Describing the selfish Ik of Uganda, the violent Yonomamo of Venezuela, and the fearful Nigerian tribe studied by Laura Bohannaw, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote this:
“Such practices and beliefs, which interfere with happiness, are neither inevitable nor necessary; they evolved by chance, as a result of random responses to accidental conditions. But once they become part of the norms and habits of a culture, people assume that this is how things must be; they come to believe they have no other options.”
It is important to remember that we have other options. Other societies have had equal conviction that theirs was the true way to live. We would be foolish to think that we are the lucky ones who’ve gotten it right.
Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, pgs. 4, 79.