Folkways are the products of man’s group life. They are created by the groups for their sustenance and maintenance. Individuals get social recognition by conforming to it.A social practice becomes a folkway when the majority of people observe it constantly and regularly.
The oft-repeated practices of the majority normally become the folkways, because such practices become standardized practices by constant repetition. In this sense also folkways represent the mass phenomena and not the individual peculiarity.
it constitutes] one of the types of informal means of social control. Folkways are not as compulsive and obligatory as that of laws or morals. Those who violate it are not punished by formal means. They are not absolutely obligatory though they are considered as necessary.
For example, one who does not brush his teeth regularly, take bath daily, and wash his clothes regularly and properly, is not going to be punished by law. But such an individual is put to gossip and ridicule. One can neglect and violate one or a few of it but no sane person can neglect and violate all of them.
