221 HONORS.
The Honor System:
A Comparison Between the U.S. South and the Mediterranean World

Plamen Miltenoff, MLIS, Ph.D.

Meeting Times & Places

5:00 pm – 7:30 pm Wednesdays Miller Center 206

• Asynchronous interaction:
  • Most of the discussions will occur asynchronously in the D2L “Discussion” area.
  • Use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis is strongly encouraged.
  • Use of Web 2.0 tools such as social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) only after consultation with the instructor

The best way to contact me is through email, but you can use any of the options below.

Course Description:

The Honor system is a phenomenon well known in many cultures across the globe and strongly presented in cultures since Ancient Greece and Rome. The concepts of honor and shame have long been associated with cultures in the Mediterranean region mostly because the first scholars to study the social impact of these concepts did so in Southern Europe. Honor has two fundamental components: birth and morality. People could gain or lose their honor by the morality of their conduct. Despite the scholarly emphasis on the Mediterranean, the concept of honor influenced social systems all over the world, and historians are beginning to detect its traces in places as different as China and Africa. The Southern Honor system can firmly be traced back in the European roots and determined to a great degree the American history of the 19th century.

This course will study the geography, history, sociology and religions, cultural and political systems of two worlds and learn to compare the findings. Based on those comparisons, lessons in gender, culture and politics will be drawn.

1. What is Honor and Shame system and why is it so important to know about it and recognize it
2. What is the connection between the Honor system in the Mediterranean and in the American South
3. How does the knowledge of the Honor system aim our daily actions and our global perspective

Course Goals

Students in this course will

• Practice research methods and ability to find and evaluate information as well as select reliable information technologies.
• Explore applications and technologies for communication and creative collaboration.
• Gain practical, hands-on experience with a wide variety of research and online communication tools.
• Students will demonstrate ability to research and find academically reliable information from peer-reviewed sources in the online databases, which SCSU is subscribed. Students will demonstrate ability to find and evaluate information from the Internet.
• Students will demonstrate competencies in creation of textual and multimedia narratives in individual and collaborative environment.
• Students will demonstrate competencies in application of technology toward creation and dissemination of textual and multimedia materials.

Attendance/Discussion Requirements

• Attendance is required. If you cannot attend class, it is required to alert the instructor in advance. If the reason for the absence is an emergency, it is expected to approach the instructor and provide an explanation thereafter about the character of the emergency.
• Discussion are expected. If you are shy and are hesitant to participate in class, you must compensate with the use of other communication tools (e.g., D2L Discussion List).

Assignment Descriptions

• Discussions. You are expected to contribute to each class session with your ideas and your responses to the ideas of your peers. Your comments are expected in class and in between class sessions (using, e.g., D2L discussion list). Your comments must go beyond “yes, I agree,” and “no, I disagree” and provide analysis and synthesis of your thoughts.
• Readings – you will be expected to contribute to each class sessions with bibliographical findings on your own.
• Written responses – you will be expected to deliver four written responses to peer-reviewed articles related to topics discussed in the class sessions.
• Final project – you will be expected to write and present a final project. The written part of the project will be in the realm of 4-5000 words; will adhere to academic research and style; will include a bibliography with at least 2/3 of the sources being peer-reviewed and outside of the 5000 words. The presentation can be of any multimedia form, whereas it will be peer-evaluated, but my (instructor’s) preference will be given to advance multimedia presentations (beyond PPT and using e.g. Prezy, iMovie/Moviemaker movie and/or audio narration)

All assignments should be submitted by midnight of the date on which they are due. Ten percent of an assignment’s point value will be removed for each day an assignment is late. This policy will be adjusted on a case-by-case basis if emergencies prevent you from submitting an assignment on time. In these situations, contact me as soon as is reasonable to determine how this policy can be adjusted in a way that meets your needs and is still fair to other students.

The grade book in D2L will be used to show detailed information about grades in this course. The table below shows the value of each assignment and the total number of points available.

Assignments Schedule

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Bertram Wyatt-Brown. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://personal.tcu.edu/swoodworth/Wyatt-Brown.htm

Brayford, S. A. (1999). TO SHAME OR NOT TO SHAME: SEXUALITY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DIASPORA. Semeia, (87), 163.

BUSATTA, S. (2006). Honour and Shame in the Mediterranean. Antrocom, 2(2). 75-78. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://www.academia.edu/524890/Honour_and_Shame_in_the_Mediterranean

Cohen, D. (n.d.). Insult, Aggression, and the Southern Culture of Honor: An “Experimental Ethnography.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(5), 945–960.

Crook, Z. (2009). Honor, Shame, and Social Status Revisited. Journal of Biblical Literature, 128(3), 591–611.

Culture of honor (Southern United States). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_honor_(Southern_United_States)

Dussere, E. (2001). The Debts of History: Southern Honor, Affirmative Action, and Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust. Faulkner Journal, 17(1), 37–57.

Esmer, T. U. (n.d.). Honor in Ottoman and Contemporary Mediterranean Societies: Controversies, Continuities, and New Directions. conference announcement. Retrieved from http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196551

Family, Patronage, and Social Contests.pdf. (n.d.).

Hall, J. L. (1907). Half-hours in southern history. B. F. Johnson publishing co.

Harrell, L. A. (2009, December 4). It’s an honorable choice: Rebellions Against Southern Honor in William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner. Retrieved from http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/resolver/1840.16/2614

Harris, J. W. (2002). Honor, Grace, and War (But Not Slavery?) in Southern Culture. Reviews in American History, 30(1), 1–7. doi:10.2307/30031707

Hellerman. (n.d.). Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi. Cambridge University Press.

Herzfeld, M. (1980). Honour and Shame: Problems in the Comparative Analysis of Moral Systems. Man, 15(2), 339–351. doi:10.2307/2801675

Honor, Shame, and Social Status.pdf. (n.d.).

honor-04-Antrocom_Honour and Shame in the Mediterranean_S.pdf. (n.d.).

Honors and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317790

Honour and shame (Anthropology). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://what-when-how.com/social-and-cultural-anthropology/honour-and-shame-anthropology/

Lever, A. (1986). Honour as a Red Herring. Critique of Anthropology, 6(3), 83–106. doi:10.1177/0308275X8600600305

Manly Honor Part V: Honor in the American South. (n.d.). The Art of Manliness. Retrieved August 15, 2013, from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/11/26/manly-honor-part-v-honor-in-the-american-south/

Moxnes, V. (1996). Honor and Shame. In R. L. Rohrbaugh (Ed.). The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation (pp. 19-40). Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson. http://tinyurl.com/qdvc499

Murder in Jerba_ Honour, Shame and.pdf. (n.d.).

Osiek, C. (2008). Women, honor, and context in Mediterranean antiquity, 64(1), 323–337. doi:10.4102/hts.v64i1.2

Peoples and Cultures of the Mediterranean. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://www.academia.edu/2437701/Peoples_and_Cultures_of_the_Mediterranean

Rabichev, R. (n.d.). The Mediterranean concepts of honour and shame as seen in the depiction of the biblical women. Retrieved from http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc6/renata.htm

Santos, N. F. (2008). Family, Patronage, and Social Contests: Narrative Reversals in the Gospel of Mark. S&J, (2).

Slavery and Southern Honor. (n.d.). StudyMode. Education. Retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Slavery-Southern-Honor-72644.html

Smith, A. (2004). Murder in Jerba: Honour, Shame and  Hospitality among Maltese in Ottoman  Tunisia. History and Anthropology Routledge, 15(2), 107–132.

Stewart,, Y. (n.d.). Mursi: A Study in Honor-Shame dynamics. CATEGORY ARCHIVES: HONOR-SHAME CULTURE. Retrieved from http://www.theaugeanstables.com/category/honor-shame-culture/

TO SHAME OR NOT TO SHAME_ SEXUALITY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DIASPORA..pdf. (n.d.).

Weir, D. (n.d.). Honour and Shame. Islam Watch. Retrieved from http://www.islam-watch.org/Others/Honour-and-Shame-in-Islam.htm

Women, honor, and context in Mediterranean antiquity.pdf. (n.d.).

Wyatt-Brown, B. & Milbauer, Richard J. (2004). Honor, Shame, and Iraq in American Foreign Policy. In Note prepared for the Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University,  New York, November 18-19, 2004. Presented at the Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University,  New York,. Retrieved from http://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/WyattBrownNY04meeting.pdf