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Re: Origins of "Caucasian" Category
julielar@mit.edu
Tue, 24 Jan 1995 12:01:40 UNDEFINED
Yes--what you've heard is true. You can read about the origins of
Blumenbach's category of "Caucasian" in Steven J. Gould's book, "Mismeasure of
Man" which is excellent in tracing the history of the racist eugencist
movement and shredding their social construction of race and bogus scientific
"evidence" to support their racist claims. You can find a reference to
Blumenbach's original book in the bibliography. It's worth reading in
any case. Gould mentions that Caucasian was elevated to the top of the
pyramid because the Caucasian skull was believed by that scientist to be the
most "beautiful" of the collection--very scientific.
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