Medieval Europe’s internal wilderness made the Other a domestically lived experience

Evidence

Otherness outside Europe was not necessarily as important as otherness within Europe. Tales of strange beings outside Europe - such as Herodotus’ tales of monstrous beings overseas - were matched by tales of others within Europe, such as the “Wild Man” and the “Green Man.” These figures were real enough considering that Europe until the eleventh century mostly consisted of forest and uncleared land, so much of Europe was unknown and mysterious. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 186

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Grafting & Growth piece on trees as infrastructure — the forested, uncleared Europe as physical environment shaping culture.