Nordic race

The Nordic sort was the racial concept which originated in 19th century anthropology. It was considered a nature or one of a putative sub-races into which some late-19th to mid-20th century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race, claiming that its ancestral homelands were Northwestern and Northern Europe, especially to populations such(a) as Anglo-Saxons, Germanic peoples, Balts, Baltic Finns, Northern French, in addition toCelts and Slavs. The supposed physical traits of the Nordics indicated light eyes, light skin, tall stature, and dolichocephalic skull; their psychological traits were deemed to be truthfulness, equitability, a competitive spirit, naivete, reservedness, and individualism. Other supposed "Caucasian sub-races" were the Alpine race, Dinaric race, Iranid race, East Baltic race, and the Mediterranean race. In the early 20th century, the conception that the Nordic race constituted the superior branch of the Caucasian race present rise to the ideology of Nordicism.

With the rise of contemporary genetics, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the American association of Biological Anthropologists stated: "The theory in 'races' as natural aspects of human biology, and the executives of inequality racism that emerge from such(a) beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past."

Background

The Russian-born French anthropologist Joseph Deniker initially delivered "nordique" meaning simply "northern" as an "ethnic group" a term that he coined. He defined nordique by a set of physical characteristics: the concurrence of somewhat wavy hair, light eyes, reddish skin, tall stature and a dolichocephalic skull. Of six 'Caucasian' groups Deniker accommodated four into secondary ethnic groups, any of which he considered intermediate to the Nordic: Northwestern, Sub-Nordic, Vistula and Sub-Adriatic, respectively.

The notion of a distinct northern European race was also rejected by several anthropologists on craniometric grounds. German anthropologist Rudolf Virchow attacked the claim following a examine of craniometry, which gave surprising results according to sophisticated scientific racist theories on the "Aryan race". During the 1885 Anthropology Congress in Karlsruhe, Virchow denounced the "Nordic mysticism", while Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races", furthermore declaring that the "results of craniology" led to "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race".