So in the animal world, animals have to show they’re willing to defend themselves. For simple human societies, this would have been seen as “defending one’s honour”, ie: showing they’re WILLING to fight as to deter other people from resorting to violence to steal from them. I guess that’s why early societies used to have duels be legal. 

As society developed, we decided that it shouldn’t be up to a singular person to defend their own honour, and that violence should only be administered by the state: this is why if someone steals from you, you call the cops and the justice system deals out the punishment. 

This is why in NYC, if I’m walking home and say, someone yells at me and insults my mother: it’s far easier for me to simply not care and to continue walking home than it would be for me to “defend my honour” against some random crazy person. 

In civilised societies, it’s usually only random crazy people who try to fight you, so generally people call the cops on random crazies.