A PROJECT ON

CULTURE AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM

Submitted By
MAHIMA KESHARWANI
Roll No. 83
BA LLB (HONS)
Semester I Batch XIII
Submitted To
Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda
(Faculty Sociology)

HIDAYATULLAH

NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY
RAIPUR

CHHATTISGARH
Submitted On 26th August 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements.... 3
Objective..... 4
Research Methodology....... 5
Introduction..............6
A Discussion of Culture...7
Characteristics of Culture ..11
Essential roles of Culture in Society..15
Culture as a System of Norms 19
Folkways
Mores
Institution

 Laws
Values
Norms and Value
Conclusion.....29
Bibliography......31

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda for offering this
subject, Culture as a Social system and for his valuable guidance and advice. He inspired
me greatly to work in this project. His willingness to motivate me contributed
tremendously to my project. I also would like to thank him for showing me some
example that related to the topic of my project.
Besides, I would like to thank the Hidayatullah National Law University for providing
me with a good environment and facilities to complete this project.
Last but not least, my friends who helped me do this project by sharing their ideas when
we combined and discussed together.

_____________________
Mahima Kesharwani

OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of the project are
To study the relation between culture and the society.
To study the impact of culture on the society.
To discuss various norms.
To see how culture itself works as a system.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is descriptive and analytical in nature. Secondary and Electronic resources
have been largely used to gather information about the topic.

Books and other references as guided by Faculty of Sociology have been primarily
helpful in giving this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also
been referred.
Footnotes have been provided wherever needed to acknowledge the source.

INTRODUCTION
The society in which we live determines everything from the food we eat to the choices
we make. The word society comes from the latin root socius, meaning companion or
being with others. A society consists of people who share a territory, who interact with
each other, and who share a culture. Some societies are, in fact, groups of people united
by friendship or common interests. Our respective societies teach us how to behave, what
to believe, and how well be punished if we dont follow the laws or customs in place.
Sociologists study the way people learn about their own societys cultures and how they
discover their place within those cultures. They also examine the ways in which people
from differing cultures interact and sometimes clashand how mutual understanding and
respect might be reached.
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A Discussion of culture
Culture is an ambiguous term with a definite presence. Although it is also known
by most to be the manifestation of national holidays, dress, customs, cuisine, and
linguistic characteristics, ibesides this largely passive role, culture also plays a crucial
active role in the construction of social structures. Culture itself is a constantly selfrenewing and self-perpetuating phenomenon, originating in part from the physical,
geographical environment; from history; from other cultures, and from its existing
society.
Furthermore, culture, in and of itself, is a uniquely human trait. As a vehicle of
human expression, it cannot exist apart from human society, and likewise, no human

i Margalit, Halbertal, (1994, 497-498) in Johnson, James. Why respect culture? American Journal of
Political Science, Vol. 44, No. 3. (Jul., 2000), pp. 405-418.

society can exist without it.ii It is an expression of identity recognizable in every form of
communication, be it through language, music, literature, art, dance, and even cuisine.
And as much as it is an expression of identity, it is something by which we can identify
certain cultures, although in this day and age of advanced globalization (bear in mind that
cultural exchange has been taking place ever since humans began wandering the planet),
many cultural traits have been exchanged and adopted among peoples to the extent that
they can no longer be indicative of a single culture.
Despite its undeniable existence, culture itself has not been consistently defined.
Among the many definitions of culture are
1) the prevailing values, and group cohesiveness, to pervasive interpersonal bondsiii
2) a tool kit of symbols, stories, rituals and world-views, which people may use in
varying configurations to solve different sets of problems,
3) an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a systemby
means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and
attitudes toward lifeiv, and
4) the set of ideas, values, and understandings which people deploy within a certain
network of social relationships to use as a means of ordering their interpersonal
interactions and hence to generate ties of reciprocity between themselves; in so doing it
also provides the principal basis on which human beings give meaning and purpose to
lives.v
For now, however, I will define culture as the sum of a peoples common
experiences, values, preferences, and behavioral tendencies, which have been shaped by a
ii Shimahara, Nobuo. Enculturation A Reconsideration Current Anthropology, Vol. 11, No. 2. (Apr.,
1970), pp. 143-154.
iii Blau, Peter M. Structural Effects American Sociological Review, Vol. 25, No. 2. (Apr., 1960), pp.
178-193.
iv Geertz in Kane, Anne. Cultural Analysis in Historical Sociology: The Analytic and Concrete Forms of
the Autonomy of Culture Sociological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Spring, 1991), pp. 53-69.
v Ballard, Roger. Race, Ethnicity and Culture. Found in: Holburn, Martin (Ed) New Directions in
Sociology Ormskirk: Causeway, June 2002.

common history and which guides interaction and expression among these people.
This will take into account the interactions and communication among peoples of a single
culture based on a shared experience and knowledge.
Social structures are those arrangements of human relations which place each
individual into an appropriate place in society, which either defines or is defined by
her/his function.

Western culture, for example, has traditionally been a patriarchal

society, a male-dominated world in which males are given preferential treatment, to the
point at which females had almost no rights or social value outside of the home. When
women finally began entering the workforce, they worked in jobs that were considered
womens work: as secretaries, as restaurant waitresses, or as nurses, all subordinate
positions. Society, however, judged that these positions were the womans appropriate
place in society, and hence within existing social structures. This of course, is not the
case today, although males still tend to have the upper hand in many areas: pay, for
example, and positions of influence.

In other patriarchal cultures, however, these

extremes to womens disadvantages still do exist.

Modern Western culture is also marked with individuality, an emphasis on the
individual that teaches people to live for yourself, think of yourself, and to express
yourself, resulting in a competitive, dog-eat-dog world in which people are constantly
trying to make a name for themselves.

Popular fashion magazines constantly call

attention to the importance of individuality and the fashions that assert this (which in
itself is an oxymoron, for how can one be an asserted individual if one subscribes to the
same values of a mass-published magazine?).

The service industry emphasizes

individually-tailored services to meet your needs, and prizes, trophies, and other
distinguishing marks encourage personal achievement in any number of different groups
people would belong to: sports associations, special interest groups, and of course schools
and offices.

Existing social structures concern the individual; many organizations

support single parents and single (unmarried) people, for example.

Many Asian cultures, on the other hand, such as those of Japan and Korea, are
group-oriented, in which emphasis is more on the good of the group than on that of an

individual. In this case, members of these societies would tend to sacrifice themselves
for the good of the group; the survival of the group means more to society than that of a
single person. In Japan, for example, people are to a degree judged by and identified
with the name of the school s/he belongs to, the company for which s/he works, or even
by their family name. It is also important to belong to a group, regardless of that groups
social standing. To function alone, and thus be part of no group in particular, is almost
undesirable and incomprehensible. Travel agents specialize in group tours, the office
community sometimes takes precedence over an individuals family, and ethics classes in
schools teach children ways to preserve harmony within their community by teaching
respect and modesty.

Unlike in Western schools, where individual achievement is

recognized and encouraged, Japanese schoolchildren work hard to contribute to class

efforts at recognition. Entire classes of students, rather than individuals, are recognized
for achievement in different subjects. Conformity to a group is so integral to Japanese
society that a popular saying is the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

Social structures, in conjunction with cultural beliefs, determine the types of

accepted relationships among members of a cultural society. They also determine those
relationships that are not condoned. Within the Tikana society of Papua New Guinea, for
example, it is considered taboo to speak with cousins or in-laws of the opposite sex;
furthermore, women and their brothers and their brothers children avoid each other out
of respect.vi Professional relationships in Western culture preclude romantic interests.
In most cultures a person may have only one spouse at a time, and during the days of
segregated America, interaction between blacks and whites was unacceptable

vi Billings, Dorothy. Cultural Style and Solutions to Conflict. Journal of Peace Research, vol.28, no.3,
1991, pp. 249-262.

Characteristics of Culture
For a clear understanding of the concept of culture, it is necessary for us to know its main
characteristics. Culture has several characteristics. Following are the main characteristics
of culture.
1. Culture is Learnt
Culture is not inherited biologically, but learnt socially by man. It is not an inborn
tendency. There is no culture instinct as such culture is often called learned ways of
behavior. Unlearned behavior such as closing the eyes while sleeping, the eye blinking
reflex and so on are purely physiological and culture sharing hands or saying namaskar
or thanks and shaving and dressing on the other hand are culture. Similarly wearing
clothes, combing the hair, wearing ornaments, cooking the food, drinking from a glass,
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eating from a plate or leaf, reading a newspaper, driving a car, enacting a role in drama,
singing, worship etc. are always of behavior learnt by man culturally.
2. Cultural is Social
Culture does not exist in isolation neither it is an individual phenomenon. It is a product
of society. It originates and develops through social interaction. It is shared by the
members of society. No man can acquire culture without association with other human
beings. Man becomes man only among men. It is the culture, which helps man to develop
human qualities in a human environment. Deprivation is nothing but deprivation of
human qualities.
3. Culture is Shared
Culture in the sociological sense, is something shared. It is not something that an
individual alone can possess. For example customs, tradition, beliefs, ideas, values,
morals, etc. are shared by people of a group or society. The invention of Arya Bhatta or
Albert Einstein, Charaka or Charles Darwin, the literary, works of Kalidas or Keats,
Dandi or Dante, the philosophical works of Cunfucius or Lao Tse, Shankaracharya or
Swami Vivekananda, the artistic work of Kavi Verma or Raphael etc. are all shared by a
large number of people. Culture is something adopted, used, believed practiced or
possessed by more than one person. It depends upon group life for its existence. (Robert
Brerstedt)
4. Culture is Transmissive
Culture is capable of being transmitted from one generation to the next. Parents pass on
culture traits to their children and them in turn to their children arid so on. Culture is
transmitted not trough genes but by means of language. Language is the main vehicle of
culture. Language in its different forms like reading, writing and speaking makes it
possible for the present generation to understand the achievements of earlier generations.
But language itself is a part of culture. Once language is acquired it unfolds to the

10

individual in wide field. Transmission of culture may take place by intuition as well as by
interaction,
5. Culture is Continuous and Cumulative
Culture exists, as a continuous process. In its historical growth, it tends to become
cumulative. Culture is growing completely which includes in itself, the achievements of
the past and present and makes provision for the future achievements of mankind. Culture
may thus be conceived of as a kind of stream flowing down through the centuries from
one generation to another. Hence, some sociologists like Lition called culture the social
heritage of man. As Robert Brerstedt writes culture or the money of human race. It
becomes difficult for us to imagine what society would be like without this accumulation
of culture what lives would be without it.
6. Culture is Consistent and Interconnected
Culture, in its development has revealed tendency to be consistent. At the same time,
different parts of culture are interconnected. For example the value system of a society, a
society is closely connected with, its other aspects such as morality, religion, customs,
traditions, beliefs and so on.
7. Culture is Dynamic and Adaptive
Though culture is relatively stable, it is not altogether static. It is subject to slow but
constant change. Change and growth are latent in culture. We find amazing growth in the
present Indian culture when we compare it with the culture of the Vedic time. Hence,
culture is dynamic.
Culture is responsive to the changing conditions of the physical world. It is adaptive. It
also intervenes in the natural environment and helps man in his process of adjustment.
Just as our house shelters us from the storm, so also does our culture help us from natural
dangers and assist us to survive. Few of us indeed could survive without culture.
8. Culture is Gratifying
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Culture provides proper opportunities, and prescribes means for the satisfaction of our
needs and desires. These needs may be biological or social in nature. Our need for food,
shelter and clothing and our desire for status, name, fame and money etc are all, for
example, fulfilled according to the cultural ways. Culture determines and guides the
varied activities of man. In fact culture is defined as the process through which human
beings satisfy their wants.vii
9. Culture varies from Society to Society
Every society has a culture of its own. It differs from society to society. Culture of every
society in unique to itself. Cultures are not uniform. Cultural elements such as customs,
traditions, morals, ideals, values, ideologies, beliefs in practices, philosophies institutions,
etc. are not uniform everywhere. Ways of eating, speaking, greeting, dressing,
entertaining, living etc. of different sects differ significantly. Culture varies from time to
time also. No culture ever remains constant or changeless. If Manu were to come back to
see the Indian society today he would be bewildered to witness the vast changes that have
taken place in our culture.
10. Culture is Super Organic and Ideational
Culture is sometimes called the super organic. By super organic, Herbert Spencer meant
that culture is neither organic nor inorganic in nature but above these two. The term
implies the social meaning of physical objectives and physiological acts. The social
meaning may be independent of physiological and physical properties and characteristics.
For example, the social meaning of a national flag is not just a piece of colored cloth. The
flag represents a nation. Similarly, priests and prisoners, professors and profanation,
players, engineers and doctors, farmers and soldiers and others are not just biological
beings. They are viewed in their society differently. Their social status and role can be
understood only through culture.viii

vii isanet.ccit.arizona.edu/portlandarchive/bada.html ( last accessed on 12th August, 2013)

viii www.preservearticles.com/201102184075/define-culture-and-discuss-its-features.html (last accessed on
12th August, 2013)

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Essential Roles of Culture in Society

Man is not only a social animal but also a cultured being. Man's social life has been made
possible because of culture. Culture is something that has elevated him from the level of
animal to the heights of man. Man cannot survive as man without culture. It represents
the entire achievements of mankind. Culture has been fulfilling a number of function
among which the following may be noted.ix
1. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge
Culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical and intellectual existence
of man. Birds and animals behave instinctively with environment. But man has greater
intelligence and learning capacity. With the help of these, he has been able to adapt
himself with environment or modify it to suit his convenience. Culture has made such an
adaptation and modification possible and easier by providing man the necessary skills
and knowledge. Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation
ix www.preservearticles.com/201102214077/what-are-the-12-essential-roles-of-culture-in-society.html (last
accessed on 13th August, 2013)

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to generation through its means that is language helps not only the transmission of
knowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and diffusion. On the contrary, animals
do not have this advantage. Because culture does not exist at such human level.
2. Culture Defines Situations
Culture defines social situations for us. It not only defines but also conditions and
determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like
friends with, what work we do, what god we worship, what knowledge we rely upon,
what poetry we recite and so on.
3. Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods
Attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and work out in certain ways. Values are the
measure of goodness or desirability. Goods refer to the attainments, which our values
define as worthy. It is the culture, which conditions our attitude towards various issues
such as religion, morality, marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on. Our
values concerning private etc. are influenced by our culture. Our goals of winning the
race, understanding others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders and teachers,
being loyal to husband, being patriotic etc. are all set forth by our culture. We are being
socialized on these models.
4. Culture Decides Our Career
Whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a doctor, an engineer, a
soldier, a farmer, a professor, an industrialist; a religious leader and so on is decided by
our culture. What career we are likely to pursue is largely decided by our culture. Culture
sets limitations on our choice to select different careers. Individuals may develop, modify
or oppose the trends of their culture but they always live within its framework. Only a
few can find outlet on the culture.
5. Culture Provides Behavior Pattern

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Culture directs and confines the behavior of an individual. Culture assigns goals and
provides means for achieving them. It rewards noble works and punishes the ignoble
ones. It assigns him status. We see dream, aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy according
to the cultural expectation. Culture not only contains but also liberates human energy and
activities; Man indeed is a prisoner of his culture.
6. Culture Provides Personality
Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality. No child can get
human qualities in the absence of a cultural environment. Culture prepares man for group
life and provides him the design of living. It is the culture that provides opportunities for
the development of personality and sets limits on its growth. As Ruth Benedict has
pointed out every culture will provide its special type or types of personality.
7. Culture Makes Man a Human Being
It is culture that makes the human, a man, regulates his conduct and prepares him for
group life. It provides to him a complete design for living. It teaches him what type of
food he should take and in what mariner, how he should cover himself and behave with
his fellows, how he should speak with the people and how he should co-operate or
compete with others. An individual abstained from culture is less than human; he is what
we call feral, man. The individual to be truly human must participate in cultural stream
without it he would have been forced to find his own way, which would mean a loss of
energy in satisfying his elementary needs.
8. Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation
Secondly, culture provides man with a set of behavior even for complicated situation. It
has so thoroughly influenced that often he does not require any external force to keep
himself in conformity with the social requirements. His action becomes automatic.
Forming queues when there is rush at the booking window or driving left in the busy
streets. In the absence of culture, he should have been baffled even at the simplest
situations. He need not go through painful trial and error learning to know what food can

15

be taken without poisoning himself and fellow. His culture directs and confines his
behavior, limits his goals and measures his reward. His culture gets into his mind and
shutters vision so that he sees what is supposed to see in dream what he is expected to
dream and hunger for what he is trained to hunger.
9. Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to Certain Situation.
Through culture men gets traditional interpretation for many situations according to
which he determines his behavior. If a cat crosses his way, he postpones his journey. It
may however be noted that these traditional interpretation differ from culture to culture.
Among some culture owl is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and not a symbol of idiocy.
10. Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact
Culture has importance not only for man but also for the group. Had there been no culture
there would have been no group life. Culture is the design and the prescription for
guiding values and ideals. By regulating the behavior of the people and satisfying, the
primary drives pertaining to hunger and sex it has been able to maintain group life.
Culture has provided a number of checks upon irrational conduct and suggestibility
culture aids such as in schooling or scientific training. Lessen the chances that a man will
behave irrationally or irresponsibility. The members of group characterized though they
be by consciousness of kind, at once competing. They are held in line by constraints
prescribed by culture.
11. Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual
Culture has given a new vision to individual by providing him a set of rules for cooperation of the individuals. He thinks not only his own self but also of the others.
Culture teaches him to think himself a part of the larger whole, it provides him with the
concept of family, state, nation and class and make responsible the cooperation and
division of labor.
12. Culture Creates New Needs

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Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for example, thirst for knowledge and
arranges for the satisfaction.

Culture as a System of Norms

Since culture includes the ways in which things should be done, we say that culture is
normative, which is another way of saying that it defines standards of conduct. For
shaking hands, we extend the right hand; this is proper in our culture. For scratching our
heads we may use either hand; our culture has no norm for head scratching.
The term norm has two possible meanings. A statistical norm is a measure of what
actually exists; a cultural norm is a concept of what is expected to exist. Sometimes the
statistical norm is referred to as the real culture and the cultural norm as ideal culture.
Often people do not distinguish between the two norms. The famous Kinsey studies
sought to find some statistical norms of sexual behavior in United States. The effort
infuriated many people who confused statistical with cultural norms. A statistical norm is
a measure of actual conduct with no suggestion of approval or disapproval. A cultural
norm is a set of behavior expectations, a cultural image of how people are supposed to
act. A culture is an elaborate system of such norms- of standardized, expected ways of
feeling and acting- which the members of a society generally acknowledge and generally

17

follow. These norms are of several kinds and several degrees of compulsion, as seen in
the following classification. Most of these concepts were developed by the early
sociologist William Graham Sumner in his Folkways, published in 1906.x

Folkways
The concept of folkways is associated with the name of William Sumner who made one
of the clarifying analyses of culture and its implications. In his sociological classic
folkways he has made a notable contribution to the understanding of individual behavior.
Sumner conceived of culture in terms of folkways and mores and used the terms
folkways in a very comprehensive sense. According to him They are like products of
natural forces which men unconsciously set in operation or they are like the instinctive
ways of animals which are developed out of experience which reach a final form of
maximum adaptation to an interest which are handed down by tradition and admit of no
exception or variation yet change to meet new conditions still within the same limited
methods and without rational reflection or purpose. From this it results that all the life of
human beings in all ages and stages of culture is primarily controlled by a vast mass of
folkways handed down from the earliest existence of the race having the nature of the
ways of other animals only the top-most layers of which are subject to change and control
and have been somewhat modified by human philosophy, ethics and religion or by other
acts of intelligent reflection.
Folkways are recognized ways of behavior in a society which arise automatically within a
group to meet the problems of social living. Social life is full of problems and man seems
to have tried every possible way of dealing with such problems. Different societies have
found different workable patterns. A group through trial and error, sheer accident or some
unknown influence may arrive at one of the possibilities, repeats it and accepts it as the
normal way of behavior. It is passed on the succeeding generations and becomes one of
the ways of the group of the folk hence a folkway. According to Sumner men inherited
from their beast ancestors psycho-physical traits, instincts and dexterities or at least
predispositions which give them aid in solving the problem of food supply, sex,
x Paul B. Horton, Chester L. Hunt Sociology 57-64 ( Sixth Edition/2004)

18

commerce and vanity. The result is mass phenomena: currents of similarity, concurrence
and mutual contribution and these produce folkways. The folkways are thus the product
of frequent repetition of petty acts, often by great numbers acting in concert or at least
acting in the same way when face to face with the same needs.xi
According to Lundberg, folkways designate those uniformities in the behavior of a group
which develop relatively spontaneously and even unconsciously in adapting to common
life conditions and which become established through repetition and general occurrence.
Thus they are those unconscious collective modes of behavior that are believed to ensure
the survival and growth of the group. They include the innumerable ways of behavior
men have evolved about the business of social living. They are the customs and usages
which have been passed from old generations and to which new elements are added
according to the changing needs of times. They represent mans unique means of
adapting himself to his environment. No member of the group ever questions a folkway
nor is anyone needed to enforce a folkway.

Mores
Folkways are relative to each other: some are superior to others. If one uses the wrong
fork for one's salad it doesn't matter much but if a woman chooses anyone but her
husband to sire her child, many aspects of financial obligation, property inheritance
rights, family relationships, and sentimental linkage become disrupted.
For convenience: (1) those which should be followed as a matter of good manners and
polite behavior and (2) those which must be followed because they are believed essential
to group welfare. These ideas of right and wrong which attach to certain folkways are
then called mores. By mores we mean those strong ideas of right and wrong which
require certain acts and forbid others. (Mores is the plural of the Latin word more, but the
singular form rarely appears in sociological literature).

xi William Graham Sumner, Folkways: A study of the sociological importance of usages, manners,
customs, mores, and morals (1907)

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It is normal for members of a society to share a sublime faith that violation of their more
will bring disaster upon them. Outsiders, however, often see that at least some of the
mores are irrational.
They may include food taboos which make cattle, hogs or horses unfit to eat; modesty
taboos which forbid exposure of the face, the ankle, the wrist, the breast or whatever is
considered "immodest"; language taboos which forbid misuse of certain sacred and
obscene words; and many others.
Such taboos seem very important to those who believe in them, but may be entirely
unknown in other cultures and may have no necessary connection with group welfare. It
is not necessary that the act forbidden by the mores should actually be injurious. If people
believe that the act is injurious, it is condemned by the mores. Mores are beliefs in the
Tightness or wrongness of acts.
The irrationality of mores should not be exaggerated. Some mores are based upon a very
genuine cause and effect relationship. For example random killings would threaten group
survival and individual peace of mind, therefore every known society has condemned the
killing of the fellow member of that society.
Almost all known societies have developed an incest taboo, disapproving of sexual
intercourse between close blood relatives, presumably because they found that sexual
competition within the families was too disruptive. All mores are basically ideas which
approve of certain acts and forbid others in the belief that group welfare is being
protected. Sometimes these beliefs are groundless, but sometimes they are fully justified.
Mores are not deliberately invented or thought up or worked out because someone
decides they would be a good idea. They emerge gradually out of the customary practices
of people, largely without conscious choice or intention. Mores arise from a group belief
that a particular act seems to be harmful and must be forbidden or, conversely, that a
particular act is so necessary that it must be required.

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Originally, then, mores were practical group beliefs about group welfare. For example,
suppose that, through some coincidence, several members of a tribe have nasty accidents
after swimming in a certain pool, the tribe comes to believe that there is something
dangerous about the pool. When all members of the tribe believe that people should stay
away from the pool, the mores have defined an act as wrong.
Persons who swim in the pool thereafter are likely to expect misfortune will be
interpreted as punishment and will reinforce these mores. Before long, their origin is
forgotten and people think of a dip in this pool as being wrong in and of itself and not just
because it seems to have been followed by misfortune.
In this way, mores, which originate are practical group beliefs about the affects of actions,
are transformed into absolutes, into things which are right because they are right and
wrong because they are wrong. In other words, mores become self-validating and selfperpetuating. They become sacred. To question them is indecent and to violate them is
intolerable. Every society punishes those who violate its mores.
Mores are taught to the young not as a set of practical expedients but as a set of sacred
absolutes. They must be internalized. To internalize means to learn or accept something
so completely that it becomes an automatic unthinking part of our responses when fully
internalized mores control behavior by making it psychologically very difficult to commit
the forbidden act.

Institution
For example, we refrain from eating our enemies not because of an intellectual decision
that cannibalism is impractical or wasteful but because the idea of cannibalism is so
repellent to use and the thought of eating human flesh is sickening. Mores function by
making their violation emotionally impossible. In a society with a clearly defined and
firmly implanted set of mores, there is very little personal misconduct.
The above description of folkways and mores should prompt us to agree that some
clusters of folkways and mores are more important than others; for example those

21

concerned with forming families and raising children are more important than those
concerned with playing cricket. Organized clusters of folkways and mores dealing with
highly important activities are embodied in the social institutions of the society.
Institutions comprise of behavior, norms, values and ideals and systems of social
relationships. To define it; "An institution is an organized system of social relationships
which embodies certain common values and procedures and meets certain basic needs of
the society." In most complex societies there are five basic institutions - family, religion",
political (government), education and economic.
In modern societies science is institutionalized. Beyond these, the concept tapers off into
less significant clusters of behavior patterns like those surrounding football, hunting etc.,
which are sometimes loosely called institutions but probably should not be included
because they are so much less important.
Institutions are among the most formal and compelling of the norms of a society. When
the folkways and mores surrounding an important activity become organized into a quite
formal, binding, system of belief and behavior, an institution is said to have developed;
for example, banking, corporate enterprise, investment markets, checking accounts, and
collective bargaining are economic institutions which began with simple barter many
years ago and passed through many stages of development. (Similarly you can think of
how family or marriage as an institution has developed.) An institution thus includes:
(i) A set of behavior patterns which have become highly standardized;
(ii) A set of supporting mores, attitudes and values; and
(iii) A body of traditions, rituals and symbols.

Laws
While some mores function simply as mores, there is a strong tendency for them to
become incorporated into the laws of a society. Many people object mores automatically

22

or because they want to do the right thing. Some, however, are tempted to violate mores.
These people may be forced to conform by the threat of legal punishment.
Think of an erratic driver who is in the habit of violating traffic norms, hitting people and
driving rashly. We control the behavior of this driver through laws without which he
could have caused various injuries to people. Thus, the law serves to reinforce the mores.
Those who still do not conform are punished, imprisoned or even executed.
This discussion of law as a codified expression of the mores is a functionalist view of
law. Conflict sociologists see law as a tool of the powerful in controlling and exploiting
the powerless. They see law as a means of legitimizing exploitation. Police and courts
enforce the arrangements whereby some maintain their privileges at the expense of the
underprivileged.
Both views can be considered as correct. In any complex society, law enforces the mores
and also protects and preserves the social system in which there are always some who are
more privileged than others.

Values
Mores are ideas which indicate whether acts are right or wrong. Values are ideas about
whether experiences are important or unimportant. Value may, thus, be defined as a
conception or standard by which feelings, ideas, actions, qualities, objects, persons,
groups goals, means etc. are evaluated as desirable or undesirable, more meritorious or
less, more correct or less.
For example, there is no moral debate about whether classical music is right or wrong.
But while some people consider hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony one of life's great
experiences, for other it is a crashing bore.
People who highly value physical fitness will exercise regularly and watch their food and
drink. Values thus guide a person's judgement and behavior.

23

Values are arranged hierarchically. In each society, some values are prized more highly
than others. Punctuality, material progress, and competition are major values in American
society while none of these is important to the Hopi Indians.
The members of a simple society generally are closely agreed upon a single set of values,
while complex societies develop conflicting value system. For example, is it more
important to promote maximum economic development or to protect the environment?
Should people develop individuality or be responsive to group opinion? Is change better
than stability? Would a return to the simple life be a gain or loss? Value disagreements are
endless in complex societies, and values change from time to time.
Value shift also affects the folkways and mores. For example, the value shift toward
sexual permissiveness is changing the mores of courtship, legal decisions about
patrimony, and patterns of family life in American society. Meanwhile, the moral
majority and others are making a determined effort to restore traditional sex and family
values.
Values are an important part of every culture. An act is considered legitimate, that is,
morally acceptable when it is in harmony with accepted values. When our values defined
the admirable woman as dutiful, domestic and dependent, it was legitimate to discourage
higher education for women; now that we increasingly admire women who are selfreliant, independent and successful, higher education for women is considered legitimate
and necessary.
Note: Values' are often contrasted with 'norms'; hence it is important to have a conceptual
clarity of 'norms' while considering values. A further discussion of norms and values is
given below to clarify the matter.

Norms and Value

We, like any other culture, have a number of guidelines which direct conduct in particular
situations differently with our friends and teachers, in accordance with certain guidelines.
Such guidelines are known as norm a norm is a specific guide to action' which defines

24

acceptable and appropriate behavior, in particular situations. For example, norms of dress
provide guidelines for what to wear on particular occasions.
A formal dance, a funeral, a marriage party, a working day in office, on the building site
or in the hospital - all these situations are governed by norms which specify appropriate
attire for the occasion. Norms of dress vary from society to society. A Rajasthani lehngachunrii would be attire for special occasions like a marriage in parts of India like Bihar,
UP and Orissa. But it is a normal dress of females all over Rajasthan.
Norms are enforced by positive and negative sanctions that are rewards and punishments.
Sanction can be informal, such an approving or a disapproving glance or formal such as a
fine or a reward given by an official body.
Continuing the example of norms, of dress, an embarrassed silence, a hoot or derision or
a contemptuous stare will make most members of society who have broken norms of
derision or a contemptuous stare will make most members of society who have broken
norms of dress change into more conventional attire. Usually the threat of such negative
sanctions is sufficient to enforce normative behavior.
On the contrary, an admiring glance, a word of praise or an encouraging smile provide
rewards for conformity to social norms. Like informal sanction, formal sanction may be
positive or negative. The Supreme Court ruling that Election Commissioner should act
responsibly, speak reasonably and maintain the dignity of a constitutional body like CEC,
can be an example of negative formal sanction.
Unlike norms, which provide specific directives for conduct, values provide more general
guidelines. As explained earlier, a value is a belief that something is good and desirable.
It defines what is important, worthwhile and worth striving for. Like norms, values differ
from society to society.
For example, the Sioux Indians placed a high value on generosity. In terms of Sioux
values, the acquisitive individual of western society would at best be regarded as peculiar
and more probably would be condemned as grasping, self-seeking and anti-social.

25

Many norms can be seen as reflections of values. A variety of norms can be seen as
expressions of a single value. In western society the value placed on human life is
expressed in terms of the following norms. The norms associated with hygiene in the
home and in public places reflect a concern for human life.
Norms defining acceptable ways for settling an argument or dispute usually exclude
physical violence and manslaughter. The array of rules and regulations dealing with
transport and behavior on the highway are concerned with protecting life and limb.
Many sociologists are of the view that shared norms and values are essential for the
operation' of human society. Man's instincts are not enough; his behavior must be guided
and regulated by norms. Unless norms are shared, members of society would be unable to
cooperate or even comprehend the behavior of others.
Similar arguments apply to values. Without shared values, members of society would be
unlikely to cooperate and work together. With differing or conflicting values they would
often be pulling in different directions' and pursuing incompatible goals. Disorder and
disruption may well result. Thus an ordered and stable society requires shared norms and
values.

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Conclusion
This project sets out to illustrate the interaction of culture and social structures and
different aspects of the social norms and system. During the course of the project we
focus on the definitions of culture given by different sociologists. And hence we can say
that culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything
from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
Furthermore culture is related to human traits and the characteristics of culture and also
its essential functions are discussed, for example: how culture helps determining the
reaction of different sets of people in different circumstances.
Culture is not inherited but is learnt, it widens ones outlook. Culture also creates new
needs and new drives, for example, thirst for knowledge and arranges for the satisfaction.
Later in the project culture is considered as a normative system, and then the concept of
folkways as given by William Graham Sumner is described in brief and also the norms,
institutions, values and law are discussed. Hence we can sum it up as norms is an
umbrella term that refers to expectations for social behavior that arise out of social
27

values. There are various types of norms. Think of them on a scale from mild to severe.

The most mild are folkways. These are common rules of manners that we are expected to
use on a day-to-day basis. The punishment for violating a folkway is informal and
inconsistent. One example is not slurping soup. If you do this, you will not get formally
sanctioned. You will not get a ticket or go to jail, but peope will look at you in a certain
way

because

it

violates

common

rule

of

manners.

Mores are deeply held norms. Most, but not all, of them are codified into laws.
Punishment for the violation of a more is generally formally sanctioned and usually
consistent. For example, if you violate a more and kill someone, you will go to jail.
The most strongly held norms are taboos. These norms are so strongly held that violation
of them brings revulsion to society. Punishment is quite severe.
And thus we come to a conclusion that culture is an inseparable part of society, which
infact works as a social system in itself. To understand the ways of society one has to
study the culture of the society.

28

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Shimahara, Nobuo. Enculturation A Reconsideration Current Anthropology,

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Blau, Peter M. Structural Effects American Sociological Review, Vol. 25, No.
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Kane, Anne. Cultural Analysis in Historical Sociology: The Analytic and

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