Differentia

[lynbrown]

What does this mean? "The first differentia of colonialism is a state of mind in the colonizers and the colonized".

[Buenchico]

It means that it was written by someone with a poor understanding of the English language who:
(a) doesn't realise that 'differentia' is plural ; and
(b) wants to sound impressive by the inappropriate use of a term which is normally restricted to comparisons between species of plants and animals.

Replace 'differentia' by 'distinguishing characteristic' and you're (hopefully) getting somewhere near to the intended meaning, which appears to be suggesting that 'colonisation' (rather than 'co-existence') comes about when a 'them and us' relationship starts to form between the colonisers and the colonised.

Chris

[lynbrown]

Thanks. This is from my course in the Open University, taken from a textbook. You should read the rest of the paragraph!

[lynbrown]

Hello again. Ive been reading about this word in my dictionary and thesaurus. I think it is in the singular, the plural would be differentiae - not that it matters, it still is pants!

[boxtops]

what a lousy question!

[jno]

I imagine the 'them and us' relationship starts on Day One. It may fade as settlers 'go native', though.

Apart from that - yes, it sounds like a word from biology rather than history/sociology.

[Peter Pedant]

erm I think they want you to talk about colonialism as a state of mind or percept rather than an artefact you look at and clearly the two groups are gonna feel different

[boxtops]

^^ LOL - I meant from the OU, not from lynbrown!

[Mosaic]

Greates sympathy Lyn - why do OU specialise in unreadable textbooks?