Having surveyed the nature of face as such in the last two chapters, I want now to explore the relationship between face, shame and loss of face, or what might even be called defacement. ‘Loss of face’ is a metaphor for losing honour and respect in society, that is, for shamed, defaced or defective identity (Goffman 1968, 2005). It implies diminishment, exclusion, alienation, uncleanness and unwantedness. But it is not an accident that it is thus described; people who have difficulties with face of various kinds, for example facial movement, facial recognition, facial injury or disfigurement, often find themselves shamed and excluded from society, regarded as ugly, and, by implication, evil or ill (Gilman 1988, 1995, 1998, 1999;

Synnott 1989, 1990). If faces are to be saved, if people who have problems with face are to be countenanced, enfaced and redeemed from the shadow of shame, it is, then, important to understand some of the dynamics that pertain to face, identity and the conferment of shame.