Outliers Part 3 of 3: The Hatfield-McCoy Feud & Cultural Legacy
December 11, 2008 by dr. lam
To conclude our evaluation of Macolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, we evaluate the effects of what he calls “The Culture of Honor.” He discusses why the famous American feuds like Howard-Turner and Hatfield-McCoy standoffs were steeped in a culture that traced back several centuries on a different soil. Gladwell argues that these intense clan battles that centered around familial honor originated in the idea of the herdsman living on the hinterland. The farmer, by contrast, who must work in a team to cultivate arable land, would not risk alienating those around him. The herdsman, on the other hand, living on the rocky highlands must defend his sheep and cattle from the encroachment of strangers and thereby defines a certain code of honor that makes his battles per force openly querulous and staunchly virile. Gladwell discovered that these individuals acted in such a fashion from a legacy that predated their arrival in the heartland of America. Coming from the lawless borderlands of the United Kingdom, these “Scotch-Irish” engaged in feuds and fights because they were classic herdsmen as found in the Basque region of Spain, Sicily, and parts of Greece. Their behavior had been imprinted through generations of predecessors before them.
In a famous psychological experiment in Michigan, Nisbett and Cohen measured the testosterone and cortisol levels before and after an insult was levied. A student would be asked to complete a questionnaire and then walk down a long, narrow hallway where a proctor would accept their folded submission and then utter the word “asshole” under his breath. This provocative utterance was used as the catalyst for measuring any heightened responses. What was extremely interesting was that there was no difference between jocks and nerds nor wealthy and poor but there was a remarkable difference between those students who hailed from the South and those who resided already in the North. The gentlemen who came from the South, irrespective of background, were almost uniformly enraged by the comment as measured by the aforementioned physiologic markers; whereas the Northerners actually lowered their levels almost in a way to suggest that they were trying to counter any trace of their ire. The thought in short was that the legacy of the “Culture of Honor” was passed down through generations of Southerners irrespective of almost any other environmental or genetic factor.
When I look at some of my accomplishments, I can’t just measure my own successes from within but respect where I came from. Although my parents did not express the opprobrious and overt pressure that most Asian parents do on their children, they exerted a level of covert pressure to succeed that definitely affected my behavior. I remember when I was very young sitting around all afternoon watching television when my mother came in and with rancorous disdain told me to get up and do something constructive with my time. I was so upset at her behavior (or perhaps mine) that I got up and “ran away from home” shoeless for at least several hours to upset them. Of course, my parents were very upset at me for my needlessly stupid behavior. I would love to believe that my desire for success has been all internally derived but there is an honesty about the lingering effects of the cultural legacy that Asian parents and in this case mine imposed on me during my formative years. I remember my father beating me silly when I did not respect my elders at parties. These strict tones must have influenced me more than subtly. Now all that being said, my parents were and are the gentlest spirits that I know, especially compared to many of the fascist behavior of other observed Asian parents. But the cultural legacy that it has imparted for me is unmistakable and undeniable. Why else would I remember these isolated incidences? In many positive ways, I owe who I am to where I am from.
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