Saturday, November 20, 2010

alterity


\awl-TAIR-uh-tee\

noun

: otherness; specifically : the quality or state of being radically alien to the conscious self or a particular cultural orientation

Apart from the fact that I often define my life by the acute awareness I have of the ALTERITY inherent in the human condition, specifically my human condition, there's not much to say about this word in relation to my person.

INSTEAD, let's talk about how much there is no such word as ALTERIOR. This is a fair guess as to the adjective form describing the state of ALTERITY. Alas, we are left with other, peculiar, disparate. I won't go on. My discussion regarding the supposed word ALTERIOR was slated to explore similarities/differences with the word ulterior. This discussion will no longer take place.

I discovered a blog with the title "ALTERITY." The most recent post offers a recipe for lamb sate. Opening words:

Take a goat, kill it and skin it (no I ain't provide a picture) [sic]

The blog is about traveling in Indonesia. Otherness; I get it.

The website Wordnik provided a bit more in depth definition of ALTERITY—

A philosophical and anthropological term for the 'other'. Cultural alterity is the process by which societies and cultures exclude particular people on account of their otherness.

—a concept responsible for things like Little Italy and Curves and that island of lepers in the movie The Fog.

I don't know. Read this philosophical article instead.

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