american-holocaust

SEX, RACE AND HOLY WAR 167climate is balmy and the fruits of nature's bounty are found on the treesyear round.Other, less pleasant realms and their inhabitants existed in distant landsas well, however, for mixed in among the varied races of the world was aspecial category of being collectively known as the "monstrous races." Theyare described in the writings of Homer, Ctesias, Megasthenes, and othersdating back at least as far as the eighth century B.C.-along with earlierparallels that can be found in the ancient Near East-but the first majorcompilation describing the appearance and character of the different monstrousraces was that of Pliny the Elder in his first century A.D. NaturalHistory. In thirty-six volumes Pliny soberly and seriously informs his readersabout the existence of different peoples living in far off lands whosefeet are turned backwards; whose upper or lower lips are so large thatthey curl them back over their heads to use as umbrellas; who walk upsidedown; who walk on all fours; who are covered with hair; who have nomouths and nourish themselves by smelling their food; who have neitherheads nor necks and whose faces are embedded in their chests; who haveone eye--or three, or four; who have the heads of dogs, and breathe flames;who have only one leg on which they nevertheless run very fast, a legcontaining an enormous foot that they use to shield themselves from thesun; who are gigantic or miniature in size; who have six fingers or sixhands; who have hooves instead of feet; whose ears are so long that theyuse them as blankets; and more. Other such alien races have women whoconceive at age five and die by the time they are eight, or children who areborn with white hair that gradually turns to black as they grow older. 59It is important to recognize that these creatures were truly believed toexist and to exist not in some supernatural or demonic realm, but withinthe larger context of humanity-if often on its outermost margins. Beyondthe matter of gross difference in physical type and biological characteristicsin general, the monstrous races were distinguishable by cultural patternsthat varied from European ideals. They spoke strangely; "barbarians" were,after all, literally barbaraphonoi, or those whose speech sounded like "barbar" to Greek ears. They ate and drank strange foods and potions, frominsects to human flesh to dog's milk. They went about unclothed, or ifclothed they usually were covered by animal skins. They used crude weaponsof war, dubs or other wooden objects, or they were ignorant of weaponryaltogether. And they lived in small communities, not urban environments-andthus were largely ungoverned by laws.Once integrated into Christian thinking, the monstrous races came tobe associated with the lineage of Cain; that is, they were actual creatureswhose strangeness was part of their deserved suffering because of theirprogenitor's sin. Whether Greeks, Romans, or medieval Christians, moreover,the Europeans of all eras considered themselves to be "chosen" people,the inhabitants of the center and most civil domain of human life. The