
Who: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840)
What: Developed a racial classification system based on physical anthropology.
When: Late 18th century
Details: Blumenbach expanded on Linnaeus' work and proposed a racial
classification system that included Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American. In his work "On the Natural Varieties of Mankind" (1775), he argued that the Caucasian race was the original human type and others were deviations. This pseudoscientific approach further entrenched the concept of racial hierarchies.
Why and How It Was Racist: Blumenbach's theories provided a seemingly scientific basis for the belief in white superiority and justified racial discrimination and colonization.
Keel, T. (2018). Impure thoughts: Johann Blumenbach and the birth of racial science. In Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science (pp. 23-54). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.11126/stanford/9780804795401.003.0002
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