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• Bodies Complexioned: Human Variation and Racism in Early Modern English Culture, c. 1600–1750 by Mark S. Dawson
• Rickie Lette

While unique phenotypic traits are evident among dispersed populations, the concept of race is essentially a social construct and its appropriateness is contested because of its association with the cultural politics of racism. But the fact remains that the term was in reasonably common usage from the early sixteenth century, although without the sinister connotations it later acquired. It is generally accepted that it was not until around the early eighteenth century that the modern concept of race began to develop as a powerful and widespread means to justify discrimination. Although it is easy to find earlier examples of race-based denigration and discrimination, by and large distinctions were made between peoples by Europeans on the basis of cultural differences.

But when and how did the immutable interpretations of difference associated with racial discrimination begin to replace the relatively permeable barriers to acceptance presented by ethnocentrism? This is the issue that Mark Dawson explores in Bodies Complexioned. In doing so, he challenges the view that two factors impeded the acceptance of racial stereotyping. The first of these was inertia of belief in humoralism, whose supposedly mutable impact on bodily disposition conflicted with the essentialism of racism. The second factor was that for racism to take hold it had to supplant ethnocentrism. That entailed overcoming belief in monogenesis, Christian universalism, and the importance of sociocultural factors in how Europeans assessed themselves and others.

Over six chapters Dawson presents evidence to support his thesis that it was unnecessary for one form of discrimination to supersede another; instead, humoralism itself became the basis of intrasocietal discrimination that was then adapted to accommodate learnings from the encounter of Britons with other peoples. Consequently, the purview of this paradigm of embodied prejudice expanded outwards and become an antecedent of modern racism.

In the first four chapters Dawson seeks to demonstrate how widespread this thinking was and what conclusions English people came to concerning the meaning of bodily difference. Something that stands out in these chapters is the impressive range and number of sources that Dawson draws upon, which sets this work apart from many other studies on the early development of racial prejudice in England.

The first chapter examines the role of religious discourse in the way in which the body was read. Dawson asserts that religious beliefs were foundational: variation in complexion was thought to have originated with the fall of man, and humoral differences could be used to judge a person’s state of spiritual well-being. That such beliefs were pivotal is unsurprising given the centrality of religion in English society at the time. [End Page 202]

In Chapter 2 he turns to the relationship between humoralism and astrology, examining the way in which people had recourse to the latter to better understand their complexions. Dawson reveals just how widespread interest in astrology was, but in doing so overwhelmed this reader with the examples he provides. What he achieves, though, is to demonstrate that implicit in the practice were the assumptions that humoral dispositions were innate, rather than mutable, and inheritable.

Chapter 3 focuses on the role of drama in conditioning attitudes to bodily difference. I am sceptical about claims concerning the influence of the early modern English theatre, because it could unsettle as much as reinforce paradigms. However, Dawson’s argument that drama informed people of the embodied markers of social status is well supported.

In an impressive feat of research and analysis of descriptions of wanted persons advertised in newspapers, Chapter 4 reveals that physical distinctions were being made systematically and widely by ordinary citizens and highlights that skin tone was progressively becoming a more critical marker of difference.

In the fifth chapter Dawson shows how the English transported their humoral logic to make assessments of other peoples, arguing that just as the English could self-identify with certain embodied characteristics, they...

审核人：

• 身体肤色：现代早期英国文化中的人类变异和种族主义，c。马克·道森（Mark S.Dawson）在1600–1750年
• 里奇·莱特（Rickie Lette）

尽管在分散的人群中有独特的表型特征，但种族的概念本质上是一种社会建构，并且由于其与种族主义的文化政治联系而受到质疑。但是事实仍然是，该术语自16世纪初期起就已在相当普遍的情况下使用，尽管它后来并没有令人作呕的含义。人们普遍认为，直到18世纪初期，现代种族概念才开始发展成为一种强有力的，广泛的歧视手段。尽管很容易找到较早的基于种族的discrimination毁和歧视的例子，但欧洲人在文化差异的基础上在各国人民之间做出了很大的区分。

但是，什么时候以及如何以不变的方式解释与种族歧视有关的差异，以取代种族中心主义所呈现出的相对通透的接受障碍？这是马克•道森（Mark Dawson）在“身体肤色”中探索的问题。在这样做时，他对以下两个观点妨碍种族定型观念的接受提出了质疑。其中第一个是对幽默主义的信仰惯性，据说幽默对身体倾向的可变影响与种族主义的本质主义相冲突。第二个因素是，要巩固种族主义，就必须取代种族中心主义。这就需要克服对单基因，基督教普遍主义以及社会文化因素在欧洲人如何评价自己和他人中的重要性的信念。

在六章中，道森提供了证据来支持他的论点，即一种歧视形式不必取代另一种形式。取而代之的是，幽默主义本身成为社会内部歧视的基础，后来被调整以适应英国人与其他人相遇时的学习。因此，这种体现偏见的范式的范围向外扩展，并成为现代种族主义的先决条件。

在前四章中，道森试图证明这种思想的广泛性以及英国人对身体差异的含义得出的结论。这些章节中突出的是道森所吸引的范围和来源令人印象深刻，这使这项工作与许多其他有关英格兰种族偏见的早期发展的研究区分开来。

第一章探讨了宗教话语在阅读身体中的作用。道森断言宗教信仰是基础的：肤色的变化被认为是由于人类的堕落而引起的，体液差异可以用来判断一个人的精神健康状况。考虑到当时宗教在英国社会的中心地位，这种信念至关重要。[结束页202]

在第二章中，他探讨了幽默主义与占星术之间的关系，探讨了人们诉诸后者以更好地了解其肤色的方式。道森（Dawson）揭示了人们对占星术的广泛兴趣，但是这样做给读者带来了他所提供的例子。不过，他所取得的成就是证明，在实践中隐含的假设是，幽默倾向是天生的，而不是易变的和可继承的。

第三章着重于戏剧在调节对身体差异的态度中的作用。我对有关早期现代英语剧院的影响的说法持怀疑态度，因为它可能会破坏强化范例的能力。但是，道森关于戏剧使人们了解社会地位的具体标志的论点得到了很好的支持。

在对报纸上刊登的通缉犯的描述进行研究和分析的一项令人印象深刻的壮举中，第4章揭示了普通公民系统地和广泛地进行了身体上的区分，并强调肤色逐渐成为差异的更为重要的标志。

在第五章中，道森（Dawson）展示了英国人如何传达他们的幽默逻辑来对其他民族进行评估，他们认为，正如英国人可以自我识别某些特定的特征一样，他们...