A guide for Sociology students
Vilfredo Pareto proposed the concept of ‘Circulation of elite’. It can be explained in atleast two ways. One of them is that the ‘circulation of elite’ is the process in which one elite replaces the another. The second reference is that the movement of people from non-elite groups to elite groups and vice-versa. Pareto explained … Read more
Emile Durkheim introduced the term ‘Anomie’ to define one of the abnormal type of society formed as a result of ‘division of labour’. He explained that though material life changes rapidly, standards and values are not changing as much as needed. For example, factory workers do boring and monotonous activities everyday. They do not feel … Read more
James Frazer, an eminent social anthropologist argued that as the civilization progresses, primitive magic is replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science. Civilized societies are looking at magic as superstition and science as truth, whereas magic is the root of science, according to Frazer. But many European Scholars criticized Frazer and argued that magic and science may … Read more
Manifest function is something, which can be noticed easily. Latent function is deeper and not all the participants are aware of it. Whereas manifest function is known by all participants of the social institutions. For example, if a criminal is punished, everyone knows that it is the society’s way of saying that deviance of behaviour … Read more
R.K.Merton took the help of biological sciences to define the term ‘Function’ in sociology. He explained that the function is the contribution of social institutions to society, just like the contribution of organic process inside the human body for the survival of human beings. Merton says that functions of the social institutions maintain the society … Read more
