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Caucasian race

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See Caucasian for other meanings of the term.

For peoples actually from the Caucasus, see Peoples of the Caucasus.

The Caucasian race, sometimes called the Caucasoid race,[1][2] is a concept of 19th and 20th century racial classification. This typological method was discredited and the concept is not relied on in scientific work related to humans.[3][4]

The term Caucasian survives along with the similar classification “white” in many sociological studies. It is also retained with the corresponding terms Negroid and Mongoloid in a scientific sense in biological anthropology.

Origins of the term

The famed exemplary Georgian skull Blumenbach discovered in 1795 to hypothesize origination of Europeans from the Caucasus.

The term "Caucasian" originated as one of the racial categories developed in the 19th century by people studying craniology. It was derived from the region of the Caucasus mountains[5]. The 18th century German philosopher Christoph Meiners first named the concept of the Caucasian race[6], but the term was more widely popularized in the 19th c. under the name "Varietas Caucasia" by the German scientist and naturalist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) who "borrowed the name Caucasian" from Meiners.[7] Blumenbach based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the Caucasian peoples,[8] particularly a single skull from the Caucasia which resembled German skulls.[9] It was from this similarity that he conjectured Europeans having arisen in the Caucasia.[9] Blumenbach wrote about the "primeval"[6] Caucasian race which he believed was “the oldest race of man”[6] and the "first variety of humankind"[6].

Caucasian variety – I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian; and because all physiological reasons converge to this, that in that region, if anywhere, it seems we ought with the greatest probability to place the autochthones (birth place) of mankind[10]

In 1855, French diplomat and man of letters Arthur de Gobineau popularized ideas about race: "I must say, once and for all, that I understand by white men the members of those races which are also called Caucasian[11] … [these] white races … had their first settlement in the Caucasus."[11]

The Caucasus was historically an area of fascination for Europeans. Myths of the Caucasus featured Prometheus and Jason and the Argonauts.[12] Greek mythology considered women from the Caucasus, such as Medea, to have magical powers.[6] In Greek mythology, this area was thought of as a kind of hell since Zeus imprisoned many Titans who opposed him (e.g. Prometheus) there. In this sense, these Titans were banished outside the civilized world to an area inhabited by Colchians. The Greeks considered them barbaric.[13]

Populations included

Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean

Among the main racial group of Caucasians there are three subgroups; Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean.

Huxley’s map of racial categories from On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind (1870).
  1: Bushmen
  2: Negroes
  3: Negritoes
  4: Melanochroi
  5: Australoids
  6: Xanthochroi
  7: Polynesians
  8: Mongoloids A
  8: Mongoloids B
  8: Mongoloids C
  9: Esquimaux
Huxley states: “It is to the Xanthochroi and Melanochroi, taken together, that the absurd denomination of ‘Caucasian’ is usually applied”.[14]

Eighteenth century anthropologist Christoph Meiners, who first defined the Caucasian race, posited a “binary racial scheme” of two races with the Caucasian whose racial purity was exemplified by the “venerated … ancient Germans”, although he considered some Europeans as impure “dirty whites”; and “Mongolians”, who consisted of everyone else.[6] Meiners did not include Jews as Caucasians and ascribed them a “permanently degenerate nature”.[15] Anthropologist Johann Blumenbach, Meiners’ contemporary, stated, “to this first variety [Caucasians] belong the inhabitants of Europe (except the Lapps) and those of Eastern Asia, as far as the river Obi, the Caspian Sea, the Ganges and the Basque Country; and lastly, those of North Africa” [6]. French doctor and pharmacist Jean Joseph-Virey[16] also known as “Julien-Joseph Virey”[17] or “Jean-Julien Virey”[18] followed Meiners’ racial system. Hannah Franzieka identified 19th c. writers who believed in the “Caucasian hypothesis” and noted that “Jean-Julien Virey and Louis Antoine Desmoulines were well-known supports of the idea that Europeans came from Mount Caucasus.”[18] In his political history of racial identity, Bruce Baum wrote, “Jean-Joseph Virey (1774-1847), a follower of Chistoph Meiners, claimed that ‘the human races … may divided … into those who are fair and white and those who are dark or black.”[19]

Hora

"Wells (1957) presented the Hora [a people who used to live in the area of present day Malawi during the Middle Holocene (2,000–5,000 years ago)] individuals as representing a complex mixture of Caucasoid and Negroid features, implying a model where variation was due solely to gene flow rather than regional differentiation.[20]...Wells (1957) saw a Caucasoid or Khoisan origin through the mandibular morphology, but he did not list the features that led him to this conclusion.[20]... He also interpreted the elongated braincase of Hora 1 (without parietal bossings) as Negroid ancestry." [20]

South India

Early 20th century anthropologist Carleton Coon wrote in the 1930s that within the Caucasoid race there is a “third division [Mediterraneans which] … included … southern India” but remarked this group had “facial features of a Veddoid character which in some instances suggest Australoid affinities.”[21] He further elaborated that in India there are “Veddoids … individuals who are to all intents and purposes Australoid.” Regarding the exact racial composition of India, Coon admitted, “[T]he racial history of southern Asia has not yet been thoroughly worked out, and it is too early to postulate what these relationships may be … [I] shall leave the problems of Indian physical anthropology in the competent hands of Guha and of Bowles.”[21]

In 1995, geneticist Cavalli-Sforza wrote, “[T]he Caucasoids are mainly fair-skinned peoples, but this group also includes the southern Indians, who live in tropical areas and show signs of a marked darkening in skin pigmentation, although their facial and body traits are Caucasoid rather than African or Australian.”[22]

Native Americans

"Native Americans often have more prominent noses than Asians.[23] Eye folds do occur in the Americas, but in only a small proportion of the population.[23] And some Native American groups, particularly in California and the Great Basin, exhibit an unusual amount of facial hair.[23] These characteristics seem to indicate some connection with the Caucasoid or white racial stock, prevalent in southwest Asia, Europe and North Africa." [23]

Haidahs

"[A] great mixture of long and short and intermediate heads in every tribe and almost every village, although the short or round Mongol head predominates; whilst many of the natives [of the Americas], especially the women, show, when washed, skins fairly white and ruddy cheeks, with hair soft and brown;[24] amongst the Haidahs especially, the men when they do not, according to custom, pluck out the hair, have a fine beard and moustache.[24] Holmes says of them: Amongst the Haidahs or Queen Charlotte Island tribes exists a family of coarse red-haired, light-brown-eyed people of hair complexion;[24] and Sproat says: Their young women's skins are as clear and white as those of Englishwomen. These seem to be traces of megalithic Caucasian sea-going race that had lived on the north-east coast of Asia and had been already, perhaps, liberally Mongolised in the process of being driven north and east-- the same race that, un-Mongolised, went south-east into Polynesia." [24]

Ethiopians and Somalis

However, some anthropologists point to Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and Nubians who exhibit phenotypical traits such as orthognathism, keen facial features and smooth hair texture usually exclusive to Caucasoid peoples. They contend such variations are indigenous to these groups and cannot be attributed to invasions from outside Caucasoid peoples as suggested under the Dynastic Race Theory and in more recent biological studies.[25] Such phenotypical variations, they argue, often occur within nuclear family groups and are inherent to what they term “Africoid” peoples, much as there are broad variations in physical stature and body proportions between the Pygmies of the Congo, who generally reach a height of 4.5 feet, and of the Tutsi of Rwanda, whose average height is 6.5 feet and who are described as “gracile”, or gracefully slender.[26] Similarly, they continue, African peoples commonly considered ”Negroid” such as the Senegalese also sometimes lack prognathism.[27].

This view, however, has no shortage of critics who argue that a segment of the Wolof people of Senegal possesses Caucasoid maternal admixture which could very well explain the relatively attenuated prognathism attributed to some members of that population. Critics also point out that the so-called “elongated” physique common to many Ethiopians, Eritreans and Somalis is strictly an adaptive response to living in a tropical environment and not a sign of shared racial ancestry with neighboring black groups as has been proposed:

The elongation of the distal segments of the limbs is also clearly related to the dissipation of metabolically generated heat. Because heat stress and latitude are clearly related, one would expect to find a correlation between the two sets of traits that are associated with adaptation to survival in areas of great ambient temperature, namely, skin color and limb proportions. This is clearly the case in such areas as Equatorial Africa, the tropical portions of South Asia, and northern Australia, although there is little covariation with other sets of inherited traits. In this regard it is interesting to note that the limb proportions of the Predynastic Naqada in Upper Egypt are reported to be “super-Negroid”, meaning that the distal segments are elongated in the fashion of tropical Africans. It would be just as accurate to call them ”super-Veddoid” or ”super-Carpentarian” because skin color intensification and distal limb elongation are apparent wherever people have been long-term residents of the tropics. The term “super-tropical” would be better, as it implies the results of selection associated with a given latitude rather than the more ”racially loaded” term “Negroid.”[28]

Australoids

“The Australoids are found to possess some primitive features that denotes the survivals of early Caucasoid varieties.[29] This is the reason for which these peoples are considered a sub-division of the Caucasoid racial stock.”[29]

Ainu

Full-blooded Ainu are mostly fair-skinned, with the men generally having dense hair development.[30] Many early investigators proposed a Caucasian ancestry, although recent DNA tests have found no traces of Caucasian ancestry.[31] The Ainu are generally considered to be the indigenous population of Japan. It is possible that North America had several peoples among its early settlers. The best-known evidence that may support this theory is probably Kennewick Man. Kennewick Man may not have been European but rather resembled Ainu people of northeast Asia.[32]

Koreans

"Racial characteristics of... the Caucasians are found among the people of Korea[33].... Prof. A. H. Keane, a distinguished ethnologist of Great Britain, maintains that the Korean people were originally of Caucasian stock intermingled with the Mongolian race[33]... [Kean is quoted as saying] In the adjacent Korean Peninsula the Caucasian element is even more marked than among the Tunguses.[33] European features-- light eyes, large nose, hair often brown, full beard, fair and even white skin, tall stature-- are conspicuous especially amongst the upper classes and in the south."[33]

Dauri

"In Manchuria, on the contrary, the Dauri, who live on the Amur, alongside the Manchus, have a strong intermixture of Caucasian blood;[24] they are tall, oval-faced, regular-featured, narrow-cheeked, large-nosed, and brown-haired." [24]

Maori

"There are even cases of a cross with a blonde Caucasian race amonst the Maoris[24], and especially amongst the Ureweras, who have seen little of Europeans till lately;[24] the urukehu, or red-headed, families and individuals are not infrequent, and the red-head is generally accepted as an indication of a cross between a blonde and brunette race, whilst it is acknowledged that this tribe[24]... struggling with the inhabitants of the mountain and forest land, ultimately amalgamated with them. [24]"

Physical characteristics

File:Europaeid types.jpg
Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) divides “Europäid” types into: Nordic, Dinaric, Mediterranean, Alpine, East Baltic, Turks, Bedouins, Afghans.

Eighteenth century anthropologist Christoph Meiners, who first defined the term, characterized the “Caucasian” as having the characteristics of “lightness”, “beauty” and being “handsome” with the “ancient Germans” having the “whitest, most blooming and most delicate skin” because they were the most racially pure Caucasians.[6] 18th century anthropologist Johann Blumenbach, the second person to define the term, considered Caucasians to be the top of “racial hierarchy” he organized where, “the white color holds the first place, such as it is that most Europeans. The redness of cheeks in this variety is almost peculiar to it: at all events it is but seldom seen in the rest.” and described Caucasians as, “Color white, Cheeks rosy; hair brown or chestnut-colored; head subglobular; face oval, straight, its parts moderately defined, forehead smooth, nose narrow, slightly hooked, mouth small. The primary teeth placed perpendicularly to each jaw: the lips (especially the lower one) moderately open, the chin full and rounded.”[6] “Blumenbach … [h]e took as the normal type the skull of the Caucasian race, which is distinguished by harmony of the individual parts, none being unduly prominent: with roundness (mesocephaly) are united a massive high forehead, narrow cheek-bones, round alveolar arch, and an orthognathous upper jaw.”[34] In 1912, “osteologist”[35] William Plane Pycraft offered his expert testimony on the Piltdown man case that “the Caucasian has a well-developed chin” with an “enlargement of the mouth cavity”.[36] He mentioned that this was not seen in some other races’ skulls.[36] Forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkenson says that Australoids have the largest brow ridges “with moderate to large supraorbital arches”.[37] Caucasoids have the second largest brow ridges with “moderate supraorbital ridges”.[37] Negroids have the third largest brow ridges with an “undulating supraorbital ridge”.[37] Mongoloids are “absent browridges”, so they have the smallest brow ridges.[37] “The Mongoloid skull has proceeded further than in any other people.”[38] “The Mongoloid skull, whether Chinese or Japanese, has been rather more neotenized than the Caucasoid or European.”[38] “The female skull, it will be noted, is more pedomorphic in all human populations than the male skull.” [38] “Increased body hair is a normal hereditary trait in many Caucasian women of Mediterranean origin.”[39] “Dr. Robert Greenblatt, M.D., Professor of Endocrinology … noted that in men of older age, hairs on the ears were more pronounced in the Caucasian as compared with the Asian males of the same age.[40] In the Caucasian males, male pattern baldness occurred earlier, more commonly, and more extensively.”[40] "Hinderer (1971) described three nasal types with typical racial characteristics... leptorrhine (Caucasian)[41]... Caucasians have, on average, thinner skin, more prominant tip cartilages, a more prominent nasal spine, and longer nasal bones than Africans[41].... The external ear of Africans is shorter than that of Caucasians, whereas the Asian ear is generally longer.[41] African lips are fuller than either Asian or Caucasian; Asian lips are often somewhat fuller than Caucasian." [41] "Comparing oriental and Caucasian nose, oriental nasal tip has more oily skin and more thin cartilages than that of Caucasians."[42] "Caucasoid... skulls have a profile with an almost straight line from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin[43] .... The Caucasoid will have a taller nasal bone.[43] Put differently, the bridge of a Caucasian individual's nose will protrude further away from the eye socket.[43] The zygomatic bone, commonly referred to as the cheekbone, is structured similarly in both Negroid and Caucasoid.[43] Both of these races have retreating zygomatics." [43]

By 2003, the term “Caucasoid race” was a term used in physical anthropology to refer to people of a certain range of anthropometric measurements [44].

Neanderthals

“Ovchinnikov et al. tested for the closeness of Neanderthals and modern European or Caucasoid populations … Neither Neanderthal sequence [tested] … was closer to European/Caucasoid samples than to samples from other parts of the world, thus not supporting this [Neanderthal mixing with Caucasoids] hypothesis.”[45] Krings reported the “Neanderthal genome to be outside the range of modern humans”[46]

Usage

With the turn away from racial theory in the late 20th century, the term “Caucasian” as a racial classification fell into disuse in Europe. In Germany and Russia, the term “Europid” or “Europoid” is used. Consequently, in the United Kingdom, the term “Caucasian” is more likely than in the United States to describe people from the Caucasus, although it may still be used as a racial classification.[47] Sarah A Tishkoff and Kenneth K Kidd state, “Despite disagreement among anthropologists, this classification remains in use by many researchers, as well as lay people.”[48] According to Leonard Lieberman, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield, the concept of race has all but been completely rejected by modern mainstream anthropology.[49] In 2003, United States National Library of Medicine stopped using the term Caucasian race in favor of the term “European”.[50] In the United States, “Caucasian” has been mainly a distinction based on skin color with “white” or light complexion (see White American, European American).

Notes

  1. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Caucasoid” as as noun or adjective meaning “Of, pertaining to, or resembling the Caucasian race.”
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Sign In
  3. ^ O'Neil, Dennis. “Biological Anthropology Terms.” 2006. May 13, 2007. Palomar College.[1]
  4. ^ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/gill.html Does Race Exist? A proponent’s perspective by George W. Gill.
  5. ^ University of Pennsylvania [2]
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Painter, Nell Irvin. Yale University. "Why White People are Called Caucasian?" 2003. September 27, 2007. [3]
  7. ^ University of Pennsylvania [4]
  8. ^ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, translated by Thomas Bendyshe. 1865. November 2, 2006. [5]
  9. ^ a b Gossett, Thomas F. New Edition Race The History of an Idea in America. New York:Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-509778-5 p. 38
  10. ^ Blumenbach , De generis humani varietate nativa (3rd ed. 1795), trans. Bendyshe (1865). Quoted e.g. in Arthur Keith, Blumenbach’s Centenary, Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1940).
  11. ^ a b Gobineau, Arthur (1915). "The Inequality of Human Races". Putnam. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  12. ^ Caucasus, Historical Notes [6]
  13. ^ (Ovid, Metamorphoses V 830-845)
  14. ^ Huxley, T. H. “On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind” (1870) Journal of the Ethnological Society of London
  15. ^ Eigen, Sara. The German Invention of Race. Suny Press:New York, 2006. ISBN 0-79146-677-9 p.205
  16. ^ Chapman, Herrik. Race in France. Berghahn Books:2004. ISBN 157181857X
  17. ^ Guerdon, Martial. Arts and Societies. “the physiognomy of jean-baptiste delestre (1800-1871): ideal beauty and autopsy of the social body.” 2004. October 22, 2007. [7]
  18. ^ a b Franzieka, Hannah. Berghahn Books: 2004. ISBN 157181857X James Cowles Prichard’s Anthropology: Remaking the Science of Man in Early
  19. ^ Baum, Bruce David. The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity. New York University: 2006. ISBN 0814798926
  20. ^ a b c Morris, Allan G. Morphometric Cranial Identity of Prehistoric Malawians in the Light of Sub-Saharan African Diversity. American Journel of Physical Anthropology. 2006.
  21. ^ a b Coon, Carleton S. The Races of Europe. Greenwood:USA, 1972 ISBN 0837163285 p.2
  22. ^ The Great Human Diasporas by Cavali-Sforza, 1995, pg 119-120
  23. ^ a b c d Fiedel, Stewart J. Prehistory of the Americas. Published by Cambridge University Press, 1992 ISBN 0521425441
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Brown, Macmillan John. Maori and Polynesian Published by Hutchinson & Co., 1907
  25. ^ Leiberman and Jackson 1995 “Race and Three Models of Human Origins” in American Anthropologist 97(2) 231-242
  26. ^ Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, (Lawrence Hill Books (July 1, 1989), pp. 37-279
  27. ^ Jean Hiernaux, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 78, No. 2 (Jun., 1976)
  28. ^ Brace CL, Tracer DP, Yaroch LA, Robb J, Brandt K, Nelson AR (1993). Clines and clusters versus “race:” a test in ancient Egypt and the case of a death on the Nile. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 36:1–31.
  29. ^ a b DR.(MRS.)INDRANI BASU ROYANTHROPOLOGY THE STUDY OF MAN Published by S. Chand ISBN 8121922593
  30. ^ Fogarty, Philippa (2008-06-06). "Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
  31. ^ Ainu -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  32. ^ Kennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionalize Continent’s History, Science Daily
  33. ^ a b c d Chung, Henry. The Case of Korea. Published by Fleming H. Revell company, 1921.
  34. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia. “Human Race.” 1913. [8]
  35. ^ Thompson, Keith. 1991. Clark University. Piltdown Man: The Great English Mystery Story. [9]
  36. ^ a b Pycraft, William. Clark University. The Rise of Piltdown Man [10]
  37. ^ a b c d Wilkenson, Caroline. Forensic Facial Reconstruction. Cambridge University Press. 2004. ISBN:0521820030
  38. ^ a b c Montagu, Ashley. Growing Young. Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1989 ISBN 0897891678
  39. ^ Singh, Jasvinder P. MD. Albermarle Pulminary Medical Associates. Hirsuitism. 2000. Accessed August 9, 2008. [11]
  40. ^ a b Owens, Shelby. INHERENT METABOLIC INFLUENCE ON HAIR GROWTH AN ELECTROLOGIST TALKS ABOUT HAIR GROWTH 1999. Accessed August 9, 2008. [12]
  41. ^ a b c d Larrabee, Wayne F. Surgical Anatomy of the Face. Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003 ISBN 0781741505
  42. ^ Jo DI, Uhm KI. Korea Med. 2001. Accessed September 10, 2008. Nasal Tip-Plasty with Silicone Implant and Medpor(R) Onlay and Strut Implant.[13]
  43. ^ a b c d e Gibson, Lois. Forensic Art EssentialsPublished by Academic Press, 2007 ISBN 0123708982
  44. ^ Reinhard, K.J., & Hastings, D. (Annual 2003) Learning from the ancestors: the value of skeletal study.(study of ancestors of Omaha Tribe of Nebraska). In American Journal of Physical Anthropology, p177(1).
  45. ^ Ovchinnikov et al., Nature, 404, 30 Mar. 2000
  46. ^ Krings et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 96, 1999
  47. ^ Katsiavriades, Kryss. Qureshi, Talaat. English Usage in the UK and USA. 1997. October 26, 2006. [14]; see also Pearsell, Judy and Trumble, Bill (Eds) Oxford English Reference Dictionary. 2002.
  48. ^ Implications of biogeography of human populations for “race” and medicine – Nature Genetics
  49. ^ Leonard Lieberman, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield, “Perishing Paradigm: Race—1931-99,” American Anthropologist 105, no. 1 (2003): 110-13
  50. ^ NLM Technical Bulletin, November-December 2003, MEDLINE Data Changes - 2004

References

Literature

  • Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, “On the Natural Varieties of Mankind” (1775) — the book that introduced the concept
  • Stephen Jay Gould, “The Mismeasure of Man” — a history of the pseudoscience of race, skull measurements, and IQ inheritability
  • L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, “The History and Geography of Human Genes” — a major reference of modern population genetics
  • L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, “Genes, Peoples, and Languages”
  • H. F. Augstein, “From the Land of the Bible to the Caucasus and Beyond,” in Waltraud Emst and B. Harris, “Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960” (London: Routledge, 1999): 58-79.
  • Bruce Baum, “The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity” (New York: New York University Press, 2006)
  • Paul Lawrence Guthrie, “The Making of the Whiteman: From the Original Man to the Whiteman” (Paperback), ISBN 0-948390-49-2
  • The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Alpine Valley, by John W. Cole (Author), Eric R. Wolf University of California Press; 1 edition (October 11, 1999) ISBN-10: 0520216814 ISBN-13: 978-0520216815

See also

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