Unlike the idea of the essentialist perspective of believing in the innate essence of everything visible and tangible, the constructionalist perspective adopts the idea regarding the origin of reality as being shaped by society including time. Commonly, the concept of time is hardly discussed, much less thought of as something more than always present or as a way of organization. Yet time had to undergo a beginning and a process to reach its current state. The idea of time highlights the progression needed in order to become a reality. It was not something that simply was nor originated naturally.
Time is ingrained into the mind of societies after a progression of social construction. Slowly, but steadily, the concept of time came to be what the present society knows through small incidents that shaped into something greater – into something real. To fully appreciate the complete concept of time, one has to accept the fact that time did not simply occur in nature. Man did not evolve, and there was time. It was not said “let there be time” and it was. Time is not found in nature nor is it found in a biological sense such as breathing or the beating of a heart.
Accepting this fact, what is left is the concept of time being socially constructed (Roy 2001). Overall, time slowly began as a result of elements of the current society. It continued to evolve and transform as society changed following the same pace of the current world. Time reached it’s current state in this current society, but who is to say that this is the end of the transformation knowing that society is bound to change. It should be noted that the social construction of reality is defined by sociologist William G. Roy as “the historical process by which our experiences become put into categories and treated as things” (2001, 5).
This is to say that there is not a difference between society and reality and that reality is not something other than the interaction between people. It also explains the categories we place people in through gender, race or even occupation. These categories have become as real as can be due to the importance societies place on them. Social construction follows the constructionalist perspective with the belief that our realities are shaped by society. According to W. I. Thomas and D. S. Thomas who formulated the Thomas Theorem, “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”(1928, 52).
The same applies to the concept of time. At one point, time underwent a process commonly known as reification, but what really cemented its reality was giving time an actual name. For the most part, any structure of what is now known as “time” was centered around nature. A day was defined according to the rise and set of the sun while the month revolved around the cycles of the moon. As science advanced, it was possible to calculate a year due to the position of the sun’s revolution. Other than the week, time was focused on nature.
Some may argue the current week that the Anglo-European knows could be an allusion to the Creation found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. ” Though there is not concrete evidence to the correlation between the week and a religious background, but it is definitely something to consider. Another idea to consider about the socialization of the week came from the early Middle East where only seven planets were known, and as a result, the number seven was treated as divine.
But the most important aspect of the socialization of time was naming and creating markers making time more mechanical and more abstract. The earliest recollection of regulating time can be traced back to the monasteries in Europe. Due to the strict rituals, bells became a general marker to record the passing of time. The bells influenced towns and cities, and they became responsible for spreading the new innovation. Clock towers began to sprout in towns and cities creating both a sense of prestige and a sense of communal identity as it brought the citizens together through the new connector of time.
Even though a new marker was now in place, nature continued to be the most important aspect of the development of time. Despite the new evolution in the time, the moon and the sun remained the epicenter. The importance of nature continued to expand to naming the days of the week primarily after the names of the planets. As society changed, so did time. The social construction of time did not end with simply the markers, but it continued to adapt and keep up with the changing society. Especially with Anglo-European, time became linear.
One year ends, and another one begins. This contrasts many other societies such as the Chinese where time is cyclical. Everything comes back, and another cycle begins. Originally, the month mimicked the moon cycle, but the month we know now came from adjustments made by Julius Caesar. Before the alterations made by the Romans, the year consisted of ten months, but under Julius Caesar, he added another month after himself –July. His successor, Augustus Caesar, gave us the month of August.