Sciene of culture: a study of man and civilization

Culture became differentiated as soon as it appeared. Ever
since the earliest days of human history local groups of
people have been distinguished from one another by dif-
ferences in speech, custom, belief, and costume, in so far as any
was worn. We may believe, also, that man has always been aware
of those differences that set his own group apart from others.
Thus we might say that, in a sense, mankind has always been
culture conscious. And, ever since the time of Herodotus at
least there have been attempts to account for cultural variations
among mankind. Some thinkers accounted for cultural differences
in terms of environmental influence; one kind of habitat would
produce one type of culture, another habitat a different type.
Others were inclined to attribute cultural variation to innate
mental or temperamental differences. In comparatively recent
times the new sciences of sociology and social psychology worked
out general principles of a science of social behavior, but these
were assumed to be common to all mankind and so could not
account for cultural differences among tribes and nations. Social
interaction is a universal process; conflict, co-operation, accom-
modation, the four wishes, etc., are worldwide; they might account
for cultural uniformities, but not differences. True, these sciences
did not address themselves to the problem of cultural variation;
they were limited almost entirely to the framework of one culture,
Western civilization.