The present study examines body concepts, attitudes towards offspring from interethnic marriages, perceptions of strangers, and racist tendencies. Under what conditions does racism arise? Are there racial categories outside of European and American societies? Bettina Beer addresses these central questions in her cross-cultural investigation of body concepts and racial ideas. Based on field research data from Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, as well as an analysis of sources related to Chinese history and the Nation of Islam in the USA, the author scrutinizes prevailing racism theories. She engages with Marxist, postmodern, and sociobiological theories of racism, as well as approaches that reference theories of rational action. It is not only Euro-American societies that are considered, and not only colonial contexts.