ABSTRACT
In the context of one specific type of social relationship, friendship, rules of propriety are in this essay shown to be simply and distinctively transformed within relationships; the role of these transformed proprieties in initiating and maintaining such intimate relationships is carefully explored. The personal and social functions of the transformed morality of friendship (including, again, the insulation of deviance) are so great as to foster the institutionalization of friendship. Relations with other institutions and organizations—particularly the “bridging function” of friendship—are examined in this light.
