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160 cHAPteR 6 Deviance and social control

Cultural Diversity around the World

Human Sexuality in Cross-Cultural
Perspective

uman sexuality illustrates how a group’s definition of
kenya
an act, not the act itself, determines whether it will kenya
Hbe considered deviant. Let’s look at some examples
reported by anthropologist Robert Edgerton (1976).
Norms of sexual behavior vary so widely around the world
that what is considered normal in one society may be consid-
ered deviant in another. In Kenya, a group called the Pokot
place high emphasis on sexual pleasure, and they expect Mexico
Mexico
that both a husband and wife will reach orgasm. If a husband
does not satisfy his wife, he is in trouble—especially if she
thinks that his failure is because of adultery. If this is so, the
wife and her female friends will sneak up on her husband
when he is asleep. The women will tie him up,
shout obscenities at him, beat him, and
then urinate on him. As a final gesture of by everyone in the village. The reason was not
their contempt, before releasing him they that she did not have an affair but that she told
will slaughter and eat his favorite ox. The the other wives who their husbands were sleep-
husband’s hours of painful humiliation are ing with. It is an interesting case; if this virtuous
intended to make him more dutiful con- woman had had an affair—and kept her mouth
cerning his wife’s conjugal rights. shut—she would not have become a deviant.
People can also become deviants for Clearly, real norms can conflict with ideal norms—
following their group’s ideal norms instead another illustration of the gap between ideal and
of its real norms. As with many groups, the real culture.
Zapotec Indians of Mexico profess that
sexual relations should take place exclu- For Your Consideration
sively between husband and wife. How- ↑ How do the behaviors of the Pokot wives and
ever, the Zapotec also have a covert norm, husbands mentioned here look from the perspec-
an unspoken understanding, that married tive of U.S. norms? What are those U.S. norms?
people will have affairs but that they will What norms did the Zapotec woman break? How
be discreet about them. In one Zapotec does cultural relativity apply to the Pokot and
community, the only person who did not Zapotec? (We discussed this concept in Chapter 2,
have an extramarital affair was condemned A Pokot married woman, Kenya pages 41–45.)

system of social control—formal and informal means of enforcing norms. At the center
of social control are sanctions.
Sanctions
social control a group’s formal
and informal means of enforcing its As we discussed in Chapter 2, people do not enforce folkways strictly, but they become
norms upset when people break mores (MO-rays). Expressions of disapproval for deviance,
called negative sanctions, range from frowns and gossip for breaking folkways to
negative sanction an expression
of disapproval for breaking a norm, imprisonment and death for violating mores. In general, the more seriously the group
ranging from a mild, informal reac- takes a norm, the harsher the penalty for violating it. In contrast, positive sanctions—
tion such as a frown to a formal from smiles to formal awards—are used to reward people for conforming to norms. Get-
reaction such as a fine or a prison ting a raise is a positive sanction; being fired is a negative sanction. Getting an A in Intro
sentence to Sociology is a positive sanction; getting an F is a negative one.
positive sanction an expression Most negative sanctions are informal. You might stare if you observe someone dressed
of approval for following a norm, in what you consider to be inappropriate clothing, or you might gossip if a married per-
ranging from a smile or a good son you know spends the night with someone other than his or her spouse. Whether
grade in a class to a material you consider the breaking of a norm an amusing matter that warrants no sanction or a
reward such as a prize serious infraction that does, however, depends on your perspective. Let’s suppose that