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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.

Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) divides "Caucasiod types" into: Nordic, Dinaric, Mediterranean, Alpine, East Baltic, Turks, Bedouins, Afghans.

Georgian girl (1881 photograph).

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

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, 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.

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^[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].

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^[11]

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]

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 ugly and dark or black."^[19]

In 1915, diplomat and man of letters Arthur de Gobineau"^[20] wrote, "I must say, once and for all, that I understand by white men the members of those races which are also called Caucasian^[12]... [t]he Indian civilization... It arose from a branch of white people, the Aryans."^[12] With regard to the original domain of the Aryans, Gobineau stated, "[T]he most ancient Sanskrit peoples were founding their empire, and by means of religion and the sword were covering Northern India."^[12] In reflection about ancient India, Gobineau wrote, "The Brahmans (sic) of primitive India...the glorious shades of noble races that have disappeared-- give us a higher and more brilliant idea of humanity... than the peoples, hybrid a hundred times over, of the present day [India]." "[T]he picture I'm presenting which in certain features is that of the Hindus... facts appear to stand out... [t]he second fact is that a picked race of men, a sovereign people, with the usual strong propensities of such a people to cross its blood with another's, finds itself henceforth in close contact with a race whose inferiority is shown, not only by defeat, but also the lack of attributes which may be seen in its conquerers."^[12] From the very day that the conquest is accomplished and the fusion begins, there appears a noticeable change in the blood quality of the masters.^[12] If there were no other modifying influence at work, then-- at the end of a number of years... we should be confronted with a new race, less powerful certainly than the better of its two ancestors... After a short time, we might truly say that a distinction of castes takes place of the original distinction of races."^[12] With regards to 19th c. India, Gobineau wrote, "Those who are most akin to us come nearest to beauty; such are the degenerate Aryan stocks of India and Persia, and the Semitic peoples who are at least infected by contact with the black race. As these races recede from the white type, their features and limbs become incorrect in form; they acquire defects in proportion which, in the races that are completely foreign to us [whites], end up producing an extreme ugliness." ^[12]

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 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."^[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] In 2007, Richard McCulloch whose "college major was history, with anthropology my second area of study"^[23] divided Indian people into the following races. "By 50,000 years ago the population that had remained in southern Iran had evolved into proto-Caucasoids and began to expand -- to the east into Pakistan and northern India".^[24] Under the "Australoid Subspecies" McCulloch placed the "Veddoid race (remnant Australoid population in central and southern India)" while under the "Caucasoid or Europid Subspecies", McCulloch placed the "Indic or Nordindid race (Pakistan and northern India)" and the "Dravidic race (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [Ceylon]; ancient stabilized Indic-Veddoid [Australoid] blend)"^[24] "The Dravidic race of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, created by the intermixture of the local Caucasoid (Indic or Nordindid) and Australoid (Veddoid) populations... [is a] very ancient racial clines which have stabilized into distinct races of intermediate type."^[24]

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 ^[25]. The 2007 Encyclopedia Britannica characterizes the Caucasoid race as having light skin color, biochemical similarities and a variability in hair and eye colors.^[26] University of College Cork chair of anatomy and physiology, M. A. MacConaill,^[27] describes Caucasoids as being "native to Europe... [and having] light skin and eyes, narrow noses, and thin lips. Their hair is usually straight or wavy".^[28]

With 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.^[29] 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."^[30] According to Leonard Lieberman, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield, the concept of race has all but been completely rejected by modern mainstream anthropology.^[31] In 2003, United States National Library of Medicine stopped using the term Caucasian race in favor of the term "European".^[32] In the United States, the term "Caucasian" has been mainly a distinction based on looking white, and being descended from a people who are "symbolic Christians" (excluding the people descended from the Muslim regions of the Middle East).^[7]

• 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

• Scientific racism
• Craniofacial anthropometry
• Race and genetics
• Race and ethnicity in the United States Census
• Historical definitions of race
• Caucasian peoples
• White people
• European ethnic groups
• White American
• European American