h as experience has proved to be expedient.

+441. The current code and character.+ It follows that, in history and
ethnography, the mores and conduct in any group are independent of those
of any other group. Those of any group need to be consistent with each
other, for if they are not so the conduct will not be easily consistent
with the code, and it is when the conduct is not consistent with the
code which is current and professed that there is corruption, discord,
and decay of character. So long as the customs are simple, naive, and
unconscious, they do not produce evil in character, no matter what they
are. If reflection is awakened and the mores cannot satisfy it, then
doubt arises; individual character will then be corrupted and the
society will degenerate.

+442. Definitions of chastity, decency, propriety, etc.+ Chastity,
modesty, and decency are entirely independent of each other. The
ethnographic proof of this is complete. Chastity means conformity to the
taboo on the sex relation, whatever its terms and limits may be in the
group at the time. Therefore, where polyandry is in the mores, women who
comply with it are not unchaste. Where there are no laws for the conduct
of unmarried women they are not unchaste. It is evidently an incorrect
use of language to describe the unmarried women of a tribe as unchaste,
unless there is a rule for them. It can only mean that they violate the
rule of some other society, and that can be said always about those in
any group. There are cases in which women wear nothing but are faithful
to a strict sex taboo, and there are cases where they go completely
covered but have no sex taboo. Decency has to do with the covering of
the body and with the concealment of bodily functions. Modesty is
reserve of behavior and sentiment. It is correlative to chastity and
decency, but covers a far wider field. It arrests acts, speech,
gestures, etc., and repels suggestions at the limit of propriety
wherever that may be set by the mores. Propriety is the sum of all the
prescriptions in the mores as to right and proper behavior, or as to the
limit of degree which prevents excess or vice. It is not dictated in
laws. It is a floating notion. From time to time, however, dictates of
propriety are enacted into police regulations. Propriety is guaranteed
by shame, which is the sense of pain due to incurring disapproval
because one has violated the usage which the mores command every one to
observe. It