Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

Family Values 497fits, he could extort him into backing down with the threat of a fight thatwas dangerous to both. But a hothead who would stop at nothing to preservehis reputation (a doomsday machine) is unextortable.The ghetto gang member who stabs the guy who dissed him has honorablecounterparts in all the world's cultures. The very meaning of theword honor in many languages (including one of its senses in English) isa determination to avenge insults, with bloodshed if necessary. In manyforaging societies a boy achieves manly status only after he has killed. Aman's respect increases with his verified body count, giving rise tocharming customs like scalping and headhunting. Dueling between"men of honor" was traditional in the American South, and many menrose to leadership with the help of their success in duels. The man onthe ten-dollar bill, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, waskilled in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr, and the man on thetwenty, President Andrew Jackson, won two duels and tried to provokeothers.Why don't we see periodontists or college professors dueling over aparking space? First, they live in a world in which the state has a monopolyon the legitimate use of violence. In places beyond the reach of thestate, like urban underworlds or rural frontiers, or in times when thestate did not exist, like the foraging bands in which we evolved, a crediblethreat of violence is one's only protection. Second, the assets of periodontistsand professors, such as houses and bank accounts, are hard tosteal. "Cultures of honor" spring up when a rapid response to a threat isessential because one's wealth can be carried away by others. Theydevelop among herders, whose animals can be stolen, more often thanamong crop-growers, whose land stays put. And they develop among peoplewhose wealth is in other liquid forms, like cash or drugs. But perhapsthe biggest reason is that periodontists and professors are not male, poor,and young.Maleness is by far the biggest risk factor for violence. Daly and Wilsonreport thirty-five samples of homicide statistics from fourteen countries,including foraging and preliterate societies and thirteenth-centuryEngland. In all of them, men kill men massively more often than womenkill women—on average, twenty-six times more often.Also, the poolhall avengers and their victims are nobodies: uneducated,unmarried, unprosperous, and often unemployed. Among polygynousmammals such as ourselves, reproductive success varies enormouslyamong males, and the fiercest competition can be at the bottom, among