VALUE AS A SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT

It appears to be a fact that every advanced civilization retains various survivals from its past, such as superstitious, magical practices and archaic ways of doing things. Perhaps it is because of some generic similarity between a civilization and an academic discipline that the latter also contains inconsistent and useless elements. Without some such explanation it is difficult indeed to understand how a discipline that is growing so seH-conciously in methodological sophistication and theoretical incisiveness is able to preserve in its dictionary a concept as opaque as value. It is all things to all people: goals, objects, conditions, motives, attitudes, criteria of behavior, and so on. Nevertheless, the concept has not only survived, it has gained currency in recent years. This, too, defies rational explanation. It might be expressive of a spreading feeling of guilt over contra-humanistic tendencies in sociology; it could be due to a penchant for obfuscation among sociologists; or it might reflect a need for a waste-basket concept in which to pitch the loose ends of theoretical speculations. One guess is as good as another. To lend some substance to my derogatory remarks about this most beatific of concepts I should like to refer to a widely cited paper by two anthropo-sociologists, Evon Z. Vogt and John M. Roberts, titled "A Study of Values."! The purpose of their study was to discover "how values function in organizing behavior." The study dealt with five culturally differentiated groups-Zuni, Navajo, Mormon, Spanish-American, and Texan homesteaders, all of whom occupy, or did at the time of investi___. ., _",gat!pD, a single geographic region, the Gallup region in. New.. Mexico, _-... ~Intensive field investigation revealed that the culturally differentiated groups are different in a number of respects, a finding the significance of which can be readily appreciated. Some, such as the Zuni, Navajo, and Mormon.s engage in cooperative behavior, while the Texans practice self-reliance. The Mormons are enmeshed in a theocratic hierarchy. The Zuni, on the other hand, are organized in a "series of interlocking religious, kinship and secular units." "No true Zuni," the researchers discovered, "wishes to live away from Zuni, particularly in the wintertime." Theirs is an "avoidance of excess" way of life. The Spanish-Americans are