Aexandra Maryanski
Biographic Data
| ID | 203473 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aexandra Maryanski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aexandra |
| FAMILY NAME | Maryanski |
| SIGNATURE | MARYANSKI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Riverside |
| ORCID | 0009-0001-3273-6149 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 97 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 209 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 97 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Biosocial Evolutionary Analysis: Reconciling Biology, Psychology and Sociology
This authoritative book proposes a methodological and theoretical strategy for developing sociological explanations of the socio-cultural universe. Jonathan H. Turner and Alexandra Maryanski discuss the problems that persist in explaining the socio-cultural universe using only biological and psychological approaches and outline new strategies for understanding the evolution of human beings and their biological nature
An Approach to Evolutionary Sociology and its Implications for Theorizing on Socio-Cultural Evolution
A theoretical research program is outlined that seeks to use the Modern Synthesis in explaining human evolution, but also recognizes its limitations in explaining the evolution of socio-cultural systems. The universe, from a human perspective, is composed of physical, biological, and socio-cultural dimensions, each revealing unique properties and dynamics. In the case of the socio-cultural universe, modern evolutionary theory is relevant for some…
Homines Emotionales and Religion as an Evolutionary Exaptation: A Response to Leonardo Ambasciano
This article offers a critical reply to Leonardo Ambasciano’s commentary on our volume (Turner et al. 2018) available in this same issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography
Explaining the evolution of religion: A response to commentators
A response to commentaries in the Book Symposium: The Emergence and Evolution of Religion: By Means of Natural Selection by Jonathan H. Turner, Alexandra Maryanski, Anders Klostergaard Petersen, and Armin W. Geertz (Routledge 2018). The commentators are Loriliai Biernacki, Daniel Cohen, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, John H. Shaver, John Teehan, and Ina Wunn
The deep origins of society: An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis
E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinian selection and reveals a bias toward seeing selection for groups as a result of selection on indivi…
Approaches to the Study of Social Structure
Incest, Theoretical Perspectives on
Anthropology and sociology have long been fascinated with incest and the origin of the incest taboo. Incest refers to any illicit sexual act, whereas the incest taboo refers to a “thou shalt not” have sexual relations with offspring within the nuclear family, though in many traditional societies the taboo is extended to a broader kinship network. In the nineteenth century, theorizing about incest often began with the idea of a pre‐kinship “horde”…
Émile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods: Clans, Incest, Totems, Phratries, Hordes, Mana, Taboos, Corroborees, Sodalities, Menstrual Blood, Apes, Churingas, Cairns, and Other Mysterious Things
The Birth of the Gods is dedicated to Durkheim's effort to understand the basis of social integration. Unlike most social scientists, then and now, Durkheim concluded that humans are naturally more individualistic than collectivistic, that the primal social unit for humans is the macro-level unit ('the horde'), rather than the family, and that social cohesion is easily disrupted by human self-interest. Hence, for Durkheim, one of the "gravest" pr…
Incest
The word “incest” is derived from the Latin incestum and refers to sexual contact between close relatives. After Captain James Cook introduced the Polynesian word “taboo” into the English lexicon in 1777, the phrase “incest taboo” became the moral label for a forbidden carnal act. Why was there a need for such formal censorship
Handbook on Evolution and Society: Toward an Evolutionary Social Science
On the Origin of Societies by Natural Selection
Kinship, religion, and economy were not "natural" to humans, nor to species of apes that had to survive on the African savanna. Society from its very beginnings involved an uneasy necessity that often stood in conflict with humans' ape ancestry; these tensions only grew along with later, more complex-eventually colossal-sociocultural systems. The ape in us was not extinguished, nor obviated, by culture; indeed, our ancestry continues to place pre…
The Birth of the Gods: Robertson Smith and Durkheim’s Turn to Religion as the Basis of Social Integration
Emile Durkheim's ideas on religion have long served as foundational blocks for sociological theories. Yet, a mystery remains over where Durkheim's insights into religion came from and especially the event that opened his eyes to religion's importance in social life. Durkheim never supplied details on this conversion, but he did credit Robertson Smith for his new understanding. Did Smith really play the key role in Durkheim's turn to religion? Thi…
The Israeli Kibbutzim and the Westermarck Hypothesis: Does Early Association Dampen Sexual Passion? A Comment on Shor and Simchai
Selection as a Key Tool in Sociological Explanations
For well over two decades, W. G. Runciman (1983-1997) has argued that needs to be a part of sociology. Inter estingly, some early twentieth century text books in American sociology had included chapters or sections of chapters on processes, but with decline of interest in evolution among sociologists for most of century, especially with rise of Social Darwinism, selectionist dynamics were pushed from discipline, as was biology more generally. Sti…
Extending the Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Interaction Processes: A Conceptual Outline
This article outlines the elements of a more robust symbolic interactionist theory of interpersonal processes. I argue that George Herbert Mead's conceptualization of interaction processes can be extended to explain not only micro-level social processes but also key elements of meso- and macro-level dynamics. By expanding Mead's and more recent symbolic interactionist theorizing, and incorporating key ideas from other theoretical traditions outsi…
Contra a sociologia pública: Será Ela a Melhor Forma De Tornar a Sociologia Relevante
A bem difundida recepção do chamamento por uma sociologia pública confirma o desejo quase desesperado da disciplina tornar-se pertinente às grandes questões atuais. Em várias partes do mundo sociólogos sentem-se, de alguma forma, marginalizados na esfera pública, e raramente são indagados acerca das suas percepções. Assim, a sociologia pública parece propor um caminho para que as várias sociologias se unam, visando a torná-la mais relevante a dif…
The Stratification of Emotions: Some Preliminary Generalizations
Like all valued resources, positive and negative emotions are unequally distributed in a society and constitute an important basis of social stratification. In this article, a general conceptual scheme and a more specific theory of emotions are employed to offer a preliminary explanation of the dynamics of emotional stratification. This theory attempts to explain which specific positive and negative emotions will be aroused and distributed across…
North Central Sociological Association 2008 Plenary Address: The Practice of Scientific Theorizing in Sociology and the Use of Scientific Theory in Sociological Practice
Sociological practice operates at the margins of sociology partly because theorists do not develop testable theories, while researchers rely heavily on methodologies that are not conducive to theory testing. Sociological theorizing engages in activities such as ideological critique, meta-theorizing, history of ideas, hero-worship of the classical theorists, and epistemological negativism that deflect attention away from developing general theorie…
American Society: A Theory of the Societal Community
Product Review: After Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the Twenty-First Century
After Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the Twenty-First Century
Self, Emotions, and Extreme Violence: Extending Symbolic Interactionist Theorizing
Extreme violence revolves around actions of individuals who are emotionally aroused and willing to kill themselves, if need be, to inflict harm on enemies. Terrorism, gangbanging, and genocide are conspicuous examples of extreme violence. This violence is ultimately driven by repressed negative emotions about self that are transmuted into variants of anger and combinations of anger with satisfaction-happiness to produce emotions such as hatred, r…
Explaining the Social World: Historicism versus Positivism
For quite some time, my best professional friends have encouraged me to drop the term positivism from my advocacy for a natural science of human society. They are, no doubt, correct in their advice
Emile Durkheim: Sociologist of Modernity
Face to Face: Toward a Sociological Theory of Interpersonal Behavior
What are the processes and mechanisms involved in interpersonal behavior, and how are these constrained by human biology, social structure, and culture? Drawing on and updating classic sociological theory, and with special reference to the most recent research in evolutionary and neurophysiological theory, this ambitious work aims to present no less than a unified, general theory of what happens when people interact. Despite modern technologies t…
Self, Emotions, and Extreme Violence: Extending Symbolic Interactionist Theorizing
Extreme violence revolves around actions of individuals who are emotionally aroused and willing to kill themselves, if need be, to inflict harm on enemies. Terrorism, gangbanging, and genocide are conspicuous examples of extreme violence. This violence is ultimately driven by repressed negative emotions about self that are transmuted into variants of anger and combinations of anger with satisfaction-happiness to produce emotions such as hatred, r…
Is 'Neofunctionalism' Really Functional
analysis. After all, he emphasized, each sociologist is concerned with the interpretation of phenomena in terms of their interconnections with societies as going concerns (Davis, 1959:760). Davis' view was in response to the early and mounting criticisms being leveled at functionalism, in general, and its Parsonian variant, in particular. More recently, Jeffrey Alexander (1985:7-8) has made an argument similar to Davis', although the old structur…
Current Folklore in the Criticisms of Parsonian Action Theory
This paper examines the often repeated assertion that Parsons abandoned the notion of 'voluntarism' in favor of 'macrofunctionalism' or 'behavioristic naturalism' and that the Parsonian scheme therefore reveals marked discontinuity. When Parsons'strategy for theory building is appreciated, this prevalent assumption proves to be incorrect. In fact, the Parsonian action scheme evidences a considerable degree of continuity from 1937 to the present. …
The Stratification of Emotions: Some Preliminary Generalizations
Like all valued resources, positive and negative emotions are unequally distributed in a society and constitute an important basis of social stratification. In this article, a general conceptual scheme and a more specific theory of emotions are employed to offer a preliminary explanation of the dynamics of emotional stratification. This theory attempts to explain which specific positive and negative emotions will be aroused and distributed across…
Explaining the Social World: Historicism versus Positivism
For quite some time, my best professional friends have encouraged me to drop the term positivism from my advocacy for a natural science of human society. They are, no doubt, correct in their advice
Conjugal Roles and Social Networks in Japanese Families
In a study on family and social networks, Elizabeth Bott argued that conjugal role performance is primarily a function of the configuration of friends and relatives associated with each spouse. For over three decades, this relationship has been repeatedly tested with unresolved findings due, in part, to different research techniques and the ambiguity in Bott's theory itself. To cast light on this intriguing issue, we transported Bott's ideas to J…
Positivism in Social Theory and Research
Émile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods: Clans, Incest, Totems, Phratries, Hordes, Mana, Taboos, Corroborees, Sodalities, Menstrual Blood, Apes, Churingas, Cairns, and Other Mysterious Things
The Birth of the Gods is dedicated to Durkheim's effort to understand the basis of social integration. Unlike most social scientists, then and now, Durkheim concluded that humans are naturally more individualistic than collectivistic, that the primal social unit for humans is the macro-level unit ('the horde'), rather than the family, and that social cohesion is easily disrupted by human self-interest. Hence, for Durkheim, one of the "gravest" pr…
Why Are Elegant Theories Under-Utilized by Sociologists
The Emergence of Sociological Theory
A Cross-Species Application of Bott's Hypothesis on Role Segregation and Social Networks
Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that the degree of role-segregation between husbands and wives is a function of the density in family networks is applied to a review of social relations among representative species from seven genera of Old World primates. On the whole, the hypothesis is supported. In seeking to apply Bott's ideas to primate research, her theory is formalized and stated more abstractly, with the result that its structural dynamics are…
Emile Durkheim's Theory of Social Organization
Émile Durkheim's early analysis of structural differentiation and modes of integration is reconciled with his later examination of interaction and ritual These ideas are reconciled by initially constructing an abstract causal model and then converting various causal paths into general laws of human social organization. It is argued that, despite a number of problems in interpreting Durkheim's analysis of cause and function, it is still possible t…
Parsons as a Symbolic Interactionist: A Comparison of Action and Interaction Theory1
Action theory's substantive image of social organization, theory building strategy, and methodological tenets are compared with those of interactionism. Despite polemics to the contrary, action and interaction concepts denote a similar image of social organization and personality. As is argued, the principle difference between the two perspectives revolves around the issue of the most appropriate theory building and methodological strategy. The o…
The Offspring of Functionalism: French and British Structuralism
Durkheim'sfunctional and structural sociology is examined with an eye to the two structuralist modes of inquiry that it inspired, French structuralism and British structuralism. French structuralism comes from Levi-Strauss's inverting the basic ideas of Durkheim and others in the French circle, including Marcell Mauss, Robert Hertz, and Ferdinand de Saussure. British structuralism comes from A.R. Radcliffe-Brown's adoption of Durkheimian ideas to…
Emile Durkheim's Theory of Integration in Differentiated Social Systems
An examination of Emile Durkheim as a theorist is undertaken, with an emphasis on his formulation of abstract theoretical principles. Operating from the assumption that Durkheim formulated some of sociology's basic laws of human organization, his abstract principles are summarized with respect to system differentiation, system integration, and system disintegration. Most of these principles are seen to come from Durkheim's The Division of Labor i…
The Social Cage: Human Nature and the Evolution of Society
The Pursuit of Human Nature in Sociobiology and Evolutionary Sociology
Outside of sociology, evolutionary theory is once again commanding widespread attention in social science. Having sat out the spirited debates over sociobiology in the 1970s, most sociologists are largely unaware that the field has prospered and is now a respected, interdisciplinary science with a growing number of influential scholars within the social sciences. This article takes a critical look at sociobiology with a consideration of both its …
The Social Cage: Human Nature and the Evolution of Society
Sociology as a Theory Building Enterprise: Detours from the Early Masters
A review of sociologists' excuses for not developing laws or principles that are the equivalent to those in the natural sciences is undertaken. This review is placed in the context of the vision of sociology's early masters who believed that laws of social organization could be articulated. The failure of modern theorists to build on this vision over the last 50 years is highlighted by an examination of some of the basic principles of social orga…
Entrepreneurial Environments and the Emergence of Achievement Motivation in Adolescent Males
Previous research has traced high need for achievement among adolescent males to certain socialization experiences in the family. Other research has demonstrated that adolescents with high need-achievement are over-represented in the middle classes. From these findings, it can be assumed that there is something about the middle classes which affects family socialization in ways conducive to high achievement motivation. Among the many variables as…
Contra a sociologia pública: Será Ela a Melhor Forma De Tornar a Sociologia Relevante
A bem difundida recepção do chamamento por uma sociologia pública confirma o desejo quase desesperado da disciplina tornar-se pertinente às grandes questões atuais. Em várias partes do mundo sociólogos sentem-se, de alguma forma, marginalizados na esfera pública, e raramente são indagados acerca das suas percepções. Assim, a sociologia pública parece propor um caminho para que as várias sociologias se unam, visando a torná-la mais relevante a dif…
A Theory of Social Interaction
This book provides an analysis of the fundamental problem areas of social science. Jonathan Turner concentrates on the relation between micro and macro analyses in the understanding of social interaction. A range of theories of interaction - including those by G.H. Mead, Alfred Schutz, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel and Jurgen Habermas - are subjected to critical analysis. Turner gives an analysis to those areas covered half a century ago by Ta…
The Birth of the Gods: Robertson Smith and Durkheim’s Turn to Religion as the Basis of Social Integration
Emile Durkheim's ideas on religion have long served as foundational blocks for sociological theories. Yet, a mystery remains over where Durkheim's insights into religion came from and especially the event that opened his eyes to religion's importance in social life. Durkheim never supplied details on this conversion, but he did credit Robertson Smith for his new understanding. Did Smith really play the key role in Durkheim's turn to religion? Thi…
A Treatise on Social Theory. Volume 2, Substantive Social Theory
The Israeli Kibbutzim and the Westermarck Hypothesis: Does Early Association Dampen Sexual Passion? A Comment on Shor and Simchai
Entrepreneurial Environments and the Emergence of Achievement Motivation in Adolescent Males
Previous research has traced high need for achievement among adolescent males to certain socialization experiences in the family. Other research has demonstrated that adolescents with high need-achievement are over-represented in the middle classes. From these findings, it can be assumed that there is something about the middle classes which affects family socialization in ways conducive to high achievement motivation. Among the many variables as…
A Cybernetic Model of Economic Development
(1971). A Cybernetic Model of Economic Development. The Sociological Quarterly: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 191-203
Social System and Time and Space: An Introduction to the Theory of Recurrent Behavior
Structural Conditions of Achievement among Whites and Blacks in the Rural South
Achievement motives and value orientations among black and white adolescent males were studied in eight small communities in the rural South. Significant differences between white and black achievement scores were observed, leading to a search for the structural conditions best accounting for these differences. The generally low achievement among blacks was attributed to general patterns of community oppression. Low achievement motives were linke…
From Utopia to Where: A Strategy for Reformulating the Dahrendorf Conflict Model
Journal Article From Utopia to Where?: A Strategy for Reformulating the Dahrendorf Conflict Model Get access Jonathan H. Turner Jonathan H. Turner University of CaliforniaRiverside Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 52, Issue 2, December 1973, Pages 236–244, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/52.2.236 Published: 01 December 1973
Parsons as a Symbolic Interactionist: A Comparison of Action and Interaction Theory1
Action theory's substantive image of social organization, theory building strategy, and methodological tenets are compared with those of interactionism. Despite polemics to the contrary, action and interaction concepts denote a similar image of social organization and personality. As is argued, the principle difference between the two perspectives revolves around the issue of the most appropriate theory building and methodological strategy. The o…
Persistent Issues in Parsonian Action Theory
Current Folklore in the Criticisms of Parsonian Action Theory
This paper examines the often repeated assertion that Parsons abandoned the notion of 'voluntarism' in favor of 'macrofunctionalism' or 'behavioristic naturalism' and that the Parsonian scheme therefore reveals marked discontinuity. When Parsons'strategy for theory building is appreciated, this prevalent assumption proves to be incorrect. In fact, the Parsonian action scheme evidences a considerable degree of continuity from 1937 to the present. …
Marx and Simmel Revisited: Reassessing the Foundations of Conflict Theory
An examination of Karl Marx's and Georg Simmel's theories of conflict is undertaken with an eye toward assessing what they offer contemporary theorizing. The contrasting purposes, metaphysical assumptions, conceptualizations of variables, and propositions of Marx and Simmel are presented and compared. While there is some overlap in their formulations, the complementary differences in their schemes provide the broadest foundation for the sociology…
American Society: Problems of Structure
The Structure of Sociological Theory
The Structure of Sociological Theory
A Strategy for Reformulating the Dialectical and Functional Theories of Conflict
Sociology Theory: Uses and Unities
Building Social Theory: Some Questions about Homan's Strategy
A Theory of Social Structure: An Assessment of Blau's Strategy
Culture and its Creators: Essays in Honor of Edward Shils
American Society: Problems of Structure
Approaches to the Study of Social Structure
A Theory of Ethnic Oppression: Toward a Reintegration of Cultural and Structural Concepts in Ethnic Relations Theory
Journal Article A Theory of Ethnic Oppression: Toward a Reintegration of Cultural and Structural Concepts in Ethnic Relations Theory Get access Jonathan H. Turner, Jonathan H. Turner University of California, Riverside Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Royce Singleton, Jr. Royce Singleton, Jr. College of the Holy Cross Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Vo…
Sociology as a Theory Building Enterprise: Detours from the Early Masters
A review of sociologists' excuses for not developing laws or principles that are the equivalent to those in the natural sciences is undertaken. This review is placed in the context of the vision of sociology's early masters who believed that laws of social organization could be articulated. The failure of modern theorists to build on this vision over the last 50 years is highlighted by an examination of some of the basic principles of social orga…
The Structure of Sociological Theory
Sociological theory: diversity and disagreement. Functional theorizing. Conflict theorizing. Exchange theorizing. Interactionist theorizing. Structural theorizing. Assessment and synthesis of sociological theory. Author index. Subject index
Inequality: Privilege an Poverty in America
Parsons on the Human Condition
Functionalism
Sociology (85 works) · Philosophy (51 works) · Epistemology (48 works) · Social science (37 works) · Philosophy (35 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (32 works) · Political science (27 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Law (16 works) · Computer Science (15 works)