Re: OT: Renaming the continents

--- Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote:

> Well, I'm not trying to be antiEuropean.  I
> think plenty of Europeans
> would consider "America", at least, to be ill
> chosen, if in full
> posession of the facts.
What facts would change their minds? To me, it's
just a name. Like Vinland or Hy Brasil.

> And I think the idea of naming landmasses is
> fairly culturally independent - any human
> civilization with sufficient
> knowledge to be aware of the distribution of
> land on the globe is
> probably going to want to refer to them by
> name, although the relative
> importance of regions on different scales is
> likely to vary.
Indeed. Now, which civilisations on Earth had
that frame of reference? Ah yes, those pesky
Europeans again! The Chinese were on the way, but
gave up; the Arabs never got far enough; the
Africans and Americans never got away from their
own lands. I am not disparaging the achievements
of any of those peoples - but the fact remains
that Europeans were big on world exploration and
depicting lands via maps.

> I don't have any particular alternate history
> in mind myself - I'm
> just thinking of what names we might choose
> now, if we were to be
> faced withe the task of naming only after the
> globe had been
> thouroughly mapped and explored.
Ah, I see. In that case, I as an American would
opt to keep the names as are. Now, were I Asian
and of the right mindset, I might choose
different names - at least for domestic use.

> And, well, I don't see any reason to
> be Eurocentric in this.
Certainly not. I can well imagine that Asians
might choose a name other than Asia for the
landmass they live in. They might also choose to
subdivide that landmass into something more
sensible! After all, China has precious little in
common with Lapland!

Padraic.


=====
fas peryn omen c' yng ach h-yst yn caleor peryn ndia;
enffoge yn omen ach h-yst yn caleor per la gouitha.




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