Sociology involves the study of human society, how it came about, its structure and how these people function. There numerous aspects that one needs to know before they can consider themselves conversant with the origin of how people behave and how they relate to other. Culture is the integrated knowledge and beliefs learned and passed down for generations to come, (O’Mara). Norms, on the other hand, are the standards that control a group by demanding acceptable behaviour, (Merton). Mores are customs belonging to an individual society and do not often change (Stirling). Folkways is also another term that one needs to know when we talk about social norms. Folkways, therefore, mean the informal norms that a society presents when they interact with others and are developed over time, (Sumner). For evaluation of these qualities, therefore, it is important to go to the field and interact with people of different cultures to appreciate diversity. Also, facing interactions give one the opportunity to compare and contrast cultures and, therefore, gain an in-depth understanding of those cultures. However, time due to several cultures and practices one often goes overboard and seem to collide with other people of different cultures. This may bring about various reactions from people of different cultures. For example, some react verbally, but some may display their reactions facially or by making protesting sound in case they find you not respecting their folkways. Some, on the other hand, will be only amazed at your ignorance. My choice is to dress in a manner most likely to displease my subjects. There is also display of different acts in the elevator, like greeting everyone and giving them snacks. And finally display an abnormal eating act, eating with my arms as opposed to cutlery in the cafeteria.
Often breaking of folkways brings a lot of unwanted attention as most people find such acts peculiar. On my first act, I decided to dress as people dress during Halloween in October and walk around campus. Since it was not October, I expected much reaction from my subjects. My first subject was a young girl of American descent. I also chose a young African man who was on scholarship and had never experienced Halloween in America before. My last subject was a male lecturer with the Latino-American background. In my Grimm costume, I passed by the young American lady, and I was amazed at how shocked she was and almost took off. She could not comprehend why someone would wear a costume this time of the year. From her reaction, I could tell she took me for a misplaced student on the campus grounds. Onto my next subject, the African student showed no reaction of shock at all, in fact, he was amazed at how I was dressed and even gave me a compliment. My take is that he had never been to a Halloween party and he did not see any problem with the outfit. The lecturer, on the other hand, took no interest at whatever I was wearing and my being in the university’s premises he actually though he could expect to see anything. This to him was another typical day at work.
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Onto my next task, this was entering an elevator smiling, offer my greetings to everyone then take my position right in the middle of the elevator. I would open my packets of chips and offer to anyone interested. This time I chose to put to the test a child of American Descent, an elderly woman and also a lady of the African-American race. These subjects responded positively towards my greeting, and I could detect anxiety save for the child. I opened my chips, took some then offered each separately. The child took the chips with a smile on her face, happy perhaps. Also, the elderly woman took some and I could see she took it out of politeness and amazement. The young lady, on the other hand, declined to take some perhaps due to her belief of not accepting free gifts from strangers.
My final act was to enter the cafeteria with everyone seated and partaking of their meals; I would head to the washrooms, clean my hands and use them to eat. I chose to the observer an elderly lecturer, a young white British lady and a young white American man as well. When I started eating the young white British lady stood and changed her table and sat away from where I was seated. Based on the folkways back at her country this was inappropriate. The lecturer and the young man, however, maintained their positions but kept occasionally gazing in my direction. This proved to be a way not normal to that click of cultures. This behavior, however, could be perceived differently in other cultures.
The breaking of folkways always proves to receive mixed reactions from people of different cultures. My intention was met with people reacting exactly as I would have expected them to. Though some of the acts revealed not in any way effective to other groups of people. I learned a lot from experience, elderly people tend to appreciate kindness and reciprocate too for instance. Children, on the other hand, are oblivious to the dangers of interacting with strangers and tend to see the goodness in everyone. My surprise came when the African young man on following up expressed his ignorance on the existence of such cultures in the United States as Halloween. Depending on the reaction of people we interact with. Therefore, we can choose to conform or let others conform to our behaviors. Positive sanction, for instance, was when I offered kindness to the people in the elevator, and they responded in return. Negative sanction might make us conform, for instance eating with bare hands in a restaurant may be uncomfortable for some people based on their norms and folkways. This would lead to conformity on my part in that scenario to portray American folkway. Therefore social norms govern our Day to day interaction with other people in the society, and it is upon us to conform by putting to practice cultural relativism.
Reference
Lohman, J. (2017). South Italian Folkways in Europe and America. Phyllis H. Williams: American Journal of Sociology: Vol 45, No 4 . Journals.uchicago.edu . Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/218427
Mueller, J. (2017). Methods of Measurement of Aesthetic Folkways: American Journal of Sociology: Vol 51, No 4 . Journals.uchicago.edu . Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/219811
Putt, G. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me . Peopleof.oureverydaylife.com . Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://peopleof.oureverydaylife.com/ideas-violating-folkways-9097.html
