Caucasian
From Wikinfo
See also Caucasian_race_by_Levan_Urushadze
Caucasian is originally a geographical term, meaning relative or pertaining to the Caucasus region of eastern Europe. It has in time acquired other specific meanings:
- in linguistics, the Caucasian languages are a large number of languages spoken in the Caucasus area; often specifically those that have no demonstrated relatives outside of that region, which are classified into the South, Northwest, Northeast, and North-central Caucasian language families.
- in physical anthropology, the Caucasian race is meant for a specific race of Homo sapiens, sometimes given a Latin designation such as "Varietes Caucasia," (sic), which does not follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
- in forensic anthropology and censitary contexts, especially in the United States, the Caucasian type is a specific combination of physical attributes, especially white skin.
- in common usage and political contexts, especially North America, Caucasian usually means a white person of northern, eastern and western European descent, excluding people with southern European descent (which are often called "Latins") or with Asian, African, or Mediterranean origin.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Caucasian" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
