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The Origins of Xenophobia and Stereotyping
Many central features of human nature were adapted to a style of life which is no longer present. There was probably not monogamous marriage or the institution of marriage. We lived in small, relatively integrated villages when strangers would have been unusual and maybe objects of suspicion. Some of the attitudes which now manifest themselves as xenophobia almost certainly have those origins in those days. It's an extraordinary and rather frightening fact that children seem to be born racists. They have essentialist ideas about what it is to be part of their own group based on stitch skin colour and looks who we no longer regard as being of any biological importance.