The writer states that the customs, values, and beliefs of a society ----.

We have all heard people from other countries
described in very general terms. For instance, it has
been said that “Germans work hard” and “Americans
are friendly”. Such generalizations or stereotypes are
very crude, and common sense tells us that not all
Germans work hard and not all Americans are
friendly. At the same time, there appears to be some
truth in these generalizations since people from
different countries share different characteristics.
What these crude statements acknowledge, however,
is that people from different countries have distinctive
cultures and social customs. A society's culture
includes its customs, values, beliefs, ideas and the
artifacts it produces. Attitudes towards such things as
work, leisure, wealth, the role of women, and the
value of education in one society's culture might be
significantly different from the attitudes and values
found in another society's culture. This is also the
case regarding attitudes found in different countries
towards politics and the political system.