Do Arabs and Jews count as Asians?

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Israel and the Arabian Peninsula are technically in Asia, though culturally they are usually not considered Asian. Would you consider them Asian, and do you think the Mideast has anything in common with India and China, or is it more connected to Europe and Africa?

Geographically the Middle East is part of Asia but from a cultural geographic standpoint the Middle-East & North Africa (MENA) are considered a unique region. Likewise the Indian sub continent is its own cultural geographic region. MENA society is what can often be termed 'Eurasian' due to its position as a crossroads. Russia as well is Eurasian though most of its European culture/ethnicity is west of the Ural mountains and in a long, skinny 'corridor' of settlement to Vladivostok that follows the route of the historic Trans-Siberian Railroad.

I would even argue Russia isn't really European, it's related to European but imo even since the days of Kievan Rus it was somewhat different though related to Europe. And with the history of Communism and so on, I would go as far as calling it its own thing completely.

I agree though.

cool info, I never really thought much about it, but thanks for informing me.

Europe's so small and Asia's so big that I think people have started using the term Eurasia more often.

Plus geologically there is no reason to consider Europe a different continent than Asia, imo everywhere from Iceland to Japan is the one continent of Eurasia.

When I refer to people from Israel and Arab countries (those in both Asia and Northern Africa) I say "Middle East" for clarity's sake. That being said, I think it is society that gives the term "Asian" almost exclusively to those cultures and people from South-East Asia. For me, anyone who is from Asia is Asian. All continents have a wide variety of cultures--Asia is not unique there. Being the largest continent, of course there would be much culture difference from the eastern borders to the western borders, from the northern regions all the way to the south. They are all still Asian. No continent is homogeneous.

Sure, they're Asians. They're from Asia. But they're not Orientals.

'Middle East' is stupid nomenclature. It makes no sense. It's the Near East. Screw modern terminology. Bogus crap.

The true 'middle east' is in the middle of the east - central Asia. Austria westward is the Occident.

Also, N. Africa is not 'the middle east'. Stupid journalists.

Last edited by Pyrrho on 21 May 2011, 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

That being said, while all biologically born Jews, whether Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrachi, or whatever are all traditionally from Asia/the Middle East--I would not call a Polish Jew who has been in Poland as far back as he can trace his family tree Asian. Jewish and European are the terms I would use there--I refer to them from the continent they have been from for generations. The same will probably be true in hundreds of years for the Asians, Africans, etc immigrants that currently call America home (they will probably be referred to as Americans instead of Asians, Africans, etc......).

Wrong. The Asian and European continents separate at the Black Sea, and you can tell by river flows.

I agree with this. Most Jews are Europeans. They are not genetically closer related to Asian Jews than Italians are,

The Middle East (such as Persia) used to be thought of as the Orient. Over time, the definition has moved farther and farther east.

I would say yes to Arabs except that they spill over into Africa, and no to Jews. Also, not everyone in the Middle East is Arab. Which is surely beside the point.

I refer to them as Europeans because they are rooted in Europe for hundred of years (likewise, although I have European background if you go back far enough, I no longer qualify as European since my ancestors lived in Canada since the 1600s. My family has been here longer than that of many Canadians.) Genetically, the Ashkenazim have been proven to have DNA that ties them to the Middle East just as the Mizrachim and the Sefardim do. Of course there was some intermarriage with the Europeans, but not enough to dilute their DNA to almost exclusively European. Intermarriage occurs with all cultures. I am largely Acadian. Acadians also intermingled with the Mi'kmaq. You can find some Acadian DNA in many of the Mi'kmaq around here, even though they are still Mi'kmaq and native to Canada. The same is true the other way around: Acadians have some Mi'kmaq DNA and are still Acadian/descended largely from France. Just as you can find some Polish or German, etc DNA in the Ashkenazim, they are still Jews and mostly descended from the groups of Middle Eastern Jews that migrated north to Europe.

By that logic, North America is two continents, divided by the Continental Divide

American society, that is. "Asian" for people in the UK refers primarily to people from the Indian subcontinent, for obvious reasons.


Russia is heavily concentrated west of the Urals; the rest is hinterland.


Anyhoo, I'd go off the tectonic plates - nature doesn't care for what we call a continent. Eurasia is more or less one plate, North America is more or less one plate (okay, they bump up in Kamchatka or whichever obscure province off the Risk map is up there); the Middle East and India are separate small plates. It's interesting.

I cannot see a value for this topic in this discussion. Jewish people can live anywhere on the planet as this is a religion and not a nation. I have a different question for you to discuss:

When people from the United States use the term America they certainly refer to the Unites States, not only ignoring the existence of Canada but even of the entire South American continent. Any explainations ready?