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Eastern World

The Eastern world encompasses a diverse range of cultures, nations, and philosophical systems primarily located in Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Arab world, historically contrasting with the Western world. It lacks a unified identity, as regions within the Eastern world have distinct heritages and cultural influences, often shaped by colonial histories. The concept of East versus West is more cultural than geographical, with some regions like the Philippines exhibiting both Eastern and Western characteristics.

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9 views

Eastern World

The Eastern world encompasses a diverse range of cultures, nations, and philosophical systems primarily located in Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Arab world, historically contrasting with the Western world. It lacks a unified identity, as regions within the Eastern world have distinct heritages and cultural influences, often shaped by colonial histories. The concept of East versus West is more cultural than geographical, with some regions like the Philippines exhibiting both Eastern and Western characteristics.

Uploaded by

sxy50316
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Eastern world

The Eastern world, also known as the East or historically the Orient, is an umbrella
term for various cultures or social structures, nations and philosophical systems,
which vary depending on the context. It most often includes Asia, the Mediterranean
region and the Arab world, specifically in historical (pre-modern) contexts, and in
[1]
modern times in the context of Orientalism. Occasionally, the term may also
include countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The Eastern world is often
seen as a counterpart to the Western world.

The various regions included in the term are varied, hard to generalize, and do not
have a single shared common heritage. Although the various parts of the Eastern
world share many common threads, most notably being in the "Global South", they
have never historically defined themselves collectively. The term originally had a
literal geographic meaning, referring to the eastern part of the Old World, contrasting
the cultures and civilizations of Asia with those of Europe (or the Western world).
Traditionally, this includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and
West Asia.

Conceptually, the boundary between east and west is more cultural, rather than
geographical, as a result of which Australia and New Zealand, which were founded
as British settler colonies, are typically grouped with the Western world despite being
geographically closer to the Eastern world, while the Central Asian nations of the
former Soviet Union, even with significant Western influence, are grouped in the
[2]
East. Other than much of Asia and Africa, Europe has absorbed almost all of the
societies of North Asia, the Americas, and Oceania into the Western world because
[3][4]
of settler colonization.

[5][6]
Countries such as the Philippines, which are geographically located in the
Eastern world, may be considered Western in some aspects of their society, culture
and politics due to immigration and historical cultural influences from the United
States and Western Europe.

Overview[edit]
As with other regions of the world, Asia consists of many different, extremely diverse
[7]
countries, ethnic groups and cultures. This concept is further debated because in
some English-speaking countries, common vernacular associates the "Asian"
[8][9]
identity to people of East Asian origin and Southeast Asian origin, while in some
countries the "Asian" identity is associated with people of South Asian origin, and in
other contexts, Asian regions such as the Indian subcontinent are included with East
Asia. West Asia (which includes Israel, part of the Arab world, Iran, etc.), which may
or may not see themselves part of the Eastern world, are sometimes considered
[10]
"Middle Eastern" and separate from Asia.

The division between 'East' and 'West', formerly referred to as Orient and Occident,
is a product of European cultural history and of the distinction between Christian
Europe and the cultures beyond it to the East. With the European colonization of the
Americas, the East-West dichotomy became global. The concept of an Eastern,
"Indian" (Indies) or "Oriental" sphere was emphasized by ideas of racial as well as
religious and cultural differences. Such distinctions were articulated by Westerners in
the scholarly tradition known as Orientalism, which is notable in being a Western
conception of a unified Eastern world not limited to any specific region(s), but rather
[11][12]
all of Asia together.

Culture[edit]
Main article: Eastern culture

While there is no singular Eastern culture of the Eastern world, there are subgroups
within it, such as countries within East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia, as well
as syncretism within these regions. These include the spread of Eastern religions
such as Buddhism or Hinduism, the usage of Chinese characters or Brahmic scripts,
language families, the fusion of cuisines, and traditions, among others.

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