READ THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT
DOCUMENT:
"I will give this one proof among many from which it
may be inferred that all men hold this belief about their customs. When Darius
was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them for what
price they would eat their fathers' dead bodies. They answered that they
wouldn’t do it for any amount of money.
Then Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their
parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding through
interpreters what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers
at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrible an
act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is, I think, rightly said in
Pindar's poem that custom is king of all."
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (a Greek polis in Asia
Minor), an excerpt from The
Histories (ca. 430 BC)
ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTION ABOUT THE TEXT:
1- Why
are the Greek surprised because of the traditions/customs/habits of the native?
2- Were
any of them right?
3- Are
superior traditions/customs/habits?
4- Do
we have to respect any kind of traditions/customs/habits?
5- Can
we evaluate traditions in an objective way?
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