The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and classified as a brown race. Malay is a loose term used in the late 19th century and early 2
Skulls representing Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's "five races" in De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa (1795). The Tahitian skull labelled "O-taheitae" represented what he called the "Malay race"