Culture: The Big External Influence
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Culture: The Big External Influence
Ruthless Celtic kings and their chiefs had body language that defined them. A nasty, belching bunch, they could easily be identified by “hands twitching to the sword hilt at the imagined hint of an insult…wiping the greasy moustaches that were a mark of nobility,” in the words of anthropologist Stuart Piggott in Ancient Europe (Edinburgh: The University Press, 1965, p. 229). This is a description that highlights features of the Celtic warriors’ culture, but every culture has the same binding elements: beliefs, traditions, behaviors, and rules. These elements work together to engender security within the group and keep people riding in the same direction. In its most primitive sense, culture separated one group of apes from another group of apes; it enabled them to know whom to tolerate and whom to destroy.
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C H A P T E R
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