Hypothesis:

Eastern countries are more feminine than average and Western ones more masculine.

Femininity is more passive and masculinity more aggressive. This can be seen as a generality by the coloring of the genders in the animal world, for example the peacock. Since males are more aggressive it follows that among humans they are more creative and orderly.

Aggressive: Inclined to act on a given stimulus. Aggression has a wide definition. For example, writing is considered aggressive since it is frequently used as propaganda. The development of technology is aggressive since it has as its goal the exploitation of the world to advantage the inventor. Trade is considered to be aggressive since it is used to gain a market advantage for the trader.

Passive: Disinclined to act on a given stimulus.

The East: Those countries east of the Pakistan/India border to some point in the Pacific Ocean excluding Australia.

The West: Europe and descendents.

The time span of interest is prehistory to the beginnings of trade between Europe and China.

Individual acts of aggression are less interesting than cultural acts since individuals may be unusual.

Taking China, Japan, and Korea as the example to be compared with Europe, the main features noted are:

1. The relative lack of invasions of neighboring countries in the East when those countries didn’t represent a threat. By this I mean pre 20^th century warfare between China, Japan, and Korea. All had internal struggles for dominance.
2. The exporting of culture via missionaries by the West.
3. Use of knives and forks in the West rather than chopsticks.
4. The West arrived in China, Japan, and Korea first with trading as a motive.
5. The West had more advanced shipping at its disposal earlier than the East.
6. The Industrial Revolution began in the West. The Industrial Revolution is most importantly characterized by precision technology.
7. The East has in its belief systems reincarnation and enlightenment as the way to forestall it and fate in the form of karma. The West sees life as divine and to be prolonged. They also believe in free will. In my view this difference can be explained by noting that the West, being aggressive takes an active role in the creation of civilization and therefor feels a sense of proprietorship towards it.

I suppose that sociologists could test this hypothesis by survey. A questionnaire could be devised suggesting circumstances and preferred responses of both aggressive and passive types.

Value:

This leads towards a rationale for migration patterns in prehistory.

It also allows one to develop a method of categorizing ideologies.

Note:

Passivity and aggression and creativity are considered to be only relatively advantageous in local circumstances. In addition these attributes exist to varying degrees in all humans and therefor have no meaning regarding the relative value of gender.