Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt

Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt (1892 – 1965) was a German physical anthropologist who classified humanity into races.

Racial typology

In his book, "Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit" (Ethnology and the Race History of Mankind) he agreed somewhat with anthropologist William Z. Ripley, author of "The Races of Europe" (1899), but claimed Europeans had four basic "racial types": "Nordics" who lived in Northern Europe, "Osteuropids" who lived in eastern and central Europe, "Alpines" who lived in the mountainous belt that stretched from western to eastern Europe, and "Mediterraneans" who stretched from Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent.

Unlike Ripley, he divided these major European races into "subraces". According to Eickstedt's racial typology, Nordics were divided into the "Teuto-Nordic subrace" in the west, the "Dalo-Nordic" in the center and the "Fenno-Nordic" in the east. Eickstedt regarded the "Teuto-Nordic" as the "purest Nordic racial type," while he claimed that the "Dalo-Nordic" were mixed with Cro-Magnons. Furthermore, he divided the so-called "Alpine race" into four other subgroups: those in western Europe, the "Dinarics" in eastern Europe, "Armenoids" in Southwest Asia and "Turanids" in Central Asia. Finally, he purported that the "Mediterranean race" was composed of the "Mediterranean subrace" in the Northern Africa, the "Orientalid subrace" in the Middle East and the "Indid subrace" in the Indian Subcontinent.

Eickstedt believed some of the European subraces were progressive and others were primitive. He believed the "primitive Alpine subrace" had ceased evolving, but the progressive "Dinaric subrace" would keep evolving.

Eickstedt believed the "races of Europe" originated south of Europe in the Mesolithic Era. He claimed that the "Mediterranean race" arrived in Europe during Mesolithic times, while the "Alpine race" would have arrived from eastern Europe across Switzerland shortly after the Mediterranean race, but still in Mesolithic times. Later, the "Nordic race" would allegedly have entered Scandinavia from the east. Von Eickstedt finally claimed that the "Osteourpids" entered eastern and central Europe in modern times.

References

See also

*Scientific racism
*Typology (anthropology)
*Unilineal evolution and decadence