Honour

Last updated

Alexander Hamilton defends his honour by accepting Aaron Burr's challenge (1804). Hamilton-burr-duel.jpg
Alexander Hamilton defends his honour by accepting Aaron Burr's challenge (1804).
French Resistance members Germaine Tillion, Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Pierre Brossolette and politician Jean Zay entering the Pantheon in Paris with national honours, 2015 Germaine Tillion, Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Pierre Brossolette et Jean Zay rentrent au Pantheon 15.jpg
French Resistance members Germaine Tillion, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Pierre Brossolette and politician Jean Zay entering the Panthéon in Paris with national honours, 2015

Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, 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 of 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 with the moral code of the society at large.

Contents

Samuel Johnson, in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness". This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. 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[ who? ] have argued that honour should be seen more as a rhetoric, or set of possible actions, than as a code.

Social context

Wall of Honour, Royal Military College of Canada Wall of Honour, Royal Military College of Canada.jpg
Wall of Honour, Royal Military College of Canada

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". [1] 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, which Wordsworth assessed as measured against an individual's conscience [2] 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." [3] For a person to say "on my honour" was not just an affirmation of his or her integrity 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; conscience has replaced it [4] in the individual context, and the rule of law (with the rights and duties defined therein) has taken over in a social context. Popular stereotypes would have it surviving more definitively in more tradition-bound cultures (e.g. Pashtun, Southern Italian, Polish, Persian, Turkish, Arab, Iberian, "Old South" or Dixie) in a perception akin to Orientalism. Pre-modern societies may tend to "honour" more than do contemporary industrial societies. [4] Saint Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033–1109) in Cur Deus Homo extended the concept of honour from his own feudal society to postulate God's honour. [5]

An emphasis on the importance of honour exists in such traditional institutions as the military (serving officers may conduct a court of honour) and in organisations with a military ethos, such as Scouting organisations (which also feature "Courts of Honour" [6] ).

Honour in the case of sexuality frequently relates, historically, to fidelity: preservation of "honour" equates primarily to maintenance of the virginity of singles and to the exclusive monogamy 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. Western observers generally see these honour killings as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality. [7]

Skinners, executioners, 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.[ clarification needed ] [8]

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 to 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 through reputation. 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 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 arose 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 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. [9] An 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 and egalitarian societies. Cultures of law sometimes consider practices in honour cultures to be unethical or a violation of the legal concept of human rights; for example, they may outlaw vigilante or individual justice-taking. [9] [10]

Examples

Thinkers ranging from Plato to Montesquieu have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.

Historians have examined the culture of honour in the American South. [11] Social scientists have looked at specialised subcultures such as South Asian Muslims in Britain. [12] Others have compared multiple modern nations. [13]

From the viewpoint of anthropologists, cultures of honour typically appear among nomadic peoples and among herdsmen who carry their most valuable property with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or to 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. [14]

According to Richard Nisbett, cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions exist: [15]

  1. a scarcity of resources
  2. situations in which the benefit of theft and crime outweighs the risks
  3. a lack of sufficient law-enforcement (such as in geographically remote regions)

Historically, cultures of honour exist where the herding of animals dominates an economy. In this situation, the geography is usually extensive, since the soil cannot support intensive sustained farming and thus large populations; the benefit of stealing animals from other herds is high, since animals are 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 high rewards, compared to the very limited alternatives; and law enforcement is generally lax or corrupt. [15]

Once a culture of honour exists in a society, its members find it difficult to make the transition to a culture of law, which requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate. From the viewpoint of the culture of honour, the perceived humiliation of such an action makes personal restraint extremely difficult, as it reflects weakness and appeasement.

One paper finds that present-day Canadians born in communities that historically lay outside the reach of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) seem to inherit a violent code of honour that drives their behaviour. [16]

War of 1812

Historian Norman Risjord emphasised the importance of honour as a cause of the War of 1812, which the United States launched against Britain despite Britain's much more powerful naval and military strength. [17] 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. [18] 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. [19] The humiliating attack by HMS Leopard against USS Chesapeake in June 1807 was a decisive event. [20] Historians documented the importance of honour in shaping public opinion in a number of states, including Massachusetts, [21] Ohio, [22] Pennsylvania, [23] and Tennessee, [24] as well as the territory of Michigan. [25] Americans widely celebrated the conclusion of the war as successful, especially after the spectacular defeat of the main British invasion army at New Orleans [26] restored 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 [now] been satisfied,"[ clarification needed ] says historian Lance Banning, "Americans celebrated the end of the struggle with a brilliant burst of national pride." [27]

The British showed 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." [28] 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." [29]

See also

Notes

  1. Doris, Jim (5 January 2003). "A conversation with Margaret Visser: diagnosing that feeling of helplessness". Catholic New Times . Archived from the original on 7 September 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  2. Wordsworth, William (1795), Left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate part of the shore, commanding a beautiful prospect, ...dignity abides with him alone / Who, in the silent hour of inward thought, / Can still suspect, and still revere himself....
  3. Corédon, Christopher (2004). A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. ISBN   1-84384-023-5.
  4. 1 2 Ignatieff, Michael (1997). The Warrior's Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Co.
  5. Lindberg, Carter (2009). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 79–80. ISBN   9781405148870 . Retrieved 30 December 2012. Anselm's understanding of sin posits that sin is an objective deprivation of the honour that belongs to God. The decisive concept of the honour of God reflects Anselm's feudal social world. To deprive a person of his or her honour was a fundamental crime against the social order. Furthermore, such an offence is proportionately magnified according to the status of the person in the hierarchical order [...]
  6. Baden-Powell, Robert (1991). Scouting For Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship Through Woodcraft. Scout Association. p. 27. ISBN   9780851652474 . Retrieved 6 March 2015. The Court of Honour is an important part of the Patrol System. It is a standing committee which settles the affairs of the troop.
  7. "Honour killings of girls and women". Amnesty International library. Amnesty International. 31 August 1999. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  8. Stuart, Kathy (2000). Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts – Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany. Cambridge University Press.
  9. 1 2 "Kollektivistiska strukturer". County administrative board of Ostrogothia (Länsstyrelsen Östergötland) (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
    • Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (2007). Southern honor: Ethics and behavior in the Old South. Oxford University Press.
    • Greenberg, Kenneth S. (1996). Honor & Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South. Princeton University Press.
  10. Werbner, Pnina (2005). "Honor, shame and the politics of sexual embodiment among South Asian Muslims in Britain and beyond: An analysis of debates in the public sphere". International Social Science Review. 6 (1): 25–47.
  11. Helkama, Klaus; et al. (2013). "Honor as a value in Finland, Estonia, Italy, Russia, and Switzerland". Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. 16 (3): 279–297.
  12. Nowak, Andrzej; Gelfand, Michele J.; Borkowski, Wojciech; Cohen, Dov; Hernandez, Ivan (25 November 2015). "The Evolutionary Basis of Honor Cultures". Psychological Science. 27 (1): 12–24. doi: 10.1177/0956797615602860 . ISSN   0956-7976. PMID   26607976. S2CID   18564200.
  13. 1 2 Nisbett, Richard (1996). Culture of Honor. ISBN   0-8133-1992-7.
  14. Restrepo, Pascual (9 October 2015). "Canada's History of Violence". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  15. Risjord, Norman K. (1961). "1812: Conservatives, War Hawks and the Nation's Honor". William and Mary Quarterly. 1961 (2): 196–210. doi:10.2307/1918543. JSTOR   1918543.
  16. Ivie, Robert L. (1982). "The metaphor of force in prowar discourse: The case of 1812". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 68 (3): 240–253. doi:10.1080/00335638209383610.
  17. Perkins, Bradford, ed. (1962). The causes of the War of 1812: National honor or national interest?. Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson. LCCN   62-18809.
  18. Tucker, Spencer (1996). Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, June 22, 1807. Naval Institute Press.
  19. Barlow, William; Powell, David O. (1978). "Congressman Ezekiel Bacon of Massachusetts and the Coming of the War of 1812". Historical Journal of Massachusetts. 6 (2): 28.
  20. Barlow, William R. (1963). "Ohio's Congressmen and the War of 1812". Ohio History. 72: 175–94.
    • Sapio, Victor (2015). Pennsylvania and the War of 1812. University Press of Kentucky.
    • Kaufman, Martin (1964). "War Sentiment in Western Pennsylvania: 1812". Pennsylvania History: 436–448.
  21. Walker, William A. (1961). "Martial Sons: Tennessee Enthusiasm for the War of 1812". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 20 (1): 20.
  22. Barlow, William (1969). "The Coming of the War of 1812 in Michigan Territory". Michigan History. 53: 91–107.
  23. J David Valaik (2007). Carroll, John Martin; Baxter, Colin F. (eds.). The American Military Tradition: From Colonial Times to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 54. ISBN   978-0-7425-4428-4 . Retrieved 26 July 2022. All in all, they fought one of the world's leading powers to a draw, which was formalized in the Treaty of Ghent (1814). In an outpouring of nationalism, the country celebrated the conclusion of the War of 1812 as a victory, highlighted by Andrew Jackson's magnificent stand before New Orleans (1815) and a number of spectacular naval triumphs.
  24. Lance Banning (1980). The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology. Cornell UP. p. 295. ISBN   0801492009.
  25. Nivola, Pietro S.; Kastor, Peter J. (2012). What So Proudly We Hailed: Essays on the Contemporary Meaning of the War of 1812. Brookings Institution Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN   978-0815724155.

Related Research Articles

In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term crime does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition, though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state. Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese law</span>

Chinese law is one of the oldest legal traditions in the world. The core of modern Chinese law is based on Germanic-style civil law, socialist law, and traditional Chinese approaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mores</span> Customary behaviour

Mores are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable within any given culture. A folkway is what is created through interaction and that process is what organizes interactions through routine, repetition, habit and consistency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chivalry</span> Traditional ideology and code of conduct of knights

Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of various chivalric orders; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed by chivalrous social codes. The ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature, particularly the literary cycles known as the Matter of France, relating to the legendary companions of Charlemagne and his men-at-arms, the paladins, and the Matter of Britain, informed by Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written in the 1130s, which popularized the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.

<i>Bushido</i> Moral code of the samurai

Bushidō is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle, formalized in the Edo period (1603–1868). There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. Bushido is also used as an overarching term for all the codes, practices, philosophies and principles of samurai culture. It is loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry, but there are major differences.

The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias, was the head of a Roman family. The pater familias was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his extended family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -ās, whereas in classical Latin the normal first declension genitive singular ending was -ae. The pater familias always had to be a Roman citizen.

The right to life is the belief that a human or other animal has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including capital punishment, with some people seeing it as immoral; abortion, with some seeing the fetus as a human being in an early state of development whose life should not be ended; euthanasia, where the decision to end one's life outside of natural means is seen as incorrect; meat production and consumption, where the breeding and killing of animals for their meat is seen by some people as an infringement on their rights; and in killings by law enforcement, which is seen by some as an infringement of a person's right to live. Various individuals may disagree in which of these areas the principle of a right to life might apply.

Face is a class of behaviors and customs, associated with the morality, honor, and authority of an individual, and its image in social groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminalization</span> Process of categorising acts as crimes

Criminalization or criminalisation, in criminology, is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. However, there is usually a formal presumption in the rules of statutory interpretation against the retrospective application of laws, and only the use of express words by the legislature may rebut this presumption. The power of judges to make new law and retrospectively criminalise behaviour is also discouraged. In a less overt way, where laws have not been strictly enforced, the acts prohibited by those laws may also undergo de facto criminalization through more effective or committed legal enforcement. The process of criminalization takes place through societal institutions including schools, the family, and the criminal justice system.

<i>The Geography of Thought</i> Book by Richard Nisbett

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why is a book by social psychologist Richard Nisbett that was published by Free Press in 2003. By analyzing the differences between Asia and the West, it argues that cultural differences affect people's thought processes more significantly than believed.

Sexual ethics is a branch of philosophy that considers the ethics or morality or otherwise in sexual behavior. Sexual ethics seeks to understand, evaluate and critique interpersonal relationships and sexual activities from a social, cultural, and philosophical perspective. Some people consider aspects of human sexuality, such as gender identification and sexual orientation, as well as consent, sexual relations and procreation, as giving rise to issues of sexual ethics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard E. Nisbett</span> American psychologist (born 1941)

Richard Eugene Nisbett is an American social psychologist and writer. He is the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished Professor of social psychology and co-director of the Culture and Cognition program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Nisbett's research interests are in social cognition, culture, social class, and aging. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where his advisor was Stanley Schachter, whose other students at that time included Lee Ross and Judith Rodin.

Nāmūs is an Arabic word describing an ethical category in Middle Eastern patriarchal character. Often literally translated as "virtue", it is now more popularly used in a strong gender-specific context of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty.

An honor killing, honour killing, or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of themselves or their family when they think that the individual has violated their or their family's reputation. Honor killings are often connected to religion, caste, other forms of hierarchical social stratification, or sexuality. Most often, it involves the murder of a woman or girl by male family members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought dishonor or shame upon the family name, reputation or prestige. Honor killings are believed to have originated from tribal customs. They are prevalent in various parts of the world, especially in MENA countries, the Philippines, and the Indian subcontinent especially in India, Pakistan and Nepal, as well as in immigrant communities in countries which do not otherwise have societal norms that encourage honor killings. Honor killings are often associated with rural and tribal areas, but they occur in urban areas as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family honor</span>

Family honor is an abstract concept involving the perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects the social standing and the self-evaluation of a group of related people, both corporately and individually. The family is viewed as the main source of honor, and the community highly values the relationship between honor and the family. The conduct of family members reflects upon family honor and the way the family perceives itself and is perceived by others. Family honor can be dependent upon many factors. Areas that are affected by family honor include multiple aspects of lifestyle such as social status, religion, clothing, eating, education, job or career, ownership such as real estate, and marriage.

The traditional culture of the Southern United States has been called a "culture of honor", that is, a culture where people avoid intentionally offending others, and maintain a reputation for not accepting improper conduct by others. A theory as to why the American South had or may have had this culture is an assumed regional belief in retribution to enforce one's rights and deter predation against one's family, home, and possessions.

Honor suicide is a type of suicide whereby a person kills themself to escape the shame of an immoral or dishonorable action, such as having had extra-marital sexual affairs, partaking in a scandal, or suffering defeat in battle. It is distinguished from regular suicide in that the subject is actively deciding to either privately or publicly kill themself for the sake of restoring or protecting honor. Some honor suicides are a matter of personal choice and are devoid of any cultural context. For example, honor suicides have been committed by military figures when faced with defeat, such as Adolf Hitler, Mark Antony, Władysław Raginis, Yoshitsugu Saito, Jozef Gabčík, Hans Langsdorff, and Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia.

Social cleansing is social group-based killing that consists of the elimination of members of society who are considered "undesirable", including, but not limited to, the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, the poor, the weak, the sick, the needy and the disabled. This phenomenon is caused by a combination of economic and social factors, but killings are notably present in regions with high levels of poverty and disparities of wealth. Perpetrators are usually of the same community as the victims and they are often motivated by the idea that the victims are a drain on the resources of society. Efforts by national and local governments to stop these killings have been largely ineffective. The government and police forces are often involved in the killings, especially in Africa, Asia, South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adyghe Xabze</span> Moral code of the Adyghe (Circassians)

The Adyghe Khabze or Circassian Khabze, also known as Khabzism, is the worldview and moral code of the Circassian people. Circassian society dictates that a Circassian must always live according to rules defined by the Khabze with little exceptions. Tenets of Khabze include special respect for elders and women, a policy of only marrying those from Circassian culture to protect the endangered culture, and the values of truthfulness, honor and bravery. While rooted in thousands of years of tradition, Khabze is evolving and ever-changing, and is reformed to fit the needs of the Circassian community. This is usually led by a themade.

In cultural anthropology, the distinction between a guilt society or guilt culture, shame society or shame culture, and a fear society or culture of fear, has been used to categorize different cultures. The differences can apply to how behavior is governed with respect to government laws, business rules, or social etiquette. This classification has been applied especially to what anthropologist Ruth Benedict called "apollonian" societies, sorting them according to the emotions they use to control individuals and maintaining social order, swaying them into norm obedience and conformity.

References

Further reading