W2C1: the social person

Question 1

Four dimensions of human existence

Answer 1

Culture/nature
Sharing/variation

Leads to:
- Cultural universals
- Cultural variation
- Genetic universals
- Genetic differences

Question 2

Toolkit of concepts, contains:

Answer 2

• Status (ascribed and achieved / gemeinschaft and gesellschaft),
• agency,
  -frontstage/backstage,
• norms,
• sanctions,
• socialisation,
• anomie,
• social institutions,
• households

Question 3

Definition of social status:

Answer 3

A status is a socially defined aspect of a person which defines a social relationship and entails certain rights and duties in relation to others. One particular person typically is the incumbent of a great number of statuses’ (Eriksen 2023: 63).

• Being a father, a child, a teammate in a football team, an engineer, a customer
• Elicits certain actions and expectations
• Can be difficult when status expectations conflict

Question 4

Ascribed statuses:

Answer 4

cannot be opted out of (gemeinschaft)

Question 5

Achieved statuses:

Answer 5

are achievable, acquired (gesellschaft)

Question 6

Role

Answer 6

the dynamic aspect of the status, that is, a person’s actual behavior within the limitations set by the status definition.

Question 7

Agency:

Answer 7

the degree of control we have to make decisions.

Question 8

structure

Answer 8

some structures (institutions, rules, norms) that result in influence and ascribed statuses, which influences agency

Question 9

Is structure deterministic according to Eriksen?

Answer 9

• No, ‘the social status of a person never defines [their…] entire field of agency. This is partly due to the fact that a status never entails exact, detailed rules concerning how to behave in every situation’ (Eriksen 2023: 65).
• But: not everybody has the same power/agency to deviate from norms: social conventions, role expectations and the very distribution of roles and statuses in society contribute to systematic power disparities

Question 10

Erving Goffman about front and back stage behaviour:

Answer 10

• Back stage: when people feel at ease, let their guard down, who they ‘are’
• Front stage: when certain behaviour is expected of you, when you have to do impression management

Question 11

Definition of norms:

Answer 11

‘Every system requires the existence of rules stating what is permitted and what is not. Such rules, whether they are stated openly or are simply followed by tacit consent, are called norms’

• All norms have in common that they are connected with (positive and negative) sanctions
• The existence of norms doesn’t imply that there is a total agreement on them or total obeisance towards them in any society. Norms are open to change
• The ability to impose legitimate sanctions, represents a main source of power in all societies

Question 12

Social control:

Answer 12

the whole system of sanctions applied when norms are violated. Comes from social institutions (like the family, village council, police, judicial system, schools)

Question 13

Socialisation

Answer 13

‘the process whereby one becomes a fully competent member of society – where one acquires the knowledge and abilities required to function as a member of society’

An essential part of the socialisation is learning the ‘norms’ of that society, main goal is internalizing the values, norms and forms of behavior upon which society is founded

Question 14

Anomie:

Answer 14

‘Anomie […] refers to the feeling of alienation which is caused by inability to believe in, or to live up to, the values of society. This condition creates a sense of emptiness and meaninglessness

You might still know the rules, but you feel like they don’t apply, you don’t feel connected to them.

Question 15

Social institution:

Answer 15

A social institution ‘could be defined as a custom, a system of social relationships, including power relations, or a set of rules for conduct which endures through a long period and which, in a certain sense, exists independently of the persons enacting it’ (Eriksen 2023: 80).

The way society is organized, that perpetuate regardless of who is occupying the places.

Question 16

Best definition of household:

Answer 16

those persons who regularly eat their meals together

Question 17

Rites of passage:

Answer 17

All societies must find a way of solving the problem of transition from one stage to the next. Our social statuses change all the time, societies struggle with this and want to make it clear to other people in the society.

‘these rites of passage, or initiation rites, are frequently characterised by the temporary suffering, trials and deprivation of the participants’ (Eriksen 2023: 79).

Marriage and death are also forms of rites, they serve as a collective reminder of the cohesion of society, its moral values and the legitimacy of authority.

Question 18

Phases of rites of passage

Answer 18

Usually consist of three separate phases:
- Separation (the person who will do the rite is removed, the subject(s) is removed from a fixed point in a social structure towards something unkown)

• Liminal phase (in between two states, outside of society, learning everything you need to know, often comes with hardship, trials)
  Real danger for anomie, since the candidates are for the first time able to see themselves –and society– from the outside, and perhaps reflect critically on society and their role in it
• Reintegration (returning in your new social status)

Question 19

Rites of passage in modern societies:

Answer 19

Four have traditionally been important: funerals, baptism, confirmation (first communion), marriage

Question 20

Two ways of conceptualising power:

Answer 20

actor perspective and systemic perspective

Either the product of intentional, willed agency or the totality of institutional structures which condition all agency

Question 21

All human groups have the concept of the self or the person, but:

Answer 21

• It varies in if the self is undivided, integrated and sovereign; or the sum of social relationships of the individual
• Some societies have certain standards for when someone is considered a person
• There is a difference between sociocentric ‘we-cultures’ and egocentric ‘I-cultures’