Lecture 3: Social Norms

Social norms

behavior and attitude that are normal in a society

Survivors of Flight 227

• Had to break social norms in order to survive

• To cope, created new rules on:

  • Who to and who not to eat (no women or children)

  • How to prepare food(magnifying glass)

  • How much to eat(ration, more if went for help)

  • What parts to eat

• New rules → New meanings

  • “bodies” == “meat”

Explaining Behavior (in Yanomamo)

Different Social Norms From US

• Food sharing/reciprocity

  • Author did not anything form the tribe, but the tribe would demand he give something back.

• Privacy/No Privacy

  • No expectation if privacy in the tribe, different than USA

• Hygiene

  • Hard for author to maintain hygiene

• Solution to Theft

  • Unless you were aggressive and violent, people would never stop stealing

• Violence

  • Violence accepted/respected (e.g. wife beating)

• Name Taboo

  • Cannot speak name of high status or the dead

Status

Your social position, where we “fit” in society

• Determines our relationships to others

• Often arranged in hierarchy, stratified

Two Types of Status

Ascribed - Assigned to an individual at birth

• Ex/ race, birth order, age

Achieved - status we earn/choose

• college student, employee, friend, manager

Status Symbol

Artifacts or symbols that reveal things about your status

• Ex/ flags, cars, diplomas

Status Set

The state of all statuses. Likely similar to your friends but different from the president

Master Status

The one status that stands out and becomes the dominant one that is most referred to. Usually occupation in modern society

Status Inconsistency

Statuses that seem not compatible/irregular with each other

Ex/ male nurse

Roles

The behavior expected of a particular status

• Tell us about right/obligations attached to a status

  • “Script for playing a part”

Status-role distinction

you occupy a status, you play a role

Roles & Culture/Environment

The same status may have different roles in different cultures/environments

Role Strain

your roles within one status conflict with each other

Ex/ You are professor, you have a class to teach, do research, and are on the hiring board. You may have a class to teach at the same time that you are meant to teach a class. 

Role Conflict

your different status have roles that conflict with each other.

Ex/ Your boss call you to come in, the next day out have a final, and you have to visit your friend in the hospital