Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

by Robert M. Sapolsky

This pastoralist vulnerability has generated “cultures of honor” with the following features: (a) extreme but temporary hospitality to the stranger passing through—after all, most pastoralists are wanderers themselves with their animals at some point; (b) adherence to strict codes of behavior, where norm violations are typically interpreted as insulting someone; (c) such insults demanding retributive violence—the world of feuds and vendettas lasting generations; (d) the existence of warrior classes and values where valor in battle produces high status and a glorious afterlife. Much has been made of the hospitality, conservatism (as in strictly conserving cultural norms), and violence of the traditional culture of honor of the American South. The pattern of violence tells a ton: murders in the South, which typically has the highest rates in the country, are not about stickups gone wrong in a city; they’re about murdering someone who has seriously tarnished your honor (by conspicuously bad-mouthing you, failing to repay a debt, coming on to your significant other . . .), particularly if living in a rural area.