Honor and Conflict in a Sicilian Town

Abstract

Interpersonal conflict is endemic in Western Sicily and frequently involves neighbors and close kin. There are structural reasons for this. In the competition for control of material and human resources, each actor is vulnerable to others, just as they are vulnerable to him, while the boundaries of private property and personal influence are either defined in struggle or remain ambiguous. The resulting system explains not only the frequency of interpersonal conflict, but also the ideology of honor which often frames it. In other words, honor is seen as an historical effect of interpersonal conflict and also, in a more limited sense, as its cause. A distinction is made between normative codes of honor (social honor), and individual adaptations to the problem of honor (personal honor). The preoccupation with personal honor may intensify conflict, while conflict reinforces the traditional codes of honor.