We are taught to revere our culture and do exactly as our parents did ("Why? Because I said so"), but anthropologists tell us that mankind has been able to populate the entire globe because we are able to change our culture to meet new circumstances. So there must be a gene in some of us to want to rebel or question why we do the things we do, or perhaps some have the ability to step back and analyze a situation without the interference of culture. In modern times I would place Bill Cosby in that category. Note also those leaders who have led most of the white population of the U.S., starting in the 1960s and continuing, to accept that our culture was immoral in its treatment of African Americans, women, and is now even moving toward accepting gays. Most colonial Virginia Indians who lived amongst the English adopted English ways and blended into the free African American population. A study aired on the BBC of Indian groups in the West that lived within the white communities revealed that the women's bones were all distorted from overwork. The men would not haul firewood or do any work associated with farming. It was not part of their culture to do so. In the 1750s William Chavis, a free African American of Granville County, N.C., owned an inn frequented by whites. Many would give him their money to lock in his desk, so they would not have to worry about someone stealing it from them when they got drunk. Chavis owned thousands of acres of land and was a slaveowner. His son Gideon married a relatively well-to-do white woman. This sort of thing was quite common in areas in Virginia, N.C. and S.C. where they were anxious to have new settlers of any color. Paul