In five pages this paper discusses how East and West are defined and the various influences that are changing these concepts. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: AM2_PPeastWs.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Throughout history our world has conveniently been separated into two large geographical and cultural categories of East and West. This separation is both geographic and biological
with those representatives of the Eastern cultures being comprised primarily of peoples of Asian descent and those of Western cultures being composed primarily of peoples of European descent. There
is of course interactions between these two most basic of areas as well as other influential areas. These interactions have served to instill a certain fluidity in our convenient
concepts of culture, nationalism, and political identity. There are certain prevalent facts which must be acknowledged in our discussion of the fluidity of
world civilizations. These facts help expose the fallacy of the unfortunate view of world history that the West has played the dominant role in shaping peoples, circumstances and events.
Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt for example are believed to be the very cradle of all civilizations. In other words, current theory regarding the evolution of civilization would have
all of civilization, Western Civilization included, originating from these areas in Northeast Africa and the Near East. The Near East included the current countries of Iran, Iraq, Jordan and
Israel as well as other countries. It included the peoples known as the Byzantines and the Persians among others. The influence of these peoples combined with that of
the peoples of Mesopotamia would eventually stretch around the world. In the beginning of civilization it is believed that Northeast Africa and the
Near East were the most culturally influential regions in the world. These areas were, in fact, believed to be the hub of all cultures and each harbored great concentrations