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-~~DECKJS~~
-# City air makes you free #
-## City air makes you free ##
-Ryan Schram
-Mills 169 (A26)
-ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-September 11, 2017
-Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/7.1
-### Reading ###
-Brenner, Suzanne. 1996. “Reconstructing Self and Society: Javanese Muslim Women and ‘the Veil.’” American Ethnologist 23 (4): 673–97. doi:10.1525/ae.1996.23.4.02a00010.
-### Supplemental reading ###
-Schram, Ryan. in press. "[[:religion_and_economy|Religion and economy]]," The international Encyclopedia of Anthropology: The Anthropology of Religion (pre-publication draft, 27 November 2015).
-## Before we get going ##
-Before we get going, I should mention that my slides for today are
-much denser than usual. This lecture is also much denser and more
-abstract. So I suggest that you concentrate on listening and use the
-words on the screen as a guide to the main points. Don't try to copy
-down everything on the screen. All of the slides are online on
-http://anthro.rschram.org.
-## The rise of cities ##
-### US urbanisation ###
-* USA 1900: 30% of people live in cities
-* USA 1990: nearly 80% live in cities (US Census 1995).
-### World urbanisation ###
-* In 1800, 3% of the world lived in cities.
-* In 1900, 19%.
-* In 2000, 47% ... and recently over half of people live in cities (The Economist 2007).
-What do you think are the main differences between rural and urban societies?
-## What is a contemporary society? ##
-This class is about the conditions of life and society in the contemporary world.
-The contemporary world is:
-* Interconnected. Everyone lives in some kind of conjuncture of cultures and orders.
-* Fluid. Societies are produced through their interactions with other cultures, and every society is a product of their history.
-* Complex. Many different kinds of logic coexist within every society, like reciprocity and commodity exchange, or in-the-world or on-the-world
-* Defined by unintended side-effects. All societies are changing all the time, but change goes in different directions, and history is not linear or progressive.
-In other words, anthropologists argue that you cannot understand life in the contemporary world by a **"from-to" story**, e.g. from tradition to modernity, from oral to literate, or from sustainable husbandry to industrial exploitation. Each contemporary society is a **"both-and" story**.
-## Multiple modernities ##
-This week we taking a second look at the concept of modernity. Today I
-want to talk about modernity as a distinct kind of change.
-On Wednesday, I want to argue that there is more than one kind of
-modernity. Specifically,
-* All societies change, but not all societies end up being the same.
-* Not all kinds of social change are progress.
-By the end of this week, I hope to have explained why anthropologists
-for the most part are very skeptical that there is such a thing as
-modernity. They prefer to talk about it as multiple modernities, each
-with its own logic and history.
-## Max Weber: the man, the myth, the sociologist ##
-Max Weber (1864-1920) is widely considered the founder of modern
-sociology. Along with Emile Durkheim, he is credited with some of
-social science's main ideas.
-Weber's approach to social forms starts from the view that there are
-different types of society, and one can compare them to understand
-each better.
-## Weber and modernity ##
-For Weber "traditional" societies were different from "modern"
-societies.
-Traditional societies are based on following rules because 'this is
-the way it has always been.'
-Modern societies allow more freedom for individuals to make
-choices. Modern societies are based on agreements between individuals.
-Weber says that modern societies are **more rational** than
-traditional societies.
-## That doesn't sound like anthropology ##
-Weber did not look at cultural differences the way that
-anthropologists do. His views about social change are ethnocentric. He
-assumed that all societies were moving toward greater rationality,
-which he saw in the German state.
-Let's look at Weber's key ideas to see how he arrives at this idea of
-modernity.
-## Weber's theory of society ##
-Weber's theory of society starts with the concept of "social action". There are four types of social action, each based on a type of meaning they embody.
-* Traditional: I do it because this is how it has always been.
-* Affective: I do it because it expresses my emotions.
-* Value-rational: I do it because this is the best possible way to
-  advance a collective goal of my society.
-* Instrumental-rational: I do it because I get the most for the least
-  amount of effort.
-## Social action and society ##
-People are always motivated to act by a combination of all four types
-of motivation: tradition, affect, value-rationality, and instrumental
-rationality.
-One type of motivation is always predominant in a single form.
-People do different kinds of actions in different kinds of contexts.
-Different social institutions call on people to be different kinds of
-actors and to think about themselves and the value of their action in
-a certain way.
-## Examples ##
-Think about these examples. Each of these actions has a different
-meaning for the person who does them.
-Giving a fruit loaf. It's getting close to the holiday season and so
-there's lots of family gatherings. You may feel obligated to do
-something for the people hosting a party for you. Mauss would say that
-this obligation is reciprocity. Weber didn't believe in
-reciprocity. It's a tradition. You basically do it out of habit.
-Giving change to the Salvos.
-Buying ramen noodles.
-Each of these have different kind of primary motivation. Each social
-role one plays -- relative, donor, customer -- embodies a different
-value.
-## Religion as a type of social action ##
-What kind of value does religion embody? Or, from an actor's point of
-view, what is the motivation for participating in religious worship
-and a religious organization?
-## Religion as a type of social action ##
-In most senses of the word, people are not motivated to participate in
-religion for reasons of economic gain, at least not primarily. It
-isn't **instrumentally rational**, at least not primarily.
-By the same token, religious institutions are not set up to create a
-space for people to pursue self-interested goals.
-Many people find religion emotionally satisfying. But many people find
-soap operas emotionally satsifying too, so that can't be the only
-motivation.
-Tradition, yes, perhaps.
-## Religion as ethics ##
-For Weber, some religions draw people because they give them an answer
-to the ultimate meaning of life, and show them how to be an ethical
-person. They ask people to do things based on "value
-rationality". Pursuit of a collective goal is the reason why people
-pray, worship and participate in a religious community.
-## Religion is rationalization ##
-Religion is a force in society because it gives people an alternative
-to tradition. It forces them to examine why they do what they do.
-In other words, religion rationalizes people's social behavior.
-## Religious change leads to social change ##
-Weber argued that many religious movements sowed the seeds of social
-revolutions.
-As society became more rationalized in general, he believed people
-would not need religion to give them motivation to be rational. They
-could rely on systems based on instrumental rationality, like
-bureaucracy and markets.
-## The Protestant Ethic ##
-The Weber thesis is that the development of an ascetic form of
-Protestant Christianity spurred the development of market exchange and
-capitalist production. This is presented in his famous book //The
-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism// (1905).
-## The Protestant Ethic ##
-Calvin teaches that salvation is for the elect. There's nothing you
-can do to earn salvation.
-What you do with your life has nothing to do with your relationship to
-God.
-If you were successful, it was a **sign** that you were in the
-elect. Wealth is not valuable for its own sake.
-A person should follow one's "calling" as a duty to God.
-The **means** of earning a living (a calling) are separate from the **ends**
-(a living, wealth and success). Thus if one is wealthy, one can be
-deatched from this wealth and deal with objectively.
-## Twist! ##
-Protestant reformers condemned people for being consumed with
-worldliness: being greedy and venal. Greed is bad.
-Because their philosophy was based on a new way of thinking of the
-person as an individual, they actually paved the way for disembedding
-the economy from social relationships.
-Greed is good? Not really. Weber concludes that Protestantism led to
-people believing that self-interest is just human nature.
-## Modernization theory ##
-In the past, anthropologists and sociologists wanted to know how
-societies became more modern, and moved toward the type of society
-found in Europe. This school is called **"modernization theory."**
-Robert Bellah, Tokugawa Religion (1957).
-James Peacock, Muslim Puritans (1978).
-## Why is Weber's theory influential? ##
-Even though Weber was ethnocentric in some ways, he did think that
-culture played a role in the history of society.
-The values people learn from cultural institutions, especially
-religion, cause a society to change.
-## The Secularization Thesis ##
-Weber's argument that religion would eventually become less important
-is called the "secularization thesis"
-* Religious ethics forces people to reorganize society in ways that
-  separate traditional practices and rules from higher values.
-* As societies become more rationalized, religious institutions are
-  separated from other domains of society.
-* Religious identity becomes a private matter.
-* Overall, people become less involved in religious activities.
-## Problem: Secularization isn't happening ##
-For many years, people have observed a return to religion.
-As more modern forms of society have developed, new religions are
-developing too.
-While Europe and Australia are highly secular in some ways, religion
-is still a defining feature of people and groups.
-This is not what Weber predicted!
-## The paradox of religion ##
-Religion causes people to be rational, and to rationalize their lives
-and their environment. But this rationality does not lead to
-secularism or modernity in a classic sense.
-## Why revival in Java? #
-Brenner considers several theses:
-* A 'return' to tradition
-* Symbolic shelter
-* Maintain social esteem
-She ultimately rejects all these as insufficient explanations.
-## Reform and Islamic modernity ##
-She ultimately chooses to take seriously the explanation that her own
-informants gave her.
-Brenner's informants described religious change as a 'movement', a
-kind of training, and as self-discipline.
-In other words, it was a new way of seeing oneself. It is a means to a
-new subjectivity.
-## Islamic modernity and Suharto's modernity ##
-Brenner contrasts the Islamic movement with the nationalism of the New
-Order and the goverment of Suharto (1960s-1990s).
-**New Order**: Modernity through consumerism and capitalism.
-**Islamic movement**: Modernity through creating autonomous individual
-believers who can choose to follow a pure Islamic ethic.
-What do these visions of the future have in common?
-What do they differ on?
-## Why secularism? ##
-**World Values Survey 2014, Australia, "How important is religion to
-you?"**:
-* 'Important' 31.1 %
-* 'Not very important' or 'not at all important' 65.3%
-* Compared to around 60% in Scandinavian countries and 30% in the US.
-Do these figures surprise you? Why is religion so unimportant to a
-majority of Australians, and for that matter, many European countries
-too, but not the US?
-## References ##
-Bellah, Robert N. 1957. Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press.
-The Economist. 2007. “The World Goes to Town,” May 3. http://www.economist.com/node/9070726.
-Peacock, James L. 1978. Muslim Puritans: Reformist Psychology in Southeast Asian Islam. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
-“Urban and Rural Population: 1900 to 1990.” 1995. United States Census Bureau. October. https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/urpop0090.txt.
-Weber, Max. 1905. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
-Capitalism. London: Unwin Hyman. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/weber/protestant-ethic/index.htm.
-World Values Survey. 2014. "World Values Survey Wave 6: 2010-2014:
-Online Data Analysis: V.9 Important in Life, Religion." World Values
-Survey Database. Accessed June
-, 2014. http://worldvaluessurvey.org/.
-## A guide to the unit ##
-{{page>1002guide}}

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