Answer to Question #280166 in History for Kelsey Jand

Question

Context Link: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/ranking-humankind

Question: Why do you think Blumenbach regarded physical beauty as proof of superiority?

Answer 1

Blumenbach introduced the word Caucasian “to describe the variety of mankind—the Georgian—that had originated on the southern slopes of Mount Caucasus.” This, to Blumenbach, was the most beautiful race, and he said it must be “considered as the primate or intermediate of these five principal races.” Other races represented “a degeneration from the original type.”