Honor

So what is honor? Joseph Marshall in his novel The Lokota Way defines honor as having integrity, and being upright, and includes the Lokota word for honor Wayuonihan. In the story two hunters that are sparred by a snake are duty bound to take a man only identified as the man with the scar to a lake. The reasons remain a mystery why they had to take the man, but after they do the man is driven insane, and must choose between banishing himself or bringing insanity into the village. The man sacrifices himself by leaving, and thus spares his entire village. The man later dies, but the moral lives on, the message is that the man displayed honor by sacrificing himself for the good of others. 

The Story of the Snake

The stories later on the chapter do not emulate this value. Where the first story shows a man who does the right thing because he should, the later stories depict characters who are dishonorable and thus punished. The reason I cannot extrapolate honor from this is because the message is that if you do not comply with the standards you will be punished. When the alternative to being honorable is negative then of course people will choose honor. True honor comes when someone takes on a burden because it is morally sound, like the man with he scar. The idea of teaching honor in a fear based manner subverts the entire purpose of having honor, which is doing what is harder no matter what the outcome is.