Westernization

About: Westernization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1154 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15791 citations. The topic is also known as: occidentalization.

Transnational Orientals: Scholars of Art, Nationalist Discourses, and the Question of Intellectual Authority

Abstract: This article examines the ways in which two scholars of Japanese descent, Okakura Kakuzo (1862-1913) and Kojiro Tomita (1890-1976), defined the bourgeois fascination for East Asia in early twentieth-century United States. Fashioning multi-layered, transnational identities for themselves as authoritative cultural intermediaries, they occupied privileged positions within American social and intellectual circles and became active participants in debates regarding the impacts of modernization and Westernization on Asia and its aesthetics. In the process, Okakura and Tomita constructed and disseminated discourses of race, nationalism, and culture that served to decenter the nation-state and to underscore the complexities of the immigrant experience amidst socio-economic and political transformations taking place on both sides of the Pacific.

Scholarly Transgressions: (Re)writing the History of World Christianity:

Abstract: The history of world Christianity has typically relied on certain binary categories such as Western/non-Western, missionary/native, modern/traditional, and liberal/conservative. Our globalizing context, in which well-established political and ideological borders are constantly being crossed, raises questions about the adequacy of such binaries. Using Christianity in North India as a case study, this article explores the limits of these inherited frameworks for the study of world Christianity.

Facing the change and meeting the challenge: mathematics curriculum of Tongwen Guan in China in the second half of the nineteenth century

Abstract: It is commonly recognized that the second wave of transmission of Western science and mathematics into China took place in the second half of the nineteenth century, thereby starting a process of modernization which has become synonymous with “westernization” of the country. In this context mathematics education in China also went through a process of modernization. During this period of great change reformers faced serious challenge and went through a “mental struggle”. This paper discusses this challenge and mental struggle by taking a close look at the controversy over the establishment of Tianwen Suanxue Guan (School of Astronomy and Mathematics) in Tongwen Guan (School of Combined Learning), one of the schools of Western learning at the time. The attempt to integrate Western mathematics with Chinese traditional mathematics is also discussed through the study of some questions sampled from examinations and students’ homework assignments of this school.

The dietary practices and beliefs of British South Asian people living with inflammatory bowel disease: a multicenter study from the United Kingdom.

Abstract: Background/Aims Epidemiological associations have implicated factors associated with Westernization, including the Western diet, in the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The role of diet in IBD etiopathogenesis, disease control and symptom management remains incompletely understood. Few studies have collected data on the dietary habits of immigrant populations living with IBD. Our aim was to describe the dietary practices and beliefs of British South Asians with IBD. Methods A 30-item questionnaire was developed and consecutively administered to 255 British South Asians with IBD attending gastroenterology clinics in the United Kingdom. Results Fifty-one percent of participants believed diet was the initiating factor for their IBD and 63% felt diet had previously triggered disease relapse. Eighty-nine percent avoided certain dietary items in the belief that this would prevent relapse. The most commonly avoided foods and drinks were spicy and fatty foods, carbonated drinks, milk products, alcohol, coffee, and red meat. A third of patients had tried a whole food exclusion diet, most commonly lactose- or gluten-free, and this was most frequently reported amongst those with clinically active IBD (P= 0.02). Almost 60% of participants avoided eating the same menu as their family, or eating out, at least sometimes, to prevent IBD relapse. Conclusions British South Asians with IBD demonstrate significant dietary beliefs and food avoidance behaviors with increased frequency compared to those reported in Caucasian IBD populations. Studies in immigrant populations may offer valuable insights into the interaction between diet, Westernization and cultural drift in IBD pathogenesis and symptomatology.

Psychoanalysis Across Civilizations: A Personal Journey

Abstract: This journey started in 1950 at Antioch College when I wrote a required Life Aims paper to make a comparative study of East and West in philosophy, religion, art, literature, and the social sciences. In 1977 I went to India on a grant for clinical psychoanalytic research to assess the psychological effects of Westernization on Indians, to ascertain differences in configurations of the self from American patients, and to reexamine psychoanalysis. Realizing I had a tiger by the tail, I had to do just what I had envisaged and completely forgotten about in my Life Aims paper, only now to focus on psychoanalysis. I went to Japan in 1982 for an inter-Asian psychological comparison, which had never been done. Returning home necessitated two more journeys: to understand the encounter of Asian patients with the radically different American cultural/psychological world; and to explore the dialogue psychoanalysts have had with the cultural roots of psychoanalysis in modern Western individualism.