A glance at a dictionary that supplies quotations, like the OED, will show that the words "clockwise" and "anticlockwise" developed in English only in the late 19th century -- much, much later than the popularisation of the clock-face in the English-speaking world.

Prior to that there was a short-lived fashion for "sunwise" in the first half of the 19th century; and there was the much older and virtually obsolete term "withershins" which by the 1800s was only used in poetic or extremely archaic contexts.

Before the introduction of the new terms, the normal way of referring to the concepts in English was simply to use the words "left" and "right". (My own knowledge of this stems from investigating it after discovering that an 1848 ancient Greek-English lexicon -- the "Liddell and Scott", which is well-known to those who work on ancient Greek as it's still the standard dictionary -- translates the relevant Greek words that way.)

Every language has its own practice and its own history, of course, so an answer that applies in the case of English will probably not apply in any other language.

Edit. wording change for clarification.

This excerpt from "An Introduction to Folklore" that I am putting together may help (it draws heavily on a document of the same name, that my mentor, Sven Liljeblad, used as a handout for classes):

There are choices one can make involving front and back and left and right. The front is positive, and the back is negative. Movements forward and backward have positive and negative values, respectively.

Similarly, the right hand and movements to the right are positive, and those involving the left are negative. By analogy, clockwise, a movement involving left to right, is positive and counterclockwise is negative. The direction of the sun in the Northern Hemisphere reinforces the basic assumption that left to right is the natural motion of the world.

The belief in the importance of front and back and left and right inspired day-to-day practices involving the supernatural and it dominated formal magical practices. The back of the house was particularly vulnerable to the supernatural. It required special magical attention in the form of painted symbols or other magical practices to thwart possible dangers. Movements backwards was considered evil. Parents told children not to walk backwards because they would “drag father and mother to hell.” A person taking a few steps backward would be told “you go wrong.”

Along these lines, cooks should stir food clockwise, and they should cut and serve it from left to right. If someone accidentally turned his hand counterclockwise, he needed to turn his hand an equal number of times clockwise to undo the harm. In the same way, popular warning discouraged twisting one’s thumbs around towards oneself. They should rotate in the opposite direction. Custom forbid dancing counterclockwise, an act that would inspire the warning, “you dance against the sun. Turn around.”

The right hand has traditional preference over the left, a fact reflected in language and practice. The idea that one should begin the day with the right foot out of the bed is echoed in the phrase, “he got out of bed on the wrong side today.”

All this resulted in day-to-day activities that respected the natural order of the world and its preference for front over back, right over left, and clockwise over counterclockwise. When wishing to manipulate the supernatural, however, the patterns were typically reversed. The left hand as well as backwards and counterclockwise motions gained importance. Walking backwards and counterclockwise around a church three times could give the power to see the future. The same act around a well, combined with throwing an object representing an illness, backward over one’s left shoulder into the well, could restore health. A silver coin in the left shoe protected against evil.

These practices could quickly step into the sinister realm. Magical potions could be stirred counterclockwise, particularly if something hurtful was sought. The Stations of the Cross are arranged clockwise within a Catholic church. Walking counterclockwise inside a church, backwards, then reciting the Lord’s Prayer backwards at the rear of the church with one’s back to the altar was sufficient to call up the devil.

By analogy with the idea of front and back, one avoided turning things upside down or inside out unless there was a specific need or desired result. When walking home in the dark, it might be wise to pull one’s pockets out as a barrier against elfin attack. An intrepid soul might wear a coat inside out, thus acquiring supernatural sight to see the elves. This is not recommended since the supernatural beings frequently punish such audacity.

edit to provide link and to correct a word