Social Structure and Status of the Aged: Toward Some Valid Cross-Cultural Generalizations

Through an examination of social structural elements in Meso-American peasant communities, six “structural determinants” of status of the aged are derived. These are almost identical with determinants proposed independently by Cowgill, derived from a number of cross-cultural sources. It is suggested that these determinants have universal validity, and that status of the aged in all societies is dependent upon them. It is further proposed that these determinants can be economically reduced to four basic “prestige generating” components: (1) advisory, reflected in the degree to which the advice or opinion of the aged individual is actually heeded; (2) contributory, reflected in the extent to which older society members still participate actively in various spheres; (3) control, reflecting the degree of direct control which the aged have over behavior or welfare of others; (4) residual, reflecting residual prestige from previous statuses. These four components of prestige may vary independently, and one or more must be operative for aged individuals to be viewed with, and accorded, prestige.

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The Social Structure of the Liquid Self: Exploratory Lessons from Israeli Flight Attendants

Sociology ◽

10.1177/0038038511416168 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 45 (6) ◽

pp. 992-1007 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hagar Hazaz-Berger ◽

Gad Yair

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Social Structure ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

Interpersonal Relations ◽

Flight Attendants ◽

Structural Elements ◽

Multiple Selves ◽

Personal Morality ◽

The Social

This paper provides an empirical investigation of Israeli flight attendants in order to characterize the structural underpinnings of the liquid self, and their resultant phenomenological consequences on personal morality, conceptions of self and interpersonal relations. The study touched upon the motivations and behaviours of flight attendants, how they juggle family and personal commitments, and the internal persona they adopt vis-à-vis their own selves. By contextualizing their narratives through the structural elements of their jobs, the study exposes the attendants’ ambivalent and incoherent lives and the complex ways in which they manage their social networks across place and time. While flight attendants evince chameleon-like selves and fluid morality in their interpersonal relations – taking advantage of their ability to stage different selves in different ports of life – they maintain their multiple selves in functioning ways.

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Inequality

10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.398 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Blim

Keyword(s):

Sexual Minorities ◽

Equal Opportunity ◽

Well Being ◽

Core Values ◽

Equal Protection ◽

Structural Elements ◽

Decisive Influence ◽

Social Structural ◽

Gender Status ◽

Over Time

Inequality in all its forms is common to human societies, and thus its understanding is part of the central mission of anthropology. Social structural elements such as race, class, gender, status, and caste have a decisive influence on human well-being and have been a persistent focus of inquiry over the course of more than a century of anthropological investigations. It is also fair to say that anthropologists over time have adopted as core values equal protection and equal opportunity for all peoples. These principles have been applied by extension most recently to sexual minorities, stateless refugees, and migrants.

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A Typology of Social Structure and the Patterning of Social Institutions: A Cross-Cultural Study

American Anthropologist ◽

10.1525/aa.1965.67.5.02a00010 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 67 (5) ◽

pp. 1097-1119 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Melford E. Spiro

Keyword(s):

Social Structure ◽

Cultural Study ◽

Social Institutions ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cross Cultural Study

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Social structural Determinants of Regional Variations in Fertility

10.14257/astl.2016.131.12 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Samsik Lee ◽

Hyojin Choi

Keyword(s):

Structural Determinants ◽

Regional Variations ◽

Social Structural

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Theravada Buddhism and Village Economic Behavior: A Burmese and Thai Comparison

The Journal of Asian Studies ◽

10.2307/2050678 ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 341-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

David E. Pfanner ◽

Jasper Ingersoll

Keyword(s):

Southeast Asia ◽

Social Structure ◽

Research Design ◽

Field Research ◽

Economic Behavior ◽

Theravada Buddhism ◽

Comparable Data ◽

Peasant Communities ◽

Original Plan

The following two articles constitute the partial results of a project in comparative coordinated research in Southeast Asia. Prior to undertaking field research in Burma and Thailand in 1959–60, the authors developed a research design to ensure the collection of comparable data for description and analysis in the areas of social structure and economics. The original plan was modified in the field during an exchange of visits to the Burmese and Thai peasant communities eventually selected for study.

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Tracking Cross-Cultural Gender Bias in Reputations

Cross-Cultural Research ◽

10.1177/1069397120910429 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 346-363

Author(s):

Emily R. Post ◽

Shane J. Macfarlan

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Social Structure ◽

Gender Bias ◽

Subject Matter ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

One Dimension ◽

Human Relations ◽

Female Authorship ◽

Feminine Subject ◽

Over Time

While ethnologists have long noted that females lack access to social capital across cultures, the magnitude of this effect is rarely examined. Here, we investigate the nature of gender bias in one dimension of social capital, reputation. We extract data on reputations from the electronic Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) database, specifically the societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, and analyze whether there are fewer instances of feminine reputation relative to masculine reputation. In addition, we assess whether aspects of social structure or institutional biases in the production of ethnography affect the rate at which feminine reputations occur. We find that (a) most reputations are gendered male; (b) patrilocality and matriliny increase the rate at which feminine reputations occur, while patriliny decreases their occurrence; and (c) as female authorship increases over time, inclusion of feminine subject matter increases, which resulted in a greater incidence of feminine reputations. Ultimately, our analyses highlight the need for increased focus on feminine subject matters and gendered social capital in the discipline of anthropology.

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The origins of aggression sex differences: Evolved dispositions versus social roles

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x99331812 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 223-224 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Alice H. Eagly ◽

Wendy Wood

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Social Structure ◽

Aggressive Behavior ◽

Social Roles ◽

Structural Interpretation ◽

The Social ◽

Social Structural ◽

Evolutionary Interpretation

The ultimate causes of sex differences in human aggressive behavior can lie mainly in evolved, inherited mechanisms that differ by sex or mainly in the differing placement of women and men in the social structure. The present commentary contrasts Campbell's evolutionary interpretation of aggression sex differences with a social structural interpretation that encompasses a wider range of phenomena.

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Social Structure and Status of the Aged: Toward Some Valid Cross-Cultural Generalizations

In the Country of the Old ◽

10.4324/9781315227351-3 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 47-56

Author(s):

Irwin Press ◽

Mike McKool

Keyword(s):

Social Structure ◽

Cross Cultural

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Freidson Then and Now: An “Internalist” Critique of Freidson's Past and Present Views of the Medical Profession

International Journal of Health Services ◽

10.2190/2770-t9pj-8cp2-t59w ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 497-512 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

David Coburn

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Medical Profession ◽

The United States ◽

Professional Autonomy ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Structural Determinants ◽

The Core ◽

Social Structural ◽

Core Elements ◽

Medical Dominance

Freidson is a foremost analyst of the medical profession. Most recently Freidson attacks those who claim that medicine is declining in power. He insists that medicine has not lost the core elements that make it a powerful, indeed, the dominant, health profession. The author compares Freidson's early writings on medicine with his most recent ones, and shows that there are critical confusions in Freidson's central concepts of professional autonomy and dominance. This difficulty is illuminated by viewing dominance, autonomy, and subordination as on a continuum of control. Using this continuum, the author argues that Freidson implicitly admits what he set out to deny (that medicine has not declined in power) by shifting his focus from medical dominance to that of autonomy. Freidson also now rejects valid parts of his earlier work (that which emphasizes social structural determinants of behavior over socialization). In equating medicine in the United States with teaching in that country, Freidson's contention of “little change in medical power” meets its own refutation. Finally, despite his derogation of others, Freidson's lack of an adequate framework to explain the dynamics and not simply the structure of health care produces purely normative, Utopian (and unhelpful) policy recommendations.

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