Sororicide/Filiacide: Homicide for Family Honour [and Comments and Reply

Abstract

Homicide of patrilateral kin on the justification of "restoring the family honour" is here differentiated from other assaults on family members. It is also distinguished from vendetta, which, though aimed at the restoration of family honour, affects strangers. This study outlines the social characteristics of the instances of homicide, attempted homicide, and forced suicide for family honour that occurred in Israel between May 1973 and December 1978. The findings disclose a systematic subjection of the custom to a normative code. It is largely limited to Arab Muslims. Murder by kin is here a consequence of forbidden sexual associations that impinge on a group's esteem. The sensitivity of the groups to their daughters' propriety is a matter of honour not in an absolute sense, but in concrete reference to groups above or below them on the social scale. The killing is, moreover, not a mere punitive response, but a consequence of a shift in the kin group's position on the social ladder; with social mobility the response becomes more stringent. Mobility increases the vulnerability of females, as the tightening control over their movements includes those made in the past that until then had been ignored. Sororicide/filiacide for family honour is here identified as sui generis. It reflects neither structures of personality nor the social superstructure, but the social infrastrusture-the hierarchy of patrilineal kin groups within their Gemeinschaft setting.