In the first chapter of the second part of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses cultural legacies, namely in the small Appalachian town of Harlan, Kentucky. The Howards and the Turners, two of the town's founding families, had an infamous history of violence towards each other, and Gladwell explains why. It was because of the culture of honor, dating back to these families' roots. Generation after generation, they were taught and encouraged to protect their own above all else, to form a sort of clan that doesn't have faith in the goodness of humanity. They were taught to be paranoid herdsmen, always with their guards up, expecting attack at all times. A legacy like this was safe, but it wasn't healthy. These families formed hatreds of each other neither could quite comprehend. Lives were lost, enemies gained, all over a version of pride called honor. They say pride is a man's greatest weakness. In this case, it exemplifies years of purposeless hate, and for what? A few dozen lives lost? Cultures of honor are mysterious things, things Malcolm Gladwell attempts to decipher.
Later in the chapter, Gladwell tells us of am experiment conducted on cultures of honor at the University of Michigan. Were they still common, and where? Why did hatred from those two families last for so many generations? The results of the experiment showed that boys from the South were more sensitive to insult and were more likely to turn to violence as a means of solving problems instead of standing back and letting them happen.
By my interpretation, "cultural legacy" is exactly that: a legacy left by past generations for future generations by your culture. My culture legacy would be the morals my parents have taught me that I proceed to pass along to my children. They've taught me to be open, kind, caring, responsible, and harw-working, among other things. I plan on passing these positive values along to my children as well, and my family's culutural legacy shall go on for many generations to come.
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