Re: Where did Caucasian peoples first evolve?

Hi Charles,

Thanks for asking a pretty interesting question. The short answer is that you are quite correct and that your friend is wrong. Of course, the long answer is more interesting.

In 1775, Johann Frederich Blumenbach developed a classification scheme for dividing humanity into five races he named Caucasian, Ethiopian, American, Mongolian, and Malay. In Blumenbach’s thinking, the Caucasian category included Europeans, North Africans and groups in south-west Asia extending into India. Today, the term Caucasian is largely (and incorrectly) used in the US to refer to individuals of primarily European ancestry. In general, the term should be used to refer to groups living in the Caucasus mountains (e.g. Chechens) that speak Caucasian languages.

I haven’t read Blumenbach’s original work , De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa (On the Natural Variety of Mankind), but I understand that he chose the name Caucasian because it was his opinion that the people with the most beautiful skulls were from the Caucasus mountains. This, along with his belief that so-called white skin was the primitive (or ancestral) skin color of all human groups, led him to conclude that the Caucasus mountains were the place of origin of all humans, not just so-called Caucasians.

The modern picture is a lot more complicated. Studies of physical and molecular anthropology indicate that modern humans originated in Africa as recently as 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, and that they migrated to Asia and Europe 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Genetic studies do not lend much support to the common racial categories; there is no gene that is common to all members of a given “race” and neither do the people in a given racial group share a common ancestor that distinguishes them from other groups.

So, the long answer is that the members of the so-called Caucasian race aren’t really a valid group, and as such, populations under this Caucasian heading don’t have a common origin. The only thing that we can be sure about is that in the pattern of variation we see today is the result of a lot of migration and gene-flow that took place over the past 50,000 years. Perhaps the most accurate answer would be to say that “Caucasians” first evolved in Africa, along with the rest of us.

Blumenbach’s theories and the history of racial categories are discussed in Stephen J. Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man. Gould largely takes racial categories to task in his discussion, and I think that Blumenbach comes off with something of a bad rap. There is a brief but fair discussion of him on the Straight Dope web site that describes his resistance to the politicization of his theories.

If you want to get an idea of what some of the current research in to using genetics to understand human history, take a look at these papers describing the diverse origins of Indian groups, the relationships between Caucasus populations and their neighbors, and potential neolithic African genetic contributions to western Europe.

Cordaux R, Saha N, Bentley GR, Aunger R, Sirajuddin SM, Stoneking M. Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals diverse histories of tribal populations from India. European Journal of Human Genetics 2003 Mar;11(3):253-64.

Nasidze I, Sarkisian T, Kerimov A, Stoneking M. Testing hypotheses of language replacement in the Caucasus: evidence from the Y-chromosome.Human Genetics 2003 Mar;112(3):255-61.

Gonzalez AM, Brehm A, Perez JA, Maca-Meyer N, Flores C, Cabrera VM. Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2003 Apr;120(4):391-404.

Larruga JM, Diez F, Pinto FM, Flores C, Gonzalez AM. Mitochondrial DNA characterisation of European isolates: the Maragatos from Spain. European Journal of Human Genetics 2001 Sep;9(9):708-16.