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Dhaka 1996.Erin Patrice MooreTurkey and the CaucasusThe initial formulations of the “honor and shame
code,” which dominated the literature on social
and sexual relations in the Mediterranean and the
Middle East into the 1980s, held men’s honor to be
proportionally linked to women’s chastity (Peris-
tiany 1966). While the significance of honor as an
index of personal and group prestige is still
acknowledged, scholars have challenged the ways
in which the honor/ shame model obscured other
relevant factors in the construction of honor be-
yond sexual propriety (Herzfeld 1987, Wikan 1984),
as well as the model’s assignment of honor exclu-
sively to the realm of men, when, in fact, women
strive for honor as well (Abu-Lughod 1986).
Before focusing on sexual honor, therefore, it is
important to recognize that honor also extends to
cultural practices of hospitality, reputation, social
status, and family in Turkey and the Caucasus.
Honor in the sense of esteem (itibar) is as important
for women as it is for men, and is related most con-
spicuously to women’s role as mothers and nurtur-
ers. Sirman’s (1990) ethnographic research among
rural women in western Turkey demonstrates, how-
ever, that women do not achieve social status
merely by becoming mothers or by being appropri-
ated into their husbands’ households. Rather, they
need to develop strategies toward forming net-
works of solidarity with other women in the com-
munity. Being sought as a host and for advice, along
with the public avowal of particular skills – from
picking cotton quickly to story telling to cooking –
are integral to women’s reputation. Similarly, field-218 honor
work by Yalçin-Heckman (1990) among semi-
nomadic Kurds in southeast Turkey reveals that
women’s reputations are earned through working
fast and fastidiously, especially in jobs of high pres-
tige such as baking bread, carpet weaving, and milk
production, and assuming a nonchalant posture
even under a heavy workload.
Seniority and the competition among women
in the same household also pertain to women’s
honor. Although the bride takes on most of the
housework and services, the respect and honor
from their noteworthy execution often accrue to
the mother-in-law, who gains further esteem by
having a hard-working, agreeable daughter-in-law
(Sirman 1990). Likewise, in Circassian households
in Adygeia, grandmothers vie for authority over
their daughters-in-law through laying claims to
their grandchildren’s upbringing and to religious
knowledge, as well as through the invocation of
memories of hardship and exile during Soviet rule
(Shami 2000). Women acrossthe Caucasus are also
constructed by honor as bearers of authenticity,
measured through their difference from the per-
ceived image of the “Russian other” (Heyat 2002).
Nonetheless, sexual honor (namus) remains pri-
mary throughout the region. In a recent survey in
Azerbaijan, namuswas ranked as the most impor-
tant theme in early socialization, with women’s
chastity being the primary connotation (Tohidi
2000). In Turkey, beginning with puberty, girls are
strictly socialized into codes of modest demeanor –
from dress to speech to body gestures – that will
protect and affirm their chastity. A woman’s sexual
misconduct or even rumors thereof tarnish not only
her own reputation, but also bring shame and dis-
honor to her family/lineage. The importance of
women’s purity as an icon of family honor mani-
fests itself linguistically in the myriad of injunctions
against “staining the family honor.” What is desig-
nated as sexual misconduct, however, varies greatly.
In parts of Turkey, the very possibility of unsuper-
vised interactions with boys may provide sufficient
grounds for an “honor killing,” the murder of the
dishonored girl by male kin. By contrast, it is taken
for granted in Circassian communities that adoles-
cent girls will attend parties and mingle with several
potential suitors (kashen) (see box). The freer atti-
tudes among Circassians may be attributed to the
Soviet influence as well as to the absence of institu-
tionalized forms of Islam, though the latter have
been gaining increasing prominence in the post-
Soviet era (Shami 2000).
Indeed, a major question has been over the influ-
ence of Islam on the persistent link between