In cultural anthropology, a shame culture, also called honour-shame culture or shame society, is the concept that, in a given society, the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining social order is the inculcation of shame and the complementary threat of ostracism. A shame society is contrasted with a guilt society in which control is maintained by creating and continually reinforcing the feeling of guilt (and the expectation of punishment now or in the hereafter) for certain condemned behaviors.
Read more about Shame Society: China, Japan, Western Society, Romani (Gypsies)
Famous quotes containing the words shame and/or society:
“The difference between guilt and shame is very clearin theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are. A person feels guilt because he did something wrong. A person feels shame because he is something wrong. We may feel guilty because we lied to our mother. We may feel shame because we are not the person our mother wanted us to be.”
—Lewis B. Smedes, U.S. psychologist, educator. Shame and Grace: Healing the Shame We Dont Deserve, ch. 2, Harper (1993)
“I came along at a time when there was a demand to give men greater visibility and opportunity. In white society they were saying, Women cant do it. In black society, they were saying, Women do too much. Its a diabolical situation.”
—Yvonne Braithwaite Burke (b. 1932)