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Parsons' Concept of “Generalized Media of Social Interaction” and its Relevance for Social Anthropology
Author(s) -
Turner Terence S.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1968.tb00678.x
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , sociology , field (mathematics) , epistemology , power (physics) , social anthropology , applied anthropology , anthropology , social relation , social science , philosophy , mathematics , political science , physics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , law
The concept of “generalized symbolic media of social interaction” was introduced by Parsons five years ago in his two articles on the concepts of power and influence. 1 I believe that it represents a theoretical development of the first importance, which has received much less attention—particularly in my own field of social anthropology—than it deserves. The purpose of the present paper is to review and criticize the concept itself and to point out its relevance to certain problems in social anthropology.