Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
1752 – 1840 · aged 88
German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist (1752 – 1840)
- Born
- 11 May 1752 · Gotha
- Died
- 22 Jan 1840 · Göttingen
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 11 May 1752BornBorn in Gotha
- 1793AwardForeign Member of the Royal Society
- 1794AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 22 Jan 1840DiedDied in Göttingen
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1752 – 1840).
- 1756 – 1763Seven Years' War
- c. 1760 – 1840Industrial Revolution
- 1765 – 1783American Revolution
- 1789 – 1799French Revolution
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
Biography
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (German: [ˈbluːmənˌbax]; 11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German medical doctor, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has been called the "founder of racial classifications".
He was one of the first to explore the study of the human being as an aspect of natural history. His teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to his classification of human races, of which he claimed there were five: Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American. He was a member of what modern historians call the Göttingen school of history.
He is considered a pivotal figure in the development of physical anthropology. Blumenbach's peers considered him one of the great theorists of his day, and he was a mentor or influence on many of the next generation of German biologists, including Alexander von Humboldt.
Text from the Wikipedia article Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, CC BY-SA 4.0
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