In order to maintain
the paradigm of the power of dominance, it is crucial to define and thereby to confine the
things that surround us. Naming becomes obsessive in times of insecurity. When a
culture is under threat defence becomes necessary. In order to do
that, the borders that define the culture have to be exacting so
that the culture can distinguish what it sees itself to be from
that which it does not see itself to be. Naming is a way of imposing
clear borders onto otherwise fluid experience. Naming helps to make the
unknown known, but the more borders that are generated, more
things will fall into the penumbra between categories or squeezed
into a category that is inadequate or inappropriate and all of the blurry edges are
cut off.