Emile Durkheim's Violation Of Social Norms

Society is constructed by what we understand to be social norms, or the acceptable and universal behavior. However, social norms tend to be based off one’s values and vary between cultures. Emile Durkheim describes this variation of norms as being relative to time, circumstances, and culture. Durkheim’s relative theory incorporates the rational choice element of social control. In this observation, I opposed Travis Hirschi’s idea of social control theory using folkway deviance, the violation of a minor social norms with low sanctions.
On Thursday, April 26th, I decided to test my family’s reaction to the violation of a social norm. I set the table for dinner and gave my sister, mother, and father a fork, a knife, and one napkin. On the other

I ate a few with my hands, dipping them into my soup. I could see relief in my mother’s eyes when I finally did something “normal”. Once I finished the crackers I was given, my mother asked if I wanted more since I was finally getting soup into my mouth. I told her no, and tried my hand at drinking the soup out of the bowl. They thought this was weird too because my sister asked, “why don’t you just get a spoon” and my mother said, “who drinks soup”. I eventually finished my soup and cleared the table, just as I had done the night before.
My sister, mother, and father appeared to see my actions at dinner as deviance. They probably saw my actions as irrational and odd when it came to eating my dinner, and saw my table setting for the first night as strange but acceptable. The easy and normal way to do something was challenged, which makes people question if a person is in their right mind. Since it was my family, they were quicker to accept my actions as just being quirky. However, if it had been in public with people I did not know as well, it would have much more quickly turned into a me vs them scenario because I was not acting

My observation demonstrated this idea. Since my deviance was in front of my family, it was easier for me to act outside of my normal personality. If it had been in a public setting, my deviance might have been even more difficult to do. This is proof of how Durkheim emphasized that deviance is relative to time, circumstance, or culture. The action of eating my dinner was easier to change because of my circumstance. Deviance can vary depending on who an individual is around. In my circumstance, my actions turned into humor because I was around my family. If I were to perform in a public place, it could have resulted in true surprise and shock from others. Also, often in public situations, people tend to ignore odd things going around them and not react