Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00942)

By races was was really meant periods or stages of evolution of the 
human life wave. The term "race" was originally proposed by Sinnett, 
who it appears, never really understood KH's teachings concerning them. 
Under no circumstances was "race" in this context, ever meant to denote 
the anthropological meaning formalized in the early twentieth century, 
which (by the way) even the anthropologists have since distanced 
themselves. In nineteenth century, anthropologists had proposed several 
models in order to classify the varieties of of human groups according 
to their physical appearances. In the twentieth century, they settled 
upon three races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongolian. In the nineteenth 
century, there were numerous classifications which were proposed, 
including one which had seven "races." So while it is understandable 
that Sinnett may have grasped upon this ill formed anthropological 
system of classification in order to better understand KH's teachings, 
further modifications of the classifications in the twentieth century 
made the term "race" more mis-leading than ever. If the then proposed 
seven "anthropological races" remained in vogue, perhaps we might have 
been able to use this model in order to draw comparisons by analogy and 
correspondence in order to better understand KH's use of the term. 
Otherwise, there never was any relationship between the two usages of 
this word (race), except perhaps in Sinnett's mind, and in the minds of 
later students. 
In light of the above, I simply suggest in our study groups that our 
fellow students think "a period (or stage) of evolution" when they read 
"race." For instance the third root race is the third period (or 
stage) of evolution of the human life wave. The fourth sub-race of the 
third root race is the fourth sub-period of evolution of the third stage 
of evolution of the human life wave etc.

--j



Erica Letzerich wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As I am preparing an introduction to some basic teachings of the 
> theosophical literature I am kind of trapped with the term races and 
> sub-races. 
> Today the term races has a racist connotation what term could be 
> used instead of races? Civilizations? Any suggestion will be 
> welcome.
>
> Erica
>
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