Ethiopid (also spelled Aethiopid, also called Erythriote, or Eastern Hamitic) is an outdated racial classification of humans

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

to Northeastern Africa - the Horn of Africa and Nile Valley regions – who were typically classified as part of the Caucasian race – the Hamitic sub-branch, or in rare instances the Negroid race. The racial classification was generally made up of mostly Afro-Asiatic language speaking populations of the Horn of Africa ( Semitic - Ethiosemitic, Cushitic, and Omotic speaking populations) but to an extent also includes several

Nilo-Saharan language The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...

speaking populations of the Nile Valley and

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in th ...

region (including but not limited to Nilotic and Sudanic speaking populations). According to John Baker (1974), in their stable form, their center of distribution was considered to be Horn of Africa, among that region's Hamito-Semitic-speaking populations. Baker described them as being of medium height, with a dolicocephalic or mesocephalic skull (see cephalic index), an essentially Caucasoid facial form, an orthognathic profile (no prognathism) and a rather prominent, narrow nose, often ringlety hair, and an invariably brown skin, with either a reddish or blackish tinge. The concept of dividing humankind into three races called

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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

(originally named "Ethiopian") was introduced in the 1780s by members of the

Göttingen School of History Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

and further developed by Western scholars in the context of racist ideologies during the age of

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...

. With the rise of modern

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the American Association of Biological Anthropologists stated: "Race does not provide an accurate representation of human biological variation. It was never accurate in the past, and it remains inaccurate when referencing contemporary human populations."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ethiopid Race Biological anthropology Pseudoscience Historical definitions of race

See also

References