Nordic race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_race From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Nordic race is one of the putative sub-races into which some late 19th- to mid 20th-century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race. People of the Nordic type were described as having light-colored (typically blond) hair, light-colored (typically blue) eyes, fair skin and tall stature, and they were empirically considered to predominate in the countries of Central and Northern Europe. Nordicism, also "Nordic theory," is an ideology of racial supremacy that claims that a Nordic race, within the greater Caucasian race, constituted a master race.[1][2] This ideology was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in some Central and Northern European countries as well as in North America, and it achieved some further degree of mainstream acceptance throughout Germany via Nazism. Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) shows famous German war hero (Karl von Müller) as an example of the Nordic type. 1 Background ideas 1.1 Attitudes in ancient Europe 1.2 Renaissance 1.3 Enlightenment 1.4 19th century racial thought 1.5 Aryanism 2 Defining characteristics 2.1 20th century 2.2 Coon (1939) 2.3 Depigmentation theory 3 Nordicism 3.1 In the USA 3.2 Nordicist thought in Germany 3.2.1 Nazi Nordicism 3.3 Nordicist thought in Italy 3.3.1 Fascist Nordicism 3.4 Post-Nazi re-evaluation and decline of Nordicism 3.5 Early criticism: depigmentation theory 3.6 Lundman (1977) 3.7 Forensic anthropology 3.8 21st century 3.9 Genetic reality 4 See also 5 Notes 6 Further reading 7 External links Attitudes in ancient Europe 1 of 18 6/18/2013 7:33 PM Nordic race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_race Most ancient writers were from the Southern European civilisations, and generally took the view that people living in the north of their lands were barbarians. Pale skin and light hair were described as signs of barbarism by Polemon of Laodicea in his book Physiognomica.[3] Pseudo-Aristotle[4] noted differences between Greeks and the people of the north, believing that Greek superiority was visible in their medium skin tone, as opposed to pale northerners and dark southerners and Africans. Aristotle himself claimed that blue eyes had less liquid in them than darker eyes, and that they indicated poor eyesight, especially in daylight.[5] Despite this, Aphrodite was often depicted with blonde hair, as were deities associated with the sun.[6] Likewise, the Roman historian Tacitus idealized the Germanic tribes (which he considered autochthonous to their land) for qualities such as superior warlike ardor and chastity, in contrast to the Romans of his day - though his portrait is not unmixed - as he also portrays them as incurably lazy and addicted to gambling.[7][8] Many Romans believed that fair features were beautiful. Wealthy Romans paid for blond and red wigs made from the hair of captured Germanics or Celts.[9] Renaissance During the Renaissance, blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin were regularly portrayed in literature as signs of beauty and were associated with noble moral qualities.[10] This imagery was largely aesthetic. It was not typically theorised in terms of racial difference, drawing instead on traditional symbolism of light as opposed to darkness. Enlightenment From the 17th century onwards, as Central and Northern European countries became more powerful, and their people began to adapt such aesthetic traditions into arguments for their own superiority. Benjamin Franklin proposed a clear distinction between "white" Europeans and "swarthy" Europeans, stating that immigration to the newly-born United States should favour the "white" Saxons and Englishmen rather than the "swarthy" Germans (except the Saxons), Italians, French, Russians, Spaniards, and Swedes.[11] 19th century racial thought By the early-19th century these ideas were attached to emerging theories of racial hierarchy. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer attributed civilisational primacy to the "white races" who gained their sensitivity and intelligence by refinement in the rigorous north: The highest civilisation and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmans, the Incas, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands.[12] Aryanism Such arguments became especially significant when allied to the theory of Aryanism in the mid-19th century. This theory held that native speakers of the Indo-European languages ("Aryans") are an innately superior branch of humanity, responsible for most of its greatest achievements. Its principal proponent was Arthur de Gobineau in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855). Though Gobineau did not equate Nordic peoples with Aryans, he argued that Germanic people were the best modern representatives of the Aryan race. Adapting the comments of Tacitus and other Roman writers, he argued that "pure" Northerners regenerated Europe after the Roman empire declined due to racial "dilution" 2 of 18 6/18/2013 7:33 PM Nordic race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_race of its leadership. By the 1880s a number of linguists and anthropologists argued that the Aryans themselves had originated somewhere in northern Europe. Theodor Poesche proposed that the Aryans originated in the vast Rokitno, or Pinsk Marshes, then in the Russian Empire, now covering much of the southern part of Belarus and the north-west of the Ukraine, but it was Karl Penka who popularized the idea that the Aryans had emerged in Scandinavia and could be identified by the distinctive Nordic characteristics of blond hair and blue eyes. The distinguished biologist Thomas Henry Huxley agreed with him, coining the term "Xanthochroi" to refer to fair-skinned Europeans, as opposed to darker Mediterranean peoples, whom Huxley called "Melanochroi".[13][14] It was Huxley who also concluded that the Melanochroi (Peoples of the Mediterranean race), who he described as "dark whites", are of a mixture of the Xanthochroi and Australioids.[15] This distinction was repeated by Charles Morris in his book The Aryan Race (1888), which argued that the original Aryans could be identified by their blond hair and other Nordic features, such as dolichocephaly (long skull). The argument was given extra impetus by the French anthropologist Vacher de Lapouge in his book L’Aryen, in which he argued that the "dolichocephalic-blond" peoples were natural leaders, destined to rule over more brachycephalic (short-skulled) peoples.[16] The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also referred in his writings to "blond beasts": amoral adventurers who were supposed to be the progenitors of creative cultures.[17] In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), he wrote, "In Latin malus ... could indicate the vulgar man as the dark one, especially as the black-haired one, as the pre-Aryan dweller of the Italian soil which distinguished itself most clearly through his colour from the blonds who became their masters, namely the Aryan conquering race."[18] It was the Russian-born French anthropologist Joseph Deniker that initially proposed "nordique" (meaning simply "northern") as an "ethnic group" (a term that he coined). He defined nordique by a set of physical characteristics: The concurrence of fair, somewhat wavy hair, light eyes, reddish skin, tall stature and a dolichocephalic skull.[19] Of six 'Caucasian' groups Deniker accommodated four into secondary ethnic groups, all of which he considered intermediate to the Nordic: Northwestern, Sub-Nordic, Vistula and Sub-Adriatic, respectively.[20][21] American economist William Z. Ripley purported to define scientifically a "Teutonic race" in his book The Races of Europe (1899).[22] He divided Europeans into three main subcategories: Teutonic (teutonisch), Alpine and Mediterranean. According to Ripley the "Teutonic race" resided in Scandinavia, north Germany, Baltic states and East Prussia, north Poland, north Russia, Britain, Ireland, parts of Central Europe and was typified by "very light" hair, blue eyes, tall stature and a narrow, aquiline nose. Georges Vacher de Lapouge had called this race "Homo Europaeus". Madison Grant, in his book The Passing of the Great Race, took up Ripley's classification. He described a "Nordic" or "Baltic" type: "long skulled, very tall, fair skinned, with blond or brown hair and light colored eyes. The Nordics inhabit the countries around the North and Baltic Seas and include not only the great Scandinavian and Teutonic groups, but also other early peoples who first appear in southern Europe and in Asia as representatives of Aryan language and culture."[23] According to Grant, the "Alpine race", shorter in stature, darker in colouring, with a rounder head, 3 of 18 6/18/2013 7:33 PM Nordic race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_race predominated in Central and Eastern Europe through to Turkey and the Eurasian steppes of Central Asia and Southern Russia. The "Mediterranean race", with dark hair and eyes, aquiline nose, swarthy complexion, moderate-to-short stature, and moderate or long skull was said to be prevalent in Southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.[24][25] 20th century By 1902 the German archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna claimed to have identified the original Aryans (Proto- Indo-Europeans) with the north German Corded Ware culture, an argument that gained in currency over the following two decades. He placed the Indo-European Urheimat in Schleswig-Holstein, arguing that they had expanded across Europe from there.[26] By the early 20th century this theory was well established, though far from universally accepted. Sociologists were soon using the concept of a "blond race" to model the migrations of the supposedly more entrepreneurial and innovative components of European populations.