Borderlands
January 14th, 2008
Borders.
I’m fascinated with that political line in the sand that can separate cultures, ideologies, and people groups. Sometimes the borders make sense: large geographic features that have historically separated two people groups. Other times, as the case with Canada, it is just an arbitrary line in the earth separating an otherwise cohesive land mass and ecosystem. However, because that political line was drawn, two cultures emerge as distinct from one another. A person on one side of the ditch (shown below) might cry at the Star Spangled Banner and scenes of Rocky V and feel more entitled to personal liberty and privacy than his neighbor across the street. The neighbor quite possibly feels proud to be Canadian and is a diehard fan of Hockey Night Canada. Although the media markets overlap and border peoples might cross to the other side frequently, the hassle of crossing makes it difficult to intermix freely and thus create a hybrid, border culture.
Recently, the European Union expanded their network of countries that citizens and visitors can cross without showing an ID card. It will be interesting to see if there are long term changes now that Poles and Germans can cross the border at will.
America to the left, Canadian subdivision on the right
Looking down 0th Avenue near Surrey, BC. America to the right Canadian houses on the left.
Top Borders I would like to visit and document:
1. N. Korea/S. Korea - families split apart by decades and a heavily militarized zone. A brother may be a senior manager for a multinational firm while the other worships the head of state and works in a coal mine.
2. Poland/Germany - The border between the two has become open. I’d love to document the change that may occur between border cities over time. Will historic prejudice become entrenched or will the cultures begin to fuse in ways?
3. Scotland/England - although part of the same country, this border was bitterly fought for years. Do the people who historically lived near the border consider themselves Scottish or English?
4. Islands Dually claimed by Russia and Japan - on Google maps they have names in both Russian and Japanese… who lives there/who historically lived there?
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
2 Comments Add your own
1. Daniel Nairn | January 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
This is an interesting topic. Throughout history it was actual geographical barriers (mountains, oceans) that formed cultures distinctively, but now we have learned how to alleviate some of these “borders”. It’s interesting how political boundaries, although entirely artificial, have come to serve some of the same purposes. Some hamper mobility more than others, but they all seem to shape what is within them to a certain degree.
The big one you didn’t mention is the border around Israel. Whatever your view on that conflict, one has to realize how tough it is to politically draw a boundary around a place without the slow historical process of culture-making in place. At least that’s my opinion.
2. Mathew, Toronto | April 18th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Interestingly the German-Polish border is recent. Poland was partitioned in the 1700’s and part attached to Germany, and another part to Austria (where my mother came from). The multi-ethnic states were unsuccessful, due partly to the history of conquest and subordination certainly, but also to a failure of “political entrepreneurs” to create a viable larger state. That part of Europe fragmented back again into more ethnically homogeneous states after World War I, as did the Ottoman Empire, where again the Ottomanist Movement — an attempt to create a pan-ethnic nationalism had failed, the Ottoman Jews being virtually its only believing supporters. Again borders reemerged.
I think that borders are actually sometimes more evanescent and impermanent factors than people believe, and usually governments represent them as.
On another note, speaking as an ex-Montrealer, if you’re looking for that missing hybrid Canuck-Yankee border fusion culture, try parts of Florida in winter where all “‘dem sno-birds” go. I speak as someone who has never been there, but is curious about what had emerged.
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