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(22) What, then, do people who have been labeled deviant have in common? At the least, they share the
220 label and the experience of being labeled as outsiders. I will begin my analysis with this basic similarity
and view deviance as the product of a transaction that takes place between some social group and one who
is viewed by that group as a rulebreaker. I will be less concerned with the personal and social
225 characteristics of deviants than with the process by which they come to be thought of as outsiders and their
reactions to that judgment.
(23) Malinowski discovered the usefullness of this view for understanding the nature of deviance many
years ago, in his study of the Trobriand Islands:
230 (24) One day an outbreak of wailing and a great commotion told me that a death had occurred
somewhere in the neighborhood. I was informed that Kima'i, a young lad of my acquaintance, of sixteen or
235 so, had fallen from a coco-nut palm and killed himself. ... I found that another youth had been severely
wounded by some mysterious coincidence. And at the funeral there was obviously a general feeling of
hostility between the village where the boy died and that into which his body was carried for burial.
240 (25) Only much later was I able to discover the real meaning of these events. The boy had committed
suicide. The truth was that he had broken the rules of exogamy, the partner in his crime being his maternal
cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister. This had been known and generally disapproved of but nothing
245 was done until the girl's discarded lover, who had wanted to marry her and who felt personally injured,
took the initiative. This rival threatened first to use black magic against the guilty youth, but this had not
much effect. Then one evening he insulted the culprit in public — accusing him in the hearing of the whole
250 community of incest and hurling at him certain expressions intolerable to a native.
(26) For this there was only one remedy; only one means of escape remained to the unfortunate youth.
Next morning he put on festive attire and ornamentation, climbed a coco-nut palm and addressed the
255 community, speaking from among the palm leaves and bidding them farewell. He explained the reasons for
his desperate deed and also launched forth a veiled accusation against the man who had driven him to his
death, upon which it became the duty of his clansmen to avenge him. Then he wailed aloud, as is the
260 custom, jumped from a palm some sixty feet high and was killed on the spot. There fol-lowed a fight
within the village in which the rival was wounded; and the quarrel was repeated during the funeral...
(27) If you were to inquire into the matter among the Trobrianders, you would find... that the natives
265 show horror at the idea of violating the rules of exogamy and that they believe that sores, disease and even
death might follow clan incest. This is the ideal of native law, and in moral matters it is easy and pleasant
strictly to adhere to the ideal — when judging the conduct of others or expressing an opinion about conduct
270 in general.
(28) When it comes to the application of morality and ideals to real life, however, things take on a
different complexion. In the case described it was obvious that the facts would not tally with the ideal of
275 conduct. Public opinion was neither outraged by the knowledge of the crime to any extent, nor did it react
directly — it had to be mobilized by a public statement of the crime and by insults being hurled at the
culprit by an interested party. Even then he had to carry out the punishment himself... Probing further into
280 the matter and collecting concrete information, I found that the breach of exogamy — as regards
intercourse and not marriage — is by no means a rare occurrence, and public opinion is lenient, though
decidedly hypocritical. If the affair is carried on sub rosa with a certain amount of decorum, and if no one
285 in particular stirs up trouble — «public opinion» will gossip, but not demand any harsh punishment. If, on
the contrary, scandal breaks out — everyone turns against the guilty pair and by ostracism and insults one
or the other may he driven to suicide.*
* Bronislaw Malinowski. Crime and Custom in Savage Society (New York: Humanities Press, 1926), pp. 77-80.
290 (29) Whether an act is deviant, then, depends on how other people react to it. You can commit clan incest
and suffer from no more than gossip as long as no one makes a public accusation; but you will be driven to
your death if the accusation is made. The point is that the response of other people has to be regarded
295 as problematic. Just because one has committed an infraction of a rule does not mean that others will
respond as though this had happened. (Conversely, just because one has not violated a rule does not mean
that he may not be treated, in some circumstances, as though he had).
300 (30) The degree to which other people will respond to a given act as deviant varies greatly. Several kinds
of variation seem worth noting. First of all, there is variation over time. A person believed to have
committed a given «deviant» act may at one time be responded to much more leniently than he would be at
305 some other time. The occurrence of «drives» against various kinds of deviance illustrates this clearly. At