ABSTRACT
Chapter 2, ‘Towards a Definition of Eurocentrism’, is concerned with outlining the precise meanings the term. Eurocentrism is usually perceived as an outdated, annoying but fairly harmless self-indulgence of the old continent, consisting of placing a positive value on European civilization, and a correspondingly less positive one on the affairs of other continents. But it is argued here that Eurocentrism is far more than that: it has shaped the world in its own image, so that Europe is used as the measure of achievement in all things. The link between Eurocentrism and a developing European identity since the Renaissance is explored, as are consequences of the European insistence on the unique difference between Europe and the rest of the world. This has been manifested in historiography and geography and in language studies, and most importantly in ‘culture’. Eurocentrism operates as a narrative for Europe, and much of this Eurocentrism is unconscious, though no less iniquitous in its effects for that.
