Culturally speaking is Greece more European or Middle Eastern? (country, black, German)

[mej210390]

Don't mean to stir a controversy but everytime I go to a Greek Festival, alot of the music, food, dance, drama, etc seem to be more of the middle eastern variety rather than European, but what are your views? please share? do Greeks view themselves as Europeans or Middle Eastern?

[coschristi]

My mother is 1st generation American born (english is her 2nd language) & has always refered to us as "Mediterranean".

I think genetically speaking we share more DNA with the Middle East. Interestingly; I've noticed an odd similarity between Greek traditional colors & dance to the French Basque ...Anyone else?

[Davy-040]

Originally Posted by mej210390

Don't mean to stir a controversy but everytime I go to a Greek Festival, alot of the music, food, dance, drama, etc seem to be more of the middle eastern variety rather than European, but what are your views? please share? do Greeks view themselves as Europeans or Middle Eastern?

I think you mean "Near Eastern".

[Geggo]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

I think you mean "Near Eastern".

The anglospere doesn't really make this difference as the Dutch and Germans do. For them it's middle, for us near.

[svenM]

The Greeks consider themselve as the founders of Europe, it's the first time I hear that someone calls them "Middle Eastern", it is true that they were under Muslim rule but so was Spain for a part of time.

Greece is Orthodox and I think they have ties to other Orthodox countries like Russia and Serbia.

[Geggo]

Originally Posted by mej210390

Don't mean to stir a controversy but everytime I go to a Greek Festival, alot of the music, food, dance, drama, etc seem to be more of the middle eastern variety rather than European, but what are your views? please share? do Greeks view themselves as Europeans or Middle Eastern?

There is a cultural continuum in many parts of the world. Yes, Greece appears more middle (or near)
East than Germany or France, but I am sure that any Greek will tell you that they are European just as any other European person would not question this. Greece is Europe's cradle after all.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by mej210390

Don't mean to stir a controversy but everytime I go to a Greek Festival, alot of the music, food, dance, drama, etc seem to be more of the middle eastern variety rather than European, but what are your views? please share? do Greeks view themselves as Europeans or Middle Eastern?

We just had a very long thread on this very question. And what's with these mind-limiting "either/or" questions anyway?

Greece is neither European nor so-called middle eastern and the question should not even be asked.

You are looking at geography, history and culture from a nineteenth century western European perspective.

Take Google Earth, or similar program, and turn it, rotate it, zoom it in and out in as many different ways as you can conceive of.

At the same time, read history from the beginning going forward one year at a time, not backward hundreds of years at a time. And read it in as many different languages as you possibly can, including the original ones, and least of all English, German and French.

It will change your perspective and you will change your questions, and be that much better for it.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by mej210390

Don't mean to stir a controversy but everytime I go to a Greek Festival, alot of the music, food, dance, drama, etc seem to be more of the middle eastern variety rather than European, but what are your views? please share? do Greeks view themselves as Europeans or Middle Eastern?

Greek popular culture got a big Middle Eastern Greek shot in the arm after its losing war with Turkey after WW I. There was an exchange of populations that brought a million or more Greeks from Anatolia - with their distinctive culture - into Greece. And it changed Greek popular culture considerably from what I have read. But with all that, this influence was layered into an already complex history.

But still, today in Greece the influence of the Orthodox Church gives the country a much different air than you would find in the Arab Islamic Middle East.

[AFP]

Originally Posted by bale002

We just had a very long thread on this very question. And what's with these mind-limiting "either/or" questions anyway?

Greece is neither European nor so-called middle eastern and the question should not even be asked.

You are looking at geography, history and culture from a nineteenth century western European perspective.

Take Google Earth, or similar program, and turn it, rotate it, zoom it in and out in as many different ways as you can conceive of.

At the same time, read history from the beginning going forward one year at a time, not backward hundreds of years at a time. And read it in as many different languages as you possibly can, including the original ones, and least of all English, German and French.

It will change your perspective and you will change your questions, and be that much better for it.

Good post your knowledge and common sense come through, so many of the posts on this forum are replete with black and white concrete thinking.

[forgotten username]

Greece is mostly mediterranean Europe. Sure it is not Czech Republic, but if you consider it middle eastern, then you might as well say that Belarus is Central Asia.