The Audience Creates the Shame: Public Visibility and the Social Construction of Siri’ in Bugis-Makassar Society
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Abstract
Siri’ is often translated as shame or honor, although neither term fully captures its place in Bugis-Makassar moral life. Scholarship has examined the defense of shared honor, yet the part played by those who hear, judge, or dispute a reported injury remains less clearly specified. Drawing on published studies of siri’ and established work in legal anthropology, this article examines how public visibility may alter the social standing of an honor claim. A qualitative, library-based reading separates three matters that are frequently treated together. A person may experience shame privately, other people may question that person's reputation, and a further claim may arise that someone is obliged to respond. The analysis develops audience-mediated normative activation as a conditional account of the movement between these matters. Iwata's discussion of maseddi siri’ establishes the importance of collective action, while work on reputation and social norms helps explain why public knowledge need not produce agreement. Recognition may be withheld, and a recognized injury does not settle what remedy is acceptable. The proposed account therefore treats collective duty as a contested attribution rather than an automatic effect of publicity. Its contribution is conceptual, not a finding about the prevalence of responses among Bugis-Makassar people.
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