Heavenly Bodies: Scientific racism and the taxonomy of extraterrestrial life

In recent years postcolonialism has shifted from exploring the occidental construction of the orient to exploring the role of the occident’s colonial other, the orient, in these constructions through the act of hybridity; that is, the influence that real colonial others have on Orientalizing discourse. But what if the literal existence of the other being analyzed cannot be substantiated. Through an analysis of various scientific constructions of extraterrestrials, such as the inhabitants of the moon described by Johannes Kepler or the description of faraway alien races by Ronald Bracewell, this essay examines how the methods of otherizing practiced on creatural populations whose existence is believed but unsubstantiated, others for whom hybridity is impossible, are then applied to real colonial subjects. Mirroring the role of the medieval Plinian races of India and Africa in providing a mythical structure for the construction of race during early capitalist expansion in South America, modern extraterrestrials have provided a mythical structure for the construction and maintenance of racialized others.