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Cited by 170Classical Antiquity StudiesRace, Genetics, and SocietyClassical Philosophy and Thought

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Race: Antiquity and its Legacy: Ancients and Moderns

McCoskey, Denise Eileen·2012·I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd eBooks
DOI 10.5040/9780755697878
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Abstract

How do different cultures think about race? In the modern era, racial distinctiveness has been assessed primarily in terms of a person’s physical appearance. But it was not always so. As Denise McCoskey shows, the ancient Greeks and Romans did not use skin colour as the basis for categorising ethnic disparity. The colour of one’s skin lies at the foundation of racial variability today because it was used during the heyday of European exploration and colonialism to construct a hierarchy of civilizations and then justify slavery and other forms of economic exploitation. Assumptions about race thus have to take into account factors other than mere physiognomy. This is particularly true in relation to the classical world. In fifth century Athens, racial theory during the Persian Wars produced the categories ‘Greek’ and ‘Barbarian’, and set them in brutal opposition to one another: a process that could be as intense and destructive as ‘black and ‘white’ in our own age. Ideas about race in antiquity were therefore completely distinct but as closely bound to political and historical contexts as those that came later. This provocative book boldly explores the complex matrices of race - and the differing interpretations of ancient and modern – across epic, tragedy and the novel. Ranging from Theocritus to Toni Morrison, and from Tacitus and Pliny to Bernal’s seminal study Black Athena, this is a powerful and original new assessment.

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Metadata

Authors
McCoskey, D. E.
Corresponding author
McCoskey, Denise Eileen
ORCID
McCoskey, Denise Eileen
Venue
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd eBooks
Publisher
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
Published
2012
DOI
10.5040/9780755697878
OpenAlex
W3032110010
Cited by
170
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 31 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
FWCI
2.93
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Classics › Classical Antiquity Studies
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Race, Genetics, and Society
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Classical Philosophy and Thought
Keywords
race, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, skin colour, racial theory, Persian Wars, classical literature, epic, tragedy, novel, colonialism, slavery, Black Athena, Theocritus, Tacitus, Pliny, Toni Morrison, European exploration, racial hierarchy

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