Culture of Honor (Southern United States) - Sociology

Sociology

An enduring genetic basis, particularly high blood levels of testosterone, for a "willingness to resort to violence," above, has been provided by David Hackett Fischer. In the four main chapters of his book Albion's Seed, particularly one titled "Borderlands to the Backcountry: The Flight from Middle Britain and Northern Ireland, 1717-1775", the Brandeis University Professor of History presents an explanation for a Southern propensity for violence that is rooted in genetic changes wrought by living in traditional herding (as opposed to plant-based agricultural) societies, as noted above, in Northern England, the Scottish Borders, and Irish Border Region, 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. 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 to show that violence largely accompanies perceptions of political weakness and the inability to advance oneself in society. Roth also shows that although the South was "obsessed with honor" in the mid-18th century, there was relatively little homicide.