WHO Invented the Concept of Race?
Robert Bernasconi
Abstract
WHO Invented the Concept of Race? This question admits of a variety of answers depending on what one takes to be decisive about the concept and on whether one believes that what defines the moment in which a technical term is introduced is the first usage of the word in the required sense or the definition that secures its status and influence. The terms and basis of the definition might continue to be scrutinized, but, so long as the term was being used only loosely, it made no sense to contest the concept. The invention of the concept of race in this sense took place some time after the introduction of the broad division of peoples on the basis of color, nationality, and other inherited characteristics that could not be overcome subsequently, as religious differences could be overcome by conversion. A word should also be said about Blumenbach’s claim to being the originator of the anthropological concept of race.