Quotes About Social structure

This book [...] demonstrates something we had already suspected on the grounds of the close connection between apes and man: that the social organization of chimpanzees is almost too human to be true.

Even those who believe that humans are more egalitarian than chimpanzees will have to admit that our societies could not possibly function without an acknowledged order.

There is in fact no data demonstrating that men are more hierarchical than women. The only difference one study reported is that when people are put together in same-gender groups, men settle on a rank order more quickly than women. Women do eventually always form one, however.

Traditionally, primatologists looked at alpha males as those who succeeded in spreading their genes. But in making this point, we relied entirely on observed sexual activity. The more we saw a male mate, the more offspring he sired, we thought. This assumption proved flawed. While alpha males have no qualms about mounting females in the open, other males often get busy out of sight and at night.

In a society which is structured the wrong way, piety has no effect.

When, over fifty years ago, I first became interested in economics - as a discipline that provided the key to social structure and social problems - it never crossed my mind that one day I might be the honored recipient of a Nobel Memorial Prize.

PROFESSOR:What do we call a patient with paranoid schizophrenic tendencies who still manages to assimilate himself into the social structure? CRAIG: A Republican.

History only suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Society is a system of inherited forms reducing our humiliating passivity to nature.

Pela arte foi criado esse grande Leviatã denominado Comunidade ou Estado - (em latim, Civitas) que não é mais que um homem artificial". THOMAS HOBBES. SENTENÇA DE ABERTURA DO "LEVIATÔ.

Thus power was shared between the sexes and the European idea of male dominancy and female subordination in all things was conspicuously absent in Iroquois society.

Abroad little towns seemed to possess a bustling other-life, like insects below the grass. There were often mysteries to uncover, mysteries that could be cherished like gems unexpectedly discovered in a rock that had seemed uniformly grey. Here, the social structure demanded a different kind of behaviour-upright, polite, mannered-but that usually meant mysteries, when they were coaxed from hiding, were all the more delightful and perverse.

In Bonoboville, the females gently but firmly rule the roost, keeping the males gentle and firm

Lists have always implied social order.

One of the remarkable things about slums is that they do develop their own social organization and economy and even culture that is, on some level, functional and in some cases, remarkably resilient. This is kind of amazing.

It was not that socialism failed, it was the lack of socialism.

When starvation threatened, the poor were capable of using violence to secure food for themselves, but they made little contribution to the political radicalism of the time and showed no interest in attempting to change the structure of the society in which they found themselves. Unlike

Despite the obvious difficulties when it comes to social systems, social scientists have been very imaginative in devising analogous quantitative experiments to inspire and test hypotheses, and these have proven to give insight into social structure and dynamics. Many involve surveys and responses to various questionnaires and are subject to limitations that depend on the role of the experimental teams who have to interact with the subjects.

Civilizations have always been pyramidal in structure. As one climbs toward the apex of the social edifice, there is increased leisure and increasing opportunity to pursue hapiness. As one climbs, one finds also fewer and fewer people to enjoy this more and more. Invariably, there is a preponderance of the dispossessed. And remember this, no matter how well off the bottom layers of the pyramid might be on an absolute scale, they are always dispossessed in comparison with the apex.

Marriage isn't about two people; it is the basis for the family. That's why it's unique, and therefore I think society can say we're keeping marriage for a man and a woman.

Self-examination - when the whole world around you is pressuring that and challenging you - is very, very hard. Looking at a whole structure - in my case, let us say of snobbery, basking in certain privileges, marks of what appear to be superiority - that's ugly to look at.

Ultimately, political order does not generate itself.

Marriage is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history. Its something that has provided permanence and stability for our very social structure.

No one so poignantly realizes the failures in the social structure as the man at the bottom, who has been most directly in contact with those failures and has suffered most.