Tried asking this on the Reddit history pages, immediately removed for asking for a "basic fact", meanwhile sourcing is near impossible to find.

Ive been trying to find more sources on the origins of the racial identity construct, particularly in the development of widespread white supremacy, and how the "white" identity developed. In my research, it has seemed very clear that it developed in conjunction with the Catholic Church's rise to power at the continental scale. In this same location, fertile birthing grounds for settler-colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. Any recommended reading on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Furthermore, as the title stated, I am looking for the earliest recorded instances of one peoples inflicting subhumanization behavior on another. Obviously conflict between different groups of people traces far back before recorded history, but I am very interested in finding when a group first identified as "pure" human, while declaring all those without said traits subhuman. I have a feeling there must be some Marxist text on this, so if anyone knows it I'd love to see it.

Selfish plug to the research I've done thus far if anyone wants to check it out

  • sailorfish [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think a lot of ancient civilisations had an "us, civilised" vs "them, barbarians" distinction, which is a kind of subhumanisation. E.g the Chinese Hua-Yi distinction or the Greeks vs non-Greeks. Here's a chapter from Boletsi's book Barbarism and Its Discontents you might find interesting. It's about the history of the concept of barbarians in the West, from Ancient Greece to modern times.

    I'm not sure how you'd go about finding the earliest one, and idk if it's even relevant to your topic tbh. Like, if the first recorded instance of people treating others as subhumans is in China in 1000BC, that has nothing to do with "white" identity, right?

    • cpfhornet [she/her,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      You're right, and essentially what I'm trying to do is narrow down the differences in dehumanization in different societies at different times, just to have more background on dehumanization broadly so that I can safely zoom into the particular forms of it that came out of white christian Europe that shaped the very nature of European global interactions.