Every discrete Orientalist study was understood to describe the Orient as a whole

Evidence

By summational statements I mean that in formulating a relatively uncomplicated idea, say, about Arabic grammar or Indian religion, the Orientalist would be understood (and would understand himself) as also making a statement about the Orient as a whole, thereby summing it up. Thus every discrete study of one bit of Oriental material would also confirm in a summary way the profound Orientality of the material, And since it was commonly believed that the whole Orient hung together in some profoundly organic way, it made perfectly good hermeneutical sense for the Orientalist scholar to regard the material evidence he dealt with as ultimately leading to a better understanding of such things as the Oriental character, mind, ethos, or world-spirit. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 656

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the pre-WWII Orientalist’s summational method: every detailed study was also a claim about the whole Orient.
• SEED: The summational assumption — one discrete study standing for a whole civilization — is a movable critical lens for how contemporary expertise on any region or group operates.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 656