Western culture meaning (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Western Culture:

Western culture is known as the universe of values, customs, practices, traditions, religious beliefs, economic system and political-social organization representative of Western Europe and Western Europe, either because they originated there, or because they were assumed as their own.

The names of western society, western civilization, European civilization and Christian civilization are also used with the same meaning.

By extension, those countries where Western Europe established its hegemony and inherited its languages, socio-political ordering system, religion, system of law, educational model, values ​​and customs are considered part of western culture or westernized countries.

Characteristics of western culture

The set of characteristics that are considered distinctive of Western culture are the following:

• Permanent reference to the culture of Greek antiquity, with emphasis on rational thought (philosophy, literature, science, politics and art); Civil and military civil inheritance of the Roman Empire, with emphasis on Roman law; Christian religion (Catholic and Protestant); The set of values ​​and customs contributed by Celts, Germans and Slavs; The claim of universality in the name of the cultural heritage; The modern development of the national State and capitalism (phenomenon that occurred in the last two centuries).

Based on the inheritance it received, Western culture reworked the system of social, cultural and political order into the forms we know today, of which the contradictions are also part. Thus, it reshapes:

• The concept of democracy, Education (Western culture develops the concept of university), Scientific research, The concept of the modern state (based on Roman law), among many other aspects.

Controversy around the concept of western culture

The concept of Western culture is highly controversial as a consequence of the models of political domination exercised by Western Europe in the world since the 16th century.

Although the political and economic models have varied, they have all had in common the promotion of western culture as a universal value.

In this sense, it has been denounced that one of the characteristics of western culture is its ethnocentric character, a paradigm that they specifically call Eurocentrism.

All these notions are now under review and discussion, especially since the decolonization processes of the world began.

See also:

• Capitalism, Transculturation, Globalization.