In the main and minor features of external appearance and internal structure, people are very similar to each other. Therefore, from a biological point of view, most scientists consider humanity as one species of “homo sapiens”.
Humanity, which now lives on almost all land, even in Antarctica, is not homogeneous in its composition. It is divided into groups that have long been called races, and this term has become established in anthropology.
The human race is a biological group of people similar, but not homologous, to the subspecies group of zoological taxonomy. Each race is characterized by a unity of origin; it arose and was formed in a certain initial territory, or area. Races are characterized by one or another set of bodily characteristics related primarily to appearance man, to his morphology and anatomy.
The main racial characteristics are the following: the shape of the hair on the head; the nature and degree of development of hair on the face (beard, mustache) and on the body; hair, skin and eye color; shape of the upper eyelid, nose and lips; head and face shape; body length, or height.
Human races are the subject of special study in anthropology. According to many Soviet anthropologists, modern humanity consists of three big races, which are in turn divided into small races. These latter again consist of groups of anthropological types; the latter represent the basic units of racial taxonomy (Cheboksarov, 1951).
Within any human race one can find more typical and less typical representatives. In the same way, races are more characteristic, more clearly expressed and differ relatively little from other races. Some races are intermediate in nature.
The large Negroid-Australoid (black) race is generally characterized by a certain combination of characteristics that are found in the most pronounced expression among Sudanese blacks and distinguish it from the Caucasoid or Mongoloid large races. To the number racial characteristics Negroids include: black, spirally curled or wavy hair; chocolate brown or even almost black (sometimes tan) skin; Brown eyes; a rather flat, slightly protruding nose with a low bridge and wide wings (some have a straight, narrower one); most have thick lips; very many long head; moderately developed chin; protruding forward dental part of the upper and mandible(jaw prognathism).
Based on their geographical distribution, the Negroid-Australoid race is also called equatorial, or African-Australian. It naturally breaks down into two small races: 1) Western, or African, otherwise Negroid, and 2) Eastern, or Oceanian, otherwise Australoid.
Representatives of the large Euro-Asian, or Caucasian, race (white) are generally characterized by a different combination of characteristics: pinkishness of the skin, due to translucent blood vessels; Some have lighter skin color, others darker; many have light hair and eyes; wavy or straight hair, medium or strong development body and facial hair; lips of medium thickness; the nose is rather narrow and strongly protruding from the plane of the face; high nose bridge; poorly developed fold of the upper eyelid; slightly protruding jaws and upper face, moderately or strongly protruding chin; usually a small width of the face.
Big inside Caucasian(white) three small races are distinguished by the color of their hair and eyes: the more pronounced northern (light-colored) and southern (dark-colored), as well as the less pronounced Central European (with intermediate coloring). A significant part of Russians belong to the so-called White Sea-Baltic group of types of the northern small race. They are characterized by light brown or blond hair, blue or gray eyes, and very fair skin. At the same time, their nose often has a concave back, and the bridge of the nose is not very high and has a different shape than that of the northwestern Caucasoid types, namely the Atlanto-Baltic group, whose representatives are found mainly in the population of the countries of Northern Europe. With the last group, the White Sea-Baltic has a lot common features: both of them make up the northern Caucasoid small race.
Darker-colored groups of southern Caucasians form the bulk of the population of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.
The Mongoloid, or Asian-American, large (yellow) race as a whole differs from the Negroid-Australoid and Caucasoid large races in the combination of racial characteristics characteristic of it. Thus, its most typical representatives have dark skin with yellowish tints; dark brown eyes; hair black, straight, tight; On the face, a beard and mustache, as a rule, do not develop; the body hair is very poorly developed; typical Mongoloids are characterized by a highly developed and peculiarly located fold of the upper eyelid, which covers internal corner eyes, thereby causing a somewhat oblique position of the palpebral fissure (this fold is called epicanthus); their face is rather flat; wide cheekbones; the chin and jaws protrude slightly; the nose is straight, but the bridge is low; lips are moderately developed; Most are of average or below average height.
This combination of characteristics is more common, for example, among the northern Chinese, who are typical Mongoloids, but taller. In other Mongoloid groups one can find less or thicker lips, less tight hair, and shorter stature among them. Special place occupied by the American Indians, because some characteristics seem to bring them closer to the great Caucasian race.
There are also groups of types of mixed origin in humanity. The so-called Lapland-Urals include the Lapps, or Sami, with their yellowish skin but soft dark hair. By their physical characteristics, these inhabitants of the far north of Europe connect the Caucasoid and Mongoloid races.
There are also groups that at the same time have great similarities with two other, more sharply different races, and the similarities are explained not so much by mixing as by ancient family ties. Such, for example, is the Ethiopian group of types, connecting the Negroid and Caucasoid races: it has the character of a transitional race. This appears to be a very ancient group. The combination of the characteristics of two large races in it clearly indicates very distant times when these two races still represented something single. Many inhabitants of Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, belong to the Ethiopian race.
In total, humanity falls into about twenty-five to thirty groups of types. At the same time, it represents unity, since among the races there are intermediate (transitional) or mixed groups of anthropological types.
It is characteristic of most human races and type groups that each of them occupies a certain common territory, on which this part of humanity historically arose and developed.
But due to historical conditions, it has happened more than once that one or another part of the representatives of a given race moved to neighboring or even very distant countries. In some cases, some races completely lost contact with their original territory, or a significant part of them were subjected to physical extermination.
As we have seen, representatives of one or another race are characterized by approximately the same combination of hereditary bodily characteristics related to the external appearance of a person. However, it has been established that these racial characteristics change during an individual's life and in the course of evolution.
Representatives of each human race, due to their common origin, are somewhat closer related to each other than to representatives of other human races.
Racial groups are characterized by strong individual variability, and the boundaries between different races usually appear to be mildly expressed. So. Some races are connected with other races through imperceptible transitions. In some cases it is very difficult to install racial composition population of a particular country or population group, population.
The determination of racial characteristics and their individual variability is made on the basis of techniques developed in anthropology and with the help of special tools. As a rule, hundreds and even thousands of representatives of the racial group of humanity being studied are subjected to measurements and examination. Such techniques make it possible to judge with sufficient accuracy the racial composition of a particular people, the degree of purity or mixedness of a racial type, but do not provide an absolute opportunity to classify some people as one or another race. This depends either on the fact that the racial type in a given individual is not clearly expressed, or due to the fact that this person is the result of mixing.
Racial characteristics in some cases vary noticeably even throughout a person’s life. Sometimes over a period of not very long time the characteristics of racial divisions change. Thus, in many groups of humanity over the past hundreds of years the shape of the head has changed. The leading progressive American anthropologist Franz Boas established that the shape of the skull changes within racial groups even over a much shorter period, for example, when moving from one part of the world to another, as happened among immigrants from Europe to America.
Individual and general shape variations in racial characteristics are inextricably linked and lead to continuous, although usually little noticeable, modifications of the racial groups of humanity. The hereditary composition of the race, being quite stable, is nevertheless subject to constant change. We have so far talked more about racial differences than about similarities between races. However, let us recall that the differences between races appear quite clearly only when a set of characteristics is taken. If we consider racial characteristics separately, then only very few of them can serve as more or less reliable evidence of an individual’s belonging to a particular race. In this regard, perhaps the most striking feature is spirally curled, or, in other words, kinky (finely curly) hair, so characteristic of typical blacks.
In very many cases it is completely impossible to determine. what race should a person be classified as? So, for example, a nose with a rather high back, bridge medium height and medium-wide wings may occur in some groups of all three major races, as well as other racial characteristics. And this is regardless of whether that person came from a biracial marriage or not.
The fact that racial characteristics are intertwined serves as one of the proofs that races have common origin and are blood related to one another.
Racial differences are usually secondary or even tertiary features in the structure of the human body. Some of the racial characteristics, such as skin color, are largely related to the adaptability of the human body to the natural environment. Such features developed during historical development humanity, but they are already in to a large extent lost theirs biological significance. In this sense human races are not at all similar to subspecies groups of animals.
In wild animals, racial differences arise and develop as a result of the adaptation of their body to the natural environment in the process of natural selection, in the struggle between variability and heredity. Subspecies of wild animals as a result of long or fast biological evolution can and do turn into species. Subspecies features are vital for wild animals and have an adaptive nature.
Breeds of domestic animals are formed under the influence of artificial selection: the most useful or beautiful individuals are taken into the tribe. The breeding of new breeds is carried out on the basis of the teachings of I.V. Michurin, often in a very short time, over just a few generations, especially in combination with proper feeding.
Artificial selection played no role in the formation of modern human races, but natural selection had a secondary meaning, which he lost long ago. It is obvious that the process of origin and development of human races differs sharply from the paths of origin of breeds of domestic animals, not to mention cultivated plants.
First Basics scientific understanding The origin of human races from a biological point of view was laid down by Charles Darwin. He specially studied the human races and established the certainty of their very close similarity to each other in many basic characteristics, as well as their blood, very close relationship. But this, according to Darwin, clearly indicates their origin from one common trunk, and not from different ancestors. All further development of science confirmed his conclusions, which form the basis for monogenism. Thus, the doctrine of the origin of man from different monkeys, i.e. polygenism, turns out to be untenable and, consequently, racism is deprived of one of its main supports (Ya. Ya. Roginsky, M. G. Levin, 1955).
What are the main characteristics of the “homo sapiens” species, which are characteristic of all modern human races without exception? The main, primary features should be recognized as a very large and highly developed brain with a very big amount convolutions and grooves on the surface of its hemispheres and human hand, which, according to Engels, is an organ and a product of labor. The structure of the leg is also characteristic, especially the foot with a longitudinal arch, adapted to support the human body when standing and moving.
Important features of the type of modern man include the following: a spinal column with four curves, of which the lumbar curve, which developed in connection with upright walking, is especially characteristic; the skull with its rather smooth outer surface, with a highly developed cerebral and poorly developed facial regions, with high frontal and parietal areas of the cerebral region; highly developed gluteal muscles, as well as muscles of the thigh and lower leg; poor development of body hair with complete absence tufts of tactile hair, or vibrissae, in the eyebrows, mustache and beard.
Possessing the totality of the listed characteristics, all modern human races stand on the same level. high level development physical organization. Although different races These basic species characteristics are not quite equally developed - some are stronger, others are weaker, but these differences are very small: all races completely have features like modern humans, and not one of them is Neanderthaloid. Of all the human races, there is not one that is biologically superior to any other race.
Modern human races have equally lost many of the ape-like features that Neanderthals had and have acquired the progressive features of “Homo sapiens.” Therefore, none of the modern human races can be considered more ape-like or more primitive than the others.
Adherents of the false doctrine of superior and inferior races claim that blacks are more like monkeys than Europeans. Nose scientific point This is completely false. Blacks have spirally curled hair, thick lips, a straight or convex forehead, no tertiary hair on the body and face, and very long legs relative to the body. And these signs indicate that it is blacks who differ more sharply from chimpanzees. than Europeans. But the latter, in turn, differ more sharply from monkeys with their very light skin color and other features.
The Soviet scientist Valery Pavlovich Alekseev (1929-1991) made a great contribution to the description of human races. In principle, we are now guided precisely by his calculations in this interesting anthropological issue. So what is race?
It's relatively stable biological characteristics kind of people. They are united by their general appearance and psychophysical characteristics. At the same time, it is important to understand that this unity does not in any way affect the form of community life and the methods life together. General signs are purely external, anatomical, but they cannot be used to judge people’s intelligence, their ability to work, live, engage in science, art, etc. mental activity. That is, representatives of different races are absolutely identical in their mental development. They also have absolutely the same rights, and, therefore, responsibilities.
The ancestors of modern humans are Cro-Magnons. It is assumed that their first representatives appeared on Earth 300 thousand years ago in the South- East Africa. Over the course of thousands of years, our distant ancestors spread throughout the world. They lived in different climatic conditions, and therefore acquired strictly specific biological characteristics. A single habitat gave rise to general culture. And within this culture ethnic groups were formed. For example, Roman ethnos, Greek ethnos, Carthaginian ethnos and others.
Human races are divided into Caucasoids, Negroids, Mongoloids, Australoids, and Americanoids. There are also subraces or minor races. Their representatives have their own certain biological traits that are absent in other people.
1 - Negroid, 2 - Caucasian, 3 - Mongoloid, 4 - Australoid, 5 - Americanoid
Caucasians - white race
The first Caucasians appeared in Southern Europe And North Africa. From there they spread throughout the European continent, reaching the Middle, Central Asia and Northern Tibet. They crossed the Hindu Kush and ended up in India. Here they settled the entire northern part of Hindustan. They also explored the Arabian Peninsula and the northern regions of Africa. In the 16th century, they crossed the Atlantic and settled almost all of North America and most of South America. Then it was the turn of Australia and South Africa.
Negroids - black race
Negroids or blacks are considered the indigenous inhabitants of the tropical zone. This explanation is based on melanin, which gives the skin its black color. It protects the skin from the burns of the scorching tropical sun. No doubt, it prevents burns. But what kind of clothes do people wear on a hot sunny day - white or black? Of course white, because it reflects well Sun rays. Therefore, in extreme heat, it is unprofitable to have black skin, especially with high insolation. From this we can assume that blacks appeared in those climatic conditions where cloudiness prevailed.
Indeed, the oldest finds of Grimaldi (Negroids), dating back to the Upper Paleolithic, were discovered in the territory of Southern France (Nice) in the Grimaldi Cave. In the Upper Paleolithic, this entire area was inhabited by people with black skin, woolly hair and large lips. They were tall, slender, long-legged hunters of large herbivores. But how did they end up in Africa? In the same way that Europeans got to America, that is, they moved there, displacing the indigenous population.
It is interesting that South Africa was inhabited by Negroes - Bantu Negroes (classical Negroes as we know them) in the 1st century BC. e. That is, the pioneers were contemporaries of Julius Caesar. It was at this time that they settled in the forests of the Congo, the savannas of East Africa, reached the southern regions of the Zambezi River and found themselves on the banks of the muddy Limpopo River.
And who did these European conquerors with black skin supplant? After all, someone lived before them on these lands. This is a special southern race, which is conventionally called " Khoisan".
Khoisan race
It includes the Hottentots and Bushmen. They differ from blacks in their brown skin and Mongoloid features. Their throats are structured differently. They pronounce words not on the exhale, like the rest of us, but on the inhale. They are considered the remnants of some ancient race that inhabited the Southern Hemisphere a long time ago. There are very few of these people left, and in the ethnic sense they do not represent anything integral.
Bushmen- quiet and calm hunters. They were driven out by the Bichuani blacks into the Kalahari Desert. This is where they live, forgetting their ancient and rich culture. They have art, but it is in a rudimentary state, since life in the desert is very difficult and they have to think not about art, but about how to get food.
Hottentots(Dutch name of the tribes), who lived in the Cape Province (South Africa), became famous for being real robbers. They stole cattle. They quickly became friends with the Dutch and became their guides, translators and farm workers. When the Cape Colony was captured by the British, the Hottentots became friends with them. They still live on these lands.
Australoids
Australoids are also called Australians. How they got to Australian lands is unknown. But they ended up there a long time ago. It was a huge number of small tribes with different customs, rituals and culture. They did not like each other and practically did not communicate.
Australoids are not similar to Caucasoids, Negroids and Mongoloids. They only look like themselves. Their skin is very dark, almost black. The hair is wavy, the shoulders are wide, and the reaction is extremely fast. Relatives of these people live in South India on the Deccan plateau. Maybe from there they sailed to Australia, and also populated all the islands nearby.
Mongoloids - yellow race
Mongoloids are the most numerous. They are divided into a large number of subraces or minor races. There are Siberian Mongoloids, North Chinese, South Chinese, Malay, Tibetan. What they have in common is a narrow eye shape. The hair is straight, black and coarse. The eyes are dark. The skin is dark and has a slight yellowish tint. The face is wide and flattened, cheekbones protrude.
Americanoids
Americanoids populate America from the tundra to Tierra del Fuego. Eskimos do not belong to this race. They are alien people. Americanoids have black and straight hair and dark skin. The eyes are black and narrower than those of Caucasians. These people have a huge number of languages. It is even impossible to make any classification among them. There are many dead languages now because their speakers have died out and the languages have been written down.
Pygmies and Caucasians
Pygmies
Pygmies belong to the Negroid race. They live in the forests of equatorial Africa. Remarkable for their small stature. Their height is 1.45-1.5 meters. The skin has Brown color, lips are relatively thin, hair is dark and curly. Living conditions are poor, hence the short stature, which is a consequence of the small amount of vitamins and proteins, necessary for the body For normal development. Currently, low growth has become genetic inheritance. Therefore, even if pygmy babies are fed intensively, they will not grow tall.
Thus, we have examined the main human races existing on Earth. But it should be noted that race has never been of decisive importance for the formation of culture. It is also noteworthy that over the past 15 thousand years no new biological types of people have appeared, and the old ones have not disappeared. Everything is still at a stable level. The only thing is that people of different biological types are mixed. Mestizos, mulattoes, and Sambos appear. But these are not biological and anthropological, but social factors determined by the achievements of civilization.
The population of our planet today exceeds 7 billion people. This figure is increasing every day.
World population
Scientists have determined that in just a decade, the number of people on Earth will increase by 1 billion people. However, this dynamic demographic picture was not always so high.
Until a few centuries ago, the human population grew slowly. People died from unfavorable weather conditions and diseases in early age, since the development of science and technology was at a low level.
Today, the largest countries in terms of population are Japan, China and India. The population of these three countries becomes half of the total world population.
The smallest number of people live in countries whose territory covers equatorial forests, tundra and taiga zones, as well as mountain ranges. The bulk of the planet's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere (about 90%).
Races
All humanity is divided into races. Races represent organized groups people who are united by common external characteristics - body structure, face shape, skin color, hair structure.
Such external signs formed as a result of adaptation of human physiology to conditions external environment. There are three major races: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid.
The most numerous is the Caucasian race, accounting for about 45% of the planet's population. Caucasians inhabit the territory of Europe, part of Asia, South and North America and Australia.
The second largest race is the Mongoloid race. The Mongoloid race includes people living in Asia, as well as aborigines North America- Indians.
The Negroid race ranks third in number. Representatives of this race live in Africa. After the slave period, representatives of the Negroid race remained to live in South and North America.
Peoples
Large races are formed by representatives of many nations. Most of The world's population belongs to 20 large nations, their number exceeds 50 million people.
Nations are communities of people who have lived in the same territory for long periods of time. historical periods and are united by cultural heritage.
IN modern world There are about 1500 peoples. The geography of their settlement is very diverse. Some of them are spread all over the planet, some live within a populated area.
The species of animals and plants inhabiting the Earth differ in the degree of their variability: some of them are stable, uniform (monomorphic), others, on the contrary, are diverse (polymorphic). Everyone is well aware of the diversity and polymorphism of representatives of the species Homo sapiens- a reasonable person. People's facial features, body composition, skin color, hair color and structure, and many biochemical indicators vary. Groups of people similar in such characteristics are called races.
How many races of humans live on Earth? It's hard to say, different researchers call different number. The system of races is said to be hierarchical: “large” races, trunks, are divided into branches, branches into local, local races, and those, in turn, into groups of populations. What some anthropologists consider a branch, others classify as a trunk, and vice versa. Most people recognize three trunks - Negroids, Mongoloids and Caucasoids. Some scientists also add two to them - American Indians(Amerindians) and Australoids.
According to most scientists, the main characteristics of races, at the time when they were created, were adaptive, adaptive (see Adaptation). Having separated from the animal world, man remained for a long time (and in some places still is) under the direct influence natural conditions external environment. Then, in the Stone Age, the main features of the main races developed, showing in what climate these groups were formed.
For example, the signs of Negroids are adaptive: dark skin delays ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer, a wide nose and thick, swollen lips with a large surface of mucous membranes promote evaporation with high heat transfer, curly hair forms a natural “tropical helmet”, abnormal hemoglobin, saving them from tropical malaria.
The characteristics of Mongoloids are also adaptive - a flat and flat-nosed face, a fold in the corner of the eye (epicanthus), creating the impression of slanting. These are adaptations to the harsh continental climate with frequent dust storms. And although Mongoloids are now widespread from the tropics to the Arctic, their most pronounced types are characteristic of Transbaikalia, Mongolia, and Northern China.
Europeans have light skin, permeable to ultraviolet rays, which saves them from rickets in childhood, and a narrow, protruding nose that warms the inhaled air. In the humid and cold climate of Europe they became adaptive recessive traits(see Dominance) - fair skin, straight hair, blue and gray eyes.
Sometimes the adaptability of characters is clearly visible. In humans, for example, there are three forms, three alleles of one enzyme - erythrocyte acid phosphatase. The allele designated p a is more common among residents Far North(Sami, Aleut, Eskimo), allele r a - among the inhabitants equatorial belt. It is calculated that with increasing geographical latitude at 20°, the frequency of occurrence of the p a allele increases by 10%. The exception is the recent inhabitants of the North - the Yakuts and Evenks. Their “cold-resistant” allele has not yet had time to spread in populations.
At least twice, a complex of characteristics characterizing Negroids arose - in Africa and Melanesia. Curly-haired Melanesians were formed from Australoids - dark-skinned, but with wavy hair. The Tasmanians, now completely exterminated by white colonialists, also looked like Negroids. Negroid characteristics(dark skin, flattened nose, wavy rather than straight hair) are also found in some tribes of South American Indians in Brazil and Bolivia.
Mongoloid features (epicanthus) are found among the Negroids - Bushmen and Hottentots, who live in southern Africa in harsh desert conditions. And the Caucasoid appearance arose not only in Europe. In Peru, in graves of the 3rd century. BC e. Well-preserved mummies of red, wavy-haired people were discovered, sharply different from the Indians with their black straight hair. Norwegian scientist, traveler and writer Thor Heyerdahl considers them to be descendants of Caucasians who sailed across the Atlantic on papyrus boats. Perhaps the situation was different: the upper castes of the ancient Peruvians had a custom of consanguineous marriages, and at the same time, as we know, recessive alleles appear in the offspring (see Inbreeding). The hair and eyes of the burning brunettes - Indo-Afghans who live in mountainous areas, in small villages, where all the inhabitants are relatives, also lighten.
Amerindians are close to the Mongoloids, but they have a rare epicanthus and often have “eagle” noses. They are called redskins without any justification; their skin is simply dark. Perhaps they descended from the first Mongoloids who went to America even before the classical Mongoloids of Central and Central Asia were finally formed.
Australoids - inhabitants not only of Australia, but also of southern India, Andaman and the Philippines - are a cross between Negroids and Caucasians, they are dark-skinned, but not curly-haired, many have luxuriant beards. In the Stone Age, people similar to them lived in the place where the city of Voronezh now stands. Perhaps they retained more of the features of the common ancestors of these races, which is why they are often combined into a single Euro-African trunk.
Since many structural features of a clearly adaptive nature arise independently in different trunks, the relative proximity of different racial groups is still a subject of heated debate among scientists. Apparently, this issue can be resolved only after development modern methods research (comparison of sequences in DNA and proteins, etc.).
Anthropologists still have a lot of work to do. Man is the most restless creature on Earth; even in the Paleolithic era, people roamed for many thousands of kilometers, mixing with each other. This gave rise to a diversity of variants of the Homo sapiens species that is difficult to account for.
Despite extreme diversity, all people on Earth belong to the same species. It is important that all races are equal in mental abilities and with any interracial marriages, full-fledged and healthy children are born. Statements about the existence of superior and inferior races, capable and incapable peoples, and other misanthropic, racist theories have no scientific basis.
Based on the main characteristics (skin color, structure of the facial part of the head, the nature of the hair, body proportions), anthropologists distinguish large races of people: Caucasian, Mongoloid, Negroid and Australoid.
Races began to form at the end of the Stone Age on the basis of the largest territorial populations. It is possible that there were two main primary centers of race formation: western (Euro-African) and eastern (Asian-Pacific). In the first center, Negroids and Caucasoids were formed, and in the second - Australoids and Mongoloids. Later, during the development of new lands, mixed racial populations arose. For example, in North and East Africa, as well as in the south of Western Asia, the mixing of Caucasoids with Negroids began very early, in Hindustan - Caucasians with Australoids, and partly with Mongoloids, in Oceania - Australoids with Mongoloids. Subsequently, after the discovery of America, Australia and Oceania by Europeans, new vast zones of interracial miscegenation arose. In particular, in America, the descendants of Indians mixed with European and African settlers.
History of human population development modern look occurs not only in the natural-geographical, but also in the socio-cultural environment. In this regard, the relationship between two types of intraspecific communities - reproductive (populations) and historical-genetic (races) - changes radically. So, human races are large areal communities of people distinguished by genetic kinship, which outwardly manifests itself in a certain similarity physical signs: skin color and iris, hair shape and color, height, etc.
The largest (by number) large race is Caucasian - 46.4% of the population (together with transitional and mixed forms). Caucasians have straight or wavy soft hair in shades from light to dark, they have light or dark skin, a large variety of colors in the iris (from dark to gray and blue), a very developed tertiary hair coat (beard in men), insufficient or average protrusion of the jaws , narrow nose, thin or medium-thick lips. Among the Caucasians, there are branches - southern and northern. The northern branch is typical for the countries of Northern Europe; southern - common in southern Europe and North America, Western Asia and Northern India, it also includes the Caucasian population Latin America. Between the southern and northern branches is located wide band transitional types, including the population of Central and partially of Eastern Europe, Siberia and Far East Russia, as well as the Caucasian population of North America and Australia.
The Mongoloid (Asian-American) large race, together with transitional and mixed forms, makes up more than 36% of the world's population. Mongoloids are different yellow skin, black straight hair, underdeveloped tertiary hairline; characteristic dark eyes with epicanthus (fold of the upper eyelid), narrow or medium-wide nose, cheekbones that stick out very much.
There are two branches: Asian and American. The Mongoloids of Asia are divided into two main groups - continental and Pacific. Among the continental Mongoloids, the most common are the Northern or Siberian Mongols, Buryats, Yakuts, Evenks, etc., less common are the Eastern Mongoloids, mainly the Chinese. The northern groups of Pacific Mongoloids are represented by northern Tibetans, Koreans, etc. The American branch of the Mongoloids includes the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America - the Indians.
IN transitional forms The Mongoloid race includes a population that has significant Australoid characteristics: wavy hair, dark and olive skin from the Incas, a flat face, a wide nose. These are the Viet, Lao, Khmer, Malay, Javanese, Southern Chinese, Japanese and other peoples of Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Negroid (African) large race (16.6% of the world's population), as well as its transitional and mixed forms, are characterized by dark brown skin color, black curly hair, dark eyes, moderately prominent cheekbones, thick lips, a wide nose, and very developed prognathism. It includes the indigenous population of Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) - blacks, as well as the black population of the Sen, Central America, Antilles, Brazil. A separate group make up a dozen of the bush tribes tropical forests- Negrilli (pygmies), as well as South African Bushmen and Hottentots.
The Australoid (Oceanian) large race (0.3% of the world's population) is represented by Melanesians, Papuans of New Guinea and Australian Aborigines. Australoids are very close to Negroids and are characterized by dark skin color, wavy hair, and significant tertiary hair growth on the face and body in males. Among the Papuans and Melanesians of Oceania there are short tribes - the Negritos, living on the Malacca Peninsula and the Andaman Islands; Small tribes of the Vedam live in remote areas of India and the countries of Southeast Asia, and the Ainu live on the Japanese Islands.
Other racial types (mixed) - about 14 million people, include Polynesians, Micronesians, Hawaiians, Malagasy (mixing southern Mongoloids with Negroids and southern Caucasians - Arabs), mestizos (Caucasians with Mongoloids), mulattoes (Europeans with Negroes), Sambo (blacks with Indians).
The population of Europe belongs almost entirely to the Caucasoid race (about 17% of the region's population belongs to northern Caucasians, 32% to southern Caucasians and more than half to transitional and Central European forms).
In the territory of the former USSR, the majority of the population (85.4% according to 1987 data) belongs to the Caucasian race, represented by all its branches. The northern branch includes the southwestern groups of Russians, the southern branch includes the majority of the peoples of the Caucasus. Indigenous peoples Eastern Siberia and the Far East - Mongoloids. The transitional forms include the majority of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and other peoples of Eastern Europe, as well as the peoples of the Urals, Western Siberia, Altai and Kazakhstan, living in the contact zone with the Mongoloids.
Common in Asia various groups all four races: 29% - Caucasians ( Southwest Asia And Northern India) Asian Mongoloids - 31% and Southern Mongoloids - 25% ( South China, Indonesia, Indochina) Japanese type - 4.3%, over 10 million people are Australoids, on Arabian Peninsula Some of the population have Negroid features.
The population of Africa (54%) belongs to the Negroid race, prevailing in countries located south of the Sahara. In the north of the continent live Caucasians (25% of Africa's population), in the south live about 5 million Caucasians and their descendants who moved in the past from Western Europe. For modern population Africa is characterized by a large number of transitional forms (Ethiopians, Fulani - Negroids and Caucasians, Malagasy - Mongoloids, Negroids, Caucasians).
In America, the racial composition of the population is very diverse, which is due to the participation of representatives of three large races in its formation. Aborigines (Mongoloids: Indians, Aleuts, Eskimos) live compactly only in certain areas of the Mexican Highlands, in the Andes, in the interior of South America, in the Arctic regions (5.5%). Currently, the Caucasian race is widely represented - 51% (almost 9/10 of the population of the USA and Canada, over 1/4 of the population of Latin America). There are numerous mestizos in America - 23% (almost the entire population of Mexico, Central American countries, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay and other countries), fewer mulattoes - 13% (African Americans of the USA, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, peoples of the West Indies), there are groups sambo Negroids (7%) live in Brazil, the USA, and make up the main population of Haiti, Jamaica and other countries of the West Indies.
In Australia and New Zealand, representatives of the Caucasian race predominate (77% of the total population), Melanesians and Papuans make up 16.5%, Polynesians and Micronesians - 4.2%. The mixing of Oceanians with Caucasians, as well as immigrants from Asia, led to the formation of large mestizo groups in Polynesia, Micronesia, the Fiji Islands and New Caledonia.
The number of individual races is growing unevenly: over the last quarter century, the number of Negroids has increased by 2.3 times, mestizos and mulattoes of America - almost 2 times, southern Mongoloids - by 78%, Caucasians - by 48% (the northern branch - by only 19%, southern - by 72%).