This article reconsiders Spencer's sociology in order to show how his social theory is applied to specific topics and to suggest his importance in the emergence and continuing development of the social sciences. The first task is accomplished by applying Spencer's conceptual scheme to the study of kinship evolution and changing women's status. The second task is achieved by critically appraising his social theory, showing how current writers duplicate his mistakes, and extrapolating a number of useful theoretical principles.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndreskiS.1971“Introductory essay: Sociology, biology, and philosophy in Herbert Spencer,” pp. 7–35 in AndreskiS. (ed.) Herbert Spencer: Structure, Function, and Evolution. London: Michael H. Joseph
2.
BockK.1978“Theories of progress, development, and evolution,” pp. 39–79 in BottomoreT.NisbetR. A. (eds.) A History of Sociological Thought. New York: Basic Books
3.
BlauP.1977Inequality and Heterogeneity. New York: Free Press
4.
BlumbergR. L.WinchR. A.1972“Societal complexity and familial complexity: Evidence for the curvilinear hypothesis”. Amer. J. of Sociology77 (January): 898–920
5.
DuffinL.1978“Prisoners of progress: Women and evolution,” pp. 57–91 in DelamontS.DuffinL. (ed.) The Nineteenth-Century Woman: Her Cultural and Physical World. New York: Barnes & Noble
6.
DurkheimE.1933The Division of Labor in Society (1893). New York: Free Press
7.
DurkheimE.1938Rules of the Sociological Method (1895). New York: Free Press
8.
FriedlE.1975Women and Men: An Anthropologist's View. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
9.
GranovetterM.1979“The idea of ‘advancement’ in theories of social evolution and development”. Amer. J. of Sociology85 (November): 489–515
10.
IssacB. L.1980“Female fertility and marital form among the Mende of rural Upper Bambera Chiefdom, Sierra Leone”. Ethnology19 (July): 297–314
11.
LenskiG.1966Power and Privilege. New York: McGraw-Hill
12.
LenskiG.1976“Social structure in evolutionary perspective,” pp. 135–153 in BlauP. (ed.) Approaches to the Study of Social Structure. New York: Free Press
13.
LenskiG.LenskiJ.1978Human Societies. New York: McGraw-Hill
14.
LevineN. E.SangreeW. A. eds. 1980“Women with many husbands: Polyandrous alliance and marital flexibility in Africa and Asia”. J. of Comparative Family Studies11 (Spring): 283–410
15.
NisbetR. A.1969Social Change and History. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
16.
ParsonsT.1937The Structures of Social Action. New York: Free Press
17.
ParsonsT.1951The Social System. New York: Free Press
18.
ParsonsT.1961“Introduction,” pp. v–x in SpencerH.The Study of Sociology. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press
