A person or people believed to be descended from Ham, son of Noah in the Bible; historically used to classify certain African and Middle Eastern populations.
From the Biblical name Ham plus '-ite' (a person of or belonging to). The classification system emerged from medieval and early modern Bible-based genealogies.
Colonial Europeans used 'Hamite' classification to justify their racial hierarchies—they literally reinterpreted the Bible to place African peoples at a disadvantage, showing how language and classification systems can be weaponized.
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