Tragic Art and Social Regulation

Traditional cultures are typically shame cultures. The ancient Greeks of The Illiad and The Odyssey was a shame culture, as was the pre-Christian Roman Empire (and Republic before it). History has shown that shame cultures, once they reach a certain level of complexity, become guilt cultures. Ancient Greece was moving in this direction during the Tragic Age (and was set back by being taken over by Rome); ancient Rome made the transition through Christianity (though it was already moving in that direction through Stoicism), and Medieval Europe is a fully-developed guilt culture.

But what is the difference between shame and guilt? And why is the move from shame to guilt rather than vice versa?

Shame is what we feel when we are caught doing something wrong. What is “wrong” emerges through cultural/social interactions and is typically associated with anti-social behavior, behaviors that will weaken the social network — things like dishonorable, improper, or ridiculous actions. The key here is that one does not feel bad about doing wrong if one is not caught doing it by anyone ( a behavior isn’t dishonorable if nobody knows about it). It is important to do good in public, where everyone is watching you, but that doesn’t mean one has to do good in private, where nobody is watching you.

In a shame culture, it is possible for someone to shame you. That is, they can do something to you — perhaps even do something nice for you — that can make you feel shame. For example, if you couldn’t afford to buy your child a toy, and someone bought your child a toy, you may feel shamed by the person who bought the toy. You might then even lash out at the person for shaming you.

Thus, in a shame culture, all generosity must be made as public and obvious as possible. People have to know you are being generous. The result is much more charity, if charity is seen as a good behavior. At the same time, you have to take care not to shame anyone in your act of generosity.

However, in a shame culture, you could also cheat on your husband or wife, and so long as you weren’t caught, it wouldn’t matter. This, of course, is going to make it more likely that someone will cheat on their spouse.

While shame is…

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