ABSTRACT
Sociology is generally understood to be the scientific study of groups and institutions and the patterns of relationships among members of these groups. The focus, then, is on collectivities and institutions in contrast to other perspectives, such as the psychological, that concerns itself with the psyche and internal states of individuals. The sociological approach to material culture focuses on the functions artifacts and objects have relative to such things as people's identities, roles, and statuses. Erving Goffman, in Relations in Public, distinguishes between social identity and personal identity. Social identity, he writes involves: the broad social categories to which an individual can belong and be seen as belonging: age-grade, sex, class, regiment, and so forth. Personal identity, on the other hand, refers to "the unique organic continuity imputed to each individual" and involves such things as one's name, appearance, biography, and social attributes.
