Race (human Classification) - Historical Origins of Racial Classification

Historical Origins of Racial Classification

See also: Historical definitions of race

Groups of humans have probably always identified themselves as distinct from other groups, but such differences have not always been understood to be natural, immutable and global. These features are the distinguishing features of how the concept of race is used today.

The word "race" was originally used to refer to any nations or ethnic groups. Marco Polo in his 13th-century travels, for example, describes the Persian race—the current concept of "race" dates back only to the 17th century.

Read more about this topic:  Race (human Classification)

Famous quotes containing the words historical, origins and/or racial:

    The proverbial notion of historical distance consists in our having lost ninety-five of every hundred original facts, so the remaining ones can be arranged however one likes.
    Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?”
    Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)

    Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of his generation.... He and I grew up in the same South, he the son of a clergyman, I the son of a farmer. We both knew from opposite sides, the invisible wall of racial segregation.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)