Rules, Exceptions, and Social Order

Rules, Exceptions, and Social Order by Robert B. Edgerton explores one of the most basic but perplexing questions of human social life: why do societies both insist on rules and simultaneously create exceptions to them? Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history, Edgerton examines how rules provide the foundation for freedom, security, and social order, yet are often bent, negotiated, or suspended. From Epictetus and Rousseau to Malinowski and Goffman, theorists have debated whether rules are sovereign or strategic, absolute or flexible. Edgerton reconsiders this long-running debate by showing that all societies enforce some rules rigidly—sometimes with life-or-death consequences—while allowing flexibility in others. The paradox, he argues, is not incidental but central: exceptions to rules often sustain, rather than subvert, social order. Through rich ethnographic and historical examples, the book ranges from Trobriand Islanders and the Sebei of Uganda to Confucian China and modern regulatory states. Edgerton shows how illness, intoxication, age, or status may excuse people from ordinary obligations, while other prohibitions—on incest, food taboos, or ritual obligations—admit no exceptions. He traces how scholars have moved from the “normative theory” of culture, in which rules were internalized and sacred, to “strategic interactionism,” in which rules became resources for maneuver and manipulation. Yet Edgerton insists that this corrective goes too far: it ignores the enduring power of strict rules to constrain and compel. Rules, Exceptions, and Social Order offers a nuanced framework for understanding the interplay between constraint and flexibility, showing how societies balance freedom, security, and moral imperatives through the shifting line between rules and their exceptions. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.