ABSTRACT
This chapter examines perspectives on human differences that originated well before the formal origins of anthropology. In addition, classical scholars recognized that local traditions significantly constrain the choices of individuals, who are not completely free in their selection of values and behaviors. The scant cohort of Spanish settlers viewed Indians as an essential labor force for colonial mines and plantations, and therefore Spanish and Indian settlements co-existed, albeit in an extremely unequal relationship. The Conquerors, echoing Columbus, regarded Indians had little interest in seeing the conversion of Indians to Christianity in any meaningful sense; indeed, in most instances they opposed it as it would secure for Indians some basic guarantee of their status as human beings. For the Enlightenment philosophers, the notion that the social environment determines behavior was axiomatic. Biblical fundamentalists held that modern-day "primitive" societies were descended from the people who had been scattered by God after the construction of the Tower of Babel.
