THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN CALENDAR: A CASE STUDY IN THE

SOCIOLOGY OF TIME *
EVIATAR Z E R U B A V E L
University of Pittsburgh

American Sociological Review 1977, Vol. 42 (December):868-877

This paper is a sociological analysis of the most radical attempt in modern history to challenge
the Western standard temporal reference framework, namely the French Republican calendri-
cal reform of 1793. This reform obliterated the existing system of units of time and time-
reckoning and dating frameworks by introducing a new annual cycle, new months, a new
weekly cycle, a new subdivision of the daily cycle, and a new chronological dating framework.
The paper first analyzes the symbolic function of the Revolutionary Calendar, namely, the
representation of three main themes of the French Enlightenment: secularism, naturalism and
rationalism. It then brings into focus three major factors which account for its failure: totality of
the obliteration of the traditional sociotemporal order, overemphasis on secularization, and
advocation of nationalistic particularism at the expense of a practical and cognitive disruption
of temporal coordination on a global level.

MODERN WESTERN STANDARD tion of a standard system of units of time

TEMPORAL REFERENCE FRAMEWORK and standard time-reckoning and dating
frameworks is quite parallel to the evolu-
One of the fundamentals of social life is tion of such systems as language, religion
a standard temporal reference framework and law and to the transformation of subr
which is shared by all members of the jective spatial formulations such as
society. Since time is among the major "here" and "there" into a standard grid
parameters of the social world, any social system. They are usually intemalized dur-
organization presupposes a coordinative ing primary socialization, and Defoe's
calibration of subjective temporal refer- satirical portrayal of Robinson Cmsoe's
ences in accordance with a standard habit of keeping track of the days of the
yardstick. Subjective temporal formula- week (and his naming of the first person
tions such as "a while," "soon," "then" he encountered "Friday") far away from
or "later" ought to be definable in terms civilization is highly suggestive of their
which are accessible to others besides coercive power once intemalized.
their user (e.g., "twenty-six minutes," The modem Westem standard temporal
"next Monday," "on May 19, 1977" or reference framework* is based on the rela-
"at 10:45 P.M."). This impersonal, collec- tively universal relevance and use of the
tive, or intersubjective modality of tem- Gregorian Calendar, the Christian Era, In-
poral reference has been brought into temational Standard Time, and clock
sociological focus by both Durkheim time. It consists basically of the following
(1965:23), in his discussion of a "time two elements:
common to the group," and Schutz (Ber- 0) A standard system of units of time
ger and Luckmann, 1967:26-8; Schutz The year consists of 12 months or 365
and Luckmann, 1973:45-58), in his dis- days. Each cycle of 7 days constitutes a
cussion of "standard time." The evolu- week. Days are divided into lA hours,
each hour into 60 minutes, and each min-
* This is a revised version of a paper presented at ute into 60 seconds. All seconds are iso-
the 71st annual meeting of the American Sociological chronal (that is, durationally uniform), as
Association, 1976, New York. I am grateful to
Harold Bershady, Kai Erikson, Renee Fox, Charles ' For some general sociological discussions of
Lidz, Victor Lidz, Braulio Muiioz and Yael time and modem Westem civilization, see Zerubavel
Zerubavel for their critical and helpful comments. (1976a; 1976b).
 THE SOCIOLOGY OF TIME 869
are minutes, hours, days and weeks. Of Jesus Christ, our year on January 1, our
the twelve months of the year, seven are week on Sunday' and our day at midnight.
31 days long, four are 30 days long, and The conventionality and relative valid-
one is 28 days (or 29 days in leap years) ity of our standard temporal reference
long. Every fourth year is a leap year and framework are among the basic arguments
includes an additional day, the 366th. underlying Durkheim's (1965:22-8)
(2) Standard time-reckoning and dating critique of Kant's "apdorist" theory olf
frameworks within which past, present knowledge and are also at the center of
and future events are standardly "lo- both Hubert and Mauss' (1909:213-9) and
calized" in time.2 These frameworks are Sorokin's (Sorokin and Merton, 1937;
based on the following: (a) the stan- Sorokin, 1943:171-97) characterizations
dardization of time-reckoning by the clock of "social time." It also has been brought
and the institutionalization, in the 1880s, into focus time and again by comparative
of International Standard Time; (b) a studies of non-Westem calendrical,
standard chronological dating framework, time-measurement and time-reckoning
namely, the Christian Era, which takes systems. However, an even better way of
the birth of Jesus Christ as a standard exposing the relative validity of the mod-
temporal reference point in relation to em Westem standard temporal reference
which events are "dated"; (c) a social framework would be to point out the
convention, according to which days "be- changes made within it, since these imply
gin" at midnight, months on the day called that even within one and the same society
" 1st" and years on January 1. it has no absolute validity and that it actu-
Both our standard system of units of ally rests upon entirely arbitrary social
time and our standard time-reckoning and conventions. Fortunately, history pro-
dating frameworks are social artifacts and, vides us with a fascinating case of a
as such, by no means natural. The artifi- calendrical reform which spared almost
cial origin of units of time such as the none of the constituents of our standard
week, the hour, the minute or the second temporal reference framework, replacing
is pretty obvious. Yet even the year, the it with an entirely new one. Nevertheless,
month and the day rarely correspond pre- the fact that it did not survive longer than
cisely to the periods of the revolution of 13 years suggests that, despite its arbitrary
the earth around the sun, the revolution of and conventional basis, the standard tem-
the moon around the earth and the rota- poral reference framework is deeply
tion of the earth on its axis, respectively, rooted in the culture, and its considerable
but are, rather, "rounded" approxima- organizational and cognitive centrality to
tions of those. Moreover, the very selec- social life may account for the resistance
tion of these natural cycles as the cor- to any changes made in it. The following
nerstones of our system of units of time is discussion is an analysis of the socio-
in itself a social convention. Also, the fact historical significance of this reform and
that the temporal continuum does not nat- an attempt to account for its eventual fail-
urally have any divisions along it suggests ure.
the conventional basis of our standard
time-reckoning and dating frameworks as ^ Whereas the boundaries of the year, the month,
well. There is no "natural" reason for fix- the day or the hour are pretty clearly defined, there is
ing the Intemational Date Line and the some ambiguity with regard to the "beginning" of
the week. According to the biblical and ecclesiastical
boundaries between time zones where tradition of Judaeo-Chrisdanity, the week begins on
they are. Likewise, it is merely conven- Sunday, which is believed to have been the day of
tional that our era begins with the birth of the creation of the world. However, though on most
Westem calendars the week is represented as a cycle
which begins on Sunday, some ambiguity is intro-
duced by the fact that the workweek begins on Mon-
^ For some discussions of social frameworks of day. Thus, whereas Thursday is named "Yom
time-reckoning and dating, see Hubert and Mauss Hamishi" ififth day) in Hebrew and '"Quinta Feira''
(1909:199-207), Halbwachs (1925), Sorokin and Mer- (fifth market) in Portuguese (note also that the Ger-
ton (1937:623-26), Sorpkin (1943:171-97), Roth man name for Wednesday is '"Mittwoch/' which
(1963:1-13,99-102) and Zembavel (forthcoming: ch. literally means "mid-week"), it is named ""Czwar-
5). tek'^ (forth) in Polish (see also Colson, 1926).
870 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

THE REFORM AND ITS SOCIAL MEANING (4) The abolition of the seven-day week
and Sunday. Each 30-day month
The reform which will be discussed here was divided into three 10-day cycles
is the one associated with the French Re- called "'decades.'" Sunday was re-
publican Calendar (or the "Revolutionary placed by "Decadi," which was
Calendar"), which was in official use in celebrated only every ten days, as
France, its colonies, "sister republics" the official rest day.
and annexed territories between 1793 and (5) The decimal subdivision of the day.
1805. Based on a proposed recommenda- Days were divided into 10 hours,^
tion by the Committee of Public Instruc- hours into 100 "decimal minutes"
tion,'* it was put into effect by the National and "decimal minutes" into 100
Convention on November 24, 1793, and "decimal seconds."
introduced the following changes in the (6) The introduction of an entirely new
standard temporal reference framework: nomenclature. Aside from introduc-
(1) The establishment of a new ing new concepts such as ""Fran-
chronological dating framework. ciade,'' ' 'Sansculottides,'' ' 'flfec-
The traditional Christian Era was fl^e," "decimal minutes" and "dec-
replaced by the Republican Era, imal seconds," the reformers re-
which began on September 22, 1792, named each day and month within
the day on which the French Repub- the new calendar. The days of the
lic was founded. "decade" were named in accord-
(2) The establishment of a new annual ance with their numerical order as
cycle. The traditional January 1 was follows: Primidi, Duodi, Tridi,
replaced by September 22 as New Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi,
Year's Day. Not only did the year Octidi, Nonidi, Decadi. The five
on which the Republic was founded "Sansculottides" were named after
become a standard reference point Virtue, Genius, Labor, Opinion and
for the new chronological dating Rewards. The Catholic saints' days
framework, the day on which it was were abolished, and the days of the
founded became a standard refer- year were renamed after trees,
ence point for the new annual cycle. plants, seeds, roots, flowers, fmits,
(3) The uniformization of the months. farming implements and domestic
Unlike the traditional Gregorian animals. The new months were
year, which consisted of 31-day, named after seasonal aspects of na-
30-day and 28- (or 29-) day months, ture in the following manner: Ven-
the Republican year consisted of 12 demiaire (vintsige), Brumaire (mist),
isochronal 30-day months. The five Frimaire (frost), Nivose (snow),
complementary days {'"Sansculot- Pluviose (rain), Ventose (wind),
tides^') were grouped together at the Germinal (seeds), Floreal (blos-
end of the year, as in the ancient som), Prairial (meadows), Messidor
Egyptian calendar. A sixth intercal- (harvest), Thermidor (heat) and
ary day was added on leap years Fructidor (fruits).
{"sextiles'"), which still fell every It is hard to overemphasize the extent to
four years, although on the third— which the reformers obliterated the tradi-
rather than the fourth—year of tional standard system of units of time and
every group of four years {"'Fran- the traditional standard time-reckoning
ciade^'y, that is, on years III, VII and dating frameworks, since hardly any
and XI, rather than on years IV, component of those was spared. The
VIII and XII. scope of the reform was almost total,
since its architects attempted not only to
gain social control by imposing a new
* For a complete protocol of the workings of this
committee, see Giiillaume (1894:437-51, 579-91,
693-713, 872-92). For some historical accounts of * One implication of this was that watchmakers
the reform, see Andrews (1931), Godechot had to put new dials on timepieces that designated
(1951:363-6) and Herrmann (1938). hours from " 1 " to " 5 , " rather than " 1 " to "12."
 THE SOCIOLOGY OF TIME 871
rhythm of collective life, but also to bring surprising that Marechal opened his A/-
about a total symbolic transformation manach des Republicaines five years later
of the standard temporal reference with the following warning: "The calendar
framework, as became an age pronoun- of the French Republic . . . must not re-
cedly devoted to total regeneration. As semble in any respect the official annuals
the fixing of leap years on the third— of the apostolic and Roman church" (An-
rather than the fourth—year of the Fran- drews, 1931:525).
ciade suggests, these reformers were By introducing the Revolutionary
guided, in part, by none other than the Calendar, which was later condemned by
considerations of the symbolic implica- John Quincy Adams not only as "super-
tions of introducing changes just for the ficially frivolous" and "coarsely vulgar,"
sake of change. The Revolutionary Calen- but also as "irreligious" (Lovering, 1872:
dar was introduced in an age which advo- 350), the French Republic stripped the
cated the total obliteration of the old order Church of one of its chief agents for exer-
in the name of progress and modemity: cising social control and regulating social
the beginning of the new Republican Era life. The major thrust of the calendrical
marked the total discontinuity between reform was against religion, and the new
past and present. In order to appreciate calendar was to be a civil one, divested of
fully the social significance of this reform, any ecclesiastical associations. More spe-
which also accounts for the fact that the cifically, it was supposed to function as a
Revolutionary Calendar was re-adopted de-Christianizer.
by the Paris Commune in 1871 (Mason, The Church's control of the temporal
1930:241), it is cmcial to consider its ^y/n- regulation of social life was challenged
bolic functions within the socio-historical first of all by the abolition of the seven-
context of Revolutionary France. day week and the replacement of Sunday
by Decadi as the official rest day. Aside
„ . . . from the immediate symbolic significance
^secularization ^^ ^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^ - ^ j ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^
Ever since antiquity, calendars always elements within the Christian tradition,
had been closely associated with the reli- the introduction of the ten-day rhythm of
gious sphere of life and, thus, totally con- social life played a major role in disrupting
trolled by the priesthood. In the particular church-attending practices, since it
case of pre-Republican France, the calen- presented both practical and cognitive
dar in use had been actually introduced by difficulties in keeping up with the tradi-
Pope Gregory XIII and, thus, symboli- tional, sacred seven-day cycle. It is in-
cally associated with the Catholic Church, teresting to note that an almost identical
In order to appreciate the symbolic anti-clerical measure was applied nearly a
significance of the Gregorian Calendar, century and a half later by Stalin, when he
one should note that, while Italy, France, introduced the continuous five-day week
Spain, and Portugal already had adopted it (Moore, 1963:122).* However, the re-
in 1582, it was not until 1752 that it was placement of Sunday by Decadi as the
introduced into England, whereas Greece official re^t day also resulted in a consid-
and Russia adopted it only after World erable reduction of the total number of
War I (Ronan, 1974:603). The tremendous rest days. That the new sociotemporal
de-Christianizing effects of any reform of order involved working for nine—rather
this calendar were pretty obvious. When than six—days straight before having a
Sylvain Marechal proposed, back in 1788, rest day certainly did not help to increase
to dispose of the saints' days as well as to its popularity.
abolish the seven-day week and Sunday, Another act of de-Christianization was
the Bourbon govemment ordered the de- the replacement of January 1 by Septem-
stmction and buming of his influential ber 22 as New Year's Day. The temporal
Almanach des Honnetes Gens, which it
considered as "impious, sacrilegious, ^ Consider also the Fascists" attempts to sec-
blasphemous, and tending to destroy reli- ularize the calendar by introducing a civil, nonreligi-
gion" (Andrews, 1931:516). It is hardly ous rhythm of social life (Schneider, 1928.226).
872 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
continuum does not naturally have any one. Usually these events are charged
divisions along it, and even though the with profound social connotations, as the
annual cycle originated in a natural phe- First Olympiad was to the ancient Greeks,
nomenon, the decision as to where to fix the Creation of the World to the Jews, the
the cut-off point that marks its "begin- foundation of Rome to the Romans, the
ning" is a purely arbitrary one based Hegira to the Mohammedans, the March
entirely on social convention. It was Durk- on Rome to the Fascists, and so on. As a
heim (1965:347) who maintained that it is most meaningfully-charged cultural sym-
the alteration between the sacred and the bol, the year 1792 seemed to be a perfect
profane which leads man to "introduce choice for the new "point of departure"
into the continuity and homogeneity of and the fact that, although the establish-
duration, certain distinctions and differ- ment of the new era was decided upon
entiations which it does not naturally only in 1793, it began retroactively in
have." One of the major characteristics of 1792, attests to the particular symbolic
any calendar is that it interrupts the con- significance of the latter. The substitution
tinuous flow of time^ by introducing some of the date of the foundation of the French
regularly recurrent ''critical dates'' Republic for that of the birth of Christ as
(Hubert and Mauss, 1909:197-208), and the standard temporal reference point of
the events which constitute these standard the new era symbolized the de-
temporal reference points usually have a Christianization of the standard dating
particular symbolic significance within the framework. It implied that France had
society. In the particular case of the Revo- entered a new, secular age, in which the
lutionary Calendar, a non-religiously sig- foundation of the Republic was to be re-
nificant event, namely, the foundation of garded as far more historically significant
the French Republic, was selected as the than the beginnings of Christianity,
standard temporal reference point on
which the annual cycle was based and, as . . .
far as secularization was concemed, that Naturalization
act had a most profound social A purely physico-mathematical analysis
significance. It was probably not practical of the Revolutionary Calendar, which
convenience alone, but also symbolic would ignore the poet Fabre d'Eglantine's
considerations, that led Napoleon to re- nomenclatural innovations, would never
store the Gregorian Calendar beginning provide us with an adequate basis for
January 1,1806, a totally meaningless date grasping its full social meaning. Within a
within the Republican Calendar, yet sym- sociological perspective, which recog-
bolically so significant (New Year's Day) nizes the great extent to which names are
within the restored one. charged with meaning (Cassirer,
The Christian Era was replaced by the 1953:44-62), calendrical systems ought to
civil Republican Era as the standard be regarded as products of the interaction
chronological dating framework for pre- between mathematical divisions of time
cisely the same reason. It was time that andsymbolicframeworksof meaning. It is
separated the old order from the new one, in this light that one should view the nam-
and the beginning of the new age with a ing of the new months after seasonal
"new time" was to symbolize the total phenomena,* as well as the abolition of
discontinuity between past and present, the Church's saints' days and the renam-
Since the flow of history is continuous, ing of the days of the year after
the selection of those historical events phenomena in Nature instead. The new
which mark the "beginnings" of calendar was to symbolize the centrality
chronological eras is a purely arbitrary of natural phenomena to the life of the
new society, thus expressing the belief of
the French Enlightenment in the need for
^ For an empirical study of the way irt which the
continuous flow of time is intemipted through the
introduction of social cycles, see my analysis of the * Consider also, in this regard, the Nazis' attemp
rhythmic structure of oiianizational life (Zenibavel, to substitute Teutonic archaisms for the names of th<
forthcoming: ch I). months (Grunberger, 1971:446).
 THE SOCIOLOGY OF TIME 873
man to be in harmony with Nature. In the the natural order and drew its authority
case of the months, names were designed from it, the new months were named after
so as to suggest Nature in a way that even seasonal phenomena. Along the same
transcended their mere referential func- lines, a symbolic association between the
tion. By means of a morphological device, new social order and Nature was at-
namely a differential application of suf- tempted through the use of the co-
fixes ("aire," "ose," " a l " and "dor"), occurrence of the foundation of the
both the rhythm and the tone of these French Republic and the autumnal
names suggested that they were grouped equinox. Though it was probably a mere
in four distinct three-month blocks, each coincidence that this unique historical
of which was associated with a particular event took place on a day which happened
season. Thus, by both semantic and mor- to be so significant in Nature, the reform-
phological means, the new nomenclature ers nevertheless could legitimize their
established a seasonally-based differentia- choice of September 22 as the principal
tion between the months, symbolizing the temporal reference point in the new
unbreakable bond between the social calendar on the basis of establishing a
calendrical system and the cycles of Na- harmony between the social and the nat-
ture. ural. The symbolic implications of the
One of the most remarkable accom- multiple significance of this date—on
plishments of the calendar reformers was which the sun also entered Libra, which is
exposing p^eople to the naked truth, that symbolically associated with equality—
their traditional calendar, whose absolute did not escape the attention of the calen-
validity they had probably taken for dar reformers. When it proposed to syn-
granted, was a mere social artifact and by chronize the annual social cycle with a
no means unalterable. However, the re- cycle which derived from the rhythmicity
formers must have realized the possible of Nature, the Committee of Public In-
boomerang effects of that, since it was struction stated explicitly that "the equal-
impossible to expose the conventionality ity of the days and nights was marked in
and artificiality of the traditional calendar the heavens at the same moment when
without exposing those of any other civil and moral equality was proclaimed
calendar, including the new one, at the by the representatives of the French
same time. One could not help realizing, people as the sacred foundation of their
for example, that if the seven-day week new government" (Andrews, 1931:526-
did not derive from the heavens and was 7).
merely an arbitrarily imposed convention,
so was the ten-day decade. The new „ . ,.
calendar could not be viewed as abso- ^^f'onalization
lutely valid, since its users witnessed its In order to estabUsh the legitimacy ofthe
birth and knew that things used to be newsystemof units of time, the reformers
different in the past. also tried to make it more "rational" and
Nevertheless, upon introducing the "scientific" through the application ofthe
Revolutionary Calendar, its architects at- decimal system. Whereas calendars tradi-
tempted the nearly impossible, namely, tionally had been designed by the priest-
convincing their contemporaries that hood, the Revolutionary Calendar was in-
calendars in general were merely conven- tended to be an unprecedented project ra-
tional artifacts (to account for the dis- tionally designed and adhering solely to
posability of the traditional calendar), yet the principles of Reason and Science, as
that their new one was not! However, in advocated by the French Enlightenment,
order for the Revolutionary Calendar to Accordingly, its chief architect, Charles-
be accepted as absolutely valid, it first had Gilbert Romme, was a former professor of
to be viewed as an inevitable development physics and navigation^ whose consul-
and by no means a mere arbitrary conven- tants included scientific authorities such
tion. The reformers'way of achieving that as the mathematicians, Monge and La-
was by associating their calendar with Na- grange; the astronomers, Lalande and
ture. In order to suggest that it reflected Pingre; the chemist, Fourcroy; and other
874 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
distinguished members of the Academy of number of days in the various months of
Sciences. It was no mere coincidence that the year, the reformers also accomplished
Monge and Lagrange were also members an unprecedented concordance of
of the committee who had introduced, monthly and "weekly" cycles by estab-
only a year before, a major reform of the lishing a mathematically regular relation
system of weights and measures. In fact, between the month and the decade.
the calendrical reform actually was Within the Westem standard temporal
viewed as an extension of the metric re- reference framework, the weekly and
form, and, accordingly, it adopted the^ec- monthly cycles are based on incompatible
imal principle as the basis of the new sys- rhythms, since the former runs indepen-
tem of units of time. The act of adopting dently of the latter. Whereas years consist
the very basis of our counting system in of a number of complete months, so that
order to systematize the relations between the beginning of a year coincides with that
the new weeks, days, hours, minutes and of a month,^" weeks do not have to be
seconds involved much practical con- "completed" in order for a new month to
venience,' yet it also had some important begin. The implication of this for everyday
symbolic implications as well. Just con- temporal reference is that "weekly" and
sider the religious connotations of the "monthly" dates are independent of one
number " 7 " within the Judaeo-Christian another, so that a calendar is necessary in
tradition, for example, and, on the other order to reckon on what days of the month
hand, the rationalism and scientism asso- Thanksgiving Day, Election Day or Labor
ciated with the decimal principle, which is Day fall, or on what day of the week
among the cornerstones of Westem math- Christmas falls, in any given year. In the
ematics. French Republican Calendar, however,
A similar attempt to associate the new the fixed mathematical relation between
calendar with Reason was the naming of the month and the decade (1:3) made the
the days of the decade according to their synchronization of these two cycles
numerical order. This act symbolized the possible through fixing the beginning of
replacement of the qualitative conception the month on Primidi. The user of this
of time—which was associated with the calendar could convert dates which were
traditional, religious and nonrational—by formulated in terms of the day of the
a quantitative orientation towards it, as month into dates formulated in terms of
became an Age of Reason. The new units the day of the decade, and vice versa,
of time were regarded as certain "quan- simply by referring t6 the last figure of the
tities" of duration, which were systemati- former or the mere name—^which also re-
cally related to one another in mathemat- flected the numerical order—of the latter.
ical terms, namely, as multiples of one The tremendous contribution of this sim-
another. With the abolition of the saints' ple, yet sophisticated "rational" ar-^
days, Sunday and the Church's religious rangement to everyday temporal refer-
holidays, the days of the week and the ence can hardly be overemphasized.
year lost much of their unique character
and, as mathematically equal entities,
THE FAILURE OF THE REFORM
they became far more interchangeable
with one another. As it tumed out, the French Republican
The systematization of the relations Calendar did not prove to be a success
among the various units of time was also and, on January 1, 1806, the Gregorian
furthered by the uniformization of the Calendar was restored by Napoleon. One
months and the replacement of the main reason for the failure of the calendri-
seven-day week by the ten-day decade. cal reform was probably its overemphasis
Aside from saving the users of the new on the totality of the obliteration of the
calendar the trouble of memorizing the
•® The same is true about the relations among
' For a discussion of the convenience involved in months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. As Col-
applying the decimal principle to social organization, son (1926:2) has noted, the seven-day week is the
see Simmel (1950:171-4). only "intruder" in this ordered system.
 THE SOCIOLOGY OF TIME 875
traditional system of units of time and actually a part of his geneml reconciliation
time-reckoning and dating frameworks, with Rome clearly suggests that the fmlure
Given the popularity of any standard tem- of the calendrical reform must be viewed
poral orientation, it is quite likely that the within the context of the overall failure of
reformers would have been far more sue- the French Revolution to de-Christianize
cessful had they incorporated parts of the France. The reformers must have under-
old sociotemporal order into the new one. estimated the depth to which religious
By suggesting some symbolic continuity sentiments were still rooted among the
between the two, they would probably French people, many of whom probably
have contributed to further the legitimacy found it impossible to depart so abruptly
of the new system. As the recent case of from a traditionally sacred symbolic order
the transformation of the meaning of the which had been taken for granted for cen-
British "penny" (in terms of its math- turies.
ematical relation to the £,) while preserv- Another major factor which proved to
ing its traditional name suggests, such an be detrimental to the calendrical reform's
approach might have avoided hurting tra- chances of survival was its pronounced
ditionalist sentiments, thus facilitating particularistic spirit, which was man-
the acceptance of the new symbolic order, ifested in the nationalistic symbolism of
However, the metric reform of the system names such as "Tranciade"' and
of weights and measures, which was in- ''Sansculottides'' and dates such as "Sep-
troduced in France at about the same tember 22" and "1792." The symbolic
time, clearly achieved a tremendous sue- function of introducing a unique system of
cess despite its absolute obliteration of the units of time and unique time-reckoning
traditional order. While very few people and dating frameworks is very similar to
today are even aware of the fact that the that of introducing a unique national an-
French Republican calendrical reform them or flag.'^ However, whereas a mul-
ever took place, the metric system is.still tiplicity of national anthems or flags does
in use at the present time, not only in not generate any confusion or incon-
France, but in most of the Western world, venience which might hinder international
The failure of the calendrical reform is communication, a multiplicity of temporal
eyen more striking, therefore, when con- reference frameworks certainly does,
trasted with the success of its sister re- There was no way to synchronize the
form, and it certainly cannot be fully ac- Revolutionary and Gregorian time-
counted for only by the totality of the ob- reckoning and dating frameworks, and
Uteration of the old order. any date within the former was totally
The calendar reformers' overemphasis meaningless to users of the latter in other
on secularization was another major fac- countries. The days of the decade could
tor which probably hindered their poten- not correspond to those ofthe week, since
tial success. When we contrast the f^ailure these two functionally analogous social
of the Revolutionary Calendar with the cycles were based on totally incompatible
tremendous success ofthe metric system, rhythms. As for the numerical names of
we must remember that the Revolutionary the days of the Revolutionary and Grego-
Calendar had to challenge the existing rian months, although these two cycles
symbolic order associated with the were based on very similar rhythms, their
sacred—such as disposing of Sunday and beginnings did not coincide, and aH the
the Church's saints' days—whereas the Revolutionary months began sometime
metric system did not have that prob- around the 20th day of the Gregorian
lem.*' The fact that the restoration ofthe month. Finally, the numerical expression
Gregorian Calendar by Napoleon was of the Revolutionary year was also mean-

" It is interesting to note, however, that those '^ To take the case ofthe Jewish Calendar in mod-
societies in which the metric system has not yet em Israel, for example, most of the debates over
gained a stronghold tend to cling to their non-decimal whether to keep it revolve around the nationalistic
monetary, measure or weight systems as sacred symbolism involved in a unique standard teniporal
symbols of their traditions. reference framework.
876 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
ingless to anyone who did not consider the the failure of the most radical attempt in
foundation of the French Republic the modem history to challenge the Westem
most significant evjnt in history. Even the standard temporal reference framework,
official Moniteur had to insert the Grego- which is, until this day, among the cor-
rian date in brackets after the Revolu- nerstones of modem soci^ life.
tionary date (Andrews, 1931:528, 53 In),
and contemporary historians must use REFERENCES
concordance lists (Herrmann, 1938) in Andrews, George Gordon
order to "translate" Revolutionary dates 1931 "Making the revolutionary calendar." The
so as to locate them in conventional American Historical Review 36:515-32.
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1%7 The Social Construction of Reality. Garden
That the calendrical reform entailed City: Doubleday Anchor.
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prise anyone who appreciates the func- Colson, F. H.
tional uniqueness of the clock and the 1926 The Week. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
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markable sophistication in the popular de- 1965 The Elementary Forms of the Religious
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lution et r Empire. Paris: Presses Univer-
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Lovering, Joseph
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abrupt transformation of the standard spa- ceedings of the American Academy of Arts
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 CHINESE CONSUMPTION OF FOREIGN COMMODITIES 877
Simmel, Georg Zerubavel, Eviatar
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CHINESE CONSUMPTION OF FOREIGN COMMODITIES:

A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE*

GARY G . HAMILTON

University of California, Davis

American Sociological Review 1977, Vol. 42 (December):877-891

A recurrent theme in the literature on modernization is the importance of Westernization in

non-Western societies-the purchase of Western commodities and the emulation of Western
styles. This paper critically examines this theme in relation to a negative case, the lack of
Westernization in nineteenth-century China. Three different theories of consumption that have
been offered to explain the nonacceptance of Western products in China—an economic theory, a
cultural theory and a sociological theory-Hire analyzed from comparative and historical per-
spectives. On the basis of this analysis, it is suggested that Westernization during the
nineteenth century can often be viewed more accurately as an indicator of stratificational
continuity with the premodern era than as an indicator of modernizing changes.

With considerable justification, Karl elude, as a causal mechanism, the distri-

Marx and many later writers believe that a bution and sale of Western products in
decisive factor in the nineteenth-century non-Western societies. The more sophis-
expansion of Western civilization was the ticated theories no longer rely exclusively
distribution of commodities produced by on the difference in price between
capitalist factories. Marx (1959:11) says, factory-made products and handicraft
"Cheap commodity prices are the heavy goods. Instead, they emphasize such fac-
artillery with which [the bourgeoisie] bat- tors as the restructuring of market rela-
ters down all Chinese walls and forces the tionships (e.g., Smelser, 1%3), the estab-
barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of lishment of primary trading cities (e.g.,
foreigners to capitulate. . . . It compels Murphey, 1969) and the subordination of
them to introduce what it calls civilization non-Western producers (e.g., Frank,
into their midst, i.e., to become 1967)—all of which are subsidiary to the
bourgeoise themselves. It creates a world creation of a world marketing system
after its own image." Nowadays, students (Wallerstein, 1974; Eisenstadt, 1973). De-
of society seldom accept such simplicity spite such insightful and justified elabora-
in their explanations. Nonetheless, most tions, one of the causal mainsprings by
recent theories recounting the economic which this process of Western expansion
factors of modernization prominently in- began remains the non-Western consump-
tion of Western goods.'
* A revised version of a paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Intemational Society for the < This causal mechanism is illustrated in such
Comparative Study of Civilizations (US), April, studies as Wallerstein's (1974), where Eastem
1976. I am indebted to Ben Orlove, C. K. Yang, Europe (the periphery) buys manufactured com-
Pierre van den Berghe, Beiyamin Nelson, Gilbert modities from and seUs agricultural products to
Rozoian and two anonymous reviewers for their use- Westem Europe (the core), and Gallagher and
ful comments on the earlier version of this paper. Robinson's (19S3), where England builds an informal