The concept of Crescive institutions and Enacted Institutions
Sumner put forward this theory of folkways and mores
He says in any given culture.. customs, morals, beliefs and practices of a culture over a period of time develop into folkways and mores ( means something like morals which are acceptable to society or social group and they aren't necessarily written )
And then there are crescive and enacted institutions :Crescive institutions are unintentional social institutions which grew out of the mores and folkways of the people examples being marriage, accepted social behaviour, religion etc... where asEnacted Institutions are social institutions that are deliberately set up to achieve certain goals. Examples - Age of marriage, Dowry prohibition laws etc
Here comes the beauty of his theory
"He says that when enacted institutions are in line with crescive institutions more will be the success of enacted laws"
Observations in real life :
I never understood the case of high incidences of rape cases in India despite most stringent laws in our country. It's like almost they never act as deterrent because we have crescive institutions ( such as customs, traditions ) which promote male supremacy in society.
Since childhood and through socialisation -> special preference for male child, performing last rites by religion, second hand treatment to daughters, male worshiping (In Kadavacho festival women fast for husband where as there are no rituals of men to fast for women ) all these subconsciously and unconsciously made men believe that they have supreme authority over women. And whenever these notions are disturbed in the minds of men either by society or women empowerment they go out of control and perform unexplainable acts of violence and rapes. This means acceptance and success of any laws depends on how sync both crescive and enacted institutions are.
This holds true not just for rapes but for most things that happen in the society.
This totally blew my mind :)
