Introduction

The donner story has a way of stopping us in our tracks. We have always maintained a repulsive fascination with those who cross the line. The ancient greeks assumed that all non hellenistic peoples were barbarians and cannibals, and used it to justify their hostility toward them. For many empires, even up through the british empire of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen ries, it was a way to demonize a people group - which led to deep prejudice against these people groups.