In Black and White: Racial Prejudices in the European Middle Ages

 I uploaded a new version of this article on my Academia page. You can view it https://www.academia.edu/40219335/In_Black_and_White_Racial_Prejudices_in_the_European_Middle_Ages

You can also read the previous chapters, The Trefoil of the World and Jerusalem on European Mind Maps.

See  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael

"In Black and White" is open for discussions for 2 weeks from now. If you would like to comment later, you can do it either here, on my blog or my site. Here is the abstract:

Intolerance to nonwhites harks back to the Early Middle Ages; it takes root in a new faith, the alive and kicking Christianity which spreads across the known world. The advocates of the novel ideology strive to defend it against ubiquitous paganism. They make up a pseudo-biological race theory that adopted the principles of Eurocentrism and the superiority of the west. This teaching, which we call here the “racial fiction”, associates blackness with sin.
Black people that disgusted medieval Europeans in terms of physical unattractiveness occupied the remote pockets of the inhabited world. Their character and behavior seemed ecologically determined; the denizens of the outback were prone to physical weakness and exhaustion at an early age. Besides, these outlandish areas were considered to host all and sundry monsters.

The blackness also epitomized moral degradation and wantonness. The supposed low status and irrational behavior of non-white residents would justify their enslavement by the “enlightened” European colonizers. 

A bleak period in which amorality climbs over the bodies of moral principles, while remorse is treated as human weakness and ugliness of soul. 

Other news. I am still collecting info about galleys, both galea sottile (warships) and great galleys in the Mediterranean. I am particularly interested in naval artillery which began to take great strides during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era. 

A galley gun from Malta Maritime Museum, which was mounted on a carriage and slid over the runners. 

   https://www.modelships.de/Museums_and_replicas/Malta_Maritime_Museum/Galley-gun.htm

I also returned to the Late Chalcolithic age checking the evidence of social inequality, the emergence of the elites, amassing the capital, and long-distance trade. These are the topics from my first book, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East". Only this time I will nuance my approach and make it more comprehensible.