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Racism
(4,532 words)

1. Concept

Race in anthropology is far more of a socially imagined category than a biological reality [12. 71]. “Races are the result, not the premises of racialist arguments” [8. 10]; [12]. They thus arise from imagined human worlds and are ultimately topical constructs of meaning. Racism is both a social practice and a discursive construction that is freighted with power [18. 176]. It is polymorphic and flexible to the point that scholars offer different definitions of it, hence the plea to o…

Cite this page
Hering Torres, Max Sebastián and Bley, Helmut, “Racism”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 09 June 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_026129>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20210107



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