Institution
From The Spirit Wiki
The term Institution is used by sociologists to refer to patterned (or scripted) human behavior organized around some sort of functional output. For example, the institution of the family is a system of patterned human behavior dealing, in it's current incarnation, with the reproduction of the labor force. Children are raised for the first years by the mother (usually) and are then handed off to a school system which teaches a "hidden" curriculum designed to make individuals broadly employable.
There are many types of institutions besides the family. There is the institution of education, the institution of the mass media, the institution of marriage, and so on. All that is required to make an institution is patterned behavior and a functional output.
In most cases, institutions may be housed in physical structures. The institution of education, for example, has offices and classrooms. It is important to note that a physical structure is not a required characteristic of an institution. The tribal institution of story telling, for example, is independent of any physical structures.
Although we are often born into institutions, institutions themselves do not exist without tacit individual approval and acceptance of behavioral patterns. Teachers, for example, recreate the institution of education on a daily basis by their formal and informal participation in the behavioral patterns associated with the institution. It is the same with all institutions. An institution exists only when individual's voluntarily (or involuntarily) participate in the behavioral patterns.
The behavioral patterns of institutions do not exist independently of the institution. We (and by "we" I mean the witting or unwitting participants in institutional behaviors) are taught the "ways" and behaviors of a specific institution. Teachers for example spend many extra years in school not only learning the technical component of teaching, but also the expected behaviors. The same can be said of any institution in society. The behaviors, norms, and values associated with particular institutions are "passed on." This process of learning the institutional ropes is known as Socialization.
