Races, Species, Creatures, Cultures

Like I have mentioned in other posts, one of the ideas I want to explore in my stories is how humans would react to other sentient species or races. I want to use familiar concepts for fantasy, so right now I don't have anything really new, but I don't know if they've all been together before. The working structure I have set up for the races are as follows.
Humans (Humans, dwarfs, centaurs, etcs) Norsh and Greek influence
Faery (Elves, fairies, nymphs, etc) Irish and Greek influence
Orcs (Orcs, goblins, ogres) European influence
Demons (Demons, devils, imps, etc) Christian influence
Undead (Skeletons, vampires, zombies, etc) European influence
Feral Creatures (Minotaurs, djinn, hydras, etc) Middle Eastern, Greek, and other influences
Looking over this, a lot does seem to come from Europe and especially Greek myth, partly because, as far as creating interesting creatures goes, they are some the richest, but other creatures from myths all over the world are welcome, and I am researching them. I just want to avoid creatures that are just big animals, like giant spiders, and too many half human half animal combinations, like centaurs, satyrs, dryads, etc. If there is something obvious that I am missing, please let me know in the comments.
As far as cultures go, I want to be much more diverse, taking from cultures all over the world and through history. For example, I would like to make some of the elven cultures mirroring principles of honor held in Japan, especially the before their integration into the modern world.
So many people think that their culture is the best and only one worth having, even though it is always changing through time and geography. Many conflicts in history have been with cultural clashes, everyone thinking their way of life was better. But if one journeys through different cultures, opening oneself up, they realize their way of life is but one in a buffett of many others. There are good and bad things in each culture, as well as good and bad people. We just have to get along, respecting differences.

Reblogged from http://sageeyesblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/races-species-creatures-cultures/