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What differences among people were considered most significant in the ancient world?

What differences among people were considered most significant in the ancient world?

Social Psychology (10th Edition)
Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1RQ1
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What differences among people were considered most significant in the ancient world?

It wasn't that the Greeks or the Romans didn't notice differences in colour. They did. But those differences were generally attributed to differences in climate, "the effects of diverse environments upon a uniform Human Nature..." (Snowden, 1983, p 87). Black people were dark because the burning sun had darkened their skin and frizzed their hair. The pale people of the north were suffering from lack of sunlight. Particular groups might feel they were superior, but what they felt made them distinct was not their colour. For these early civilizations what was significant was not skin colour but whether you were "civilized" or "barbarian matters of culture, -- language or religion. "Civilized" generally meant living in or near a city, and engaging in settled agriculture. "Barbarian" referred to nomadic peoples who often preyed on the wealth of their more settled rivals. In the Mediterranean region there were civilized people of all skin colours and barbarians of all skin colours. Similar attitudes are also found in the early Christian period in spite of religious symbolism that associated the colour black with sin, and white or light with salvation. It was believed as St Paul said, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." (Acts 17:26) (quoted in Montagu, 1971, p 179) The same attitude is reflected in the Qur'an. "Oh people! We have created you from a male and a female and we have made you into confederacies and tribes so that you may come to know one another. The noblest among you in the eyes of God is the most pious, for God is omniscient and well informed." Chapter XLIX, verse 13 (quoted in Lewis, 1990, p 21) The equality of all believers before God was a central tenet of Islam. Authors like Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the most prominent Muslim historian of the Middle Ages, like the Greeks before them, continued to attribute human differences to the influence of climate. (Lewis, 1990, p 47) Q2: In these societies it was religious differences which were considered significant, whether you were a ChristIch, cpaaan, or later on, a
Transcribed Image Text:It wasn't that the Greeks or the Romans didn't notice differences in colour. They did. But those differences were generally attributed to differences in climate, "the effects of diverse environments upon a uniform Human Nature..." (Snowden, 1983, p 87). Black people were dark because the burning sun had darkened their skin and frizzed their hair. The pale people of the north were suffering from lack of sunlight. Particular groups might feel they were superior, but what they felt made them distinct was not their colour. For these early civilizations what was significant was not skin colour but whether you were "civilized" or "barbarian matters of culture, -- language or religion. "Civilized" generally meant living in or near a city, and engaging in settled agriculture. "Barbarian" referred to nomadic peoples who often preyed on the wealth of their more settled rivals. In the Mediterranean region there were civilized people of all skin colours and barbarians of all skin colours. Similar attitudes are also found in the early Christian period in spite of religious symbolism that associated the colour black with sin, and white or light with salvation. It was believed as St Paul said, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." (Acts 17:26) (quoted in Montagu, 1971, p 179) The same attitude is reflected in the Qur'an. "Oh people! We have created you from a male and a female and we have made you into confederacies and tribes so that you may come to know one another. The noblest among you in the eyes of God is the most pious, for God is omniscient and well informed." Chapter XLIX, verse 13 (quoted in Lewis, 1990, p 21) The equality of all believers before God was a central tenet of Islam. Authors like Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the most prominent Muslim historian of the Middle Ages, like the Greeks before them, continued to attribute human differences to the influence of climate. (Lewis, 1990, p 47) Q2: In these societies it was religious differences which were considered significant, whether you were a ChristIch, cpaaan, or later on, a
Q2: In these societies it was religious differences which were considered significant, whether you were a Christian, a pagan, or later on, a Muslim. Once again there were Christians, pagans and Muslims of all colours. Nubia or Ethiopia was an important Christian kingdom and its inhabitants were Black. One of the three wise men who visited the Christ child was regularly portrayed as Black in European art, and early theologians made use of the metaphor by contrasting the "blackness" of the Ethiopian skin to the "whiteness" of their souls. Ethiopia was also honoured in Islam for giving refuge to early followers of the Prophet. Racism as we know it did not exist in the ancient world. But the rivalry between Christianity and Islam did divide the Mediterranean basin. Christian Europe soon found itself surrounded to the east and the south, cut off from the rest of the world by the empires of its powerful new rival, Islam. Europe's memory of the great Christian civilization in Africa was preserved only in the myth of the kingdom of Prester John. (In fact, Christian African civilization did continue to thrive to the south of the Islamic empires in Ethiopia, unknown to Europe.) For Europe in the late middle ages and the Renaissance, the important distinctions were still religious, not racial. The Crusades, Europe's first major counterattack against the Muslim empires, was justified as an attempt to free the Holy Land from the "infidels," the unfaithful. When as many as three million Muslims and 300,000 Jews were expelled from Spain after the defeat of the well-established Muslim kingdoms there, the persecution was religious. (Carew, 1992, p 3) Muslims and Jews could escape expulsion and persecution by conversion to the religion of the new Catholic conquerors. In fact in 1449 when a number of important religious orders in Toledo began to discriminate against the often highly educated converts (conversos) on the grounds that they were not of pure Christian blood, they were sharply repudiated by Pope Nicholas IV. (Davies, 1988, p 10) Slavery too was linked to religion, not to colour. While Europeans could enslave Muslim
Transcribed Image Text:Q2: In these societies it was religious differences which were considered significant, whether you were a Christian, a pagan, or later on, a Muslim. Once again there were Christians, pagans and Muslims of all colours. Nubia or Ethiopia was an important Christian kingdom and its inhabitants were Black. One of the three wise men who visited the Christ child was regularly portrayed as Black in European art, and early theologians made use of the metaphor by contrasting the "blackness" of the Ethiopian skin to the "whiteness" of their souls. Ethiopia was also honoured in Islam for giving refuge to early followers of the Prophet. Racism as we know it did not exist in the ancient world. But the rivalry between Christianity and Islam did divide the Mediterranean basin. Christian Europe soon found itself surrounded to the east and the south, cut off from the rest of the world by the empires of its powerful new rival, Islam. Europe's memory of the great Christian civilization in Africa was preserved only in the myth of the kingdom of Prester John. (In fact, Christian African civilization did continue to thrive to the south of the Islamic empires in Ethiopia, unknown to Europe.) For Europe in the late middle ages and the Renaissance, the important distinctions were still religious, not racial. The Crusades, Europe's first major counterattack against the Muslim empires, was justified as an attempt to free the Holy Land from the "infidels," the unfaithful. When as many as three million Muslims and 300,000 Jews were expelled from Spain after the defeat of the well-established Muslim kingdoms there, the persecution was religious. (Carew, 1992, p 3) Muslims and Jews could escape expulsion and persecution by conversion to the religion of the new Catholic conquerors. In fact in 1449 when a number of important religious orders in Toledo began to discriminate against the often highly educated converts (conversos) on the grounds that they were not of pure Christian blood, they were sharply repudiated by Pope Nicholas IV. (Davies, 1988, p 10) Slavery too was linked to religion, not to colour. While Europeans could enslave Muslim
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