Synopses & Reviews
"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 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.
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