Honour, Pride and Shame in Rural Ireland. The Case of the Kerry Babies

Samenvatting

An understanding of social emotions is at the center of the attempt to link the microworld of everyday life and interpersonal relations with the macroworld of social structures and long-term historical processes. Scheff has argued that pride and shame are central to understand the social bond, deviancy, and conformity. Following his method of part/whole analysis, it is argued that the concept of honor, particularly as developed by Bourdieu, provides a better way of making a link between emotions, the struggle for power, and institutions such as the state. Using Ginsberg's historical method, this paper analyzes a national event in 1980s Ireland. This analysis provides an insight into the connections between honor, pride, and shame and into the social changes that took place in Irish society in the latter half of the 20th century. Telling stories is one of the ways that people use to critically reflect about how they came to be the way they are. This is the story of what happened to a young single mother in Ireland in 1984. It is the story of her struggle for love, sex, and freedom, of how her sense of pride and joy in having an affair, and children, with a married man quickly turned to shame. It is through an understanding of her predicament and emotions that we can understand the position of Irishwomen and their struggle for sexual independence and equality. An understanding of social emotions is at the center of the attempt to link the microworld of everyday life and interpersonal relations with the macroworld of social structures and long-term historical processes. But it is necessary to link the individual sense of pride and shame to family and community structure, conformity, and deviance. I argue that the concept of honor, particularly as developed by Bourdieu, provides a way of making links between human emotions such as pride and shame, and the struggle for honor and respect. However, it is important to take studies of honor, pride, and shame out of the local and show how these struggles and emotions are linked to long-term transformations in Irish society and the macroworld of state and its police force. 33 References. Adapted from the source document.