Ecological Determinants of Cultural Variation

About 2500 years ago Herodotus (1954, 1996) visited about 30 cultures around Greece. He traveled as far south as the first cataract of the Nile, as far north as the Black Sea Scythians, as far east as Babylon, and as far west as Cyrene in Libya (pp. x-xi). On the basis of his observations, Herodotus (460-359 SC) realized that people in all cultures are ethnocentric. They see themselves at the center of the world. Customs that are common in their location are “good,” while norms that are different are “bad.” Cultures that are like their own culture are good, and those that are different are bad.