continents

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:44 PM -0600 2/22/02, Donald M Lance wrote:
>We learned about Asia Minor in geography 60 years ago.  The Near East and
>the Middle East are the same, aren't they?  -- the former used more in
>Britain and the latter in the U.S.
>
>DMLance

There's also the sense that "Near East" and "Far East" are offensive
(didn't we talk about this once, possibly in connection with
"Oriental"?) in that they locate other peoples and areas with respect
to "ourselves", i.e. from a European perspective, while "Middle East"
and even more so "South Asia", "East Asia", "Southwest Asia", etc.,
are more objective and perspectivally neutral.

larry