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The Cyclops eating Odysseus' men in Nolan's The Odyssey looks like a tribute to a painting by Francisco Goya.

Dehumanization is the process of denying the humanity of another person or group, portraying them as inferior, dangerous, or less than human. Throughout history, governments, militaries, and extremist movements have used propaganda to dehumanize their enemies, making violence, discrimination, and mass atrocities easier to justify. By stripping people of their individuality and dignity, perpetrators can become psychologically desensitized to suffering that they would otherwise recognize as unacceptable.

occurred in Nazi Germany, where antisemitic propaganda systematically portrayed Jews as parasites, vermin, or a threat to society. These false narratives encouraged many Germans to view Jewish people not as fellow human beings, but as an enemy that needed to be eliminated. This dehumanization played a significant role in enabling the Holocaust, in which approximately six million Jews were murdered.

Similar patterns have appeared in many other historical atrocities. During the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, some Japanese soldiers viewed Chinese civilians as less than human after years of militaristic indoctrination and wartime propaganda. Dehumanization has also been observed in the Rwandan genocide, where extremist media referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches,"

Human zoos were public exhibitions where people, usually from colonized or non European societies, were displayed for crowds as if they were museum objects or exotic animals. These exhibitions became especially popular in Europe and the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attracting millions of visitors at world fairs, colonial expositions, and even some zoos.

The organizers often claimed that these displays were educational or scientific. In reality, they promoted racist ideas by portraying non-Western people as primitive and culturally inferior. Many participants were forced to wear traditional clothing, perform daily activities for spectators, or live in reconstructed villages designed to entertain visitors rather than accurately represent their cultures.

One of the most well known cases was Ota Benga, a Congolese man who was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1906. His treatment sparked criticism from some religious leaders and activists, but exhibitions of this kind continued in various forms for years.

Today, human zoos are widely recognized as a shameful chapter in history. They are remembered as examples of how colonialism, racism, and pseudoscientific beliefs were used to justify the exploitation and dehumanization of entire groups of people. Museums and historians now study these exhibitions to better understand the lasting impact they had on racial stereotypes and public attitudes.

about 100 years ago on the Hejaz Railway in present-day Saudi Arabia still lies abandoned in the middle of the desert to this day.

The Hejaz Railway was one of the Ottoman Empire's most ambitious infrastructure projects, built between 1900 and 1908 to connect Damascus with Medina. I

ts primary purpose was to make it easier for Muslim pilgrims to travel to the holy cities, but it also served as a vital strategic asset, allowing the Ottoman government to maintain control over its distant Arab territories and rapidly move troops and supplies.

When World War I and the Arab Revolt broke out in 1916, the railway became a major target for the Arab rebels, who were supported by Britain. Rather than attempting to capture heavily defended towns, the rebels focused on sabotaging the railway by blowing up tracks and bridges and ambushing trains, crippling one of the Ottoman Empire's most important logistical lifelines.

A barber-surgeon was a person who combined the jobs of a barber and a surgeon, a profession that was common throughout medieval and early modern Europe. In addition to cutting hair and shaving beards, barber-surgeons performed a variety of medical procedures. They treated wounds, stitched cuts, set broken bones, amputated damaged limbs, extracted teeth, and carried out bloodletting, which was widely believed at the time to restore the body's balance of humors.

The profession emerged during the Middle Ages after many educated physicians focused on diagnosing illnesses and prescribing treatments rather than performing surgery. Surgery was considered manual labor and was often left to barber-surgeons, who developed practical skills through apprenticeships instead of attending universities. Their experience on battlefields and in towns made them essential members of medieval society.

Barber-surgeons were especially important because access to trained physicians was limited, particularly for ordinary people. Although their knowledge of anatomy and disease was far less advanced than modern medicine, many barber-surgeons became highly skilled at treating injuries. They relied on experience rather than scientific understanding, as anesthesia, antibiotics, and germ theory did not yet exist. One of the most recognizable symbols of the profession is the barber pole. Its red and white stripes are traditionally said to represent blood and bandages, while the pole itself symbolizes the staff that patients gripped during bloodletting procedures. Although modern barbers no longer practice medicine, the barber pole remains a reminder of the profession's unusual historical origins.

By the 18th century, surgery had become more scientific and professional. In England, the Company of Barber-Surgeons, founded in 1540, was dissolved in 1745, separating barbers from surgeons. From that point onward, surgery developed into a distinct medical profession, while barbers focused solely on hair cutting and grooming.

from Survey of the Thermal Threat of Nuclear Weapons

The Taung Child was a young member of Australopithecus africanus, an early human ancestor that lived about 2.8 million years ago in the dangerous savannas of southern Africa. Only 3–4 years old, the young Australopithecus africanus was surrounded by predators every day. In 1924, its fossilized skull was discovered in a limestone quarry near Taung, South Africa. Australian anatomist Raymond Dart recognized it as a previously unknown human ancestor, making it one of the most important fossil discoveries in history. ​

For nearly 80 years, no one knew how the child had died. Scientists proposed many theories. Some believed the child had died naturally, while others suspected a leopard or another large predator. Yet none of these explanations matched the unusual marks preserved on the skull, and the mystery remained unsolved. ​The breakthrough came when researchers compared the fossil with the remains of modern monkeys killed by African crowned eagles. The puncture marks around the eye sockets and scratches on the skull were almost identical.

They concluded that the child had most likely been snatched by a giant eagle, carried high into the air, and taken to a feeding site where the predator began to feed. Millions of years later, the tiny skull preserved in stone became the silent witness that revealed the child's tragic final moments, making the Taung Child one of the oldest known victims of predation in human evolutionary history.