What is the relevance of the findings?
Research findings in this field to date have led to two theoretical camps. On one side, studies of social norms are often derided because of the lack of fit with actual behavior. On the other, studies of actual behavior are derided as impossibly complex, in favor of subjective norms or rules (“ideal models”). The research results from the case studies in the present article suggest radically different resolutions of this impasse. (1) Taking constraints into account to model the preferential or rule-governed component shows a much closer fit to normative models than hitherto recognized in kinship studies and theories of matrimonial alliance. (2) The relevant “normative rules” or models, however, are rarely those identified by subjective normative theorists! The bottom line: both camps are wrong, and a much higher level of social science modeling is possible. In this approach, a greater degree of convergence is seen of certain expressed rules or norms with preferential behavior. With thi
