Final answer:
Bernier was a historical figure whose ideas contributed to the concept of race, laying groundwork for later racial categorization by scientists like Blumenbach and the polygenism of Agassiz. These categorizations and pseudoscientific theories had a profound effect on legal and social structures, undergirding racial hierarchy and scientific racism.
Step-by-step explanation:
Bernier's basic ideas were part of a broader intellectual movement that contributed to the development of the concept of race and scientific racism. While Bernier is often mentioned as a forefather in these discourses, it was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who later categorized humans into different racial groups based on his studies in craniometry. Historians reflect on how these categories, such as "Caucasian" for White people, "Mongolian" for Asians, "Malayan" for Brown people, "Ethiopian" for Black people, and "American" for Indigenous people, were part of a pseudoscientific practice that eventually became tools for justifying racist ideologies and policies. The theories of polygenism, popularized by figures such as Louis Agassiz, further reinforced notions of racial superiority and otherness, shaping social and legal structures well into modern history. Consequently, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were marked by a normalization of racial hierarchies that have had lasting impacts on society.