ANTH 1002 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Mary Douglas, Commodity Fetishism, Social Fact
Document Summary
Emile durkheim believed that anthropology could be a social science, with an object of study "social facts" he defines social facts as "consisting of manners, acting, thinking and feeling, external to the individual. " Social facts are broad and include everything from political systems, to beliefs about right and wrong, suicide rates, and art. Explores the why of why people do things. Powerful and coercive, and strongs and binds society together, since they dictate how we interact and how we relate to society. Lack of social integration, leads to a lack of social cohesion as society moves from traditional to modern, people lose their interpretation and sense of place resulting in a higher suicide rate. Society is seen as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and social order. These parts of society are social structures, or primarily peoples behavior. Social functions are the norms of a society in which people fulfill roles as parents, workers, etc.
