Frontiers are the edges of nations and other communities.  More than just a physical space, frontier is an idea. For example, the idea of the American frontier implied that there was a center of civilization that was threatened at its edges but that also used those edges to expand its civilization (Westward expansion). This idea (traditionally associated with Frederick Jackson Turner) implies that the people who live at the center represent some cultural ideal and that those who live at the edge on the frontier live outside that ideal—or at its margins (savage).

The Spanish word for frontier, La frontera, however, more often refers literally to the border between Mexico and the United States. As an idea, la frontera indicates a more complicated meeting between different cultures, not just a line of progress where empty land and primitive people give way to a superior culture. Instead, the line may be one of regress, cultural contest, transformation, cultural exchange, or cultural hybridity.

In Beyond Borders:  See Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"; Patricia Nelson Limerick, "Adventures of the Frontier in the Twentieth Century"; Gloria Anzaldua, "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza—Toward a New Consciousness."

In Beyond Borders Online:  See Web Research Activities, "Electronic Frontiers: Cyberspace and the Wild West" and "Democracy, Difference, and Globalization."

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