To the reader: please do not take offense at the terminology below. This terminology is clearly racist, and should be insulting to many, many people. This terminology is here as it is a record of how people were viewed.
Non-Christian and Mixed Races were often viewed as monsters based on the Old Testament book of Leviticus (which in modern times would be classified as racist, sexist and homophobic: a view shared by Judaeo-Christian and Moslems). Because of these racist views, these 'monstrous' people were often given names that referred to animals.1 Examples follow.
Animal | Terminology | Kind of person | Region |
---|---|---|---|
Fantasmagoric monster | Al Borayque |
Anti converso and anti-Jewish
Muslim or Morisco propaganda 2 |
Iberian world and Muslim world |
Goat | Bôde | Elderly black man with white beard 3 | Brazil |
Cow | Boviander | Anyone with non-white blood | Dutch Guyana (Surinam) |
Coyote | Coyote | Anyone with AmerIndian blood | Nueva España |
Baby animal | Cria | Children containing non-white blood 4 | Brazil |
Livestock | Criollo | Slave or livestock | Nueva España |
Hen | Hen Negro | Female Negro slave | English-speaking New World |
Griffin | Griffin | Child of a white slave5 | Famagusta, Cyprus (1299-1301) |
Wolf | Lobo | Anyone with negro (black) blood | Nueva España |
Mixed animal species | Mestizo | Mixed with (Spanish) non-white blood 6 | New World Spanish colonies |
Mongrel | Mongroo | Anyone with non-white blood | Dutch Guyana (Surinam) |
Mule | Mulato | Mixed with non-white blood 7 | New World Spanish colonies |
Pig | Marrano | Jew (or converso) | Iberia |
Vulture | Urúbu | Anyone with non-white blood | Brazil |
Note that, just as Castas were often given zoomorphic names as a way to show low status, zoomorphic names were also used by conversos, to obscure non-Christian origin. Click here for examples.
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