西方文明的起源与特质

长期以来，东西方的学者习惯于将古希腊文明视为西方文化的源头。其实，真正的源头应是克里特岛上的米诺斯文明。但它并非原生文明，而是在埃及农业文明与西亚商业文明的影响下发展起来的次生文明。而西方文明则是一种在游牧文化骑马民族的反复冲击下，主要继承和发扬了游牧文化集贸易、掠夺、殖民于一体的骑马民族传统，由原始狩猎文化、游牧文化、商品文化、农耕文化杂交而成的海洋文明。

The Roots and characteristics of Western Culture

For ages, scholars all over the world always regard the ancient Greekcivilization as the cradle of western culture. In fact, it originated from Minoscivilization in Crete, however, it is not the primary one, but a secondary one,which derived from the Egyptian farming culture and west Asian commercial civilization. The western civilization belongs to a kind of nomadic culture under theinfluence of wandering tribes' culture, which carries forward and keeps up thetribal culture, characterized by trading, plundering and colonizing. It is mixedwith hunting, nomadic, commercial and farming cultures.