What you are depicting is called Eurasia. Which is the single landmass that make up Europe and Asia.
But you are right that Europe and Asia are considered separate for cultural reasons, and are not really geographic continents but subcontinents of Eurasia.
It is no more correct to cal Europe west Asia than it would be to call Asia east Europe.
The entire concept of continents is entirely cultural. The number of continents taught in schools varies greatly from country to country (specifically because the Americas can be 1-3 continents in different systems).
So yeah, there is no objective correct about continents, it really depends on which cultural tradition you were brought up in.
Most LatAm I've spoken to online (including Brazilians) insisted that it's one continent and that North, Central, and South America are subcontinents. Several of them have ranted at me about how it's immoral for the US to monopolize "American" because of it.
fwiw in the US I was taught that North and South America are two continents and that Central America and the Caribbean are subcontinents of NA; the Panama-Colombia border demarcates the continents.
Only other one that really ever gets brought up is Australia vs Oceania as a continent. Don't think I ever heard of Oceania until after graduating.
Yes, to the people that created the distinction based on “cultural” reasons, India, the middle east, Japan, the Urals, Mongolia and China have much more in common with each other than Europa has with any of them.
14 Comments
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 74d
What you are depicting is called Eurasia. Which is the single landmass that make up Europe and Asia.
But you are right that Europe and Asia are considered separate for cultural reasons, and are not really geographic continents but subcontinents of Eurasia.
It is no more correct to cal Europe west Asia than it would be to call Asia east Europe.
Rothe@piefed.social · 13 pts · 74d
The entire concept of continents is entirely cultural. The number of continents taught in schools varies greatly from country to country (specifically because the Americas can be 1-3 continents in different systems).
So yeah, there is no objective correct about continents, it really depends on which cultural tradition you were brought up in.
ennof@feddit.org · 7 pts · 74d
I mean, couldn't you just work with the tectonic plates? They roughly align with the traditional "continents".
SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 74d
Americans are going to love having to learn the name of the continent that split their west coast cities.
They will wish it would drop into the sea or something. 😂
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 73d
It’s a good idea but it opens a whole other can of worms, like by the tectonic plate definition, India is its own continent.
Melchior@feddit.org · 3 pts · 74d
I know North and South America and it being a single continent, but three? Or are you talking about Afro-Eurasia?
myotheraccount@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 74d
Notth/Central/South america
Melchior@feddit.org · 7 pts · 74d
Really? Who considers Central America a continent? Not a region, but a continent. I always understood it as something similar to say North Africa.
inari@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 74d
In Brazil I was taught in terms of North, Central, and South America. I suspect it may be similar in other Latin American countries.
igmelonh@feddit.online · 2 pts · 74d
Most LatAm I've spoken to online (including Brazilians) insisted that it's one continent and that North, Central, and South America are subcontinents. Several of them have ranted at me about how it's immoral for the US to monopolize "American" because of it.
fwiw in the US I was taught that North and South America are two continents and that Central America and the Caribbean are subcontinents of NA; the Panama-Colombia border demarcates the continents.
Only other one that really ever gets brought up is Australia vs Oceania as a continent. Don't think I ever heard of Oceania until after graduating.
inari@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 74d
Yep that's how I was taught as well
colourlessidea@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 74d
Obligatory Map Men: https://youtu.be/hrsxRJdwfM0
join@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 73d
Yes, to the people that created the distinction based on “cultural” reasons, India, the middle east, Japan, the Urals, Mongolia and China have much more in common with each other than Europa has with any of them.
atro_city@fedia.io · 3 pts · 74d
We are all brothers and sisters.