Capoid race is a grouping formerly used for the
Khoikhoi and San peoples in the context of a now-outdated
. The term was introduced by
Carleton S. Coon in 1962 and named for the
Cape of Good Hope.
['']The Origin of Races
Carleton Stevens Coon (June 23, 1904 – June 3, 1981) was an American anthropologist. A professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer and professor at Harvard University, he was president of the American Association of ...
'' (1962).
Moore, Ruth ''Evolution'' (Life Nature Library) New York:1962 Time, Inc. Chapter 8: "The Emergence of Modern ''Homo sapiens''" Page 173--First page of picture section "Man and His Genes": The ''Capoid'' race is identified as one of the five major races of mankind, along with the ''Mongoloid
Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...
'', ''Congoid
Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an Historical race concepts, obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the ...
'', ''Caucasoid
The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, de ...
'', and ''Australoid
Australo-Melanesians (also known as Australasians or the Australomelanesoid, Australoid or Australioid race) is an outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia. Controversially, groups from Southeast Asia an ...
'' races (pictures of a person typical of each race are shown) Coon proposed that the term "
Negroid
Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast, but also to i ...
" should be abandoned, and the sub-Saharan African populations of West African stock (including the
Bantu) should be termed "Congoid" instead.
The observation of a significant difference between the Khoisan and the populations of
West African
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, ...
stock was not original to Coon. It had been noted as early as 1684 by
François Bernier
François Bernier (25 September 162022 September 1688) was a French physician and traveller. He was born in Joué-Etiau in Anjou. He stayed (14 October 165820 February 1670) for around 12 years in India.
His 1684 publication "Nouvel ...
, the early modern author who originally introduced the French word ''race'' to refer to the large divisions of mankind. Bernier, outside of five large divisions described in more detail, proposed the possible addition of more categories, primarily for "the Blacks of the Cape of Good Hope" (''les Noirs du Cap de bonne Esperance''), which seemed to him to be of significantly different build from most other populations below the Sahara.
[Anonymous . Bernierbr>"Nouvelle division de la terre par les différentes espèces ou races qui l'habitent"]
''Journal des Sçavants'', 24 April 1684, p. 133–140. '' les Noirs du Cap de bonne Esperance semblent estre d'une autre espece que ceux du reste de l'Afrique. '' (p. 136). See also Charles Frankel, ''La science face au racisme'' (1986)
41f.
/ref>
References
{{Historical definitions of race
Historical definitions of race
Biological anthropology
