It is about time

What do birthdays mean? Why are they so obligatory for modern people? Based on neo-Durkheimian perspectives on ritual, this article suggests the anthropological history of the western birthday as a key to understand its meaning. The article points at the unique ritual system developed by modern industrial culture, such as birthdays, jubilees, and other anniversaries-designated here as Rites of Temporality-which latch on to the numerical milestones marking the passage of time to which the celebrant (individual, institution, settlement, state, and so forth) is subject. Comparing the birthday with classical rites of initiation then reveals how over and above individualism, consumer culture, state bureaucracy, and historical consciousness, the birthday honors time's most noticeable markers since the industrial era-numbers-thus objectifying conventionalized time as a central meaning maker for modern people

Aesthetics · Bureaucracy · Consciousness · Epistemology · Individualism · Institution · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Temporalities · Temporality · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy

• ‘Our (Civil) Way of Life’

  Open Access•Hizky Shoham•Cultural Sociology•2023

  Incluir item

• When Magnus Johanson turned fifty

  Open Access•Janice Holmes•Approaching Religion•2023

  Incluir item

• Fraudulent Families? Investigating the Role of Paperwork in the Assessment of Refugees' Family Reunification in Belgium

  Sara De Hertog, Sara Hertog et al.•Journal of Immigrant & Refugee…•2023

  Incluir item

• Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

  Open Access•Hizky Shoham•American Behavioral Scientist•2024

  Incluir item

• Disrupting times in the wake of the pandemic

  Open Access•Tianna Loose, Marc Wittmann et al.•Time & Society•2022

  Incluir item

• Later Life

  Victor W Marshall•Later Life•1986

  Incluir item

• Celebrating the Family

  Elizabeth H Pleck, Elizabeth Pleck et al.•Celebrating the Family•2000

  Incluir item

• Postdramatic Theatre

  Hans-Thies Lehmann•Postdramatic Theatre•2006

  Incluir item

• How Old Are You?

  Howard P Chudacoff•How Old Are You?•1989

  Incluir item

• Deeply into the Bone

  Ronald L Grimes•Deeply into the Bone•2000

  Incluir item

• Futures Past

  Keith Tribe, Reinhart Koselleck•Futures Past•2004

  Incluir item

• Culture builders

  Jonas Frykman•Culture builders•1987

  Incluir item

• Centuries of childhood

  Philippe Aries•Centuries of childhood•1962

  Incluir item

• The Institutionalization of the Life Course

  Martin Kohli•Research in Human Development•2007

  Incluir item

• The Meanings of Social LifeA Cultural Sociology

  Jeffrey C Alexander•The Meanings of Social Life•2003

  Incluir item

• Gender and Consumption

  Lydia Martens, Emma Casey•Gender and Consumption•2016

  Incluir item

• Telling Time

  Elizabeth A Latshaw, Stuart Sherman•South Atlantic Review•1998

  Incluir item

• Red Bucket for the Red Cordial, Green Bucket for the Green Cordial

  Open Access•Y Musharbash•The Australian Journal of…•2004

  Incluir item

• Materialising Oceania

  Open Access•Joshua A Bell, H Geismar•The Australian Journal of…•2009

  Incluir item

• Nutritionally ‘empty’ but full of meanings

  Open Access•Deborah Albon•Journal of Early Childhood Research•2014

  Incluir item

• Maternal visibility at the commodity frontier

  Open Access•Laura Jennings, Jan Brace‐govan et al.•Journal of Consumer Culture•2013

  Incluir item

• A transformation of ritual

  Open Access•Mary L Doi•Journal of Cross-Cultural…•1991

  Incluir item

• Korean birthday rituals

  Open Access•Soo-Young Chin•Journal of Cross-Cultural…•1991

  Incluir item

• Celebrations

  Barry Schwartz, William M Johnston•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1992

  Incluir item

• Nation and Commemoration

  Open Access•Connie L Mcneely, Lynette P Spillman et al.•Nation and Commemoration•1997

  Incluir item

• The Anthropology of Time

  Alfred Gell•Anthropology of Time•2021

  Incluir item

• We Have Never Been Modern

  T Hugh Crawford, Tony Crawford•Configurations•1994

  Incluir item

• Hidden Rhythms

  Eviatar Zerubavel•Hidden Rhythms•1985

  Incluir item

• Timewatch

  Barbara Adams, Bárbara Adam•Timewatch•1995

  Incluir item

• Birthday Parties

  Open Access•Janice Klein•Central Issues in Anthropology•1981

  Incluir item

• The public and private dimensions of a birthday party

  A Zycherman•Food and Foodways•2016

  Incluir item

• A Weberian Theory of Time

  Open Access•Sandro Segre•Time & Society•2000

  Incluir item

• Where Are we at Home

  Open Access•Agnes Heller•Thesis Eleven•1995

  Incluir item

• Making sense of the history of clock-time, reflections on Glennie and Thrift's Shaping the Day

  Open Access•Jonathan Martineau•Time & Society•2017

  Incluir item

• Norbert Elias and the philosophical controversy surrounding the nature of time

  Open Access•Eugênio Rezende De Carvalho•Time & Society•2018

  Incluir item

• Introduction

  Open Access•M Bastian, Lisa Baraitser et al.•Time & Society•2020

  Incluir item

• We Gather Together

  Open Access•Sarah E Newton, Theodore C Humphrey et al.•Western Folklore•1989

  Incluir item

• Rethinking Tradition

  Open Access•Hizky Shoham•European Journal of Sociology•2011

  Incluir item

• Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism

  Edward P Thompson•Past & Present•1967

  Incluir item

• Celebrations of Bureaucracy

  Open Access•Lea Shamgar-Handelman, Lea Shamgar‐Handelman et al.•Ethnology•1991

  Incluir item

• The Language and Ritual of Socialisation

  Weil, Shalva Weil•Man•1986

  Incluir item

• Ritual

  Frederick Bird, Catherine Bell•Ritual•1997

  Incluir item

• Two Theories of Modernity

  Charles Taylor•Public Culture•1999

  Incluir item

• From Vigilance to Busyness

  Open Access•Benjamin H Snyder•Sociological Theory•2013

  Incluir item

• The Fate of the Dramatic in Modern Society

  Open Access•Jeffrey C Alexander•Theory Culture & Society•2014

  Incluir item

• Reflexive Modernization Temporalized

  Open Access•Barbara Adams, Bárbara Adam•Theory Culture & Society•2003

  Incluir item

• Children's Birthday Celebrations From the Lived Experiences of Low-Income Rural Mothers

  Open Access•Jaerim Lee, Mary Jo Katras et al.•Journal of Family Issues•2009

  Incluir item

• Disaster Anniversay

  Open Access•Thomas R Forrest, Thomas Forrest•Sociological Inquiry•1993

  Incluir item

• The Benedictine Ethic and the Modern Spirit of Scheduling

  Open Access•Eviatar Zerubavel•Sociological Inquiry•1980

  Incluir item

• Cultural Pragmatics

  Open Access•Jeffrey C Alexander•Sociological Theory•2004

  Incluir item

• The Standardization of Time

  Eviatar Zerubavel•American Journal of Sociology•1982

  Incluir item

• Why Do Grandparents Grumble? Chinese Children's Birthdays between Kinship, Market, and State

  Charlotte Bruckermann•Ethnos•2020

  Incluir item