ABSTRACT
It seems that honor in Turkish society has always been brought to light through its connection with violence and homicides committed in its name: the existence of this kind of honor, considered as “barbarous,” seems to have subverted any representations of civic honor. Through interviews made with Turkish young adults, this article will attempt to show that a “civic” honor exists in Turkish society aiming to organize public space to maintain social order. Honor can thus be seen as a principle that can regulate social interactions in everyday life and even curb deviance instead of provoking it.
Notes
1 The differences between these crimes will be explained later in the article.
2 Official dictionary of the Turkish language; www.tdk.org.tr
3 Some of the arguments presented here were discussed in a previous article (Dilmaç Citation2014c:3).
4 The definition of deviance used in this article is that expressed by Erving Goffman in Stigma (1990). This means that an act will be called “deviant” when it breaks the norm. These acts can be of various kinds: they can be penal offenses, breaches of social hierarchies or offenses toward morals and norms that govern interactions with others.
5 In this article the term “norm” is based on the following definition: “a set of rules and expectations through which society guides the behavior of its members” (Macionis Citation2012:142).
6 The report on honor crimes, of the Parlementary Assembly of the European Council, is particularly relevant: http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Doc/XrefViewHTML.asp?FileID=12696&Language=fr
7 Türk Dil Kurumu (www.tdk.gov.tr).
8 For more details, see the work of Calogirou (Citation1997); as well as Elias (Citation1985).
9 T. Renaudot cited by Billacois (Citation1991:79).
10 For more details on the intersubjective aspect of recognition, see Honneth (Citation1996).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Julie Alev Dilmaç
JULIE ALEV DILMAÇ is an Assistant Professor at Cyprus International University. She is also the Chair of Social Work Department. She completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at Paris Descartes University in France and her undergraduate studies at Galatasaray University (Turkey). Her research interests lie in the area of social relations in the modern society: in recent years, she has focused on the concept of humiliation in the virtual world.