The Recovery of the West: An Essay in Symbolic History

The first expedition to circumnavigate the Earth was by Westerners, as well as the first journey to the South Pole , and the first moon landing The Western media refers to the news media of the Western world. The roots of the Western media can be traced back to the late 15th century, when printing presses began to operate throughout Western Europe.

The emergence of news media in the 17th century has to be seen in close connection with the spread of the printing press , from which the publishing press derives its name. In the 16th century, a decrease in the preeminence of Latin in its literary use, along with the impact of economic change, the "discoveries" arising from trade and travel, navigation to the "new" world , science and arts and the development of increasingly rapid communications through print led to a rising corpus of vernacular media content in Western Europe.

After the launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union in , satellite transmission technology was dramatically realised, with the U. The first digital broadcast satellite DBS system began transmitting in America in Beginning in the s, the Internet has contributed to a tremendous increase in the accessibility of Western media content.

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Departing from media offered in bundled content packages magazines , CDs , television and radio slots , the Internet has primarily offered unbundled content items articles , audio and video files. The native religions of Europe were polytheistic but not homogenous—however they were similar insofar as they were predominantly Indo-European in origin. Roman religion was similar to but not the same as Hellenic religion —likewise the same for indigenous Germanic polytheism , Celtic polytheism and Slavic polytheism. Western culture, for at least the last years, has been considered nearly synonymous with Christian culture.

Western culture, throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Western Christian culture , and many of the population of the Western hemisphere could broadly be described as cultural Christians. The notion of " Europe " and the " Western World " has been intimately connected with the concept of " Christianity and Christendom " many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity. As in other areas, the Jewish diaspora and Judaism exist in the Western world. Non-European groups, and Jews in particular, have been subjected to intense racism , ethnic and religious hatred , xenophobia , discrimination , and persecution in the West.

Throughout the Western world there are increasing numbers of people who seek to revive the indigenous religions of their European ancestors, such groups include Germanic , Roman , Hellenic , Celtic and Slavic , polytheistic reconstructionist movements, likewise, Wicca , new age spirituality and other neo-pagan belief systems enjoy notable minority support in Western nations. Since classical antiquity , sport has been an important facet of Western cultural expression.

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games , which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia. Baron Pierre de Coubertin , a Frenchman, instigated the modern revival of the Olympic movement.

The first modern Olympics were held at Athens in. The Romans built immense structures such as the Colisseum in Rome to house their festivals of sport. The Romans exhibited a passion for blood sports , such as the infamous Gladiatorial battles that pitted contestants against one another in a fight to the death. The Olympic Games revived many of the sports of Classical Antiquity —such as Greco-Roman wrestling , discus and javelin. The sport of bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France, and some Latin American countries. It traces its roots to prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice and is often linked to Rome , where many human-versus-animal events were held.

Bullfighting spread from Spain to its Central and South American colonies, and in the 19th century to France, where it developed into a distinctive form in its own right. Jousting and hunting were popular sports in the Western Europe of the Middle Ages , and the aristocratic classes of Europe developed passions for leisure activities. A great number of the popular global sports were first developed or codified in Europe.

The modern game of golf originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James II 's banning of the game in , as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery. The Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the 18th Century brought increased leisure time, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. The bat and ball sport of cricket was first played in England during the 16th century and was exported around the globe via the British Empire.

A number of popular modern sports were devised or codified in Britain during the 19th Century and obtained global prominence—these include ping pong , modern tennis , association football , netball and rugby. Football also known as soccer remains hugely popular in Europe, but has grown from its origins to be known as the world game.

Similarly, sports such as cricket, rugby, and netball were exported around the world, particularly among countries in the Commonwealth of Nations , thus India and Australia are among the strongest cricketing nations, while victory in the Rugby World Cup has been shared among the Western nations of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England. Australian Rules Football , an Australian variation of football with similarities to Gaelic football and rugby evolved in the British colony of Victoria in the midth century. The United States also developed unique variations of English sports.

English migrants took antecedents of baseball to America during the colonial period. The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Many games known as "football" were being played at colleges and universities in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp , the "Father of American Football". Basketball was invented in by James Naismith , a Canadian physical education instructor working in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States.

Western culture has developed many themes and traditions, the most significant of which are: At the same time, then as the printing press in the physical technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage.

The phenomenon of publishing was now born. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Heritage of norms, customs, belief and political systems, and artifacts and technologies associated with Europe both indigenous and foreign origin. For this article's equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern world. For the Henry Cow album of the same name, see Western Culture album. Western world and Culture of Europe. Leonardo da Vinci 's Vitruvian Man. Based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De architectura.

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Plato , along with Socrates and Aristotle , helped to establish Western philosophy. Apollo , seen as the most beautiful god and the ideal of the kouros a beardless, athletic youth. History of Western civilization. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. November Learn how and when to remove this template message. Culture portal Europe portal. Crisis in Western Education reprint ed.

University of Texas Press. Retrieved 22 February A Brief History, Volume I: To Cengage Learning ed. History of Western Civilization: A Handbook University of Chicago Press ed. That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization—the civilization of western Europe and of America—have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo — Graeco — Christianity, Catholic and Protestant. The Church in fact built Western civilization. Ideas, Politics, and Society, Volume I: Volume 2, Christian origins and Hellenistic Judaism: A Study of History: Abridgement of, Volumes 1—6 Oxford University Press ed.

National Review Book Service. Archived from the original on 22 August Retrieved 16 September The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization. The University as a European Institution", in: A History of the University in Europe. Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals. History of Economic Analysis. Jeremy Waldron , God, Locke, and Equality: Western and Indian," New Delhi, India: A Guide for Teaching.

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Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. The Age of Enlightenment: The origins of anti-semitism: Catholic Education Resource Center. Stillman Drake , Madison: Journal of the History of Ideas. Lectures on Economic Growth. Journal of Economic History. Retrieved 6 May The Economic History Review. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Archived from the original on 27 November Retrieved 14 November Eighteenth century population growth also averaged one-third of 1 percent, the same as production growth.

Retrieved 10 July The Transportation Revolution, — No name is given to the transition years. The " Transportation Revolution " began with improved roads in the late 18th century. Jews and the Broadway musical. History, Art, and the Genius of a People , Abrams, , p. In world literature it is ranked as an epic poem of the highest order. See also Western canon for other "canons" that include the Divine Comedy. Retrieved 6 December The Scots Colleges Abroad: Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

The age of Edison: The Telephone and Its Several Inventors: Retrieved 23 April The global positioning system: Retrieved 16 August International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology. Supramolecular Chemistry 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons. A Concise History of Photography 3rd ed. Draw the Lightning Down: University of California Press. Mathematical thought from ancient to modern times, Vol. Tijdschrift voor Economie en Management. September [First published ]. Apollo by the Numbers: Retrieved 12 June Retrieved 2 February Retrieved 14 July From Engineering Science to Big Science.

Retrieved 4 September The Internet and the Mass Media. History, Religion, and Antisemitism. Retrieved 31 January Retrieved 8 February Retrieved 17 August European Commission , p. Archived from the original PDF on 2 December Retrieved 14 August Western world and culture. Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory Neuroculture. Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Internet culture Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing.

Acculturation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture.

Social generations of 20th century Western society. War-Gens Lost Generation G. Retrieved from " https: Western culture Classical studies Cultural anthropology Sociological terminology. Accordingly, I submit that the minimal fairy tale features a feminine enchantment. In its minimal form, a girl walks into the woods and comes of age.

Virtually all the available variants mostly from France mention an innocent girl who strolls into the woods and meets the wolf. While Perrault elides the pricking references, he describes the girl collecting flowers along the way. Moreover, Perrault implies that the carrier of flowers heads to her deflowering.

It is noteworthy that the wolf meets the girl at the crossroads to set her on her blood path, and again at the forest cabin to take her to bed. The illustrator Walter Crane, in his Little Red Riding Hood illustrated booklet , effectively summarizes this two-tiered intervention. Routledge, , 2. Thus, Crane like Perrault both associates the girl with the flowers and hints at her looming deflowering. Indeed, shape-shifting is a lunar attribute every month the moon changes its shape as it wanes, vanishes, and waxes.

Essentially, this variant maps the tangible act of walking along the path to the abstract realm of morals. After the wolf lures the girl into leaving the straight path, the straying girl follows her own uncharted path of flowers: A shattered wine bottle involves, of course, a red flow. Thus, the brothers convey the basic fairy-tale leitmotif: But the broken-bottle metaphor is actually transparent enough that the brothers moved to contain its implication.

Therefore, the Grimms manage to preserve the sexual symbolism and to present a morally prim tale. Such procedures should be heeded in debates about whether the Brothers Grimm were faithful to the tales they edited. Rather, it is meant as a quick illustration of the point that fairy tales are built on metaphorical mappings among codes, which numerous variants express in various ways.

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Put in a nutshell, grasping the metaphors in the variants of a tale—that is, mapping the tale imagery to abstract propositions—is what the study of fairy-tale symbolism is about. Although the study of fairy-tale symbolism is old, it is only just coming out of the woods, and a long, winding path lies ahead.

Little Red Riding Hood. University of Florida Digital Collection. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension Selected Essays, — The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical Essays of Alan Dundes. Edited by Simon J. Utah State University Press, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis.

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Edited and translated by James Strachey. The Interpretation of Dreams. Edited by Angela Richards. Translated by James Strachey. The Penguin Freud Library. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Philosophy in the Flesh: The University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Vaz da Silva, Francisco. Edited by Maria Tatar, 97— Cambridge University Press, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales. Essai sur le conte de tradition orale Paris: Gallimard, , 60—64 , offers a good discussion of opening and closing formulas in connection with the general otherness of fairy tales.

Lang, Custom and Myth London: Longmans, Green, , 12—13 , 21, Holt, , 1: Andrew Lang, Introduction to Cinderella: Marian Roalfe Cox London: Nutt, , Indiana University Press, , Champion, , Unless otherwise stated, all translations from the French are my own. The French text in question is in C. Barde, , — Academia Scientiarum Fennica, , , seems inclined to moor the transformation sequence in the Middle East.

Wiley-Blackwell, , 40— Scribner, , 52—53 , 72— Longman, Green, , The original English essay by R. An Essay , ed. Abram Smythe Palmer London: Prentice-Hall, , 63 n. Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , ed. James Strachey New York: Norton, , Freud, Interpretation of Dreams , Freud, Introductory Lectures , Freud, Introductory Lectures , , Freud, Interpretation of Dreams , n. Introductory Lectures , Freud borrowed this idea from Hans Sperber. Freud, Interpretation of Dreams , — Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language: Grove, , 6. Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: Peregrine Books, , — A Casebook , ed.

University of Wisconsin Press, , Basic Books, , Darnton, Great , Maisonneuve et Larose, , 1: The text selected by Darnton is on pages — University of Wisconsin Press, , 15—16 ; and Zipes, Trials , 21— On the Relation of Mythology and Psychoanalysis. For a fine discussion, see Robert A. Princeton University Press, , 40— Shambhala, , 43 italics in the original. Princeton University Press, , 21—22 ; cf. Joseph Campbell, Flight of the Wild Gander: New World Library, , 12 italics in the original.

This is a reprint of the book that was originally published in by Viking. Classic Contributions by the Founders of Folklore , ed. Alan Dundes Lanham, MD: For a lucid explanation of the historical-geographic method, see Stith Thompson, The Folktale Berkeley: University of California Press, , — Kaarl Krohn, Folklore Methodology , trans. Alan Dundes, , Englewood Cliffs, N.

Prentice-Hall, , , Arno, , 6. Krohn, Folklore , ; Thompson, The Folktale , — Reimer, , Realschulbuchhandlung, , The Complete First Edition , ed. Jack Zipes Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, , Realschulbuchhandlung, , 13— See a fine translation of this passage in Tatar, Hard Facts , — Philip Pullman, Grimm Tales: For Young and Old Harmondsworth: Penguin, , Illusion, Allusion, and Paradigm , ed. University of Pennsylvania Press, , Dundes, Interpreting Folklore , Alan Dundes, The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical Essays of Alan Dundes , ed.

Utah State University Press, , Alan Dundes, Parsing through Customs: Essays by a Freudian Folklorist Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, , 38, — Dundes, Meaning of Folklore , Dundes, Parsing , Maria Tatar Cambridge, U. Cambridge University Press, , 97— See Dundes, Parsing , Dundes, Interpreting Folklore , , —; Meaning of Folklore , Danish Folklore in a European Perspective Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, , Holbek, Interpretation of Fairy Tales , Holbek, Interpretation of Fairy Tales , ; cf.

Tatar, Hard Facts , Penguin Books, , The University of Chicago Press, , University of Minnesota Press, , — Plon, , Cambridge University Press, , Basic Books, , 3 , University of Pennsylvania Press, , 3— Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale , trans. University of Texas Press, , 6. Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality , ed.

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Trask Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, , For a compelling development of this insight regarding one particular fairy tale, see N. Essais sur des contes africains Paris: Vladimir Propp, Les racines historiques du conte merveilleux , trans. Gallimard, ,