Assignment in Sociology & Anthropology

 History of Sociology and Anthropology

Sociological reasoning predates the origin of the term. Social analysis has origins in the common stock of
Western knowledge and philosophy, and has been carried out from at least as early as the time of Plato. There
is evidence of early sociology in medieval Islam. It may be said that the first sociologist was Ibn Khaldun, a 14th
century Arab scholar from North Africa, whose Muqaddimah was the first work to advance social-scientific
theories of social cohesion and social conflict.[5][6][7][8][9]

The word "sociologie" was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in
an unpublished manuscript.[10] It was later established by Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in 1838.[11] Comte had
earlier used the term "social physics", but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably
the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics
through the scientific understanding of the social realm. Writing shortly after the malaise of the French
Revolution, he proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological
approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842] and A General View of Positivism [1844].
Comte believed a 'positivist stage' would mark the final era, after conjectural theological and metaphysical
phases, in the progression of human understanding.[12]

 Forerunners in Sociology & Anthropology

The methodological approach toward sociology by early theorists was to treat the discipline in broadly the
same manner as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method was sought to provide
an incontestable foundation for any sociological claims or findings, and to distinguish sociology from less
empirical fields such as philosophy. This perspective, called positivism, is based on the assumption that the
only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can come only from positive
affirmation of theories through strict scientific and quantitative methods. Émile Durkheim was a major
proponent of theoretically grounded empirical research,[23] seeking correlations between "social facts" to
reveal structural laws. His position was informed by an interest in applying sociological findings in the pursuit
of social reform and the negation of social "anomie". Today, scholarly accounts of Durkheim's positivism may
be vulnerable to exaggeration and oversimplification: Comte was the only major sociological thinker to
postulate that the social realm may be subject to scientific analysis in the same way as noble science, whereas
Durkheim acknowledged in greater detail the fundamental epistemological limitations.[24][25]

Reactions against positivism began when German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel voiced
opposition to both empiricism, which he rejected as uncritical, and determinism, which he viewed as overly

mechanistic.[26] Karl Marx's methodology borrowed from Hegel dialecticism but also a rejection of
positivism in favour of critical analysis, seeking to supplement the empirical acquisition of "facts" with the
elimination of illusions.[27] He maintained that appearances need to be critiqued rather than simply
documented. Marx nonetheless endeavoured to produce a science of society grounded in the economic
determinism of historical materialism.[27] Other philosophers, including Wilhelm Dilthey and Heinrich Rickert,
argued that the natural world differs from the social world because of those unique aspects of human society
(meanings, signs, and so on) which inform human cultures.

At the turn of the 20th century the first generation of German sociologists formally introduced methodological
antipositivism, proposing that research should concentrate on human cultural norms, values, symbols, and
social processes viewed from a subjective perspective. Max Weber argued that sociology may be loosely
described as a 'science' as it is able to identify causal relationships—especially among ideal types, or
hypothetical simplifications of complex social phenomena.[28] As a nonpositivist, however, one seeks
relationships that are not as "ahistorical, invariant, or generalizable"[29] as those pursued by natural
scientists. Ferdinand Tönnies presented Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (lit. community and society) as the two
normal types of human association. Tönnies drew a sharp line between the realm of conceptuality and the
reality of social action: the first must be treated axiomatically and in a deductive way ('pure' sociology),
whereas the second empirically and in an inductive way ('applied' sociology).[30]

Structural functionalism is a broad paradigm, both in sociology and anthropology, which addresses the social
structure in terms of the necessary function of its constituent elements. A common analogy (popularized by
Herbert Spencer) is to regard norms, values and institutions as 'organs' that work toward the
proper-functioning of the entire 'body' of society.[35] The perspective is implicit in the original sociological
positivism of Comte, but was theorized in full by Durkheim, again with respect to observable, structural laws.
Although functionalism shares an history and theoretical affinity with the empirical method, later
functionalists, such as Bronisław Malinowski and Talcott Parsons, are to some extent antipositivist.[36]
Similarly, whilst functionalism shares an affinity with 'grand theory' (e.g. systems theory in the work of Niklas
Luhmann), one may distinguish between structural and non-structural conceptions. It is also simplistic to
equate the perspective directly with conservative ideology.[37] In the most basic terms functionalism concerns
"the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the
functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system."[36]

Economic sociology is the sociological analysis of economic phenomena; the role economic structures and
institutions play upon society, and the influence a society holds over the nature of economic structures and
institutions. The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient issue. Marx's historical materialism
attempted to demonstrate how economic forces have a fundamental influence on the structure of society.
Max Weber also, though less deterministically, regarded economic processes as key to social understanding.
Georg Simmel, particularly in his Philosophy of Money, was important in the early development of economic
sociology, as was Emile Durkheim with works such as The Division of Labour in Society. Economic
sociology is often synonymous with socioeconomics. In many cases, however, socioeconomists focus on the
social impact of specific economic changes, such as the closing of a factory, market manipulation, the signing
of international trade treaties, new natural gas regulation, and so on.

The word "sociologie" was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in

an unpublished manuscript.[10] It was later established by Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in 1838.

[11] Comte had earlier used the term "social physics", but that had subsequently been appropriated by others,
most notably the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and
economics through the scientific understanding of the social realm. Writing shortly after the malaise of the
French Revolution, he proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an
epistemological approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842] and A General View of
Positivism [1844]. Comte believed a 'positivist stage' would mark the final era, after conjectural theological
and metaphysical phases, in the progression of human understanding.[12]

Though Comte is generally regarded as the "Father of Sociology",[12] the discipline was formally established
by another functionalist theorist, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who developed positivism further.