Restoring the justified order: Emotions, Injustice, and the role of culture

Abstract

Barrington Moore's formulation: “why people so often put up with being the victim of their societies and why at other times they become very angry and try with passion and forcefulness to do something about their situation,” provides the general problematic. Attention is paid to two societies, the Chewong and Semai Senoi of peninsular Malaysia, where putative (and negative) experiences of injustice are (arguably) transformed by culturally provided beliefs. The outcome is that emotional responses become part of the order of how things should be. Rather than expressing anger and attempting to restore the just order (where the bad are punished), those who have been “wronged” by being neglected in the sharing process are exposed to the threat of punishment. Fear (an aspect of the justified order), not anger, is the order of the day. Analysis draws on both Western psychological theory and indigenous emotion talk, and concludes with some broader, comparative issues.