Among the people of Ben Suc, Buddhists were more numerous than Confucianists, but in practice the two religions tended to resemble each other more than they differed, both conforming more to locally developed village customs practiced by everyone than to the requirements of the two doctrines.
But what struck me most profoundly was Brinkley's description of one particular custom openly practiced by a large part of the Afghan ruling Pashtun population.
The answer lay in the incorporation of charcoal into soils, a custom still practiced by millions of people worldwide, according to Steiner.
The label says that the figure's "shaved head and attitude of introspection resemble mourning customs still practiced by many cultures in sub-Saharan Africa".
This is just one of many appeals to positive morality, i.e. to the moral customs actually practiced by a given society, and no one denies that positive morality may be a source of law.
After all, mutilation of other parts of the human body, like ears and lips, to adorn colorful and oversized ornaments that enhance beauty is part of customs still practiced by many African tribes.
It covers not only the kanawai (laws) governing the balancing act between preservation and use, but also the science of aquifers and streams and the customs and traditions practiced by ancient and present-day Hawaiians on the 'aina (land) and in the wai (water).
Addis Ababa, founded by Menilek II in 1886, brought an end to the custom of "roving capitals" practiced by earlier monarchs.
Two popular and much-mangled Shakespearean allusions spring from a single passage in "Hamlet" (Act 1, scene iv), where Hamlet expresses disgust with the custom of drunken revelry practiced by his uncle Claudius: But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honor'd in the breach than the observance.
