"Die like a man, like your brother did."

gladwell dot com - harlan kentucky:

Wilse Howard of Harlan, KY.

What matters—and I think you can guess where this is headed—is where you're from. The young men from the northern part of the United States, for the most part, treated the incident with amusement. They laughed it off. Their handshakes were unchanged. Their levels of cortisol actually went down, as if they were unconsciously trying to defuse their own anger. Only a few of them had Steve get violent with Larry.

But the southerners? Oh my. They were angry. Their cortisol and testosterone jumped. Their handshakes got firm. Steve was all over Larry.

I'm listening to Gladwell's Outliers during my commute these days. I know Gladwell is a bit polarizing; I'm skeptical of his methods and view him more as a popularizer than an original thinker, yet there's no denying he tells fascinating stories, agree or not with his conclusions or his method of supporting his arguments. Got to the chapter on Harlan, KY and the "Culture of Honor" this morning. As descendant of Scotch-Irish immigrants living in the South (but also a born New Englander with Mayflower ancestry on the other side), I found it of personal as well as intellectual interest -- like much of the book, actually. Partly too, this made we want to go back and watch an episode or two of Justified.

See also, Violence and U.S. Regional Culture and, of course, Cash's The Mind of the South for more fascinating reading on the culture of honor and violence the stretches from the American South back to the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland.