i was taught that there are 6 continents: africa, america, europe, asia, oceania and antarctica. i was never taught that australia was a continent but rather a country in oceania. geologists define continents by geological features, such as the continental platform, the drift, the age of the geological components and strata, etc. the people of the united states of america might have called themselves unionists or north americans just as well as they chose to call themselves americans. everybody born in the american continent is an american. uruguayans and peruvians are americans. guatemalans and chileans are americans. and so forth. i don't think that it is a matter of what you WANT to be called, but of what you in fact ARE. wallyK
-----Mensaje original----- De: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]En nombre de dsk Enviado el: Jueves, 19 de Septiembre de 2002 05:33 p.m. Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Asunto: Re: tits/america/vespucio NJC Wally Kairuz wrote: > > america is only one continent spanning from the northernmost tip in canada > to the southernmost bit in argentina. this is a GEOLOGICAL fact. i was very > surprised to read in the new york times the other day that until the > argentine team beat the nba team a few weeks ago, the nba team had never > been beaten by a team from ANOTHER continent. hello? argentina and the us in > different continents? and this is in the NYT? whatever happened to editors? > then i was astonished to learn that us children learn that there are SEVEN > continents, SOUTH america being one of them. oh dear... Yes, American children are taught that there are seven continents -- Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, Australia, South America and North America -- the world's large land masses. (I'm more confused by Europe being considered a "continent" than I am by North America being considered one.) I don't know when geographers, at least the "western world" ones, decided to agree on such designations. Wally, what were you taught? What were people elsewhere taught? > why people from the US call themselves americans is a mystery to me, but at > least i know that it doesn't have anything to do with americo vespucio. What's the big mystery??? The full name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. People from there are called Canadians, yes? Is that a surprise? The name of Argentina is ... Argentina? So why would anyone from there or Colombia or Mexico or Uruguay or Peru or Canada want to be called American? Is the supposed arrogance in the founding fathers deciding that "America" would be part of the country's name? Well, why not? Other countries could have done the same, yes? Warning.... I feel a hissy fit coming on.... This is perhaps meant to be just a light-hearted discussion but I'm starting to see it as a way of complaining about Americans, in the guise of cleverness and extreme PC-ness, and it's getting on my nerves now. .... ok, hissy fit concluded, for the moment. Debra Shea, an American
