Why Harmony Develop Exclusively Western Culture Tribal Asian Cultures Essay

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Harmony

Why did harmony develop almost exclusively in western culture and not in tribal or Asian cultures?

Harmony is a unique concept depending primarily on the geographic region of origination. The concept of harmony however predates to early biblical times with a particular emphasis on collaboration. The term harmony originates from the Greek work "harmonia," which refers to the concept of a joint agreement, collaboration of joining together. Modern, tonal harmony as society is familiar with, originated in western civilization in roughly 1600. It most common place began with music as a means to use simultaneous pitches (Nettles, 1997). The concept of harmony however, expands to societal norms and uses including the use of collaboration to solve complex problems.

The concept of harmony developed exclusively in western culture for numerous reasons. Harmony in societal terms is needed to help provide a quality and meaningful way of life. This has occurred in both western and Asian cultures. However, the social structures, attitudes, and philosophies of each geographic region are vastly different. This has, in part, created the divergent methods of thought as it applies harmony. In essence, the differing mannerisms have created different methods of thinking. As such, the concept and meaning behind harmony is different. Due to different meanings, the overall development of harmony differed between regions (Van der Merwe, 1989).

To begin, man Asian countries are heavily influences by both the Buddhist and Confucian teachings. These teachings emphasize the existence of an ultimate life or truth associated with the "world.

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" This ultimate truth is that to which individuals and groups should strive. The process is primarily arduous, and guides individual's decision making. The problem however, lies in the fact that the ultimate truth cannot be well-defined and is relegated toward feeling. This is because it comes from our vision-based cognition which is fundamentally different from western civilization. It is word-less. This strongly anchors the Eastern world view of harmony.

Contrasting the vision-based western world is that of the science-based eastern world. The western though process is oriented towards science, or the left brain analysis of the world around us. Although the western concept of harmony acknowledges the many unknowns about the world, those unknowns are not viewed as the ultimate truth to which society orients itself. The unknowns are generally viewed as aspects of the world that science has not yet analyzed or been able to figure out. Western civilization therefore, trusts science as the arbiter of truth about the world, thereby strongly anchoring the world view in the left brain.

Harmony is western countries is therefore rooted in the science or the use of processes. This occurs in more mundane aspects such as music or in more integral aspects, such as capitalism. Harmony in many aspects was needed for capitalism to take shape in western culture. It was also needed by musicians to help create new and innovative methods of expressing oneself (Dahlhaus, 1990). In both instances, the same concepts apply. Western civilization,….....

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