This paper attempts to flesh out an integrated theoretical proposal about the application of the notion of face to different socio-historical settings. Following a new definition of a universalising notion of face, I look to the field of sociology, and in particular to the work of the German sociologist Tönnies about Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, for a principled way to link the proposed abstract, universalising notion of face with its several, seemingly diverging, local interpretations. In the last part of this essay, I explore the explanatory potential of this proposal taking contemporary Greek society as a case-study.