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| Easterners | |
|---|---|
| Name | Easterners |
| Region | Asia; Middle East; Eastern Europe; Americas (regional) |
| Languages | Mandarin Chinese; Hindi; Arabic; Japanese; Korean; Persian; Russian; Bengali; Turkish; Vietnamese; Thai; Urdu |
| Religions | Buddhism; Hinduism; Islam; Shinto; Taoism; Confucianism; Eastern Orthodox Christianity; Sikhism; Zoroastrianism; Jainism |
| Related | East Asia; South Asia; Southeast Asia; Near East; Anatolia; Caucasus; Balkans |
Easterners are individuals and collective identities associated with regions traditionally situated to the east of a designated Western reference point. The term has been applied across historical periods, diplomatic discourse, literary works, cartography, and popular culture to denote peoples, polities, cultures, and intellectual traditions associated with Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe and North Africa. Usage varies by context, encompassing geographical, cultural, religious, and political dimensions.
The epithet derives from directional terms used in ancient cartographic and literary sources such as Ptolemy and Herodotus and later medieval writings by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, reflecting orientations centered on Europe or the Mediterranean Sea. Early modern agents like the British East India Company and figures such as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus further institutionalized east–west dichotomies in historiography and commerce. In diplomatic lexicons shaped by the Treaty of Westphalia and the rise of nation-states, the label contrasted with references to Western Europe, Western Hemisphere, and later the United States. Imperial and colonial bureaucracies including the Dutch East India Company, French Indochina administration, and Russian Empire cartographers codified regional nomenclature that persists in contemporary geopolitical and ethnographic usage.
In antiquity and the medieval period, empires such as the Han dynasty, Gupta Empire, Byzantine Empire, Umayyad Caliphate, and Sassanian Empire were often discussed in relation to polities farther west like Rome, Aksum, and later Ottoman Empire interlocutors. The term appears in travelogues by Zheng He's contemporaries and in accounts of encounters between Mongol Empire envoys and European courts. Early modern trade networks — involving the Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road, and the Spice trade mediated by merchants from Calicut, Malacca, and Canton — influenced European intellectual frameworks used by scholars such as Edward Said later critiqued in postcolonial studies. Colonial-era administrators including Lord Curzon, Warren Hastings, and Charles Cornwallis shaped administrative categories that informed census practices and missionary activity associated with institutions like the London Missionary Society and Paris Foreign Missions Society.
Regions commonly designated include East Asia (China, Japan, Korea), South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines), the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Arabia), and parts of Eastern Europe (Balkans, Caucasus). Subregional identities such as Sinophone world, Indosphere, Persianate world, and Turkic world highlight linguistic and civilizational continuities across state boundaries exemplified by entities like the Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, and Qing dynasty. Cartographic traditions from the Tabula Rogeriana to Mercator projections reveal shifting center–periphery perspectives that influenced lists and maps produced by institutions like the Royal Geographical Society.
Religious traditions associated with eastern regions include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam as practiced in South Asia and the Middle East, Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism, and Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine and Balkan spheres. Philosophical currents from texts such as the Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita, Dhammapada, and commentaries by Nāgārjuna and Al-Farabi informed metaphysical and ethical discourses. Institutional centers including Nalanda University, Al-Azhar University, Takshashila, and Kyoto University served as hubs for theological and philosophical exchange, while pilgrimage sites like Varanasi, Mecca, Lumbini, and Kamakura shaped devotional geographies.
Artistic traditions include forms such as Chinese calligraphy, Japanese Noh theatre, Kathak, Batik, Ottoman miniature painting, Persian miniature, Gamelan music, and Byzantine iconography. Literary canons range from epic works like the Mahabharata and Ramayana to classical Chinese poetry by Li Bai and Du Fu, Persian verse by Rumi and Hafez, and modern novels by Rabindranath Tagore, Haruki Murakami, and Orhan Pamuk. Architectural exemplars include Angkor Wat, Taj Mahal, Forbidden City, Hagia Sophia, and Shinto shrines, while festivals such as Diwali, Chinese New Year, Nowruz, and Obon manifest calendrical and ritual diversity.
Migration flows—from the indentured labor networks linking British Caribbean colonies to Calcutta and Freetown, to 20th-century labor migrations to United States, United Kingdom, and Gulf states—produced diasporic communities engaging with institutions like the International Organization for Migration and advocacy groups such as the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Notable diasporic formations include Indian diaspora, Chinese diaspora, Lebanese diaspora, Armenian diaspora, and Turkish diaspora, each contributing to transnational networks connecting cities like Mumbai, Singapore, Dubai, Istanbul, and Toronto.
Contemporary references encompass geopolitical groupings such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS, and trade corridors like the Belt and Road Initiative. Economic transformations driven by entities like Japan Inc. in the postwar period, the Asian Tigers model, and rapid industrialization in the People's Republic of China intersect with regional institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and global forums including the World Trade Organization. Debates over representation, stereotyping, and policy framed by scholars at institutions like Harvard University, School of Oriental and African Studies, and University of Tokyo continue to shape legal and cultural recognition in international law and media.
Category:Ethnic and regional groups