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For more than 100 years, sociologists have been concerned with relatively small, cohesive social groups (Tönnies,[1887] 1940; Durkheim [1893] 1933; Spencer 1895-97; Cooley, 1909). The groups that concern sociologists are not simply categories—like redheads or people more than six feet tall. Instead they are social collectivities characterized by interaction and interpersonal ties. Concern with groups of this sort has been—and remains—at the very core of the field.