ABSTRACT
Values, the ethical ideals and beliefs of society, help to shape and define the parameters for individual and group perceptions and relationships. 1 Within sociological theory, the nature, purpose and origins of values have been the subject of debate for years. Functionalists regard value consensus to be fundamental to social integration. 2 Exponents of the plural society thesis argue that ethnic conflict naturally arises from irreconcilable differences of values between ethnic groups. 3 Certain developmental sociologists and psychologists who subscribe to the Modernizationist school attempt to categorize ‘primitive’ and ‘advanced’ societies along a developmental continuum in relation to their moral and social characteristics. 4 A central aspect of this argument is that certain societies are more ‘advanced’ than others by virtue of their ‘superior’ values, such as their competitiveness and so-called ‘need to achieve’, and thus are more likely to develop faster along the capitalist path. 5 The Marxian paradigm takes the view that dominant values are reproduced by institutions that represent the interests of dominant classes. 6
