Page 178 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

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Chapple, E. D., & Coon, C. S. (1942). Principles of anthropology. New historical arguments at the most profound levels. For
York: Holt & Company. example, the conventional division of Europe and Asia at
Goethals, G. (1967,April). Adolescence:Variations on a theme. Paper pre-
sented at invited presentation to the Psychology Department at the Ural Mountains carries the implicit assumption that
Boston University. Eurasia divides naturally into its European and Asian
Harrington, C. (1968). Sexual differentiation in socialization and some
male genital mutilations. American Anthropologist, 70, 951–956. components, that all Asian societies share basic similar-
Hilger, I. (1951). Chippewa child life and its cultural background. Wash- ities, and that a line from the Urals to the Black Sea con-
ington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. stitutes the fault line between these metaregions. None of
Schlegel, A., & Barry, H., III. (1991). Adolescence: An anthropological
inquiry. New York: Free Press. these assumptions bears serious scrutiny today, yet the
Textor, R. B. (1967). A cross-cultural summary. New Haven, CT: Human labels persist as traps for the uncritical reader.
Relations Area Files Press.
Turner,V. (1987). Betwixt and between: The liminal period in rites of pas-
sage. InL. C. Mahdi, S. Foster, & M. Little (Eds.), Betwixt and between: Delineating Inner Eurasia
Patterns of masculine and feminine initiation (pp. 3–22). La Salle, IL: Inner Eurasia refers to a huge area that includes all the
Open Court.
Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage. Chicago: University of lands within the former Soviet Union, as well as Mon-
Chicago Press. golia, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia.To group this large
Young, F. W. (1965). Initiation ceremonies: A cross-cultural study of sta-
tus dramatization. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. and disparate region together makes sense only on the
hypothesis that Inner Eurasia has an underlying geo-
graphical coherence that has shaped the history of the
entire region. Early in the twentieth century, the British
Inner Eurasia geographer Halford Mackinder argued that it is helpful
to think of the Eurasian landmass as divided into two
nner Eurasia is one of several geographical labels that main regions. At its heart is a huge, largely flat, plain—
Ican be used when thinking about the history of the the largest continuous region of flatlands on earth. Inner
interior regions of Eurasia. Other labels that refer to the Eurasia was constructed mainly from two ancient tec-
innermost regions of the Eurasian landmass include tonic plates (the Siberian plates) that joined some 300
Turkistan, Inner Asia, Central Eurasia, and Central Asia. million years ago to create a huge mountain chain that
The label Inner Eurasia is the most inclusive of all the has since worn away to leave the low Ural Mountains.
alternatives, linking the fate of Central Asia to that of the Attached to the west, south, and east of the Inner
lands included within Mongolia and the former Soviet Eurasian plain lie several subcontinental peninsulas, all
Union, and suggesting that the history of this entire with a more varied topography.These make up what we
region was shaped by the distinctive geography of the can call Outer Eurasia. Outer Eurasia includes Europe
Eurasian heartlands. and Southwest Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast
Using geographical labels with care and precision is a Asia, and China.The plates carrying modern Europe and
matter of great importance within all forms of history, China joined the Siberian plates approximately 200 mil-
but particularly within world history, for geographical lion years ago.Within the last 60 million years, the plates
labels shape how we think about the past and help steer carrying modern India and Africa drove north and col-
historical arguments along particular trajectories. Used lided with the Eurasian plate, creating a chain of moun-
uncritically, they can warp our accounts of the past, pro- tains from the Alps to the Himalayas. These offer the
jecting present-day assumptions into the remote past. clearest topographical border between Inner and Outer
Used carefully and critically, they can reveal new aspects Eurasia. So, at the most general level, Eurasia consists of
of the past. As the geographers Martin Lewis and Karen an ancient, interior plain that is surrounded by regions
Wigen have argued, metageographies, or the categories closer to the sea that have a choppier and more complex
we use to think about the geography of the world, shape topography.