Racial types of people. Races of people. Small races and their geographical distribution
The genus Homo appeared 2-2.5 million years ago. All representatives of Homo have the same anatomy, physiology, psyche. However, with the development of civilizations and the settlement of mankind, human races began to appear and change.
What is a race?
A race is a group of people formed under the influence of the environment. As a result of adaptation to certain conditions, distinctive features began to be inherited.
Races differ in phenotype, i.e. appearance. These differences developed over several tens of thousands of years. The main features by which one race differs from another:
- skin and eye color;
- eye cut;
- hair color and structure;
- the shape of the nose, lips, face;
- growth.
Rice. 1. Different eye shape.
Useful changes in appearance help to survive and better adapt to climatic and geographical conditions. A few examples:
- the light skin of the northern peoples helps to better absorb vitamin D;
- the dark skin of southerners protects against sunburn and overheating;
- wide lips and nose contribute to the effective evaporation of moisture and cooling;
- narrow nose retains heat and prevents hypothermia;
- a narrow cut of the eyes helps protect the eyeballs from dust and chapping.
One of the important conditions for the emergence of races is territorial isolation and the exclusion of the possibility of interracial marriages.
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Main races
Traditionally, there are four races that differ from each other. The description is given in the table “Race of Man”.
|
Race |
signs |
resettlement |
|
Negroid |
|
Africa, Latin America, West Indies |
|
Mongoloid (Asian-American) |
|
Central and East Asia, North America |
|
Australoid (Weddo-Australoid) |
|
Australia, South and Southeast Asia, Oceania |
|
Caucasoid |
|
Europe, Central Asia, North America, North Africa |
Rice. 2. Comparison of the inhabitants of Africa, Asia and Europe.
Some experts separately distinguish the Americanoid (native Indians) race. Also, the Negroid race is divided into the Negro, Pygmy, South African (Koisanoid) and Ethiopian races.
Race, species and nation
In the era of great geographical discoveries, people who have lived on different continents for centuries began to get acquainted with their “neighbors”, who have differences both in appearance and in culture. On the basis of these differences, whole concepts began to emerge about the subspecies of Homo, the predominance of one race over another, and so on.
A race is not a separate species or nation for the following reasons:
- the main criterion for selecting a species is the ability to freely interbreed and produce viable, fertile offspring;
- the concept of a nation, like a nationality, is no longer associated with physical differences (like a race), but with cultural, traditional, linguistic, and religious ones.
Interspecific crossing occurs in nature, but does not always give full-fledged offspring that can pass on their unique qualities to the next generation. People within the same species (Homo sapiens), regardless of skin color, hair, height, can marry and give birth to viable children.
Hi all! Who is interested in what the human races are, I will tell you now, and I will also tell you about how the most basic of them differ.
- large historically formed groups of people; division of the species Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens, are represented by modern humanity.
At the heart of the concept lies the biological, primarily physical similarity of people and the common territory that they inhabit.
A race is characterized by a complex of hereditary physical features, these features include: eye color, hair, skin, height, body proportions, facial features, etc.
Since most of these traits can change in a person, and mixing between races has been going on for a long time, it is rare that a particular individual owns the entire set of typical racial traits.
Big races.
There are many classifications of human races. Most often, three main or large races are distinguished: Mongoloid (Asian-American), Equatorial (Negro-Australoid) and Caucasoid (Eurasian, Caucasian).
Among the representatives of the Mongoloid race the skin color varies from dark to light (mainly in North Asian groups), the hair is usually dark, often straight and coarse, the nose is usually small, the eyes are oblique, the folds of the upper eyelids are significantly developed, and in addition, there is a fold covering the inner corner eyes, hairline is not very developed.
Representatives of the equatorial race dark pigmentation of the skin, eyes, and hair that is broadly wavy or curly. The nose is predominantly wide, the lower part of the face protrudes forward.
Representatives of the Caucasian race light skin color (with variations from very light, mostly in the North to dark, even brown skin). The hair is curly or straight, the incision of the eyes is horizontal. Strongly developed or moderate hairline on the chest and face in men. The nose is markedly protruding, with a straight or slightly sloping forehead.
Small races.
Large races are divided into small, or anthropological types. Within the Caucasian race are distinguished White Sea-Baltic, Atlanto-Baltic, Balkan-Caucasian, Central European and Indo-Mediterranean minor races.
Now, virtually the entire land is inhabited by Europeans, but by the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries (mid-15th century), their main area included Middle and Front, India, and North Africa.
All minor races are represented in modern Europe. But the Central European version outnumbers (Germans, Austrians, Slovaks, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians). In general, the population of Europe is very mixed, especially in cities, due to migrations, influx of migrations from other regions of the Earth and miscegenation.
Usually, in the middle of the Mongoloid race, the South Asian, Far Eastern, Arctic, North Asian and American minor races are distinguished. At the same time, the American is sometimes considered as a large race.
All climatic and geographical zones were inhabited by the Mongoloids. A wide variety of anthropological types is characteristic of modern Asia, but different Caucasoid and Mongoloid groups predominate in number.
The Far Eastern and South Asian minor races are the most common among the Mongoloids. Among Europeans - Indo-Mediterranean. The indigenous population of America is a minority, in comparison with various European anthropological types and population groups of representatives of all three major races.
The Negro-Australoid or Equatorial race includes three minor races of African Negroids(Negroid or Negro, Negril and Bushman) and the same number of oceanic Australoids(Australian or Australoid race, which in some classifications is distinguished as an independent large race, also Melanesian and Vedoid).
The range of the equatorial race is not continuous: it covers most of Africa, Melanesia, Australia, partly Indonesia and New Guinea. The small Negro race numerically predominates in Africa, and in the south and north of the continent, the Caucasoid population has a significant proportion.
The indigenous population of Australia is a minority relative to emigrants from India and Europe, as well as quite numerous representatives of the Far Eastern race. The South Asian race predominates in Indonesia.
At the level of the aforementioned races, there are also races that occurred as a result of a long mixing of the population of certain regions, for example, the Ural and Lapanoid races, which possess both features of the Mongoloids and Caucasoids, or the Ethiopian race - intermediate between the Caucasoid and Equatorial races.
Thus, now you can figure out by facial features which race this person belongs to.🙂
Racial differences have been and continue to be the cause of different studies, as well as conflicts and discrimination. A tolerant society tries to pretend that racial differences do not exist, the constitutions of countries state that all people are equal among themselves ...
However, there are races and people are different. Of course, not at all in the way that supporters of the "higher" and "lower" races would like, but differences do exist.
Some research by geneticists and anthropologists today reveals new facts, which, thanks to the study of the emergence of human races, allow us to take a different look at some stages of our history.
Racial trunks
Since the 17th century, science has put forward a number of classifications of human races. Today their number reaches 15. However, all classifications are based on three racial pillars, or three large races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid with many subspecies and branches. Some anthropologists add to them the Australoid and Americanoid races.
According to the data of molecular biology and genetics, the division of mankind into races occurred about 80 thousand years ago.
First, two trunks stood out: Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid, and 40-45 thousand years ago there was a differentiation of proto-Caucasoids and proto-Mongoloids.
Scientists believe that the origins of the origin of races originate in the Paleolithic era, although the process of modification en masse humanity only from the Neolithic: it is in this era that the Caucasoid type crystallizes.
The process of formation of races continued with the migration of primitive people from continent to continent. Thus, anthropological data show that the ancestors of the Indians who moved to the American continent from Asia were not yet established Mongoloids, and the first inhabitants of Australia were "racially neutral" neoanthropes.
What does genetics say?
Today, questions of the origin of races are for the most part the prerogative of two sciences - anthropology and genetics. The first, on the basis of human bone remains, reveals the diversity of anthropological forms, and the second tries to understand the relationship between the totality of racial traits and the corresponding set of genes.
However, there is no agreement among geneticists. Some adhere to the theory of uniformity of the entire human gene pool, others argue that each race has a unique combination of genes. However, recent studies more likely indicate the correctness of the latter.
The study of haplotypes confirmed the relationship between racial traits and genetic characteristics.
It has been proven that certain haplogroups are always associated with specific races, and other races cannot obtain them except through the process of racial mixing.
In particular, Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a professor at Stanford University, based on an analysis of the “genetic maps” of European settlement, pointed out significant similarities in the DNA of the Basques and the Cro-Magnon. The Basques managed to preserve their genetic uniqueness largely due to the fact that they lived on the periphery of migration waves and practically did not undergo miscegenation.
Two hypotheses
Modern science relies on two hypotheses of the origin of human races - polycentric and monocentric.
According to the theory of polycentrism, humanity is the result of a long and independent evolution of several phyletic lines.
Thus, the Caucasoid race was formed in Western Eurasia, the Negroid race in Africa, and the Mongoloid race in Central and East Asia.
Polycentrism involves the crossing of representatives of protoras at the borders of their ranges, which led to the emergence of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (mixing of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or Ethiopian (mixing of Caucasoid and Negroid races).
From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one region of the globe in the process of settling neoanthropes, who subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.
The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came from Southeast Africa. However, the Soviet scientist Yakov Roginsky expanded the concept of monocentrism, suggesting that the habitat of the ancestors of Homo sapiens went beyond the African continent.
Recent studies by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra have cast doubt on the theory of a common African human ancestor.
So, DNA tests of an ancient fossilized skeleton, which is about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that the Australian aborigine has nothing to do with the African hominid.
The theory of multi-regional origin of races, according to Australian scientists, is much closer to the truth.
An Unexpected Ancestor
If we agree with the version that the common ancestor of at least the population of Eurasia came from Africa, then the question arises about its anthropometric characteristics. Was he similar to the current inhabitants of the African continent, or did he have neutral racial characteristics?
Some researchers believe that the African species Homo was closer to the Mongoloids. This is indicated by a number of archaic features inherent in the Mongoloid race, in particular, the structure of the teeth, which are more characteristic of the Neanderthal and Homo erectus.
It is very important that the population of the Mongoloid type has a high adaptability to various habitats: from equatorial forests to the arctic tundra. But representatives of the Negroid race are largely dependent on increased solar activity.
For example, in high latitudes, children of the Negroid race have a lack of vitamin D, which provokes a number of diseases, primarily rickets.
Therefore, a number of researchers doubt that our ancestors, similar to modern Africans, could have successfully migrated around the globe.
northern ancestral home
Recently, more and more researchers claim that the Caucasoid race has little in common with the primitive man of the African plains and argue that these populations developed independently of each other.
Thus, the American anthropologist J. Clark believes that when representatives of the "black race" in the process of migration reached Southern Europe and Western Asia, they encountered a more developed "white race" there.
Researcher Boris Kutsenko hypothesizes that at the origins of modern humanity there were two racial trunks: Euro-American and Negroid-Mongoloid. According to him, the Negroid race comes from the forms of Homo erectus, and the Mongoloid race - from Sinanthropus.
Kutsenko considers the regions of the Arctic Ocean to be the birthplace of the Euro-American trunk. Based on the data of oceanology and paleoanthropology, he suggests that the global climate changes that occurred at the border of the Pleistocene and Holocene destroyed the ancient continent - Hyperborea. Part of the population from the territories that had gone under water migrated to Europe, and then to Asia and North America, the researcher concludes.
As evidence of the relationship between Caucasians and North American Indians, Kutsenko refers to the craniological indicators and characteristics of the blood groups of these races, which "almost completely coincide."
fixture
The phenotypes of modern people living in different parts of the planet are the result of a long evolution. Many racial traits have obvious adaptive value. For example, dark pigmentation of the skin protects people living in the equatorial belt from excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their bodies increase the ratio of body surface to its volume, thereby facilitating thermoregulation in hot conditions.
In contrast to the inhabitants of low latitudes, the population of the northern regions of the planet, as a result of evolution, acquired a predominantly light skin and hair color, which allowed them to receive more sunlight and satisfy the body's need for vitamin D.
In the same way, the protruding "Caucasian nose" evolved to warm the cold air, and the epicanthus of the Mongoloids was formed as a protection of the eyes from dust storms and steppe winds.
sexual selection
It was important for ancient man not to allow representatives of other ethnic groups into his range. This was a significant factor in the formation of racial characteristics, thanks to which our ancestors adapted to specific environmental conditions. Sexual selection played a large role in this.
In each ethnic group, focused on certain racial characteristics, their own ideas about beauty were fixed. Whoever these signs were more pronounced - he had more chances to pass them on by inheritance.
While the tribesmen, who did not fit the standards of beauty, were practically deprived of the opportunity to influence the offspring.
For example, the Scandinavian peoples, from the point of view of biology, have recessive traits - skin, hair and light-colored eyes - which, thanks to sexual selection that lasted for millennia, formed into a stable form adaptive to the conditions of the north.
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Human races are biological subdivisions of the species Homo sapiens that have historically developed in the evolution of man. They differ in complexes of hereditarily transmitted and gradually changing morphological, biochemical and other features. The modern geographical areas of distribution, or areas, occupied by races, make it possible to outline the territories in which races were formed. Due to the social nature of man, races are qualitatively different from subspecies of wild and domestic animals.
If for wild animals the term "geographic races" can be applied, then in relation to man it has largely lost its meaning, since the connection of human races with the original areas is broken by numerous migrations of masses of people, as a result of which there was a mixing of the most diverse races and peoples and formed new human associations.
Most anthropologists divide humanity into three large races: Negroid-Australoid ("black"), Caucasoid ("white") and Mongoloid ("yellow"). Using geographical terms, the first race is called the Equatorial, or African-Australian, the second, the European-Asian, the third, the Asian-American race. There are the following branches of large races: African and Oceanian; northern and southern; Asian and American (G. F. Debets). The population of the Earth is now over 3 billion 300 million people (data for 1965). Of these, the first race accounts for approximately 10% of the second - 50% and the third - 40%. This is, of course, a rough total count, since there are hundreds of millions of racially mixed individuals, numerous minor races, and mixed (intermediate) racial groups, including those of ancient origin (eg Ethiopians). Large, or primary, races, occupying vast territories, are not completely homogeneous. They are divided according to physical (bodily) characteristics into branches, into 10-20 small races, and those into anthropological types.
Modern races, their origin and systematics are studied by ethnic anthropology (racial science). Population groups are subjected to research for survey and quantitative definition of so-called racial signs with the subsequent processing of mass data by methods of variational statistics (see). Anthropologists use for this scale the color of the skin and the iris of the eyes, the color and shape of the hair, the shape of the eyelid, nose and lips, as well as anthropometric instruments: compasses, goniometer, etc. (see Anthropometry). Hematological, biochemical and other examinations are also conducted.
Belonging to one or another racial subdivision is determined on men aged 20-60 according to a complex of genetically stable and quite characteristic signs of the physical structure.
Further descriptive features of the racial complex: the presence of a beard and mustache, the stiffness of the hair of the head, the degree of development of the upper eyelid and its fold - the epicanthus, the slope of the forehead, the shape of the head, the development of the superciliary ridges, the shape of the face, the growth of hair on the body, the type of constitution (see Habitus) and body proportions (see Constitution).
Options for the shape of the skull: 1 - dolichocranial ellipsoid; 2 and 3 - brachycranial (2 - rounded, or spheroid, 3 - wedge-shaped, or sphenoid); 4 - mesocranial pentagonal, or pentagonoid.
A unified anthropometric examination on a living person, as well as on the skeleton, mostly on the skull (Fig.), allows you to clarify somatoscopic observations and make a more correct comparison of the racial composition of tribes, peoples, individual populations (see) and isolates. Racial characters vary and are subject to sexual, age, geographical and evolutionary variability.
The racial composition of mankind is very complex, which to a large extent depends on the mixing (miscegenation) of the population of many countries in connection with ancient migrations and modern mass migrations. Therefore, on the territory of the land inhabited by mankind, contact and intermediate racial groups are found, formed from the interpenetration of two or three or more complexes of racial features during the miscegenation of anthropological types.
The process of racial miscegenation greatly increased in the era of capitalist expansion after the discovery of America. As a result, for example, Mexicans are half-mestizo between Indians and Europeans.
A noticeable increase in interracial mixing is observed in the USSR and other socialist countries. This is the result of the elimination of all kinds of racial barriers on the basis of correct scientifically based national and international policies.
The races are biologically equivalent and related by blood. The basis for this conclusion is the doctrine developed by Charles Darwin about monogenism, that is, about the origin of man from one species of ancient bipedal apes, and not from several (the concept of polygenism). Monogenism is confirmed by the anatomical similarity of all races, which, as Charles Darwin emphasized, could not have arisen through convergence, or convergence of characters, of different ancestral species. The species of monkeys that served as an ancestor for humans probably lived in South Asia, from where the most ancient people settled on the Earth. Ancient people, the so-called Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), gave rise to "reasonable man." But modern races did not originate from Neanderthals, but were formed anew under the influence of a combination of natural (including biological) and social factors.
The formation of races (racial genesis) is closely connected with anthropogenesis; both processes are the result of historical development. Modern man arose over a vast territory, approximately from the Mediterranean to Hindustan or somewhat more. From here, Mongoloids could form in the northeast direction, Caucasoids in the northwest, and Negroids and Australoids in the south. However, the problem of the ancestral home of modern man is still far from being fully resolved.
In more ancient eras, when people settled on Earth, their groups inevitably fell into conditions of geographical and, consequently, social isolation, which contributed to their racial differentiation in the process of interaction of factors of variability (see), heredity (see) and selection. With an increase in the abundance of the isolate, a new settlement occurred and contacts with neighboring groups arose, which caused miscegenation. In the formation of races, natural selection also played a certain role, the influence of which, as the social environment developed, noticeably weakened. In this regard, the signs of modern races are of secondary importance. Aesthetic or sexual selection also played a certain role in the formation of races; sometimes racial features could acquire the value of identifying features for representatives of one or another local racial group.
As the human population grew, both the specific significance and the direction of action of individual factors of racial genesis changed, but the role of social influences increased. If for the primary races, miscegenation was a differentiating factor (when the miscegenated groups again fell into conditions of isolation), now mixing levels out racial differences. Currently, about half of humanity is the result of miscegenation. Racial differences that have naturally arisen over long millennia must be and will be, as K. Marx pointed out, eliminated by historical development. But racial traits will still manifest themselves for a long time in various combinations, mainly in individuals. Cross-breeding often causes the emergence of new positive features of the physical warehouse and intellectual development.
The race of the patient must be taken into account when evaluating some of the findings of the medical examination. This applies mainly to the features of the color of the covers. The color of the skin, characteristic of a representative of the "black" or "yellow" race, in the "white" will turn out to be a symptom of Addison's disease or icterus; the purple tint of the color of the lips, the bluish nails of the Caucasoid, the doctor will evaluate as cyanosis, in the Negro - as a racial feature. On the other hand, color changes in "bronze disease", jaundice, cardio-respiratory failure, distinct in Caucasians, can be difficult to determine in representatives of the Mongoloid or Negroid-Australoid race. Of much less practical importance are corrections for racial characteristics in assessing physique, height, skull shape, etc., and so on. As for the alleged predisposition of a given race to a particular disease, increased susceptibility to infection, etc., these features, as a rule, do not have a “racial” character, but are associated with social, cultural, domestic and other living conditions, the proximity of natural foci of infection, the degree of acclimatization during resettlement, etc.
For about one million years from the beginning of the Quaternary period, during its glacial and interglacial epochs up to the post-glacial, modern era, ancient mankind settled more and more widely in the ecumene. The development of groups of mankind often took place in certain regions of the Earth, where the conditions of isolation and the characteristics of the natural environment were of great importance. The earliest humans evolved into Neanderthals, and Neanderthals evolved into Cro-Magnons.
Race - biological divisions of modern humanity (Homo sapiens), differing in common hereditary morphological features, associated with the unity of origin and a certain area of \u200b\u200bdwelling.
One of the first creators of racial classification was a French scientist Francois Bernier, published in 1684 a work in which he used the term "race". Anthropologists distinguish four large races of the first order and a number of intermediate ones, numerically small, but also independent. In addition, in each race of the first order, the main divisions are distinguished -
Negroid race: Negroes, Negrillies, Bushmen and Hottentots.
Characteristic features of the Negroid:
Curly hair (black);
Dark brown leather;
Brown eyes;
Moderately protruding cheekbones;
Strongly protruding jaws;
Thick lips;
Wide nose.
Mixed and transitional forms between the Negroid and Caucasoid large races: the Ethiopian race, the transitional groups of the Western Courts, the mulattos, the "colored" African groups.
Caucasoid race: northern, transitional forms, southern.
Characteristic features of the Caucasian:
Wavy or straight soft hair of different shades;
Light or dark skin;
Brown, light gray and blue eyes;
Weakly protruding cheekbones and jaws;
Narrow nose with high bridge;
Thin or medium lips. Mixed forms between Caucasoid
the great race and the American branch of the Mongoloid great race: the American mestizos.
Mixed forms between the Caucasoid great race and the Asian branch of the Mongoloid great race: Central Asian groups, South Siberian race, Laponoids and Suburalian Fig. 3.2. Caucasoid type, mixed groups of Siberia.
small races, or races of the second order, possessing (with some variations) the main features of their large race.
The signs on the basis of which races of different orders are distinguished are diverse. The most obvious are the degree of development of the tertiary hairline (the primary hairline already exists on the body of the embryo in the uterine state, the secondary - hair on the head, eyebrows - is present in the newborn; tertiary - associated with puberty), as well as a beard and mustache, hair shape and eye (Fig. 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4).
A well-known role in racial diagnosis is played by pigmentation, that is, the color of the skin, hair and growth. However, according to the degree of pigment-;
Mongoloid race: American races, Asian branch of the Mongoloid races, continental Mongoloids, Arctic race (Eskimos and Paleo-Asians), Pacific (East Asian) races.
Characteristic features of the Mongoloid:
Straight, coarse and dark hair;
Weak development of tertiary hairline;
Yellowish skin tone;
Brown eyes;
Flattened face with prominent cheekbones;
Narrow nose, often with a low bridge of nose;
The presence of epicanthus (a fold at the inner corner of the eye).
Transitional groups between the Asian branch of the Mongoloid big race and the Australoid big race: South Asian race (Southern Mongoloids), Japanese, East Indonesian Fig. 3.3. Mongoloid group
Australoid race: Veddoids, Australians, Ainu, Papuans and Melanesians, Negritos. Characteristic features of the Australoid:
Dark coloration of the skin;
Brown eyes;
Wide nose;
Thick lips;
Wavy hair;
Strongly developed tertiary hairline.
Other racial types (mixed): Malagasy, Polynesian, Micronesian, Hawaiian.
There are significant differences in each race. For example, rather light-pigmented groups of the Negroid African population and very dark Caucasians, residents of southern Europe. Therefore, the division of mankind into whites, yellows and blacks, accepted in the literature, does not correspond to the actual data. The peculiarity of growth (short stature) is typical only for a few pygmy peoples of Asia and Africa. Among the more specific features used in racial diagnostics, blood types, some genetic features, papillary patterns on the fingers, the shape of the teeth, etc. can be named.
Racial signs were not only continuously fixed, but also leveled. Being increasingly different from one another due to differences in the geographical environment with which they were associated, and under the influence of labor, the development of culture and other special conditions, the races at the same time acquired more and more similarity with each other in the general features of modern man. At the same time, as a result of a qualitatively special path of development, the human races began to differ more and more sharply from the subspecies of wild animals.
The time of the formation of racial types is usually attributed to the era of the emergence of a modern human species, a neoanthrope, during which the biological stage of anthropogenesis was basically completed, which was expressed in the cessation of the overall action of natural selection. The social development of human societies began.
The formation of the main races, according to scientists, took place 40-16 thousand years before the present. However, the processes of racial genesis continued later, but not so much under the influence of natural selection, but under the influence of other factors;
The study of the bone remains of Neanderthals and fossils of modern humans in the Old World has led some scientists to believe that about 100 thousand years ago, two large racial groups emerged in the bowels of ancient mankind (Ya. Ya. Roginsky, 1941, 1956). Sometimes they talk about the formation of two circles of race formation: large and small (Fig. 3.5).
In a large circle of race formation, the first initial branch of the human trunk was formed - the southwestern one. It was divided into two large racial groups: Euro-Asian, or Caucasian, and equatorial, or Negroid-Australoid. Appearing 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, more than a million years ago man began to populate Southern Europe and Southwest Asia, the natural conditions of which differed significantly from the natural conditions of Africa. The appearance of man coincides with the beginning of the epoch of glaciation, when mighty glaciers 2-3 km thick descended from the mountains to the plains and covered vast spaces, binding a huge mass of moisture. The ocean level dropped, the water surface was reduced, evaporation decreased. The climate everywhere became drier and colder. During the glaciation, ancient people left such harsh regions and migrated to places with a favorable climate. This contributed to their mixing (after all, before the beginning of the last glaciation, there were no characteristic racial differences yet).
The most significant difference between the two races in the process of their development in a large circle of racial formation was the color of the skin, as well as a number of other features.
In people negroid race: dark eye color, the predominance of dark skin pigmentation (with the exception of the Hottentots); dark coarse curly or wavy hair; poor development of the tertiary hairline, wide nose in the wings, thick lips, alveolar prognathism is common (strong protrusion of the front of the skull). Dark skin protects their body from harmful ultraviolet rays, curly hair creates an air gap that protects the head from overheating.
In people caucasian race: skin color varies from white to light brown, and eyes - from blue to black; hair is soft, straight or wavy; medium and strong development of tertiary hairline; significant profiling (protrusion) of the facial skeleton; narrow, strongly protruding nose; lips thin or medium. Northern Caucasians are characterized by light pigmentation of the skin and hair (blonds); among them there are albinos, almost devoid of pigmentation. Blue eyes predominate. Southern Caucasians are heavily pigmented, brunettes. Some groups of southern Caucasoids have a particularly sharp profiling of the face and a strong development of the hairline (assiroids). The eyes are usually dark. Large groups of Caucasians have intermediate pigmentation (brown, dark blond).
Natural selection determined the survival of narrow-faced (the minimum surface of the body surface unprotected by clothing), long-nosed (warming up the inhaled cold air), thin-lipped (preservation of internal heat), with a lush beard and mustache (they protect the face from the cold, according to polar explorers, better than a fur mask). A long winter weakened the body, especially for children, threatening rickets. The best cure for it is ultraviolet rays. Their excess causes a burn, Dark skin serves as protection against them. Light skin transmits ultraviolet rays, at a moderate dose they penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin, producing vitamin D, which is so necessary for the body - a panacea for rickets. Light hair on the head also does not retain ultraviolet rays, passing them to the skin. During the polar night, the northern lights, which emit the blue part of the spectrum, serve as an additional source of light. The dark iris of the eye absorbs this part of the spectrum, while the blue iris transmits it. Thus, in the Far North, a fair-haired, fair-skinned, blue-eyed race should have formed, which it is legitimate to call Nordic. To a greater or lesser extent, the features of this rice have been preserved by the peoples of Northern Europe.
Currently, the skin color is darker in the Negroid-Australoid! noah, races and those Caucasian races that were formed in the hotter southern countries. On the contrary, the territorial-northern Caucasoid racial groups gradually brightened. It is believed that at first there was a lightening of the skin, s @ 1, finally, of the hair.
In a small circle of formation in the North-East; Asia, to north and east of the Himalayan mountains formed mongolian race, which gave rise to several anthropological types. People of the Mongoloid race are characterized by yellowish; skin color, dark straight thicker hair, weak development of tertiary hairline, flattened facial skeleton with a protruding zygomatic part, alveolar prognathism, a peculiar structure of the eye, in which the lacrimal tubercle is covered by a fold (epicanthus), and other signs, in particular, the so-called spatulate incisors.
The features of this race were formed in the conditions of open steppe expanses, strong dust and snow storms. During the period) of the formation of the Mongoloids and their advancement across Eurasia 20-15 thousand years ago, the area of glaciers increased, the level of the oceans dropped by 150 meters, the climate became even drier and colder. In a wide strip from the East European to the Great Chinese Plain, the rate of loess accumulation increased tenfold. The loess is a product of weathering, and its increase testifies to the raging loess storms. Natural selection led to the extinction of part of the population. - Those who had a narrow slit of the eyes, epicanthus - a fold of the eyelid that protected the lacrimal tubercle of the eye from dust, a snub nose, straight coarse hair, a sparse beard and mustache that did not clog with dust survived. Skin with a yellowish tinge marked people against the background of yellow loess soils. Thus, populations with Mongoloid features were formed. Archaeological finds indicate that during the peak of glaciation, hunter settlements were located in groups among uninhabited spaces.
In the east of Eurasia, the Mongoloids through Beringia - the landmass that connected Siberia with North America - penetrated into Alaska, free from glaciers. Further, the path to the south is blocked by the giant Canadian ice sheet. At the beginning of the peak of glaciation, when the level of the World Ocean was dropping very quickly, a land corridor formed along the western edge of the shield, along which hunters penetrated the Great Plains of North America. The way to the south was blocked by the deserts of Mexico, and the natural conditions on the Great Plains turned out to be very favorable. Although there were loess storms here, which caused the extinction of mammoths, countless herds of bison and deer served as an excellent object of hunting. The Great Plains are literally littered with stone spearheads. The similarity of natural conditions on the Great Plains and in Central Asia led to the appearance of a number of similar features among the Indians: skin with a yellowish tint, coarse straight hair, and the absence of a beard and mustache. Less ferocious loess storms made it possible to preserve large aquiline noses and a wide slit in the eyes. Archaeological finds indicate that the Indians are morphologically similar to the ancient inhabitants of the Baikal region, who lived there before the peak of glaciation. Settling further and further south along the mainland, this group eventually transformed into an Indian, or American, small race, which scientists usually divide into several anthropological types.
All racial differences were formed as adaptations to the environment. Humans of all human races constitute one species. This is evidenced by their genetic unity - the same set of chromosomes, the same diseases, blood types, fertile offspring from interracial marriages.
As mankind settled and developed new ecological niches with different natural conditions, small races became isolated within large races, and intermediate (mixed) races arose at the boundaries of contacts between large races (Fig. 3.6).
Caucasoids Mongoloids Mixed types Negroids Australoids
Caucasians Mestizos Mulattos Negroids
Mongoloid Indians
Rice. 3.6. Distribution of races in the world (Start)
In the course of history there has been a constant mixing of races, as a result of which practically pure races do not exist, and all of them show certain signs of mixing. In addition, there were many intermediate anthropological types, combining different racial characteristics. According to all the main morphological, physiological, mental and mental properties, the races do not have any fundamental, qualitative differences and constitute a single biological species Homo sapiens.
This process has been especially intensive during the last 10-15 thousand years. From the same time that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, the process of mixing (or miscegenation) assumed enormous proportions. On the whole, the whole of mankind is more or less mixed; tens of millions of people are very difficult or simply impossible to classify even into any large race. Mixed marriages of Negroes - slaves from Africa and whites gave rise to mulattoes, Indians of the Mongoloids with white colonizers - mestizos, and Indians and Negroes - sambo. The main reason for the mixing of racial characteristics was the numerous migrations of the population (Fig. 3.7, 3.8).
However, near the borders of the ecumene, located in the marginal areas of human settlement, the factor of natural isolation played the greatest role. On Earth, peoples have survived that have pronounced complexes of racial characteristics; Such, for example, are the pygmies in the jungles of the Congo Basin in Africa; Indians in the equatorial forests of the Amazon; Lapps (Saami) in the Far North of Europe; Eskimos (Innuits) in the Far North of Asia and America; Indians in the Far South of South America; Australian Aborigines, Papuans of New Guinea; Bushmen in the South African Kalahari and Namib deserts.
Today, the geographical position of the modern races has become quite clearly established (see color incl. 7). Negroids live in most of the African continent and in the New World, where they were taken as slaves. The main areas of Mongoloid settlement are Siberia, Southeast, East and Central Asia, partially Central Asia, Polynesia and America. Caucasoids live in almost all parts of the world, but they are mainly settled in Pyrope. North, Central and South America, in a significant part of Western and Central Asia, in the northern regions of South Asia. Migrants from the Old and New Worlds make up a large part of the Caucasian population of Australia and New Zealand.
Representatives of the large Australoid (Oceanian) race are scattered (mostly in relatively small groups) over a vast territory from South Asia to Southeast and East Asia, Australia and Oceania.
Recognition of the fact of evolution at the end of the XIX century. meant the rejection of the Typological approach to species, since Darwinism emphasized
(Fig. 3.7. Mestizos from mixed marriages)
3.8. World migrations of the population in the XVII-first half of the XIX centuries.
and the fact of individual variability within species, and the constant transformation that each species undergoes. However, until recently anthropologists' thinking was distinctly typological, textbooks of physical anthropology contained for the most part descriptions and names of human races. Some authors (“unifiers”) named only a dozen human races, while others (“crushers”) named a myriad of them.
The difficulty with using these categories is that there are too many contradictions between the different ways of dividing the human races. Are the Turks a white race, as evidenced by their appearance, or oil and belong to the Mongoloid tribes of Central Asia, which they (together with the Hungarians and Finns) have a linguistic
physical relationship? What to do with the Basques, who at first glance look like Spaniards, but whose language and culture are unlike any other in the world? Those who speak Hindi and Urdu in India create their own problem. Historically, they are a mixture of South Asian Dravidian natives, Central Asian Aryans (who are clearly Caucasian) and Persians. Should they be classified in the same group with the Europeans, whose languages are derived from Sanskrit - Hindi and Urdu are very close to it, or should they be grouped with the inhabitants of South Asia because of their dark skin?
The attempt to compile more and more complex sets of characteristics of human types, which would correspond to the incredible diversity of people, eventually failed. Anthropologists no longer try to name and define races and subraces, because they understand that there are no pure human groups. The most striking feature of the general history of mankind is the incessant, small migration of the population and, consequently, the mixing of racial groups from different regions.
Most accepted classification of races proposed Ya. Ya. Roshch Ginsky and M. G. Levin(Figure 3.9).
Racial studies as a science in our country developed poorly, since the state artificially obscured the severity of the problem. However, during the years of pluralistic development of spiritual life, fascist and other extremely nationalist movements appeared in our country, which absorbed the ideological principles of racism. That is why a scientific analysis of these problems is now so necessary.
Is race a biological or social phenomenon?
Author of the book "Cultural Anthropology" K.F.Kottak He writes that the scientific study of race as a biological formation is very problematic, it raises many questions and bewilderment. Researchers experience great difficulty in applying biological ideas to groups of people in the question of which or sets of external features are most significant in determining their racial affiliation in different people. If we give priority to skin color, then the terms themselves do not accurately describe the color. The HRC of this classification, entire peoples remain outside it: Polynesians, peoples of South India, Australians, Bushmen to the south! Africa cannot be assigned to any of the three races named above.
Moreover, mixed marriages, and their number is increasing, modify the phenotypes of races, and in life the problem comes down first of all to determining the status of the baby. In American culture, a subject is racially determined at birth, but race is not based on biology or simple inheritance.
Rice. 3.9. Major racial groups
In the traditions of American culture, a child born of a mixed marriage of an African American and a "white" child can be classified as "black", while, according to the genotype, it should probably be classified as "white". In the US, racial division is primarily a social grouping and has nothing to do with biological division. Other nations also have cultural norms that govern these relationships. For example, the Brazilian designation of someone's race can be expressed in one of 500 different terms. If we take the blood type as the basis for identifying a race, then the number of races may increase to a million. The conclusion from such a hypothesis will be the position that all races are biologically valuable for creating their own culture and possessing universal universals.
However, there are other anti-scientific theories. They affirm the biological inequality of races. Proponents of racism Ielat humanity into superior and inferior races. The latter are not capable of cultural development and are doomed to degeneration. In co-
According to their theory, the inequality of races is due to the origin of people from different ancestors: Caucasoid - from Cro-Magnons, and the rest - from Neanderthals. Representatives of different races differ in the level of mental development; not all of them are capable of cultural development. These fabrications are refuted by scientific evidence. The capacity of the cerebral part of the skull varies among people of the same race, without affecting mental abilities; All elements of culture are similar in people of different races, and the uneven pace of its development does not depend on biological characteristics, but on historical and social reasons.
Another anti-scientific direction - social Darwinism - transfers the action of biological laws (the struggle for existence and natural selection) to modern human society and denies the role of social factors in human evolution. The inequality of people in society, its stratification into classes co-j, tsial-Darwinism explains the biological inequality of people, and not social reasons.
The problem of race and intelligence also require separate consideration. Researchers believe that there are many groups in the world that have power and are socially dominant in societies that justify their privileges by declaring less | shinstva (racial, ethnic, social) inferior nd nature. Similar theories have been found to justify apartheid in South Africa, European colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States, the alleged superiority of the white race was affirmed by the segregation doctrine. Confidence in the biologically substantiated backwardness of Native Americans - Indians gave grounds for their extermination, resettlement on reservations.
Scientific judgments have also appeared, trying to explain. that misfortune and poverty are nothing but the result of inferior intellectual faculties. American explorer A. Jensen, interpreting the observation, in the course of which it turned out that compared with "white" "black" Americans, on average, on testing, they show a lower level of intelligence, draws the following conclusion: "white" Americans are "smarter" than "blacks", "blacks" are hereditarily incapable of show the same level of intelligence as "whites". However, the same K. F. Kottak gives examples when measurements of IQ (intelligence index) among US Indians showed contrasting results; those who lived on reservations, in conditions of poverty and discrimination, showed an average IQ of 0.87, and Indians from more affluent areas with good schools for them 1.04. Today, in a number of states, such a study without the consent) of the test subjects is prosecuted by law.
It can be said that the original division of peoples into civilized and savage is already a thing of the past. Ethnographic data show that the abilities for cultural Evolution are equal in all races. Moreover, it has been proven that in any stratified society, differences in social groups in terms of economic, social, ethnic and racial parameters reflect inequality of opportunity to a greater extent than genetic structure. Therefore, differences in wealth, prestige and power between social classes are due to social relations, property.
The concept of "race" turned out to be completely vague, which prompted UNESCO to recommend using the term "ethnos" instead. And although the concept includes anthropological features, a common origin and a single language of a separate group of people, it is not identical to the concept of "race" in the biological sense - as a group of organisms that are geographically isolated and have acquired hereditary morphological and physiological differences. In addition, despite the genetic relationship, in some cases the differences among neighboring ethnic groups are so great that they cannot be explained without resorting to the biological concept of "race".