Pre-modern conceptions of whiteness

Summary

The description of populations as white in reference to their skin colour predates and is distinct from the race categories constructed from the 17th century onward. Coloured terminology is occasionally found in Graeco-Roman ethnography and other ancient and medieval sources, but these societies did not have any notion of a white or pan-European race. In Graeco-Roman society whiteness was a somatic norm, although this norm could be rejected and it did not coincide with any system of discrimination or colour prejudice. Historically, before the late modern period, cultures outside of Europe and North America, such as those in the Middle East and China, employed concepts of whiteness. Eventually these were progressively marginalised and replaced by the European form of racialised whiteness. Whiteness has no enduring "true essence", but instead is a social construct that is dependent on differing societal, geographic, and historical meanings. Scholarship on race distinguishes the modern concept from pre-modern descriptions, which focused on skin colour, complexion and other physical traits.