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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]

In the Book of Genesis

Japheth first appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the three sons of Noah, saved from the Flood through the Ark.^[1] In the Book of Genesis, they are always in the order "Shem, Ham, and Japheth" when all three are listed.^[7]^[8] Genesis 9:24 calls Ham the youngest,^[8] and Genesis 10:21 refers ambiguously to Shem as "brother of Japheth the elder", which could mean that either is the eldest.^[9] Most modern writers accept Shem–Ham–Japheth as reflecting their birth order, but this is not always the case: Moses and Rachel also appear at the head of such lists despite explicit descriptions of them as younger siblings.^[10] However, Japheth is considered to have been the eldest son of Noah in Rabbinic literature.^[1]

Following the Flood, Japheth is featured in the story of Noah's drunkenness.^[1] Ham sees Noah drunk and naked in his tent and tells his brothers, who then cover their father with a cloak while avoiding the sight; when Noah awakes he curses Canaan, the son of Ham, and blesses Shem and Japheth:^[1] "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and may Canaan be his slave; and may God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave!"^[11] Chapter 10 of Genesis, the Table of Nations, describes how earth was populated by the sons of Noah following the Flood, beginning with the descendants of Japheth:

Japheth

Biblical genealogy

Japheth is mentioned as one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis. The other two sons of Noah, Shem and Ham, are the eponymous ancestors of the Semites and the Hamites, respectively. In the Biblical Table of Nations (Genesis Genesis 10:2–5), seven sons and seven grandsons of Japheth are mentioned:

Gomer
Magog
Madai
Javan
- Elishah
- Tarshish
- Kittim
- Dodanim
Tubal
Meshech
Tiras

The intended ethnic identity of these "descendants of Japheth" is not certain; however, over history, they have been identified by Biblical scholars with various historical nations who were deemed to be descendants of Japheth and his sons — a practice dating back at least to the classical Jewish-Greek encounters. According to the Roman–Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, I.VI.122 (Whiston):

Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais (Don), and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names.

Ancient and medieval ethnography

Ethnogenetic interpretations

Japheth (in Hebrew: Yā́p̄eṯ or Yép̄eṯ) may be a transliteration of the Greek Iapetos, the ancestor of the Hellenic peoples.^[12]^[13] His sons and grandsons associate him with the geographic area comprising the Aegean Sea, Greece, the Caucasus, and Anatolia: Ionia/Javan, Rhodes/Rodanim, Cyprus/Kittim, and other places in the Eastern Mediterranean region.^[13]^[14] The point of the "blessing of Japheth" seems to be that Japheth (a Greek-descended people) and Shem (the Israelites) would rule jointly over Canaan (Palestine).

From the 19th century until the late 20th century, it was usual to see Japheth as a reference to the Philistines, who shared dominion over Canaan during the pre-monarchic and early monarchic period of Israel and Judah.^[15] This view accorded with the understanding of the origin of the Book of Genesis, which was seen as having been composed in stages beginning with the time of King Solomon, when the Philistines still existed (they vanished from history after the Assyrian conquest of Canaan). However, Genesis 10:14 identifies their ancestor as Ham rather than Japheth.^[12]

Pseudo-Philo

An ancient, relatively obscure text known as Pseudo-Philo and thought to have been originally written ca. 70 AD, contains an expanded genealogy that is seemingly garbled from that of the Book of Genesis, and also different from the much later one found in the 17th-century Rabbinic text Sefer haYashar ("Book of Jasher"):^[16]

Sons of Japheth: "Gomer, Magog, and Madai, Nidiazech, Tubal, Mocteras, Cenez, Riphath, and Thogorma, Elisa, Dessin, Cethin, Tudant."
- Sons of Gomer: Thelez, Lud, Deberlet.
- Sons of Magog: Cesse, Thipha, Pharuta, Ammiel, Phimei, Goloza, Samanach.
- Sons of Duden: Sallus, Phelucta Phallita.
- Sons of Tubal: Phanatonova, Eteva.
- Sons of Tyras: Maac, Tabel, Ballana, Samplameac, Elaz.
- Sons of Mellech: Amboradat, Urach, Bosara.
- Sons of Ascenez: Jubal, Zaraddana, Anac.
- Sons of Heri: Phuddet, Doad, Dephadzeat, Enoc.
- Sons of Togorma: Abiud, Saphath, Asapli, Zepthir.
- Sons of Elisa: Etzaac, Zenez, Mastisa, Rira.
- Sons of Zepti: Macziel, Temna, Aela, Phinon.
- Sons of Tessis: Meccul, Loon, Zelataban.
- Sons of Duodennin: Itheb, Beath, Phenech.

Later writers

Some of the nations that various later writers (including Jerome and Isidore of Seville, as well as other traditional accounts) have attempted to describe as Japhetites are listed below:

Gomer: Scythians, Cimmerians, Phrygians, Turks (excluding Avars and Tatars), Bulgarians, Armenians (including most of other related peoples in the Caucasus), Welsh, Picts, Germanic peoples (excluding Norsemen/Scandinavians), Teutons, Celts
Magog: Goths, Scythians, Norsemen/Scandinavians, Finns, Early Slavs (excluding East Slavs, Bulgarians, and Macedonians), Huns, Magyars (today Hungarians), Irishmen, Armenians (including most of other related peoples in the Caucasus)
Madai: Mitanni, Mannai, Medes, more generally Persians or even their relatives
Javan: Ancient Greeks, Ionians, Tartessians
Tubal: Tabali, Circassians, Irishmen, Georgians (including most of other related peoples in the Caucasus), Illyrians, Italics (excluding the Latins who are of Etruscan origins), Basques, Iberians
Meshech: Early Slavs (including Russians), Phrygians (possibly), Moschoi, Meskheti, Georgians, Armenians, Illyrians, Irishmen
Tiras: Thracians, Etruscans, Romanians

Renaissance to Early Modern ethnography

Book of Jasher

The Sefer haYashar ("Book of Jasher"), written by Talmudic rabbis in the 17th century (first printed in 1625), ostensibly based on an earlier edition of 1552, provides some new names for Japheth's grandchildren:

Gomer (sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah^[17])
Magog (sons were Elichanaf and Lubal^[18])
Madai (sons were Achon, Zeelo, Chazoni and Lot)
Javan (sons were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim^[19])
Tubal (sons were Ariphi, Kesed and Taari^[20])
Meshech (sons were Dedon, Zaron and Shebashni^[21])
Tiras (sons were Benib, Gera, Lupirion and Gilak^[22])

Anthropology

The term "Caucasian" as a racial label for Europeans derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in the Caucasus area, having migrated there from Mount Ararat before populating the European continent.^[2] The Georgian historian and linguist Ivane Javakhishvili associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called Tubals (Tabals, in Greek: Tibarenoi) and Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, in Greek: Moschoi), who claimed to represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes that inhabitated Anatolia during the 3rd-1st millennia BC.^[4] This theory influenced the use of the term Japhetic in the linguistic theories of Nikolai Marr (see below).

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Biblical statement attributed to Noah that "God shall enlarge Japheth" (Genesis 9:27) was used by some Christian preachers^[23] as a justification for the "enlargement" of European territories through imperialism, which they interpreted as part of God's plan for the world.^[24] The subjugation of Africans was similarly justified by the curse of Ham.^[24]

Linguistics

The term Japhetic was also applied by philologists such as William Jones, Rasmus Rask, and others to what is now known as the Indo-European language group. The term was used in a different sense by the Soviet linguist Nicholas Marr, in his Japhetic theory, which was intended to demonstrate that the languages of the Caucasus formed part of a once-widespread pre-Indo-European language group.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 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.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Javakhishvili, Ivane (1950), Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East. Tbilisi, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian).
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ Genesis 5:32, 9:18, and 10:1.
^ ^a ^b Haynes 2002, pp. 204, 269.
^ Garcia Martinez 2012, p. 33 fn.7.
^ Greenspahn 1994, p. 65.
^ Genesis 9:20–27.
^ ^a ^b Day 2014, p. 39.
^ ^a ^b Glouberman 2012, p. 112.
^ Gmirkin 2006, p. 165 fn.192.
^ Day 2014, pp. 38–39.
^ Pseudo-Philo
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:3". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:4". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:6". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:7". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:8". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:9". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
^ Meagher, James L. "The Bread, Wine, Water, Oil, and Incense in the Temple" How Christ Said The First Mass. New York: Christian Press Association, 1908. 95-96. Internet Archive. Web. 4 Jun. 2017
^ ^a ^b John N. Swift and Gigen Mammoser, "'Out of the Realm of Superstition: Chesnutt's 'Dave's Neckliss' and the Curse of Ham'", American Literary Realism, vol. 42 no. 1, Fall 2009, 3

Bibliography

Bremmer, Jan N. (2004). "Remember the Titans!". In Auffarth, Christoph; Stuckenbruck, Loren T. (eds.). The Fall of the Angels. BRILL. ISBN 9004126686.
Day, John (2014). "Noah's Drunkenness, the Curse of Canaan". In Baer, David A.; Gordon, Robert P. (eds.). Leshon Limmudim: Essays on the Language and Literature of the Hebrew Bible in Honour of A.A. Macintosh. A&C Black. ISBN 9780567308238.
Garcia Martinez, Florentino (2012). Between Philology and Theology: Contributions to the Study of Ancient Jewish Interpretation. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004243934.
Glouberman, Mark (2012). The Raven, the Dove, and the Owl of Minerva: The Creation of Humankind in Athens and Jerusalem. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442645059.
Gmirkin, Russell (2006). Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780567134394.
Greenspahn, Frederick E. (1994). When Brothers Dwell Together: The Preeminence of Younger Siblings in the Hebrew Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195359558.
Greifenhagen, Franz V. (2003). Egypt on the Pentateuch's Ideological Map. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780567391360.
Haynes, Stephen R. (2002). Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198032601.
Hunt, Harry B. Jr. (1990). "Japheth". In Mills, Watson E.; Bullard, Roger Aubrey (eds.). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865543737.
Kidd, Colin (2004) [1999]. British Identities Before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62403-7.
Kidd, Colin (2006). The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139457538.
Kvanvig, Helge (2011). Primeval History: Babylonian, Biblical, and Enochic: An Intertextual Reading. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004163805.
Thompson, Thomas L.; Wajdenbaum, Philippe (2014). "Making Room for Japheth". In Thompson, Thomas L.; Wajdenbaum, Philippe (eds.). The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Routledge. ISBN 9781317544265.
Wajbenbaum, Philippe (2016). "Genesis-Kings as a Platonic Epic". In Hjelm, Ingrid; Thompson, Thomas L. (eds.). Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity. Routledge. ISBN 9781317428121.

External links

[JE_1906-1] 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.

[Augstein_2014-2] 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.

[Medieval_1983,_pp._375-90-3] 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.

[Ivane_Javakhishvili_1950,_pp._130-4] Javakhishvili, Ivane (1950), Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East. Tbilisi, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian).

[Brill_1993-5] 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.

[:0-6] 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.

[7] Genesis 5:32, 9:18, and 10:1.

[FOOTNOTEHaynes2002204,_269-8] Haynes 2002, pp. 204, 269.

[FOOTNOTEGarcia_Martinez201233_fn.7-9] Garcia Martinez 2012, p. 33 fn.7.

[FOOTNOTEGreenspahn199465-10] Greenspahn 1994, p. 65.

[11] Genesis 9:20–27.

[FOOTNOTEDay201439-12] Day 2014, p. 39.

[FOOTNOTEGlouberman2012112-13] Glouberman 2012, p. 112.

[FOOTNOTEGmirkin2006165_fn.192-14] Gmirkin 2006, p. 165 fn.192.

[FOOTNOTEDay201438–39-15] Day 2014, pp. 38–39.

[16] Pseudo-Philo

[17] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:3". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[18] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:4". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[19] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:6". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[20] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:7". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[21] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:8". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[22] Parry, J. H. (ed.). "7:9". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.

[23] Meagher, James L. "The Bread, Wine, Water, Oil, and Incense in the Temple" How Christ Said The First Mass. New York: Christian Press Association, 1908. 95-96. Internet Archive. Web. 4 Jun. 2017

[Swift_Superstition-24] John N. Swift and Gigen Mammoser, "'Out of the Realm of Superstition: Chesnutt's 'Dave's Neckliss' and the Curse of Ham'", American Literary Realism, vol. 42 no. 1, Fall 2009, 3

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@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 [[File:T and O map Guntherus Ziner 1472.jpg|thumb|230px|right|This [[T and O map]], from the first [[Printing press|printed]] version of [[Isidore of Seville|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 (son of Noah)|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]].<ref name="JE 1906">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hirsch |first1=Emil G. |last2=Seligsohn |first2=M. |last3=Schechter |first3=Solomon |author1-link=Emil G. Hirsch |author3-link=Solomon Schechter |year=1906 |title=Japheth |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8516-japheth |url-status=live |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017135108/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8516-japheth |archive-date=17 October 2012 |access-date=27 February 2024}}</ref> The term was used in [[Ethnology|ethnological]] and [[Linguistics|linguistic]] writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries as a [[Biblical terminology for race|Biblically derived racial classification]] for the [[European peoples]], but is now considered obsolete.<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[ethnography|ethnographers]] believed that the world had been divided into three large-scale groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: the Semitic peoples of [[Near East|Asia]], the Hamitic peoples of [[Ancient Libya|Africa]], and the Japhetic peoples of [[Europe]].<ref name="Medieval 1983, pp. 375-90">{{cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Reynolds |date=October 1983 |title=Medieval ''Origines Gentium'' and the Community of the Realm |journal=[[History (journal)|History]] |location=[[Chichester|Chichester, West Sussex]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |volume=68 |issue=224 |pages=375–390 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1983.tb02193.x |jstor=24417596}}</ref><ref name="Ivane Javakhishvili 1950, pp. 130">[[Ivane Javakhishvili|Javakhishvili, Ivane]] (1950), ''Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East''. [[Tbilisi]], pp. 130–135 (in [[Georgian language|Georgian]]).</ref>
+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]].<ref name="JE 1906">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hirsch |first1=Emil G. |last2=Seligsohn |first2=M. |last3=Schechter |first3=Solomon |author1-link=Emil G. Hirsch |author3-link=Solomon Schechter |year=1906 |title=Japheth |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8516-japheth |url-status=live |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017135108/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8516-japheth |archive-date=17 October 2012 |access-date=27 February 2024}}</ref> The term was used in [[Ethnology|ethnological]] and [[Linguistics|linguistic]] writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries as a [[Biblical terminology for race|Biblically derived racial classification]] for the [[European peoples]], but is now considered obsolete.<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> [[Middle Ages|Medieval]] [[ethnography|ethnographers]] believed that the world had been divided into three large-scale groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: the Semitic peoples of [[Near East|Asia]], the Hamitic peoples of [[Ancient Libya|Africa]], and the Japhetic peoples of [[Europe]].<ref name="Medieval 1983, pp. 375-90">{{cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Reynolds |date=October 1983 |title=Medieval ''Origines Gentium'' and the Community of the Realm |journal=[[History (journal)|History]] |location=[[Chichester|Chichester, West Sussex]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |volume=68 |issue=224 |pages=375–390 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1983.tb02193.x |jstor=24417596}}</ref><ref name="Ivane Javakhishvili 1950, pp. 130">[[Ivane Javakhishvili|Javakhishvili, Ivane]] (1950), ''Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East''. [[Tbilisi]], pp. 130–135 (in [[Georgian language|Georgian]]).</ref>
 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]]).<ref name="Augstein 2014">{{cite book |author-last=Augstein |author-first=Hannah F. |chapter=Shifting ideas on the origin of humankind – Shifting geographies: Blumenbach and the Caucasus |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HrKEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |year=2014 |orig-year=1999 |editor1-last=Ernst |editor1-first=Waltraud |editor2-last=Harris |editor2-first=Bernard |title=Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960 |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |series=Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine |pages=61–74 |isbn=9780415757478}}</ref> In linguistics, it referred to the [[Indo-European languages]].<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> Both of these uses are considered obsolete nowadays.<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> Only the [[Semitic peoples]] form a well-defined language family. The Indo-European group is no longer known as "Japhetite", and the [[Hamites|Hamitic]] group is now recognized as [[paraphyletic]] within the [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] family.
@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 * [[Madai]]: [[Mitanni]], [[Mannai]], [[Medes]], more generally [[Persian people|Persians]] or even their relatives
 * [[Javan]]: [[Ancient Greeks]], [[Ionia]]ns, [[Tartessians]]
-* [[Tubal]]: [[Tabal]]i, [[Circassians]], [[Irish people|Irishmen]], [[Georgians]] (including most of other related peoples in the Caucasus), [[Illyrians]], [[Ancient Italic peoples|Italics]] (excluding the [[Latins]] who are of Etruscan origins), [[Basque people|Basques]], [[Iberians]]
+* [[Tubal]]: [[Tabal (state)|Tabal]]i, [[Circassians]], [[Irish people|Irishmen]], [[Georgians]] (including most of other related peoples in the Caucasus), [[Illyrians]], [[Ancient Italic peoples|Italics]] (excluding the [[Latins]] who are of Etruscan origins), [[Basque people|Basques]], [[Iberians]]
 *[[Meshech]]: [[Early Slavs]] (including Russians), [[Phrygia]]ns (possibly), [[Mushki|Moschoi]], [[Meskheti]], [[Georgians]], [[Armenians]], [[Illyrians]], [[Irish people|Irishmen]]
 * [[Tiras]]: [[Thracians]], [[Etruscans]], [[Romanians]]
@@ Line 100: / Line 100: @@
 {{main|Caucasian race|Biblical terminology for race}}
-The term "[[Caucasian race|Caucasian]]" as a racial label for [[European peoples|Europeans]] derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in the [[Caucasus]] area, having migrated there from [[Mount Ararat]] before populating the [[European continent]].<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> The [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] historian and linguist [[Ivane Javakhishvili]] associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called [[Tubal]]s ([[Tabal]]s, in Greek: ''Tibarenoi'') and [[Meshech]]s (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, in Greek: ''Moschoi''), who claimed to represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes that inhabitated [[Anatolia]] during the [[3rd millennium BC|3rd]]-[[1st millennium BC|1st millennia BC]].<ref name="Ivane Javakhishvili 1950, pp. 130"/> This theory influenced the use of the term ''Japhetic'' in the linguistic theories of [[Nikolai Marr]] (see below).
+The term "[[Caucasian race|Caucasian]]" as a racial label for [[European peoples|Europeans]] derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in the [[Caucasus]] area, having migrated there from [[Mount Ararat]] before populating the [[European continent]].<ref name="Augstein 2014"/> The [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] historian and linguist [[Ivane Javakhishvili]] associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called [[Tubal]]s ([[Tabal (state)|Tabal]]s, in Greek: ''Tibarenoi'') and [[Meshech]]s (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, in Greek: ''Moschoi''), who claimed to represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes that inhabitated [[Anatolia]] during the [[3rd millennium BC|3rd]]-[[1st millennium BC|1st millennia BC]].<ref name="Ivane Javakhishvili 1950, pp. 130"/> This theory influenced the use of the term ''Japhetic'' in the linguistic theories of [[Nikolai Marr]] (see below).
 During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Biblical statement attributed to Noah that "God shall enlarge Japheth" (Genesis 9:27) was used by some Christian preachers<ref>Meagher, James L. "The Bread, Wine, Water, Oil, and Incense in the Temple" [https://archive.org/details/HowChristSaidTheFirstMass ''How Christ Said The First Mass.'' New York: Christian Press Association, 1908.] 95-96. ''Internet Archive.'' Web. 4 Jun. 2017</ref> as a justification for the "enlargement" of European territories through [[imperialism]], which they interpreted as part of God's plan for the world.<ref name="Swift Superstition">John N. Swift and Gigen Mammoser, "'Out of the Realm of Superstition: Chesnutt's 'Dave's Neckliss' and the Curse of Ham'", ''American Literary Realism'', vol. 42 no. 1, Fall 2009, 3</ref> The subjugation of Africans was similarly justified by the [[curse of Ham]].<ref name="Swift Superstition" />

v t e Obsolete definitions of race
Racism Scientific racism Pseudoscience
Color terminology	Black Bronze Brown Olive Red White
Concepts	Australoid Capoid Caucasoid Alpine Arabid Armenoid Aryan Atlantid Caspian Dinaric East Baltic Ethiopid Hamites Indid Iranid Mediterranean Nordic Semites Turanid Malay Mongoloid Proto-Mongoloid Sinodonty and Sundadonty Negroid Negrito
Sociological	in India Passing Racial discrimination Racism Racial stereotypes Colorism Master race Nazism and race Racial hygiene Whiteness studies Négritude
Writers	Louis Agassiz John Baker Erwin Baur John Beddoe Robert Bennett Bean François Bernier Renato Biasutti Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Franz Boas Daniel Garrison Brinton Paul Broca Alice Mossie Brues Halfdan Bryn Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Charles Caldwell Petrus Camper Samuel A. Cartwright Houston Stewart Chamberlain Sonia Mary Cole Carleton S. Coon Georges Cuvier Jan Czekanowski Charles Davenport Joseph Deniker Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt Anténor Firmin Eugen Fischer Francis Galton Stanley Marion Garn Reginald Ruggles Gates George Gliddon Arthur de Gobineau Madison Grant John Grattan Hans F. K. Günther Ernst Haeckel Frederick Ludwig Hoffman Earnest Hooton Julian Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley Calvin Ira Kephart Robert Knox Robert E. Kuttner Georges Vacher de Lapouge Fritz Lenz Carl Linnaeus Cesare Lombroso Bertil Lundman Felix von Luschan Dominick McCausland John Mitchell Ashley Montagu Lewis H. Morgan Samuel George Morton Josiah C. Nott Karl Pearson Roger Pearson Oscar Peschel Isaac La Peyrère Charles Pickering Ludwig Hermann Plate Alfred Ploetz James Cowles Prichard Otto Reche Gustaf Retzius William Z. Ripley Alfred Rosenberg Benjamin Rush Henric Sanielevici Heinrich Schmidt Ilse Schwidetzky Charles Gabriel Seligman Giuseppe Sergi Samuel Stanhope Smith Herbert Spencer Morris Steggerda Lothrop Stoddard William Graham Sumner Thomas Griffith Taylor Paul Topinard John H. Van Evrie Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer Alexander Winchell Ludwig Woltmann
Publications	An Essay upon the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates (1744) The Outline of History of Mankind (1785) Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849) An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855) The Races of Europe (Ripley, 1899) The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) Race Life of the Aryan Peoples (1907) Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911) Castes in India (1916) The Passing of the Great Race (1916) The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920) The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) Annihilation of Caste (1936) An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus (1943) The Race Question (1950)
Related	Ethnogenesis Eugenics Great chain of being History of anthropometry Miscegenation Monogenism Multiracial Polygenism Pre-Adamite Pre-modern conceptions of whiteness

v t e Descendants of Noah in Genesis 10
Shem and Semitic	Elam Ashur Arpachshad Lud Aram
Ham and Hamitic	Cush Mizraim Phut Canaan
Japheth and Japhetic	Gomer Magog Madai Javan Tubal Meshech Tiras