ABSTRACT
The term miscegenation comes from the Latin miscere, “to mix,” and genus, “race.” At the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century Europeans were more opposed to interracial sexual relations between Europeans and Africans than between Europeans and Native Americans or Asians. Religiously, in Europe and the United States of America the term miscegenation has carried emotional connotation, “implying something sinful, illicit, unnatural, even perverse.” European and American opposition to interracial sexual relations was rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Several verses in the Bible have been used to prohibit interracial liaisons. In the Old Testament, a great deal was made about bloodlines whose “purity” defined and determined one’s identity and status. In colonial East and Central Africa white settlers and government officials considered interracial liaisons to be undesirable, partly because of the presumed physical and quasi-moral unworthiness of the offspring of unions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
