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Search - Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals

Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages Manners Customs Mores and Morals
Author: William Graham Sumner

A STUDY OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF USAGES, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, MORES, AND MORALSBYWILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNERPROFESSOR OF POLITICAL AND .SOCIAL SCIENCE IN YALE UNIVERSITYIn 1899 I began to write out a textbook of sociology frommaterial which I had used in lectures during the previous ten orfifteen years. At a certain point in that undertaking I f... more »ound thatI wanted to introduce my own treatment of the mores. I couldnot refer to it anywhere in print, and I could not do justice to itin a chapter of another book. I therefore turned aside to writea treatise on the Folk ways, which I now offer. For definitionsof folkways and mores see sees, i, 2, 34, 39, 43, and 66.I formed the word folkways on the analogy of words already inuse in sociology. I also took up again the Latin word moresas the best I could find for my purpose. I mean by it the popularusages and traditions, when they include a judgment that they areconducive to societal welfare, and when they exert a coercion onthe individual to conform to them, although they are not coordinated by any authority cf. sec. 42. I have also tried to bring theword Ethos into familiarity again sees. 76, 79. Ethica, orEthology, or The Mores seemed good titles for the booksees. 42, 43, but Ethics is already employed otherwise, and theother words were very,unfamiliar. Perhaps folkways is notless unfamiliar, but its meaning is more obvious. I must add thatif any one is liable to be shocked by any folkways, he ought not toread about folkways at all. Nature her custom holds, let shamesay what it will Hamlet, IV, 7, ad fin.. I have tried to treatall folkways, including those which are most opposite to our own,with truthfulness, but with dignity and due respect to our ownconventions.Chapter I contains elaborate definitions and expositions of thefolkways and the mores, with an analysis of their play in humansociety. Chapter II shows the bearing of the folkways on humaninterests, and the way in which they act or are acted on. Thethesis which is expounded in these two chapters is: that the folkways are habits of the individual and customs of the society whicharise from efforts to satisfy needs they are intertwined with goblinism and demonism and primitive notions of luck sec. 6, andso thev win traditional authority. Then they become regulative forsucceeding generations and take on the character of a social force.They arise no one knows whence or how. They grow as if by theplay of internal life energy. They can be modified, but only to alimited extent, by the purposeful efforts of men. In time theylose power, decline, and die, or are transformed. While they arein vigor they very largely control individual and social undertakings, and they produce and nourish ideas of world philosophy andlife policy. Yet they are not organic or material. They belong toa superorganic system of relations, conventions, and institutionalarrangements. The study of them is called for by their socialcharacter, by virtue of which they are leading factors in thescience of society.

ISBN-13: 9781143908187
ISBN-10: 114390818X
Publication Date: 2/16/2010
Pages: 706
Edition: Large type edition
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Nabu Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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Search - Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals

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