On Thu, 10 Mar 1994, Robbin Murphy wrote:
> I've always been told that Oriental refers to "east of Jerusalem"
> and is not very descriptive. There was a book a year or so by
> Edward Said called "Orientalisms" that goes into the history of
> the term.
 
  [remainder of message deleted]
 
Edward W. Said, =Orientalism= (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978),
  "...it is true that the term =Orientalism= is less preferred by
specialists today, both because it is too vague and general and because it
connotes the high-handed executive attitude of nineteenth-century and
early-twentieth- century European colonialism." (p. 2)
 
  It has been a long time since I read Said, but my recollection is of a
polemic against =Orientalism= from an intellectual with cultural roots in
the Near East, where by =Orientalism= we should understand a kind of myth
or delusion by Europeans (and North Americans) about the region that has
been called the =Orient=.  I think that Said argued that there is a strong
racist connotation to =Orientalism=.
 
  I think there is more to this than "PCism" (if I may use that term).  I
think that rejecting a label perceived as pejorative, by at least some of
the people of that region, is a hopeful sign, perhaps an indication that
we in the =Occident= are beginning to attempt to understand a region of
the world with a very complex history.
 
  That's my $.02 worth (have you noticed that computer keyboards don't
have cent symbols when you really need them?)
 
Mike Jacobs * Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721
tel: 602-621-6312 * e-mail: [log in to unmask]