Exercise 1
Emile Durkheim is remembered for many ideas that he brought in the field of Sociology. Among the ideas that he came up with are the ideas about time and ritual. This quotation falls under his ideas of time and ritual. Therefore, after reading the quotation, it is apparent that we comprehend what he essentially meant.
In this quotation, what Durkheim is meaning is that a religious group is essentially not a ritual precautions simple group that a human being is held to take in given circumstances at given periods of time. He in fact means that it is a system of varied festivals, rites, and ceremonies that all possess the characteristic that they recur or reappear periodically or at certain periods of time. This means that the importance of time in various rituals that individuals engage in calls for critical analysis. For example, in almost every society, certain events such as public ceremonies, festivals, and rites occur at specific intervals depending on the society timeline. I also understand that these festivals, rites, and ceremonies fulfill need that a believer feels of both affirming and strengthening, at regular time intervals, the bond that actually unites such a believer to sacred beings that he depends on.
The other thing that has come into my mind after reading the quotation is that the importance of time in the society requires critical examination. However, from this quotation I also understand that society members treat time like it was a natural phenomenon with an indispensable nature, shaping the human thought and action. For instance, the ideas that we have concerning time are actually a product of the social life. My other understanding about time from this quotation is that time is actually not produced by the clocks that simply represent our understanding of time.
I also understand that as human beings working in particular cultural and historical contexts, we generate our own ideas about time. Therefore, clock time is essentially based on set of ideas that are not produced by the clocks but by the individuals who use them.
In addition, what I have understood is that the community link present to the past in rituals, which are understood as the iterations of events that go forward into human history. These cult aides to constitute the moral boundaries that exclude the strangers, define sacred citizenship, which operates across the social distinctions status, and provide access to the privileges and goods. Nevertheless, this does not mean that integration in the society occurs without conflicts, since various struggles from time to time occur among cult adherents for their varied positions in it, their opposing interpretations of core myths and beliefs, and its significance to challenges that they face.
Exercise 2
George Simmel’s analysis of the modern society in his work, “The Metropolis and Mental Life” reflects views on division of labor, the money economy, and capitalistic competition ideas previously discussed by Weber, Durkheim, and Marx. In this piece of writing, Simmel dissects onslaught of the metropolitan life and struggle for individuals to preserve their own individuality. In addition, his work focuses on elucidating modern aspects of the contemporary life with reference to what they essentially mean. He accomplishes this objective or goal by originally noting the modifications and adjustments made by the human beings in response to the external forces, and then through detailing the way social structures prescribe specific relationships. In the course of his investigation, various notable urban living things are illuminated.
Concerning the blasé outlook, we observe that his opening essay begins with a statement that human beings are normally under pressure from the leveling objective forces that essentially threaten to suffocate them. Therefore, the modern life in fact became problematic as a result of the attempt by the individuals to maintain the individuality and independence of their existence against society sovereign powers, also against historical heritage weight, and the technique of life and the external culture.
In the everyday modern life, there are various examples that relate to Simmel’s idea of blasé attitude. One of these examples is an agricultural migrant who finds everything being different when after he or she visits an urban area. This individual will actually face various challenges in urban centers where the effects of the urban lifestyle on the individuals vary depending on how these individuals respond to these external forces. From Simmel’s work we understand that there exist various stimuli for the urban people to react to. Thus, an agricultural migrant will find this very difficult as we further understand that the nerves of the urban people in their reaction to the urban stimuli become so agitated up to the point where these people find it difficult to react.
Therefore, this agricultural migrant from the rural area will have difficulties in coping with the urban life. This is so because the urban dwellers in coping with urban life, attempt to live their lives systematically and eliminate need for much decision making. This means that this agricultural immigrant will lack a cold and indifferent personality as possessed by the urban people. This in fact is what he calls a blasé attitude. For instance, this is proved by the following quote from Simmel’s work, “Instead of reacting emotionally, the metropolitan type reacts primarily in a rational manner . . . Thus the reaction of the metropolitan person to those events is moved to the sphere of mental activity that is least sensitive and furthest removed from the depths of personality (12). For that reason, this shows the difference between how an urban dweller and an agricultural immigrant copes with the challenges experienced in urban life.
