W

Abstract

Habits. For some unexplained reason, ‘ways’ is a classier word than ‘habits’ among social anthropologists and social scientists generally. One finds it in such contexts as ‘Patterns in Urban Food Ways: an Example for Early Twentieth Century Atlanta (catalogue, Academic Press, New York, 1982). This supposed superiority of ‘ways’ over ‘habits’ is probably caused by a feeling that ‘habit’ is slightly patronizing or derogatory, that is, it indicates an attitude on the part of the observer, a ‘value-judgement’, which the true scholar must avoid at all costs. ‘Ways’, by contrast, is objective, pure, uncontaminated by personal prejudice. There is, of course, no need to fall in with some absurdities, but it is as well to be aware of them.