Greg Mortenson's Essay: The Origins Of Modern Life

One example of a social norm would be the expectation that women wear clothes from the women’s section and men wear clothes from the men’s section. If someone doesn’t dress in clothing from the section that people believe they should, their labeled a crossdresser. Crossdressing can receive various reactions from different people. Some people just stare when they realize someone is crossdressing while some people feel the need to actually address it. Men typically will receive much more hateful reactions when they cross dress and have sometimes even been physically assaulted over it. Religious groups can also be shaming towards people who chose to cross dress because they believe it’s sinful. Parents of children caught crossdressing might yell

It does not matter where we are at, there are always going to be different norms occurring. Social norms govern how we behave in our society and influences us even more on our behavior. It lets other people view how social norms work and how and when they can be broken and with whom its broken with. A social norm can be seen broken anywhere and sometimes you have to break a norm yourself in order to see and understand how social norms can affect our society.

As a culture, we are told how to act, think, and speak among other things. We are taught to do what is considered "right" and if we

“The norms of our culture are most often invisible until they are violated.” (Sensoy and DiAngelo, p

As society we have never given much thought as to how we function to how society . This statement is not only true on a macro level, such as how our government functions along with other aspects of society but also as individuals. Furthermore, we as individuals rarely stop to think about the reasons we have to react the way we do in certain situations. It can be almost guaranteed that we react in these ways because of norms. Norms can be defined as “expectations of right behavior”(Henslin 2015). Norms such as these can be shaped by society, government or culture. These norms can also bring along norm violations such as folkways, mores and sanctions. However very few times do we acknowledge how much these norms inflict in our lives. However, this

We, the entirety of the human race, have evolved from a time of primal instinct and brutal, savage tendencies, into a fully functioning civilization complete with a plethora of societal expectations to be met paired with a clear set of consequences that correlate with any actions taken outside of these accepted expectations. We no longer accept behaviors that we deem to be uncivilized or against our moral codes of conduct. We exist in this particular type of system for a reason; we have led ourselves away from the times of ruthless, non restrictive behavior and transformed ourselves into civilized, intelligent beings who have the ability to reason. We are able to conform to this behavior because of our system that we have set in place; the

Every culture has taboos, a cultural standard of shared values and appropriate practices. They can cover behavior, clothing choice, food, sexual activity, even social perception. These cultural rules ensure a cohesive environment where nobody feels uneasy about the actions of others. Yet, some taboos get challenged through individuals rebelling or using the breaking of a taboo to establish dominance, or another social group disregarding another cultures taboo even though it could lead to social punishment.

When people must interact in a public space, there are certain actions that are frowned upon and taught against from an early age. These unacceptable actions can be referred to as taboos. The word ‘taboo’ refers to something that is prohibited or restricted by social custom. Since the parameters of a taboo involve social custom, they differ from one society to the next. This essay will focus on taboos present in Western society. Three texts that discuss types of taboos in Western society will be referenced in this essay. Anatomy of Disgust by William Ian Miller discusses the taboos that make many people revolted and uncomfortable, and why. “Territories of Self” by Erving Goffman covers the reasons why we act the way we do in public. Thirdly, Sophie Watson’s “The Disenchantments of Urban Encounters” reveals the reasoning behind ones’ actions in public versus private spaces. These works all discuss the different types of human taboos and what makes them inappropriate, but fail to differentiate which are substantial enough to cause humanity to falter, and which are trivial enough to not offend all people. Theorists have focused on "serious" taboos such as abuse and unlawfulness, and have dismissed lesser versions as merely clashing behavior amongst different cultures. I will argue, however, that these milder insignificant taboos are

During our lecture, it was stated, “ The norms we develop for the sake of practice are justified only to the degree that they solve the problems we presently face.” “If that doesn’t work, we have social reconstruction to make it better.” Within the American, and German sociological traditions, how are norms developed, upon which grounds is a norm considered socially and morally acceptable? Do people obey norms because what they consider a norm makes the society a “good society”. George Herbert Mead for the American Tradition, believing in adapting, and Max Weber for the German

Within traditional societies there are certain concepts that we deem as inappropriate or negative. These things we negatively sanction and the level of sanction is dependent upon the different level of violation. These guiding rules are called folkways, mores, taboo, and sometimes laws. These serve as guiding paths for which people attempt to follow. Each of these are sanctioned in different ways and are commonly expected to be followed. One important thing to remember is that many things are found to be based around a bell shape curve known as a normal distribution. There is the average but there are always people that deviate from the average. This is where we find these norms broken.

In our daily lives we come across different situations and different norm violations. We are programmed by society to act a certain way in different situations and environments. We come across many different people each day, and that is when the norm Folkways plays a role in some of our daily lives, since Folkways are routines or casual interactions with people around us. Whether if it is by not saying bless you to the person that sneezed, or not helping

Society arranges these standard norms to reflect their core values. As a whole, members intend to not violate them on a constant basis. I observed violation happen more often than what I anticipated and I realized how assimilated I am to the norms. For example, my first observation was at my non-denominational church. From

Norms range from religious warnings such as “thou shalt not steal” to the expectation that young people will complete their high school education (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). Sometimes the origins of particular norms are clear. For example, a norm like women should wear skirts and man should not wear skirts is clear. Norm are classified into three categories, namely, folkways, mores, and laws (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). These three categories are based on how important the norms are in the society and people’s response to the violation of those norms (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). Folkways are “customs or desirable behaviors, but they are not strictly enforced” (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). An example would be responding appropriately and politely when introduced to someone, speaking quietly when entering the library and closing your mouth when you cough. Violating these norms makes people think that you are weird or rude but not necessarily a criminal. Mores on the other hand are norms that most members observe because they have great moral significance in a society (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). Ballentine and Roberts (2015:85). State that conforming to mores is a matter of right or wrong, and violations of many mores are treated very seriously (Ballentine & Roberts, 2015:85). An individual who violates many mores is considered immoral

A common rule is that the some norms must frequently be displayed; neutrality is seldom an option.” These rules and codes weave themselves throughout the fabric of society. Many of the norms are accepted as second nature and not openly acknowledged until violated. Usually the violator is an outsider to that social group and is most likely unfamiliar with the norm they violated. The group will most likely inform the violator of the accepted norm of the group, and the violator will have to alter their behavior to once again reach harmony with the group.

Society has built a foundation and standards in order to be proper in public. Within those societies shows how each and every member should behave and also how not to behave. Norms are the guidelines and standards for society. There are different norms in each societies and also different within groups. Heslin (2015) wrote, “…values are the standards by which people define what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly”. The values that people hold are different in countries which have different norms. For instance, we have to behave respectfully at someone’s funeral versus the way we act at birthday parties. From society there are norms that strictly followed and then there are where it is less strict. The traditional norms or the way of life of certain community or group of people are titled as folkways; those norms can be broken and have less risk of severe punishments. The norms that are more enforced are mores, which has values and can be faced punishment when it’s violated. To be able to keep up with norms, society has positive and negative sanctions to determine the behavior is appropriate or not.