Historical race concepts

Map of human races (Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1885–1890)

Caucasoid:   Aryans   Semitic   Hamitic Negroid:   African Negro   Khoikhoi   Melanesian   Negrito   Australoid Uncertain:   Dravida & Sinhalese

Mongoloid:   North Mongol   Chinese & Indochinese   Korean & Japanese   Tibetan & Burmese   Malay   Polynesian   Maori   Micronesian   Eskimo & Inuit   American

People from different places tend to look different. Some scientists in the 18th century decided to classify them into a limited number of variants or races. Some spoke of three races of mankind: The Caucasian race living in Europe, North Africa and West Asia, the Mongoloid race living in East Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and the Negroid race living in Africa south of the Sahara. Others preferred two, with the others arising from mixtures, and some chose four, five, or other numbers of races.

These ideas were popular from the late 18th century to the middle of the 20th century. These are now called historical definitions of race or historical race concepts. Today, scientists agree that there is only one human race. Modern genetic research has shown that the idea of three (or four, or five) races was wrong.

19th century

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's classification, first proposed in 1779, was widely used in the 19th century, with many variations.

• Ethiopian/black race.
• Caucasian race/white race
• Mongolian/yellow race
• American/red race
• Malayan/brown race

Middle of the 20th century

The mid-twentieth century racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, also used five races but divided some of them differently:

• Negroid (Black) race
• Australoid (Australian Aborigine and Papuan) race
• Capoid (Bushmen/Hottentots) race
• Mongoloid (Oriental/Amerindian) race
• Caucasoid (White) race

Further reading

• On the Importance of Critical Race Theory—and the Delusional Attacks On It Richard Delgado, Aja Martinez, and Victor Ray in Conversation on Structural Racism, the Future of CRT, and More. Literary Hub.