Cardinal Directions in World Cultures
| Europe | N | E | S | W | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slavic | — |
Many cultures not descended from European traditions use cardinal directions, but have a number other than four. Typically, a “center” direction is added, for a total of five. Rather than the Western use of direction letters, properties such as colors are often associated with the various cardinal directions—these are typically the natural colors of human perception rather than optical primary colors. Some examples are shown here. In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific named winds with cardinal and ordinal directions. The classical Greeks personified these winds as Anemoi. The article on boxing the compass contains a more recent list of directional winds from the Mediterranean Sea.
Read more about this topic: Cardinal Direction
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth,
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)