Features
Sociology and Our World
More than Just Common Sense (Chapter 1) 12
Defining Globalization (Chapter 1) 30
Changing Mores around Smoking (Chapter 2) 50
The High Culture–Low Culture Divide (Chapter 2) 59
Groups in Cyberspace (Chapter 3) 88
Facebook (Chapter 3) 91
How to “Read” a Survey (Chapter 4) 123
Major League Baseball Prevents Divorce? (Chapter 4) 131
Race, Gender, and Peer Approval (Chapter 5) 155
The Violent Years? (Chapter 5) 159
Crazy Laws (Chapter 6) 169
“DWB” (Chapter 6) 191
After Prison: Parolee and Ex-Con Disenfranchisement (Chapter 6) 198
Apartheid (Chapter 7) 208
Prestige Means Not Having to Deal with People (Chapter 7) 211
The Hidden Injuries of Class (Chapter 7) 215
CEO Compensation (Chapter 7) 219
Prostitution and the World System (Chapter 7) 237
Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria? (Chapter 8) 245
“Choosing” One’s Ethnicity (Chapter 8) 271
What’s in a Name? The Sociology of Racial Terminology (Chapter 8) 274
Monogamous Masculinity, Promiscuous Femininity (Chapter 9) 284
The M–F Test (Chapter 9) 290
How Do You Know You Are Loved? (Chapter 9) 306
“Gay” or “Homosexual”—What’s in a Name? (Chapter 19) 323
The Invention of Heterosexuality (Chapter 10) 324
The Heterosexual Questionnaire (Chapter 10) 336
Milestones of Adulthood (Chapter 11) 354
Why Women Live Longer Than Men (Chapter 11) 360
Dating in Japan (Chapter 12) 393
The Social Value of Sons? (Chapter 12) 408
Jihad versus McWorld (Chapter 13) 425
Labor Unions (Chapter 13) 438
Third Parties (Chapter 14) 470
A Tale of Two Terrorists (Chapter 14) 479
The “Church” of Scientology (Chapter 15) 495
Is Pluto a Planet? (Chapter 15) 515
White or Wrong? (Chapter 16) 523
Race and Illness: The Tuskegee Experiment (Chapter 16) 535
Random School Shootings (Chapter 17) 573
The Chosen (Chapter 17) 578
Do Women’s Magazines Oppress Women or Liberate Them? (Chapter 18) 590
Minorities in Media (Chapter 18) 598
Bare Branches (Chapter 19) 630
Celebration, Florida (Chapter 19) 635Milestones of AdulthoodWhen students are asked to name some of the
milestones between childhood and adulthood, theyusually mention the ability to drive a car, vote, buy
alcohol, and marry. But the legal age for these activ-ities varies from state to state and from country tocountry, so you could get on an airplane as a legal
“child” and get off as a legal “adult.” Here are some of the morevariable milestones:
- Graduate from high schoolNetherlands, compulsory education ends at age 18. In theUnited States, it’s 17. In most countries, it’s 15 or 16. But. In Belgium, Germany, and the
you can leave school at age 12 in Afghanistan, Burundi, andNicaragua, at 11 in Chad and Jamaica, at 10 in Iran, and at9 in Angola and Myanmar (OECD, 2004). - Get a jobadopted the guidelines set by the International LabourOrganization (ILO): Fifteen is the minimum age for most jobs. The United States is one of 120 countries that have
and 18 for jobs likely to jeopardize “health, safety, or morals.”But Sri Lanka and Turkey have set the minimum age for full-
time work at 14, Paraguay at 13, and Peru and Zaire at 12.Many countries allow “light work” much earlier; in Thailand,at age 10 (International Labour Organization, 2006). - Lose your virginityvaries in the United States depending on whether you are a. The age of consent for sexual activity
boy or a girl and on whether your partner is a boy or a girl.In New Hampshire, it’s 16 for heterosexual and 18 forsame-sex partners, regardless of their gender. In Montana,
it’s 14 for girls and 17 for boys in heterosexual relation-ships and illegal for same-sex partners at any age. Globally,
the laws are even more varied. It’s 14 (for everybody) inIceland, 15 in France, and 16 in Venezuela. In Malta, it’s
12 for girls and 18 for boys (gay or straight). In BurkinaFaso, it’s 13 for heterosexual partners and 21 for same-sex partners (male or female). (Avert, 2007). http://www.- avert.org/aofconsent.htm.Get marriedrying in most states is 16 with parental consent and 18 with-. In the United States, the minimum age for mar-
out parental consent. It’s higher in only one state, Nebraska(19). In most states, 14- or 15-year-olds can marry with thepermission of a parent or guardian anda judge. Only five
states—Mississippi, Alabama, Oregon, Rhode Island, andSouth Carolina—and the District of Columbia expressly - forbid young teens (under 14, 15, 16, or 17, depending ongender and locale) to marry (Stritof and Stritof, 2003).Drink alcohol. The minimum age for purchasing or drinking
alcoholic beverages in the United States used to vary fromstate to state, but now it’s 21 everywhere. Most other coun-
tries set the minimum age at 16 to 18. Denmark has no min-imum age for drinking, but you have to be 16 to buy alcoholin stores and 18 to buy it in pubs and restaurants. The United
Kingdom allows children aged 5 and older to drink alcoholat home, but you must be 16 to order a beer at the pub. And
a few countries, including China, Jamaica, and Spain, haveno age restrictions at all: Drink all you want. (See AlcoholProblems and Solutions, 2007). - Join the armyteer service is 15 in Tanzania, 16 in Canada, 18 in the UnitedStates, 19 in Brazil, and 20 in Chad. In Norway, it’s 18 in. The minimum age for compulsory or volun-
peacetime, 16 in wartime, 17 for male volunteers, 18 forfemale volunteers. In Bolivia, it’s 14 for compulsory, 18 for
volunteers. In Uganda “no one under the apparent age of 13may be conscripted,” but journalists have documented casesof 9- and 10-year-olds being taken from their homes and
forced to bear arms (CIA, World Factbook, 2006).
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