Gre reading problem, spatial concepts, what is it?

Question

What does the phase spatial reference mean?
Taking the nation-state as our point of spatial reference, we can differentiate not only between historiographies on a sub-national level like villages and cities, but unites on a supra national level. applied to concrete form of historiography, however, we confront at least three kinds of problems that complicate this scheme, the first of which, the ideological load of some spatial concepts, was put on the agenda by Edward Said's analysis of the notion of the " Orient". Said has shown that though most spatial concepts initially appear quite neutral and innocent, they often carry important ideological and political implications. Like"the Orient", the notion of " the primitive", " the savage" and the " barbarian" have fulfilled similar ideological functions in the colonial encounter, because--like" the Orient"-----they were used as the justification fo the domination of" the primitive" by its supposed opposite: the "civilized" part of the wor

Answer 1

Spatial reference just means that the point of view being stated is the point of view to be used.

Think of it as though you are looking at a globe or a map where a country is your focus. From that focus you can zoom in to see the "villages and cities" and you can zoom out to view how nationstates interact at the supranational level.

Now, think of that globe or map as a moving model or presentation on a computer and that there is a lever or slide that lets you view the history of the country you're viewing. The opinion about "the Orient" is saying that the location of "the Orient" was convienent with the culture of the area and the goals of the times. Colonists and explorers were justifying why they were traveling and doing business in China and the rest of the far east. By calling it the Orient, they were announcing that the Orientals were not as developed as they were and that their domination was valid.

This is a very poorly worded explanation, so I can't blame you for getting confused. The author is really just saying that the geographic location of the orient was convenient for explorers and colonists, and that it provided them with a label which could be used to validate their exploits and ventures in the Far East.