Opposite Sides

Opposite Sides:

A Brief Examination of the Latin American and Asian Cultures

ANT 101: Cultural Anthropology

Professor

Opposite Sides

Latin America and Asia are located on totally opposite sides of the earth from each other. Although their languages and their locations can be absolutely discernible, they may be more akin than one might know. From the ancient and sprawling civilizations long past, to the bustling epicenters of technology and information, these two cultures have had a long time to mature. I’m going to discuss how the history of these cultures has shaped them into who they are today, and thought worlds apart, how similar they actually are.

Latin America and Asia are both extremely diverse regions. Latin America had many pre-Colombian civilizations that didn’t survive the European colonization of the Americas, but some remnants of heritage, language, and even ancestors from those peoples still exist today. Latin America is now predominately Spanish in almost all of the countries, with some influences from Portugal in Brazil, Italy in Columbia and Venezuela, France and Britain in Guiana and parts of Central America and the Caribbean, Africa from the many slaves brought over, and even Germany and Japan throughout Peru, Argentina, and Chile.

Asia is a huge region that is generally broken down into sub regions to easily define the culturally diverse and naturally abundant landscapes due to the fact that there is really no common unity or history between the many cultures and peoples. Those sub regions include North Asia which is mainly Russia. West Asia is more commonly referred to as the Middle East. Central Asia (a.k.a. Middle Asia or Inner Asia) consists of the five former Soviet Socialist Republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. South Asia is predominately India, but also includes Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka which all share a common heritage. But the regions that Westerners...