The Economist - USA (2020-11-07)

76 Books & arts The EconomistNovember 7th 2020

2 norms as the determinant of family obliga-

tions. He reinforces this theme with a wel-

ter of polling data and sweeping historical

arguments, mostly about medieval Europe.

As an example of kin loyalty at odds

with modern thinking, Mr Henrich records

the experience of democracy-builders in

Afghanistan: rural folk could not grasp the

idea that they might vote for somebody

who was not part of their family. Just as for-

eign to such outlooks, he says, is the idea

that crimes are treated equally regardless

of the relationships involved. In medieval

China, killing within the family was

treated differently from killing a stranger;

killing your father was a worse crime than

killing a child.

In many accounts of modern history, it

was Europe’s Protestant Reformation that

catalysed a more individualist, law-based

mentality. Mr Henrich’s own emphasis is

on the Catholic world from about 1000 on-

wards. He thinks that, by banning kin-mar-

riage, the Roman church ushered in a more

fluid society where people had to look far-

ther afield for spouses.

Here he is not quite convincing, despite

the extensive studies he adduces to argue

that modern mentalities, even now, are

correlated with regions of historic Catholic

influence. It seems more likely that the me-

dieval church was negotiating with, rather

than moulding, a social reality which was

evolving fast as cities emerged. Nor does a

ban on marrying cousins imply free mari-

tal choice. It can be part of an elaborate sys-

tem of communally arranged unions.

Mr Henrich’s broad point about the val-

ues that underpin liberal democracy is

stronger, with one big qualification. Hun-

dreds of millions of people live neither in

atomistic weird-land nor in kin-obsessed

pre-modern societies, but in an interesting

limbo, sometimes dynamically and some-

times tragically. Think, say, of a family

from a poor, remote part of south-eastern

Europe, whose younger members are

working and raising children in assorted

European cities, while their elders keep the

home fires burning in the village. An ex-

traordinary range of roles and attitudes co-

exist in three generations.

Or take the South Asian communities in

some northern English towns, where the

mores of rural Kashmir can persist even in

the fourth generation of diaspora life. Tra-

dition-bound as they are, such communi-

ties are not untouched by modern British

culture. Younger generations grow up

somewhere between Mr Henrich’s weird-

ness and the harsh security of a regulated

rural clan. Some have fun negotiating this

terrain, some swing sharply towards either

individualism or conformity; a handful re-

act to the confusion by embracing extrem-

ism. In any case, weirdness need not be an

either-or category, whether in medieval

Europe or the 21st century. 7

A

lreadytheauthoroffourdarklysatir-

ical and precociouslystylishnovels,

MartinAmissecuredhisstatusasoneof

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Itisa novel,butitsmaincharacteris

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Theaccountofa youthfulloveaffairin

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Thesenarrativesectionsarebrokenup

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With each sumptuous sentence he

proveshiscredentialsasbothaninstructor

anda worthwhilesubjectforthekindof

autobiographical fiction that is now in

vogue.Forfansofhiswork,“InsideStory”

isa victorylap;newcomerswillbesteered

towardshisrichbackcatalogue. 7

Martin Amis’s new book

In my life

InsideStory:HowtoWrite.ByMartin

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Father of invention

................................................................

Listen to our interview with Martin Amis at

economist.com/Amispod

“Inside Story” mixes autofiction and writing advice