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Honor Codes in Modern France a Historical Anthropology Robert A Honor Codes in Modern France A Historical Anthropology Robert A. Nye Nye, Robert A. 1991: Honor Codes in Modern France. A Historical Anthropology. - Ethnologia Europaea 21: 5-17. Historians have traditionally considered codes of honor as creations of the old regime that did not prosper in modern indu strialized society, surviving , at best, as cultural anachroni ms in a vestigia l aristocracy. Anthropologists, on the other harid, bave found ample evidence of honor culture in contemporary Medlterra­ n an societie., which sugge ·ts some continuity with the old regime . This paper investig ates the l1istorical transmission of codes of honor from noble to boul'geois culture in the form of the point cl'honn(Jltr governing the due.I. This feature ()f male honorability flourished in France at least until World War One. Robert A. Nye, Professor of History, Depa.rt.ment of History , 455 West Lindsey , Room 406, The Uniuersity of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 USA. My aim here is to provide an account of the and hierarchical social order of the old regime way that male codes of honor have worked to transformed into components of urban, com­ shape and reflect male identity and ideals of mercial, bourgeois civilization? The assump­ masculine behavior in modern France. It is my tion that informs this question is that honor assumption that masculinity, like most human codes survived the abolition of feudalism and traits, is primarily a cultural construction that the birth of a new political order in 1789. While changes over time, not an "essential" or "natu­ they did not survive the Revolution with all ral" feature of men. I acknowledge the dis­ their forms and functions intact, codes of honor tinction, therefore, between "sex" and "gender" helped shape the behavior and ideals of upper 1 as an analytically useful one to the historian . and middle-class French men well into the An important corollary of this assumption is twentieth century. I am particularly interested the recognition that within these "sex/gender" here in the duel, which was governed, both in systems masculinity and femininity are de­ the old regime and the post-Revolutionary era, fined conceptually in terms of one another, in by the rules of the so-called point d'honneur. It 2 the manner of a binary opposition • This fea­ is my contention that dueling rituals were an ture of sex/gender systems means that individ­ intrinsic part of the prevalent male honor code uals in a society governed by such a system will and may thus provide important insights into usually define the "other" sex in either "oppo­ the scope and function of those codes in histor­ site" or "complementary" terms. Changes in ical societies. the meaning of one term will therefore provoke Anthropologists have long recognized the adjustments in the other, producing moments role of such codes in their treatments of Medi­ of crisis and cultural negotiation of interest to terranean societies regulated by "honor and the historian. The focus of this paper is on shame" (Campbell 1964; Gilmore 1987; Pitt­ masculinity, but, as we shall see, a reciprocal Rivers 1961). The functions of honor and femininity is seldom far from view as an ac­ shame are many, but they operate primarily to tively influential aspect of masculine "nature". regulate the relations between the sexes, fam­ The question I wish to pose is how were codes ilies, and clans, to distribute prestige (and of honor that were fashioned in the martial therefore status) among them, and, finally, to 5 + promote social cohesion through the "shaming" stant challenge, and produces keen feelings of of individuals who forfeit their honor by failing vulnerability in men. to respond when it is challenged (Gilmore I do not wish to argue here that one may 1987; Ortner and Whitehead 1981: 1-27). On directly apply the anthropological concepts of the more positive side, Pitt-Rivers has argued "honor and shame" to an understanding of his­ that honor provides "a nexus between the torical societies in which honor codes played an ideals of a society and their reproduction in the important role; these modern Mediterranean individual through his aspiration to personify societies and the codes that regulate them are them" (Pitt-Rivers 1977: 36; Campbell 1964 : themselves the product of a long historical evo­ 274--91). lution4. But there are some features of these In "honor and shame" societies, men are the concepts that I believe offer rich interpretive "active" and women the "passive" principle. possibilities to the historian. The chief benefit Both sexes are attributed a measure of honor may be that since honor provides a crucial con­ at adolescence, but women's honor is primarily nection between sexual and social identity, the sexual in nature and consists first of her vir­ historian may get a better fix on how men have ginity and later her strict marital fidelity. related to and judged other men and on male­ Women can only lose their honor, but men are female relations, because a single system of permitted to accrue to their honor in the "pub­ honor regulates both. I rely on the fact that in lic" realm by seeking glory and distinction. these "honor-shame" systems , rules of be­ Men, however, may also lose their honor in a havior, sanctions, and rewards must be public variety of ways, suffering a kind of "annihila­ to be effective; they are thus visible to all, in­ tion" and social death. They might act in a cluding the historian (Speier 1969: 37-9; Pitt­ cowardly or fearful manner, commit civil Rivers 1968: 510). crimes, break a betrothal, engage in unpro­ If we now have a general idea how honor voked violence, or fail to oversee and protect works, we yet need to understand how honor the honor of the women of their family. This codes evolved historically in early modern list is only partial, and the extraordinary sub­ France up to 1789, when the modern history of tlety of the discriminations in attributions these codes begins. The etymological dictio­ of honor and shame may only be suggested naries give us an excellence sense of the here . changes of meaning in "honor" over the sweep For my purposes it is of particular interest of the centuries. In the era prior to the fif­ that the honorable man aspires to a manliness teenth century, "honneur", in its ancient spell­ that "subsumes both shame and masculinity" ing, signified the feudal possessions, fiefs or (Peristiany 1961: 22). A man's masculine benefices possessed by a noble man. The rever­ sexual identity, and, by implication, his sexual ence or respect he enjoyed in the world de­ behavior, is thus a key element in his social pended on these "marks and attributes of his identity as a man of honor and legitimizes his dignity" (Godefroy 1885: 224--5). A man's wife claims to the worldly honors he may have won. was one of these possessions, and the term A man whose wife cuckolds him is assumed to appears to have acknowledged her only in that be lacking the usual marital authority because capacity . he is in some sense deficient as a man. Various By the Sixteenth century the term attaches insults in rural Andalusia locate willpower in more closely to the noble individual himself, to the genitals, and there is a widespread fear in his reputation, beauty, and personal character. 3 "honor and shame" societies of impotence . Ef­ It was a "natural" quality of noblesse, however, feminacy is deplored, and is invariably linked because it slipped away from those who sought to cowardice, both of which are incompatible it, while adhering to those who appeared least with masculine honor. The irony of male au­ concerned with it (Huguet 1980: 497-8). By thority in such societies is that the consider­ this time the words "honte" and "honteux" able power males possess by virtue of their have developed from the same root, meaning, masculinity is of a fragile sort, is open to con- essentially, "modest" or "chaste" and applying, 6 5 in this form , to women as individuals for the or elsewhere . We must instead consider the first time. It is clear that honneur/honte have likelihood that honor was transformed to suit not yet been organized as a binary . The Littre the needs and functions of the new social order, of 1863, drawing its examples from the seven­ while exerting, as a body of beliefs and prac­ teenth and eighteenth centuries, recognizes tices, an influence over its possessors that en­ "honor" as applying wholly to personal charac­ sured the vitality of much of its traditional teristics, including virtue, courage, and the de­ ethos. sire for distinction, terms reflecting aristo­ Honor was the most important concept to cratic preoccupations . The point d'honneur, have survived the decline of medieval chivalry which governed personal combat, resolved dis­ in the fifteenth century. Chivalry emphasized putes pertaining to the possession of these military valor and courage to a high degree, qualities. The obligation for a man to defend a but it also cherished virtue, which comprised woman's chastity is maintained, and "honor" charity and protection of the weak (including and "shame" have now become a binary , the women). Indeed, all these qualities were privi­ latter meaning "dishonor", "humiliation", or leged over noble birth, because the chivalrous the fear of that condition, and applying now to man did not rest on his laurels but acted in­ men as well as women (Littre 1863: 2040-5). cessantly in behalf of honor (Keen 1984: 249- Modern usages drawn from the period after 53). The foremost practices of honor, where 1800 acknowledge decisively the rise of bour­ honorable behavior was ritualized and drama­ geois society.
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