Means of Social Control

Religion
Many religious precepts regulating daily habits such as food selection, preparation, and cleanliness are not arbitrary guidelines, but practical methods of ensuring survival, developed over centuries. For example, the sacred cow of India is not an animal randomly chosen to be worshiped; it has traditionally been a vital part of the country's agricultural life.

Years ago, before industrialization, dried cow dung was burned as fuel; the cows were also milked and used to plow the fields. However, India often suffers from severe droughts. It would have been tempting for farmers to butcher their livestock in these times of famine, but long term the results would have been devastating for agricultural India.

In the Middle East, pigs were forbidden because these animals survive best in wooded environments; it would have been wasteful and impractical to maintain pigs for the sake of a little meat and class status. And in Christian and Jewish traditions, religions regulations concerning bodily cleanliness served as a barrier against the spread of diseases.

Laws
Federal, state, and local laws are designed to protect the rights and safety of citizens and serve as a deterrent to crime. As states become increasingly interconnected by advances in transportation and communications, laws are becoming more uniform, while more and more aspects of daily life are coming under scrutiny of the law.

Technology has made it easier to monitor a person's activities; it is getting harder to "fly under the radar". While laws can create social order, they can also hinder some activities with bureaucracy and red tape. In Argentina, for example, the government regulates most businesses to a minute degree; hiring new personnel or installing equipment requires a large amount a paperwork can often be a long, difficult process. Some basic laws, however, such as prohibition against murder, theft, fraud, and assault are needed to ensure the continuation of society.

Social norms and mores
Humans are social creatures; we live as a network providing goods, services, and companionship to one another. Each culture has developed guidelines for interaction, and each group within that culture has developed specific behaviors for members to recognize one another as a part of the group. Most people tend to believe that their view of right and wrong is the correct one, and many misunderstanding arise from the fact that people fail to recognize that another culture's beliefs are equally as valid as their own.

In a way this protects the society, since it has an established set of rules for interaction. This has worked fine for past generations, and created uniform, stable societies, but in the modern world, we need to be able to recognize our cultural bias and accept other beliefs and values.