HONOR CULTURE AND RESEARCH OF TURKEY

Abstract

In Turkish, “honor” is identified as a commitment to moral principles and social values in society: a word that is familiar and significant to everyone in Turkey. Thus, Turkey has the characteristics of the culture of honor. In the cultures of honor, one's value can be defined, in particular, on the knowledge of what others think about him/her. As a critical moral value, honor describes one’s family and himself; and needs to be known positively by both themselves and others. Honorableness is defined especially by women; honesty of a woman concerns the whole family, particularly the male members of the family. This article addresses a variety of research on honor cultures; accordingly, Turkish people differ significantly from other countries’ participants about the need for the reputation of being honorable. Following the subject, an overview of honor killings is presented in the extension of the article. It is considered valuable to investigate the characteristics of this specific culture, which is embedded in almost every part of Turkish society.