Climate and Race
A popular view of race at the time was linked with climate. Hot and dry climates, such as was common across the African continent, were believed to cause dark skin either by an excess of bad air causing melancholy (Burton), by burning the blood under the skin (Bartholomaeus), or by the sheer power of heat alone (Bacon). The three depictions of climate in this exhibit offer different explanations for the exact mechanism of determining skin color, but they all propose that skin color and other elements of race are unavoidable consequences arising from where one was born. Because climate was believed to affect ones disposition (especially through the humours) as well, these explanations propose that one’s skin color are linked with aspects of one’s innate personality, a view that certainly seems to come up in Othello.