面子文化与荣誉文化:暴力的表征

Cultures of Face and Cultures of Honor:Representations of Violence

近年来,社会科学家对全球面子文化与荣誉文化的关系进行了大量研究。这些研究提供了一系列关于心理或身体暴力的数据,这些暴力在我们这个时代被植入到全球范围内的每一种文化中。然而,这些研究并未关注富有想象力的文学作品。因此,本文提出了这样一个问题:我们是否可以假定文学对于理解这种暴力形式毫无帮助?我们能指望虚构作品提供自己的见解吗?本文运用社会科学和历史文献资料,首先厘清了作为文化特征的“面子”和“荣誉”的含义,着重论述了人格和自我的分类以及引导社会行为的规范。本文随后探讨了我们这个时代和最近的一些小说作品,这些作品确实以可比的方式主题化了面子和荣誉文化的关键原则。从研究和小说中可以明显看出,这些原则的特点是明显的性别失衡。在世界上的许多地方,所谓荣誉文化中的“荣誉”往往指妇女在性别和家庭角色方面的突出价值,这是因为她们向来受到传统家庭意识形态的支配。故在这种文化语境下,我们可以观察到男性声誉和女性身体之间的直接联系,而由此设定的各种双重标准实际上导致了男女荣誉之间的差距。面子文化与荣誉文化有许多共同特征:在集体主义导向之下,它们均鼓励维持牢固的家庭关系和社会和谐,并有效建构了类似的双重标准。因此,本研究重点关注顺从和不孕不育这两个概念,以了解这些会如何影响女性。小说最近被称为心理学和社会学的重要灵感来源,而分析表明,虚构作品确实可对有害的文化习俗提供有价值和独创性的见解。应当特别注意的是,无论我们身处何处,我们自身的文化定位在整个比较过程中时刻岌岌可危,这不禁促使我们重新思考我们自己作为研究者和读者的处境。

Recently social scientists have carried out substantial research concerning the world’s cultures of face in relation to cultures of honor.It offers a range of data for the psychic or physical violence which in our time is built into each of these cultures,on a fairly global scale.Yet such research takes no notice of imaginative literature.Hence this essay asks:are we to assume that literature has nothing to contribute to an understanding of such forms of violence?Could we expect fictional works to offer insights of their own?Using social science as well as historical literary sources,the essay firstly aims to clarify what is meant by face and honor as cultural characteristics,focusing especially on personality and selfhood categories and on norms guiding social conduct.Then,secondly,the essay discusses instances of fictional works of our time and the recent past which,in a comparable manner,do indeed thematize key principles of face and honor cultures.It becomes apparent from research and fiction,in complementary ways,that these principles feature a notable gender imbalance.In many parts of the world,in so-called honor cultures,honor is often a prominent value in the context of women’s assigned sexual and familial roles as they are dictated by a traditional family ideology.Thus,in such cultural contexts we can observe a direct link between male reputation and the female body,leading in effect to a gap between a woman’s and a man’s honor by setting double standards.Face cultures share a number of features with honor cultures:with a collectivistic orientation,they have traditionally encouraged a maintenance of strong family ties and social harmony,effectively resulting in similar double standards.Accordingly,the focus in this study is especially on notions of obedience and of infertility,to understand how these affect women.Fiction has recently been called an important source of inspiration for psychology as well as for sociology,and the analysis shows that imaginative works can indeed contribute valuable and original insights into harmful cultural practices.We should note that our own cultural positionality,wherever we are located,is at stake in this comparative process,which pushes us toward rethinking the assumptions that we ourselves,as researchers and as readers,bring to bear on our observations.