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Caucasoid is a term used in physical anthropology to delineate people indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East Africa and Australia. It still remains in use in forensic anthropology. The term Caucasoid is most used in the United States in the forensic analysis of human remains. The suffix -oid indicates "a similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else", so Caucasoid can be expected to refer to a wider range of people than Caucasian, itself a term with an inexact definition.

Geographic scope

A half-century ago, physical anthropology defined Caucasoid with a pattern of physical traits typical of humans indigenous to an area including Europe, South Asia, West Asia, of North Africa, Central Asia, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Occasionally populations in distant areas, such as the Ainu and East African, have been said to have some Caucasoid physical traits. Carleton S. Coon, the greatest craniofacial anthropometrist of the 20th century, used the term in his groundbreaking The Origin of Races (New York: Knopf, 1962). He included people of Senegal, Gambia, Chad, Burkina Faso, ancient Nubia, Ethiopia, and Somalia as "Caucasoid," even though the inhabitants of these countires have complexions generally no different from other Africans (who are described as 'Negroid'). Another current undergraduate anthropology textbook states: "Races are the products of the past. They are relics of times and conditions which have long ceased to exist." Race and subspecies have become synonymous to each other in many definitions. All humans belong to the same subspecies homo sapiens sapiens and because of this the term Caucasoid fits the term cline rather than race.

Physical traits

Caucasoids are described to have the lowest degree of projection of the alveolar bones which contain the teeth, a notable size prominence of the cranium and forehead region, and a projection of the midfacial region. A few anthropologists once saw some similarity to certain Neanderthal traits, but recent DNA studies have conclusively shown that Neandertals were a separate species.

Caucasoids have the greatest range in hair type out of all the races. Their hair type consists of all shades of color. Caucasoid hair type may either be wavy or straight and it comes in all diameters.

Caucasoid racial variation

Carleton S. Coon's book "The Races of Europe" classified Caucasoids into subraces named after regions or archeological sites such as Brünn, Borreby, Alpine, Ladogan, East Baltic, Neo-Danubian, Lappish, Mediterranean, Atlanto-Mediterranean, East African, Irano-Afghan, Nordic, Hallstatt, Keltic, Tronder, Dinaric, Noric and Armenoid. This extremely typological view of race was, even at the time of publication in 1939, becoming seen as very much out of date among many anthropologists.

Mediterranean Proper

The Mediterranean Proper is centered around Arabia. They are either mesocephalic or brachycephalic. There racial type ranges from Spain, Portugal, Italy and other borderlands of the Mediterranean sea. The Cappodacian subrace has been absorbed into the Mediterranean, but still is visible in the Oriental Jew.

Atlanto-Mediterranean

The Atlano-Mediterranean is a tall, straight-nosed doliocephalic. They range from North Africa, Iraq, Palestine, Eastern Balkans, East Africa, Italy, British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula.

East African Caucasoid

East African populations such as Nubians and Somalis are the closest cranio-facial matches to the indigenous population of India.

Native American Caucasoid

Boyce Rensberger claims that New World Mongoloids may be partially Caucasoid. He reports that the 9,300 year old remains of a man unearthed in Kennewick, Washington as having Caucasoid features. This has led anthropologist D. Gentry Steele to hypothesize that there were two separate waves of Caucasoid and Mongoloid migrations into the Americas. Many anthropologists consider these two physical types to have mixed in ancient history, resulting in the broad range of physical types of New World Mongoloids. Anthropologist Owsley considers a proto-Caucasoid physical type in Northeast Asia to have been the forebearer of the Caucasoid physical type in the Americas. Others speculate that the Caucasoid physical type may have arisen independently from the Mongoloid physical type in the Americas.

Transitional Caucasoids:Southeast European

The 19th century anthropologist Thomas Huxley considered Greece and western Turkey a Mongoloids and Melanochroi(dark-skinned Caucasoid) racial mix. Avars in Bulgaria are Mongoloid.

Transitional Caucasoids:Osteuropids

The 19th century German physical anthropologist Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt considered the Central and Eastern European to be transitional Caucasoids called Osteuropids. He determined that the blonde hair of Eastern and Central Europeans prevented them from being a mix of Nordics and Mongoloids, but he also considered them to be physically mongoloid. He concluded they represented a new racial type of transitional Mongoloids which was the common ancestor of Nordics and Mongoloids. He named these transitional Mongoloids Osteuropids. Osteuropids posses Mongoloid physical characteristics such as brachycephalization but have the blondism of Nordics. Eickstedt considered their racial type to be a primitive one that has stopped evolving. Benjamin Freedman also believes Mongoloids exist in Eastern Europe, but he claims they are descended from the Turks, specifically the Khazars.

Transitional Caucasoids:Lappish

The 20th century physical anthropologist Carleton S. Coon hypothesized that the Lapps in Northern Europe were either a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races or he hypothesized they were a lesser evolved form of Caucasoid which retained its previous Mongoloid characteristics. Coon called this subrace the Lappish. Whatever the case he concluded that they have currently mixed with the Nordic subrace of Caucasoids due to their close proximity to Nordics.

Footnotes

1. University of Utah. Forensic Anthropology. 2006. September 15, 2006. <http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/osteo/forensics/>.
2. The Ainu Museum. The Ainu People. 1984. September 16, 2006. <http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/english/eng01.html>.
3. Robert Jurmain and others, Introduction to Physical Anthropology, 8th ed. (Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 2000), page 419.
4. P&G Beauty and Science. The World of Hair. 2003. September 16, 2006. <http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_37.htm;jsessionid=ONDUVUETQGE25QFIAJ1S0HWAVABHMLKG>.
5. Racial Reality. Caucasoid Subraces. 2006. September 16, 2006. <http://www.sitesled.com/members/racialreality/subraces.html>.
6. Racial Reality Blog. 2005. September 14, 2006. <http://racialreality.blogspot.com/2005/11/caucasoid-affinities-of-somalis.html>.
7. Rensberger, Boyce. Putting a New Face on Prehistory. 1997. September 2, 2006. <http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Lagoon/1345/caucasian.html>.
8. Huxley, Thomas. On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind. 1870. August 14, 2006. <http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/GeoDis.html>.
9. Grant, Madison. The Passing of the Great Race. The Alpine Race. September 2, 2006. <http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/pgr/pgr-2.-04.html>.
10. Freedman, Benjamin. The Christian Party. Germany and the Jews The Role of the Jews in WWI and WWII. 2005. September 3, 2006. <http://christianparty.net/benjaminfreedman.htm>.
11. Coon, Carleton S. The Races of Europe. Racial Classification within the White Family. August 11, 2006. <http://www.snpa.nordish.net/chapter-VIII6.htm>.

See Also

• Australoid race
• Mongoloid race
• Negroid race
• Capoid race
• Races of physical anthropology
• Craniofacial Anthropometry

External links

• Caucasoid Subraces Classification by Carleton S. Coon.
• Caucasoid Subraces classificatioin by Renato Biasutti

• Physical anthropology
• Race