what is a folkway

Folkways are customs or conventions of daily life that provide a traditional mode of conduct for a social group. They are a type of social norm that determines what is considered acceptable or unacceptable behavior within a given culture. Folkways are created through interaction and are organized through routine, repetition, habit, and consistency. They are spread through imitation, oral means, or observation and encompass the material, spiritual, and verbal aspects of culture. Folkways meet the problems of social life, and their acceptance and application provide security and order. Examples of folkways include customary behavior for the use of the telephone, etiquette, politeness, and other conventional aspects of custom. Folkways operate primarily at an unconscious level and persist because they are expedient. They tend to group themselves around major social concerns, such as sex, forming social institutions like the family. Folkways become more arbitrary, positive, and compelling over time, and some of them become mores when they become ethical principles that are essential to the welfare of society. Mores are more coercive than folkways, and severe disapproval or punishment follows the breaking of mores.