Historical race concepts in the context of "Physical anthropology"

Homo erectus (/ˌhoʊmoʊ əˈrɛktəs/ lit. 'upright man') is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and gait, to leave Africa and colonize Asia and Europe, and to wield fire. Some populations of H. erectus were ancestors of later human species, including H. heidelbergensis — the last common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. As such a widely distributed species both geographically and temporally, H. erectus anatomy varies considerably. Subspecies are sometimes recognized: H. e. erectus, H. e. pekinensis, H. e. soloensis, H. e. ergaster, H. e. georgicus, and H. e. tautavelensis.

The species was first described by Eugène Dubois in 1893 as "Pithecanthropus erectus" using a skullcap, molar, and femur from Java, Indonesia. Further discoveries around East Asia were used to contend that humanity evolved out of Asia. Based on historical race concepts, it was argued that local H. erectus populations evolved directly into local modern human populations (polycentrism) rather than all humanity sharing a single anatomically modern ancestor (monogenism). As the fossil record improved over the mid-to-late 20th century, "Out of Africa" theory and monogenism became the consensus.

Neanderthals (/niˈændərˌtɑːl, neɪ-, -ˌθɑːl/ nee-AN-də(r)-TAHL, nay-, -⁠THAHL; Homo neanderthalensis or sometimes Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) are an extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Neanderthal extinction occurred roughly 40,000 years ago with the immigration of modern humans (Cro-Magnons), but Neanderthals in Gibraltar may have persisted for thousands of years longer.

The first recognised Neanderthal fossil, Neanderthal 1, was discovered in 1856 in the Neander Valley, Germany. At first, Neanderthal 1 was considered to be one of the lower races in accord with historical race concepts. As more fossils were discovered through the early 20th century, Neanderthals were characterised as a unique species of underdeveloped human, in particular by Marcellin Boule. By the mid-twentieth century, it was believed that human evolution progressed from an ape-like ancestor through a "Neanderthal phase" to modern humans. This gave way to the "Out of Africa" theory in the 1970s. With the sequencing of Neanderthal genetics first in 2010, it was discovered that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans.

"European people" is an umbrella term for people who belong to any ethnic, racial, or national group with origins in Europe. Today, it primarily refers to people who are from Europe and reside in the continent, as well as the European diaspora. By extension, however, the term "European" may be applied to identify people in the context of demographics in certain countries outside of Europe—namely in the Americas and in Oceania—where people of European ancestry constitute the majority of the population while being part of a non-European national group. Additionally, any person who holds European Union citizenship may be identified as European in that particular context.

As of 2025, Europe's total population is estimated to be 744 million people, with nearly 87 million international migrants in 2020. Per a 2015 estimate, over 480 million people in countries outside of Europe have at least some European ancestry. Most indigenous Europeans are racially classified as White, which is also the most common term applied to people of European descent in non-European countries. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, a now-disproven race concept classified European people as part of the so-called Caucasian race, which broadly grouped together the populations of Europe, West Asia and North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. Although it is generally avoided in modern academic discourse, "Caucasian" is still used in official data for United States censuses to racially classify people whose ancestry or ethnicity is European, Middle Eastern, or North African.

Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, including Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Arabs, Arameans, Canaanites (Ammonites, Edomites, Israelites, Moabites, Phoenicians, and Philistines) and Habesha peoples. The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics. First used in the 1770s by members of the Göttingen school of history, this biblical terminology for race was derived from Shem (שֵׁם), one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, together with the parallel terms Hamites and Japhetites.

In archaeology, the term is sometimes used informally as "a kind of shorthand" for ancient Semitic-speaking peoples. Identification of pro-Caucasian racism has either partially or completely devalued the use of the term as a racial category, with the caveat that an inverse assessment would still be considered scientifically obsolete.

Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that the human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "races", and that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racial discrimination, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Before the mid-20th century, scientific racism was accepted throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically separate groups, along with the assignment of particular physical and mental characteristics to these groups through constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, is referred to as racialism, racial realism, race realism, or race science by those who support these ideas. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.

Scientific racism misapplies, misconstrues, or distorts anthropology (notably physical anthropology), craniometry, evolutionary biology, and other disciplines or pseudo-disciplines through proposing anthropological typologies to classify human populations into physically discrete human races, some of which may be asserted to be superior or inferior to others.

The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid, Europid, or Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of humans based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The Caucasian race was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, depending on which of the historical race classifications was being used, usually included ancient and modern populations from all or parts of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.

Introduced in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen school of history, the term denoted one of three purported major races of humans (those three being Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid). In biological anthropology, Caucasoid has been used as an umbrella term for phenotypically similar groups from these different regions, with a focus on skeletal anatomy, and especially cranial morphology, without regard to skin tone. Ancient and modern "Caucasoid" populations were thus not exclusively "white", but ranged in complexion from white-skinned to dark brown.