Mankind vs. Humankind

Mankind vs. Humankind Mankind vs. Humankind Mankind vs. Humankind By Mark Nichol The issue of gender-neutral language reemerged recently in the form of a publicized incident involving a college student who was (mildly) penalized for the use of the term mankind in a paper she wrote for a class. Why was the score on her assignment lowered by one point out of fifty? The course’s professor had explicitly admonished students to use gender-neutral language such as humankind in place of the gender-specific mankind in their papers. The student (a woman), to test the instructor’s conviction about the point, deliberately used mankind in the assignment and discovered that the professor was serious. So, what’s the big deal? Mankind has been used to refer collectively to humans since the Middle Ages. (Humankind, by the way, is younger but also dates back hundreds of years.) Why is the term widely considered sexist and exclusive? For the same reason that writers are encouraged to refer to police officers, not policemen, and chairs, not chairmen, and servers, not waiters or waitresses (though chairperson is considered cumbersome, and it is inoffensive to use waiters for either gender, thanks to the fact that waiter, though originally a designation for what was at the time of its coinage an exclusively male occupation, is not masculine in form). Many people, including numerous women, decry this supposedly politically correct linguistic reformation, which is based on the belief that terms that encourage one to engage with a concept with the assumption that it pertains primarily to males perpetuates a perception that women are second-class citizens. The backlash is not without merit, as proposed gender-neutral language can be absurd (as with waitperson or waitron, gender-neutral substitutions for waiter or waitress, or in regard to gender-neutral pronouns that, absurdly, have been coined in an attempt to replace the gender-specific pronoun he, when effective solutions already exist). But extending mankind with two letters, or even replacing the collective man with humanity, seems a reasonable accommodation to bend language to reflect an effort to achieve gender equality. Many authorities agree. Bryan A. Garner, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, recommends humankind- and on a related topic writes, â€Å"The writer’s point of view matters less than the reader’s† (with the implication that, in addition, the writer should not presuppose the reader’s preference, but should as a default use inclusive language). The Modern Language Association supports gender-neutral language, and The Chicago Manual of Style advises it, too. Three of the pillars of society- education, politics, and business- champion gender-neutral language, with justifications that are distinct yet universally applicable: In education, inclusiveness encourages a perception of the human race that doesn’t conjure an image of a man or men by default; in politics, it discourages discrimination in laws and policy; and in business, it welcomes all potential customers and clients. Gender-neutral language also accommodates those who reject a binary gender system, and regardless of one’s ideology about gender identity, gender fluidity is a scientifically validated concept. This issue is ultimately one of style, and, as always in regard to style, if one self-publishes, one does so with the freedom to choose how one conducts oneself in writing, with the attendant consequences of assuming that responsibility. But writers who elect to submit content to publishing companies or to contribute to an employer’s or client’s publications must accept that most publishers will heed Garner’s admonition stated above. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What is the Difference Between "These" and "Those"?Precedent vs. PrecedenceDrama vs. Melodrama

Polis - Ancient Greek City-States

Polis - Ancient Greek City-States The polis (plural, poleis)- also known as a city-state- was the ancient Greek city-state. The word politics comes from this Greek word. In the ancient world, the polis was a nucleus, the central urban area that could also have controlled the surrounding countryside. (The word polis could also refer to the citys body of citizens.)  This surrounding countryside (chora or ge) could also be considered part of the polis. Hansen and Nielsen say there were around 1500 archaic and classical Greek poleis. The region formed by a  cluster of poleis, bound geographically and ethnically, was an ethnos (pl. ethne).   Pseudo-Aristotle defines the Greek polis as an assemblage of houses, lands, and property sufficient to enable the inhabitants to lead a civilized life [Pounds]. It was often a lowland, agricultural central area surrounded by protective hills. It may have started as numerous separate villages that banded together when its mass became large enough to be almost self-sustaining. The Largest Greek Polis The polis of Athens, the largest of the Greek poleis, was the birthplace of democracy. Aristotle saw the household oikos as the basic social unit of the polis, according to J. Roy. Athens was the urban center of Attica; Thebes of Boeotia; Sparta of the southwestern Peloponnese, etc. At least 343 poleis belonged, at some point, to the Delian League, according to Pounds. Hansen and Nielsen provide a list with member poleis from the regions of Lakonia, the Saronic Gulf (to the west of Corinth), Euboia, the Aegean, Macedonia, Mygdonia, Bisaltia, Chalkidike, Thrace, Pontus, the Pronpontos, Lesbos, Aiolis, Ionia, Karia, Lykia, Rhodes, Pamphyli, Kilikia, and poleis from unlocated regions. The End of the Greek Polis It is common to consider the Greek polis ended at the Battle of Chaironeia, in 338 B.C, but An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis argues that this is based on the assumption that the polis required autonomy and that was not the case. Citizens continued to run their citys business even into the Roman period. Sources An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, edited by Mogens Herman Hansen and Thomas Heine Nielsen, (Oxford University Press: 2004).An Historical Geography of Europe 450 B.C.-A.D. 1330; by Norman John Greville Pounds. American Council of Learned Societies. Cambridge University Press 1973.Polis and Oikos in Classical Athens, by J. Roy; Greece Rome, Second Series, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Apr., 1999), pp. 1-18, citing Aristotles Politics 1253B 1-14.