Sociological Perspectives

This article examines sociology's first human relations area files. These files were developed by Herbert Spencer, an unfairly maligned figure in the history of sociology. The point of this historical exercise, however, is not so much to praise Spencer as to conduct a hypothetical exercise: What if Spencer's files had been taken more seriously? In performing this exercise, we can learn a great deal about both sociology and anthropology. Indeed, we can see that sociology and anthropology would be far more interesting disciplines if they followed Spencer's lead in collecting and cataloguing cross-cultural and historical data in ways that would facilitate theorizing.

Modern sociological theory tends to be overly cognitive, underemphasizing both habit and emotions. During the past decade, the increased attention to the sociology of emotions has helped partially to correct for some of the problems created by overly cognitive theories. More recent attention is focusing on habitual activities. Although several classic theorists dealt with habit, the concept was dropped from modern sociological theories, beginning some seventy years ago. The present article extends the research on the removal of the concept of habit from sociological theory by evaluating the treatment of habit by George Herbert Mead and symbolic interactionists. Although Mead's theory integrated habit with cognitive and emotional processes, most symbolic interactionists have taken an overly cognitive position that neglects habit. The sharp contrast between the two positions adds to the documentation that sociology has drifted toward highly cognitive theories in the past half century. Mead's theory shows that it is not necessary for sociology to neglect habit or emotion and that it is possible to integrate habit, emotions, and self-conscious action in one internally consistent theory.

The introduction of modern medicine into developing societies is an important topic for social-scientific analysis. Here I draw upon modernization theory to illuminate this topic. Using Peter Berger's notion of “carriers of modernity,” I discuss health care as such a carrier. Compared with premodern modes of health care, modern health care has a calculable, “commodity” character. Its production has become a major and increasingly systematized sector of the economy. In addition to its manifest clinical benefits, health care conveys the symbolic meanings of modernity. It participates in the broad though uneven passage of technology and values from Western societies to metropolitan areas in developing societies and thence to the hinterland. Health care as the focus of demodernization strains is also examined, through case examples drawn from Amish and Islamic contexts.

This article evaluates the utility of cultural and structural perspectives in accounting for interracial patterns in sexual values and attitudes, as reflected in anticipated responses to and definitions of both consensual and nonconsensual sexual behavior, drawn from interviews with 932 adolescents. There were no racial differences in attitudes toward rape or toward male-female relationships. The responses of black and white women to a “classic rape” were very similar, while differences were found in responses to a less stereotypic nonconsensual sexual assault and to a consensual sexual incident. Blacks anticipated more negative reactions from the police and expressed greater distrust of other institutional agencies than did whites. Accordingly, black women were more likely to anticipate turning to their parents or other family members for support. The results are interpreted as supportive of a structural perspective.

Human ecological theory has often been faulted for failing to consider the effects of the conscious actions of individuals and groups in the shaping of land use development. Given the current theoretical formulation of human ecological theory developed by Hawley, this criticism is not justified. A unique example of invasion-succession in an urban area offers an opportunity to illustrate how organized groups can influence this process, and to demonstrate how such actions fit into human ecological theory, and, by extension, general ecological theory. Those who do not recognize this dimension of human ecology will continue to be deprived of its analytic potential.