WEST MIND
Posted by anthonynorth on October 3, 2007
What is western culture? It is a question that has fascinated me over many years. Essentially, until modern times, I think it has been very much a patriarchy – a man’s world. But why is this?
I think it began with geography. In the east, East-Mind developed in a prehistory where the geography and resources were plentiful. Hence, in tune with nature, a cyclical attitude of mind developed, best seen in Hinduism, in which Scriptures are layered right back to earliest times.
The west had a different geography.
What became West-Mind was etched out of the harshness of the Middle East. Life was hard, resources scarce, and there was a constant battle between, on the one hand, annual floods, and on the other, the need for irrigation.
This led to a need for better organization, from which a distinct leadership arose. Add constant migrations to the area, and it was a concoction that led to the rise of ultimate Ego, and the grandeur and power that went with it.
This was a man thing. And Patriarchy was born.
Unlike East-Mind, which existed in the cycles of the world, West-Mind lost its sense of balance and harmony. Ego demanded that things didn’t always work in cycles, but rather things must advance.
This placed West-Mind into a linear world, where things must constantly change as man works on his society and environment to make his mark.
Of course, this can be seen as an error. But it is sobering to note that, had West-Mind not existed, we would still be living within the cycles of nature and prehistory.
Maybe, with this understanding, we can learn to equalize west with east, and have the best of both worlds.
© Anthony North, October 2007
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Fiction Xtra – THE HAND OF GOD - A tale with a touch of horror.
I believe in God. As an ex-priest I would, of course. But whilst the existence of God is, to me, a certainty, I suppose the reason I’m an ex-priest concerns what kind of certainty God’s existence is.
What an incredible question that would be to answer – to know the mind of God. But for most of us we either ignore the question or take the literal truth of the Bible, that most bloody of books …
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poseidonsmuse said
Hi Anthony! Sorry – I’ve been a bit of a wayward Mermaid lately and just haven’t been able to get around to commenting much (although I did a bit of lurking yesterday). Hmm….I really like this view of the division between Eastern and Western culture. I imagine that some of the Anthropologists have their own theories about too (goodness knows what they are…). Having started delving into Eastern mysteries myself, I find the philosophy so completely different. The one Universal fundamental principle that I do understand is the need for balance (yin and yang)…Perhaps, the world could achieve more political balance with the mingling of both Eastern and Western philosophies…[or perhaps I am a huge idealist].
anthonynorth said
Hi PM,
We seem to think the same here. Interestingly, if you research western mysticism, it is remarkably similar to the east.
As mysticism seems to be a more primeval form of spirituality, and Hinduism seems to go back to this stage in its earlier scriptures, we may all tap the same ideals at this level.
1poet4man said
Anthony
Mine is completely a layman’s response to your post – I am sure it will be full of factual errors, however let me try.
When our ancestors left the canopy of trees to hunt on the ground, they began a long process of organizing their social hierarchies differently. This happened naturally because they began eating more and more meat.
Men were better at hunting. They brought more and more meat into the system. Meat is rich in iron. Iron is more necessary for women than it is for men.
The introduction of more iron into the female system changed their chemistry so that instead of having a period once a year they started having them more frequently. They became more dependent on iron because of menses.
Hunting and living on the ground required a more complicated social system. So early humans began adapting and becoming more sophisticated; the more sophisticated they became, the larger the brains of their offspring. The larger the brain of their offspring, the more helpless their babies – the more helpless their babies, the more these babies needed mothers – the more needed by babies, the more domesticated became the female of the species; simplistically this is how mothers/women became more “dependent’ on men.
Better hunters brought more meat and were a better source of iron for iron dependent woman. These men were of greater value to these mother/women.
Men are not dummies. They got better and better at literally “bringing meat to the table”, so that they could know the comfort and the esteem of woman. This made men more and more aggressive and dominating amongst each other, and this also had a spill over effect with regard to their relationship with women.
Of course there are a number of wonderful examples of later cultures that were Matriarchal. But I don’t believe that it can be correctly stated that these only existed or even primarily existed in the “East”. After all Notre Dame is a beautiful structure built to honor the “Virgin” ( there is a lot of European History during the middle ages that suggest quite a bit of Matriarchy – too much to go into here.) Also it is the Asian Huns that press into Europe waging a very masculine sort of war where ever they went. I don’t think there was a matriarch amongst them…
Luckily our sophistication has continued to evolve and today we are asking ourselves different questions about life, and the “roles’ we can play in it.
Please don’t shoot me I am just a poet…
Poetman
anthonynorth said
Hi Poetman,
I’ll be gentle
Actually, I don’t know whether your analysis is correct regarding pre-history, but it is certainly interesting, and could well be true. However, a few points.
First of all the Hun came from Central Asia and, like the Mongols, the environment was harsh. Maybe I should have pointed out that, by the East, I was speaking of more equatorial regions, where the geography is more lush.
Certainly, I think both east and west had similar mind-sets until the advent of agriculture. I point this out, practically, in a comment above about mysticism being simiar worldwide. It is here, with agriculture, that I believe east and west diverged – the harder fight for survival of agricultural communities in the Middle East being the primary reason.
And yes, again, I’m not saying that women were totally downtrodden, but that the primary western model from this time was predominantly Patriarchal.
One source for study here is religion and mythology. Also, sites such as Mohenjo-Daro,a Harappan city prior to the Aryan incursions into India, which show a society without defences and without apparent hierarchy.