Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/239

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 22 7

It is not intended that the term "social structure," as here used, shall cover any questions that are in dispute about the sense in which the concept is applicable to society. The notion has been overworked, abused, distorted, misrepresented, and misunderstood. Many sociologists have accordingly felt obliged to protest against the notion altogether ; or, at least, they have so strongly objected to certain versions of the notion that they have virtually argued against the validity of the fundamental category itself. At the same time, everyone who has attempted to interpret men's activities has been obliged to use the concept in some generic form. The essential fact is that, when men act together, whether in pairs or in multitudes, there is always an adjust- ment of some sort between them. Thus in a matriarchal family the woman has a certain conceded prestige and influence, with refer- ence to which the man and the children are subordinate. In the patriarchal family there is similar subordination, but the man is the center of power. In every group of boys or girls at play, the arrangement of leaders and led is sure to develop in some degree or other, sooner or later. In a gang of men at work, there will always be a gravitation toward definite arrange- ment of leaders and led, or boss and bossed. So in every larger and more developed human activity. The adaptations of the individuals to each other may be entirely fluid and flexible and transitory, as in a crowd accidentally assembled by curiosity ; or they may become definite, rigid, and relatively permanent, as in the legal institutions of civilized society. Wherever social activities occur, however, this manner of adjustment between the actors, this structure of the parts, is just as real as the exist- ence of the parts themselves. This structure into which persons arrange themselves whenever they act together is both effect and cause of their actions. The activities cannot be fully or truly known, therefore, without knowledge of the social struc- ture within which and by means of which they take place. It has

An organic form ; the combination of parts in any natural production ; an organiza- tion of parts or elements Mode of building, construction, or organization;

arrangement of parts, elements, or constituents ; form ; make : use of both natural and artificial productions."