The Invention of Racism in Classical AntiquityThere was racism in the ancient world, after all. This groundbreaking book refutes the common belief that the ancient Greeks and Romans harbored "ethnic and cultural," but not racial, prejudice. It does so by comprehensively tracing the intellectual origins of racism back to classical antiquity. Benjamin Isaac's systematic analysis of ancient social prejudices and stereotypes reveals that some of those represent prototypes of racism--or proto-racism--which in turn inspired the early modern authors who developed the more familiar racist ideas. He considers the literature from classical Greece to late antiquity in a quest for the various forms of the discriminatory stereotypes and social hatred that have played such an important role in recent history and continue to do so in modern society. |
From inside the book
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... refers to any group that is not part of the estab- lishment , but is placed on the margin or periphery of society , or does not belong to it at all . This work , then , is concerned with ambivalence and hostility towards for- eigners ...
... refers to F. Barth ( ed . ) , Ethnic Groups and Boundaries : The Social Organization of Cultural Difference ( Bergen , Oslo , London , 1969 ) . This is a collection of essays by various social anthropologists on a number of specific ...
... refers to the famous case of a wild boy , discovered in southern France in 1800. He was studied as representing the perfect specimen of a natural man . It is worth noting that the idea of raising infants in total isolation in order to ...
... refers to the form encountered in modern Europe . " However , it ignores a num- ber of features usually included in racism : it only refers to judgments of the behavior of man and not to his moral qualities , inborn gifts , or physical ...
... refer so much to the doctrine ( sc . of racism ) as to the practice of it , though it is often loosely used to refer to activities that serve the interests of a particular racial group . " Since the opposite view also exists , using ...