Principal Varieties of Mankind

A preposterous Victorian-era representation of various races.

The middle of the 19th century was rife with pseudo-scientific theories looking to “classify” the races of mankind along the theories of Carl Linnaeus. So-called racial anthropology was incredibly popular at the time and was one tool used to justify ongoing processes of imperial colonial exploitation. It was also used as a pillar in the theory of classical social evolution, which proposes that Western culture is the pinnacle of social evolution.

Such nonsense is on full display on this engraved sheet showing the faces of 28 men from around the world; sub-divided into regional groups – Asiatics, Australians, Europeans, Polynesians, Africans and Americans. Apparently natives of the Ombai Islands (Indonesia) were related to the legendary djinn of Arabic lore!