discrimination against women in government and higher education, fathers in two-earner families, displaced homemakers, and family policy. She has served as both chair and graduate program director of the University of Baltimore’s Department of Sociology and has chaired numerous university committees.

She has received grants and fellowships from many institutions, including the National Institute of Mental Health, the Ford Foundation, the American Educational Research Association, the Administration on Aging, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has for some time served as a consultant in the areas of sex and race discrimination to women’s commissions, business groups, colleges and universities, and federal government programs. She has also made several appearances on radio and television on gender communication differences and single-sex educational institutions. She currently serves on the editorial board of Women & Criminal Justice and reviews manuscripts for several academic journals.

 

Professor Benokraitis lives in Maryland with her husband, Dr. Vitalius Benokraitis, associate chair and director of graduate studies in computer science, Loyola College in Maryland. They have two adult children, Gema and Andrius.

Table of Contents

Readings new to this edition in bold.

 

 

THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

 

Classic

 

1.      "The Sociological Imagination" by C. Wright Mills

 

Classic

 

2.      "Invitation to Sociology" by Peter L. Berger

 

Contemporary

 

3.      "Women and the Birth of Sociology" by Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley

 

Cross-Cultural

 

4.      "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner

 

 

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

 

Classic

 

5.      "The Case for Value-Free Sociology" by Max Weber

 

Contemporary

 

6.      "The Importance of Social Research" by Earl Babbie

 

Cross-Cultural

 

7.      "Cultural Obsession with Thinness: African American, Latina, and White Women” by Becky W. Thompson (was #11 in SO7)

 

 

CULTURE

 

Classic

 

8.      "Symbol: The Basic Element of Culture" by Leslie A. White

 

Contemporary

 

9.      "Manifest and Latent Functions" by Robert K. Merton

  

Cross-Cultural

 

10.  "India's Sacred Cow" by Marvin Harris

 

 

SOCIETY

 

Classic

 

11.  "Manifesto and the Communist Party" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

 

Classic

 

12.  "Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft" by Ferdinand Tönnies

 

Contemporary

 

13.  "Unmarried with Children" by Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas

 

Cross-Cultural

 

14.  "The Amish: A Small Society" by John A. Hostetler

 

 

SOCIALIZATION

 

Classic

 

15.  "The Self" by George Herbert Mead

 

Contemporary

 

16.  "Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities" by Michael A. Messner

 

Contemporary

 

17.  "Socialization and the Power of Advertising" by Jean Kilbourne

 

Cross-Cultural

 

18.  "Parents' Socialization of Children in Global Perspective" by D. Terri Heath

 

 

SOCIAL INTERACTION IN EVERYDAY LIFE

 

Classic

 

19.  "The Dyad and the Triad," by Georg Simmel

 

Classic

 

20.  "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" by Erving Goffman

 

Contemporary

 

21.  "Invisible Privilege" by Paula S. Rothenberg

 

Contemporary

 

22.  "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation" by Deborah Tannen

 

Cross-Cultural

 

23.  "The DOs and TABOOs of Body Language around the World" by Roger E. Axtell

 

 

GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS

           

Classic

 

24.  "Primary Groups" by Charles Horton Cooley

 

Classic

 

25.  "The Characteristics of Bureaucracy" by Max Weber

 

Contemporary

 

26.  "McJobs: McDonaldization and the Workplace" by George Ritzer

 

Cross-Cultural

 

27.  "Even If I Don't Know What I'm Doing, I Can Make It Look Like I Do: Becoming a Doctor in Canada" by Brenda L. Beagan

 

 

DEVIANCE

 

Classic

 

28.  "The Functions of Crime" by Emile Durkheim

 

Contemporary

 

29.  "On Being Sane in Insane Places" by Donald L. Rosenhan

 

Contemporary

 

30.  "The Code of the Streets" by Elijah Anderson

 

Cross-Cultural

 

31.  "Prostitution: A Worldwide Business of Sexual Exploitation" by Melissa Farley

 

 

SEXUALITY AND SOCIETY

 

Classic

 

32.  "Understanding Sexual Orientation" by Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin

 

Contemporary

 

33.  "Sex in America: How Many Partners Do We Have?" by Robert T. Michael, John H. Gagnon, Edward O. Laumann, and Gina Kolata

 

Cross-Cultural

 

34.  "Homosexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective" by J. M. Carrier

 

 

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

 

Classic

 

35.  "Some Principles of Stratification" by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, with a response by Melvin Tumin

 

Contemporary

 

36.  “Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich [I need to know the permission cost for this one]

 

Cross-Cultural

 

37.  "The Uses of Global Poverty: How Economic Inequality Benefits the West" by Daina Stukuls Eglitis

 

 

GENDER

 

Classic

 

38.  "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" by Margaret Mead

 

Contemporary

 

39.  "'Night to His Day': The Social Construction of Gender" by Judith Lorber

 

Contemporary

 

40.  "How Subtle Sex Discrimination Works" by Nijole V. Benokraitis

 

Cross-Cultural

 

41.  "Domestic Violence: A Cross-Cultural View" by Elaine Leeder

 

 

RACE AND ETHNICITY

 

Classic

 

42.  "The Souls of Black Folk" by W. E. B. Du Bois

 

Contemporary

 

43.  "Controlling Images and Black Women's Oppression" by Patricia Hill Collins

 

Contemporary

 

44.  "How Did Jews Become White Folks?" by Karen Brodkin Sacks

 

Cross-Cultural

 

45.  “Are Asian Americans Becoming White?” by Min Zhou

 

 

THE ECONOMY AND WORK

 

Classic

 

46. "Alienated Labor" by Karl Marx

 

Contemporary

 

47. "When Work Disappears" by William Julius Wilson

 

Cross-Cultural

 

48. "Getting a Job in Harlem: Experiences of African American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican Youth" by Katherine S. Newman

 

 

POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND THE MILITARY

 

Classic

 

49. "The Power Elite" by C. Wright Mills

 

Contemporary

 

50. "Can Anyone Become President of the United States?" by G. William Domhoff

 

Cross-Cultural

 

51. "The Roots of Terrorism" by The 9/11 Commission

 

 

FAMILIES

 

Classic

 

52. "'His' and 'Her' Marriage" by Jessie Bernard

 

Contemporary

 

53. "The Mommy Myth" by Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels

 

Cross-Cultural

 

54. "Mate Selection and Marriage around the World" by Bron B. Ingoldsby

 

 

RELIGION

 

Classic

 

55. "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber

 

Contemporary

 

56. "How Student Life is Different at Religious Colleges" by Naomi Schaefer Riley

 

Cross-Cultural

 

57. "Women and Islam" by Jane I. Smith

 

 

EDUCATION

 

Classic

 

58. “Education and Inequality" by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

 

Contemporary

 

59. "Savage Inequalities: Children in U.S. Schools" by Jonathan Kozol

 

Cross-Cultural

 

60. “The English Only Debate” by Alejandro Portes

 

 

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

 

Classic

 

61. "The Social Structure of Medicine" by Talcott Parsons

 

Contemporary

 

62. “The Slaughterhouse: The Most Dangerous Job" by Eric Schlosser

 

Cross-Cultural

 

63. "Female Genital Mutilation" by Efua Dorkenoo and Scilla Elworthy

 

 

POPULATION AND URBANIZATION

 

Classic

 

64. "The Metropolis and Mental Life" by Georg Simmel

 

Classic

 

65. "Why Humanity Faces Ultimate Catastrophe" by Thomas Robert Malthus

 

Contemporary

 

66. "Urbanism as a Way of Life" by Louis Wirth

 

Contemporary

 

67. "Urban Sprawl: The Formation of Edge Cities" by John J. Macionis and Vincent R. Parrillo

 

Cross-Cultural

 

68. "Let's Reduce Global Population!" by J. Kenneth Smail

 

 

SOCIAL CHANGE AND MODERNITY

 

Classic

 

69. “Anomy and Modern Life" by Emile Durkheim

 

Classic

 

70. "The Disenchantment of Modern Life" by Max Weber

 

Contemporary

 

71. "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty" by David G. Myers

 

Cross-Cultural

 

72. “Global Media” by Todd Gitlin