"Our solid American citizen awakens in a bed built on a pattern which originated in the Near East but which was modified in northern Europe before it was transmitted to America. He throws back covers made from cotton, domesticated in India, or linen, domesticated in the Near East, or wool from sheep, also domesticated in the Near East, or silk, the use of which was discovered in China. All of these materials have been spun and woven by processes invented in the Near East. He slips into his moccasins, invented by the Indians of the Eastern Woodlands, and goes to the bathroom, whose fixtures are a mixture of European and American inventions, both of recent date. He takes off his pajamas, a garment invented in India, and washes with soap invented by the ancient Gauls. He then shaves, a masochistic rite which seems to have been derived from either Sumer or ancient Egypt. (Linton 1936:326-327)

When returning to his bedroom, our American uses a chair of southern European type, puts on clothes patterned after the skin clothing introduced by Asiatic nomads and shoes made from skins, using a process invented in Egypt. His bedroom window is made of glass, also invented in Egypt. At breakfast his plate is made of pottery originating from China, he uses a fork invented in medieval Italy, and a spoon derived from a Roman model. His breakfast consists of borrowed items: orange (eastern Mediterranean), cantaloupe (Persia), coffee (Abyssinia), sugar (India), wheat for his waffles (Asia Minor), syrup (invented by [American] Indians of the eastern Woodlands), egg (Indo-China), and ham (eastern Asia).

When our friend has finished eating he settled back to smoke, an American Indian habit, consuming a plant domesticated in Brazil in either a pipe, derived from the Indians of Virginia, or a cigarette derived from Mexico. If he is hardy enough he may even attempt a cigar, transmitted to us from the Antilles by way of Spain. While smoking he reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters invented by the ancient Semites upon a material invented in China by a process invented in Germany. As he absorbs the accounts of foreign troubles he will, if he is a good conservative citizen, thank a Hebrew deity in an Indo-European language that he is 100 percent American (Linton 1936:326-327)"

Amazing, isn't it?