Webinars & Presentations
Asian Topic Discussion Series: Easternization not Westernization: Modernity is a Global Formation
Join Professor Sarah Schneewind for a discussion on Easternization and modernity. We talk about “Westernization” and “modernization” as if they are the same thing, but that ignores the fact that Afro-Eur-Asia or “Eurasia” has been one continent for over 20,000 years, and that inventions have traveled across Eurasia for thousands of years, creating a synthesis of technological developments across Eurasia before “modernization" even began. And many of these inventions originated in Asia, which was richer than Europe throughout most of early history. Why, then, do we equate “modernization” with “Westernization”? Why do we not see it as “Globalization”?