custom, habitual group pattern of behavior that is transmitted from one generation to another and is not biologically determined. Since societies are perpetually changing, no matter how slowly, all customs are basically impermanent. If short-lived, they are more properly called fashions. Customs form the core of human culture culture, in anthropology, the integrated system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society. Cultural differences distinguish societies from one another.
..... Click the link for more information. and are stronger and more persistent in preindustrial societies than in industrial ones, in rural than in urban areas. When formalized in the social or religious sphere it leads to ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a
..... Click the link for more information. , and when enforced in the sphere of rights and duties, custom leads to law law, rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of conduct.
..... Click the link for more information. . See folkways folkways, term coined by William Graham Sumner in his treatise Folkways (1906) to denote those group habits that are common to a society or culture and are usually called customs .
..... Click the link for more information. ; mores mores (môr`āz), concept developed by William Graham Sumner to designate those folkways that if violated, result in extreme
..... Click the link for more information. .

custom

In law, long-established practice common to many or to a particular place or institution and generally recognized as having the force of law. In England during the Anglo-Saxon period, local customs formed most laws affecting family rights, ownership and inheritance, contracts, and violence between individuals. The Norman conquerors granted the validity of customary law, adapting it to their feudal system. In the 13th and 14th centuries, English law was given statutory authority under the crown, making the “customs of the realm” England's common law. See also culture; folklore; myth; taboo.

custom

a. a practice which by long-established usage has come to have the force of law

b. such practices collectively (esp in the phrase custom and practice)

2. habitual patronage, esp of a shop or business

3. the customers of a shop or business collectively

4. (in feudal Europe) a tribute paid by a vassal to his lord

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