The idea’s presented within these articles are fascinating, to say the least. The idea of post-colonialism and Orientalism provide a sufficient background with the types of ethnocentric beliefs and ideas that were conceived about the vast unknown areas of the Middle East and the surrounding areas that would constitute the Orient. Edward W. Said having been born in Palestine and the leader in the post-colonialism theory seeks to critique the global legacy of colonialism and imperialism by thoroughly explaining the history of the idea of Orientalism and its effects on those who would fall victim to this label. Orientalism is inherently the belief that the eastern cultures and the surrounding areas were far less sophisticated when compared to Western culture. Often portrayed as lesser humans, savages to many these people were exploited by the cause of colonialism and imperialism by British and French expansion into these areas. Since this culture was misunderstood it became feared and consequently this fear lead to the exploitation of Orient culture. Not only did westerners believe that their culture and intellect was superior, but held that they deserved to study and observe the orient in scientific studies. These idea’s and beliefs transcended from the eighteen hundreds all the way up to the end of WW2 when Western powers felt the devastating effects of war and were trying to pick up the pieces from the war and to restore national pride. One can see, however, how these ideas about the Orient reflected the treatment and procedure that occurred when Western countries (imperial powers) interacted with these cultures and the overall effect of how misunderstood and rampant stereotypical evidence kept these cultures in the dark especially to the features of modernity.

One can see within the texts that we have read this semester the direct reflection of the idea of the Orient and how it dripped into and affected the climbing community especially during the early years of mountaineering. More than a handful of times there has been the issue of treatment of porters, sherpas, natives etc. and how different western cultures proceed to treat them. The theory of Orientalism does a lot to explain the behaviors of those imperialistic western countries like Britain and France and their treatment of these so-called orients during the early years of climbing and the progression of their behavior and treatment towards these people after WW2. In the writings of Mallory and the movie about their excursion to Everest they describe the native sherpa people as primitive savages and this reflects in their treatment of them by exploiting their willingness to work and overall kindness. This progressed into the cooperation of Tensing and Hillary and their conquest of the Everest summit. Although there was some issues with inequality these ideas about orient inferiority were put to rest relatively speaking.

The post-colonial thinking began to progress as did the sport of high altitude mountaineering we began to see the issue of the orient addressed and dismissed once westerners anthropology began to uncover the enigma that was supposed to be eastern and mountain cultures. During this progression, we see the treatment of native peoples like the sherpa’s begin to drastically improve as cultural understanding and equality began to become present on mountain expeditions. It has progressed to the point where climbing tourist now feel more comfortable in the presence of a sherpa guide as they represent the quint essential all knowing mountain persona especially in the commercialized atmosphere of the present