Without Borders
HUMANS DOES NOT HAVE ONLY ROOTS WITHOUT EVEN FEET!
Demarcation
“And the Gileadites occupied the forests of Jordan for the Ephraimites. When one of the Ephraimite refugees said, “Let me come over,” Gilead’s men asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he then answered no, they said to him, “Say ‘schibboleth’.” “The sibling” because he couldn’t pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and knocked him down there at the footsteps of Jordan. In this way, forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell at that time (Judges 12: 5 – 6).
The physical, symbolic or imaginary boundary is always present in frictions. Just as much on the Jordan River between the twelve tribes of Israel as in today’s globalized world, people are subjected to the same question: “Who are you?”, “Are you one of us?” It is the same problem complex around the world, though with variation and different degrees of brutality. In some areas, creepy and hidden in others, open and rude. Man has come no further!
The text above is an excerpt from my essay: “Culture” access or obstacle in the Politics of Recognition, which I wrote in the course Pedagogical Philosophy during the spring semester 2007. In essence, I base myself on Charles Taylor’s interesting book The Multicultural Society and the Politics of Recognition and discuss what I consider is the anthropological dilemma, namely the “We and the Dom” creation as a result of “the politics of recognition”.
Phoenix Fataneh Nik-Khakian
Aida Film has taken the initiative to form the association Filmmakers without Borders, in part to counter “Us and Them” dichotomies. The association is still being built up. If you are a filmmaker and interested in joining, please contact us. Click here
* Semhede Ove, Johansson Thomas (ed), The Transformation of Identity. Sid. 57