Important people Flashcards
Who was Max Weber?
Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher and political economist whose ideas influenced social theory, research and the entire discipline of sociology. He argued that Ascetic Protestantism was one of the elective affinities associated with the rise of the western world market-driven capitalism (this is in fact evident in the changing economy in seventeenth and eighteenth century colonial america). He also defined state in his work ‘Politics as a Vocation’ as an entity which successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Even violent law enforces like the legislator Draco for Athens, were legitimised by the fact that they worked for the state.
who was Marshall Salins?
An american anthropologist. Believes that demonstrate that economic systems adapt to particular circumstances in culturally specific ways. His focus has been upon the way culture understands and makes history; a focus upon social stratification in polynesia.
who was Thorstein B. Veblen?
an American economist and sociologist. He was well known for his criticism of capitalism, humorously calling it the ‘leisure class’. He combined sociology with economics in his masterpiece The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) where he argued that there was a fundamental split in society between those who make their way via exploit and those who make their way via industry. In early barbarian society this is the difference between the hunter and the gatherer in the tribe, but as society matures it is the difference between the landed gentry and the indentured servant.
Marcel Mauss
French sociologist. His academic work blurred the boundaries between sociology and anthropology. A focus upon reciprocal and non-reciprocal gift exchange. obligation to give, receive and repay.
Rodney H. Hilton
An English Marxist historian of the late medieval period and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Focus upon the Origins of Robin Hood- and the type of society the legend emerged from and why such a type of society had an emerging folklore legend of this type. A prominent left-wing historian of intellectual life.
A. L. Kaelber
American anthropologist exploring one of the overlooked aspects of Weber’s ‘protestant ethic’. what is the basis of economic and social distinctiveness of the West, how did it arise and how is it related to the development of religious ethics?
P. Brown
History professor working London. The role of the holy man in society in the 5th and 6th centuries and why it became so important after the fall of the roman empire. The Holy man provided local society with a focus. It made society function in the decline of state institutions as we know them.
Levi Strauss
The father of structuralism, referred to in functionalism which are both similar and not. society is made by many structures: Social, cultural, ritual and religion.
Edward Evans-Pritchard
English anthropologist. His growing prominence singled the move away from structural-functionalism as a way of trying to unlock what makes different societies tick. Reflected that to many societies, what may seem irrational to others (in particular the western world) is entirely rational and makes perfect sense to them.
Louis Dumont
A french anthropologist. A focus upon holistic hierarchy the understanding a human embodiment (in the western world it is a human being; in india it was an incorporation of many things).
Clifford Geertz
American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered for three decades…the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States. Discovering the meaning behind the actions that meet the eye was put on the agenda of Anthropology by Clifford Geertz. Instead of explaining social behaviour in functionalist terms, in the hope of building up a ‘science of society’, he tried to uncover levels of meaning below the surface.
Martin Luther
a German monk, Catholic priest, professor of theology and seminal figure of the 16th-century movement in Christianity known later as the Protestant Reformation.
Quentin Skinner
A notable intellectual historian (intellectual history: the history of ideas). politicians recount ideas but they do not really believe them.
Voltaire
a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. A philosopher of history.
Hegel
The first philosopher to treat modernity as a concept and as a philosophical problem.
