He explains that people essentially in these regions started out as herders and as such they had to exert his authority and his power. He can’t be seen as weak, any insult cannot go unanswered. The people in the Appalachian Mountains were descendants of herdsmen and they were clannish responding to harshness and turmoil of their environments by forming tight family bonds. Similar is the culture in the South part of USA. Violence there was not for economic gain but for honour.
Gladwell urges that if you want to understand what happened in that region of Kentucky, you have to go back several generations. It is not just where you are from, but where your great great grandparents are, which also