Faculty of Sociology and Social WorkUniversity of Bucharest2009Searching the term 'stigma' on the internet I found a very large online dictionary explication. There are many definitions and examples in that explications and I think is relevant for the essay to write them all. So, stigma can be: a distinguishing mark of social disgrace the stigma of having been in prison, a small scar or mark such as a birthmark (medicine), a small scar or mark such as a birthmark or any sign of a mental deficiency or emotional upset (medicine), the receptive surface of a carpel, where deposited pollen germinates (botany), a pigmented eyespot in some protozoan and other invertebrates or the spiracle of an insect (zoology), or Christianity marks resembling the wounds of the crucified Christ, believed to appear on the bodies of certain individuals (Ecclesiastical Terms).
Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 - November 19, 1982) was a Canadian sociologist and writer who were listed in 2007 as the 6th most-cited intellectual in the humanities and social sciences by The Times Higher Education Guide, behind Anthony Giddens and in front of Jurgen Habermas.
A segment of a social network
Erving Goffman
StigmaHe is one of the greater sociologists who studies and writes about the stigma, and his book, Stigma, has a great importance for understanding the term.
Goffman notes that stigma comes from Greek and refers to a mark or a sign on the body that helps to identify and avoid the persons with an immoral social status like a slave, a criminal or a traitor. Later, when the Christian Church had a bigger importance, the stigma acquired another mean, becoming to bodily signs of holy grace that took the form of eruptive blossoms on the skin . In the same period, the medical explication considers the stigma a physical disorder. When Goffman wrote the...