Session 1: History and Background PDF

DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background Session 1 History and Background Contents Learning Outcomes 1 Introduction...

DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background Session 1 History and Background Contents Learning Outcomes 1 Introduction 2 1.1 History of Sociology and Social Anthropology 4 1.2 Relationship between Sociology, Social Anthropology and other Social Sciences 7 1.3 Sociology and Social Anthropology in Sri Lanka 9 Review Questions 10 References 10 Learning Outcomes At the end of this session you should be able to: Describe the scope of sociology and social anthropology. Describe the history of the two disciplines, their relationship to each other and to the other social sciences. Understand the approach to exploring society and culture adopted in this module. Key Terms Culture, enlightenment, ethnography, ethnology, social anthropology, society, sociology 1 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background Introduction: What is this module about? When you read the title of this module (Introduction to Society and Culture) you may feel a bit puzzled. What is this module going to teach you? You may be very familiar with both these words (society and culture) – in fact you may use these words in general conversation quite often. For example, during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, you may say “we are celebrating our culture”. Or when you read about some crime or tragic incident in the newspapers or hear about it on the television or radio, you may say to yourself “our society is a very dangerous place”. Both these words, society, and culture may be quite familiar to you and you may already have some ideas about what they mean. In many ways, this module is about things you may feel you already know. The things we discuss will sound very familiar to you. The difference is that we are going to take these things that are very familiar to you and part of your everyday life and examine them as social phenomena. The main focus of this module is to attempt to explain and understand how humans as a group or collective behave. As there are many aspects to human behaviour, we will be discussing a range of issues such as religion, the economy, political systems, family, education, conflict, poverty, inequality, and identity. In other words, we will be talking about a range of issues that constitute our social life. Let us try to understand the scope of this module through an example. Think about your day today. From the time you woke up, you would have been involved in a series of activities. Most of these activities would have also involved some level of interaction with other people. How you interacted with other people would have been determined to a large extent by things you learned about behaving in a particular way. For instance, how you dress, how you talk to your family, how you behave in your work place, how you walk on the road, how you use public transport, how you behave in the university, how you interact with your friends; all these make up your life. What we will try to do in this module is to understand how and why you do things in a certain way. How does it make you different from or similar to other people? 2 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background In order to understand these questions, in this module we will be drawing from two social science disciplines: sociology and social anthropology. These are not the only two social science disciplines that attempt to understand human behaviour. There are other subjects such as psychology and economics that also deal with human behaviour. Psychology tries to explain individual behaviour in terms of an individual’s mental state. Economics tries to explain how individual decisions and choices are made about aspects of people’s economic life. But the important distinction about sociology and social anthropology is that, these two disciplines focus on humans as a collective rather than as individuals. Both these disciplines attempt to understand human behaviour not in terms of individual mental states, but as patterns of behaviour that are related to wider social contexts. As such, sociology and social anthropology tries to understand how society is constituted, how it functions and also how it changes. In order to understand this, it usually looks very closely at the elements in a particular society or a part of society. That is, it looks at the particular in great detail to try to understand the more general (Beteille 2003). Let’s try to understand this a bit more through the following activity: Activity 1: Reflective Exercise Think of what you had for lunch today. What did you eat? Now, think of someone from a different part of the world. Try to imagine what that person might have for lunch. Do you think it’s the same? Or is it different? If it’s different, how do you explain the difference? Are there any similarities? How do you explain these similarities? Now think about who prepared lunch for you. Was it made at home or did you buy it? If it was made at home, who made it? Is it usually the same person who makes lunch at home? Why do you think that is? 3 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background When you did this activity, you might have realised that there are a lot of aspects about our life that we do without thinking that has certain patterns, or reasons. For instance, the kind of food we eat in a particular society may be influenced by the climate, by its geography or even its history. For example, the fact that Sri Lanka is located close to India means that we share some of the same food habits and spices in our cooking. The fact that we were a colonised country means that the food habits of our colonisers (the Portuguese, Dutch and British) influenced our food. The fact that in most households the women in the household are responsible for cooking is because of the way in which we organise our family roles and responsibilities. Because of the media, exposure to travel and other cultures, our food habits have also changed with time – we may now eat food that are ‘traditionally’ associated with another country. Our financial capacity will also influence our eating patterns – so different social groups may eat different kinds of food. Can you now see, how if we think more deeply about such a simple, everyday activity such as preparing and eating lunch, we can understand so many aspects about society and culture? That is a simple example of the kinds of things we will be discussing in this module. We will look at social relations, social institutions, social processes, social structures and social changes. We will look for interconnections between these elements as well as compare and contrast these elements in different contexts. In this module, what we will try to understand, therefore, is how our habits, traditions, and patterns of behaviour can help us to explain the larger concepts of ‘society’ and ‘culture’. At the same time, we may start with those larger concepts ‘society’ and ‘culture’ and try to understand our individual habits, social traditions and patterns of behaviour. We will be constantly moving between these two levels: the micro or the particular (individual behaviour, patterns of behaviour, everyday actions) and the general or the macro. 1.1. History of Sociology and Social Anthropology The social sciences and especially the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology emerged as important sciences during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. This was a time of great change in Europe and a period that is marked by the transition from ‘traditional’ to the ‘modern’ period. Two important events influenced this transition: the 4 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background industrial revolution which had a huge impact on how the economic structures of society were organised and as a consequence of that how other aspects of society came to be organised. Secondly, the French Revolution, which had a profound influence on political thinking and systems in Europe. There is a third factor which also influenced the rise of sociology and social anthropology during this period. That is, the intellectual and philosophical tradition we call the ‘Enlightenment’. The Enlightenment period saw the emergence of the importance of the ‘scientific method’ to explain and understand the world we live in – physical, material and social worlds. Thinkers during this time argued for logic, rationality and reason rather than superstition and dogma. In the social sciences, the Enlightenment is considered to have certain features such as ideas of agency, freedom of choice, and moral responsibility. However, it is important to recognise that some of the concerns of classical thinkers in the social sciences emerged from a sense of disappointment about the failures or the constraints to realising these ideals of the Enlightenment (Das 2003). The sociological tradition emerged from the work of French thinkers such as Baron Montesquieu who in his book Spirit of the Laws (1748) explores the different forms of government and social organisation in the world. The main idea behind this kind of work was to engage in a scientific and methodical study of society. This work was taken forward by Saint-Simon and his pupil Auguste Comte. Comte is responsible for naming this new science of society ‘sociologie’. Anthropology has a slightly more complicated history. This was a period when theories of evolution were very influential. There were two camps who were interested in studying the origin and evolution of humans. One camp known as the monogenists believed that all humankind had a single origin. The other camp known as polygenists believed that humankind had many origins and that different races were like different human species. Anthropology was more dominated by monogenists who argued that all societies evolved through the same stages. They believed that studying societies at what they believed to be a ‘lower’ stage of evolution could help explain the earlier phases of their own societies. 5 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background This early tendency of anthropologists to study ‘primitive’ society led to a commonly used method of distinguishing between sociology and anthropology. Some consider sociology to be the study of ‘modern’ society whereas anthropology is the study of ‘primitive’ societies. However, for most sociologists and anthropologists this distinction is not considered valid any longer mainly because the idea of categorising societies as ‘primitive’ and ‘modern’ has been disputed. Nevertheless, anthropology remains interested in studying the common features of humankind as well as the cultural differences between peoples (Barnard 2000). In early Europe, this was also known as ‘ethnology’. In the United Kingdom, the more common term is ‘social anthropology’ while in the United States it is known as ‘cultural anthropology’. In the United States and Canada, anthropology also has sub-disciplines such as biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics, archaeology, as well as cultural anthropology (ibid). In South Asia, especially in India and Sri Lanka, the relationship between sociology and social anthropology is very close. For some scholars, there is almost no difference between the two disciplines whereas there are others who would say that they are closely related to each other but are two distinct disciplines (Beteille 2003). In this module, and indeed in all the modules in the Society and Culture Stream, we consider the two disciplines as very close to each other. Consequently, in this module, we draw from both disciplines to explain and understand society and culture. Activity 2: Undertaking a Research Task Do your own research and name some of the most prominent thinkers of the Enlightenment. 6 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background 1.2. Relationship between Sociology, Social Anthropology, and other Social Sciences As mentioned earlier, sociology and social anthropology are mainly concerned with the social and cultural lives of people. There are other disciplines that are also concerned with aspects of human society and culture. Therefore, sociology and social anthropology often borrow from or lend to these other disciplines. Social anthropology falls under the broader field of anthropology which also includes physical anthropology which is concerned with studying humans as physical organisms and in the biological evolution of humans. As mentioned earlier, in the United States and Canada, there are 4 sub-fields within anthropology. The term ‘ethnology’ is sometimes still used to describe studies of communities that are considered ‘pre-literate’; that is communities that don’t have recorded histories and are not considered to have advanced technologies. But the idea that certain communities are ‘pre-literate and technologically less advanced’ is only possible if progress, technology and notions of development are viewed as linear and one dimensional. There are many so called ‘pre-literate’ communities which have very sophisticated unwritten historical records as well as technologies that help them to adapt and manage their environments. The aborigines in Australia are an example of such a community. Ethnology is also used to describe studies that look at specific cultural aspects of a particular community. Ethnologists, for example, may be interested in separate items of culture – things that people make (material culture) or areas such as myths or folklore (Beattie 1964; Barnard 2000). You will also come across the term ‘ethnography’ in relation especially to social anthropology. In the past, detailed descriptive accounts of societies were described as ethnographies. Many early social anthropologists were also described as ‘ethnographers’. Today, we use the term ethnography to describe a method of data collection – that is, the description and analysis of detailed accounts of the cultural and social lives of human communities. You will learn more about this method in Level V of this course. 7 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background Sociology and social anthropology have a close relationship with history. When we try to understand the present condition of culture and society, it is also quite natural for us to attempt to try and find out how that situation came to be. For example, if we are studying current marriage practices among a particular community, we would also consider how marriage practices have changed through time. Since the past may have a direct relevance to how things are in the present or how people understand the present, sociologists and social anthropologists often take into account a historical view of things. Psychology also deals with human affairs and it’s not unusual to see psychological concepts used in sociology and social anthropology. The difference is that while psychology is interested in individual human minds and their mental state, sociology and social anthropology lays more emphasis on the social and cultural contexts within which humans experience things. Emile Durkheim, a sociologist whom you will learn about later in this module demonstrated how suicide, which is usually considered a psychological issue can also be interpreted and analysed from a sociological point of view. Instead of explaining suicide through an individual’s state of mental health, Durkheim attempted to explain suicide by providing explanations of the social and cultural context in which the individual lived. More recent work of sociologists and social anthropologists has also taken them into fields such as law, political science, economics and development studies. Sociologists and social anthropologists often illuminate the more concrete and context specific ways in which humans engage in relations of power, authority, production and exchange, which are useful for these specialisations. As you can see, sociology and social anthropology covers a broad field which means that it has close relationships with other social science disciplines as well. As the discipline develops, each of these areas becomes areas of specialisation. So you might have those who specialise in urban sociology or political anthropology etc. This module will take you through some of these areas and it might help you to develop your interest in a specific area on which you may want to focus in your academic career. 8 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background 1.3. Sociology and Social Anthropology in Sri Lanka In Semester 2 of Level 3, you will be studying Society and Culture in Sri Lanka. That module will discuss in detail how some of the concepts and theories you will learn about in this module, have been applied to understanding Sri Lankan society and culture. So we will keep this section brief. As in many other colonies, forms of knowledge about Sri Lankan society and the institutional processes that were established for social science research were influenced by the colonial powers. Classifying and categorising the societies that colonial regimes ruled was an important aspect of how colonies were administered. Early classifications and descriptions of Sri Lankan society in terms of race, caste and ethnicity were the work of colonial administrators and these informed our understanding of Sri Lankan society and culture for a long time. Sri Lanka also drew the attention of sociologists and especially anthropologists from the Western world who were interested in doing ‘village studies’. This was a result of the early interest, especially in social anthropology, in studying so called ‘primitive’ societies. You will be reading about some of these early studies in the module on Understanding Society and Culture in Sri Lanka. Today, studies on a range of subjects and areas are carried out in Sri Lanka by both local and international sociologists and social anthropologists. The earliest Departments of Sociology were established at the University of Peradeniya in the late 1940s and subsequently in the other national universities as well. Sri Lankan universities have produced several distinguished scholars such as Gananath Obeysekere, S.J Tambiah, Laksiri Jayasuriya, Ralph Peris, and H.L Seneviratne. Today, almost all the major national universities have Departments of Sociology. Many of the academics working in Sociology are trained in either sociology or anthropology and teaching and research generally draws from both disciplines. 9 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka DSU3551 Session 1: History and Background Review Questions 1. What are the main factors that helped establish a ‘science of society’? 2. Given the broad scope of sociology and social anthropology, which areas are you most interested in and why? References Barnard, A. (2000). History and Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beattie, J. (1964). Other Cultures: Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social Anthropology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Beteille, A. (2003). ‘Sociology and Social Anthropology’, in V. Das (Ed.) The Oxford Indian Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Das, V. (2003). ‘Social Sciences and the Publics’, in V. Das (Ed.). The Oxford Indian Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 10 Copyright © 2014, The Open University of Sri Lanka