Welcome to the Human Zoo

Objectives: What is a theory?  What are sociology’s major theoretical perspectives? 

Theory: a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work; an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another

Why Study Sociology? 

Before you ever knew about Sociology, you had a world view. Being born to a middle class family in the United States, my family helped to shape my point of view.  If I had been born in Chile, China, or Chad I would have a different view of the word.

Case Study #1 Office Space

SOCIOLOGY IS… Office Space

What can this movie teach us about the sweet science of Sociology?

Office Space (1999) is a Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss. 

Sociologists face TWO key questions

 What issues are going to be studied?

 How are we going to connect the facts?

#1  A frustrated Peter Gibbons maneuvers for the ideal fast lane for him commute to work

#2 An elderly man meanders slowly along the side of the interstate at a quicker pace than the log jammed cars hurrying to work

#3 Michael Bolton, enjoys the lyrical stylings of the Ghetto Boys as he mouths the words to his favorite rap song

#4 Michael Bolton, notice an African American selling flowers approaching his vehicle. He turns down the rap song he is listening too and locks his door

#5 Samir Nagheenanajar becomes so frustrated with the stalled traffic and begins swearing a punching his steering wheel

The Human Zoo is a book written by the British zoologist Desmond Morris, published in 1969. It is a follow-up to his earlier book The Naked Ape; both books examine how the biological nature of the human species has shaped the character of the cultures of the contemporary world.

The Human Zoo examines the nature of civilized society, especially in the cities. Morris compares the human inhabitants of a city to the animal inhabitants of a zoo, which have their survival needs provided for, but at the cost of living in an unnatural environment. Humans in their cities, and animals in their zoos, both have food and shelter provided for them, and have considerable free time on their hands. But they have to live in an unnatural environment, and are both likely to have problems in developing healthy social relationships, both are liable to suffer from isolation and boredom, and both live in a limited amount of physical space. The book explains how the inhabitants of cities and zoos have invented ways to deal with these problems, and the consequences that follow when they fail at dealing with them.

From this point of view, Morris examines why civilized society is the way it is. He offers explanations of the best and the worst features of civilized society. He examines the magnificent achievements of civilized society, the sublime explorations that make up science and the humanities, as well as the horrible behaviors of this same society such as war, slavery, and rape. This book, and Morris's earlier book The Naked Ape, are two of the early works in the field of sociobiology, which have both contributed much to contemporary understandings of society.