Anonymous user
Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 108:
* Supposedly, in the Wild West calling someone a coward was one of four fighting words that you would only invoke if you were prepared to fight for your life. The other three were thief, cheater (especially when playing cards in a saloon), and liar.
**Not just in the Wild West. It has been historically among the most widely accepted reasons for calling someone out. For good reason as it is saying a person is not capable of helping his own group in a pinch and might well make it look vulnerable before outsiders.
***Furthermore cowardice is infectious. When one man runs, the man next to him sees him running and assumes the battle/hunt/cattle drive/whatever to be lost. Humans who depend on working together and whose main defense against predation is [[Humans Are Warriors|eliminating predators]] have their survival wrapped up in stigmatizing cowardice and thus to accept the name can be a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. Which goes far toward explaining why men will fight to avoid the term.
***And that is not even allowing for keeping one's place in the competition for mates. Having someone who won't help [[Papa Wolf|protect the children]] can be awkward to say the least.
{{reflist}}
| |||