Mongoloid (/ˈmɒŋɡəˌlɔɪd/)[1] is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race.[2] In the past, other terms such as "Mongolian race", "yellow", "Asiatic" and "Oriental" have been used as synonyms.
The concept of dividing humankind into the Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid races was introduced in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen school of history. It was further developed by Western scholars in the context of racist ideologies during the age of colonialism.[3][4] With the rise of modern genetics, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the American Association of Biological Anthropologists stated: "The belief in 'races' as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past."[4]
The term Mongoloid has had a second usage referencing people with Down syndrome, now generally regarded as highly offensive.[5][6][7][8] Those affected were often referred to as "Mongoloids" or in terms of "Mongolian idiocy" or "Mongolian imbecility".
^Mongoloid. (2012). Dictionary.com. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from link.
^Templeton, A. (2016). "Evolution and Notions of Human Race". In Losos, J.; Lenski, R. (eds.). How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. pp. 346–361. doi:10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26.
^Demel, Walter (1 January 2013). "How the "Mongoloid Race" Came into Being: Late Eighteenth-Century Constructions of East Asians in Europe". Race and Racism in Modern East Asia. Brill. pp. 59–85. ISBN978-90-04-23741-4 – via brill.com.