Abstract of "Humiliation and the Human Condition: Mapping a Minefield" by Evelin G. Lindner

A major cause of socio-political violence is the social process of humiliation, whose main elements are closely related to central aspects of the cultural repertoire of complex societies. This paper presents a theory of humiliation, showing that the capacity to humiliate and be humiliated are aspects of a dense web of 'hot' filaments wired into the tissue of culture, giving it a potentially explosive character that is too little recognized. This paper probes this dense web and explores how it acquired its present character. It is shown that our conceptualization of humiliation has changed as our sense of human dignity has grown. Humiliation should be understood as not simply an extreme or marginal condition but a central feature of the social order. Viewed within this broader context, the elements that constitute humiliation should be recognized as fundamental mechanisms in the formation of modern society.