ABSTRACT
What is the non-Western world, and why it is important to learn about its peoples and cultures? When we speak of the non-Western world we are referring to the areas in which cultures developed essentially apart from the Greco-Judaic-Christian tradition of the Western culture. Thus, it includes East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea), Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Latin America, Russian Asia, and Oceania are excluded. The indigenous cultures of Latin America and Oceania are not Western, but they are also not non-Western in the same sense as the ancient civilizations of China and India. Moreover, the culture of the preColumbian settled communities in Yucatan and Andes (600 B.C.), the empire of the Mayas in Central America, the Inca civilization (1200-1535 A.D.), and the Aztec empire (1325-1521 A.D.) in the valley of Mexico were conquered.
