In an unfamiliar social environment, a character does something that he thinks is mostly innocuous, either intentionally or by accident. Unfortunately, in this society, said act constitutes Throwing Down the Gauntlet, and will result in him engaging in a Duel to the Death, possibly on the spot. Oddly enough, the people from the local culture never seem to grasp the concept that different cultures do things differently, so they never understand the poor foreigner's plight, and he does not get a free pass for not understanding the gravity of what he just did.