World Cultures Final Essay Instructions

World Cultures Students,

Remember that your final essay on the Middle Eastern countries will be due no later than Monday, October 11th and will be worth a total of fifty (50) points.

Upon analyzing the following quote:

"The category of the Other is as primordial as consciousness itself. In the most primitive societies, in the most ancient mythologies, one finds the expression of a duality – that of the Self and the Other...Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought...
Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other over against itself. If three travellers chance to occupy the same compartment, that is enough to make vaguely hostile ‘others’ out of all the rest of the passengers on the train. In small-town eyes all persons not belonging to the village are ‘strangers’ and suspect; to the native of a country all who inhabit other countries are ‘foreigners’; Jews are ‘different’ for the anti-Semite, Negroes are ‘inferior’ for American racists, aborigines are ‘natives’ for colonists, proletarians are the ‘lower class’ for the privileged...
No subject will readily volunteer to become the object, the inessential; it is not the Other who, in defining himself as the Other, establishes the One. The Other is posed as such by the One in defining himself as the One." (Simone de Beauvoir)

What do you understand by the concept of the "Other"? Do you think Middle Eastern countries/citizens have been or are considered the "Other? How, why, when? Give examples. Do you really believe that the concept of "Otherness is fundamental to the category of human thought"? Or do you think it can be overcome? Do you personally believe that before you studied about the countries of the Middle East you might have designated them and their citizens as a type of "Other"? If so, how?

I realize this is a complex assignment. As I said in class, it is much more in tune with the type of assignment frequently given in college. Therefore, I expect excellent essays that should be superior to the level you have already achieved in class. After all, ASJ is a college prep school :) Remember that all the MLA guidelines apply to the essay and the maximum limit is two (2) pages. YOU DO NOT NEED TO INCLUDE THE FULL QUOTE, BUT YOU MAY INCLUDE PARTS OF IT.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at any time. I am also including links to MLA format websites:

http://citationonline.net/CitationHelp/images/mlaformat-firstpage.gif

http://www.calstatela.edu/library/guides/3mla.pdf