The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week
"Days, months, and years were given to us by nature, but we invented the week for ourselves. There is nothing inevitable about a seven-day cycle, or about any other kind of week; it represents an arbitrary rhythm imposed on our activities, unrelated to anything in the natural order. But where the week exists—and there have been many cultures where it doesn't—it is so deeply embedded in our experience that we hardly ever question its rightness, or think of it as an artificial convention; for most of us it is a matter of 'second nature.'
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The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week
"Days, months, and years were given to us by nature, but we invented the week for ourselves. There is nothing inevitable about a seven-day cycle, or about any other kind of week; it represents an arbitrary rhythm imposed on our activities, unrelated to anything in the natural order. But where the week exists—and there have been many cultures where it doesn't—it is so deeply embedded in our experience that we hardly ever question its rightness, or think of it as an artificial convention; for most of us it is a matter of 'second nature.'
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The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week

The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week

by Eviatar Zerubavel
The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week

The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week

by Eviatar Zerubavel

Overview

"Days, months, and years were given to us by nature, but we invented the week for ourselves. There is nothing inevitable about a seven-day cycle, or about any other kind of week; it represents an arbitrary rhythm imposed on our activities, unrelated to anything in the natural order. But where the week exists—and there have been many cultures where it doesn't—it is so deeply embedded in our experience that we hardly ever question its rightness, or think of it as an artificial convention; for most of us it is a matter of 'second nature.'

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780226981659
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 03/15/1989
Edition description: 1
Pages: 220
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Eviatar Zerubavel is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University. He is the author of seven other books, including Social Mindscapes: An Invitation to Cognitive Sociology, The Seven-Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, and The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "Daddy, What's Thursday?"
1. The Origins of the Seven-Day Week
2. The Seven-Day Wars
3. Cultural Variations on a Theme
4. The Harmonics of Timekeeping
5. Living with the Week
6. Experiencing the Week
7. Culture, Not Nature
Notes
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
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