ABSTRACT
The use of ritual violence enforced social norms and effectively prevented individuals from disobeying the will of their parents and the norms of the community.
Family members might react violently in situations when their will was disregarded, and those without the protection that privilege afforded could be subject to arbitrary and rough justice. Even as noblemen acted as violent vigilantes who claimed to be acting in defense of female honor, they were clearly acting in the same way that the vigilantes of the Old frontier West and southern men had acted in defense of lynching. As Ida B. Wells observed in 1892, ‘to justify their barbarism, they assume a chivalry which they do not possess’ (Arellano, 2012, p. 11). Noblemen like Krzysztof Zawisza relied on stories of self-justification to legitimize their ritualized domestic violence and to reinforce community norms regarding freedom of choice in marriage. In doing this, they trampled on the rights and freedoms of their family members instead of preserving the golden freedoms of the nobility.
