Normative Aspects of Culture

The normative dimension of culture consists of the rules that guide how people are expected to behave in a given context -- folkways, mores, customs, conventions and, at the most formal end, laws. Most of the time we follow these rules not because we consciously choose to each time, but because socialisation has made them habitual; and every social norm carries some sanction, formal or informal, that pushes people back towards conformity when they stray. A useful distinction here is between norms, which are largely implicit, and laws, which are made explicit.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu pointed to a subtlety worth remembering when trying to understand another culture's norms: much of what governs behaviour is never stated outright. His example was the timing of returning a favour -- if you receive a gift and reciprocate too quickly, it can look less like an expression of gratitude and more like an attempt to cancel a debt, even though no rule anywhere says exactly how long to wait. A law, by contrast, is an explicit rule laid down by the authority of the state, binding on everyone within its jurisdiction, with defined penalties for breaking it. If your household forbids children from staying out after sundown, that is a norm -- specific to your family, and not binding on anyone else's. But stealing someone else's property violates a law that the whole of society is expected to respect, and can lead to trial and punishment regardless of which family you belong to. …