Final answer:
The distinctive Southern culture that legitimizes violence for dispute resolution and status protection is rooted in a historical code of honor among White elites, supporting racial hierarchies and slavery. This culture of honor included dueling as a means to settle conflicts and maintained power dynamics through symbolic violence.
Step-by-step explanation:
The suggestion that the South has evolved a distinctive culture that legitimizes violence as a way of solving disputes or guarding and gaining social status is intricately tied to the region's historical adherence to a code of honor. This code, established in the antebellum South among the White elite, placed a high value on personal reputation, the defense of honor, and the maintenance of social hierarchies based on race and class.
It perpetuated a culture where dueling was an acceptable method to resolve conflicts and protect one's social standing. Such pro-slavery arguments and racial ideologies were fortified by assertions that slavery provided order, and by misrepresentations of African Americans that sought to justify their enslavement and continued subjugation in the postbellum South.
Throughout history, the maintenance of these racial and social norms has often been enforced through symbolic violence and the exercise of power by those with more symbolic capital over those with less.
In the context of Southern culture, where a rigid class structure was intertwined with racial oppression, the use of violence became both a method for the White elite to maintain power and a culturally sanctioned reaction to perceived threats to honor and status.