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Alpine Race

 
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In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Western anthropologists classified humans into a variety of races and subraces. Of these, the name Alpines was given to a physical type predominant in central/Eastern Europe and parts of Western/Central Asia, somewhat shorter, narrower shouldered and darker skinned than those they classified as Nordics.






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Passing of the Great Race Map 4
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Western anthropologists classified humans into a variety of races and subraces. Of these, the name Alpines was given to a physical type predominant in central/Eastern Europe and parts of Western/Central Asia, somewhat shorter, narrower shouldered and darker skinned than those they classified as Nordics. They were considered to be a sub-group of the Caucasian race
Caucasian race

The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia....
. This model was first clearly defined in William Z. Ripley
William Z. Ripley

William Zebina Ripley was an American economist, lecturer at Columbia University, professor of economics at MIT, professor of political economics at Harvard University, and Race theorist....
's book The Races of Europe
The Races of Europe

The Races of Europe is the title of two books related to the anthropology of Europeans. The first book was written by American sociologist/anthropologist William Z....
 (1899), which proposed three European categories: Teutonic (later termed Nordic), Mediterranean
Mediterranean race

The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the publication of William Z....
 and Alpine. A distinctive Alpine type had been proposed by earlier writers, but it was Ripley who promoted it to one of the main divisions.

Ripley argued that the Alpines had originated in Asia, and had spread westwards along with the emergence and expansion of agriculture, which they established in Europe. By migrating into central Europe, they had separated the northern and southern branches of the earlier European stock, creating the conditions for the separate evolution of Nordics and Mediterraneans. This model was repeated in Madison Grant
Madison Grant

Madison Grant was an United States lawyer, historian, and anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenics and conservationist. As a eugenicist, Grant was responsible for one of the most famous works of scientific racism, and played an active role in crafting strong Immigration Act of 1924 and anti-miscegenation laws in the Unite...
's book The Passing of the Great Race
The Passing of the Great Race

The Passing of The Great Race; or, The racial basis of European history was an influential book of scientific racism written by the American eugenicist, lawyer, and amateur anthropologist Madison Grant in 1916....
 (1916), in which the Alpines were portrayed as the most populous of European and western Asian races.

In Carleton Coon
Carleton Coon

Carleton Coon may refer to:*Carleton Coon, American jazz musician, co-founder of the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra*Carleton S. Coon, American anthropologist...
's rewrite of Ripley's The Races of Europe, he developed the argument that they were reduced Upper Paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 9th millennium BC years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of "high" culture and before the advent of agriculture....
 survivors indigenous to Europe. Coon argued that they were linked to their unreduced (Brunn, Borreby) counterparts.

Despite the large numbers of this alleged race, the characteristics of the Alpines were not as widely discussed and disputed as those of the Nordics and Mediterraneans. Typically they were portrayed as "sedentary": solid peasant stock, the reliable backbone of the European population, but not outstanding for qualities of leadership or creativity.

The concept of a distinctive Alpine race is no longer generally used within physical anthropology, as genetics are presently regarded as the correct way to classify ethnic groups.

See also

  • Nordic race
  • Mediterranean race
    Mediterranean race

    The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the publication of William Z....