The Folkways and Social Control

Abstract

FAVORITE question which J. E. Hagerty used to ask his graduate students at Ohio State University was: How could the man who wrote What Social Classes Owe To One Another be a good sociologist? Graduate students who were ready for anything on the Folkways frequently found this question embarrassing. It is also true that most sociologists have not paid much attention to the ramifications of Sumner's philosophical and economic essays, his political activities, or to the ideological ancestry and implications of the Folkways. A good instance of this is the recent effort of Hollingshead to clarify the concept of social control.' In his opening statements, Hollingshead says that the idea of social control stems from Comte, the term itself coming from Small and Vincent who probably got it from Ward. Then, with nice academic equipoise, he asserts: For some strange reason, Sumner's fundamental position that an understanding of social behavior must be sought in usages, mores and institutions of society has more or less escaped the attention of those interested in the problem of social control.2 Subsequent paragraphs reiterate his thesis that the essence of social control must be sought in the organization of a people, the simplest element of which is the usage-value unit, such as a folkway.3 Students of Comte and Ward will be surprised to see these men formally bracketed with Sumner as originators of the idea of social control. Even a superficial examination of the literature raises serious doubt of the validity of Hollingshead's assertion that the folkways, mores, and social organization have been slighted in the discussion of social control. Eubank's exhaustive analysis of definitions pretty thoroughly demonstrates that most sociologists tend to throw fads, fashions, folkways, mores, public opinion, and institutions into the catch-all concept of social control.4 The present writer in ten minutes found seven texts in which folkways, mores, laws, institutions and other group usages were made the foci for the discussion of social control.5 No one can examine carefully Sumner's Folkways, What Social Classes