Caucasoid - Definition and Overview

Typical Caucasoid Skull

Caucasoid describes the race of humans primarily from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East (western Asia) as well as parts of Central Asia and India, and was one of the four major races as recognized by nineteenth century racial theories. Also spoken of (in a more linguistical term though) as Indo-European.

The Caucasoid race includes such ethnic groups as Indo-Europeans, Semites, Uralics, modern Turks, and Caucasians (from the Caucasus mountains).

There exist several subdivisions of the Caucasoid race, as classified by anthropologist Carleton S. Coon in his seminal work The Races of Europe. These subdivisions are as follows:

• Northern types
  • Halstatt Nordic
  • Celtic
  • Borreby
  • Brünn
  • Anglo-Saxon
  • Trønder
  • Fälish
• Central types
  • Atlanto-Mediterranean
  • Small-Mediterranean
  • Dinaric
  • Alpine
• Eastern types
  • East-Baltic
  • Neo-Danubian
• Southern types
  • Armenoid
  • Irano-Afghan

It is important to note that these subgroupings are only geographical. Halstatt Nordics have more in common with Atlanto-Mediterranean than they do with Borrebys, which in turn have an affinity with Alpines, while Dinarics and Armenoids differ mainly in pigmentation. Celtics are a sort of intermediate between the already similar Atlanto-Mediterraneans and Nordics. Moreover while these categories are effective general indicators of appearance, they are genetically vague, so they serve only as external classifiers. Subraces have fallen out of favor in modern anthropology because of that lack of genetic basis.

See also:

• Negroid
• Mongoloid
• Australoid