Culture – It’s what sets nations apart from one another. Each nation in the world has its own culture, and sometimes these cultures can blend to create other unique cultures. When looking at the different cultures of the world, you can see how they are all diversely different in many aspects. Culture is defined as “patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance.” Certain aspects of a culture can include the way people live in accordance to their beliefs, language, history, or even the way they dress. The Western Civilization was formed on the beliefs and basis of a culture and that is evident in many ways when you look at the history of the West.
Western Culture is defined as” The set of literary, scientific, musical, and philosophical principles which set it apart from other civilizations” (answers.com). These principles, or “pillars” are based on those of the ancient Greeks, The Roman Empire, and Christianity. Together, these three elements were used to make the West what we know it as today-A thriving and prosperous civilization.
Ancient Greece was the first Greek pillar of western civilization, and played a huge role in the shaping of the west. Greek philosophy was the main contributor to the west. Also, by their art, science, architecture, and literature, the Greeks influenced western culture. This is an example of cross-cultural influence. The Greeks held and founded the Olympic games, which were athletic and religious celebrations held in the Greek town of Olympia. The first Olympic games are said to have started around 776 B.C.E. These events glorified individual excellence, and anyone that was physically capable of being a part of them was allowed to participate. The Olympics allowed members of different communities to meet and congregate, which helped this culture to evolve socially. Some important Greek philosophers were Homer, who is responsible for his poems on his belief of Gods reason for human existence, and Hesiod with his epic poem titled “Theogony.” In this poem, Hesiod “recounted the birth of the race of Gods from primeval chaos and Earth” (Hunt 56)
Another important Greek element of the western civilization was the Greek Polis, or city-state. This city-state was a community of citizens in a city that governed themselves. With the way that the land was in Greece, many city-states were able to be formed along mountains, on islands, and around the Mediterranean Sea. Trading was set up with the different city-states, and that is how they shared their goods and ways with others in the community. Also, most of the city-states were not big enough to support mass farming, not to mention the climate was limiting to the farmers, so trading helped them get goods they needed. Women were not given the same rights as men, the poor were not as politically equal with the rich, and Slaves had absolutely no benefits that many city-states offered.
Life in a Greek city-state was a key of how they were developed and governed. Religion was a part of every Greek city-state. They worshiped many different deities, like Sparta, Athena, Zeus, Apollo, and Hephaestus. Greek religion believed that humans must honor Gods and thank them for blessings received by receiving more. City-states would honor the Gods by doing things like sacrificing animals, and holding festivals with prayer. Citizenship is how a Greek city-state was organized. Males had equal treatment, no matter how rich or poor they were, and women had the protection of the law, but still were not equal to men. Greek city-states established the basis for a direct democracy, with all free men could participate in creating laws and policies for the people. Slavery in the city-states began to expand, and this led to a few social changes. First, since slaves were considered property, their owners could do whatever they wanted to them, like beat or kill them. Slaves were alienated from the rest of society and lived a life consisting of working, being punished, and eating. None usually gained the right to be a free citizen, and the abolition of slavery was never even mentioned. With an increase of slaves, you also have an increase in the amount of work women now have to do. Marriage in Greek city-states was required of every male citizen, and was very strict on how it was to be done and the rules regarding it. Women really had no say in a marriage, and were controlled by their male counterpart.
The Romans also had a great contribution to western culture by their architecture. They built huge amphitheatres where tens-of-thousands came for entertainment. This created a better life for citizens because they could get out and be more social. Along with the building of amphitheatres, the Romans also built roads and bridges. This was important because it helped people to be able to trade more, which helped agriculture because people now had a reason to grow crops. The Roman army needed supplies, so this also increased the production of goods and gave merchants increased business. All of the above helped with blending old and new culture traditions, and brought many new ideas and policies to the west.
Government in Rome was very different from that of the ancient Greeks as mentioned earlier. Rome had a republican form of government, which was loosely based on the following three elements: Monarchial (Two consuls)Oligarchial (senate)Democratic (plebs)
With these three elements, the Romans were able to create a form of government that was peaceful and equal for the better of all people. The quote used in our text, “Nothing is less equitable than mere equality itself” shows the Romans view on a person’s status with the Roman republic.
The third and final pillar of western culture is Christianity. The amounts of different religions were very vast through the early Western civilizations. Religion was important to the people because it helped them reach to a higher power to achieve personal enlightenment. Present in most peoples lives, religion was highly important to just about every group of people. Christianity was not a religion that caught on quickly, but it was one that took time to attract believers. The life and teachings of Jesus was what Christianity focused on, and it was based on the Jewish religion. The question Christianity looked to answer was “How could just a God allow the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer?” Christianity leaders had a few things to overcome to develop Christianity into a new religion, such as building their organization from scratch and settling the dispute over women and the leadership role they would take on. With all of these factors, Christianity was able to grow and develop in the West, and this was an important factor to the West’s changing culture.
With further research of the topic Western Civilization culture, I found an article from James Kurth titled “Western Civilization, Our Tradition.” Reading this article, I find out that he has included another important aspect of how the Western civilization was formed. Kurth includes in his research that the enlightenment of the modern era also. I really enjoyed reading this article, and found it to help me better understand the significant influence that the West has had on our world. I believe that this piece really ties together my research and helps me to write my next part of this paper, which is how the West has influenced us.
The West was more than just a civilization, it was a phenomenon that would shape and change the world. Some beliefs of the west were ideas of liberty, individualism, free markets, constitutionalism, and rule of law. Each one of these plays a role in today’s times.
“The combination of American energy and European legacy
gave the idea of Western civilization both power and legitimacy
in both America and Europe.” – James Kurth
America took Western culture and redefined it. From the way our government is run to our military, you can see the influence of the West in our culture.
Another work I read, From Plato to Nato, which was the one you recommended, also compared the West to present day. I did not really understand this book as well because it goes into a lot of detail about his personal beliefs and theories, but I did get a few things from reviewing it. (I did not read the whole book in its entirety) It is evident after reviewing this book those same three pillars that I mentioned earlier are still true of how the West culture came about. Gress talks about the Greeks, Romans, and Christianity in his book.
Anyways, as you can see, Western culture is something that took time to flourish in the new world. By cross-cultural influence and the three pillars, the West evolved into what we know it as today. The Western civilization set an example for the whole world, and you can still see its influence in today’s society and times. For something of that age and time, it really is remarkable to see what an influence the West was for the entire world. Who knew that the West would set the pace for the future?
Works Cited
Internet
http://www.answers.com/topic/western-culture
http://www.mmisi.org/ir/39_01_2/kurth.pdf James Kurth’s Article
Books
Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martain, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, and Bonnie G. Smith. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 2nd ed. Boston, MA : Bedford, 2005.
Gress, David. From Plato to Nato. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
Bronowski, J.. The Western Intellectual Tradition. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
