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{{split|Aethiopes|Kingdom of Kush|Romans in Sub-Saharan Africa|date=May 2018}}
{{split|Aethiopes|Kingdom of Kush|Romans in Sub-Saharan Africa|date=May 2018}}


Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Lloyd|title=Roman Perceptions of Blacks|journal=Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics|date=Sep 1993|volume=1|issue=4|page=1|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N4/thompson.html|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. Though most would have been [[Trans- Sahara slave trade|imported as slaves]], there was no equivalent of the later [[plantation economy]] in the Americas. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.<ref name="Thompson" /> While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.<ref name="Thompson" /> Black people were generally not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against [[multiracial|mixed race]] relationships in Antiquity.<ref> {{cite journal|last1=Snowden|first1=Frank M.|title=Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists|journal=Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics|date=Winter 1997|volume=4|issue=3|pages=28–50|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20163634|accessdate=9 May 2017}} </ref>
Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Lloyd|title=Roman Perceptions of Blacks|journal=Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics|date=Sep 1993|volume=1|issue=4|page=1|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N4/thompson.html|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.<ref name="Thompson" /> While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.<ref name="Thompson" /> Black people were generally not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against [[multiracial|mixed race]] relationships in Antiquity.<ref> {{cite journal|last1=Snowden|first1=Frank M.|title=Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists|journal=Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics|date=Winter 1997|volume=4|issue=3|pages=28–50|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20163634|accessdate=9 May 2017}} </ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 18:45, 21 June 2018

Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.[1] There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.[1] While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.[1] Black people were generally not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against mixed race relationships in Antiquity.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Thompson, Lloyd (Sep 1993). "Roman Perceptions of Blacks". Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics. 1 (4): 1. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  2. ^ Snowden, Frank M. (Winter 1997). "Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. 4 (3): 28–50. Retrieved 9 May 2017.

Sources