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Not to make too fine a point of this, I would say the questions, while similar, beg related but two distinct questions. What is the content of the white man's burden vs what is the concept of the white man's burden have significant enough overlap to be seen as one in the same but to me one springs from the other.

The first question asks what is included in the social construct which I would argue talks of everything including beliefs, but mostly speaks of what exist within its boundaries. Things like institutions, ways of operating, modes of behavior, practices, guidelines; acceptances, allowances vs taboos, and prohibitions.

And the second question, which asks what is the concept of the white man's burden. This I assume is asking for a delineation of the conceptual ideas, models, schemas of the white man's burden.

I see it like this there is a distinction between what is within an animals environment and how that animal perceives that environment. Perception of environment helps an animal create a schema or a process by which it can survive.

The social construct of white or Western identity and therefore the white mans burden was a structure created to resolve and justify anxieties, imperatives, impulses and desires for European expansion and was solidified by religious and secular tradition. Everything from fear of the East, lacking resources, growing European populations, war and more war on continental Europe led to formation of an inclusive European identity and a differentiated other that comprises . . . well . . . the rest of the known or unknown world.

In this way, if everything else in the world is a blank now-where land, and only Europe exist well Europe has to spread Identity to the unknown and blank spaces. The white man's burden.

Basically, a culture forms from the ideas a people have. Ideas, beliefs, and feelings are the sub-parts of culture. Ideas and beliefs aggregate around topics and concerns a group may have about xs and ys, and then a culture forms: a way of thinking and doing that is traditionalized. Again, as stated above there is a difference between what is in an environment and the perception of an organism in that environment. Of course the age old question: "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" causes us to perceive a blurred boundary where everything seems to bleed together.

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14y ago
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Q: What is the definition of white man's burden?
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