Honor

An honor student means a student who excels in school and marked high grades. See gifted education.

Honour (CwE) or honor (AmE) comprises the reputation, self-perception or moral identityof an individual or of a group.

Image:Hamilton-burr-duel.jpg

Honour, sex, and violence

Previously, honour figured largely as a guiding principle of society, functioning as part of a code of honourfor a gentlemanand often coming to expression in the practice of duelling. One's honour, that of one's wife, of one's (blood-)family or of one's beloved formed an all-important issue: the archetypal "man of honour" remained ever alert for any insult, actual or suspected: for either would impugn his honour.

The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern secular West. Popular stereotypeswould have it surviving more definitively in alleged "hot-blooded" Mediterranean cultures (Italian, Persian, Arab, Iberian...) or in more "gentlemanly" societies (like the "Old South" of Dixie). Feudal or other agrarian societies, focused upon land use and land ownership, may tend to honour "honour" more than do deracinated industrial societies. Traces of the importance attached to honour linger in the military (officers may conduct a court of honour) and in organisations with military echoes, such as Scouting.

"Honour" in the case of females is frequently related, historically, to sexuality: preservation of "honour" equated primarily to maintenance of virginity, or at least to preservation of exclusive monogamy. One can speculate that feminismhas changed some linguistic usage in this respect.

Cultures of honour and cultures of law

One can contrast culturesof honour with cultures of law. From the viewpoint of anthropology, cultures of honour typically appear among nomadicpeoples and herdsmen who carry their most valuable propertywith them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcementor government. In this situation, inspiring fear forms a better strategy than promoting friendship; and cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate revengeincreases the safety of one's person and property. Thinkers ranging from Montesquieuto Steven Pinkerhave remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.

Cultures of honour therefore appear amongst Bedouins, Scottishand Englishherdsmen of the Border country, and many similar peoples, who have little allegiance to a nationalgovernment; among cowboys, frontiersmen, and ranchersof the American West, where official law-enforcement often remained out of reach, as is famously celebrated in Westerns; among the plantation culture of the American South, and among aristocrats, who enjoy hereditaryprivilegesthat put them beyond the reach of codes of law. Cultures of honour also flourish in criminalunderworlds and gangs, whose members carry large amounts of cashand contrabandand cannot complain to the law if it is stolen.

Once a culture of honour exists, it is difficult for its members to make the transition to a culture of law; this requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate, and from the viewpoint of the culture of honour, this tends to appear to be an unwise act reflecting weakness.

Conceptions of honour vary widely between cultures; in some cultures, honour killingsof (mostly female) members of one's own family are considered justified if they have "defiled the family's honour" by marrying against one's wishes, or even by being the victims of rape. These honour killings are generally seen in the West as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality.(E.G.:murder[1])

Related concepts

In contemporary international relations, the concept of "credibility" resembles that of honour, as when the credibility of a state or of an alliance appears to be at stake, and honour-bound politicians call for drastic measures.

Compare the concepts of integrity, face (social custom)in stereotypedOrientalcultures, or of manain Polynesiansociety.

For a similar concept with many connotations opposite to honour, see shame.

Quotations

• "To the King, one must give his possessions and his life; but honour is a possession of soul, and the soul is only God's". Pedro Crespo in Pedro Calderón de la Barca's The Mayor of Zalamea, 1st day.

• "... Honour ... remains awake in us like a last lamp in a temple that has been laid to waste." — Alfred de Vigny, Servitude et grandeur militaires (1835).

• "... during the time that the aristocracy was dominant, the concepts honour, loyalty, etc. were dominant, during the dominance of the bourgeoisie the concepts freedom, equality, etc." — Marxand Engels, The German Ideology.

• "We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." — C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

• "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." — Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant

• "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." — William Goldman, The Princess Bride

• "To die with honour, when one can no longer live with honour." — Giacomo Puccini, Madama Butterfly

See also

• Code duello
• Chivalry
• Bushido
• Honour system, a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavours based on trustand honour
• Changes in Honour
• Honour killing
• The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

Honours and awards

In many countries the term honour can refer to an award given by the state. Such honours include military medals, but more typically imply a civilian award, such as a British OBE, a knighthoodor membership of the French Légion d'honneur.

See also, List of prizes, medals, and awards.

Feudal honours

In medieval England, an honour could consist of a great lordship, comprised of dozens or hundreds of manors. Holders of honours (and the kings to whom they reverted by escheat) often attempted to preserve the integrity of an honour over time, administering its properties as a unit, maintaining inheritances together, etc.

The typical honour had properties scattered over several shires, intermingled with the properties of others. Usually, though, a more concentrated cluster existed somewhere. Here would lie the caput (head) of the honour, with a castle that gave its name to the honour and served as its administrative headquarters.

A lordship could consist of anything from a field or two to vast territories all over England. Thus the designation honour can distinguish the large lordship from the small. The term has particular usefulness for the eleventh and twelfth centuries, before the development of an extensive peeragehierarchy.

Traditional property-based honours in medieval England included:

• The Honour of Huntingdon

See also

• Honorary degree
• The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

External links

• Il Canto di Malavita is a collection of three recordings from PIAS of the folk musicof the CalabrianNdrangheta, an organised crimegroup operating in southern Italy. Members call themselves L'Onorata, the "men of honour;" the lyricsto these songs prominently feature murder and revenge against betrayers and informers, and offer a glimpse into the self-image of a culture of honour.

References

• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (2 vols., Crowder, Wark, and Payne, 1777), anonymous translation
• Spirit of Laws on line
• Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2002) ISBN 0670031518de:Ehre

et:Au es:Honor fr:Honneur it:Onore ja:?? pl:Honor (poj?cie moralne) sv:Heder

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor Wikipedia article Honor.