[Esip-preserve] Semantic Heterogeneity - We Are Not Alone

[Bruce Barkstrom]

The August 12 New Yorker has an article on Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN):

Batuman, E., 2013: Poisoned Land: On the trail of a mystery disease in the
Balkans,
The New Yorker, August 12 & 19, 2013, pp. 42-47.

On p. 47, the article notes
"Early in the twentieth century, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and
the ensuing
chaos in the Balkans, a new verb entered the English language: `Balkanize,'
defined
by the O.E.D. as `to divide (a region) into a number of smaller and often
mutually
hostile units, as was done in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.'
Most European languages have an equivalent: [...] attesting to the special
relationship
between the Balkan Peninsula and the human tendency toward division and
faction.
[...]  Researching the disease [BEN] requires expertise in a wide range of
fields
- nephrology, epidemiology, genetics, oncology, microbiology, hydrogeology,
botany,
toxicology, biochemistry- each of which can be as hermetic and insular as a
tiny
country, with its own language, customs, and sovereignty."

Sounds discouragingly familiar.

Bruce B.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.lists.esipfed.org/pipermail/esip-preserve/attachments/20130816/3879a74e/attachment.html>