Four Overarching Patterns of Culture by Robert Strauss Christopher Strauss

Author:Robert Strauss, Christopher Strauss [Robert Strauss, Christopher Strauss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Indigenous Studies, General
ISBN: 9781532693182
Google: q8SqDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2019-08-20T05:14:29+00:00

Dignity

Honor

Restraint required

Display celebrated (aristocracy)

Abnegation of self (humility)

Assertion of self (individuality)

Inward

Outward

Opinion of others rebuffed

Respect of others required—key

Mastery of autonomous self—key

Lack of self-control

Transformation of society

Stratification of society (economically, hierarchically, and locally)

To underscore the contrast, Ayers offers a pair of metaphors: “Dignity might be likened to an internal skeleton, to a hard structure at the center of self; honor, on the other hand, resembles a cumbersome and vulnerable suit of armor that, once pierced, leaves the self no protection and no alternative except to strike back in desperation. Honor in the Southern United States cannot be understood without reference to dignity, its antithesis and adversary to the north.”171 Cash, in his turn, argues that the Southern gentleman was not always comfortable in the “vulnerable suit” of aristocracy:

But there was a flaw in it. In so far as it was aristocratic, it was ultimately not an emanation from the proper substance of the man who wore it, but only a fine garment put on from the outside. If they wrapped themselves in it with seeming ease and assurance, if they could convince themselves for conscious purposes that they were in sober fact aristocrats and wore it by right, they nevertheless could not endow their sub-consciousness with the aristocrat’s experience—with calm certainty, bred of that experience, which is the aristocratic manner’s essential warrant. In their inmost being they carried nearly always, I think, an uneasy sensation of inadequacy for their role.172

Ayers, Cash, and others describe what they sometimes call the “Old South.” Perhaps they mean the slave plantation region in the East. They likely are referring to a time before the Civil War. Nevertheless, they compellingly present features of an honor pattern of culture, certainly one different from honor cultures in the Middle East, but an honor culture nonetheless. For three years at Dixie High School, I lived it—and had the bruises to show for it.

The first person to describe the justice-oriented culture of the North as a culture of dignity may have been Peter Berger (1929–2017), a Lutheran theologian and widely regarded sociologist.173 He contrasts Northern dignity with Southern honor: “The concept of honor implies that identity is essentially, or at least importantly, linked to institutional roles. The modern concept of dignity, by contrast, implies that identity is essentially independent of institutional roles.”174 The term dignity has a rich history in philosophical writings, religious canons, and more.175 As Erin Daly and James May, professors of law at Widener University Delaware Law School, note:

Human dignity refers to the inherent humanness of each person. It is not an attribute or an interest to be protected or advanced, like liberty or equality or a house or free speech. Rather, human dignity is the essence of our being, without which we would not be human. Human dignity recognizes and reflects the equal worth of each and every member of the human family, regardless of gender, race, social or political status, talents, merit, or any other differentiator.176

Dignity is essential to self. By contrast, honor is an ascribed feature, an external attribute.

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