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Japhetites

This T and O map, from the first printed version of Isidore's Etymologiae (Augsburg 1472), identifies the three known continents (Asia, Europe, and Africa) as respectively populated by descendants of Sem (Shem), Iafeth (Japheth), and Cham (Ham).

The term Japhetites (sometimes spelled Japhethites; in adjective form Japhetic or Japhethitic) refers to the descendants of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis.[1] The term was used in ethnological and linguistic writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries as a Biblically derived racial classification for the European peoples, but is now considered obsolete.[2] Medieval ethnographers believed that the world had been divided into three large-scale groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: the Semitic peoples of Asia, the Hamitic peoples of Africa, and the Japhetic peoples of Europe.[3][4]

The term has been used in modern times as a designation in physical anthropology, ethnography, and comparative linguistics. In anthropology, it was used in a racial sense for White people (the Caucasian race).[2] In linguistics, it referred to the Indo-European languages.[2] Both of these uses are considered obsolete nowadays.[2] Only the Semitic peoples form a well-defined language family. The Indo-European group is no longer known as "Japhetite", and the Hamitic group is now recognized as paraphyletic within the Afro-Asiatic family.

Among Muslim historians, Japheth is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs.[5][6]

  1. ^ Hirsch, Emil G.; Seligsohn, M.; Schechter, Solomon (1906). "Japheth". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Augstein, Hannah F. (2014) [1999]. "Shifting ideas on the origin of humankind – Shifting geographies: Blumenbach and the Caucasus". In Ernst, Waltraud; Harris, Bernard (eds.). Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960. Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 61–74. ISBN 9780415757478.
  3. ^ Reynolds, Susan (October 1983). "Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm". History. 68 (224). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell: 375–390. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1983.tb02193.x. JSTOR 24417596.
  4. ^ Javakhishvili, Ivane (1950), Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East. Tbilisi, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian).
  5. ^ Heller, B.; Rippin, A. (2012) [1993]. "Yāfith". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7941. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
  6. ^ Leslie, Donald Daniel (1984). "Japhet in China". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 104 (3). American Oriental Society: 403–409. doi:10.2307/601652. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 601652.

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