Caucasian race
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Categories: Accuracy disputes from March 2008 | NPOV disputes from March 2008 | Race | Race (historical definitions) | Physical anthropology
The Caucasian race, sometimes called the Caucasoid race,[1][2] is defined by the Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English as "relating to a broad division of humankind covering peoples from Europe, Western Asia, parts of the Indian Subcontinent and parts of North Africa" or "white-skinned; of European origin" or "relating to the region of the Caucasus in SE Europe".[3] The concept originated in attempts chiefly by 19th c. European thinkers to develop a method of racial classification. This typological method was discredited and the concept is not relied on in scientific work related to humans.[4][5] People in Europe, especially in Russia and nearby, generally use the term "Caucasian" exclusively to identify people who are from the Caucasus region or who speak the Caucasian languages.
Origins of the termThe 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[6]. The 18th century German philosopher Christoph Meiners first named the concept of the Caucasian race[7], 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.[8] Blumenbach based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the Caucasian peoples,[9] particularly a single skull from the Caucasia which resembled German skulls.[10] It was from this similarity that he conjectured Europeans having arisen in the Caucasia.[10] Blumenbach wrote about the "primeval"[7] Caucasian race which he believed was "the oldest race of man"[7] and the "first variety of humankind"[7].
In 1915, 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[12]... [these] white races... had their first settlement in the Caucasus."[12] The Caucasus was historically an area of fascination for Europeans. Myths of the Caucasus featured Prometheus and Jason and the Argonauts.[13] Greek mythology considered women from the Caucasus to have magical powers.[7], such as Medea of Jason and the Argonauts fame. 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.[14] Populations includedAmong the main racial group of Caucasians there are three subgroups; Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. Image:Huxleyraces.png
Huxley's map of racial categories from On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind (1870). Caucasians, marked in red, are identified as occupants of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, through to Northern India.
18th 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.[7] Meiners did not include the 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 the remaining descendents of the Finns) 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" [7]. 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] People of South AsiaEarly 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."[20] He further elaborated that in India there are "Veddoids... individuals who are to all extents 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."[20] 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."[21] Physical characteristicsImage:LA2-Blitz-0263Cauc.JPG
Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) divides "Caucasiod types" into: Nordic, Dinaric, Mediterranean, Alpine, East Baltic, Turks, Bedouins, Afghans.
18th 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.[7] 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."[7] In 2003, the term "Caucasoid race" is a term used in physical anthropology to refer to people of a certain range of anthropometric measurements [22]. However, many anthropologists point to some Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and Nubians and Senegalese who exhibit characteristics that cannot be pigeonholed into the classically Negroid phenotype and demonstrate Caucasoid features. They contend such variations are indigenous to these groups and cannot be attributed to invasions from outside Caucasoid peoples as alleged under the old Dynastic Race Theory, or some newer biological studies.[23] Such variations, in fact, often occur within nuclear family groups. It has been argued that such phenotypical variations are inherent to 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 Dinka or Tutsi of East Africa, whose average height is 6.5 feet and who are described as "gracile", or gracefully slender.[24] Similarly, other black African peoples commonly considered "Negroid", such as the Senegalese, also may lack prognathism.[25] UsageWith the turn away from racial theory in the late 20th century, the term "Caucasian" as a racial classification fell into disuse in Europe. 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.[26] 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."[27] According to Leonard Lieberman, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield, the concept of race has all but been completely rejected by modern mainstream anthropology.[28] In 2003, United States National Library of Medicine stopped using the term Caucasian race in favor of the term "European".[29] In the United States, "Caucasian" has been mainly a distinction based on skin color with "white" or light complexion. Caucasians are also distinguished as a people who are, or at least at one point were, "from Europe" .[7] Notes
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