Unit twenty-nine
On Custom

Custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great moment. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behaviour at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions, no matter how aberrant. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief, and the very great varieties it any manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behaviour of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of this mother tongue over against those words of this own baby talk that taken up into the vernacular of this family. When one seriously studies the social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behaviour. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. Every child that is born into his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. There is no social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of

the role of custom. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.

commonplace a.普通的,平庸的 n.寻常的事物,平庸的东西
[联想词]               commonwealth n. 1.英联邦 2.联邦,联合体
               customary a.习惯上的,合乎习俗的

aberrant a.偏离正路的,偏离常规的

trivial a.琐碎的,不重要的
[联想词]    trifle n.琐事,小事,无价值的东西 vi.嘲笑,轻视
               petty a.1.小的,琐碎的,不重要的 2.气量小的,心狭窄的

predominant a.占主导地位的,显著的

manifest a.明显的,显然的,明了的 vt. 1.显示,表明,证明 2.使显现,使显露

pristine a.1.太古的,原始的 2.本来的,原来的
[联想词]               virginal a.1.处女的, 忠贞的 2.纯洁的,没有被玷污的
               virgin n.处女,未婚女子 a.1.处女的,贞洁的 2.纯洁的,未玷污的 3.未开发的,未经使用的

probe v.1.探索,查究,调查 2.用探针(或控测器)探查,探测 n.1.探针,探测器 2.探索,调查
[联想词]               grope vi. 1.暗中摸,摸索 2.探索,搜寻 vt.摸索(道路等)
               query n.问题,疑问,询问 v.1.对…表示疑问 2.问,询问
               quest n.寻求,搜索,追求

stereotype n.陈规,老套,固定的模式(或形象) vt.对…形成固定的看法
stereo a.立体声的 n.立体声,立体声装置

vernacular n.1.本国语 2.本国语词汇,方言词汇

foremost a.首要的,最佳的
[联想词]               cardinal n.1.红衣主教 2.基数词 a.最重要的,基本的

accommodate vt. 1.容纳 2.向…提供住处(或膳宿) 3.使适应,顺应
accommodation n. 1.住处,膳宿 2.适应,顺应

autonomous a.1.自治的 2.独立自主的
autonomy n.1.自治,自治权 2.人身自由,自主权

incumbent a.1.有责任的, 有义务的 2.现任的,在职的

intelligible a.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的
[联想词]               coherent a.1.条理清楚的,连贯的 2.一致的,协调的