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This article describes some adaptations made by the small town newspaper in Washington to the social and cultural changes occurring in the rural environment. Among these adjustments are: a stability in numbers has been reached, although at the expense of some loss of per capita circulation strength; a reduction in the number of two-newspaper towns; an increase in the size of the newspaper page; a shift from Saturday to Thursday as the second most important day of publication; a decreased interest in political parties and policies; a concentration on local news, particularly of persons and organizations. These trends suggest certain observations on the process of change and adaptation in social institutions, which by nature are slow to change: (1) adjustment to change is forced upon an institution by the inroads of competing agencies; (2) the stimulus to change comes from without, not from within the institution; and (3) changes in any one of the four elements of any institution, (a) rank and file membership, (b) leadership, (c) physical structure and equipment, and (d) pattern of attitudes lending sanction to the operation of the institution, will evoke changes and adpatations in the structure and functions of the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comment on a previous article Prefatory Findings in the Sociology of Missions, by David R. Heise, that appeared in the April 1967 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Long-neglected theories of social change have undergone an extensive revival in recent years as part of the effort to explain the revolutionary transformations, which are sweeping through the traditional societies of the world. The emphasis was placed at first on "the social consequences of technical change," but more recently it has shifted to a concern for the dynamics of the change process itself. This newer emphasis has served to refocus attention on the agents of communication and persuasion which transmit change both within and between groups, and, more generally, on problems of the diffusion of innovation. The most interesting part of Heise's paper, from the vantage point of theory building in diffusion research, is his emphasis on the target unit at which change-attempts are directed. One hopes that Heise's paper will lead not only to further work along the lines but also to renewed interest, at a more macroscopic level, in the diffusion of Christianity, Islam, and other religious movements in other times and places.

A critical review of some recent research on sex roles; suggestions are made for an alternative approach. Much research is found to be misleading and seriously biased to minimize indications of strains and changes in American sex roles. Most research is limited to women's roles, not men's, and to the internal processes of the middle class family without consideration of functional, historical, or political aspects. American sex roles are explained in this paper as serving historical and psychological needs which are no longer appropriate. Differential, sex roles are maladapted to contemporary conditions of rapid social change and temporary associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's criticism to the key points presented in a paper focusing on familial development, selective needs and predictive theory. His paper fail to spell out the relationships between the structural framework developed in the earlier chapters of the paper including the hypotheses set forth in the following chapters. The theorists appear to depend more on intuition that on any explicit theory of relationships when it comes to drawing up concrete lists of paired situations.

The article provides information about developments in various universities and colleges in the field of sociology. Two papers of W. A. Anderson of Cornell University on Rural Social Participation and the Family Life Cycle have been published by the Agricultural Experiment Station as Memoirs 314 and 318. They deal with the relationship of stages in the family life cycle to formal and informal family participation. He has also published a study entitled "Social Change and an Urban Fringe Area." Anderson is working with city and town officials in Ithaca, New York on problems of city expansion and fringe-area incorporation. A Study of Some Factors Associated with Family Informal Participation has been issued as Department Bulletin 36. Department Bulletin 39, "Eight Case Illustrations of Low Formal Participation," and Department Bulletin 40, "Eight Case Illustrations of High Formal Participation," are other recent publications. He has also revised the bibliography of the department. The Government of Brazil, in June, conferred upon T. Lynn Smith of the University of Florida, the Order of the Southern Cross. Smith has spent several years in Brazil, on assignment by the U. S. Department of State, as a visiting professor at the University of Brazil, and as advisor on agrarian reform to the Minister of Agriculture and the National Commission on Agrarian Policy.

This article discusses the educational sociology of sociologist Émile Durkheim. It is the purpose of this paper to outline some ideas of Durkheim on education and to show how they are closely linked with his sociological thought. It can be no more than an introduction to a subject upon which the writer is preparing a more substantial work. None of the educational writings of Durkheim has yet been published in England. In fact most of them were only published posthumously in France. Some notes on the most important of them are given at the end of this paper. The majority of them were prepared in the form of lectures and are listed in order of the dates on which the course was first given and not according to the date of publication which is separately recorded. There are many lectures still existing in manuscript form. It was thought best to give quotations in the following pages in English and the translations are those of the writer except where otherwise noted as coming from existing translations. Moreover, this paper will conclude with a brief outline of four major functions of educational sociology which are based on practical principles in line with Durkheim's methodology. These functions are the determination of the present social facts of education and their sociological function, determination of the relation of education to social and cultural change, comparative sociology of education and the study of the school itself as a social group and in relation to other social groups.

Cybernation is defined as the combination of the computer and the automated self-regulating machine. Enthusiasm for cybernation is likewise giving rise to myths, which may harden unless they are given critical attention. The new myths are somewhat reinforced by technocratic thinking which is often ill informed along economic and sociological lines. As myths, some of the newer convictions, which are developing, are also an outcropping of what has come to be called the Triple Revolution. In evaluating the assumptions of cybernation here the author is not declaring either that they are in error or that they are beyond the bounds of possibility. What the author wishes to maintain in this paper is that if these assumptions remain untempered by institutional realities and by some new and necessary conceptual considerations of an economic nature, they will not prove very serviceable for the task of managed social change. Furthermore, if these assumptions remain unguided by an appropriate social philosophy, a cybercultural credo will remain at best programmatic. Unless detailed blueprints for various forms of needed devotees of cybernation can work out social change, the cybercultural revolution will never enter the realm of Realpolitik. The excuse for this paper, then, will be the effort to examine critically the excesses of enthusiasm, which characterize those who are now marching under the banner of cybernation, and to suggest some critical remedies, which are in order.

This paper is an attempt to show that distinct dimensions of political alienation are reliable predictors of variations in political behaviour, independently of factors such as level of government and kinds of situations. In other words, there is a direct relation between the type of alienation and the mode in which it is expressed. The paper also calls attention to the functions served by the alienated as agents of political change. Variations in the modes of expression result from the following four types of political alienation: powerlessness, distrust, meaninglessness and isolation. Political powerlessness refers to the "perceived expectancy of an individual that his own behaviour cannot determine the occurrence of political outcomes that he seeks." The incentive to take part in politics is weak among the powerless who consequently elect to express their alienation through non-participation. Distrust is a person's feeling that the occupants of political roles systematically and consistently violate specific political norms or the "rules of the game" when dealing with certain publics.

This paper focuses on one aspect of social change—changes in value orientations which reflect relationships between self and society. Two questions are examined: What differences in value orientations exist between younger and older generations of Negroes and whites in a rural area? What are the implications of the differences to social change in the United States? Data were collected in 1962 from younger and older generations of Negroes and of whites living in three rural counties in northern Florida. The younger generations included 411 Negro and white 12th graders and the older generations included their parents. Generational differences in value orientations—in achievement, in anomia, and in family identification—were more pronounced among Negroes than among whites. These generational differences among rural Negroes suggest an orientation to life for young Negroes which enables them to identify easily with movements for change in race relations in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a distinction between ‘opinion leadership’ and traditional leadership in the process of directed change in underdeveloped areas. Using the case study method, an attempt is made to demonstrate that each of the two types of leadership is suited to a specific situation. Using support from Max Weber's argument that the traditional leader is free to confer grace quite arbitrarily, the potentiality of this type of leadership as an instrument for social change is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the functions of education in rural social change and, more specifically, rural-urban sociocultural integration. Based on accumulated evidence and insight from researches in the eastern mountain region of Kentucky, the central thesis is that education functions as a major cultural entree by the Great Society into this relatively isolated, familistically-oriented subculture. Because of its structurally strategic position, the educational institution tends to have more direct integrative communication and linkage with the Great Society than the other basic institutions. This suggests a largely indirect influence of the Great Society on the non educational institutions. The school system brings about changes in general orientations which set the stage for changes in specific orientations both educational and noneducational. With time and under certain conditions these changes in orientation result in changes in the institutional structure of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directed social and cultural change in which a systemic conceptual scheme is utilized in the analysis is the theme of this paper, which describes the first year's operation of a project in supervised agricultural credit in a Peruvian highland community and analyzes it in terms of the dynamic aspects of systemic elements such as goals, norms, sanctions, power, and so forth. The conclusion to the paper summarizes an explanation of the events occurring during the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on planning in the United States. Whatever type of planning one has in mind, the context within which planning takes place is critical for its characteristics. In particular, planning under conditions of rapid social transformation is basically different from planning under conditions of stability. The one most important difference between planning under conditions of rapid social transformation and planning under conditions of stability is that when society is passing through rapid transformations, much less can be taken for granted. Planning is a multimeaning term but, at the very least, it implies efforts to shape the future with the help of structured rationality, systematic knowledge, and organized creativity. It constitutes one mode of policy making distinguished by first, a medium-to-long time perspective, and two, much attention to internal consistency between a range of subdecisions. There are many possible planning styles, and the number of available planning modes, methodologies, methods, and tools is very large.

This paper outlines the transition in thought from what has been called the "monastic ideal" to the current stages of "rational capitalism". It treats the way in which the transition from sacred to secular thought systems (especially since the Protestant Reformation) has led to the establishment of an unforeseen dilemma, i.e., a trend toward a moral society of amoral members. This condition has been brought about in some ways intentionally and in other ways inadvertently, by eliminating magic from the world in the form of the societal members' acceptance of and preoccupation with papal infallibility, religious ritual, sin, and salvation. The above had the consequence of rationalizing society and allowing for greater predictability and economic gain. Many of the stages in this transition, the sum total of which now constitutes the social and theological dilemma noted above, often resulted in spite of and contrary to the avowed intentions of their unwitting creators. The paper treats the question of how these "latent" functions managed to "manifest" themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to develop a testable theory of secularization. The first requirement of this theory is to specify the limitations of structural-functional analysis. One of these limitations is its adherence to questionable norms for the measurement of religion. In moving beyond structural-functional analysis of secularization as a process, the choice is made to define the secular in terms of Parsons's theory of action. This theory suggests the possibility of a secular, as well as a religious normative orientation. These two normative orientations contain such dimensions as scope, intensity, and a posture toward social change. The theoretical development of this paper is related to major analyses of American society and calls into question some of the assumptions underling the theory of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the theoretical link between the social differentiation of population groups in modern industrial society and the residential differentiation of such groups and suggests alternative methods of analyzing urban residential differentiation by outlining the results of a study of social areas in Melbourne, Victoria. The paper is primarily concerned with a limited model of urban society and is restricted culturally and temporally to the modern industrial city which emerged as a consequence of the industrial revolution. One criticism of social area analysis has been that, while its underlying theory is mainly concerned with understanding social differentiation in modern industrial society, the main empirical concern among social area analysts has been with a problem of a different, although related order, the residential differentiation of socially differentiated groups. The first section of the paper discusses the general processes through which the three constructs of social rank, urbanization and segregation come to have a spatial referent. The second section of the paper reports an empirical test of the Shevky-Bell schema using 1961 census data for Melbourne. A two-staged component analysis is used to test for the existence of the three hypothesized dimensions of residential differentiation. A more efficient method of classification is used to derive a typology of residential areas using two component scores for each area.

The object of this paper is to deal with only two important uses. First, the material throws considerable light on the processes of acculturation and the first part of this paper discusses such processes with two basic objectives in view. One is a critical assessment of the main body of hypotheses and generalizations which have so far been made in this field and the presentation of a more useful theoretical framework within which the subject may be discussed; the other will be an application of this new framework to the available historical data relating to one of the islands, Jamaica, on which the author has recently done extensive research. For what is most striking about the West Indies is that they present one of the few cases in world history where groups of peoples were deliberately thrown together, forcefully deculturated or detribalized as the case may be and new societies consciously created for the achievement of specifically defined goals. Thus, there emerged in the post-emancipation period a dual culture, or two Jamaica's: one was the Afro-Jamaican cultural system, which was largely a consolidation and revitalization of patterns developed during slavery; the other was the European-oriented cultural system which was the revival of British civilization in the island after its disintegration during slavery.

Family Structure is a core social unit and fundamental social change necessarily involves a redefining of such a basic structural element. The leadership of the People's Republic of China, largely through specific attention to mate selection and marital arrangements and rituals, has attempted to strengthen the conjugal bond and weaken the filial bond in the Chinese family. Information gathered from press reports, and more importantly, Chinese families, suggests significant changes have occurred in the area of mate selection. It was found that a marriage between two well-acquainted individuals characterizes one-half of rural marriages and all urban marriages of respondents since 1958. The socially and geographically mobile youth are most likely to many freely because they are beyond parental control, and they have participated in heterosexual peer relationships in school and on the job. Closer examination reveals, however, that changes in the more complex areas of obligations and responsibilities to the household and parents are much slower to manifest. The ultimate form and style of the family relationships will be in large part determined by the balance between the community and peers and the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To further understanding of migration determinants, I examine the experiences of three groupings in the U.S.: Negro movement from the South during 1860 to 1920; Japanese-American migration from internment camps during World War II; and exodus from Southern Appalachia between 1930 and 1960. Each of these three cases illustrates both the importance of noneconomic variables in determining migration and the worth to noting nonmigration to understand the migration process. I suggest using a framework which examines motivation for and constraints upon migration for individuals as a starting point in developing migration theory. When migration is viewed within a social structure, dependence upon the local community and potential for assimilation elsewhere appear as critical determinants of whether motivation for migration becomes actual movement. Based upon the three cases studied in this paper, as well as many other studies, I encourage future migration research to avoid an overemphasis upon economic factors and to reject the argument that no generalization is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents brief summaries of article, published in issues of several periodicals. Teen-age marriages, pregnancies among high school girls, youthful gang violence, and increases in youthful crime rates are deeply serious events. At present, an increase in the size of the American family is occurring. This paper focuses upon the motivation for having larger families and the social changes that may underlie these motivations. Many changes have developed in the role of women due to the technological developments. This speculative paper explores the direction of family life over the next 40 years. The author sees the increasing proportion of women employed gainfully as the clearest indication of approaching sex equality. Family life educators are taken to task in this article for persisting in presenting only one side of the question on the frequency of divorce associated with religiously homogamous or heterogamous marriages. This article is concerned with needed communication between theology and anthropology. The two fields have a common link in being concerned about truth, whether natural or social.

This article presents information on various papers related to migration. One of the papers discussed is "Venti Anni in Favore dell'Agricoluiura," by G. D'Ascenzio that was published in the December 1964 issue of the periodical "Orientamenti Sociali." The author, basing himself on the agricultural situation in Italy twenty years after the establishment of the Confederazicene Nazionale Coltivatori Diretti, delineates the economic conditions of Italian agriculture, with emphasis on technological progress, social evolution, and psychological, religious and political developments in the field. The most interesting conclusion from a sociological point of view regards the rural migration to urban centers abroad. Notwithstanding the fact that this reduction of the agricultural population is a positive sign of economic advancement, it nonetheless presents various problems of a social, psychological, moral and religious nature. Another paper discussed is "About Reference Group Alienation, Mobility and Acculturation," by G.D. Berreman that was published in a previous issue of the periodical "American Anthropologist." The author submits that many terms and concepts used in the description and analysis of the confrontation of diverse ethnic groups, for example, acculturation, assimilation, mobility, can be used more precisely in light of a deepening of the knowledge of reference groups.

The aim of the paper is to examine the population shifts and settlement changes in two townships of unlike agricultural potential and accessibility near Springfield, Missouri. Each township is representative of a major physical region of the Ozarks. Buck Prairie Township in Lawrence County lies in the Springfield Plain and represents some of the best agricultural land in an Ozark border region. On the other hand, Linn Township in Christian County lies along the Eureka Springs Escarpment which forms the northern border of the White River Hills, one of the most rugged districts of the Ozarks. Significant changes in the general settlement patterns have occurred, although, because of variable environmental conditions and differences in economic factors, the amount of change has not everywhere been the same. However, observations made during an extensive survey of land use and settlement in the Springfield vicinity indicate that Buck Prairie and Linn townships are representative of larger sections of the Ozarks.

This paper reports the results of an exploratory survey of higher agricultural education in Latin America and relates these and other findings to "development." Education in general and agricultural education in particular are placed in a cultural context, which in turn is utilized to explain the current situation with regard to education in Latin America. Attention is also given to future trends and the probable increase in social science training throughout Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper some of the implications for social change of a country's educational status as compared with its industrial status are analyzed. Although the data show that literacy is an excellent index of a country's socio-economic development, they show further that countries may be more or less literate than their industrial development would suggest. The countries that are most deviant in this respect were isolated by the use of regression equations calculated on data for all of the world's countries. Analysis of other data for the deviant countries suggests some of the factors affecting educational vis-à-vis industrial progress. Countries which are more advanced educationally than industrially are shown to be making faster economic than social progress, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines recent changes in rural locality-group patterns, factors responsible for these changes, and implications of them, as revealed or suggested in recent literature on the subject. The change factors are classified in four groups: technology, population shifts, prosperity, and legislative programs. The neighborhood, as traditionally defined, seems now to be more of an ideal than a reality, and the community apparently is superseding the neighborhood as the basic locality group in many rural areas. There is increasing centralization of institutions in the larger centers and a growing multiplicity of special-interest groups in which rural people participate. Many researchers are suggesting that old classifications and conceptual schemes relating to locality groups need reexamination. Researchers, teachers, and extension workers in rural sociology are presented with a serious challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a restudy of Tepoztlán culture and criticizes the folk-urban hypothesis. Certainly there are phenomena that represent social disorganization; but the term has been used so commonly for social reorganization that perhaps it should be abolished. The study of man has demonstrated few things more clearly than the universality of socio-cultural change. Change need not be confused with the idea of progress, but neither should it always be labeled "disorganization." Both in this paper and in his major work, Sociologist Lewis Writh has presented us with many provocative ideas. Although one cannot concede that he has given final answers on all points, he has made constructive suggestions which represent important contributions to anthropology and, in at least some degree, to sociology. Lewis suggests that Robert Redfield's earlier study of Tepoztlán was directed primarily toward testing the folk concept rather than at producing a reasonably complete ethnography. This seems a legitimate comment; but Lewis's assertion, at least by implication, that his book is an attempt at a complete ethnography approaches correctness only if his work is read in connection with Redfield's. Even so, a complete study of Tepoztlán material culture has yet to be published.

The paper focuses on major research areas and needs in the field of social stratification, with special reference to rural society. Problem areas treated are (1) criteria of stratification and their interrelationships, (2) procedures employed in an operational definition of social strata, (3) the social unit in which a given system of stratification is operative, (4) cultural and group expressions of stratification, (5) vertical social mobility, and (6) stratification and social change. Major methodological problems concern (1) discovering rationales for selecting and relating criteria of stratification, (2) perfecting socio-economic scales and prestige rating procedures, and (3) bridging the gap between the community and mass society approaches. Considerable interest has been shown in describing the cultural aspects of stratification as seen in patterns or styles of life, but much more attention is needed on group expressions of class interests, the channels and personality correlates of vertical social mobility, and social forces which produce change in systems of stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a series of rural sociological research problems which appear feasible, show promise of fruitful results, and comprise major social adjustments needed and for under way in the "Wheat Belt." The suggested research is in "large blocks" which will require scaling and sizing to conform to situations immediately at hand. A superficial description of the "Wheat Belt" is given for purposes of orientation. The regional emphasis is likely to give an erroneous impression unless it is rigidly defined in actual research because the "Wheat Belt" is neither a region nor a belt in any strict sense. As conceived here, rural sociological research may be designed within several related comprehensive areas: Rural Social Organization, Population, Levels of Living, Social Interaction, and Cultural Change, each of which is capable of almost infinite subdivision and extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes cultural changes which have occurred since pioneer days in a rural, east Wisconsin German ethnic island. The social process is considered in terms of cultural history, geography, mobility, and enmeshment of the area in the dominant American culture. To determine the nature and degree of changes in ethnic values and attitudes, attention is focused on farming methods, family functions, and cultural conflict. The area has succeeded in making easy adjustments to the American situation and has remained a stable society largely for the following reasons: a traditional pattern of a diversified agriculture, coupled with a willingness to experiment and to conserve soil fertility, a climate and soil suited to this type of farming, acceptance of dairying to assure a cash income, a unique local outlet for excess farm produce, familism, settlement in a large compact group, and contact with an urban culture quite similar to its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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What is it in American rural culture that we wish to conserve? In postulating as worthy of conservation (1) survival values and (2) values inherent in familism and territorial localism, we- must attempt to reconcile the dynamics of social change with the values which are considered worthy of preservation. This paper is an appraisal of the significance of the maze of local and national programs which have a bearing on the general problem. My hypothesis is that the primary group derivatives such as democracy, self-reliance, individuality, etc., have historically derived form the primary group and that weakening the primary group will tend to weaken these qualities. Conversely, action to strengthen the primary group will tend to conserve these qualities. Confronted by the fact of social change, we find ourselves attempting to adjust to a moving point, rather than to a fixed star. Since as human beings we cannot be oblivious to the future and are irrepressible planners, the sociologist, at least, should try to see to it that the primary group has a place in the plan for the "World of Tomorrow." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical analysis of the necessary and sufficient conditions for an individual to affect group decisions and/or changes of groups themselves. It is an attempt to first conceptualize the relevant aspects of an individual's ability or inability to control facets of his environment which are a product of social interaction. Secondly, then, the paper relates these concepts in the form of theorems giving conditions by which social change can be attained or prevented.[1]
The conceptual framework developed below considers the question of social change from a choice-theoretic point of view. This in turn requires that the usual model of choice used in economics and decision theory be expanded in order to deal with the various problems which arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research in the sociology of religion has varied widely in terms of units of analysis. Three general foci have tended to underlie most of the empirical work done in this field: the individual (e.g. the social psychology of religion) religion as a social movement (e.g. the sect-church typology) and individual churches of a deviant or unusual nature. With certain exceptions there has been relatively little attention paid to the more "normal" type of urban congregation. This is unfortunate because it is in these local congregations that the majority of church-goers can be found, and empirical research which ignores this aspect of religious organization is incomplete and somewhat truncated. This paper seeks to remedy the deficiency in this area of research by presenting an analysis of urban congregations in one city based upon research carried out on a sample of 37 local congregations representing two denominations. One of the more difficult research questions in this area concerns the origin of the transition phase. Available evidence suggests that while general value consensus seems to evolve spontaneously, it remains latent unless concrete suggestions are initiated by, or receive support from individuals who are on a high level of the power structure of the local church.

The paper examines, by exegetical analysis, two contemporary social movements occurring in two different social structures. It seeks to throw light on the sociological categories of protest and discontent and the relationship between these and social structural variables such as status situation. The Ras-Tafarians in Jamaica and the Black Muslims in the U.S. both openly reject their society. Adherents to these movements have created their own unique Weltanschauung, namely, a projection into semi-secular kingdoms, for the Ras-Tafarians Ethiopia is heaven, Haile Selassie is God and for the Muslims Allah is supreme, Islam is the black homeland. Deliverance from defined socio-economic deprivation will come not from a transcendental Christ but from Allah and Ras-Tafari. It is concluded that both movements achieve some measure of adjustment to their unfavorable life-situations but that sociology must spell out that which possesses Muslims and Ras-Tafarians is not a demon but the social system of which they are a part. Sociology can employ dynamic concepts to construct theories capable of predicting conditional outcomes of the conflicts which are built into social systems and which the rebels kick against. the outcomes lies in this world.

Presents an introduction to the March 1, 1960, issue of the journal "Rural Sociology."

The paper focuses on the socio-psychological dimensions of social change in a Turkish village, Sakarya which is situated 90 km south west of Ankara and administratively attached to Polath. It is possible to conclude that there have been different types of modernizing or change-inducing influences in Sakarya which have produced distinct and only partially interconnected results. On the one hand, it has those influences which have their source in increased mobility and urban exposure, like education and mass media exposure and which have been more available to the younger and wealthier sections of the community. On the other hand, there are influences stemming more directly from structural changes in the village. These are among others, new sources of livelihood, changes in household structure and the foundation of the co-operative. These influences are neither separate nor mutually exclusive. Modernity at a social-psychological level emerged from the study as having highly complex relationships with the structural level in a manner which almost militates against postulating such a syndrome if it is to be abstracted from the concrete historical circumstances which lend it meaning and unity.

Changes in courtship behavior in Western societies during the last half-century have been of interest to sociologists and other students of the institutions of marriage and the family. In recent years considerable attention has been given to depictions of the folk-urban changes in the media of commercialized entertainment: motion pictures, the drama, fiction, radio, and television. The prestige, pervasiveness, and emotional impact characteristic of these media have been regarded by some observers as significant factors in giving further impetus, through a feed-back process, to the very social changes they reflect. The present paper attempts a further contribution to this literature by reporting the findings of an inquiry into the nature of trends in images of courtship in popular magazine fiction across a forty-year period, testing the hypothesis that these images are changing in a direction consonant with our society's trend toward increasingly individuated social relationships.

That the wife importantly affects the behavior of her husband in his occupational and other roles is a proposition which few would challenge. But the statement is one of those truisms which as yet have little scientific or practical utility. The purpose of this paper is to make a start along this line by testing the relationship of selected characteristics of Columbia Basin Project settlers' wives to success in developing their farm into a profitable and personally satisfying venture. The method chosen is a comparison of the wives of a low and a high success sample of families. The low group used for this purpose is drawn from the least successful sixth of a stratified random sample of 210 Columbia Basin Project settlers. The contrasting high group is drawn from the most successful sixth of this sample. Settlers in the Columbia Basin Project were chosen for a study of the relation of the wife's characteristics to her husband's success for two reasons: The first is the need for objective information on which to base advice to those inquiring about settlement opportunities and requirements. Second, is the fact that transforming sagebrush semi-desert land into a modern irrigated farm is a task full of uncertainties.

During the last two decades there have many advocates for interdisciplinary work between the fields of history and sociology. Despite favorable arguments (listing the advantages of collaboration) and the founding of committees and journals (aimed at aiding or initiating cooperation) a number of writers have noted the aloofness of both fields and the lack of any real commitment to interdisciplinary work. But with an increasing interest in the study of family history over the last decade by both historians and sociologists there does seem to be an opportunity, and to some degree a necessity, for an interdisciplinary effort between these two fields. The focus here is upon one area of family history that has recently received much attention from both fields- the colonial American family. Both disciplines are involved in a restoration of the colonial family which, in the process, is providing the beginnings of an interdisciplinary effort. The presentation of the results produced up to this point and the problems arising in the restoration process are reviewed with the expectation of stimulating further comparable research and collaboration. A growing knowledge and appreciation of the works, concepts, and techniques of both fields should enable meaningful efforts in the future between the two disciplines. The result will be, for this particular area of study, a more precise image and better understanding of the colonial family system. This should eventually lead to a clearer understanding of familial change and societal change, in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspects of the Parsons-Bales theory of socialization processes provide a basis for propositions pertaining to the father's role with severely retarded children. Data are presented which tend to support hypotheses predicting that fathers of severely retarded children are less adaptable than are mothers and are apt to be more vulnerable to socially imposed criteria and extrafamilid influences. Additional hypotheses are proposed which suggest a number of consequences of father? sensitivity to extrafamilial pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents names of several books received by the 1972 issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." Names of the books include "The Human Arena: An Introduction to the Social Sciences," edited by Gilbert Abcarian and Monte Palmer, "The Netsilik Eskimo," by Asen Balikci, "Institutions in Agricultural Development," edited by Melvin G. Blase, "Cities Under Siege: An Anatomy of the Ghetto Riots, 1964-1968," edited by David Boesel and Peter H. Rossi, "Juvenile Delinquency," by Robert G. Caldwell and James A. Black, "The American Population Debate," edited by Daniel Callahan, "Reading in Evaluation Research," edited by Francis G. Caro, "The Cultural Context of Learning and Thinking: An Exploration in Experimental Anthropology," by Michael Cole, John Gay, Joseph A. Glick and Donald W. Sharp, "Resources for Social Change: Race in the United States," by James S. Coleman, "Radical Sociology," edited by J. David Colfax and Jack L. Roach, "Kinship and Class: A Midwestern Study," by Bernard Farber, and "Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order," by Erving Goffman.

The article presents a research on farm and nonfarm families differences in religious beliefs and practices. Generally, it is believed that farm families hold more traditional religious beliefs and are more active in church and home religious activities than nonfarm families. Social changes have been occurring in rural American society, which may invalidate these propositions. Yet, since religious beliefs and practices are rooted in value systems, which are not subject to major changes in a short time span, it is probable that the traditionally assumed farm-nonfarm differences in religious beliefs and practices still exist. No current research is available, however, to test these hypotheses. Some limited data are offered to test the hypothesis that Protestant farm parents and farm-reared college students adhere to more conservative religious beliefs and engage more actively in religious practices than nonfarm parents and their college students. Data were obtained from 38 farm girls and 30 farm boys and from 73 nonfarm girls and 24 nonfarm boys who were students at Iowa State University.

City families were found to be significantly better adjusted than farm families as measured by an adolescent-parent adjustment scale on a sample of 1,456 city, small town, fringe, village, open country nonfarm, and farm adolescents. In general, adjustment declined with increased rurality, but town families were found to be an exception, ranking below village and fringe. Socioeconomic level was found to explain a portion of the rural-urban differences, but residence remains a significant variable with socioeconomic factors held constant. Hypotheses are advanced that the poor adjustment of the farm adolescent is associated with rapid rural social change within the space of a generation, increased contact with urban adolescents who enjoy more obvious privileges, and a feeling that society as a whole considers them under-privileged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a theory of cultural lag. Cultural lag refers to the discrepancy between the socio-political structure and technological advances, to put it another way, it indicates a more retarded development of societal arts as compared with the advanced stage of technological arts. It is commonly held that technology is developing and growing at such a high speed that social relationships, for one reason or another, have not been able to keep pace in development. The implication is, of course, of a teleological nature. It assumes that the two ought to be harmonized in some fashion and that there is some force which causes the two to move in the same direction or towards the same ends, albeit at different rates of speed. Economist Thorstein Veblen's contribution to the theory of cultural lag lies in his keen analysis of the basic dichotomy of the social complex, technology and ceremonialism, an analysis which goes far beyond the usual studies of the phenomenon of cultural lag and deals with the underlying aspects of society. And an almost equal contribution of Veblen was his unparalleled recognition of the significance of this concept for the field of economics.

The LAM scales permit the measurement of three religious meaning-Commitment possibilities (Literal, Anti-literal, and Mythological) rather than the usual fundamentalistic-literalistic type of commitment which many single scales tend to measure. Twenty-five items consisting of three alternatives each, based upon McLean (1952), were given to 173 college students. The LAM scales consist of the 17 items which were retained on the basis of substantial item-scale correlations of each item alternative on its respective scale. Ways are discussed in which multiple scales like the LAM would force reinterpretation of studies of religious changes in college students and of research on the relation to religion to social-personality variables such as prejudice and hostility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stark and Glock, among others, argue that there is a general tendency in this country for persons to switch to denominations more liberal, theologically, than those of their parents. A closer look at their own data using a factor analytic technique, however, suggests that this hypothesis may be too simple. Denominational switching occurs essentially without reference to the liberal or conservative stance of the denominations involved, and changes of denomination are made in such a way as to preserve similarity along other dimensions. These other dimensions include a Protestant-Catholic cleavage, accessibility (in both the geographic and social status senses), and liturgy. No net intergenerational change in one direction or the other is observable along any of these dimensions. While switching does occur so as to maintain similarity along these dimensions, the direction of change along any one of them is essentially random. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed that previous studies of the relationship between orthodoxy and social activism have yielded inconsistent findings because a critical mediating variable, salience or perceived importance of religion, usually has been neglected. Findings from a survey of 1,300 students at Washington State University support the hypothesised role of salience as a mediating variable. Relationship between orthodoxy and church activism emerges only for the high salience subsamples. The apparent utility of the orthodoxy-salience-activism model for bringing coherence to previously inconsistent findings seems to argue for more widespread use of salience as a control variable in studies of the concomitants and consequences of religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]