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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Anthropology > Conflict Containment and Resolution

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Boundaries of acceptable social behaviour that are institutionalised are called laws; those that are informal are called norms. Norms and laws protect the social order, without which societies could not exist. Still, they are often ignored or violated, and the result may be conflict- the disruption of social order.

Sanctions are reactions by society to approved or disapproved behaviour. Reactions to approved behaviour are called positive sanctions; reactions to disapproved behaviour are called negative sanctions. Laws are always backed up by sanctions.

Diffused sanction - a spontaneous expression of either approval or disapproval Ostracism- a diffused sanction in which the offender is shunned.

Organised sanction- a formalised and institutionalised expression of approval or disapproval.

Courts and Judges

In many societies, the identification of wrongdoers, the decision to punish them or not, and the method of punishment to be used are duties of the court.

A court's members are not directly involved in the dispute. The head of a court is usually a judge, who acts on behalf of the community of a higher politically authority. In societies with centralised political systems, the judge is typically backed up by the weight of the entire political system, because his office is a political position.

In Central Africa, a judge of the Lozi chiefdom relies in his decision making on a concept familiar to Westerners: that of the reasonable man. The Lozi judge asks himself whether an accused person behaved reasonably and in conformity with custom. If the offence involves an action that the defendant committed in his capacity as a father, for instance, the judge compares the defendant's behaviour against Lozi norms for paternal behaviour. Standards of accepted behaviour are familiar to each Lozi individual and deviants know that if they are brought to court they will be judged according to their degree of conformity to these standards. Fear of the court serves as a sanction against deviant behaviour- even behaviour that does not actually break the law.

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