Would an Eastern World think of themselves in the East?

NomadicSky

Banned
This takes on a mind wrapping concept for this one.
In am Eastern Dominated world would the East think of themselves as the East.

The world is round so really there isn't an east or west.

I've edited this map to demonstrate. Take away the national borders with your mind just look at the direction I've added.

worldmap-lg.jpg
 

Keenir

Banned
This takes on a mind wrapping concept for this one.
In am Eastern Dominated world would the East think of themselves as the East.

The world is round so really there isn't an east or west.

I've edited this map to demonstrate. Take away the national borders with your mind just look at the direction I've added.

actually, they'd call themselves the center of the world.
 
It depends on how the East becomes dominant. Say China discovers the Americas and begins a mercantile/colonial rivalry with say a untied Mughal Empire trading in Africa: China traditionally views itself as "The Middle Kingdom" and in our world while it might call itself Western in reference to the barbarians of the Americas, it will know that Europe is on the Western end of the landmass of Eurasia. India will also probably view itslef as central to a wide periphery.

Thus perhaps the more interesting question, given the fact that the East is more likely to view itself as the center, is why the West doesn't think of itself as the center even though it dominated the world for so long. There's the Orientalizing answer that the West defined itself, beginning with Greeks in opposition to a strong East. There's the possibility that given the relative disparity in population between Europe and the world which it dominated, Europe was always aware, if dimmly, of being part of a wider world. There's the fact that European/Western domination began out of an effort to defy the geography of Eurasia/Africa.
 

MrP

Banned
The reason we think of the East as the East is probably because we associate it as the land of the setting sun - the Orient. If one lives in said land, somewhere else is the Orient. And one wouldn't use Orient there, since it's Latin, anyway. So, no, a China-centred world, for example, wouldn't consider itself Eastern. Unless it was somehow bizarrely descended from some Alexandrian successor state. In short, I basically agree with Keenir.
 
why the West doesn't think of itself as the center even though it dominated the world for so long. There's the Orientalizing answer that the West defined itself, beginning with Greeks in opposition to a strong East. There's the possibility that given the relative disparity in population between Europe and the world which it dominated, Europe was always aware, if dimmly, of being part of a wider world. There's the fact that European/Western domination began out of an effort to defy the geography of Eurasia/Africa.


Actually I'm pretty sure the reason is Christianity. Jerusalem was the center, literally, of the world in Medieval Christian maps for instance. Hence Europe was the West, because it's West of Jerusalem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hereford_Mappa_Mundi_1300.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mappa_mundi

This tradition dates to Old Testament times. The people in the Old Testament assumed themselves the middleof the world, and hence the Mediterranean was the Western Sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea#Name

The other (older) European tradition, an earlier one is that Europe, or rather the Mediterranean Sea was the center of the world (maybe everybody thinks of themselves as being at the middle of the world?) - again
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea#Name - but with Christianity becoming widespread, presumably this was displaced.
 
given the nature of the Eurasian-African landmass, yes, they would consider themselves as being in the East. Everything in the world is West of them, except for one big-honkin' ocean that until relatively recently was hard to get across (still is, unless you have a big expensive boat).

Only if the new world was settled by what we know as the Far Est would they shift perception to perhaps 'centre' of the world. But the Barents Sea is a formidable challenge, so that may not have happened.
 

Keenir

Banned
given the nature of the Eurasian-African landmass, yes, they would consider themselves as being in the East. Everything in the world is West of them,

everything else in the world are barbarians, uncivilized folk, or both.
 

Kaptin Kurk

Banned
East and West are entrely arbitrary designations, which really have meaning in relationship to the way the world spins in relationship to the sun and the ther planets and stars.


So saying something is East = Saying something is to the X spin direction in relation to the sun, and saying something is west is only saying something is in the Y spin direction of the sun.

Eastern nations would undoubtedly have this concept, so they would still think of themselves as 'Eastern'

However, all the conotations and assumptions that the label 'Eastern' has accumilated from the Western perspective would be limitied....by the fact that the people who get to fetishize societies instead of taking them as the organic whole all really are would be Easterners instead of westerners.
 

ninebucks

Banned
The Far East would indeed still consider itself to be in the Far East, as everything of any worth is to the west of them. Untill very recently the Pacific was basically considered to be the end of the world, as it was impossible to cross it.

Pacific-centred maps are not really very useful, even if you do live on the Pacific coast - because it is the Atlantic that is the most easily crossable of the two major oceans, and it makes sense to have the smaller ocean in the middle, if only to make it easier to read for potential oceanic travellers.
 
As a culture with an important religious influence that talked of a western pradise in their history, my guess is that the East would view itself as such in a Sinocentric or Indocentric world, particularly if a similarly-minded country or countries of significance was to be established across the seas.


As for the position of the West on western maps, Europe does seem to be central, even if north-central, and there is a tremendous amount of literature available on the subject and perceived/actual biases of various map projections, particularly those employed during the historical development of the West.
 
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