Obviously the word honor has a few similar meanings, but where did the idea of living honorably begin. It seems to be a fairly wide reaching concept, from Japan to Native Americans to medieval Europe and beyond.
Did it evolve in a central location and spread or was it an ideal that sprang naturally from several different cultures organically?
what constitutes honor different in each culture, but in all cultures it just means your standing in a community based on the values of that community. Living honorably in ancient Sweden one could honorably kill someone as long as you took credit for the act and left yourself open for some manner of reprisal, in other cultures this would not be tolerated; so it really comes down to what are the values of each culture and what do they consider important.
This would be worth x-posting to /r/AskAnthropology