Richard E. Nisbett wrote a fine book: The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently...and why. One theme weaves throughout a lot of the research and history he reviews: Independence versus Interdependence, with western perspective on the independence end, and Asians on the interdependence. This underlying principle applies not only to perception of human relationships, but how the parts of our bodies are perceived; whether we focus on objects in the foreground, or on context; are we happier as unique individuals, or as smoothly operating cogs in the machinery; and whether truth is static or fluid. According to Nisbett, Asians tend to perceive the whole pond at once. Westerners tend to focus on the distinguishing properties of individual persons and objects.