Final answer:
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach divided humans into five races: Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American. Current biological anthropology refutes the existence of discrete racial categories, showing greater genetic diversity within these groups than between them. The term 'Caucasian' persists despite the debunking of such racial categorization as scientifically invalid.
Step-by-step explanation:
German physician, zoologist, and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach divided humans into five races based on his studies of human skulls. In his work on craniometry in the late 18th century, Blumenbach described five racial categories: Caucasian for White people, Mongolian for Asians, Malayan for Brown people, Ethiopian for Black people, and American for Indigenous people of the Americas. However, it is crucial to note that contemporary science demonstrates that there is no scientifically valid way to categorize humans into distinct racial groups due to greater genetic variation within these groups than between them.
Blumenbach's classification exerted a strong influence on the perception of human races, classifying them hierarchically with White people at the top, impacting societies for centuries. Although the term 'Caucasian' is still in use, it is widely recognized in anthropology that race as we often perceive it is a social construct that does not align with biological diversity. Biological anthropologists have proven that traits such as skin color, facial features, and blood type vary along a spectrum, defying simple categorization into racial groups.