In Haiti in the eighteenth century there existed a classification of physical types based on the notion that each individual was divisible into no less than 128 separate parts (rather like genes):
Thus a blanc (white) had 128 parts white, a nègre (Negro) 128 parts black, and the offspring a mulâtre (mulatto) 64 parts white and 64 parts black. The full list of classifications includes:
- Nègre (0 parts white)
- Sacatra (8 to 23 parts white)
- Griffe (24 to 39 parts white)
- Marabou (40 to 48)
- Mulâtre (49 to 70)
- Quateron (71 to 100)
- Metif (101 to 112)
- Marmelouque (113 to 120)
- Quateronné (121 to 124)
- Sang-mêlé (125 to 127)
- Blanc (128 parts white)
From Peter Worsley, The Three Worlds: Culture and World Development, 1984