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Eastern world

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Not to be confused with Eastern Hemisphere or Eastern Bloc.
This article is about the Eastern world in the context of the East–West dichotomy. For other uses, see Eastern World (disambiguation).

The Eastern world in a 1796 map, which included the continents of Asia and Australia (then known as New Holland).

Eastern world, also known as the East or 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 at least part of Asia or, geographically, the countries and cultures east of Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Arab world, specifically in historical (pre-modern) contexts, and in modern times in the context of Orientalism.[1] It is often seen as a counterpart to the Western world, and correlates strongly to the southern half of the North–South divide.

The various regions included in the term are varied, hard to generalize, and do not have a single shared common heritage (see Christendom). 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.[2]

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 Western Europe (or the Western world). Traditionally, this includes all of East and Southeast Asia, the Greater Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia.

Conceptually, the boundary between east and west is cultural, rather than geographical, as a result of which Australia and New Zealand are typically grouped with West, while the Central Asian nations of the former Soviet Union, even with significant western influence, are grouped in the East.[3] Other than much of Asia and Africa, Europe has successfully absorbed almost all of the societies of Oceania, and the Americas into the Western world,[4][5]. Turkey, Israel and the Philippines, which are all geographically located in the Eastern world, are considered at least partially westernized due to the cultural influence of Europe and or the United States.[6][7][8][9] The Philippines notably has a majority Christian population, in contrast to neighboring countries.[10]

Identity politics

Asian concepts

Although the concept of a singular "Asian race" exists, this idea is contested.[citation needed] Historically, certain regions of Asia were classified as different "races". For example, Eastern Asians were once classified as "Mongoloids", while other Asian regions were not. Asia is also made up of many different countries, ethnic groups and cultures.[11] This concept is further debated because in some English-speaking countries, common parlance links the "Asian identity" to people of East Asian origin[12] and in other contexts, South Asians are also included. This thereby excludes Asian regions like Western Asia, which do not typically consider themselves part of the Eastern world; such areas include the Arab nations, Israel, Turkey and Iran.[13]

Asian cultures often have strong traits of nationalism and ethnic individualism, but the presence of many different cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and government systems often results in cultural identities specific to individual nations and ethnic groups, not inclusive of the rest of the continent. People of Asia may prefer not to identify with their continent or region, but rather with their specific nation or cultural group.

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 European Christendom and the cultures beyond it to the East. With the European colonization of the Americas the East/West distinction 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 and Indology. The notion of an Asian identity may, therefore, be considered a primarily European construct. Orientalism, interestingly, has been the only Western concept of a unified Eastern world not limited to any specific region(s), but rather all of Asia together.[14][15]

European concepts

During the Cold War, the term "Eastern world" was sometimes used as an extension of Eastern bloc, connoting the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and their communist allies, while the term "Western world" often connoted the United States and its NATO allies such as the United Kingdom.

The concept is often another term for the Far East – a region that bears considerable cultural and religious commonality. Eastern philosophy, art, literature, and other traditions, are often found throughout the region in places of high importance, such as popular culture, architecture and traditional literature. The spread of Buddhism and Hindu Yoga is partly responsible for this.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Asia
An image of the "Eastern world" defined as the "Far East", consisting of three overlapping cultural blocks: East Asia (Green), South Asia (Orange), and Southeast Asia (Blue)
The spread of Syriac Christianity to East Asia.
Distribution of Eastern religions (yellow), as opposed to Abrahamic religions (violet).
East Asia cultural region
Map of the Middle East
Indian cultural sphere

Eastern culture has developed many themes and traditions. Some important ones are:

See also

References

  1. ^ Thompson, William; Joseph Hickey (2005). Society in Focus. Boston: Pearson plc. 0-205-41365-X.
  2. ^ Lee, Sandra S.; Mountain, Joanna; Koening, Barbara A. (2001). "The Meanings of 'Race' in the New Genomics: Implications for Health Disparities Research" (PDF). Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2006. Retrieved 26 October 2006.
  3. ^ Meštrovic, Stjepan (1994). Balkanization of the West: The Confluence of Postmodernism and Postcommunism. Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 0-203-34464-2.
  4. ^ "Embassy of Brazil – Ottawa". Brasembottawa.org. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  5. ^ Falcoff, Mark. "Chile Moves On". AEI. Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  6. ^ Sheldon Kirshner (16 October 2013). "Is Israel Really a Western Nation?". Sheldon Kirshner Journal. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  7. ^ "EU-Turkey relations". European Information on Enlargement & Neighbours. EurActiv.com. 23 September 2004. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
  8. ^ "Fifty Years On, Turkey Still Pines to Become European". Time. 8 September 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
  9. ^ "Philippines - Cultural life". Britannica. Retrieved 11 March 2022. Although geographically part of Southeast Asia, the country is culturally strongly Euro-American
  10. ^ "Religion - Christianity". Stanford Medicine. An estimated 92.5% of Filipinos are Christians
  11. ^ Cartmill, Matt (September 1998). "The Status of the Race Concept in Physical Anthropology" (PDF). p. 651-660. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  12. ^ For example, "Asian and Indian people" are referred to in the New Zealand Heart Foundation's BMI calculator Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Khatib, Lina (2006). Filming the modern Middle East: politics in the cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab world. Library of Modern Middle East Studies, Library of International Relations. Vol. 57. I.B. Tauris. pp. 166–167, 173. ISBN 1-84511-191-5.
  14. ^ Tromans, 6
  15. ^ from the Latin oriens; Oxford English Dictionary
  16. ^ Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). p. 108. ISBN 9780813216836.
  17. ^ a b "Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population" (PDF). Pew Research Center.
  18. ^ Hindson, Edward E.; Mitchell, Daniel R. (1 August 2013). The Popular Encyclopedia of Church History. Harvest House Publishers. p. 225. ISBN 9780736948074.
  19. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Kohler, Kaufmann (1901–1906). "Judaism". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  20. ^ C. Held, Colbert (2008). Middle East Patterns: Places, People, and Politics. Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 9780429962004. Worldwide, they number 1 million or so, with about 45 to 50 percent in Syria, 35 to 40 percent in Lebanon, and less than 10 percent in Israel. Recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora.
  21. ^ "Ramoji Film City sets record". Business Line. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
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