SOCY200 final

Technology

technology refers to the information, techniques, and tools used by people to satisfy their needs and desires. It isn't just hardware; it includes the cultural knowledge required to create and use those tools to manipulate the environment.

The diffusion of Technology

The process by which technological innovations spread from one society to another or from one social group to another. This is a primary driver of social change and cultural evolution.

Cultural Evolution

The theory that societies change over time through a process of cumulative structural and cultural transformation. Earlier theories (Unilinear) suggested all societies go through the same stages, while modern theories (Multilinear) recognize that societies take different paths based on their environments.

Agricultural Innovation

Key advancements (like the heavy plow, irrigation systems, and crop rotation) that allowed for a massive increase in food production. This surplus led to the rise of permanent settlements, social stratification, and specialized labor.

The Economics of Agricultural States

Agricultural societies are typically characterized by a "tribute-taking" economy. A small elite class extracts surplus wealth from the peasant majority through taxes, tithes, or forced labor, leading to extreme wealth inequality.

The Moral Economy

A concept (often associated with E.P. Thompson or James C. Scott) suggesting that traditional peasant societies are governed by a sense of mutual obligation and the "right to subsistence." People are motivated by social fairness and survival rather than just individual profit.

Why Some Societies More Industrially Advanced than Others

Sociologists and historians (like Jared Diamond or Max Weber) look at several factors:

Geographic Luck: Access to domesticable plants/animals.

Culture: The "Protestant Ethic" or a culture of innovation.

Institutions: Stable governments and property rights.

Colonialism: The extraction of resources from other nations to fuel domestic industrialization.

The difference between Modernity and Modernism?

Modernity: The historical period and the social/economic structures that emerged following the Industrial Revolution (urbanization, capitalism, bureaucracy).

Modernism: The cultural and artistic movement that responded to modernity, often characterized by a break with traditional aesthetic forms and a focus on subjective experience.

Characteristics of Modernity

Industrialization: Mass production and machine labor.

Urbanization: Movement of populations from farms to cities.

Rationalization: The shift toward efficiency, logic, and bureaucracy (as described by Max Weber).

Secularization: The declining influence of religious institutions on public life.

Scientific Racism

The pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, this was used to justify colonialism and slavery by "ranking" different human races.

How horticultural societies organized

These societies (using hand tools like digging sticks) were often organized around kinship groups or clans. They were generally more settled than hunter-gatherers but less stratified than agricultural societies. Wealth was often shared, though "Big Men" or chiefs could emerge as leaders through redistribution.

The main results of the European conquest of the New World

Mass Depopulation: Due to disease and warfare.

Columbian Exchange: Global transfer of plants, animals, and technology.

Rise of Global Capitalism: Fuelled by silver mines and plantation labor (slavery).

Racial Hierarchies: The creation of social castes based on European descent.

How European Germs Changed the New World?

Indigenous populations had no immunity to "Old World" diseases (smallpox, measles, flu). This caused a demographic collapse (up to 90% mortality in some areas), which decimated social structures and made it significantly easier for Europeans to conquer and colonize the land.

The Industrial Cycles

Also known as "Kondratiev Waves," these are long-term economic cycles in modern industrial capitalism. They are usually driven by a major technological breakthrough (e.g., the steam engine, the railroad, electricity, or information technology) that creates a boom, followed by a period of stagnation or recession as the market becomes saturated.

Subsistence strategy

The primary method a society uses to acquire food (foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism).

Domestication

The genetic and behavioral modification of plants and animals through selective breeding for human use.

Surplus production

Generating more food than a population immediately consumes, enabling specialization and social

stratification.

Social stratification

A system where people are ranked hierarchically based on wealth, power, and status.

Geographic determinism

The idea that environment and geography strongly shape societal development and historical outcomes.

Institutional power

Power that operates through formal structures (government, law, religion, education) rather than individual actions.

Division of labor

The specialization of tasks within a society, allowing people to focus on specific jobs or skills.

State formation

The process by which centralized political institutions develop to govern large populations and territories.

Ideology

A structured set of beliefs that explains and justifies social arrangements, power relations, or worldviews.

Cultural diffusion

The spread of cultural beliefs, technologies, and practices from one society to another.

Environmental resistance

Natural limits—such as disease, climate, and resource scarcity—that restrict population growth.

Epidemiological immunity

Population-level resistance to disease developed through long-term exposure to pathogens.

Technological determinism

The belief that technological innovation is the primary driver of social change.

Agricultural intensification

Increasing agricultural productivity through irrigation, fertilizers, terracing, or improved tools.

Domesticated animals as agents of history

Animals that gave societies advantages by providing labor,

transportation, fertilizer, and deadly germs.

Narrative identity

The cultural story through which a society understands who they are, what they value, and how they should act.

Resource endowment

The natural resources (soil, minerals, climate, crops) a region possesses, shaping its development trajectory.

Secondary products revolution

The shift from using animals only for meat to exploiting milk, wool, labor, and traction—dramatically increasing productivity.

Cultural hegemony

The dominance of one group’s worldview so thoroughly that it becomes seen as “common sense.”

Adaptive strategy

The way a society responds to ecological, technological, and social challenges to ensure survival.

Social hierarchy

A ranked ordering of groups in society that privileges some while disadvantaging others.

Institutional discrimination

Unequal outcomes created by the policies, practices, and structures of institutions—even without intentional prejudice.

Structural inequality

Long-standing, built-in disparities that shape access to education, jobs, housing, health, and power across groups.

Hegemonic ideology

Dominant cultural beliefs that justify existing inequalities and normalize the privileges of dominant groups.

Cultural capital

Social knowledge, language, and behaviors that help individuals succeed; often unequally distributed across racial and gender groups.

Social capital

The resources and advantages gained from social networks, relationships, and connections.

Social reproduction

The process by which inequality is passed from one generation to the next through family, school, media, and institutions.

Occupational segregation

The separation of people into different jobs based on gender or race, often with unequal pay, prestige, and mobility.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men as a group hold disproportionate power and women/gender minorities face systematic disadvantage.

Radicalization

The process through which societies assign meaning, value, and hierarchy to racial categories, producing systemic privilege and disadvantage.

Ascribed status

A social position assigned at birth (e.g., race, sex) that influences life chances without personal choice.

Industrial Cycle #1: 1780s to 1840s

-textiles

Great Britain

-Revolutions at the beginning and end of the period

Industrial Cycle #2: 1840s to 1870s

-Railroads, iron, invention of telegraph

-Great Britain

-Depression of the 1870s, growing social unrest and

labor disputes

Industrial Cycle #3: 1870s to 1910s

-Chemicals, steel, electrical machines, importance of education, research

-Germany, US

-Race for colonies by Europe, militarization and

nationalism, World War I

Industrial Cycle #4: 1910s to 1970s

-Automobiles, petrochemicals, home electrical goods, airplanes, services

-US

-Great Depression of the 1930s, World War II, challenge to capitalism of fascism and communism

Industrial Cycle #5: 1970s to 2010s

-Electronics, computers, health care

-US, Western EU, Japan, East Asia

-Collapse of communism, rise of new religious and ethnic opposition to modernity, crash of 2008

Industrial Cycle #6: 2010s to 2050s?

-Nanotechnology? Programmed organisms? Biotech? New kinds of

energy, education?

-China? India? EU? US?

-Possible clash between rising and declining great powers? Religious wars? Ecological crisis and climate change?

Global scapes theory

-Arjun Appadurai

-Cultural flows: technoscapes, financescapes, ethnoscapes, mediascapes, ideoscapes. As culture diffuses globally, it changes and is changed by local contexts through which it flows.

World risk society theory

-Ulrich Beck

-The uncritical acceptance of science and pursuit of progress has led to a world characterized by incalculable risks. Globalization has exposed this and is leading to a new phase of modernity-- reflexive modernity.

High modernity theory

-Anthony Giddens

-Science and technology that were to make the world safer have made it more dangerous. Globalization has resulted in systems that are beyond anyone’s control and institutions are

failing.

World systems theory

-Immanuel Wallerstein

-World is divided into core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral societies based on their position in the economy. Societies rise from below and fall from above in cycles.

Global systems theory

-Leslie Sklair

-A global capitalist economy run by a transnational elite—the transnational capitalist class--dominates the global stage. Global systems exist independently of international systems

and states.

World society theory

-John Meyer

-Cultural ideas and models diffuse globally through interaction and association—rather than state action. This forms a stateless world society.

Feasible globalization theory

-Dani Rodrik

-Incompatibilities among capitalism, democracy, and globalization prohibit having them all, only two of the three are feasible.

Mechanisms of convergence theory

-Beth Simmons and Zachary Elkins

-Policies and programs diffuse through societies via a variety of processes that involve various degrees of thought from none to social learning.

Global field theory

-Roland Robertson and JoAnn Chiricho

-Globalization is processes through which the world is becoming a single place. It has objective and subjective components. Globalization changes relationships among elements of the global field: individuals, societies, global systems, and humanity.

Gini index

Measures how income and wealth are distributed among a country. 0 means perfect equality, and 1 means extreme inequality.

Ulrich Beck’s thinking pattern

Risk and unintended consequences

Anthony Gidden’s thinking pattern

Loss of control (runaway world)

Dani Rodrik’s thinking pattern

Democracy v. globalization tension

Immanuel Wallerstein’s thinking pattern

core/periphery

Leslie Sklair’s thinking pattern

Transnational capitalist class

What beliefs does Diamond aim to disprove through the arguments he makes central to his book?

1. What beliefs does Diamond aim to disprove? Diamond aims to disprove the belief that Western dominance is due to the biological or intellectual superiority of Europeans. He argues against biological determinism (racist explanations of history) and instead posits that environmental and geographic factors are the primary drivers of societal success.

What kinds of explanations for human history do not make sense, according to Diamond?

Explanations that rely on racial or genetic differences between people. He argues that if you swapped a group of people from one environment to another thousands of years ago, their developmental trajectory would follow the opportunities provided by the new environment, not their DNA.

What is Polynesia a particularly good example of?

Polynesia serves as a "natural experiment of history." Because different islands were settled by the same group of people (ancestral Polynesians) but had vastly different environments (from tiny atolls to large New Zealand), Diamond can show how environment alone forced those people to develop different social, political, and economic structures.

What does Diamond name as a prerequisite for conquering other societies?

The ultimate prerequisite is Food Production. Farming leads to a surplus of food, which allows for large, sedentary populations, specialized labor (soldiers, inventors), and the development of centralized government and "proximate" factors like steel weapons and germs.

How were some of the first diseases transmitted to humans?

Most "crowd diseases" (like smallpox, measles, and flu) were transmitted through close contact with domesticated animals. Because Eurasians lived in close proximity to cows, pigs, and sheep for millennia, the viruses jumped species (zoonosis) and the humans eventually developed partial immunity.

Why is population density important?

High population density is necessary for:

Social Complexity: Creating the need for laws and centralized leadership.

Technological Innovation: More people means more potential inventors and more "trial and error."

Germ Evolution: Many deadly diseases require a large, dense population to keep spreading without dying out.

What does Diamond mean by the "natural experiment of history" when comparing societies?

It is a situation where history provides a "controlled" environment (like the Polynesian islands mentioned above) where many variables are the same, but one key variable (like geography or climate) changes, allowing researchers to see the specific impact of that one variable on a society.

Why did food production emerge in some regions earlier than others?

It came down to Geographic Luck. Some regions (like the Fertile Crescent) had an abundance of high-protein wild plants (wheat/barley) and large, docile mammals suitable for domestication. Other regions (like the Americas or Australia) had very few of either.

What characteristics made certain plants and animals suitable for domestication?

Animals: Must have a fast growth rate, breed in captivity, have a submissive social hierarchy, and not have a "nasty" disposition (e.g., zebras are too aggressive).

Plants: Must be edible, provide high caloric yields, be easy to grow/harvest, and have seeds that can be stored for long periods.

What is the difference between hunter-gatherer societies and food-producing societies in terms of

social organization?

Hunter-Gatherers: Nomadic, small bands, egalitarian (everyone is mostly equal), no specialized government.

Food-Producers: Sedentary, large populations, highly stratified (kings, priests, peasants), centralized government/bureaucracy.

How does food production lead to population growth and societal complexity?

Farming produces more calories per acre than hunting. This food surplus allows women to have children more frequently (sedentary life vs. carrying babies while moving) and allows some people to stop farming and become specialists (leaders, smiths, scribes), which creates complex social hierarchies.

How does surplus food contribute to social stratification and inequality?

When food can be stored, it can be controlled by an elite class. This allows a small group (kings/priests) to tax the majority, accumulate wealth, and use that wealth to maintain power through professional armies or religious influence.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of farming compared to foraging?

Volume: It supports many more people per square mile.

Stability: Food can be stored (granaries) to protect against bad seasons.

Specialization: It frees up time for certain individuals to develop technology, writing, and weapons.

How does Diamond explain the spread of agriculture across regions?

14. How does Diamond explain the spread of agriculture across regions? Diamond explains that agriculture spreads more easily across regions sharing the same latitude. This is because locations on the same east-west axis share similar day lengths, seasonal changes, and climates, allowing domesticated plants and animals to thrive without needing to evolve new adaptations.

What role does geography play in determining whether farming spreads quickly or slowly?

Geography is the deciding factor. The East-West axis of Eurasia allowed for rapid spread because of climate consistency. In contrast, the North-South axis of the Americas and Africa meant that crops moving between regions had to adapt to drastically different climates, day lengths, and rainfall patterns, significantly slowing the spread of farming.

How did domesticated animals contribute to the development of infectious diseases?

Most major human "crowd diseases" (smallpox, flu, tuberculosis) evolved from "ancestral" diseases found in domestic animals. Close physical proximity in farming communities allowed these pathogens to jump from animals to humans (zoonosis) and eventually mutate into human-specific strains.

Why were Eurasian populations more resistant to diseases than others?

Eurasian populations had lived alongside domestic animals for thousands of years. This long-term exposure acted as a process of natural selection; those with genetic resistance survived and passed it on, creating a population that was largely immune to diseases that would be "virgin soil" epidemics elsewhere.

How did germs function as a tool of conquest during encounters between societies?

Germs often preceded the actual physical arrival of conquerors. When Europeans arrived in the New World, their diseases spread far faster than their armies, decimating up to 95% of indigenous populations. This demographic collapse destroyed social structures and weakened resistance, making military conquest much easier.

Why does Diamond describe germs as an unintended but powerful weapon?

They were "unintended" because the Europeans didn't understand germ theory at the time and didn't consciously "engineer" the diseases. However, they were "powerful" because they killed more indigenous people than guns or steel ever did, essentially clearing the way for colonization.

How do leaders maintain power in early states?

Monopolizing force: Controlling the military/police.

Redistributing wealth: Taking tribute/taxes and using some of it for public works or to reward supporters.

Ideology/Religion: Creating a "kleptocracy" where the leader is seen as divine or sanctioned by gods, justifying the transfer of wealth from the masses to the elite.

Are modern governments fundamentally different from the "kleptocracies" Diamond describes?

Why or why not?

Diamond suggests they are similar in structure but different in "service." A kleptocracy is a government that transfers wealth from commoners to the upper classes. Diamond argues that all governments are essentially kleptocracies, but "good" modern governments maintain support by providing significant public services (infrastructure, schools, safety) in exchange for the taxes they collect.

How do food production, germs, and political organization work together to produce global

inequality?

Food Production creates a surplus.

Surplus leads to dense populations and specialized labor (inventors of steel/guns).

Dense Populations living with animals create Germs (giving the society a biological weapon).

Surplus also allows for Centralized Political Organization, which can coordinate large-scale wars of conquest.

What is Diamond's central argument about why some societies became more powerful than

others?

Diamond's central thesis is Geographic Determinism. He argues that the root cause of global inequality is not biological or intellectual differences between people, but the accidental differences in the environments (geography, available plants, and domesticable animals) in which different societies found themselves. Power was a result of "geographic luck."

What does the narrator answer when Ishmael asks him, in Chapter 5, what man's destiny

is?

The narrator initially gives the "standard" Taker answer: that man's destiny is to conquer and rule the world, to turn the earth into a paradise for humans, and to become the masters of the universe.

How does Ishmael describe civilization's progress in Chapter 7?

Ishmael describes it as a "free fall." He uses the analogy of an early aviator in a pedal-powered contraption jumping off a cliff. Even though the aviator feels like he is flying for a moment, he is actually just falling; similarly, Taker civilization feels like "progress," but it is actually a slow-motion crash because it violates the laws of ecology.

When does Ishmael say the Take population will contract?

The Taker population will only contract when the food supply is limited. Ishmael argues against the idea that "hunger causes overpopulation"; instead, he posits that increasing the food supply simply fuels further population growth (an ecological feedback loop).

How does Ishmael characterize man's progress, once he discovered agriculture?

He characterizes it as a war against the rest of the living community. By adopting totalitarian agriculture, humans decided that all the food on the planet belonged to only humans, and they began destroying any species (competitors) that stood in the way of that food production.

Who is Ishmael and what is he?

Ishmael is a telepathic gorilla who was captured in Africa, sold to a zoo, then a circus, and eventually bought by a benefactor who educated him. He serves as a teacher (a "master") who helps the narrator deconstruct the "Mother Culture" myths of Taker society.

What temptation does Ishmael say Adam succumbed to when he took the fruit from Eve in the Bible story?

Ishmael reinterprets the Fall of Man. He says Adam succumbed to the temptation to usurp the role of the gods by claiming to have the knowledge of "who shall live and who shall die." By taking the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," man began to decide which species were "good" (useful to humans) and which were "evil" (pests), rather than leaving those decisions to the laws of nature.

In Chapter 12, how does Ishmael say man became man?

He says man became man by living in the hands of the gods (natural selection). By competing in the open community of life without trying to exempt himself from the laws of ecology, man evolved. Evolution only happens when a species is "on the edge" and subject to the same pressures as everything else.

What looming crisis does Ishmael imply will correct the 'Takers'' excesses?

The ecological collapse of the planet. If the Takers continue to destroy the diversity of life to fuel their own growth, they will eventually destroy the very biological support system they need to survive.

What does Ishmael say 'Eve' means?

Ishmael explains that in Hebrew, Eve (Hawwah) is related to the word for "life" or "living." In the context of his story, Eve represents the "living community" or the "mother of all living," which was handed over to Adam (the Takers) to be managed or destroyed.