The anthropologist Ruth Benedict’s 1946 work The Chrysanthemum and the Sword injected into public consciousness the notion of shame cultures and guilt cultures. Shame is a human emotion that many understand as related to guilt. Honor might seem oddly paired with shame and guilt, but numerous learned discussions of the nature of honor link it with shame, to the point where some scholars refer to honor and shame as having a reciprocal relationship. In this entry, the concepts of honor, shame, and guilt are defined and discussed from both a historical and a cultural perspective, and the relationships among honor, shame, and guilt are explained.

The Meaning of Honor Inherited From Medieval Europe

A straightforward way to understand honor is to accept that, rather than being a ...

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