670. Talmon, Yonina. "The Pursuit of the Millennium: The Relation Between Religious and Social Change." European Journal of Sociology (Archives Europˇens de Sociologie) 03 (1), 1962: 125-48.
A badly over-generalized and internally contradictory typological discussion of millennialism. Comparative study has focussed on comparisons of different millennialisms, on one hand, and on comparisons of millennialism with other kinds of movements, on the other, in an attempt to elucidate the dynamics of social change. Cohn (1970a: item 178) overestimates the effect of these movements on modern totalitarianism. Historians like Hobsbawm (1959: item 348) are forced to use sociological methods owing to the paucity and unreliability of documentary data. The rigid anti-historicism of structural-functionalist anthropology has left it helpless in the face of change like these movements propose (cf. Jarvie, 1966: item 371) and forced the field to adopt historicism. Thus there is a merging of disciplinary foci on the problem. Worsely (1968: item 769) is the most radical of these anthropological historicists, while Balandier (1970: item 41) and Wilson (1973: item 752) compare "fortuitously available" (p. 129) monographs.
The primary fact about millenarism is that it views time as linear. [Here, according to Jarvie (1966: item 371), Talmon goes wrong, for the Melanesian culture that produced the millenarian cargo cults does not have this perception of time. Either this is over-generalized or the cargo cults are not millennial. Another point to note here is that in the case of cargo cults, no particular sense of time is required. Paradise was visible and tangible: whites were present and were immensely wealthy and powerful without doing any work (see P. Lawrence 1982: item 371.) The problem was not to bring paradise but to get into it.]
Time leads to a stop, after which the world will be made perfect and humanity blissfully immortal. This will be accomplished in a sudden leap [and this too is over-generalized, confining millennialism to "pre-millennial" ideas, where there are plenty of movements envisioning the same result of a gradual process brought about by humans]. She is correct in saying that millennialism blends historical and mythological [eternal] time.
Millennial views of the past are ambivalent. They usually condemn tradition [which eliminates the Ghost Dance]. Salvation is this-worldly and collective, and the group's role in bringing it about varies from passive waiting and watching for signs of the end to armed intervention. Most are messianic, expecting a divine savior, whose words to the faithful are or have been mediated by a leader/prophet, who may now be dead, often martyred. [S]he often has subleaders who deal with organization, recruitment, and public relations. The movements are generally organizationally amorphous, though they may range all the way to being sect like.
When the prophecy fails, the movement may disband, it may retrench and redouble its efforts, or it may go underground (like the Christadelphians), give up dating the millennium, and await developments. They are frequently highly emotional. [Who wouldn't be, taking part in the ultimate drama?] They may be made up of the deprived, especially in situations where there are few and/or unsatisfactory means to fulfill expectations. The "regulation of ends" (p. 137) will also be out of kilter in culture-contact situations or other contexts of social disintegration. Social isolation is also predisposing.
They are generally pre-political, that is, they begin with religious ideologies and aims which transform to political ones; they link religious and political movements.
671. ———. "Millenarian Movements." Archives Europˇennes de Sociologie 7 (2), 1966: 159-200.
A rehash of Talmon's 1962 article, almost word for word, but with no improvement on it. She provides a list of attributes according to which a typology might be constructed: history vs. myth; temporal vs. spatial emphasis; catastrophe vs. redemption; redemption vs. redeemer; particularism vs. universalism; short-range vs. long-range; restoration vs. innovation; antinomian vs. legalistic; active vs. passive. There is then discussion of contextual factors, which are largely over-generalized.
672. ———. "Millenarianism." In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan/Free Press, Vol. 10. 1968: 349-62.
Defines millenarian movements as those that "expect imminent, total, ultimate, this-worldly, collective salvation."
A thoroughgoing article on the history, characteristics, differentiae (Talmon notes that no satisfactory typology has been devised), contexts, functions, recruitment, outcomes, and sociological views of millenarism. She argues persuasively against reductionist views, noting that the Sabbatarian movement is a crucial counter-example to reliance on political and social interpretations. Millenarism is often strongly related to political movements and often becomes itself such a movement. Talmon makes the interesting observation that views of these movements can be seen to be congruent with their success. Cohn (1970a: item 178) views medieval movements, all of which quickly sputtered out, as essentially insane, while Worsley (1968: item 769) views his New Guinea movements, which underwent transformation into relatively successful political movements, as rational.
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