The term “superorganic” was probably first used by the early sociologist Herbert of the time, Alfred Kroeber and Edward Sapir, in the American Anthropologist. The idea of “The superorganic” is associated with Alfred Kroeber, an American anthropologist writing in the first half of the twentieth century. Why the Superorganic Concept Serves the Human Sciences Badly. Peter J. Richerson University of California – Los Angeles. Los Angeles . Dobzhansky’s usage was probably inspired Kroeber and kindred influential social. scientists of his.
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The second level of complexity is composed of living things. A living entity transcends its inorganic parts.
It operates at a higher level of complexity than the organic. If we start with the inorganic, it is the physical universe, all the atoms of elements without life. Culture and society comprise the third level. Humans have thoughts and behaviour.
The superorganic is another way of describing —— and understanding —— culture or the socio-cultural system. Key Words Modules Sociology: The links are symbolic, not genetic as in biological systems.
SUPERORGANIC
Do not anthropomorphise culture. The socio-cultural level, culture or society, therefore is carried by humans and transcends humans.
Human beings are animals, and as such are organic systems.
Similarly, the dog, if seen as a biological system, operates at a higher complexity than the inorganic elements which comprise it. The arrangement makes them alive.
Looking at the relationship between living things and their inorganic components in this way helps us to understand the relationship between culture and persons. All living things, plants and animals, are kfoeber up of inorganic elements, mainly hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, plus some trace elements.
Krpeber you copy text from this site, please acknowledge the author s and link it back to cec. They behave, however, in concert with each other, as a system external to individuals —— society.
It may have a life of its own, but its life more resembles an amoeba than a human. If you analyse all those parts, in themselves, or even as a collection, they are not living.
Do not think of a dog as a carbon atom or a hydrocarbon molecule. Krkeber can call this the lowest level of complexity. Knowing the dynamics of how carbon atoms operate, or that combining hydrogen and oxygen can result in a rapid combustion if not an explosion, does not explain how the tree works, with its leaves converting sunlight into energy to change water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon, channels to transfer sap from leaves to root, and so on.
Culture as the superorganic
They have developed communications between themselves to an elaborate degree, much more sophisticated than other animals. This elaboration links humans together into communities and societies. If you separate the dog or tree into its separate elements, it dies.
Those are carried superprganico individuals. There is a parallel, therefore, in the relations between the inorganic keoeber the organic, as between the organic and the superorganic.
Similarly, do not think of a community, an institution, a society as a human being.