Italian and Caucasian

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Italian and Caucasian
Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins

Question:
The terms Caucasian and Latin are both used as designations of race. In the US the term Caucasian seems to be used for Italians, but as an Italian, a majority of Italians claim not to be Caucasian. Would you call Latins Caucasian? What is the meaning of "Latin" as a racial designation? Are Italians also Latin, since their language came from Latin?

Answer:
In short, yes, of course, Latins (Latin Americans) are generally Caucasian. If they are of European origin. All the people of European origin would fit into the cateogry normally covered by the term Caucasian. We should note here that the term is an older term and falling out of use because of its ambiguity. A perhaps more appropriate term for the context here is Caucasoid.

This term, however, though used informally in various contexts, is not a clearly defined technical term. Though it was once one of three terms used for general classification of human types, it is really only an informal working term. It has no official standing academically, as far as I know.

Let me suggest that the point is not who is Latin or who is Caucasian. But the point is how particular terms are used in certain, cultural, political or social contexts.

Latin and Caucasian
The terms Caucasian and Latin are not exclusive alternative terms. What is meant depends on the context in which the terms are used. "Latin" has different meanings or connotations in different contexts and settings. One meaning in the Americas for the term "Latin" is Spanish-speaking. In general it is understood to include Portuguese. In the US the term Latin is not usually used to refer to Italians.

There is also a special ethnic or geographical use of the term, referring to the peoples living in the area of the Caucasus Mountains of Central Asia. This, of course, is the origin of the term. The term is also a technical name for the group of Indo-European languages spoken in this region.

Caucasian and Culture
You mention that Italians are different from Caucasians in culture and features as well as langauge. You seem to be using the term "Caucasian" in a way I am not familiar with from all my years of investigating ethnicities. You seem to use it more to refer to a set specific cultural characteristics, which is not how we use the word.

It is not a cultural term in any academic usages I am familiar with, and I have never heard it used this way in popular usage, though someone might have used the term that way at some time and place. Thus Caucasian and Latin are not separate alternative terms or categories in any usages I have heard or seen in academic literature.

Linguistically, Latin and its Romance family are members of the Indo-European family of languages. It is thus akin to the Germanic languages, Greek and Hittite, Gerorgian and other Caucasian languages and the Persian and Sanskrit groups.

Descriptive
I do recall a somewhat specialized usage I have heard while in the United States. I know that in descriptions, a general descriptive distinction is made between Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Asian or American Indian.

These seem to be ad hoc descriptive expressions to give people a visual clue to someone's appearance. I hear these in news announcements of lost children, wanted criminals, etc. This does not seem to imply any ethnic characterization.

No Caucasian
I also recall from the website of the US Government that on census forms there are various categories one may choose from to indicate a racial category. One may also choose not to indicate a race. But Caucasian is not one of the choices. The list includes White, Asian, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, etc.

It appears that various terms in common use among the populace are provided as options for residents to choose in self-descriptions. Several choices are combinations of individual categories, such as "Black or African American and White," or "American Indian and Alaska Native and White."

This appears to be an attempt to acknowledge that categories are inadequate, and terms too restrictive for the mixed character of American society. People may choose whatever term they prefer. There are some general guidelines on what might be intended by the terms, but no requirements, apparently, for which category any individual has to choose.

Latin and Italic
In the US, the term Latin normally means Spanish-speaking. In Europe it appears the equivalent term for this is usually Iberian, covering Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Corsican and other related languages. The technical term I am familiar with that is used to distinguish the languages or ethnicities in the Italian peninsula or Piedmont is usually "Italic."

All these terms and their uses are informal and customary, according to usage in the country or region. The term "Italian" is primarily a geographic or political term. More comments below on word usages.

The differences of usage you have noted reflect a phenomenon that is commonly commented on by writers, that there is no universally accepted definition or usage for any racial classifications. These vary according to various national, social and political considerations in particular situations.

Latin American
The term "Latin" is only one of the general terms that is used in different countries to designate various different groups of the population is certain places. The term has only a relative meaning. In the United States, for instance, you will hear the terms Latino, Mexican, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, etc., depending on the situation, geographical setting and political context. In countries like Brazil and the US there is a great mix of peoples from various racial and ethnic origins, so those societies and the sub-societies within those domains will have different sets of terms for designating various groups according to their various perceptions or intentions.

Caucasian
The term Caucasian, however, is not an ethnic designation, and as far as I know, has never been used that way in either academic or popular writing. It is an older, but still-used, term for a broad physical type, usually focusing on facial features, not skin color, language or cultural ethnicity. It is not a technical term used or defined by any academic discipline, as far as I am aware from my anthropological and linguistic background.

In general you may find the term "Caucasian" used to refer to the various ethnic groups, of a wide range of physical type, color and ethnic background, who speak languages of the Indo-European family. This includes peoples of Central Asia, the Indian sub-continent and other parts of South Asia. The term usually also includes Arabs, Dravidian (the short black people of southern Indian and southeast Asia), the Berbers and others who speak various other languages not of the Indo-European family. The term Caucasian is diminishing in use, in light of its ambiguity and a desire for more precise and more specific ethnic distinctions.

All peoples everywhere are mixed from various backgrounds, depending on how their ethnic, cultural or linguistic streams are analyzed and depending on how far back in history you go. So all terms of designation are relative to the context and time.

Non-Caucasian Latins
I said initially that European-origin Spanish-speaking Americans are usually considered Caucasian. But some "Latins" are of Caucasian background and some are not. However, keep in mind that a large minority of the persons in Mexico, Central America and South America are of American Indian descent. These peoples would not be referred to as Caucasian.

In the United States one can be Latin (speaking Spanish, or having a Spanish surname) and not be Caucasian. In referring to South America, the term is usually extended to include also Portuguese language, which would be basically the Peoplws of Brazil. Such as a Puerto Rican of African descent, or an Afro-Brazilian speaker of Portuguese. A high percentage of the people and whole ethnic groups in Mexico and other countries are of mixed descent, so the traditional limited terms of Caucasian or Amerindian do not meet the need. Thus the term "Mestizo" is used by many ethnic catalogues to cover the majority population of Mexico. It is equivalent to "Mexican" as an ethnic designation.

This term again, however, is not a defined technical term, so is only a broad term of reference. Note also that in the US, other terms are also used for people of Spanish language or ethnic heritage, according to the location, or the meaning and intent of the speaker. Terminology adn categories are rich and varied.

Italian and Caucasian
I have never seen or heard a reference by an Italian claiming not to be Caucasian. I also did some specific checking and have been unable to find any reference to this claim. If they really do, they must be using some special definition of the term under which the ethncities of Italy are excluded.

Though the peoples living in the geography now called Italy are mixed, they clearly have dominant genetic lines and physical features deriving from Early Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Germanic and Arab roots. The Germanic sources are extensive, coming in several waves since the 400s, especially in northern Italy. All human these steams are considered Caucasian.

Lombard, for instance, was the name of one of the German tribes that conquered part of the northern territories now part of Italy, giving their name to the region of Lombardy. This area of Europe was still a part of the Austrian Empire called Lombardy-Venetia in the 1800s. Lombardy was taken from Austria by France and annexed to Piedmont. Lombardy was in the territory that became part of the new kingdom of Italy in 1861. (Venetia, or Venezia, was added in 1866 after Austrian forces in the region were defeated by Italy.)

Political Nationality
Note also that the term "Italian" is primarily a political term. In North America the term "Italian" refers primarily to anyone from the Italian peninsula or islands. "Italian" came to have a secondary ethnic connotation only in the 20th century, as far as I know, as a term for the new political nationality following the unification of various independent territories into one political domain in the 1860s.

King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia succeeded in fostering the union of most of the Italian peninsula and islands with his Sardinian kingdom. In 1861 several domains in the peninsula voted to enter into a new union, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel as king. The term "Italian" generally has to do with this geographical and political identity, but in the 20th century it came to have an ethnic connotation as succeeding generations developed a common national identity. Otherwise, traditionally, it appears the term "Italy" was primarily a geographical designation throughout European history.

Italian in North America
In the US, as well as Canada, the high number of Italian immigrants after World War I and again after WWII, led to the identification of these immigrants as a group by the general term "Italian." Thus it had an ethnic connotation in the new multi-ethnic American society, which "Caucasian" never did. The latter term remains a broader, general reference and more of a physical discriptive term.

Because of the immigration of many people from the same language group a the same time, they tended to settle in communities by their language grouping, thus becoming identified as a discrete group, rather than spreading more generally into the general population as earlier immigrant groups did, especially German-surnamed (from various European countries), French-surnamed (from various European countries) Irish and Scottish, who blended with the general Anglo population.

Cicilian
More specifically, in the US, what people often have in mind by the term "Italian" is actually Sicilian culture and groups in America. For instance the form of Italian I hear used when depicting "Italians" in New York and New Jersey seems to be the Sicilian language rather than Roman or some central or northern form of Italic speech. An Italian friend in South Africa also told me this is the impression he has from his Italian South African family, their contact with their Italian family in Italy and their acquaintance with Italians in America.

Within a limited political context, it may be that the term "Caucasian" was used at some time to designate only North Germanic peoples in the New World. I have never seen that, in all my living time and academic studies in North America, nor in other continents of the world where I have lived, worked or done research.

For More
Racial Categories in the US Census

OBJ

Initially written in answer to an email question 10 December 2007
Expanded, finalized as an article and posted on OJTR 12 December 2007
Last edited 21 March 2008

Email: researchguy@iname.com

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