Historical race concepts have varied across cultures and over time, and have been controversial for social, political and scientific reasons. Until the 19th century, race was thought by many to constitute an immutable and distinct type or species which shared particular racial characteristics, such as body constitution, temperament and mental capacities.
One concept, that of Christian Europe, conceived of the races as constituting a hierarchical chain of life known as the Great Chain of Being, which was believed to have been created by God, in which the people thought the Christian European races were closest to God in perfection.
Read more about Historical Race Concepts: Etymology, Earliest Views On Ethnic Differences, Medieval Theories, Early Modern Period, Age of Enlightenment, Racial Anthropology (1850-1930), Decline of Racial Studies After 1930
Famous quotes containing the words historical, race and/or concepts:
“Yet the companions of the Muses
will keep their collective nose in my books
And weary with historical data, they will turn to my dance tune.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“...I am an abolitionist for the sake of my own race—Contact with the African degenerates our white race—I find the association with them injurious to my child—keenly as I watch to prevent it & his faithful nurse to help me ... She is a good woman & so are many of them—Still the race is a degraded one ...”
—Elizabeth Blair Lee (1818–?)
“When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.”
—William James (1842–1910)