Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 11:08:10 -0400

From: "David Bergdahl (614) 593-2783" BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

Subject: Re: Asian



Here's an interesting tangent to the orientalist/asian issue: where do you place

the western border of Asia? While in Israel a few years back I asked people

what continent I was on and was mostly answered with The Middle East. . . when

I explained I wanted an answer like Europe, Asia, Africa, I found a great

reluctance to say "Asia" which I thought obvious. For my way of thinking, the

Euro-Asian frontier in the north is the Ural Mts; Russia's "near abroad" is

Asian, as is Turkey. Africa begins with the Suez Canal.



There's a political dimension to this issue (of course!) since Israelis are

accused of being "really European colonials" in an Arab Middle East despite

continuous inhabitance in the region since Moses looked down over the Jordan

from the east bank. Turkey is a member of the European Union. Australia was

recently rebuffed when it tried to assert its "asianness" at a regional

conference (ASEAN). What are the boundaries of Asia?

________________________________________________________________________

David Bergdahl tel: (614) 593-2783 fax: (614) 593-2818

Bergdahl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CaTS.OHIOU.EDU

Ohio University/Athens

"Where Appalachia meets the Midwest"--Anya Briggs