Of course, there are many other reasons democracy has a difficult time succeeding in some countries. Among other things, before democracy can be established, people need to have enough to eat, to feel safe, to be able to get an education, and to trust the government. Unfortunately, many, if not all, of these needs are not being met in many parts of the world.
Have you ever deliberately broken a social norm? Some of the passengers on this New York City subway are participating in an annual “No-Pants Subway Ride” event.
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Norms
Based on values, norms are the informal rules that guide what people do and how they live. Norms tell us what we should and should not do in a given situation. Many norms are informal. That is, they are not formally codified, not written down in any one place. Laws are norms that have been codified. They are written down and formally enforced through institutions such as the state. Rules prohibiting speaking and texting on handheld cell phones while driving are examples of how informal norms can come to be codified into laws.
You are expected to follow norms and obey laws, but the consequences of failing to do so are usually very different in the two cases. If you violate the law against homicide, you can expect to be arrested, incarcerated, and perhaps even executed. But if you fail to follow the norm of using utensils to eat your dinner and use your fingers instead, you can expect merely a few raised eyebrows and a tsk-tsk or two from your dinner companions. However, reactions to violating norms are not always so gentle. For example, a gang member’s violation of a norm against fleeing a fight with another gang may lead to physical violence, death, and other not-so-subtle outcomes.
Norms are reinforced through sanctions, which can take the form of punishments (negative sanctions) or rewards (positive sanctions). In general, when norms have been violated, punishments are used, while rewards are employed when norms have been followed. For example, dinner companions might frown when you eat with your hands and grin approvingly when you use the right utensil. Gang members would be likely to disapprove of those who flee and approve of those who stay and fight. In other words, sanctions may be applied when norms are observed as well as when they are violated. Sometimes either positive or negative sanctions are enough to enforce norms. However, enforcement is generally more effective when positive and negative sanctions are used in tandem—when both the “carrot” (reward) and the “stick” (punishment) are applied. Most people follow norms primarily because sanctions are associated with them.
Ask Yourself
What norms are operating in your classroom, dorm, or apartment? What negative sanctions have you observed when these norms have been violated?
Not all norms are the same, are equally important, or carry with them the same penalties if violated. On the one hand, there are folkways, or relatively unimportant norms. Whether they are observed or violated, they carry with them few if any sanctions (Sumner [1906] 1940). Not intruding on the space of the passenger sitting next to you on a plane is an example of a folkway.
In contrast, mores (pronounced MOR-ays) are more important norms whose violation is likely to be met with severe negative sanctions. Airplane passengers who are belligerent toward other passengers or crew members are violating mores and may be forcibly ejected from the plane. Although a clear distinction is often made between folkways and mores, in fact they exist along a continuum; it is often hard to distinguish where folkways end and mores begin.
Sharing an armrest on a train can be a fraught experience. How do you react if someone violates what you see as an established social norm?
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Material Culture
Values and norms exist within the realm of ideas (see the following section for a related definition and discussion of symbolic, or nonmaterial, culture). However, culture also takes material—that is, tangible—forms. Material culture encompasses all the artifacts, the “stuff,” in which culture is reflected or manifested. A wide range of things can be included under the heading of material culture, including this book, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in, our computers and smartphones, the toys children play with, and even the weapons used by our military.
Culture shapes such objects. For instance, the value that Americans place on economic prosperity is reflected in such material objects as games like Monopoly. This game was first patented in the mid-1930s, and its icon is a well-dressed, economically successful tycoon with a monocle. The goal of the game is to accumulate the most property and money. There are now also nonmaterial games (such as Fortnite and Pokémon Go) that are not only enjoyed by millions of people online but are also played by thousands in material sports arenas for millions of dollars in real and material prize money (Wingfield 2014b, 2014c).
Material culture also shapes the larger culture in various ways. For example, when playing Monopoly, children are learning about, helping support, and furthering a culture that values wealth and material success. To take a different example, the centuries-old American value of individual freedom and individualism has been greatly enhanced by the widespread adoption of such material objects as the automobile, the single-family home, and the smartphone. The last, for example, gives us highly individualized and mobile access to the vast world available on the phone and the internet.
Symbolic Culture and Language
Symbolic culture includes the nonmaterial, intangible aspects of culture. In fact, we have already discussed two key forms of symbolic culture—values and norms. However, there is no clear line between material and nonmaterial culture. Most, if not all, material phenomena have symbolic aspects, and various aspects of symbolic culture are manifest in material objects. Our symbolic culture is manifest when we buy American-made rather than Japanese or Korean automobiles in a show of patriotism, purchase the latest iPhone as soon as it is released to denote our technological sophistication, or choose cloth diapers over disposables as a symbol of our commitment to “green” parenting.
One important aspect of symbolic culture is language, a set of meaningful symbols that enables communication. Language, especially in its written form, allows for the storage and development of culture. Cultures with largely oral traditions do manage to accumulate culture and transmit it from one generation or group to another, but written language is a far more effective way of retaining and expanding on a culture.
Perhaps more important, language facilitates communication within a culture. Our words reflect the way in which we think about and see the world. They also shape and influence culture. Suppose a time traveler from the 1950s arrived at a modern-day supermarket to buy something to eat for breakfast. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, with its sprinkling of sugar, was a noteworthy innovation in the 1950s. However, our time traveler would be bewildered by cereals with brand names such as Froot Loops, Fruity Pebbles, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Lucky Charms, and so on. The exotic and varied cereals we have now would be considered a marvel by someone from the 1950s. The point, however, is that having names for many kinds of cereals allows consumers to make much finer distinctions about breakfast and to communicate more precisely what it is they wish to eat.
The contemporary world has given us a wealth of new words. For example, in the world of social networking, Twitter has given us the word hashtag to describe a label that helps us in searching tweets. The term trolls refers to those who seek to instigate arguments on social media forums.