Vol. 47 No. 1 (1999)
Research Article

Regional Naming Patterns and the Culture of Honor

PDF
  • Michael H. Kelly
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1999.47.1.3

Published 1999-03-01

Copyright (c) 1999 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Throughout American history, violence has been more common in southern and western states than in northern states and violence continues to be viewed more positively and constructively in these regions. Two studies are presented which test the hypothesis that regional differences in violent behaviors and attitudes are reflected in geographic names. The first shows that place names in the South and West are more likely than place names in the North to begin with “violent” words such as gun and war. The second study extends the investigation beyond place name “fossils” to contemporary name choices and shows that business names in the South and West are more likely than those in the North to begin with violent words. Implications of these naming patterns for the maintenance of regional differences in violence are discussed.

PDF

References

  1. Anderson, C.A., A.J. Benjamin, and B.D. Bartholow. 1998. “Does the Gun Pull the Trigger? Automatic Priming Effects of Weapon Pictures and Weapon Names.” Psychological Science 9: 308–314.
  2. Battig, W.F., and W.E. Montague. 1969. “Category Norms for Verbal Items in 56 Categories: A Replication of the Connecticut Category Norms.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 80: (3, pt. 2).
  3. Baron, L., and M.A. Straus. 1988. “Cultural and Economic Sources of Homicide in the United States. ” Sociological Quarterly 29: 371–392.
  4. Berkowitz, L. 1974. “Some Determinants of Impulsive Aggression: Role of Mediated Associations with Reinforcement for Aggression. ” Psychological Review 81: 165–176.
  5. Berkowitz, L. 1984. “Some Effects of Thoughts on Anti- and Prosocial Influences of Media Events: A Cognitive-Neoassociation Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin 95: 410–427.
  6. Berkowitz, L., and A. LaPage. 1967. “Weapons as Aggression-Eliciting Stimuli. ” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1: 202–207.
  7. Bornstein, R. F., and P.A. D’Agostino. 1992. “Stimulus Recognition and the Mere Exposure Effect.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63: 545–552.
  8. Cohen, D. 1996. “Law, Social Policy, and Violence: The Impact of Regional Cultures.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70: 961–978.
  9. Cohen, D., and R.E. Nisbett. 1994. “Self-Protection and the Culture of Honor: Explaining Southern Violence.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 20: 551–567.
  10. Cohen, D., and R.E. Nisbett. 1997. “Field Experiments Examining The Culture Of Honor: The Role Of Institutions In Perpetuating Norms About Violence.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23: 1188–1199.
  11. Cohen, D., R.E. Nisbett, B.F. Bowdle and N. Schwarz. 1996. “Insult, Aggression, and the Southern Culture Of Honor: An Experimental Ethnography.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70: 945–960.
  12. Fischer, D.H. 1989. “Albion’s Seed.” New York: Oxford University Press.
  13. Forster, K. L. and S. M. Chambers. 1973. “Lexical Access and Naming Time.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 18: 1–20.
  14. Francis, W.N. and H. Kucera. 1982. “Frequency Analysis of English Usage: Lexicon and Grammar.” Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
  15. Gernsbacher, M.A. and D.J. Hargreaves. 1988. “Accessing Sentence Participants: The Advantage of First Mention.” Journal of Memory and Language 27: 699–717.
  16. Lee, R.S. 1995. “Regional Subcultures as Revealed by Magazine Circulation Patterns. ” Cross-Cultural Research 29: 91–120.
  17. Loew, C.A. 1967. “Acquisition of a Hostile Attitude and its Relationship to Aggressive Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 5: 335–341.
  18. McArthur, L.L. 1995. “The GNIS and the PC: Two Tools for Today’s Toponymie Research.” Names 43: 245–254.
  19. Nisbett, R.E. 1993. “Violence and U.S. Regional Culture.” American Psychologist 48: 441–449.
  20. Parke, R.D., W. Ewall and R.C. Slaby. 1972. “Hostile and Helpful Verbalizations as Regulators of Non-Verbal Aggression.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 23: 243–248.
  21. Payne, R.L. 1995. “Development and Implementation of the National Geographic Names Database.” Names 43: 307–314.
  22. Rubin, D.C. and M. Friendly. 1986. “Predicting which Words Get Recalled: Measures of Free Recall, Availability, Goodness, Emotionality, and Pronunciability for 925 Nouns.” Memory and Cognition 14: 79–94.
  23. Sabini, J. 1992. Social Psychology. New York: Norton.
  24. Schneider, J. 1971. “Of Vigilance and Virgins: Honor, Shame, and Access to Resources in Mediterranean Societies.” Ethnology 10: 1–24.
  25. Stewart, G.R. 1970. American Place-Names. New York: Oxford U P.
  26. Turner, C.W. and J.F. Layton. 1976. “Verbal Imagery and Connotation as Memory-Induced Mediators of Aggressive Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 33: 755–763.
  27. Zajonc, R.B. 1968. “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monograph Supplement 9: 1–27.

Most read articles by the same author(s)