Orientalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Orientalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "eaning of the term

Like the term Orient, Orientalism derives from the Latin word oriens (rising) and, equally likely, from the Greek word ('he'oros', the direction of the rising sun). 'Orient' is the opposite of Occident. In terms of The Old World, Europe was considered The Occident (The West), and its farthest-known extreme The Orient (The East). Dating from the Roman Empire until the Middle Ages, what is now, in the West, considered 'the Middle East' was then considered 'the Orient'. In that time, the flourishing cultures of the Far East were unknown, likewise Europe was unknown in the Far East.

In time, the common understanding of 'the Orient' has continually shifted eastwards, as Western explorers traveled farther in to Asia. In Biblical times, the Three Wise Men 'from the Orient' were actually Magi from 'The East', (relative to Judea), probably meaning the Persian Empire or Arabia. After a period, as Europe learned of countries farther East, the defined limit of 'the Orient' shifted eastwards, until it reached the Pacific Ocean, in what Westerners came to call 'the Far East'. In the West, these shifts in time confuse the scope (historical and geographic) of Oriental Studies.

Yet, there remain contexts where 'the Orient' and 'Oriental' denote older definitions, e.g. 'Oriental spices' typically are from the Ear"