Was Race thinking invented in the modern West?

The idea that genuinely racial thinking is a modern invention is widespread in the humanities and social sciences. However, it is not always clear exactly what the content of such a conceptual break is supposed to be. One suggestion is that with the scientific revolution emerged a conception of human groups that possessed essences that were thought to explain group-typical features of individuals as well the accumulated products of cultures or civilizations. However, recent work by cognitive and evolutionary psychologists suggests that such essentialism is a product of culturally canalized, domain-specific, and species-typical features of human psychology. This suggests that one common explanation of the content of a break in racial thinking is wrong, and casts some doubt on the thesis that genuinely racial thinking is a culturally and historically local invention.

► Many assert the invention of racial thinking in recent centuries. ► Some understand this as involving the introduction of racial essentialism. ► Evolutionary-cognitive theorists claim essentialism is innate. ► Recent, cross-cultural work supports the evolutionary-cognitive view. ► The claim that race thinking was recently invented is called into question.