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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 10, 12, 2018
+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}}