RT Book
T1 Black and slave: the origins and history of the Curse of Ham
T2 Studies of the Bible and its reception
JF Studies of the Bible and its reception
A1 Goldenberg, David M. 1947-
LA English
PP Berlin Boston
PB De Gruyter
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/893570419
AB Studies of the Curse of Ham, the belief that the Bible consigned blacks to everlasting servitude, confuse and conflate two separate origins stories (etiologies), one of black skin and the other of black slavery. This work unravels the etiologies and shows how the Curse, an etiology of black slavery, evolved from an earlier etiology explaining the existence of dark-skinned people. We see when, where, why, and how an original mythic tale of black origins morphed into a story of the origins of black slavery, and how, in turn, the second then supplanted the first as an explanation for black skin. In the process we see how formulations of the Curse changed over time, depending on the historical and social contexts, reflecting and refashioning the way blackness and blacks were perceived. In particular, two significant developments are uncovered. First, a curse of slavery, originally said to affect various dark-skinned peoples, was eventually applied most commonly to black Africans. Second, blackness, originally incidental to the curse, in time became part of the curse itself. Dark skin now became an intentional marker of servitude, the visible sign of the blacks’ degradation, and in the process deprecating black skin itself.
CN BS580.H27
SN 9783110522471
SN 9783110522488
SN 9783110521672
K1 Black race : Color
K1 Slavery : Justification : History
K1 Blacks in the Bible
K1 Blacks : Public opinion : History
K1 Black race
K1 Blacks
K1 Slavery
K1 Curse
K1 Fluch
K1 Ham
K1 Sklaverei
DO 10.1515/9783110522471