Culture Of Honor (Southern United States)
The prevailing culture of the Southern United States is said to be a "culture of honor", that is, a culture where people avoid intentional offense to others, and maintain a reputation 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 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 by Malcolm Gladwell.
Read more about Culture Of Honor (Southern United States): Background, Role of Women, Psychology, Sociology
Famous quotes containing the words culture, honor and/or united:
“All our civilization had meant nothing. The same culture that had nurtured the kindly enlightened people among whom I had been brought up, carried around with it war. Why should I not have known this? I did know it, but I did not believe it. I believed it as we believe we are going to die. Something that is to happen in some remote time.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)
“As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and death for his ambition.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)