Max Weber

Max Weber (1864–1920) is considered by many to be the “Father of Modern Sociology”.1 His emphasis on the historical influence of ideas encouraged sociologists to consider more than just a society’s material culture and institutional structures. One of his primary interests was Verstehen, the emic understanding of the social actor in human exchange. Weber saw value in looking at the meaning…

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Cultural Evolution – Ten Characteristics of Civilized Life

Early sociologists in the nineteenth century assumed cultural evolution occurred in primitive societies. See the writings of Englishman, Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), and American, Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881). These researchers assumed three basic levels of human beings, noted in the list below. Commonly, indigenous peoples were referred to as “savages”. Northern Europe was assumed to…

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