English

Friendship, A Social Category (1915)

Elsie Clews Parsons was an anthropologist, and among the earliest of women in that field. In this short essay, she responds to a letter she received from a male reader in Iowa who asks why "friendship" is not studied by sociologists. She proceeds to do just that, although more in an editorial fasion than as a scientific inquiry. Most remarkably, she portrays friendship as a subversive social category, at odds with the conservative norms of other types of social relationships. Friendships are subversive because they seemingly, theoretically, obey no rules. Anyone can be friends with anyone else, and friendships form across the differences of age, gender, nationality and ethnicity. The essay was published in the American Journal of Sociology, Volume 21, Issue 2 (September 1915), pp. 230-233. This is a Ralat Readings recording. The audio recording and the text being read in the audio recording are both in the public domain. The text was read by Brian Salmons on June 3, 2016 in Orlando, Florida, USA.

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