4 ms·
> the border of France and Germany, for example, is very real and those countries have different cultures. You'd be hard-pressed to identify a more artificial
by ndarwincorn 7y ago
> the border of France and Germany, for example, is very real and those countries have different cultures.
You'd be hard-pressed to identify a more artificial border in Europe than that one (maybe the former Yugoslavia). Curious if you've ever been to Alsace-Lorraine, and if so why you think the culture there is distinctly French versus their German neighbors.
- prepend 7y agoI have but only as a tourist. I called out that border because Alsace and Lorraine have gone back and forth quite a few times. I don’t think that’s a “natural” border but I think being exchanged by war and treaty is a pretty purposeful expression of local and national desires. So it’s not random. That wasn’t kind of what I was trying to express. Some borders are arbitrary (Kenya and Tanzania) and some are based on rivers or natural borders (France and Spain, Nepal and India). But curiously the people are different in Alsace than Germany. And also different from Alsace and France. Some differences are the result of French laws and culture, some differences are the result of local custom, some differences are the result of historical German laws and culture. This doesn’t mean that people here are alien or have no commonalities. I think that people have much more in common than they have different.
- ndarwincorn 7y ago> a pretty purposeful expression of local and national desires I don't think local desires have anything to do with that. woah's explanation is much better than mine, and getting at the same thing.