The inclination to waste

The honor/shame system operates on the basis of conspicuous power-wielding, not unlike the Western commercial bourgoise system works on the basis of conspicuous consumption. 

In both cases the social status comes from the deliberate engagement in activity that is not efficient and not geared to a direct, functional outcome. Indeed, it is the very inefficiency and lack of functional focus that demonstrates the point of, in the one case, abundance of power, and, in the other case, abundance of wealth. 

Abundance is displayed by the inclination to waste. 

In the case of the honor/shame system, that inclination results in the disabling of a merit system for the way in which commercial decisions are made and for the way in which people advance in their positions in the productive and industrial realm. 

Rather than the effectiveness of the output being the measure of replicability, the ability to make decisions that fly in the face of effectiveness becomes the measure. The measure of conspicuous power-wielding is the capriciousness with which the power can be wielded. 

When the gods wield power capriciously we have paganism.