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MACROSOCIOLOGY. The study of large-scale organizations, socio-cultural systems, or the world system of societies.

MAGIC. Rituals which attempt to influence supernatural beings to help achieve human ends.

MALTHUSIANISM. Thomas Malthus' theory of population dynamics, according to which population increase inevitably comes up against the 'natural limits' of food supply. Population grows geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, 16,. . .) while food supply grows arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .). The debate rages on, there are neo-Malthusians and anti-Malthusians among us today!

MANAGERIAL CAPITALISM. A change in the control of capitalist enterprises from owners which predominated in Marx's day to control by salaried managers.

MANIFEST FUNCTION. The intended and known consequences of one part of a socio-cultural system. For example, the reform of big city political machines had the intended consequence of limiting (relatively) corruption by city officials.

MARRIAGE. A socially approved sexual and economic relationship between two or more individuals.

MARXISM. Contemporary social theory deriving its main elements from Marx's ideas. Marxist theory strongly emphasizes class struggle and material causation.

MASCULINITY. The characteristic forms of behavior expected of men in any given culture.

MASS MEDIA. Forms of communication designed to reach a vast audience without any personal contact between the senders and receivers. Examples would include newspapers, magazines, video recordings, radio and television

MASTER STATUS. A position that is so central to the identity of the individual that it overshadows all other statuses.

MATERIALISM. The view that 'material conditions' (usually economic and technological factors) have the central role in determining social change.

MATRIARCHY. Social organization in which females dominate males.

MATRILINEAL DESCENT. The tracing of kinship through only the female line.

MATRILOCALITY. A family residential pattern in which the husband is expected to live near to the wife's parents.

MEAN. A statistical measure of 'central tendency' or average based on dividing a total by the number of individual cases involved. The mean is very sensitive to extreme scores. For example, the average life expectancy for people in a society with high infant mortality would be a misleading measure .

MEANS OF PRODUCTION. Marx's term referring to the means whereby the production of material goods is carried on in a society. Marx included in this concept both technology and the social relations among the producers (based on the ownership of that technology).

MECHANIZATION. The use of machinery to replace human labor.

MEDIAN. The number that falls halfway in a range of numbers--the score below which are half the scores and above which are the other half. The median is a way of calculating 'central tendency' which is sometimes more useful than calculating a mean .

MEGALOPOLIS. A vast unbroken urban region consisting of two or more central cities connected by their surrounding suburbs.

MENTAL DISORDER. The inability to psychologically cope effectively with the demands of day-to-day life. Psychiatrists recognize two general types of mental disorder, neurosis (milder forms of illness, such as anxiety states) and psychosis (more serious forms of disturbance, in which individuals lose touch with reality). The organic and socio-cultural basis of various mental disorders are disputed matters.

MENTAL SUPERSTRUCTURE. Socio-cultural materialism term used to refer to conscious and unconscious motives for human behavior. Borrowed from Max Weber, there are four basic motivations for human behavior: wert rational (or value oriented rationality), affective action (action motivated by emotions), traditional action (action motivated by what Weber calls the "eternal yesterday"), and zweck-rational (goal oriented rational action).

MICROSOCIOLOGY. The study of small scale patterns of human interaction and behavior within specific settings.

MIDDLE CLASS. A social class broadly defined occupationally as those working in white-collar and lower managerial occupations; is sometimes defined by reference to income levels or subjective identification of the participants in the study.

MIGRATION. The movement of people from one country or region to another in order to settle permanently.

MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. A reciprocal relationship (such as the interchange of personnel) between select business firms and the armed forces of a society, based on common interests in weapons production.

MILITARY RULE. Government by military leaders.

MILLENARIANISM. Beliefs held by the members of some religious movements that cataclysmic changes will occur in the near future (often centered around the year 2000 and the second coming of Christ) heralding the arrival of a new epoch in human affairs.

MINORITY GROUP (OR ETHNIC MINORITY). A group of people who are defined on the basis of their ethnicity or race. Because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, they are singled out for unequal treatment within a society.

MIXED ECONOMY. Economies which have major elements of both capitalism and socialism .

MODE. The value that appears most often in a given set of data. This can sometimes be a helpful way of portraying central tendency.

MODE OF PRODUCTION. The technology and the practices employed for expanding or limiting basic subsistence production, especially the production of food and other forms of energy. Examples would include the technology of subsistence, technological/environmental relationships, and work patterns.

MODE OF REPRODUCTION. The technology and practices employed for expanding, limiting, and maintaining population size. Examples of variables included are demography, mating patterns, fertility, natality, mortality, nurturance of infants, contraception, abortion and infanticide .

MODERNIZATION. The process of general social change brought about by the transition from an agrarian to an industrial mode of production.

MONOGAMY. A form of marriage that joins one male and one female at any given time.

MONOPOLY. A situation in which a single producer dominates in a given industry or market.

MONOTHEISM. Belief in a single Devine power.

MORES. Norms that have strong moral significance, violation of which cause strong social reaction (murder, sexual molestation of children).

MORTALITY RATE. The number of deaths that occur in a particular population in a specified period of time (usually a year).

MULTILINEAR EVOLUTION. An interpretation of social evolution that not all societies pass through predetermined stages of evolutionary development--there are varying paths of evolutionary change followed by different societies.

MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES. A business corporation that operates in two or more countries--also sometimes referred to as a "transnational."

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The kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. He indeed is able to do all things. -Quran, Al-Imran, Surah 3:189

Somayya