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

Zerubavel, Eviatar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226981657 ISBN 13: 9780226981659

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1989

Synopsis

"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.'

About this title

Synopsis:

Shows how an artificial system devised to order our activities, the seven-day week, has been shaped by religion, politics, and economics from the biblical era through varied, exotic civilizations and into the twentieth century.

About the Author:

Eviatar Zerubavel is professor of sociology at Rutgers University. His books include Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life and Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0226981657
• ISBN 13: 9780226981659
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220