Historical review of the concept of “race” in Max Hering Torresand Peter Wade

Abstract

This article gives a historical overview of the conceptual construction of “race”. Starting with two authors—Colombian historian, Max Hering Torres, and British anthropologist, Peter Wade—, we intend to look over the using of that concept from the Middle Ages to the last century. Max Hering focuses particularlyon the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, while Peter Wade, although he deals with the Middle Agesand the Modern Era, focuses on the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Both highlight the fact that the“race” concept had two connotations: neutral and negative. The neutral one meant “lineage”, “descent”,while the negative one alluded to “blemish”. Also the “race” concept in its two meanings was often usedinterchangeably with the term “caste”. Hering and Wade are right that while there are no “races” because“race” has no scientific basis, being a historical and social construct, we must continue to talk about “race”to fight against a social reality that is racism.