[LINK] "Asian, Western: Same, same?"

[rfmcdonald]

Over at the ever-interesting Asia Times, writer Tawada Yoko's "Asian, Western: Same, same?" considers whether or not such things as self-contained civilizations exist.

Traditional "Western" culture is often presented as a single line of development. That line, however, is a carefully cultivated fiction. For example, ancient Greek culture is viewed as being an important part of that cultural lineage, while the influence of Arab mathematics and natural sciences is excluded.

In Hamburg, however, I have not found any trace of ancient Greek culture. In contrast, in a temple in the Japanese city of Nara, at the end of the Silk Road, one can see an ornament of grapes that originated in Greece. This stone fruit still hasn't rotted, although it is more than 1,000 years old and was around for 1,000 years before that.

The cultures of this earth have always formed a network and not several parallel lines.

She's skeptical of the idea.