ANTH 4340 – Advocacy and Social Movements
Study Guide for First In-class Exam
The questions below are a guide to help direct your studying for the first exam. As you try to address
these questions by reference to the material assigned and covered so far this semester (including
readings, lectures, films, etc.), you will be able to refine your understanding of the central themes and
issues we have examined. Two or three of the questions below will appear on your exam, which will run
75 minutes.
1. Why might the chastity of wives and the virginity of daughters be so highly valued within
honour‐based societies, and how can we account for the gradual weakening of this concern in
modern industrial or post-industrial societies?
Sambian culture – women exchanged in arranged marriages for men’s pleasure
India’s Daughter –
Jane Schneider – article is a history of honour values as they connect with the concept of female
chastity/purity/virginity and motivate social control and how it evolves
o Female sexuality as resource to be protected with severe repercussions for promiscuous
females
o Cultural values/beliefs are developed by people who believe this
Women are part of patrimony of family
Women are not considered autonomous beings, not independent
Female sexuality is kept intact and preserves and assumes an exchange value
The effects of this made control over female sexuality has many effects on women and their
status in society is bad
A daughter’s virginity as a symbol assumes an exchange value
o Virginity = purity/potency or right for family to claim honour
o Means daughter was raised protected from access from other men
o Pre-marital sex takes away from family honour
o Family that can be depended on because they are strong and won’t be pushed around.
Relations through marriage strengthens honour status of both families, good
allies/dependent people
How belief systems of honour change and how it becomes possible for value orientation to
expire:
o All of our ancestors lived in an honour bound world, at what point did honour expire/die
away in modern time?
o Peter Berger 1970 – On the Obsolescence of the Concept of Honour
Argues honour is obsolete concept in modern society – considered “backward”,
of a different time
Being sensitive to insult is of another era/anarchistic
The gradual obsolescence goes hand in hand with rise of new moralities/dignity
rights of the individual
Modern consciousness values rights of individual but rejected honour – why?
, ANTH 4340 – Advocacy and Social Movements
Idealistic – the argument is based on the claim that things expire with
introduction/adoption of new conceptions
Modernity brought about rise of value of individualism
Human beings have dignity independent of language, religion, status,
job role, etc
Means modern world has seen full transformation of human identity
Past identity dependent of institutional role but presently it is
independent of those things
Link to the post-modern ideologies of women’s rights and the transformation
of the ideologies regarding individual rights in India from India’s Daughter
Egalitarian - people equalized and unequal only in terms of wealth (modern
society) – argument that it is blind to racial/class discrimination
He didn’t explain why this happened, just pointed out the pattern
Modernity – possessing these unalienable rights (live as they please)
In historical terms, its not self evident and highly arbitrary
Egocentric society – individualistic society with concern from people in your
social groups
Sociocentric society – of individual to their social groupings
Insert Julian Pitt-Rivers stuff on Mediterranean’s
2. According to various authors we have read or that I have discussed in lecture, what might one
infer about how honour values (a) come into existence, (b) what they accomplish, and (c) how
they structure behaviour? In answering this question, consider what could be said about the
likelihood of perpetuation of honour values within modern post-industrial democratic societies,
and how they are broadly perceived.
Julian Pitt-Rivers: The Values of Mediterranean Society
o Honour as precedence (the condition of being considered more important than
someone or something else; priority in importance, order, or rank)
o Defines honour as the value of a person in his own eyes and eyes of his society
o Acknowledgement of the claim of his excellence in his own eyes
o Society recognize his claim to pride which either grants or denies his right to pride
Honour meant chastity for women and courage for men
Came into existence from:
Classic agrarian/medieval/Chinese societal order
Gov’t authorities led to marginalization of pastoralists (farmers) who raise livestock by
emergence of the modern state
o Extracted wealth from dominated population
Agriculturalists, tied to the land type of peeps were most vulnerable (peasants)
Shepherds are accessible to unknown territories and are mobile so they are most difficult to
control
Study Guide for First In-class Exam
The questions below are a guide to help direct your studying for the first exam. As you try to address
these questions by reference to the material assigned and covered so far this semester (including
readings, lectures, films, etc.), you will be able to refine your understanding of the central themes and
issues we have examined. Two or three of the questions below will appear on your exam, which will run
75 minutes.
1. Why might the chastity of wives and the virginity of daughters be so highly valued within
honour‐based societies, and how can we account for the gradual weakening of this concern in
modern industrial or post-industrial societies?
Sambian culture – women exchanged in arranged marriages for men’s pleasure
India’s Daughter –
Jane Schneider – article is a history of honour values as they connect with the concept of female
chastity/purity/virginity and motivate social control and how it evolves
o Female sexuality as resource to be protected with severe repercussions for promiscuous
females
o Cultural values/beliefs are developed by people who believe this
Women are part of patrimony of family
Women are not considered autonomous beings, not independent
Female sexuality is kept intact and preserves and assumes an exchange value
The effects of this made control over female sexuality has many effects on women and their
status in society is bad
A daughter’s virginity as a symbol assumes an exchange value
o Virginity = purity/potency or right for family to claim honour
o Means daughter was raised protected from access from other men
o Pre-marital sex takes away from family honour
o Family that can be depended on because they are strong and won’t be pushed around.
Relations through marriage strengthens honour status of both families, good
allies/dependent people
How belief systems of honour change and how it becomes possible for value orientation to
expire:
o All of our ancestors lived in an honour bound world, at what point did honour expire/die
away in modern time?
o Peter Berger 1970 – On the Obsolescence of the Concept of Honour
Argues honour is obsolete concept in modern society – considered “backward”,
of a different time
Being sensitive to insult is of another era/anarchistic
The gradual obsolescence goes hand in hand with rise of new moralities/dignity
rights of the individual
Modern consciousness values rights of individual but rejected honour – why?
, ANTH 4340 – Advocacy and Social Movements
Idealistic – the argument is based on the claim that things expire with
introduction/adoption of new conceptions
Modernity brought about rise of value of individualism
Human beings have dignity independent of language, religion, status,
job role, etc
Means modern world has seen full transformation of human identity
Past identity dependent of institutional role but presently it is
independent of those things
Link to the post-modern ideologies of women’s rights and the transformation
of the ideologies regarding individual rights in India from India’s Daughter
Egalitarian - people equalized and unequal only in terms of wealth (modern
society) – argument that it is blind to racial/class discrimination
He didn’t explain why this happened, just pointed out the pattern
Modernity – possessing these unalienable rights (live as they please)
In historical terms, its not self evident and highly arbitrary
Egocentric society – individualistic society with concern from people in your
social groups
Sociocentric society – of individual to their social groupings
Insert Julian Pitt-Rivers stuff on Mediterranean’s
2. According to various authors we have read or that I have discussed in lecture, what might one
infer about how honour values (a) come into existence, (b) what they accomplish, and (c) how
they structure behaviour? In answering this question, consider what could be said about the
likelihood of perpetuation of honour values within modern post-industrial democratic societies,
and how they are broadly perceived.
Julian Pitt-Rivers: The Values of Mediterranean Society
o Honour as precedence (the condition of being considered more important than
someone or something else; priority in importance, order, or rank)
o Defines honour as the value of a person in his own eyes and eyes of his society
o Acknowledgement of the claim of his excellence in his own eyes
o Society recognize his claim to pride which either grants or denies his right to pride
Honour meant chastity for women and courage for men
Came into existence from:
Classic agrarian/medieval/Chinese societal order
Gov’t authorities led to marginalization of pastoralists (farmers) who raise livestock by
emergence of the modern state
o Extracted wealth from dominated population
Agriculturalists, tied to the land type of peeps were most vulnerable (peasants)
Shepherds are accessible to unknown territories and are mobile so they are most difficult to
control
