Green Witch wrote:If I remember correctly, it is because Europeans descended from Caucasian groups as opposed to African (Negroid) groups. I'm sure it is more complicated than what I am stating, but that would be the basic reason.
The use of the word "Caucasian" to denote the "race" of Europeans and those of European ancestry dates to the late 18th century, when German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach wrote "On the Natural Variety of Mankind" and dividing the human species into five races: Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay.
Blumenbach declared that Europeans were the most beautiful people in the world, and that the most beautiful Europeans were to be found in the Caucasus mountains of what is now Georgia. His racial categorizations were based on skull measurements, however, rather than skin color, a fact which seriously undermines the validity of using Caucasian as a synonym for "white." The skull that led him to his questionable epiphany had been of one woman from the Caucusus region.
Blumenbach believed that the human species had begun in the Caucusus as well.
All the 60 human craniums he looked at, are described in his "Collectionis suae Craniorum Diversarum Gentium Illustratae Decades" - a book. I saw myself.
