Honor and heritage

Introduction

In cultural anthropology and social psychology traditions, a culture of honor is one in which values and behavioral norms place a strong emphasis on status and reputation. Having honor implies being respected by others. For males, this means demonstrating toughness and the willingness to use aggression if one's reputation is challenged or to avenge a perceived insult. For females, codes of honor often focus on avoiding behaviors that could bring shame or dishonor to oneself or one's family. This usually means placing a strong emphasis on female modesty and moral (particularly sexual) purity. This entry begins with an overview, then looks more closely at the internal workings of honor cultures, and concludes with a brief summary of related concepts (Cohen et al., pp. 945).

Discussion

Cultures of honor often have elaborate informal conventions about politeness, codes of conduct, and proper rules for redressing grievances. Honor cultures also tend to be characterized by extreme sensitivity to insult that must often be met with a violent response. Values associated with honor cultures include social interdependence, collectivism, emphasis on family, modesty (for females), and relatively traditional views about gender roles. Emotions tend to be centered around shame, pride, humiliation, and anger, but also politeness and respect. Thus, honor encompasses many things: It is a set of prescriptive norms outlining acceptable and unacceptable behavior between individuals, families, and social groups; it is a measure of an individual's social worth and self-esteem; and it is associated with the experience of several moral emotions (Vandello and Cohen, pp. 997).

The destruction of the South, and the reasons for this destruction, were questions that Faulkner explored in most of his work. Although quite arrogant and snobbish, himself, Faulkner was well aware that racism was ultimately the downfall of the South. His black characters were never fully developed persons, one of his very few failings, but to his credit, he didn't shy away from portraying slavery in all its horror. In fact, many historians have made mention of the fact that more can be learned about the post-Civil War South from Faulkner than can be learned from history books. Absalom, Absalom is one of Faulkner's most fascinating books, but it is also one of the most complexes (Faulkner, pp. 113).

Those new to Faulkner will find the structure of Absalom, Absalom quite different from that of conventional novels. The narrative is circular, convoluted, and fragmented and Faulkner presents almost the entire “plot” within the book's first two chapters. There are constant changes in narrator, form, and style that can be quite disorienting to some readers. Faulkner, however, intended this disorientation. While the story of Thomas Sutpen forms the events around which the novel revolves, Thomas Sutpen's “story” really wasn't of prime importance to Faulkner. This is neither a plot nor character driven novel, but a thematic one, and one of the major themes is the quixotic and malleable quality of memory. It is for this reason that Faulkner reveals most of the “story” in the first two chapters. He doesn't want ...