Alterity is a philosophical term that refers to the “otherness”. For example, when speaking of a tribe in the Amazon or the Germans in the 1930s, we usually discuss them as an entity completely different from ours, thus separating the subject of study and the subject studying.

 

 In many areas of research the concept is important as the subject of study is usually seen as

“the others”, placing the reader or spectator at a distance from the alien subject of study. A similar effect can be seen in documentaries where the subjects of the documentary, whether it be people of different socio-economic status or ethnicity, are seen as completely foreign or different from the viewers.