30. Emergence of the Threefold Classification

On the other hand the feeling gained ground, especially as the result of the labors of French anthropologists, that mankind could be satisfactorily accounted for by a division into Caucasian, Negroid, and Mongoloid. Those who adopted this principle tried to fit divergent types like the Australians and Polynesians into one or the other of these three great groups. Some little doctoring had to be done in this process, and some salient facts estimated rather lightly. It is for this reason that it has seemed best here not to make our tripartite classification too exhaustive. This threefold classification clearly absorbs the great mass of mankind without straining, but it is soundest to recognize that this same basic classification requires a certain margin of extensions along the lines indicated in our table.

The classification made by the French anthropologist Deniker is one of the most elaborate yet devised. It recognizes 6 grand divisions, 17 minor divisions, and 29 separate races. The primary criterion of classification is hair texture.

Deniker’s Classification

A. Hair woolly, with broad nose.
I. 1. Bushman.
II. Negroid.
2. Negrito.
3. Negro.
4. Melanesian (including Papuan of New Guinea).
B. Hair curly to wavy.
III. 5. Ethiopian (Sudan, etc.).
IV. 6. Australian.
V. 7. Dravidian (southern India).
VI. 8. Assyroid (Kurds, Armenians, Jews).
C. Hair Wavy.
VII. 9. Indo-Afghan.
VIII. North African.
10. Arab or Semite.
11. Berber (N. Africa).
IX. Melanochroid.
12. Littoral (W. Mediterranean).
13. Ibero-insular (Spain, S. Italy).
14. Western European.
15. Adriatic (N. Italy, Balkans).
D. Hair wavy to straight, with light eyes.
X. Xanthochroid.
16. North European.
17. East European.
E. Hair wavy to straight, with dark eyes.
XI. 18. Ainu.
XII. Oceanian.
19. Polynesian.
20. Indonesian (East Indies).
F. Hair straight.
XIII. American.
21. South American.
22. North American.
23. Central American.
24. Patagonian.
XIV. 25. Eskimo.
XV. 26. Lapp.
XVI. Eurasian.
27. Ugrian (E. Russia).
28. Turco-Tartar (S.W. Siberia).
XVII. 29. Mongol (E. Asia).

In spite of its apparent complexity, this classification coincides quite closely with the classification which is followed in this book. Inspection reveals that Deniker’s grand division A is Negroid, C and D Caucasian, F Mongoloid. Of his two remaining grand divisions, B is intermediate between A and C, that is, between Negroid and Caucasian, and consists of peoples which are either, like the East Africans, the probable result of a historical mixture of Negroids and Caucasians, or which, like the Australians, share the traits of both, and are therefore admitted to have a doubtful status. The other grand division, E, is transitional between Caucasian D and Mongoloid F, and the peoples of which it consists are those whom we too have recognized as difficult to assign positively to either stock. In short, Deniker’s classification is much the more refined, ours the simpler; but essentially they corroborate one another.