The Quest For Siwilai Analysis

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In “The Quest for Siwilai” the author discusses different cultural notions of civilization and their relation to SIam’s attempts at establishing cultural civility within its own borders during the nineteenth century. The amorphous concept of the “civilized” nation was deduced to not be a product of wealth or territory or etiquette or scientific advancement. The heart of being civilized was instead a relative position, as in being more civilized than one's geographic neighbors instead of being an intrinsic property of the nation. Siam was civilized in relation to tribal Amazonians, but maybe not compared to England at the time. This concept helped me understand that very little about nation states can be learned in a vacuum, and you instead

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