Honour as a Red Herring

Abstract

Ideals relating to 'honour' and 'shame' have been presented by anthropologists as components of a shared value system which is typical of Mediterranean communities. Critics such as Herzfeld (1980) and Davis (1977) have noted respectively that concern with social standing linked to definitions of what constitutes socially desirable behaviour are not characteristics confined to the Mediterranean area, and that material considerations are inextricably linked to 'honour'

Research in the Castilian pueblo of San Santiago suggests that writers on honour/shame value systems in Spanish pueblos have tended to concentrate on the values of middle aged married men who are fathers and who carry economic weight in pueblos, with regard to each other. We have been told less of their views with regard to those in different age, family position, and gender categories, and in different classes. Furthermore, these others may merely pay lipservice to the values of dominant groups, while holding very different views themselves. The argument presented here is that the way values have been described by many anthropologists has been misleading, and that honour/shame has become a 'red herring', distracting attention from the values of non-dominant groups, as well as failing to account for the way values change.