What are the main cultures of the world? How global are they? And how diverse are they? These are among the key questions that cross-cultural researchers may ask.
The West-East dichotomy has been a classification of the world cultures well-known by scholars during recent centuries. Western and Eastern cultures should be construed as global cultures, presumably. However, Western culture has been exemplified by the United States, Canada, and a few western European nations, such as England, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. In contrast, Eastern cultures have been typified by China and Japan. These two global cultural regions differed in a number of general cultural dimensions.
Probably the most well-known cultural distinction between the West and the East is the contrast between individualistic Western societies and collectivistic Eastern ones. At the very least, this is the framework that researchers most often use to study different cultures.
How Do Global World Cultures Form?
Regional and global cultures like Western and Eastern ones are usually formed by historical cultural influences of neighboring societies, cultural regional domination of some societies or by expansive migration. The countries of China and Japan, for example, are culturally similar in some respects. In the same way, the cultures of the Netherlands and Germany are more culturally similar to each other than to France, while France is more similar to Spain.
Thus, due to geographical and historical traditions and religious and political influences, national cultures share similarities with those of other adjacent countries. Certain geographical locations may differ greatly in a variety of cultural elements. One source of these cultural distinctions is the transmission of ancient philosophical concepts to new generations. In recent years, many researchers have studied and thought about the differences between Western and Eastern cultures, whose mental and cultural perspectives are very different in many ways.
West-East Scholarly Comparison
Cultural and cross-cultural studies have actively investigated these worldwide distinctions empirically. By comparing the United States, the Netherlands, and occasionally other European nations as representatives of Western culture to Japan and China as representatives of Eastern culture, researchers have discovered a number of fascinating cultural differences between these two global cultures.
As a cultural framework for explanation, they typically referred to individuality and collectivism, or related social concepts.
The questions in this regard, however, have remained unresolved. Is the USA or England sufficiently exemplary of all so-called Western countries? Is Japan or China sufficiently prototypical of other so-called Eastern countries?
What does the West mean? What does the East mean? There are many differences between the cultures of East Asia and South Asia, as well as between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe. For example, many West European countries have very different ways of life in many ways.
A Cultural Variety of the World Regions
In the last few decades, scholars have started to look into the different cultures of the world in more depth. For example, Shalom Schwartz (2014) found eight transnational cultural regions based on the values the countries share. They are English-speaking, West European, East Central and Baltic European, Orthodox East European, Latin American, South Asian, Confucian-influenced, and African and Middle Eastern.
Each of these transnational zones is distinguished by a distinct cultural value pattern. However, eight cultural regions do not fit within the expected locations.
Is Western Culture Really Individualistic?
Studies of the last decades have revealed that the West-East division of culture is not quite accurate in several regards (Karandashev, 2021a). There is a great cultural difference between different “Western cultures” and between different “Eastern cultures.”
As Schwartz (2014) noted, it is not entirely valid to describe Western civilization as individualistic. The complex analysis of cultural orientations has shown that people in the West have a lot of differences.
For example, the cultural samples from the USA and Western Europe showed significant variations in six of the cultural value orientations. Mastery, embeddedness, and hierarchy are more prevalent in the US. Intellectual autonomy, equality, and harmony, on the other hand, are more prevalent in Western European countries (Schwartz & Ros, 1995).
The Transnational Cultural Regions Based on their Geographical Proximity
According to the recent comprehensive analysis of cultural orientations, the transnational cultural regions are based on geographical proximity (Schwartz, 2014). Their cultural similarities can be explained by the transmission of values, norms, and practices across international borders. Additionally, language, history, religion, and other cultural variables also had an impact.