Climatic determinism preceded race in defining the Oriental body

Evidence

Winthrop Jordan reminds us of the antiquity of these notions in his treatment of David Hume’s “valuation of color”: “Hume was convinced that the peoples near the poles and in the tropics were essentially inferior to those in the temperate zones, a conviction which can be traced historically back through European thought to the Greeks—who also lived in a temperate climate. What Hume did in 1748, though, was to go ancient philosophers one better by hitching superiority to complexion.” Jordan then goes on to quote Hume directly: “I am apt to suspect the negroes, and in general all the other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1700 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Blumenbach echoed theories from antiquity about skin color and its relationship to the weather: dark skinned people lived in hot climates while light skinned in cold climates. However, he maintained that individual human bodies have lighter and darker parts and further that one could, even in colder climates, become dark after exposure to the sun. His views were more complex than previous iterations of weather-based theories and also more contradictory. Painter notes that while he argued that culture and climate played a determining role in human appearance, he also believed that certain groups maintained their distinctiveness over generations. Thus, the Swiss retained their “open countenance,” and the Turkish their “manly and serious” demeanor; Jews, despite living alongside gentiles for long periods, were marked by inherent difference which in their “eyes alone” could be seen the “breathe of the East.” What we see therefore is that both bodily and cultural notions of race developed coterminously. Furthermore, Blumenbach believed that the “Caucasians” were the first human race from which all others either diverged or degenerated. Finally, the revival of classical scholarship from the Renaissance period on meant that features associated with Greek and Roman physiques were considered supreme and paleness was projected back onto antiquity as the beauty ideal. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 125 (#complicates, via linked claim)

“Orientalists divided human societies into civilizations that have a core set of values that drive their progress (or lack thereof). The people who inhabit these civilizations were said to have a cultural ‘essence’ that explains who they are across time. Essentialism of this sort is one of the pillars of race making.” Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: 20 Years after 9/11 (Verso, 2021), 19. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1277 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Climate-based theories of Oriental despotism still shape Western views of the region; Bodily and cultural notions of race developed together from the start — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 125; Nineteenth-century scientific racism supplied latent Orientalism’s biological grounding (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• European racial hierarchy theory fused Greek climate determinism with complexion prejudice. #corroborates (0.92) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1700
• Bodily and cultural notions of race developed together from the start #complicates (0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 125
• Orientalist civilizational essentialism is a pillar of race making #complicates (0.82) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1277
• Eighteenth-century ethnology fused bodily and cultural notions of race together #complicates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 137