Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy.
Amsterdam 1994. Chapter 4 Relations between men: from routinization of charisma to patriarchal
domination over men.
75
The implications of Weber's analysis of the 'routinization of charisma' by 'charismatic
education' can now be formulated as follows: once the process of routinization of charisma
and the corresponding monopolization of manhood has been completed, the burden of proof
of manhood for the men of some groups is totally reversed: membership of the monopolizing
group is sufficient to prove masculinity. Those excluded from membership are definitively
not-men, unless they succeed in forming their own charismatic fraternizations.
Some aspects of the establishment and perpetuation of manhood monopolies are treated in
Weber's conceptual exposition of charismatic domination as well. A possible base for
succession of charismatic leaders is 'hereditary charisma', 'the conception that charisma is a
quality transmitted by heredity; thus that it is participated in by the kinsmen of its bearer,
particularly by his closest relatives'.
44
In the chapter on religious groups he explains how
charisma can be 'versachlicht' and transferred:
'The most frequent case of a *'Versachlichung' of charisma is the belief in its transferability through blood ties.
Thus the desires of the disciples or followers and of the charismatic subjects for the perpetuation of charisma are
fulfilled in a most simple fashion
.'
45
This way of transferring charisma is not based on 'heredity' in the modern sense; it is based
on heredity 'only in the sense that household and lineage groups are considered magically
blessed, so that they alone can provide the bearers of charisma'.
46
Weber repeats that another reversion of meaning takes place:
'Once the belief is established that charisma is bound to blood relationship, its meaning is altogether reversed. If
originally a man was ennobled by virtue of his own actions, now only the deeds of his forefathers could legitimate
him
.'
47
To finish my analysis of the routinization of charisma resulting in the establishment of a
warrior fraternity which monopolizes manhood, I will now return to the concept which Weber
employed to embody his speculations on the creation of 'real men': the 'men's house'.
6. The men's house
Although in Weber's construction the charismatic education of warriors established the
difference between socially proven 'men' on the one hand and men treated as 'women or
children' on the other, he presents the 'men's house' as the decisive step to legal patriarchy.
This is because he believes that the 'men's house' is an intermediary point in the
development of a 'legitimacy of violence'.
48
44
ES p. 248, WG p. 144.
45
ES p. 1136, WG p. 671.
46
'Because its supernatural endowment a house is elevated above all others; in fact, the belief in such a
qualification, which is unattainable by natural means and hence charismatic, has everywhere been the basis for
the development of royal and aristocratic power.' But here we are already in patriarchy.'As physiological blood
ties gain increasing importance, deification sets in, at first of the ancestors and eventually also of the incumbent
ruler,..', ES p. 1137, WG p. 672.
47
Yet there are still other ways of depersonalizing and transferring charisma: artificial, magical means, for
instance, can do the trick. This way of depersonalizing and transferring charisma is connected with the concept of
the holding of an o f f i c e which can transform charisma into an institution, like a church or a state, see ES p.
1139/40, WG p. 674. I shall deal with this form of charisma later, Ch. 9,3.
48
Although he conceptualizes 'tradition' - that is to say: everyday economic conduct - as the starting point of
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