Southern culture of honor
Encyclopedia
The prevailing culture of the Southern United States
Culture of the Southern United States
The Culture of the Southern United States, or Southern Culture, is a subculture of the United States that is perhaps America's most distinct, in the minds both of its residents and of those in other parts of the country...

 is said to be a "culture of honor", that is a culture where people avoid unintentional offense to others and maintain a reputation
Reputation
Reputation of a social entity is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria...

 for not accepting improper conduct by others.

One theory to explain why the American South has this culture is that a willingness to resort to retribution
Retributive justice
Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers that punishment, if proportionate, is a morally acceptable response to crime, with an eye to the satisfaction and psychological benefits it can bestow to the aggrieved party, its intimates and society....

 to enforce one's rights is important for a man in any region where gaining resources and keeping them depends on the community’s belief that the man can protect those resources against predators. Toughness is a strong value in such a culture because of its effect on the deterrence of such predators from one’s family, home and possessions.

The concept was tested by social scientists Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen in their book Culture of Honor, and it was repopularized by a discussion in Chapter Six of Outliers
Outliers (book)
Outliers: The Story of Success is a non-fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success...

by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...

.

Background

The “culture of honor” in the Southern United States is believed by some social scientists to have its roots in the qualities of the early settlers who first inhabited the region. Unlike the farmers and workers (mainly from the densely populated South East England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...

 and East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

) who settled in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 was settled by herders from Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

 and the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...

. Herds, unlike crops, were vulnerable to theft because they were mobile and there was little in the way of a government with the practical ability to enforce property rights in the animals. Developing a reputation for retribution against those who stole herd animals was one way to discourage theft.

According to Todd K. Shackelford in "An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective on Cultures of Honor," “[s]uch cultures are particularly likely to develop where (1) a man’s resource holdings can be thieved in full by other men and (2) the governing body is weak or nonexistent and thus cannot prevent or punish theft.” These two qualities are consistent with past Southern culture. In order to be successful in an environment such as Southern United States, a man had to reduce the chances of theft or attack from thieves and criminals by building their reputations for strength and toughness. The only way to accomplish this was to show willingness to resort to violence.

These social scientists compare the culture of honor found in the Southern United States to similar cultural values found in other subsistence economies dependent upon herding and places with weak governments.

This thesis is limited, however, by modern evidence that a culture of honor in the American South is strongest not in the hill county, where this thesis suggests it has its cultural origins, but in Southern lowlands. These observers argue that religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, which has been distinctive in the American South since the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...

 in the 18th century, may be a more important source of this cultural phenomenon.

The Southern culture of honor is associated with such distinctive elements of the American political culture as dueling (particularly in the American South and involving Southerners) and the concept of a gentleman
Gentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...

, as espoused by individuals such as Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....

, which remains a part of United States military law (although the Uniform Code of Military Justice
Uniform Code of Military Justice
The Uniform Code of Military Justice , is the foundation of military law in the United States. It is was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution in Article I, Section 8, which provides that "The Congress shall have Power . ....

 now expressly bans dueling). It is also associated with the idea of a blood feud
Blood Feud
"Blood Feud" is the twenty-second and final episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 11, 1991. In the episode, Mr. Burns falls ill and desperately needs a blood transfusion. Homer discovers Bart has Burns' rare blood type and urges...

, a characterization given to many deadly conflicts between families in Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

.

Women and the “Culture of Honor”

The Southern culture of honor also includes a notion that ladies
Lady
The word lady is a polite term for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to, or spouse of, a lord or gentleman, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman...

 should not be insulted by gentlemen. An insult to a woman's honor is a classic basis for violent retribution against those, including the woman, who have caused the insult. Southern gentlemen are also expected to be chivalrous
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...

 towards women, in words and deeds.

Although “culture of honor” qualities have been generally associated with men in the southern United States, women in this region have also been affected and even shown some of the same qualities.

Sociology

In the four main chapters of his book Albion's Seed
Albion's Seed
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America is a 1989 book by David Hackett Fischer which describes four regional British cultures or ‘folkways’ which, the author argues, were transplanted to North America during the large-scale migrations of the 17th and 18th Centuries...

, particularly one titled "Borderlands to the Backcountry: The Flight from Middle Britain and Northern Ireland, 1717-1775", Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

 Professor of History David Hackett Fischer
David Hackett Fischer
David Hackett Fischer is University Professor and Earl Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have tackled everything from large macroeconomic and cultural trends to narrative histories of significant events to explorations of...

 presents an explanation for a Southern propensity for violence that is rooted in traditional herding societies in Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

, the Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

, and Irish Border Region
Border Region
The Border Region is a NUTS Level III region of Irelandand is governed by the Border Regional Authority. It consists of the area under the jurisdiction of the county councils of counties Donegal, Cavan, Louth, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo. The Border region spans 12,156 km2, 17.3% of the total...

, a propensity that is inheritable and can be tracked to different urban populations of the United States.

Randolf Roth, in his American Homicide (2009), states that the idea of a culture of honor is oversimplified. He argues that the violence often committed by Southerners resulted from social tensions. He hypothesizes that when people feel that they are denied social success or the means to attain it, they will be more prone to commit violent acts. His argument is that Southerners were in tension, possibly due to poor Whites being marginalized from rich Whites, free and enslaved Blacks being denied basic rights, and rich and politically empowered Whites having their power threatened by Northern politicians pushing for more federal control of the South, especially over abolition
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

. He argues that issues over honor just triggered the already present hostility, and that people took their frustration out through violent acts often on the surface over issues of honor.

He draws historical records of violence across the U.S. and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

to show that violence largely accompanies perceptions of political weakness and the inability to advance one's self in society.

Also, he shows that although the South was very "obsessed with honor", in the mid-18th century, there was relatively little homicide.

Further reading

  • Hayes, Timothy C., Re-examining the Subculture of Violence in the South (dissertation, La. State Univ., 2006), available at http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07022006-123237/unrestricted/Hayes_dis.pdf (last visited April 16, 2008)
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