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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (61931)	12/16/2002 1:04:18 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi CobaltBlue; Re the boundary between Europe and Asia. The invitation to do a little googling is, of course, irrestible. Here's what I found: It's arbitrarily chosen as the "west": The name Europe possibly stems from a female character in Greek Mythology named Europa who was abducted by a bull-shaped Zeus. A more prosaic explanation holds that it is derived from the word ereb from a Semitic language, meaning "sunset". ... Often other borders of Europe are drawn, based on political, economical, cultural or practical considerations. This has led to there being several different "Europes" that are not always identical in size, including or excluding countries dependent on the definition of "Europe" used. wikipedia.org Everything about the idea of "Asia" is problematic. As a geographic entity – a continental landmass -- the boundaries of its division from Europe are arbitrary or vague, in many models passing through the middle of several countries (Russia, Ukraine, Turkey). Clearly we need to ask, why has the great Eurasian landmass been carved into two continents? What makes Europe a continent, despite its lack of a clearly demarcated eastern boundary, while South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), with very clear boundaries all around, is informally referred to as a sub-continent (emphasis on the "sub")? And at the other end, we can also legitimately wonder where Asia leaves off -- East or West of the Philippines? Somewhere in the middle of Indonesia? New Guinea? The reasons for this ambiguity, of course, are not found in physical geography: it is, rather, a matter of history and culture. In this lecture we will look at the shifting definitions of the physical boundaries between Europe and Asia. But more importantly, we will explore the construction of the concepts of "Europe" and "Asia", particularly in the period of world exploration and colonisation from the sixteenth century until today. We will see how the idea of "Europe" coalesced first, and how "Asia" or the "Orient" was constructed as a foil or "constituting other" that not only placed "Asia" at the opposite geographic end of the Eurasian landmass, but also defined it as the moral or civilisational opposite of "Europe". ... arts.auckland.ac.nz Oooooooo! I found a truly cool link: ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES Anywhere that administrative units are established, the boundaries of their jurisdiction must be defined. States and their internal divisions have followed various principles in establishing these boundaries. rev.net -- Carl