The Humanities and Non-Western Studies

Abstract

It is evident that increased familiarity with the non-Western world is a desideratum in our educational future. To achieve this, we shall have to bring the foreign area to our students rather than depending upon their going to the foreign area. Although non-Western studies have had a rapid de velopment in our colleges and universities over the past two decades, much more remains to be done, especially in the field of the humanities. In this connection it is convenient to deal with language and linguistics separately. A command of the non-Western language is essential for the foreign-area special ist, and anyone who undertakes graduate study or undergrad uate concentration should acquire competence in it. For the nonspecialist undergraduate, language study is impractical. One problem is to increase the availability of language instruc tion in the colleges. Expansion in linguistics is necessary to produce the language-teaching manpower. The function of literature in any area program is to provide the student with an experience, a concrete expression of the values and concepts of the culture he is studying. Folklore often serves a similar pur pose. Art, architecture, and music as component elements of area study may conveniently be approached in terms of the creative process and of form, symbol, and value. Contrastive analyses of the target culture and of our own will provide a strategy of approach in which one proceeds from the similar to the different. In making such analyses, the humanist must seek the advice of the social scientist, thus paving the way for a closer integration of the two disciplines.