Which early 20th-century anthropologist proposed trait lists that classified skulls into three racial groups: Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid?

• A. Earnest Hooton
• B. Richard Lewontin
• C. Fordisc
• D. Hefner

Answer: (A)

In this area, the idea is that skull morphology was used to sort people into predefined racial categories based on a set of observable traits. Earnest Hooton is the figure who proposed such trait lists in the early 20th century, aiming to classify skulls into Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid. He argued that a specific collection of cranial measurements and facial features could reliably indicate a person’s racial group, reflecting the typological mindset of that era. This approach persisted for a time but is now rejected because modern genetics shows substantial variation within populations and extensive overlap between them, making rigid racial categories based on skull traits unreliable. The other names don’t fit this particular tradition: Lewontin is known for later genetic studies on variation, Fordisc is a forensic software tool for estimating ancestry from skull data rather than an early proponent of trait lists, and Hefner is not the figure associated with this skull-based classification scheme.