Malay race

This article is about the race concept. For the distinct ethnic group in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, see Malays (ethnic group).
The New Physiognomy map (1889) printed by the Fowler & Wells Company depicting Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's five human races. The region inhabited by the "Malay race" is shown enclosed in dotted lines and corresponds roughly to the territories of the Austronesian peoples.

The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as a brown race.[1][2] Malay is a loose term used in the late 19th century and early 20th century to describe the Austronesian peoples.[3][4]

Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous complexity of classifying races. The concept of a "Malay race" differs with that of the ethnic Malays centered on Malaya and parts of the Malay Archipelago's islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

  1. ^ University of Pennsylvania
  2. ^ "Johann Frederich Blumenbach". Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference douglas2008ch2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Rand McNally's World Atlas International Edition Chicago:1944 Rand McNally Map: "Races of Mankind" Pages 278–279—On the map, the group called the Malayan race is shown as occupying an area on the map (consisting mainly of the islands of what was then called the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Madagascar, and the Pacific Islands, as well as the continental Malay Peninsula) identical and coextensive with the extent of the land area inhabited by those people now called Austronesians.