Asian = Oriental, etc.

[Mark Odegard]

Laurence Horn :

>I believe "Near East(ern)" is sometimes objected to for the same reason as
>"Oriental"--it implies a Euro-perspective. "Far East(ern)" similarly, and a
>number of departments, including Yale's have shifted from "Far Eastern" to
>"East Asian".  In our case, though, we've retained "Near Eastern" (rather
>adopting than the marginally more neutral "Middle Eastern"), maybe because
>it's mostly historical. Our departmental library used to be housed in the
>Oriental and Indic Seminar Room, but now it's just the Ling(uistic)
>Sem(inar).

>From the point of view of the Eurasian land mass, 'East', 'West', etc are as
neutral as you can get. Japan is in the where-the-sun-rises part, while
Ireland is in the where-the-sun-sets part. For terms between the extremes of
east and west, we have some neutral compass-point terms, as well as some
historical ones. 'Asia' itself is a term from European languages, but I've
not heard any suggestion this be replaced with something more politically
correct.

The Near-East, the Middle-East do represent a historical, geographic, and
cultural unit; for lack of a better term, these two have to do. Anatolia is
sometimes considered a part of it, sometimes not. If you exclude both Turkey
and Iran, then 'Greater Arabia' might work.

'India' represents a problem too. Pakistan is sometimes included in the
geographical definition. Referring to the Indian subcontinent seems to be
the usual way around the difficulty.

I've never seen in the literature, but 'South Central Asia' might be a
useful term for Afganistan-Pakistan-Iran; linguistically, they mostly speak
Indo-Iranian (mostly -Iranian) languages.

>Isn't Southwest Asia sometimes (or sometimes inclusive of) "Asia Minor",
>i.e. Turkey?

I retract my comment on SE Asia. Strictly, this is the whole Middle East
(east of Suez), to include Anatolia and the south slope of the Caucasus.

Anatolia/Asia Minor seems to be off by itself, distinct in all the
literature. As a practical matter, it's usually been culturally, ethnically
and linguistically distinct from its neighbors.

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