Women In Medieval Times
Norms and Values
1. Definition of norms
A social norm is a sort of rule, which has to be followed by people living in a society. There are two types of norms: moral norms and folkways. A moral norm is often written down, as laws and rules. Folkways are expected patterns of behavior, including beliefs, tradition, routines and so on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_%28sociology%29). Not following a moral norm can be punished in several ways. If a moral norm is violated, formal and informal social control will come into effect. Formal social control includes the police, security services etc (school material about formal and informal social control[see addendum]). If you behave odd in a shopping mall, kill somebody etc., they will care about it. You may get arrested, have to go to court and end up in jail. Informal social control is different. The society which norm you broke, will not accept you any longer, at least most members of it (school material about formal and informal social control[see addendum]). They can ignore you, verbally harass you or even chase you out of town. The reactions depend on what you did wrong and when it happened. Today, it is not common anymore to chase somebody out of town, nor to verbally harass him \her. That would have probably happened in the middle ages. If you have committed a crime and people know about it, they will probably avoid looking at you, scared to be the next victim. But surely it depends on the group of people either. Some teenagers might even idolize the one who broke the norm, thinking that it is cool to break the law or violate certain rules of society and not being bothered by the consequences. Informal social control can’t punish you by law and comes often into effect if someone breaks a folkway. Formal social control does not come into effect, if a folkway is broken.
Every human being becomes socialized in his\her life. Different socialization agencies, like...
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