Deviance

What is Deviant? As this explanation states it is departing from the norm.  This may explain why this story of cannibalism wasn't deemed as deviant behavior; it was life or death and all of the survivors agreed that, that was the plan; in this given situation that was the norm. But the norms in our society are not the norms in another society in which case some people may view this cannibalistic situation as deviant behavior because it is different and the people in this tribe are not fighting for their lives like the men whose plane crashed in the Andes.  The individuals here hardly seem harmful put as they stated this tribe uses cannibalism as a form of punishment.  Is this any worse than the death penalty? Humiliating the deviant individuals in our society?

Exerts from the book Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviants may provide us with some more clues about how we decide what is deviant and therefor what is normal behavior.

Deviance is a word with a negative connotation but think about it, Martin Luther King is probably the most famous deviant still today!  His famous 'I Have a Dream' speech was considered a crime by many of his time but look where it has brought us today!  Susan B. Anthony  worked for womens right and while also trying to free the slaves, Emily Murphy whose life work was to make a woman count as a person, Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated her life to human rights, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official fought for the rights and acceptance of homosexuals; these are examples of people who have participated in deviant behavior to better the world and our society.

These examples of deviants show how Durkheim saw deviance as being functional to society and provides a 'sense of solidarity.'

What is deviant behavior to our society may not be deviant to another and the things that we consider deviant may actually be leading us in a new, positive direction.

Groups and Organizations

A group is classified as two or more individuals who interact and may refer to themselves as 'we'. Like most of sociology, a group is more complex then you may originally suspect. Are two people who talk to each other while waiting in line a group? Or what about people that work in the same building and have the same goals and interact indirectly but not directly- say a person at the front desk and someone in housekeeping, are they a group?  I guess it depends who you ask and in what situation you ask it.  For instance, they may just be a social category  or 'team members' in the case of one person at the front desk and another person in housekeeping who work to achieve the same goal.  Even groups of two or three can be a little obscure.

Social category or group?

What interests me most about groups is what people do in group settings that they wouldn't normally do alone and how drastic things can get in a large group.  The power of social influence has always amazed me; that's why mom and dad say choose your friends wisely, right?

Hippies vs. Preps: are they the same?
In a way they are; both groups are trying to set themselves apart from the idea of conforming but still end up conforming to one group.
Often the way you dress, act and think influences what group you belong to and in turn what group you belong to influences the way you dress, act and think. Think of your different groups of friends or family groups vs. work groups vs. church groups; are you the same person in every group situation?
No. You conform and to the norm in the given situation. Scary isn't it?

The Elevator Experiment is a pretty funny video that shows people's need to conform to the norms around them.  This experiment has been done many times with the same sort of result.

One of the more drastic experiments conducted included a short of ' Shock therapy.' This experiment shows the effect of group pressure even if this group pressure meant harming another individual.  Obviously, no one was harmed in the experiment but it does go to show what people will do when they feel pressure in a group setting.  Stanley Milgram- Group Pressure and Conformity is an exert out of a sociology book that goes into further detail about this experiment.  It will also show you another experiment in which an individual alters perception to fit the group norm.

Which line is the longest?  Seems pretty obvious right?  Now what would you do if five other people said the top line is the longest?  Would you still say the middle line is the longest or would you alter your own perception and agree with the group? It's hard to know for sure what you would really do in that situation.  Sure, you might think that you would stick with your answer of 'the middle one' and stand out from the group but you may also, believe it or not even say the bottom one is the longest.


The definition of a group can be blurry but group pressure is a sure thing.  Many different group influences are pulling on us everyday without our knowledge and the pressure to preform can be so great that we change the way we act, thing, dress or talk.  Group pressure is a powerful thing.

Social Interaction and Social Structure

Social interaction and social structure interest me in that they can help us see our relationship with others and our relationship with the society that surrounds us. 

In particular Emile Durkheim's view of society as sui generis or 'a thing in itself, of its own particular kind' interests me. Durkheim saw society as a reality of its own, as an organism that must have all parts to properly run.  To Durkheim individuals shaped society as well as society shaping the individual. For more information on Durkheim and his ideas visit: http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/s16f02.htm

“Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his own, the superiority of which he feels. Because the greater, better part of his existence transcends the body, he escapes the body's yoke, but is subject to that of society.” - Emile Durkheim 

Found on 4/08/2011 at http://thinkexist.com

This is an interesting video clip I found that shows how Durkheim illustrates that all parts of society work together to make up the society and each part is functional to the other. Organic Solidarity  People play many roles and unity is based on a differentiation in those roles or the division of labor. 

What is society?

The dictionary defines society as an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.  In other words society consists of both culture and social interactions.  Social interaction is described in Sociology The Essentials 6th Edition as behavior between two or more people that is given meaning.  I see it as the way that people relate to one another.

I just thought this was a funny little cartoon that does a perfect job of depicting the general form of what social interaction means these days. 

What makes up a Society? 

Social Institutions- established and organized systems which are necessary and exist to meet specific needs in a society. 

Jonathan Turner (Turner 1997: 6): defines social institutions as “a complex of positions, roles, norms and values lodged in particular types of social structures and organising relatively stable patterns of human activity with respect to fundamental problems in producing life-sustaining resources, in reproducing individuals, and in sustaining viable societal structures within a given environment.”

 This includes institutions such as:

-governments, family, languages, businesses, universities, hospitals, and legal systems.

Anthony Giddens says (Giddens 1984: 24-31): “Institutions by definition are the more enduring features of social life.” Giddens list for institutions includes: 

-modes of discourse, political institutions, economic institutions and legal institutions.

Rom Harre, philosopher of social science defines it as “An institution was defined as an interlocking double-structure of persons-as-role-holders or office-bearers and the like, and of social practices involving both expressive and practical aims and outcomes.” (Harre 1979: 98)

His examples include:

-schools, shops, post offices, police forces, asylums and the British monarchy.

These quotes were found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and show my (and Durkheim's) point that society is much more complex than we may originally see.  There are many different variations of what makes up a social institution and what those social institutions are but one thing we know for sure is that social institutions play an important role in each given society.  This webpage gives some good insight from both the a sociological standpoint as well as a philosophical standpoint and provides some interesting information on social institutions. 

 Citations: 

Andersen, Margaret, and Howard Taylor. Sociology The Essentials. 6th. 1. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

MillerMiller, Seumas, "Social Institutions", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N.Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/social-institutions/>.

Socialization

How important is socialization to human life?  Do we really need to be socialized to make it in the world?   The answers we receive from what little evidence we have may give us some clues into the vast idea of socialization.  The first example story I'm sure many have heard of is Genie, the young girl found locked in a room and strapped to a potty chair for most of her life.  Genie received no love or attention, she wasn't spoken to and had nothing to look at; she was not socialized into human society and displayed animal-like characteristics because of it. Genie  This video clip briefly depicts the life and processes of 'late socialization' for Genie.


What is socialization?  According to Sociology The Essentials 6th Edition "Socialization is the process through which people learn the expectations of society" (Andersen, and Taylor 74).  Varies other sources included the development of one's personality as part of socialization.  We can see by this next video of a feral child raised by dogs that socialization is a crucial part for both human as well as personality.  In this case Oksana was raised by dogs for the first 6 years of her life therefor she took on characteristics of a dog. She was loved and nurtured by dogs, her family members were dogs, she was even treated like a dog by her own parents meaning she was socialized to act and think like a dog. Raised by Dogs

A further division of socialization is illustrated by University of California Santa Barbra which consists of both a natural socialization and a planned socialization.  Natural socialization takes place when we're very young and exploring the physical and social world around us.  For Genie this took place in near complete isolation in a dark, empty room.  Oksana was left to fend for herself at the age of three and was  able to experience more of the natural socialization; she was outside and had more than blank walls for stimulus.  The other division is planned socialization which occurs when other people take action designed to teach or train them from infancy on.  In Genie's case she was beaten when she made noise; when she was discovered she barely made a peep and it took great time and effort to get her to do so.  Oksana was trained by dogs which would explain the way she drank and ate with her mouth and tongue rather than using her hands and only walked on all fours.  It was as if she didn't have opposable thumbs and had to use her mouth to do many activities.("What is Socialization?")

These two examples also bring up the interesting debate of nature vs. nurture. Both girls, one raised by dogs and the other raised in complete isolation, displayed animal-like qualities when found which may show that without 'proper' socialization naturally we are just animals.  It is easily understood that both are important but in this case Genie wasn't shown any affection (nurture) until she was discovered at the age of 13 whereas Oksana, discovered at the age of 8 was shown love, not by humans but by dogs. Of course, neither one of them have led a 'normal' life since their discovery but Oksana was more easily able to learn language and socialized into the human world.  This can lead us to the conclusion that because Oksana was nurtured, although, not by humans she had better development in general, not just as a human and her brain more easily made connections to the outside world.

These two cases demonstrate the importance of socialization in early life to develop identity, personality,and one's role in the world.

To read more on Oksana and other children raised by dogs visit: Raised by Dogs
To read more on Genie visit: Genie: The Wild Child

Citation

Andersen, Margaret, and Howard Taylor. Sociology The Essentials. 6th. 1. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Johnson, Will; Scholar's Edition. Genie:The Wild Child:Susan Wiley, daughter of Clark Wiley and Dorothy Irene Oglesby [Internet]. Version 45. Knol. 2011 Jan 4. Available from: http://knol.google.com/k/will-johnson/genie-the-wild-child/4hmquk6fx4gu/2.

"Santa Barbra Sociology." What is Socialization?. N.p., 09/2003. Web. 6 Apr 2011. <http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/baldwin/classes/soc142/scznDEF.html>.

Stewart, Will. "Raised by Dogs." Sunday Times12/15/2003, Web.