Ebook pdf essentials of sociology 3rd edition by george ritzer

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Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ritzer, George, author. | Wiedenhoft Murphy, Wendy A., author.

Title: Essentials of sociology / George Ritzer, University of Maryland, Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy, John Carroll University.

Description: Third edition. | Thousand Oaks : Sage, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017041110 | ISBN 9781506388953 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Sociology.

Classification: LCC HM585 .R567 2019 | DDC 301—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017041110 This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Acquisitions Editor: Jeff Lasser Content Development Editor: Nancy Matuszak Editorial Assistant: Adeline Wilson Marketing Manager: Kara Kindstrom Production Editor: Veronica Stapleton Hooper Copy Editor: Laureen Gleason Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Proofreader: Dennis W. Webb Indexer: Jeanne R. Busemeyer Cover Designer: Scott Van Atta

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Brief Contents Letter from the Authors Acknowledgments About the Authors Chapter 1. An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age Chapter 2. Thinking about and Researching the Social World Chapter 3. Culture Chapter 4. Socialization and Interaction Chapter 5. Organizations, Societies, and Global Relationships Chapter 6. Deviance and Crime Chapter 7. Social Stratification in the United States and Globally Chapter 8. Race and Ethnicity Chapter 9. Gender and Sexuality Chapter 10. Families Chapter 11. Education and Religion Chapter 12. Politics and the Economy Chapter 13. The Body, Medicine, Health, and Health Care Chapter 14. Population, Urbanization, and the Environment Chapter 15. Social Change, Social Movements, and Collective Action Glossary References: Chapter-Opening Vignettes References: Comprehensive List Index

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Detailed Contents Letter from the Authors Acknowledgments About the Authors 1 An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age Learning Objectives A Sociology of Revolutions and Counterrevolutions The Changing Nature of the Social World—and Sociology Central Concerns for a Twenty-First-Century Sociology Globalization Digital Living: Blogging and Tweeting about Sociology Consumption McDonaldization Critiquing Consumption The Digital World Trending: The McDonaldization of Society Globalization, Consumption, the Digital World, and You Sociology: Continuity and Change The Sociological Imagination Private Troubles and Public Issues The Micro–Macro Relationship The Agency–Structure Relationship The Social Construction of Reality Social Structures and Processes Sociology’s Purpose: Science or Social Reform?

Sociology, the Other Social Sciences, and Common Sense Summary Key Terms Review Questions 2 Thinking about and Researching the Social World Learning Objectives Sociologists Theorize about and Research Climate Change Theorizing the Social World Classical Sociological Theory Karl Marx Max Weber Émile Durkheim Georg Simmel 10

W. E. B. Du Bois Thorstein Veblen Contemporary Sociological Theory Structural/Functional Theories Structural–Functionalism Structuralism Conflict/Critical Theories Conflict Theory Critical Theory Feminist Theory Queer Theory Critical Theories of Race and Racism Digital Living: The Voluntariat Postmodern Theory Inter/Actionist Theories Symbolic Interactionism Ethnomethodology Exchange Theory Rational Choice Theory Researching the Social World The Scientific Method Sociological Research Qualitative and Quantitative Research Observational Research Interviews Survey Research Experiments Secondary Data Analysis Historical-Comparative Method Content Analysis Issues in Social Research Reliability and Validity Research Ethics Physical and Psychological Harm Illegal Acts Violation of Trust Trending: On the Run Objectivity, or “Value-Free” Sociology Summary Key Terms Review Questions 11

3 Culture Learning Objectives A Reflection of U.S. Culture A Definition of Culture The Basic Elements of Culture Values Norms Material Culture Symbolic Culture and Language Cultural Differences Ideal and Real Culture Ideology Subcultures Countercultures Culture Wars Multiculturalism and Assimilation Trending: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Identity Politics Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism Global Culture The Globalization of Values Cultural Imperialism Emerging Issues in Culture Consumer Culture Children in a Consumer Culture Digital Living: Netiquette Nontraditional Settings for Consumption A Postconsumer Culture?

Culture Jamming Cyberculture Summary Key Terms Review Questions 4 Socialization and Interaction Learning Objectives Socialization and Variance The Individual and the Self Symbolic Interaction and Development of the Self Humans and Nonhumans Symbolic Interaction Mind and Self 12

The Generalized Other The “I” and the “Me” The Individual as Performer Impression Management Trending: Alone Together Front and Back Stage Socialization Childhood Socialization Primary Socialization and the Family Peers Gender Mass Media and New Media Consumer Culture Adult Socialization Workplaces Total Institutions Other Aspects of Adult Socialization Interaction Superordinate-Subordinate Interactions Digital Living: Digital Natives Reciprocity and Exchange “Doing” Interaction Interaction Order Status and Role Micro-Level Social Structures Interpersonal Relationships Social Networks Groups Types of Groups Conformity to the Group Summary Key Terms Review Questions 5 Organizations, Societies, and Global Relationships Learning Objectives Questioning Governmental Authority Organizations Bureaucracies Authority Structures and Bureaucracy Rationality and Irrationality Trending: Gang Leader for a Day 13

The Informal Organization Contemporary Organizational Realities Gendered Organizations Other Problems in Organizations Contemporary Changes in Organizations Globalization and Organizations McDonaldization and Bureaucratic Organizations Network Organizations Characteristics of the Network Organization Informationalism Societies Global Relationships Controlling Global Flows and Mobilities Other Global Flows Landscapes Digital Living: Digital Currency Global Barriers Are Global Barriers Effective?

Organizational Barriers More Open Organizations?

Summary Key Terms Review Questions 6 Deviance and Crime Learning Objectives Norms, Labels, and Judgment Deviance Shifting Definitions of Deviance Global Flows and Deviance Deviance and Consumption Theories of Deviance Structural/Functional Theories Strain Social Control Conflict/Critical Theories Deviance and the Poor Deviance and the Elite Inter/Actionist Theories Labeling Primary and Secondary Deviance Key Ideas in the Labeling Process 14

Moral Panics Stigmas Crime The Criminal Justice System Types of Crimes Trending: The New Jim Crow Globalization and Crime Digital Living: Digital Piracy Criminalization of Global Activities Global Crime Control Summary Key Terms Review Questions 7 Social Stratification in the United States and Globally Learning Objectives Student “Haves” and “Have-Nots” in Higher Education Dimensions of Social Stratification Social Class Status Power Economic Inequality Income Inequality Wealth Inequality Status, Power, and Wealth The Perpetuation of Wealth The Decline of the American Middle Class Digital Living: Stratification in the New Sharing Economy Poverty Analyzing Poverty Poverty in the United States The Feminization of Poverty Social Mobility Types of Social Mobility Achievement and Ascription Theories of Social Stratification Structural/Functional Theories Conflict/Critical Theories Social Rewards and Status Gender, Race, and Class Inter/Actionist Theories Consumption and Social Stratification 15

Trending: Evicted Stratified Consumption Social Class and Taste Global Stratification Positions in Global Stratification The Global North and South High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Countries The Global Concentration of Wealth Global Economic Inequalities The Global Digital Divide Global Health Inequality Global Gender Stratification Changing Positions in Global Stratification Race to the Bottom Foreign Aid and Development Theories of Global Stratification Structural/Functional Theories Conflict/Critical Theories Summary Key Terms Review Questions 8 Race and Ethnicity Learning Objectives Minorities Acquire Political Power The Concepts of Race and Ethnicity Historical Thinking about Race “Scientific” Explanations Cultural Explanations The Fluidity of Racial Categories Racial and Ethnic Identities Majority–Minority Relations Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination Intersectionality Patterns of Interaction Digital Living: Race in Cyberspace Racism Trending: The Cosmopolitan Canopy Foundations of Racism Social Structure and Racism Culture and Racism Institutional Racism 16

The “Invisibility” of Institutional Racism Social Movements and Race Hate Groups The Civil Rights Movement Collective Identity and “Power” Movements Race and Ethnicity in a Global Context Ethnic Identity and Globalization Global Prejudice and Discrimination Global Flows Based on Race and Ethnicity Positive and Negative Flows Ethnic Conflict within Nation-States Expulsion Ethnic Cleansing Genocide Summary Key Terms Review Questions 9 Gender and Sexuality Learning Objectives Challenging Gender Stereotypes Gender and Sex Femininities and Masculinities Transgender and Nonbinary Genders Digital Living: Gender-Swapping in Online Games Gender Diversity Gendered Inequalities Gender and Education Gender, Family, and Work Separate Spheres Dual-Earner Households and the Stalled Revolution Gender Inequality at Work Gender and Consumer Culture Consumption, Work, and Family The Sociology of Sexuality Sexual Selves Sexual Identities and Orientations Spotlight on “Hooking Up” Trending: Dude You’re a Fag Social Constraints on Sexuality Culture and Consent Sex and Consumption 17

Sexuality, Gender, and Globalization Social Change and the Globalization of Sexuality Global Flows Related to Sex and Sexuality Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Sexualities in a Global Context The Global Sex Industry Global Flows Related to Gender The Feminization of Migration The Feminization of Labor Gender, War, and Violence The Global Women’s Movement Summary Key Terms Review Questions 10 Families Learning Objectives Fictional Families Get Real Family, Marriage, and Intimate Relationships Some Basic Concepts Marriage Intimate Relationships Love Broad Changes in Marriage and the Family Decline in Marriage Perspectives on the Decline in Marriage Self-Disclosing Intimacy and Pure Relationships Nonfamily Households Alternative Forms of Families Cohabitation Trending: Going Solo Digital Living: Online Dating Single-Parent Families Nonresident Parents Stepfamilies and Blended Families Lesbian and Gay Families Theorizing the Family Structural/Functional Theories Conflict/Critical Theories Feminist Theory Inter/Actionist Theories Symbolic Interactionism 18

Exchange Theory Problems in the Family Family Conflict Abuse and Violence within the Family Child Abuse Domestic Violence Elder Abuse Poverty and the Family Gender Inequalities Divorce Factors in Divorce Global Families Global Flows That Involve the Family Global Flows That Affect the Family Global Economic Flows Global Migration Global Trafficking Global Conflict Summary Key Terms Review Questions 11 Education and Religion Learning Objectives Science versus Religion in the Public Schools Education Inequality in Education Who Succeeds in School?

The Coleman Report: How Much Do Schools Matter?

Intelligence and School Success Class Differences in Early Childhood Preschool Inequality within Schools: Tracking and Student Outcomes Alternatives to Traditional Public Schools Vouchers Homeschooling Charter Schools Who Goes to College?

Trending: Paying for the Party Globalization and Education PISA Rankings U.S., German, and Japanese Education Systems 19

Religion Components of Religion Belief Ritual Experience Secularization Civil Religion Religion as a Form of Consumption Types of Religious Institutions Sect Digital Living: Practicing Virtual Faith Church Denominations Cults and New Religious Movements Religion and Globalization The Most Significant Global Religions Judaism Hinduism Buddhism Islam Christianity Fundamentalism Faith on the Move Summary Key Terms Review Questions 12 Politics and the Economy Learning Objectives The Interrelationship of Government and the Economy Politics: Democracy or Dictatorship Democracy: Citizenship as a Radical Idea Digital Living: Hacktivism and State Interference Dictatorship: The Seizure of Power Who Rules the United States?

The Structural/Functional Perspective: Pluralism The Conflict/Critical Perspective: The Power Elite Global Politics Geopolitics The Nation and the Nation-State War Terrorism 20

The U.S. Economy: From Industrialization to Deindustrialization The Industrial Revolution From Fordism to Post-Fordism Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism Socialism and Communism Welfare States Capitalism Deindustrialization in the United States Factors in Deindustrialization The Decline of American Labor Unions The Postindustrial Society Work, Consumption, and Leisure Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment Trending: The Tumbleweed Society Consumption and the Postmodern Society Leisure Globalization and the Economy Summary Key Terms Review Questions 13 The Body, Medicine, Health, and Health Care Learning Objectives The Debate over Medical Marijuana The Body The Thinking of Michel Foucault Trending: Blood Sugar The Healthy Body: Lifestyle, Beauty, and Fitness Beauty: Cultural Contexts The Quest for the Ideal, the Consumption of Beauty, and the Fit Body Fitness and the Healthy Body Body Modifications Risky Behavior The Sociology of Health and Medicine The Medical Profession Weaknesses in the U.S. Health Care System Digital Living: Telemedicine Inequalities in U.S. Health Care Health Care Reform in the United States Consumerism and Health Care Medical Tourism 21

The Internet and the Consumption of Health Care Globalization and Health Growing Global Inequality Disease Malnutrition Smoking Borderless Diseases HIV/AIDS New Forms of Flu Superbugs Globalization and Improvements in Health and Health Care Summary Key Terms Review Questions 14 Population, Urbanization, and the Environment Learning Objectives Reaching a New Global Milestone Population Population Growth Population Decline The Processes of Population Change Fertility Mortality The Demographic Transition Migration Urbanization Ever-Larger Urban Areas Suburbanization A Postsuburban Era? The Changing Nature of Major U.S. Cities Cities and Globalization Global and World Cities Megacities (and Beyond) The Main Sites of Global Problems The Center of Culture and Consumption Trending: Children of Katrina The Environment Theories of the Environment and Its Problems Globalization and the Environment The Leading Environmental Problems Destruction of Natural Habitats 22

Adverse Effects on Marine Life The Decline in Freshwater Climate Change and Global Warming Global Responses Sustainable Development Technological Fixes The Paris Agreement Digtial Living: Smart Cities Summary Key Terms Review Questions 15 Social Change, Social Movements, and Collective Action Learning Objectives Workers’ Rights, Consumer Activism, and Social Change Social Movements The Tea Party Trending: Strangers in Their Own Land Feminist Movements The Women’s Movement in the United States The Global Women’s Movement LGBTQ Movements World War II and the Lavender Scare The U.S.-Based Homophile Movement Stonewall Lesbian Herstory HIV/AIDS, ACT UP, and Queer Nation The Ongoing Fight for Marriage Equality The Civil Rights Movement Emergence, Mobilization, and Impact of Social Movements Factors in the Emergence of a Social Movement Resources and Mobilization of Social Movements Participation Goals, Strategy, and Tactics Factors in Success The Impact of Social Movements The Internet, Globalization, and Social Movements Collective Action Crowds Digital Living: Crisis Mapping Riots Disasters 23

Human Involvement in Disasters The Effects of Disasters Social Change: Globalization, Consumption, and the Internet Globalization as the Ultimate Social Change Global “Liquids” Global “Flows” Globalization and the Internet Computer Viruses Cyberactivism Consumption and Globalization Local and Regional Differences Global Brands Summary Key Terms Review Questions Glossary References: Chapter-Opening Vignettes References: Comprehensive List Index

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Letter from the Authors To us, the social world, as well as the field of sociology that studies that world, is always interesting, exciting, and ever-changing. Our goal for this newly revised third edition of Essentials of Sociology is not only to introduce you to sociology, but also to discuss what has inspired—and what continues to inspire—our dedication to the field. Our hope is that you will learn a good deal about the social world from the perspective of sociology, as well as how our interests have shaped our personal sociological journeys.

George: My initial interests in the field were the sociology of work and the sociology of organizations, but I was quickly drawn to sociological theory and how even the most classical theories were relevant to my everyday life. My interest came to fruition in the publication of The McDonaldization of Society in 1993 (now being released in its ninth edition). In that book, I apply and expand on Max Weber’s famous classical theoretical ideas on rationality. I saw those ideas at work in my local fast-food restaurant, as well as in many other contemporary settings. After the publication of The McDonaldization of Society, I grew interested in consumption, including credit card debt and the places of consumption, and I authored two texts on these topics, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society and Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Continuity and Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption. I developed a curiosity about globalization after recognizing that McDonaldization and consumer culture had spread rapidly throughout much of the world. This inspired me to write The Globalization of Nothing and Globalization: A Basic Text. Most recently, my sociological journey has led me to the Internet, especially social networking sites, which are highly rationalized, are often places to consume, and are all globalized.

Wendy: I developed my primary interests in consumer culture and sociological theory when I was assigned to read Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class as an undergraduate. Veblen’s work inspired me to write my master’s thesis on fashion and semiotics. I continued my study of consumption in the doctoral program at the 25

University of Maryland, where I was one of George’s students. Much of my work has explored the political dimensions of consumption, particularly how consumers use their purchasing power to effect social change. Recently, I published an introductory text on consumption called Consumer Culture and Society. My sociological journey has led me to the intersection of poverty and consumption as well as studying debt from a social justice perspective.

You will discover how our interests have shaped this book in a variety of ways. Consumption figures prominently in most chapters; this reflects our belief that this topic should be a central concern for sociologists. This book also includes a strong emphasis on globalization to encourage you to better understand and appreciate how your daily lives are shaped by global processes. Each chapter contains a primary section on globalization that explains why and how globalization has influenced an array of sociological issues, including the discipline itself. Throughout this book— in boxes headed “Digital Living”—the sociological implications of the internet and technology are explored. Pedagogical exercises featured in these boxes will require you to actively engage the digital world and contemplate its advantages and shortcomings. To demonstrate the relevance of sociology not just within academia but to the broader public, we have included an additional pedagogical feature, “Trending” boxes.

These features highlight recently published books written by sociologists and scholars in related fields that have gained mainstream popularity. Most of these books are based on extensive ethnographic research about current sociological problems, and their narratives are readable and relatable, not to mention fascinating to us—we hope the same will be true for you. The Trending boxes also include links to webpages where you can watch videos of authors discussing their books and read reviews of their books from popular newspapers and magazines.

Here we have described a bit about our personal sociological journeys. We hope that this book will provide you with a starting point to begin your own journey, to examine your social world critically, and to develop your own sociological ideas and opinions. Our aim in writing this book is to equip you to see the social world in a different way and, more important, to use the ideas discussed here to help to create a better world.

—George Ritzer, University of Maryland —Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy, John Carroll University 26

Acknowledgments From George: I need to begin with my friends for decades, and coauthors of a previous introductory textbook, Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer and Norman R. Yetman. That book went through seven editions, the last of which was published in 1997. It was most useful to me in this text in helping define various sociological concepts that have changed little over the years. I have also been able to build on discussions of many issues covered in that text. However, because of the passage of almost two decades in sociology and in the social world (an eternity in both), as well as the innumerable changes in them, this text has comparatively little in common with the earlier one. Nonetheless, my perspective on sociology was strongly shaped by that book and the many insights and ideas provided by my friends and coauthors before, during, and in the many years after the writing of that book.

Professor Rebecca Plante played a key role in the second edition of this book. She offered useful comments and suggestions throughout, and she was especially central in the revision of Chapter 9, on gender and sexuality. These are her areas of expertise, and the chapter is much improved because of her contributions to it. I would also like to thank Professor Paul Dean, coauthor of the second edition of my book Globalization: A Basic Text, for his numerous and important contributions to Chapter 7, on social stratification.

Thanks also to P. J. Rey, William Yagatich, Jillet Sam, Zeynep Tufekci, and Margaret Austin Smith for their contributions. Also to be thanked for writing first drafts of parts of earlier versions of chapters are Professors William Carbonaro (Chapter 11, on education), Deric Shannon (Chapter 12, on politics), and Lester Kurtz (Chapter 11, on religion). Professor Peter Kivisto made particularly important and numerous contributions to the second edition of this book. I’m especially thankful for his work on the religion and education chapters.

At SAGE Publications, I am especially grateful for Senior Vice President Michele Sordi’s confidence in, and support for, the project. She agreed from the beginning to do and spend whatever was necessary to make this a first-class introductory sociology text. As you can see from the finished project, she was true to her word. Michele also worked closely with me in 27

an editorial capacity on the first edition to help get the project through some of its most difficult periods. Michele was a positive force and upbeat presence throughout the writing of this book, and I am deeply grateful for who she is and what she has done. Late in the process Brenda Carter took over Michele’s role and performed it with the same level of expertise, good humor, and good sense (plus she got me prime seats to a game in New York involving my beloved Yankees). Jeff Lasser came on board at SAGE as sociology publisher during production of the first edition, in which he played a key role, and he has played a much more important role in the second and third editions. Jeff has proven to be not only easy to work with but a sage (pun intended) adviser on many aspects of the book and its publication. Unfortunately, he is a Boston Red Sox fan, but nobody is perfect.

I also need to thank Nathan Davidson at SAGE. The production of the first edition of this book really took off when he took over its day-to-day management. We worked together closely for about a year on virtually every aspect of the final project. Before Nathan came on board, I was in danger of being overwhelmed by the demands of finishing this book, but he provided the hard work, great organizational abilities, and good sense that helped me complete it—and on time. Nathan continued to manage the second edition of this book and, if possible, he did an even better job with it. While his imprint is found throughout this book, it is especially notable in the selection of an excellent set of photographs.

From George and Wendy: Nancy Matuszak took over from Nathan as the developmental editor for the third edition of this book. She has been amazing, demonstrating great competence, good sense, and a great sense of humor. She has managed the myriad details associated with a revision of a book of this magnitude with great aplomb. We would like to see her named “Developmental Editor for Life,” but we suspect she has bigger plans and wider horizons.

To be thanked for her work on the second edition is Elisa Adams, who, first as a consultant and later as developmental editor, was instrumental in editing the entire book as well as helping create various features of the book. Sheri Gilbert is to be thanked for her work on the many permissions needed for material included in this edition, as well as the last. Scott Van Atta did great work on the cover of the book, for both this edition and the previous one. Thanks to Gabrielle Piccininni, digital content editor, for her work on the ancillary materials and e-book resources. Many thanks also to 28

Adeline Wilson, editorial assistant, who held steady oversight over all of the small details needed to get this book into production. Thanks also to Veronica Stapleton Hooper, who amiably and capably managed the production of this book, as well as to Laureen Gleason, who capably handled the copyediting. Laureen also proved to be quite an expert on popular culture and contributed insights on that topic throughout the book.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments SAGE wishes to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the following reviewers: Miguel Centellas, University of Mississippi James A. Curiel, Norfolk State University Barry D. Kass, SUNY Orange Gary Maynard, University of Michigan at Flint Lori Park-Smith, Ridgewater College

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About the Authors

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland.

Among his awards are Honorary Doctorate from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia; Honorary Patron, University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin; American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award; and being named the 2013 Eastern Sociological Society’s Robin Williams Lecturer. He has chaired four sections of the American Sociological Association: Theoretical Sociology, Organizations and Occupations, Global and Transnational Sociology, and the History of Sociology. In the application of social theory to the social world, his books include The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed., 2015; 9th ed., forthcoming), Enchanting a Disenchanted World (3rd ed., 2010), and The Globalization of Nothing (2nd ed., 2007). He is the author of Globalization: A Basic Text (Blackwell, 2010; 2nd ed., 2015, with Paul Dean). He edited the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology (2012) and The Blackwell Companion to Globalization (2008) and co-edited (with Jeff Stepnisky) the Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Classical and Contemporary Major Social Theorists (2012) and the Handbook of Social Theory (2001). He was founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. He also edited the eleven-volume Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007; 2nd ed., forthcoming, with Chris Rojek), the two-volume Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2005), and the five-volume Encyclopedia of Globalization (2012). He co-edited a special double issue (2012) of the American Behavioral Scientist on prosumption and edited a symposium on prosumer capitalism in Sociological Quarterly (2015). His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, with more than a dozen translations of The McDonaldization of Society alone.

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Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy is Associate Professor of Sociology at John Carroll University. She joined the department in 2003 after completing her doctorate at the University of Maryland. Her specialty areas are sociological theory, consumer culture and society, and environmental justice. She has published work on consumer activism in the Journal of Consumer Culture and Social Movement Studies, work on tourism in Peace and Conflict Studies, and work on the Ulster-Scots diaspora in an edited collection. She is the past director of the Environmental Studies concentration at John Carroll University and has been involved with its summer program on conflict transformation in Northern Ireland.

Currently, she is researching the limited but significant and active role of poor consumers in American society, and she has been working with George Ritzer on editing the second edition of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology.

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1 An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age

ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images 32

Learning Objectives 1.1 Identify major social changes since the 1880s studied by sociologists.

1.2 Explain why sociologists today focus on globalization, consumption, and the digital world.

1.3 Describe how sociologists understand continuity and change, particularly in the context of the sociological imagination and the social construction of reality.

1.4 Differentiate between sociology’s two possible purposes, science and social reform.

1.5 Evaluate how sociology relates to other social sciences and how sociological knowledge differs from common sense.

edge.sagepub.com/ritzeressentials3e Take the chapter quiz Review key terms with eFlashcards Explore multimedia links and SAGE readings

A Sociology of Revolutions and Counterrevolutions In December 2010, street demonstrations, labor strikes, and other acts of civil resistance swept through the small North African nation of Tunisia. The demonstrators met strong resistance from the Tunisian government. Nevertheless, their protests eventually resulted in the overthrow of autocratic President Ben Ali after 23 years in power.

The trigger for the Tunisian protests was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor who claimed he had been harassed and humiliated by authorities. Bouazizi died in a burn and trauma center 18 days after setting himself on fire. The Tunisian revolution was at the root of the “Arab Spring”—the wave of social unrest and social revolution that Tunisia’s uprising inspired throughout the Middle East. Such events are not only important in themselves; so too are the counterreactions to them by other individuals as well as by larger organizations. Those responses have since undermined the revolutions that occurred during the Arab Spring (Worth 2016). In some cases, such as in Egypt, counterreaction by the military led to a return to

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the kind of autocratic government that was a cause of the protests in the first place. In the Persian Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain), monarchs have suppressed dissidents and thwarted efforts aimed at greater democratization (Fahim 2016). In the aftermath of the 2011 overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya (and Yemen) have descended into civil wars, vicious fights for power, and, at least at the moment, large-scale anarchy.

In Libya, but, more important, in Syria and Iraq, a radical Islamic group —the Islamic State (IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL], the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], or Da’ish, from an acronym for a name of the group in Arabic)—has swept through large portions of those countries and succeeded in dismembering them in its effort to form an independent state that spans much of the Middle East. That new state is envisioned to be a caliphate, dominated by a leader—a caliph—devoted to a strict interpretation of Islam. The success of IS led, in turn, to other counterreactions, both locally (especially by the Kurds and Iranians) and globally (with the United States helping the Iraqi government and Russia aiding the Syrian government), designed to limit the IS’s gains, if not to defeat it. By mid-2017, IS had been pushed back on a variety of fronts, but it still controlled large parts of Syria, as well as a shrinking territory in Iraq, and it remained a force in Libya (and elsewhere).

By drawing on modern sociology’s 200-year history while looking to the future, sociologists today can find the tools and resources to gain a better understanding of where we have been, where we are, and, perhaps most important, where we are going. Sociology has traditionally tried to understand the place of the individual—even a Tunisian street vendor—within society and society’s effect on the individual. In today’s global age, however, we need to look beyond given individuals and societies to global realities and processes. For example, IS has grown in strength through the influx of individual supporters and fighters from other parts of the world, including the United States and Great Britain. To take a more general example of globalization—one that is more directly relevant to most readers of this book—online networks that transcend national boundaries, such as Facebook and Twitter, have forever altered the ways in which we interact with each other as well as the societies that we shape and that shape us. As the world has become increasingly globalized, sociology has developed an increasingly global perspective.

One of the most important lessons that you will learn in your study of sociology is that what you think and do as an individual is affected by what is happening in groups, organizations, cultures, societies, and the 34

world. This is especially true of social changes, even those that are global in scope and seem at first glance to be remote from you, such as Mohamed Bouazizi’s public suicide and the revolution throughout much of the Middle East that it helped set in motion. The roots of that dramatic act of protest lay in poverty, high unemployment, an authoritarian government, and political corruption that affected Bouazizi personally. Before his actions, most Tunisians would never have risked their lives to protest against their country’s repressive regime. Yet he and tens of thousands of others in countries across the region did just that. While you may or may not be motivated to engage in revolutionary activities, you are continually affected by the social changes taking place around you.

A second important lesson in sociology is that you are not only affected by larger events, but also capable to some degree of having an impact on large-scale structures and processes. This is an example of the butterfly effect (Lorenz 1995). While this concept is generally applied to physical phenomena, it also applies to social phenomena (Daipha 2012). The idea is that a relatively small change in a specific location can have far-ranging, even global, effects over both time and distance. For example, Bouazizi’s actions helped lead to the Tunisian revolution and, more generally, to street demonstrations and civil war, as well as counterreactions elsewhere in the Arab world that continue to reverberate throughout the region and many other parts of the world. Perhaps the arc of your life and career will be affected by the upheavals that began with the Arab Spring. More important, it is very possible that actions you take in your lifetime will have wide-ranging, perhaps global, effects.

These examples of the relationships between people and larger social realities and changes set the stage for the definition of sociology as the systematic study of the ways in which people are affected by and affect the social structures and social processes associated with the groups, organizations, cultures, societies, and world in which they exist.

Will our highways be safer and injury rates lower because of the sensors in self-driving cars, like this one developed by Google’s car project (which is now operating as Waymo)? Or will we have more air pollution and therefore more illness because there will be so many self-driving cars on the road? Sociologists assess the so-called butterfly effects of changes such as driverless cars.

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Another random document with no related content on Scribd:

DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller, without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who, as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.

FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER” (Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley, some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing, but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature, from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,

or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.

Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?

The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both “off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the craving for tobacco in the tropics.

Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to

an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and lemon-juice.

Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment, that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.

Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.

My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari; consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had

bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding, consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us, seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten years to come.

Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch: Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9 × 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.

How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his mutilated finger-tips.

Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.

The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface, however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day such a fire is a grand sight.

Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.

Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush, and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the

western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.

It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process

may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe— not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more, between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them— cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes, perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.

This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the secondary bush.

After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact, receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains, where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were accustomed to rule.

But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and

lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible, impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and come back to his starting point.

The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.

According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast, to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however, correct.

The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau, instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks and springs of the low country.

“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.

He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a stillborn child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which

was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In course of time, the couple had many more children, and called themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams, for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest wateringplace; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”

The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?

Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short, woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood, ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia, Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably) would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded

by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.

The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.

Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.

This knowledge is crystallized in the ancestral warning against settling in the valleys and near the great waters, the dwelling-places of disease and death. At the same time, for security against the hostile Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted that every settlement must be not less than a certain distance from the southern edge of the plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the present day. It is not such a bad one, and certainly they are both safer and more comfortable than the Makua, the recent intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain, especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the

most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.

The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.

It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of “Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have

two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise, come in for a blowing-up.

The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala, shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.

Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde bush:—