Holistic vs Analytical Thinking: East vs West and The Ecological, Political and Economic Reasons for Their Differences

Why would the ancient Chinese excel at algebra and arithmetic but not in geometry as the Greeks did? Why do the Chinese learn verbs at a faster rate than nouns? Why do Westerners learn nouns at a faster pace? Why are Easterners more conforming to their in-group than Westerners but more hostile to strangers than those in the West? For one author the answer is not religious. Rather, it is ecological, political and economic.