Daniella Fajardo
CULT 320
February 12, 2015
Reading Summary #1 The idea that some people are better than others is almost nature. What this means is that if a person sees herself as superior than another person, it does not mean that she is actually superior but that is how she defines herself, therefore defining the other person as inferior. This is not necessarily intentional but it does tend to happen to many people. However, this example of superiority is not limited to individuals but it also involves neighborhoods, communities, cities, states, countries, etc. This concept of us vs. them, the west being better than the east, the poor vs. rich, pretty vs. ugly, developed vs. under developed, better vs. worse, superior vs. inferior, and so on, has been taken in history and been analyzed in many different levels of population, but more specifically on an article written by Said. On it, he states that “Orientalism is never far from what Denys Hay has called the idea of Europe,' a collective notion identifying "us" Europeans as against all "those" non-Europeans, and indeed it can be argued that the major component in European culture is precisely what made that culture hegemonic both in and outside Europe: the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures (Said, pg 7).” Said argues some facts that tie in with the other readings. Those readings have aspects and concepts that can still apply to the way people view themselves and others with the idea of orientalism, and show that it not only happened during the 18th century in-between different countries, but that it also happens to this day within a country. People in the society have the notion that they are better than others, just as the western europeans thought they were better than eastern europeans and as consequence, they - as the book says-