The wizarding world and empire (was Democracy and prejudice)

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50798

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Amy Z 
<lupinesque at y...>" <lupinesque at y...> wrote:

>> And I agree with Ebony in a larger sense.  If someone wanted 
 to create a world in which colonialism had never held sway--if 
that  were a deliberate part of her vision--then she would think 
about that  and indicate it with details such as African names.  <<

Legendary Britain became an empire long before historical 
Britain did. Mallory tells how King Arthur defeated the Roman 
Emperor and made him a vassal. (!) Empire is a much older 
concept than race.

King Arthur's court also featured the Saracen knight Sir 
Palomides, who was Other because of his "paynim" religion, 
rather than his race. I don't know the history of the name 
Palomides, but in dealing with Celtic characters, Mallory 
anglicized the names, so that Aengus became Anguish and 
Grania became Igraine. 

 If the wizards never experienced a dark age, they could have 
kept the Roman system of hereditary surnames in use among 
themselves. Later, when Muggle Britons adopted hereditary 
surnames (1300s), the wizards could have borrowed Muggle 
surnames, such as Johnson or Potter, as part of their eventually 
abandoned effort to blend into the population.

World-builders must sometime make compromises. If Rowling 
had used African surnames when most native-born black British 
subjects have anglic names, that would have labelled the black  
characters as exotic, when she obviously doesn't want them 
perceived that way.

Pippin