Table Of ContentStatuS, Power and ritual interaction
“Yours is not to complete the work, nor are you free to desist from it.”
Ethics of the Fathers
Status, Power and ritual
interaction
a relational reading of durkheim, Goffman and collins
theodore d. KemPer
St. John’s University, New York, USA
© theodore d. Kemper 2011
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
theodore d. Kemper has asserted his right under the copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kemper, theodore d., 1926-
Status, power and ritual interaction : a relational reading
of durkheim, Goffman and collins.
1. Power (Social sciences) 2. Social status--Psychological
aspects. 3. Social psychology--Philosophy. 4. Social
interaction--Philosophy. 5. durkheim, emile, 1858-1917--
Knowledge--Social psychology. 6. Goffman, erving--
Knowledge--Social psychology. 7. collins, randall, 1941-
--Knowledge--Social psychology.
i. title
302'.01-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kemper, theodore d., 1926-
Status, power and ritual interaction : a relational reading of durkheim, Goffman, and collins /
by theodore d. Kemper.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-1-4094-2736-0 (hardback) -- iSBn 978-1-4094-2737-7 (ebook)
1. Power (Social sciences) 2. Social status. 3. Prestige. 4.
ritual. i. title.
hn49.P6K457 2011
303.3'701--dc23
2011022889
iSBn 9781409427360 (hbk)
iSBn 9781409427377 (ebk) V
Contents
List of Figures and Table vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
2 Status and Power 11
3 Derivations from Status-Power Theory 33
4 Status-Power and Collective Effervescence: I 65
5 Status-Power and Collective Effervescence: II 81
6 Ritual: Goffman’s Big Idea 99
7 Situation, Occasion, Gathering, Encounter and Social Relations 119
8 Reading Goffman in Status-Power Terms 131
9 Collins’s Interaction Ritual 147
10 Collins’s Power and Status Rituals 175
11 Talking, Talks, Thinking and Thought 197
12 Entrainment, Mutual Entrainment and Self-Entrainment 223
13 Emotions: Status-Power vs. Interaction Ritual Theory 235
14 Sex and Love 255
vi Status, Power and Ritual Interaction
15 Prediction and Postdiction 271
Appendix: Sacred Symbols 283
Bibliography 287
Index 301
List of Figures and Table
Figures
2.1 A Status-Power Relationship 26
14.1 Seven Types of Love Relationship 262
Table
13.1 Anticipatory Emotions 237
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Preface
This book is about the status-power theory of social relations and I want it to
change your way of doing sociology (or social psychology, behavioral economics,
political science, anthropology—the gamut of social and behavioral sciences). I
want to persuade you of the cogency and utility of the status-power theory to
such a degree that you will take it up and use it. I aspire to this because I believe
the theory will be scientifically productive for you as well as making the social
sciences more analytically cogent and empirically veridical. But my conviction
about this is not untainted. In addition to any ideal motives related to Science
(capital S), in status-power theory parlance my object also is to gain status, that
is, your—and not only your—attention, praise, respect and admiration both for
making a compelling scientific argument and for introducing you to a fruitful
method of gaining insight into social life. In effect, you will be indebted to me
because I helped to make you more productive, ergo status-worthy.
Though this may be too much candor, it is where status-power theory leads.
But if this dark underbelly of motivation seems overly self-interested, status-power
theory has a corrective for that. The theory leads to the conclusion that the self—so
much discussed in psychology and sociology—is a superfluous concept. Rather,
in place of the self there are reference groups, that is, persons or groups, whether
living, dead or fictive, that govern our conduct by means of the status they can
accord us (as well as the status we desire to accord them) and the power with which
they can punish us if we fail to do as they bid us. As I will argue here, it is they
we are really referring to when we speak of the self. Their interests, voices, plans
and intentions are what make up the self. Once we come to this understanding,
we are empowered but also humbled. The self is a vaporous, insubstantial notion.
But those others who make us their mouthpiece are the ones actively pushing
and pulling us this way and that according to their script. All this makes writing
a book a tour de force of relational art beyond any ideational substance it may
contain. But that is precisely the point. Much of what we do in social life—close
to all—is relational: the getting and giving of status and the amassing of power and
avoiding the power of others, regardless of what glossy and idealized cover may
show on the outside. Paraphrasing the winning political slogan of the 1992 U.S.
presidential election, “It’s status and power, stupid!” The content of this book is
intended to reveal this relational truth and how it works.
I do not claim that reading situations and behavior in status-power relational
terms is either natural or easy at first. It takes practice with the concepts and
Description:Sociologists Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman and Randall Collins broadly suppose that ritual is foundational for social life. By contrast, this book argues that ritual is merely surface, beneath which lie status and power, the behavioral dimensions that drive all social interaction. "Status, Power an
