Two historical anthropologists favored a binary racial classification system that divided people into a light skin and dark skin categories. 18th-century anthropologist Christoph Meiners, who first defined the Caucasian race, posited a ""binary racial scheme"" of two races with the Caucasian whose racial purity was exemplified by the ""venerated... ancient Germans"", although he considered some Europeans as impure ""dirty whites""; and ""Mongolians"", who consisted of everyone else. Meiners did not include the Jews as Caucasians and ascribed them a ""permanently degenerate nature"".