What is the meaning of meaning max weber 1968 notes

What is the “meaning of meaning”? Max Weber (1968) notes that it is possible to imagine situations
in which human experience is direct and unmediated; for example, someone taps your knee and
your leg jerks forward, or you are riding your bike and get hit by a car. In these situations, experience
seems purely physical, unmediated. Yet when we assimilate these experiences into our lives, we do
so by making them meaningful events. By tapping your knee, the doctor is looking for signs about
the functioning of your nervous system. She reads the reactions as symbolic events and assigns them
meaning according to the modern biomedical understanding of the body.
While flying through the air during a car accident, you probably wouldn’t attach meaning to your
position in space. Later, while talking to a friend or police officer, you tell the story of the event
and attach meaning to it in your story.The meaning changes depending on the cultural context. A
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doctor of traditional Chinese medicine would read the knee reflex differently than a graduate of the
Dal medical program. The story and meaning of the car accident changes if it is told to a friend as
opposed to a police officer or an insurance adjuster.
Sociologists try to learn how events or things acquire meaning (e.g., through the reading of
symptoms or the telling of stories); how the true meanings are determined (e.g., through
biomedically-based diagnoses or juridical procedures of determining responsibility); and how
humans interpret and share meanings (e.g., through socialization into medical, legal, insurance, and
traffic systems). Sociological research into culture studies these problems of meaning.
Cultural Universals
Often, comparing one culture to another shows obvious differences. But all cultures share
some common elements, too. Cultural universals are patterns common to all. The family
unit is a cultural universal: Every human society has a family structure to regulate sexual
reproduction and child care. How that family unit is defined, and how it functions varies. In
many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations often live together
in one household. In these cultures, young adults continue to live in the extended family
until they marry and join their spouse’s household. They may remain and raise their
offspring within the extended family’s home. In Canada, by contrast, individuals are
expected to leave home and live independently for a period before forming a family unit.
Cultural universals often involve basic human survival, such as finding food, clothing, and
shelter. They often involve shared human experiences, such as birth and death, or illness
and healing. Other universals include language, the concept of personal names, and jokes.
Humour is a universal way to release tension and create a unity among people (Murdock,
1949). Sociologists consider humour necessary to human interaction because it helps
individuals navigate otherwise tense situations.