SOCIAL HEKEDITV 185 



f From earliest, times mores have been inculcated an<l 

 taught. It has ever been one of the chief functions of 

 education of the young to perpetuate the mores of the 

 group.^^ Tl^' mores were familiar forms associated with 

 group safety^ Tlie chief object of the brutally conducted 

 initiation ceremonies of the natives of southeast Aus- 

 tiidia is to impress ui)on the boy tlie importance of the 

 ti-ibai traditions.-"* hi piimitive society children are con- 

 stantly exhorted to follow the examph^of Iheir parents 

 in following the usages of the groui).-'^ indeed, we nmst 

 ''not forget that the immemorial device of stationary 

 societies to preserve their ancient ordei- has l)eeii lo steep 

 the young in certain traditional wisdom."-- The Insti- 

 tutes of ]\Ianu preserve the religious mores of the Hindoo. 

 The ( Miinese Li-Ki, or Book of Kites, of the Confucian 

 text, illustrates the etfort to preserve moresP Here, 

 from th(^ rinsing of the mouth to the adjustment of one's 

 leggings and shoe-strings, all acts are to be regulated 

 in strict accordance with usage. Suetonius writes of the 

 customary education of the lioman youth and tinds fault 

 with the new discii)line of the Latin Ehetoricians which 

 interfered with the customary instruction approved by 

 "our ancestors."-' Narrow and restricted religious 

 mores were inculcated by the educational systems of the 

 Middle Ages.^^ At the ])resent time the content of the 

 elementary school curricula of modern nations is largely 

 one of traditional subjects.^^ 



The perpetuation of this social heritage of folkways \ 



19 Cliapiii. op. cif., cli. iii. 



-ollowitt. A. W.—Tltr \alirc Trihrs of Soiillicast AiistrdUd, y\<. .'):i0-542. 

 21 Boas, op. oit., p. 224. 

 -2 Ross, E. A. — Social Control, ]t. ICi."). 



-3 Suetonius, The Litres of Kminvut Nhetoricians, pj). 524-525, Thomson 

 trans. -* Chapin, op. cit., p. 5G. -'-> Ihid., cli. v. 



