alterity is a feminine noun that expresses the quality or state of what is other or what is it different. It is a term covered by philosophy and for anthropology.
One of the fundamental principles of alterity is that man, in his social aspect, has a relationship of interaction and dependence with the other. For this reason, the "I" in its individual form can only exist through contact with the "other".
When it is possible to verify otherness, one culture does not aim at the extinction of another. This is because alterity implies that an individual is able to put himself in the other's shoes, in a relationship based on dialogue and valuing existing differences.
Alterity in Philosophy
In the realm of Philosophy, otherness is the opposite of identity. Presented by Plato (in the Sophist) as one of the five "supreme genres", he refuses to identify being as identity and sees an attribute of being in the multiplicity of Ideas, among which there is the relationship of alterity reciprocal.
Alterity also plays an important role in Hegel's logic: "anything", the being qualitatively determined, is in a relationship of negativity with the "other" (in this lies its limitation), but it is destined to become another, to "alter", incessantly, changing its own qualities (thus the material things in the processes chemicals).
The use of the term also appears in 20th century philosophy (existentialism), but with non-equivalent meanings.
Alterity in Anthropology
Anthropology is known as the science of alterity, because it aims to study Man in his fullness and the phenomena that involve him. With such a vast and complex object of study, it is imperative to be able to study the differences between various cultures and ethnicities. As alterity is the study of differences and the study of the other, it plays an essential role in anthropology.