<h1 class="firstHeading">Western culture</h1><h3 id="siteSub">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</h3><div class="dablink">For this article's equivalent regarding the East, see <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_culture'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Eastern culture">Eastern culture</a>. For the Henry Cow album of the same name, see <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Culture_%28album%29'))" title="Western Culture (album)">Western Culture (album)</a>.</div><p><i>Western culture</i> or <b>Western civilization</b> is a term often used to refer to most of the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture'))" title="Culture">cultures</a> of <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe'))" title="Europe">European</a> origin and most of their descendants. It comprises the broad, geographically based <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradition'))" title="Tradition">heritage</a> of <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_norms'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Social norms">social norms</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics'))" title="Ethics">ethical values</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_%28norm%29'))" title="Convention (norm)">traditional customs</a> (such as <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion'))" title="Religion">religious</a> beliefs) and specific artifacts and technologies as shared within the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world'))" title="Western world">Western</a> <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence'))" title="Sphere of influence">sphere of influence</a>.</p><p>The
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East–West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic and
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arbitrary. It can be difficult to determine which individuals fit into
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which category. In some ways it has grown out of use, or has been
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transformed or clarified to fit more precise uses. Though it is
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directly descendent from academic <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism'))" title="Orientalism">Orientalism</a> and <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occidentalism'))" title="Occidentalism">Occidentalism</a>,
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the changing usage of the distinction "East–West" has come to be useful
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as a means to identify important cultural similarities and differences
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— both within an increasingly larger concept of local region, as well
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as with regard to increasingly familiar "alien" cultures.</p><p>During the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War'))" title="Cold War">Cold War</a>, the West–East contrast became synonymous with the competing governments of the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States'))" title="United States">United States</a> and the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union'))" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a>
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and their allies, respectively, although the nature of that contrast is
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not in any way based on the distinction between Eastern and Western
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cultures. The culture of the most of the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union'))" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> (<a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia'))" title="Russia">Russia</a> and other former <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_republics'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Soviet republics">Soviet republics</a>
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from Eastern European region) and its Eastern European allies is
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pronouncedly Western, as defined below. In the United States during the
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Cold War period the terms "East" and "Asia" were often used
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disparagingly by the official propaganda machine, which explains the
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general tendency to apply these terms to the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union'))" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> and its allies and misguided attempts to represent it as a conflict between the Western and Eastern cultures.</p><div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 162px;"><div class="thumbcaption"> literature.</div></div></div><p>The concept of Western culture is generally linked to the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world#Classical_meaning'))" title="Western world">classical definition of Western world</a>. In this definition, Western culture is the set of <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature'))" title="Literature">literary</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science'))" title="Science">scientific</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music'))" title="Music">musical</a> and <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy'))" title="Philosophy">philosophical</a> principles which set it apart from other civilizations. It applies to countries whose <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History'))" title="History">history</a>
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is strongly marked by Western European immigration or settlement, and
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is not restricted to Western Europe. Much of this set of traditions and
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knowledge is collected in the <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon'))" title="Western canon">Western canon</a>. <sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://gollum.easycp.de/gollum/gollum.php?a=core&l=zh-cn&wl=en&q=#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup> Various uses of the concept of Western culture have included, rightly or wrongly, critiques of <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_culture'))" class="mw-redirect" title="American culture">American culture</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism'))" title="Materialism">materialism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialism'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Industrialism">industrialism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism'))" title="Capitalism">capitalism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialism'))" title="Commercialism">commercialism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism'))" title="Hedonism">hedonism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism'))" title="Imperialism">imperialism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism'))" title="Communism">communism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism'))" title="Nazism">Nazism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism'))" title="Fascism">fascism</a>, <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism'))" title="Racism">racism</a> or <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism'))" title="Modernism">modernism</a>.</p><p>Other tendencies that define modern Western <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societies'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Societies">societies</a> are the existence of <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_pluralism'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Political pluralism">political pluralism</a>, prominent <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcultures'))" class="mw-redirect" title="Subcultures">subcultures</a> or <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture'))" title="Counterculture">countercultures</a> (such as <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age'))" title="New Age">New Age</a> movements), increasing cultural <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism'))" title="Syncretism">syncretism</a> resulting from <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization'))" title="Globalization">globalization</a> and <a href="javascript:void(wb.w._link('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migration'))" title="Human migration">human migration</a>.</p><table id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents"><tbody><tr><td><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2></div><ul><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://gollum.easycp.de/gollum/gollum.php?a=core&l=zh-cn&wl=en&q=#Origins"><span class="tocnumber">1</span><span class="toctext">Origins</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://gollum.easycp.de/gollum/gollum.php?a=core&l=zh-cn&wl=en&q=#History"><span class="tocnumber">2</span><span class="toctext">History</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://gollum.easycp.de/gollum/gollum.php?a=core&l=zh-cn&wl=en&q=#Influence_of_Western_culture"><span class="tocnumber">3</span><span class="toctext">Influence of Western culture</span></a></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><br>
