re: #84 The Ghost of a Flea

Because “honor” is a word loaded with Orientalist trope bullshit and it’s axiomatic that modern European (white) folks never ever do ugly things because of shame, loss of face, or motivated by (perceived) damage to social standing. It’s the lingering, oft-unrecognized remainder of about two centuries of academic pseudo-intellectualism that basically gives a tongue bath to the distinction of “Enlightened” individualist versus the benighted.

I note that the Wikipedia page on “Honor Killing” gave some shift to the concept that it is cultural, not inherently religious, and also not simply Middle Eastern. (For instance a cite to Haitian criminal code.)

But most of the content is Muslim/Middle Eastern in context along with mention of the similar issue in India.

But from a wider historical view how similar is this conceptually to Western families (especially of means) disinheriting their daughters (or sons) due to their choices regarding spouses and boy/girl friends. Or, to dig in another area, of paying attention to males of the underclasses.