[fohk-weyz] 
| the ways of living, thinking, and acting in a human group, built up without conscious design but serving as compelling guides of conduct. |
| folk·way (fōk'wā') n. A practice, custom, or belief shared by the members of a group as part of their common culture. Often used in the plural. |
folkway
the learned behaviour, shared by a social group, that provides a traditional mode of conduct. According to the American sociologist William Graham Sumner, who coined the term, folkways are social conventions that are not considered to be of moral significance by members of the group (e.g., customary behaviour for use of the telephone). The folkways of groups, like the habits of individuals, originate in the frequent repetition of acts that prove successful for satisfying basic human needs. These acts become uniform and are widely accepted. Folkways operate primarily at an unconscious level and persist because they are expedient. They tend to group themselves around major social concerns, such as sex, forming social institutions (e.g., the family). Sumner believed that folkways from diverse areas of life tended to become consistent with each other, creating definite patterns
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