Honour (
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
) or honor (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
;
see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal
ethos
Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...
, that manifests itself as a
code of conduct
A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization.
Companies' codes of conduct
A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is commonly writt ...
, and has various elements such as valour, chivalry, honesty, and compassion. It is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or institutions such as a family, school, regiment or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific
code of honour, and the moral code of the society at large.
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...
, in his ''
A Dictionary of the English Language'' (1755), defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
of soul,
magnanimity, and a scorn of
meanness".
This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal
integrity
Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.
In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. In ...
of the person endowed with it. On the other hand, Johnson also defined honour in relationship to "reputation" and "fame"; to "privileges of rank or birth", and as "respect" of the kind which "places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence". This sort of honour is often not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. Finally, with respect to sexuality, ''honour'' has traditionally been associated with (or identical to) "chastity" or "virginity", or in case of married men and women, "fidelity". Some have argued that honour should be seen more as a rhetoric, or set of possible actions, than as a code.
Social context
Honour as a code of behaviour defines the duties of an individual within a social group. Margaret Visser observes that in an honour-based society "a person is what he or she is in the eyes of other people".
[
] A code of honour differs from a legal code, also socially defined and concerned with justice, in that honour remains implicit rather than explicit and objectified.
One can distinguish honour from
dignity
Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...
, which Wordsworth assessed as measured against an individual's conscience rather than against the judgement of a community. Compare also the sociological concept of
"face".
In the early medieval period, a lord's or lady's honour was the group of manors or lands he or she held. "The word was first used indicating an estate which gave its holder dignity and status." For a person to say "on my honour" was not just an affirmation of his or her
integrity
Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.
In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. In ...
and rank, but the veracity behind that phrase meant he or she was willing to offer up estates as pledge and guarantee.
The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
;
conscience
Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sen ...
has replaced it in the individual context, and the rule of law (with the rights and duties defined therein) has taken over in a social context. Popular
stereotype
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for exampl ...
s would have it surviving more definitively in more tradition-bound cultures (e.g.
Pashtun,
Southern Italian,
Polish,
Persian,
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
,
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
,
Iberian, "
Old South" or
Dixie
Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cove ...
) in a perception akin to
Orientalism. Feudal or other agrarian societies, which focus upon land use and land ownership, may tend to "honour" more than do contemporary industrial societies. Note that Saint
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury, OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also called ( it, Anselmo d'Aosta, link=no) after his birthplace and (french: Anselme du Bec, link=no) after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of ...
(c. 1033 – 1109) in ''
Cur Deus Homo'' extended the concept of honour from his own feudal society to postulate God's honour.
An emphasis on the importance of honour exists in such traditional institutions as the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
(serving officers may conduct a
court of honour) and in organisations with a military ethos, such as
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth Social movement, movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hik ...
organisations (which also feature "Courts of Honour").
Honour in the case of sexuality frequently relates, historically, to
fidelity
Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of ''fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word ''fidēlis'', meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London ...
: preservation of "honour" equates primarily to maintenance of the
virginity
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
of singles and to the exclusive
monogamy
Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time ( serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., polyg ...
of the remainder of the population. Further conceptions of this type of honour vary widely between cultures; some cultures regard
honour killings of (mostly female) members of one's own family as justified if the individuals have "defiled the family's honour" by marrying against the family's wishes, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, having sex outside marriage, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations or even by becoming the victims of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
. Western observers generally see these honour killings as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality.
Skinners,
executioner
An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person.
Scope and job
The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or orderin ...
s,
grave-diggers, shepherds,
barber-surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders,
latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs and their families were among the "dishonourable people" (''unehrliche Leute'') in early modern German society.
Cultural difference from law
Various sociologists and anthropologists have contrasted cultures of honour with cultures of law. A culture of law has a body of laws which all members of society must obey, with punishments for transgressors. This requires a society with the structures required to enact and enforce laws. A culture of law incorporates a social contract: members of society give up some aspects of their freedom to defend themselves and retaliate for injuries, on the understanding that society will apprehend and punish transgressors.
An alternative to government enforcement of laws is community or individual enforcement of social norms.
One way that honour functions is as a major factor of
reputation
The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance.
Reputation is a ubiquitou ...
. In a system where there is no court that will authorise the use of force to guarantee the execution of contracts, an honourable reputation is very valuable to promote
trust among transaction partners. To dishonour an agreement could be economically ruinous, because all future potential transaction partners might stop trusting the party not to lie, steal their money or goods, not repay debts, mistreat the children they marry off, have children with other people, abandon their children, or fail to provide aid when needed. A dishonourable person might be shunned by the community as a way to punish bad behaviour and create an incentive for others to maintain their honour.
If one's honour is questioned, it can thus be important to disprove any false accusations or
slander. In some cultures, the practice of
dueling has arisen as a means to settle such disputes firmly, though by physical dominance in force or skill rather than by objective consideration of evidence and facts.
Honour can also imply
duty
A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...
to perform certain actions, such as providing for and disciplining one's children, serving in the military during war, contributing to local collective projects like building infrastructure, or exacting
revenge in retaliation for acts one is directly harmed by.
Family honour
The concept of personal honour can be extended to
family honour, which strengthens the incentives to follow social norms in two ways. First, the consequences of dishonourable actions (such as suicide or attempted robbery that results in death) outlive the perpetrator, and negatively affect family members they presumably care about. Second, when one member of the family misbehaves, other members of the family are in the position to and are incentivised to strongly enforce the community norms.
In strong honour cultures, those who do not conform may be forced or pressured into conformance and transgressors punished physically or psychologically. The use of violence may be collective in its character, where many relatives act together.
The most extreme form of punishment is
honour killing. Dueling and vengeance at a family level can result in a sustained
feud.
Honour-based cultures are also known as honour-shame cultures and are contrasted with guilt cultures on the
guilt-shame-fear spectrum of cultures.
Cultures of honour are often conservative, encoding pre-modern traditional family values and duties. In some cases these values clash with those of post-
sexual revolution
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the ...
and
egalitarian societies. Add to this the prohibition against
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...
or individual justice-taking, cultures of law sometimes consider practices in honour cultures to be unethical or a violation of the legal concept of
human right
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
s.
Examples
Historians have especially examined the
culture of honour in the American South. Social scientists have looked at specialised subcultures such as South Asian Muslims in Britain. Others have compared multiple modern nations.
One paper finds that present-day Canadians born in communities that historically lay outside the reach of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
(Mounties) seem to inherit a violent code of honour that drives their behaviour.
From the viewpoint of anthropologists, cultures of honour typically appear among
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
ic peoples and among herdsmen who carry their most valuable
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or to
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...
. Due to the lack of strong institutions, cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate
revenge increases the safety of one's person and property against aggressive actors. Thinkers ranging from
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
to
Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principa ...
have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.
According to Richard Nisbett, cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions
[
Richard Nisbett. ''Culture of Honor''. 1996.
] exist:
# a scarcity of resources
# situations in which the benefit of theft and crime outweighs the risks
# a lack of sufficient law-enforcement (such as in geographically remote regions)
Historically, cultures of honour exist in places where the herding of animals dominates an economy. In this situation the geography is usually extensive, since the soil cannot support extensive sustained farming and thus large populations; the benefit of stealing animals from other herds is high since it is the main form of wealth; and there is no central law-enforcement or rule of law. However cultures of honour can also appear in places like modern inner-city slums. The three conditions exist here as well: lack of resources (poverty); crime and theft have a high rewards compared to the alternatives (few); and law enforcement is generally lax or corrupt.
[
Once a culture of honour exists in a society, its members find it difficult to make the transition to a culture of law; this requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate, and from the viewpoint of the culture of honour, the feeling humiliation makes personal restraint extremely difficult as it reflects weakness and appeasement.
]
War of 1812
Historian Norman Risjord has emphasised the central importance of honour as a cause of the War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...
, which the United States launched in against Britain despite its much more powerful naval and military strength. Americans of every political stripe saw the need to uphold national honour, and to reject the treatment of the United States by Britain as a third class nonentity. Americans talked incessantly about the need for force in response. This quest for honour was a major cause of the war in the sense that most Americans who were not involved in mercantile interests or threatened by Indian attack strongly endorsed the preservation of national honour. The humiliating attack by HMS ''Leopard'' against USS ''Chesapeake'' in June 1807 was a decisive event. Historians have documented the importance of honour in shaping public opinion in a number of states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, as well as the territory of Michigan. Americans widely celebrated the conclusion of the war as successful, especially after the spectacular defeat of the main British invasion army at New Orleans did restore the American sense of honour.
:National honor, the reputation of republican government, and the continuing supremacy of the Republican party had seemed to be at stake ... National honor had owbeen satisfied," says historian Lance Banning, "Americans celebrated the end of the struggle with a brilliant burst of national pride.
The British showed a respect for American honour. "Some of the strongest praise for America and swiftest recognition of what the young republic had achieved for American honor, prestige, and power came from within British naval circles." Britain refrained from interfering with American maritime interests and ceased with the impressment of American citizens following the war.
Predisposition in the United States of America
A 2016 study suggests that honour culture increases the risk of war. The study found that international conflicts under U.S. presidents who were raised in the South of the country "are shown to be twice as likely to involve uses of force, last on average twice as long, and are three times more likely to end in victory for the United States than disputes under non-Southern presidents. Other characteristics of Southern presidencies do not seem able to account for this pattern of results."
See also
* Bushido
is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ...
* Chivalry
Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed b ...
* Code duello
A code duello is a set of rules for a one-on-one combat, or duel. Codes duello regulate dueling and thus help prevent vendettas between families and other social factions. They ensure that non-violent means of reaching agreement be exhausted and ...
* Culture of honor (Southern United States)
* Dignitas (Roman concept)
* Ethos
Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...
* Feud
* Honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...
* Honor killing
* Honour system
* Izzat (Honor)
* Moka exchange
* Omertà
* Order (distinction)
* Pashtunwali
* Personal rights
* Personality rights
* Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scienc ...
* '' The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum''
* Youxia
Notes
References
*Bowman, James. ''Honor: A History''. Encounter Books, 2006. . Cf. excerpts from writings o
James Bowman on Honor
* Cossen, William S. "Blood, honor, reform, and God: anti-dueling associations and moral reform in the Old South." ''American Nineteenth Century History'' 19.1 (2018): 23–45.
*d'Iribarne, Philippe. ''The Logic of Honor: National Traditions and Corporate Management''. Welcome Rain Publishers, 2003. .
* Hauser, Marc. '' Moral Minds: How nature designed our universal sense of right and wrong''. New York: Ecco Press, 2006. .
*Hein, David. "America's Honor: Lost and Regained." ''Modern Age'' 63, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 17–25.
*Hein, David. "Rethinking Honor". ''Journal of Thought'' 17.1 (Spring 1982): 3–6.
*Hein, David.
Learning Responsibility and Honor
. ''Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'', 3 July 2008.
* Hein, David.
Christianity and Honor
" ''The Living Church'', 18 August 2013, pp. 8–10.
*Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principa ...
. '' The Spirit of the Laws''. 2 vol
Online
* Nisbett, Richard E., and Dov Cohen The Special Interrogation Group (SIG) was a unit of the British Army during World War II, formed largely of German language, German-speaking Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine. Disguised as soldiers of the German Afrika Korps, members of the ...
. ''Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South''. Westview, 1996. .
*Pinker, Steven
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.
P ...
. '' The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature''. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2002. .
* Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. ''Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South'' (1982), Antebellum United States
Further reading
* For a closer understanding of the way in which ideas of honour (and related shame
Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness.
Definition
Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
) are linked to social structures such as law and religion, a reading of the works of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...
is worthwhile, particularly with reference to his discussions of the idea of "habitus".
{{Authority control
Ethics
Social status
Virtue
Warrior code