Habitus and the Evolution of Institutions
Evolving institutions represent clear distinctions between habitus and objective reality as the loss of previous institutional functions does not deter individuals from uphold them for the sake of social norms.
Marriage in Western society has lost most of its original functions such as the recognition of property, title, and reproductive legitimacy. Today, in an objective sense, marriage is no different than common-law relationships other than in title. If marriage no longer fulfills its previous functions, then why do people continue to marry?
I believe that habitus maintains the prevalence of this institution, as individuals are socially predisposed to believe that a romantic relationship has more legitimacy when individuals are married. Since society assigns value to marriage, individuals grow up in environments where marriage has social prestige.
As Alexis mentioned, these "historical schemas...constitute evolving but also constant normative systems," in which the institution of marriage remains constant despite the loss of its institutional function. Marriage no longer exists as a material benefit, but as an abstract signifier of social status. Are there any other examples of evolving institutions that remain solely because of habitus?
Taking a Marxist perspective, marriage has been commodified and made into a product, leading to a creation of an entirely new industry. For example, wedding planners, hotels and vacation packages uses marriage as a commercial way to profit. On the surface, capitalism enables marriage to be less religion-based and focuses on the luxury materialism one can achieve. Marriage is also a demonstration of wealth, as a couple can declare to the world how they are wealthy enough to afford the ceremony.
Hi Luna Li, Thank you for your sharing, like you mentioned that habits can influence the thoughts and behavior of an individual. During this term, I take a sociology course which talking about statistics, and our final project topic is whether students with parents who have higher educational backgrounds are more likely to say yes to going to graduate school? By doing data collection and analysis, we can tell that students have been influenced by the viewpoints of their parents and family environment, these elements are playing an important role in in the academic attainments and goals setting of these students.