“Mother culture” to Ishmael means, I think, that the takers (the narrator's culture) and leavers (every other culture). Ishmael says that “Mother Culture” concludes that the leavers' story is the first chapter of humankind's development and the takers are the second chapter. It’s important to him because he feels that his “mother culture” is what makes him who he is. “Mother culture” in my own life would be the culture in which I was brought up in, the environment in which I started to develop and that would be a Greek Orthodox household. I guess you can call that my “mother culture”, my household growing up is all I knew and help develop myself into the person I am today. Your moral habits are influenced by “mother culture” because that is what you were brought up with and help better yourself in decision making. “Mother culture” influences my perception of right and wrong by creating a self moral system within yourself. Once you see things and are more aware of the world, you can see the right and wrong and with the “mother culture” you were brought up with you can decide what’s right from what’s wrong.