Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals [Paperback]

William Graham Sumner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2002

This century-old classic of sociology offers thousands of illustrations of the social, sexual, and religious customs of ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, Australia, Melanesia, Japan, China, India, as well as medieval Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and modern Western civilization in Europe and America. Subjects include labor, wealth, slavery, cannibalism, marriage, education, and many other absorbing topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 702 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (September 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486424960
• ISBN-13: 978-0486424965
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,487,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the Fundemental Book for understanding Culture, December 2, 2003

By 

A. Allinger (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals (Paperback)

The Folkways is the first and most comprehensive study of how human culture is subject to Darwinian evolution. He traces the history of the world, and how humans have crafted customs ("folkways") in the struggle for survival. Fit customs survive and are adopted by foreign societies; weak customs are abandoned or those who practice them are annihilated.

Before Bloom, Dawkins, L. Tiger, E.O. Wilson, before sociobiology or evolutionary psychology or any other of those academic faddish studies, there was Sumner, and his work is still about the best: he has less need to try to seem controversial or amazing or new. The book was not intended to impress the public. It is written as a text book, in paragraph and chapter divisions, and its tone throughout is serious and not sensational.

The main virtue of his work of course, is that his theories are correct. His main premise is laid out in the main chapter: that humans are in a conflicted state of "antagonistic cooperation" and that culture is evolved through both rational selection (choosing) and natural selection (perishing). Furthermore, all notions of morality, of right and wrong, can be traced back through this evolution. The following chapters consider the history of hunting, slavery, polygamy, the Inquistion, and many other customs both wholesome and unsavory. He proposes those which are thought "wrong" now have been tried and found unsatisfactory for the survival of the society, and not because of any abstract ideal of Ethics. He defends a completely materialist view.

Sumner was a Yale professor and an elitist. Regardless, he presents foreign cultures with scientific detachment. Anyone with a serious interest in human society or history should read this book as a starting point.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this Book Free on the Gutenberg Project, March 13, 2008

By 

L R E - See all my reviews

This review is from: FOLKWAYS: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals (Paperback)

Good book, especially as a supplemental to sociological studies. If you want to save some money though, this book is part of the Gutenberg project. The link is: <http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24253> where there are different formats depending on your preference.