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In your society, how do you show courtesy when greeting your elders? Do you prostrate? Do you bend to be tapped at your back? Do you give handshake with two hands? Do you look at them eye to eye or do you look at intervals? If your answers to these questions are in affirmation, then you are observing your cultural norms. What is cultural norm?Cultural norms are basic principles and standards that influence how people in a given society think, say, and act. It can also be defined as unwritten guidelines engraved in the heart of people on a particular society that shape their attitude and keep them in order. Cultural norms are inherent. That is they are passed from one generation to another. Parents pass it to their kids and the cycle continues from generation to generation.
Cultural norm are classified into four, namely:
Taboo
Folkways
Mores
Laws
Taboos are words or action forbidden by a society. Using my community as a case study, it is a taboo for a married woman to cheat. It is also a taboo for a woman to set up or goes to a shrine without a male counterpart accompanying her. It is a taboo for a woman to go close to or wear a masquerade and it is a taboo to commit suicide, so on. It is said that Anybody that commits taboo has attracted serious punishment to him and sometimes to the entire family which will result in appeasing the gods.
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What about folkways?Folkways center on morality. It explains why and how people in a given society should act in different situations. It explains right vs rude. It explains why a child should not disobey parents and elders. It also explains why a minor should stand up for an elder to sit. It explains why a child should not look eye to eye when speaking to elders and so on. Folkways is also associated to societal folktales to teach certain lessons and to demonstrate punishment that comes with certain misbehaviors. Mores and laws are closely related. Mores are written rules and regulations that distinguishes moral and immoral behavior while laws establish written punishments for offenses. For example, murder is bad, and law states any one who murder will face the law. In Nigeria, the punishment for murder is life in prison or death sentence in some cases . Yet there are other consequences in case the murder is released. Cultural norms also include societal ethics on dress code and grooming, etiquette, and table. Though the media may try to influence cultural norms by reinforcing them or changing them, cultural norms has proven to exhibit a binding effect to avoid societal chaos and lack of orderliness. This is mayinleo.
Photocredit: all pictures are from pixabay
