Extending Lenski's Schema to Hold Up Both Halves of the Sky—A Theory‐Guided Way of Conceptualizing Agrarian Societies that Illuminates a Puzzle about Gender Stratification

This paper suggests that Lenski's classification of agrarian societies into simple versus advanced, based on the use of iron in the latter, obscures important variations in the gender division of labor and the level of gender stratification. In particular, his categories lump the gender egalitarian irrigated rice societies of Southeast Asia with the great majority of agrarian societies, which are strongly patriarchal. Based on my general theory of gender stratification and experience coding and analyzing gender stratification in the ethnographic databases and fieldwork in 39 countries worldwide, I propose a three‐category alternative. First, agrarian societies are divided according to the technological criterion of irrigation into dry (rain‐fed) and wet (irrigated rice) categories. This distinguishes two gender divisions of labor: a male farming system in dry agrarian and an "everybody works" system in labor‐intensive rice cultivation, in which women are important in production. Second, irrigated rice societies are divided into patri‐oriented‐male advantage and those neutral to positive for women, based on the nature of the kinship system. This distinguishes the gender egalitarian Southeast Asian wet rice societies from the highly gender stratified majority of irrigated rice societies. Furthermore, these distinctions in gender equality are predicted by my gender stratification theory.     

Evolution and Event in History and Social Change: Gerhard Lenski's Critical Theory

Authors have contrasted social change and history many times, especially in terms of the significance of the event in accounting for the broadest contours of human societies' evolution. After recasting Gerhard Lenski's ecological‐evolutionary theory in a critical fashion, by emphasizing its engagement with alternativity and by introducing a different approach to structure, I reconsider the salience of the event in the developmentalist project and suggest that ecological‐evolutionary theory can be quite helpful in posing new questions about an eventful sociology. By rethinking communism's collapse in 1989 and terrorism's explosion in 2001 within Lenski's theoretical frame, one can suggest critical transformations of theory and research on the evolution of human societies.     

Socialism and Dependency in Parsons' Theory of Evolution*

According to Parsons' theory of evolution, socialist (communist) societies deviate from the progressive line of evolutionary development. But Parsons' empirical analyses indicate that socialist societies exhibit many of the features which, according to his theory, are supposed to characterize societies at the apex of evolutionary development. An endeavor to elicit from Parsons' works plausible solutions to this contradiction fails. Juxtaposing Parsons' treatment of the relationships between the developed and the underdeveloped societies to that of the imperialism-dependency theory it is found that the assumptions, propositions, and interpretations of the two are incompatible, or even diametrically opposed to each other. Moreover, Parsons completely disregards the rich theoretical and empirical research emanating from the school of imperialism-dependency. It is concluded that Parsons' theory of evolution can explain neither the socialist path, of development, nor can it address the issue of change of underdeveloped countries within the context of the contemporary world system.     

Past and Future Applications of Jasso's Justice Theory

Past applications of Jasso's theory of justice evaluation, including several applied tests, generally support the theory but raise questions future applications should address. These include whether the theory might predict as well or better if the good in question is something other than income and if it would predict third‐party evaluations as well or better than first‐party evaluations. Moreover, the theory could be used for more demanding applications: interventions, which would involve changing the situation in order to affect justice evaluations. The theory itself suggests three means of effecting such interventions.     

Toward an Ecological–Evolutionary Theory of the Incidence of Warfare in Preindustrial Societies

Prompted by the lack of attention by sociologists and the challenge of materialist explanations of warfare in "precivilized" societies posed by Keeley (1996), this paper tests and finds support for two materialist hypotheses concerning the likelihood of warfare in preindustrial societies: specifically, that, as argued by ecological–evolutionary theory, dominant mode of subsistence is systematically related to rates of warfare; and that, within some levels of technological development, higher levels of "population pressure" are associated with a greater likelihood of warfare. Using warfare measures developed by Ember and Ember (1995), measures of subsistence technology originally developed by Lenski (1966, 1970), and the standard sample of societies developed by Murdock and White (1969), this study finds evidence that warfare is more likely in advanced horticultural and agrarian societies than it is in hunting–and–gathering and simple horticultural societies, and that it is also more likely in hunting–and–gathering and agrarian societies that have above–average population densities. These findings offer substantial support for ecological–evolutionary theory and qualified but intriguing support for "population pressure" as explanations of cross–cultural variation in the likelihood of warfare.     

Toward a General Sociological Theory of the Economy

In the spirit of Gerhard Lenski's macro‐level analysis of stratification and societal evolution, a theory of the economy is presented. Like Lenski's work, this theory emphasizes population and power as they interact with production and distribution dynamics. Macro‐level social organization in general, and economic processes in particular, are viewed as driven by the forces of population, power, production, and distribution. For each force, a theoretical proposition is presented. Forces are all implicated in each other; the resulting set of principles provides a view of how production and distribution, as the core of an economy, are embedded in population and power processes, and vice versa. The end result is a more general macro‐level theory that captures the spirit and substance of Lenski's models of societal organization.     

Tiny Publics: Small Groups and Civil Society

It has been conventional to conceptualize civic life through one of two core images: the citizen as lone individualist or the citizen as joiner. Drawing on analyses of the historical development of the public sphere, we propose an alternative analytical framework for civic engagement based on small-group interaction. By embracing this micro‐level approach, we contribute to the debate on civil society in three ways. By emphasizing local interaction contexts—the microfoundations of civil society—we treat small groups as a cause, context, and consequence of civic engagement. First, through framing and motivating, groups encourage individuals to participate in public discourse and civic projects. Second, they provide the place and support for that involvement. Third, civic engagement feeds back into the creation of additional groups. A small‐groups perspective suggests how civil society can thrive even if formal and institutional associations decline. Instead of indicating a decline in civil society, a proliferation of small groups represents a healthy development in democratic societies, creating cross‐cutting networks of affiliation.     

Extending Identity Control Theory: Insights from Classifier Systems

Within identity control theory (ICT), identities control meaning and resources by bringing perceptions of these in the situation into alignment with references levels given in the identity standard. This article seeks to resolve three issues in ICT having to do with the source of the identity standard, the correspondence between identity standards and the identity relevant meanings perceived in the situation or environment, and the activation of identities . Classifier systems, as developed by John Holland, are inductive, flexible, rule‐based, message‐passing, adaptive systems that are able to learn, to fit in, and to adapt to various and changing environments. Classifier systems are introduced and are extended to incorporate the central components of the model of identity as held in ICT. In this manner, a new identity model is proposed that has inductive and adaptive capacities able to resolve the three issues identified. Unexpectedly, the new model also lays the groundwork for the possible resolution of a long‐standing issue within the symbolic interaction framework concerning the origins of shared meanings .     

The Ecological-Evolutionary Typology of Human Societies and the Evolution of Social Inequality

Gerhard Lenski's ecological-evolutionary typology of human societies, based on the level of technology of a society and the nature of its physical environment, is a powerful predictor of various dimensions of social inequality. Analysis of comparative data shows that while some dimensions of the stratification system (such as measures of social complexity) exhibit a monotonic trend of increasing inequality with level of technology from the hunting-and-gathering to the agrarian type, others (such as measures of freedom and sexual inequality among males) exhibit a pattern of "agrarian reversal" in which inequality increases from the hunting‐and‐gathering to the advanced horticultural type but then declines with the agrarian type. Theoretical and empirical implications of the agrarian reversal pattern for the study of social inequality are discussed.     

Bringing Identity Theory into Environmental Sociology

In an effort to explain pro‐environmental behavior, environmental sociologists often study environmental attitudes. While much of this work is atheoretical, the focus on attitudes suggests that researchers are implicitly drawing upon attitude theory in psychology. The present research brings sociological theory to environmental sociology by drawing on identity theory to understand environmentally responsive behavior. We develop an environment identity model of environmental behavior that includes not only the meanings of the environment identity, but also the prominence and salience of the environment identity and commitment to the environment identity. We examine the identity process as it relates to behavior, though not to the exclusion of examining the effects of environmental attitudes. The findings reveal that individual agency is important in influencing environmentally responsive behavior, but this agency is largely through identity processes, rather than attitude processes. This provides an important theoretical and empirical advance over earlier work in environmental sociology.     

Rinkeby Swedish and semilingualism in language ideological debates: A Bourdieuean perspective

The focus of this paper is on the mechanisms whereby liberal and well‐meaning democratic societies propagate a cycle of disposession where immigrants are constructed as least resourced while the powerful retain their power. Specifically discussed is the semiotic management of traditional hierarchies of privilege and access through language ideological discourses pertaining to second language acquisition, multilingualism and heterogeneity. One notion in particular is discussed in this context, namely Rinkeby Swedish , a potential, imagined, pan‐immigrant contact variety of Swedish. The discussion is framed within a primarily Bourdieuean conceptual apparatus using concepts of symbolic market, explaining the role of language boundaries and their institutional policing, and detailing the semiotic processes of iconization whereby immigrants are positioned as outside of a symbolically reconstituted community of 'real' Swedish speakers, in strategic attempts to restrict their access to important linguistic and symbolic resources.     

System Theory as Global Sociology-Japanese Ramifications of Parsonian and Luhmannian Thought

This article explores various engagements of system theory with Germany and Japan, looking in particular at the theories of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann. Talcott Parsons based his sociological theory on the idea of a system of the values of a given society. Niklas Luhmann’s extended version was based on the idea of self-reproduction (or “autopoiesis”) of social systems within all modernized societies. Two studies have recently re-examined system theory on basis of its engagement with Japan: Günther Distelrath has subjected Parsonian theory on Japanese modernity to a structural revisioning in Die japanische Produktionsweise (1996); and Peter Fuchs has reconciled what he calls the “dividualism” of the Japanese psyche with the Luhmannian theory of functional differentiation in Kommunikation — Japanisch (1995). Distelrath critiques the Parsonian school of thought for giving Japan the status of a backward “follower” of the West. Fuchs, in contrast, endorses the universalist premise of Luhmann’s concept of society and makes Japanese “dividualism” the paradigm of effective modernization. Following on from Fuchs, I argue that system theory has the potential to overcome cultural limitations and become a global sociology. Its theoretical agenda in the twenty-first century includes the refinement of its concepts of the psychical system, the revision of its notion of the public and the mass media, as well as a systematic contribution to environmental protection and ecological communication in a functionally differentiated world society.     

Sociology and the Second Darwinian Revolution: A Metatheoretical Analysis

Sociologists tend to eschew biological explanations of human social behavior. Accordingly, when evolutionary biologists began to apply neo‐Darwinian theory to the study of human social behavior, the reactions of sociologists typically ranged from indifference to overt hostility. Since the mid‐1960s, however, neo‐Darwinian evolutionary theory has stimulated a "second Darwinian revolution" in traditional social scientific conceptions of human nature and social behavior, even while most sociologists remain largely uninformed about neo‐Darwinian theory and research. This article traces sociology's long‐standing isolation from the life sciences, especially evolutionary biology, to divergence in the metatheoretical assumptions that typify conventional sociological thought versus contemporary evolutionary biology. We conclude with a discussion of the recent emergence of a nascent "evolutionary sociology" that integrates sociobiological reasoning with contemporary sociological thought.     

CONVERGENCE IN RELATION TO LEVEL OF SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT

A classic version of convergence theory was proposed by Marion Levy as part of his theory of modernization: If and as the level of modernization increases (defined as a higher ratio of reliance upon inanimate energy and tools relative to animate energy), the level of structural uniformity among relatively modernized societies continually increases. I test this hypothesis by using the coefficient of variation (V) as the measure of convergence. I analyze a wide range of variables: level of economic development, capitalist market economy, demographic variables, technology, the state and political democracy, cognitive modernization, health, income inequality and poverty, gender particularism–universalism, and information and communications. Each variable is treated as one test of the hypothesis. The hypothesis is first tested by dividing 201 societies into quartiles representing four levels of development as of 1990, and comparing their V scores at one point in time (around the year 2000). Full confirmation of the hypothesis is a monotonic decline in V scores as we move from the least to the most developed societies; this is observed in 19 out of 51, or 37 percent, of the tests. The second set of tests is a stricter, longitudinal test of the hypothesis. Among the 21 societies already developed in 1965, as their level of development continued to rise from 1965 to the present, they became more convergent in 32 out of 45, or 71 percent, of the tests. Thus, variation in social structure is greater among less modernized than among more modernized societies, and this has implications for theories of globalization.     

Orientalist Knowledge and Social Theories: China and the European Conceptions of East‐West Differences from 1600 to 1900

This paper examines the long‐term development of Orientalism as an intellectual field, with the European learning of China between ca.1600 and ca.1900 as an exemplary case. My analysis will be aided by a theoretical framework based on a synthesis of the world‐system and network perspectives on long‐run intellectual change. Analyzing recurrent debates on China within European intellectual circles, I demonstrate that the Western conception of the East has been oscillating between universalism and particularism, and between naive idealization and racist bias. This oscillation is a function as much of the changing political economy of the capitalist world‐system as of the endogenous politics of the intellectual field. Despite their contrasting views, both admirers and despisers of the East viewed non‐Western civilizations as uniform wholes that had never changed. I argue that the fundamental fallacy of Orientalism lay, not in its presumptions about the ontological differences between East and West and the former's inferiority, as previous critics of Orientalism have supposed, but in its reductionism. Understanding non‐Western civilizations in their full dynamism and heterogeneity is a critical step toward the renewal of the twentieth‐century social theories that were built upon and impaired by the Orientalist knowledge accumulated in the previous centuries.     

Archaeology and World-Systems Theory

Archaeology has tremendous potential for developing world-systems approaches to non-Western and noncapitalist societies because it has the ability to both explore non-Western and noncapitalist societies with the sophistication of anthropology and to explore societies in existence long before the capitalist world-system began to evolve. I suggest that sociologists stand to gain by learning about non-Western and noncapitalist societies, particularly as they are understood by archaeologists. World-systems theory provides a common framework within which archaeologists and sociologists can both work. This article explores recent work in world-systems archaeology that sociologists might find particularly valuable.     

Archaeology and World-Systems Theory

Archaeology has tremendous potential for developing world-systems approaches to non-Western and noncapitalist societies because it has the ability to both explore non-Western and noncapitalist societies with the sophistication of anthropology and to explore societies in existence long before the capitalist world-system began to evolve. I suggest that sociologists stand to gain by learning about non-Western and noncapitalist societies, particularly as they are understood by archaeologists. World-systems theory provides a common framework within which archaeologists and sociologists can both work. This article explores recent work in world-systems archaeology that sociologists might find particularly valuable.