Extreme social control occurs in both the widest and narrowest circles simultaneously

Evidence

This “touching of extremes” holds just as good when its sign is reversed to the negative. The Indian caste is endogamous, but in it there is another very narrow circle within which marriage is forbidden. Marriage prospects are thus confined to the narrower circle, a state of affairs that is also found elsewhere; and indeed, in a certain sense, it may be universal, at least for the behavioral reality of marital arrangements. In the Indian case, both the widest and the ultimately narrowest circles are proscribed. This mode of the correlation is exhibited yet again in historically sequential stages: the strength and extent of control with which the guild formerly grasped the individual is no longer exercised by this type of circle at all, but rather by the family, on the one hand, and by the state, on the other. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 641

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the overarching circle/diameter structure thesis Simmel is building toward in the larger essay; pairs with the famous passage on the widening circle and individuality that the reader’s flâneur argument draws on. — connects to: Individuality increases as the social circle expands — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 591; Quakers show extreme collective individualism paired with social regulation of private life — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 611; In narrow circles individuality requires leadership or complete inner independence — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 621 (+6 more)

Related

• Individuality increases as the social circle expands (similarity 0.82)
• The narrow circle and the large circle yield equal life chances (similarity 0.81)
• Larger social circles encourage individual freedom; smaller ones restrict it (similarity 0.80)
• Greatly widened circles permit misanthropic detachment and extreme individualism (similarity 0.79)
• Individualism of equality and individualism of inequality both require large social circles. (similarity 0.79)
• In narrow circles individuality requires leadership or complete inner independence (similarity 0.79)
• Quakers show extreme collective individualism paired with social regulation of private life (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Identical interaction forms recur across radically different social groups #corroborates (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 198
• Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types #expands (0.55) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 284