Editing Honour (section)

==Examples==

Thinkers ranging from [[Plato]] to [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]] have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.

Historians have examined the [[Culture of honor (Southern United States)|culture of honour in the American South]].<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|first=Bertram|last=Wyatt-Brown|title=Southern honor: Ethics and behavior in the Old South|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007}}
|2={{cite book|first=Kenneth S.|last=Greenberg|title=Honor & Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1996}}
}}</ref> Social scientists have looked at specialised subcultures such as South Asian Muslims in Britain.<ref>{{cite journal|author-link=Pnina Werbner|first=Pnina|last=Werbner|title=Honor, shame and the politics of sexual embodiment among South Asian Muslims in Britain and beyond: An analysis of debates in the public sphere|journal=International Social Science Review|volume=6|number=1|year=2005|pages=25–47}}</ref> Others have compared multiple modern nations.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Klaus|last=Helkama|display-authors=etal|title=Honor as a value in Finland, Estonia, Italy, Russia, and Switzerland|journal=Group Processes & Intergroup Relations|volume=16|number=3|year=2013|pages=279–297|doi=10.1177/1368430212463452 }}</ref>

From the viewpoint of anthropologists, cultures of honour typically appear among [[nomad]]ic peoples and among herdsmen who carry their most valuable [[property]] with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or to [[government]]. Due to the lack of strong institutions, cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate [[revenge]] increases the safety of one's person and property against aggressive actors.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Evolutionary Basis of Honor Cultures|journal = Psychological Science|date = 2015-11-25|issn = 0956-7976|pmid = 26607976|pages = 12–24|doi = 10.1177/0956797615602860|first1 = Andrzej|last1 = Nowak|first2 = Michele J.|last2 = Gelfand|author2-link=Michele J. Gelfand| first3 = Wojciech|last3 = Borkowski|first4 = Dov|last4 = Cohen|first5 = Ivan|last5 = Hernandez|volume=27|issue = 1|s2cid = 18564200|doi-access = free}}</ref>

According to Richard Nisbett, cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions exist:<ref name=coh>{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Nisbett|title=Culture of Honor|year=1996|publisher=Avalon |isbn=978-0-8133-1992-6}}</ref>

# a scarcity of resources
# situations in which the benefit of theft and crime outweighs the risks
# a lack of sufficient law-enforcement (such as in geographically remote regions)

Historically, cultures of honour exist where [[pastoralism|the herding of animals]] dominates an economy. In this situation, the geography is usually extensive, since the soil cannot support intensive sustained farming and thus large populations; the benefit of stealing animals from other herds is high, since animals are the main form of wealth; and there is no central law-enforcement or [[rule of law]]. However, cultures of honour can also appear in places like modern [[ghetto|inner-city slums]]. The three conditions exist here as well: lack of resources (poverty); crime and theft have high rewards, compared to the very limited alternatives; and law enforcement is generally lax or corrupt.<ref name=coh/>

Once a culture of honour exists in a society, its members find it difficult to make the transition to a culture of law, which requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate. From the viewpoint of the culture of honour, the perceived humiliation of such an action makes personal restraint extremely difficult, as it reflects weakness and appeasement.

One paper finds that present-day Canadians born in communities that historically lay outside the reach of the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (Mounties) seem to inherit a violent code of honour that drives their behaviour.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/opinion/sunday/canadas-history-of-violence.html|title=Canada's History of Violence|last=Restrepo|first=Pascual|date=2015-10-09|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-05-22}}</ref>