How People Define The One Who’s Not One of Them in Different Cultures

Etymology is not everything, it doesnt’t necesarily always give us a clear information; but it is also very useful to understand the origins and modifications in concepts. We speak, think, become who we are through concepts to which we appoint words – sounds. The differences in words determine the differences in thinking, understanding the world, thus the differences among cultures and people. Sometimes words are untranslatable, since each one of them are unique in regard to their culture – to their lifesyle, history, geography, climate etc.

The concept of “we” and “others” should be very old in our evolution. We had given clan names to our little groups, communities, then societies to separate ourselves from the other groups. Then we had chosen words to determine those others, through existing concepts which express what exactly had meant “the stranger” for us. Here are some examples from cultures who are close by geography, but distant by mentality.