Not only were people with deformities used to understand divine messages from God, they were also used to justify certain actions. Specifically, they led to the dehumanizing and enslavement of civilizations from distinct parts of the world. Civilizations that were considered less advanced than the European were often categorized as cannibals and other forms of monstrous brutes. The Hereford Mappa Mundi [fig 10] has a ring around the edge that shows the location of various monsters and monstrous people. Most monsters in the map happen to be the in the southern edge of Africa and very few are placed in western Europe.[7] The African continent at the time contained mostly people who had a darker skin complexion. European societies considered people from corners of the world as savages and hence depicted them in inhumane ways in their images. During the age of exploration, Spanish Conquistadors would capture the indigenous people and force them into slavery, believing that these “monsters” were inferior to them due to their skin tone and the culture being more primitive to theirs. Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper [fig 8] depicts Jesus’ last dinner and his followers. In Christianity, Jesus Christ is believed to be the personification of God, and the way he is visually represented serves to further this idea. Christ and all his followers have white skin and light-colored hair, a typical European look. This constant imagery and symbolism led to the belief of European countries that they were entitled to the world since they were the once that were made in God’s image, not the indigenous people. The same is seen in the treatise by Ulisse Aldrovandi called Monstrorum Historia, which contains an image of a man with an extra arm and rabbit-like ears and goat-like feet [fig 9] [8]. The image seems to match the descriptions of satyrs/fauns described by Greeks and Romans. Images like this and others show how every society that was perceived as being “different” either through the physical aspects of its inhabitants or through the cultural beliefs. By holding on to the belief of being the superior race, various groups across Europe dehumanized the societies of different races by labeling them as cannibals and depicting them in the art with little to no clothing as nudity was considered a form of disgrace. Not only did this justify the means of treating them differently, but it also justified the cultural genocide that was waged upon them as time went on.
7. Chet Van Duzer, “Hic sunt dracones: The Geography and Cartography of Monsters,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, 387-435
