encompassment

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of surrounding, or the state of being surrounded.

   “By this encompassment and drift of question.”

   “Interphalangeal extension is lost and no effective phalangeal grasp (encompassment) is possible.”

   “When an object is grasped, 77% of the total encompassment is provided by metacarpophalangeal joint flexion; the remaining 23% is supplied by flexion of the interphalangeal joints.”

   “However, the image of alimentary encompassment, everted when the child comes to eat pig himself or herself, is also one that could be of nurturance — of encompassment in a reproductive sense.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Complete inclusion, with no outliers.

   “However, if encompassment has nothing to do with greatness, it is puzzling that Bulbus uses the phrase 'that universal nature which embraces all things' rather than simply 'that universal nature'.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A hierarchical structure such that when two elements of a whole are recognized as opposites, one of them is considered hierarchically superior, while the other is subordinated to the whole.

   “It sometimes seems as though the anthropological nostalgia for Culture and the academic imperative to defend our space by defending our concept blinds us to the reality that the processes of encompassment neither leave others alone nor make them Western. Rather, encompassment creates a new terrain and terms for the production of sameness and difference, value and meaning.”

   “This appears then as a moment of encompassment. The work of the technologist is encompassed by the artist, or the contribution of the facilitator is claimed as part of the creative process (genius, fortune) of the artist themselves.”

   “On the level involving encompassment, moreover, women are simply invisible, thanks precisely to their encompassment.”

   “Baumann (2004, 25–27) identifies yet another way of othering as “encompassment,” which means that a larger group constitutes a hierarchy of dominance over subgroups that are included under the condition that they acquiesce to the larger group.”