The distinction between traditional and modern societies was derived from Max Weber via Talcott Parsons. A society was called “traditional” in which most relationships were particularistic rather than universalistic (e.g. based on ties to particular people, such as kin, rather than on general criteria designating whole classes of persons); in which birth (ascription) rather than achievement was the general ground for holding a job or an offi ce; in which feelings rather than objectivity governed relationships of all sorts (the distinction between affectivity and neutrality); and in which roles were not clearly separated – for instance, the royal household was also the state apparatus (role diffuseness vs. role specifi city).