Punishing Transgression in Honor Culture and Face Culture

In the world’s so-called honor and face cultures, certain values and codes related to the protection of a family’s stainless reputation are deep-rooted. When they are violated by what is perceived as an immoral action, and the respective transgression becomes known, the honor not only of the deviant, but also of the in-group itself is damaged. This leads to stigmatization followed by collective rejection. Consequently, the stigma needs to be removed, usually by a publicly recognizable punitive action taken against those who caused this loss of honor or face, which is experienced as a kind of social death. The punishments range from psychological to physical violence, sometimes including murder. With attention to social science as well as works of fiction, this book studies such punitive measures that affect both women and men by also taking into account intercultural contexts of migration and ethnic minorities. Attention is equally devoted to movies that deal with the consequences of honor and face loss. The book is endorsed by the celebrated Turkish writer Elif Shafak.