Western and Contemporary Global Conceptions of Creativity in Relief Against Approaches from So-called "Traditional" Cultures

Abstract

For the past few centuries, many in the West have defined their culture as "modern," "dynamic," and "creative," in opposition to other cultures which they have called "traditional," "backward," and of the 20th century, however, this distinction has revealed itself as misleading. This article attempts to determine what distinctions might legitimately be made about conceptions of creativity in so-called "traditional" It seeks to illuminate how creativity (as the West has commonly defined the term) is expressed in "traditional" cultures, and how some traditional activities might cause us to modify the common