Communities throughout history have always sought to define who they are as a collective whole. Over time, this has helped unite nations through a collective sense of national identity and belonging. While there are some fixed definitions that people use to define who they are collectively, such as their language and national history, this is not the only explanation of how groups of people have conceived of who they are. In reality, communities first conceived who they are by comparing themselves with an "other" who they are not. As historian Peter Sahlins has argued, national identity over time has been constructed “by the social or territorial boundaries drawn to distinguish the collective self and its implicit negation, the other.” As this argument suggests, throughout history, definitions of “us” have depended on competing definitions of “them.” I propose that communities used this concept of “other” to elevate their perceived superiority over groups they deemed inferior. This essay will explore how these definitions have shaped history, from Roman times to the 21st century. It will also be necessary to consider the different ways in which groups differ from each other, for example in terms of religion, nationality, race and political beliefs. It is only through this exploration that we can fully understand the ways in which people have defined themselves and interacted with others over time. The key place to begin is the discussion of conceptions of "us" and "them", and how they have been used in the process of self-definition, is Edward Said's groundbreaking work Orientalism. In the center of the sheet a Christian who "let his hair grow in a barbaric way". The connection between barbarism and the deviation from true Christianity shown by this evidence clearly illustrates that as the medieval period progressed, communities began to conceive of themselves as asserting their religious superiority over the paganism they saw in the barbarian "other". Although it would be foolish to wholeheartedly accept the reliability of these medieval sources, since they only reflect the point of view of the Church, which by nature would have branded pagans and heretics as a barbaric "other", given the importance of religion for the people of During the medieval period, it is very likely that the views of the Church would have taken root in the minds of the population. For this reason, European populations came to define themselves as superior to the religious deviance of others’