Time structuring and time measurement
on the interrelation between timekeepers and social time
pp. 325-342
in: Fraser, Nathaniel Lawrence (eds), The study of time II, Berlin, Springer, 1975Abstract
At first sight the interrelation between the two main themes of this paper, time structuring and time measurement, seems to be simple enough. Time is something that we measure and that we measure with. But what is it that we measure and how is it constructed that we come to think of it as being measurable? As Leach has pointed out, in any society the prevailing ideas about the nature of time and space are closely linked up with the kinds of measuring scales which are thought to be appropriate. If we alter the scales and dimensions with which we measure, we seem to alter the nature of that which is being measured, as well.