Description
[Ancient/Medieval or Renaissance/Baroque] Throughout history, different cultures and groups have sought to better understand themselves by defining what they are not. In the European Middle Ages, this impulse birthed a variety of representations and literary accounts of monsters inhabiting the edges of the world, barbaric and cannibalistic non-believers, and distant peoples or opposing factions that were defined strictly by their strangeness. Through a mixture of fantasy and fear, these Othered figures reinforced the medieval Christian worldview, serving as manifestations of what happens when Western expectations of religion and civility go astray. As the world became increasingly mobile in the premodern era, however, these seemingly firm classifications of difference began to break down. When faced with an expanding globe and the emergence of trade routes and political alliances that brought previously near-mythical populations into direct contact with Europeans, the similarities bet