[DoctorMichael]

.........Haradrim, men from the lands South of Mordor............Easterlings...........

If you check some of the more obscure Threads posted here at FR, there are a few where the authors criticize Tolkien's "racism". It is the characterization of these southerners (Africa?) and easterners (Muslims?) that has led to line of thought.

[HairOfTheDog]

I know all about the line of thought! I have seen them.

I read the books without having a mental image of those peoples, even after reading it many times in my life, I didn't really need to picture them.

The moviemakers had to make an image though. The southerners... Haradrim, actually looked more Middle-Eastern to me... or northern Africa perhaps (due to the Oliphants). Their costumes, to my anthropologically untrained eye, looked nomadic Arabian or Bedouin-like. Notable though, the structures that the oliphants carried looked asian.

And the Easterlings in the film seemed very Oriental in design, to my eye.