Man represents one biological species, but why are we all so different? It's all due to different subspecies, that is, races. How many of them exist and what mixed ones are, let’s try to figure it out further.
Concept of race
The human race is a group of people who share a number of similar traits that are inherited. The concept of race gave impetus to the movement of racism, which is based on the belief in the genetic differences of representatives of races, the mental and physical superiority of some races over others.
Research in the 20th century showed that it is impossible to distinguish them genetically. Most of the differences appear externally, and their diversity can be explained by the characteristics of the habitat. For example, white skin promotes better absorption of vitamin D, and it appeared as a result of a lack of daylight.
Recently, scientists have increasingly supported the opinion that this term is irrelevant. Man is a complex creature; its formation is influenced not only by climatic and geographical factors, which largely define the concept of race, but also cultural, social and political. The latter contributed to the emergence of mixed and transitional races, further blurring all boundaries.
Big races
Despite the general vagueness of the concept, scientists are still trying to figure out why we are all so different. There are many classification concepts. They all agree that man is a single biological species Homo sapiens, which is represented by various subspecies or populations.
Options for differentiation range from two independent races to fifteen, not to mention many subraces. Most often in scientific literature they talk about the existence of three or four large races, which include small ones. Thus, according to external characteristics, they distinguish the Caucasian type, Mongoloid, Negroid, and also Australoid.
Caucasians are divided into northern ones - with blond hair and skin, gray or blue eyes, and southern ones - with dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes. They are characterized by narrow eyes, prominent cheekbones, coarse straight hair, and little body hair.
The Australoid race was long considered Negroid, but it turned out that they have differences. In terms of characteristics, the Veddoid and Melanesian races are much closer to it. Australoids and Negroids have dark skin, dark color eye. Although some Australoids may have light skin. They differ from Negroids in having abundant hair, as well as less wavy hair.
Minor and mixed races
Large races are too strong a generalization, because the differences between people are more subtle. Therefore, each of them is divided into several anthropological types, or small races. There are a huge number of them. For example, it includes the Negro, Khoisai, Ethiopian, and Pygmy types.
The term "mixed races" more often refers to populations of people that arose as a result of recent (since the 16th century) contacts of large races. These include mestizo, sambo, and mulatto.
Métis
In anthropology, mestizos are all descendants of marriages of people belonging to different races, regardless of which ones. The process itself is called crossbreeding. History knows many cases when representatives mixed race were discriminated against, humiliated and even exterminated during the Nazi policies in Germany, apartheid in South Africa and other movements.
In many countries, the descendants of specific races are also called mestizos. In America, they are the children of Indians and Caucasians, and in this meaning the term came to us. They are mainly distributed in South and North America.
The number of Métis in Canada, in the narrow sense of the term, is 500-700 thousand people. Active mixing of blood took place here during colonization, mainly European men entered into contact with. Separating themselves, the mestizos formed a separate ethnic group speaking the Mythic language (a complex mixture of French and Cree).
Mulattos
The descendants of Negroids and Caucasians are mulattoes. Their skin is light black, which is what the name of the term conveys. The name first appeared around the 16th century, coming to Spanish or Portuguese from Arabic. The word muwallad used to be used to describe non-purebred Arabs.
In Africa, mulattoes live mainly in Namibia and South Africa. Quite a large number of them live in the Caribbean region and countries Latin America. In Brazil they make up almost 40% of the total population, in Cuba - more than a half. A significant number live in the Dominican Republic - more than 75% of the population.
Mixed races used to have other names, depending on the generation and the proportion of Negroid genetic material. If Caucasian blood was classified as ¼ of Negroid blood (mulatto in the second generation), then the person was called a quadroon. The ratio of 1/8 was called octon, 7/8 - marabou, 3/4 - griff.
Sambo
The genetic mixture of Negroids and Indians is called Sambo. In Spanish the term is zambo. As with other mixed races, the term changed its meaning periodically. Previously name Sambo meant marriages between representatives of the Negroid race and mulattoes.
Sambo first appeared in South America. The Indians represented the indigenous population of the mainland, and blacks were brought as slaves to work on sugar cane plantations. Slaves were brought from the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 19th century. During this period, approximately 3 million people were transported from Africa.
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.
The history of the development of the modern human population 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 of Latin America. Between the southern and northern branches is located wide band transitional types, including the population of Central and partly 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 distinguished by yellow skin color, black straight hair, and insufficiently developed tertiary hair; 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.
The transitional forms of the Mongoloid race include 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 consists of the Duzhenizkorosli 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; in remote areas of India and countries South-East Asia There are small tribes of the Vedam and the Ainu 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.
Various groups of all four races are common in Asia: 29% are 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 racial composition 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%).
Dr. Don Batten and Dr. Karl Wieland
What are "races"?
How did different skin colors come about?
Is it true that black skin is the result of Noah's curse?
According to the Bible, all people living on Earth descended from Noah, his wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law (and even earlier from Adam and Eve - Genesis 1-11). However, today there are groups of people called “races” living on Earth, whose external characteristics vary significantly. Many view this state of affairs as a reason to doubt the truth of biblical history. It is believed that these groups could only have arisen through separate evolution over tens of thousands of years.
The Bible tells us how the descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language and kept together, disobeyed the Divine command « fill the earth» (Genesis 9:1; 11:4). God confused their languages, after which the people split into groups and were scattered throughout the Earth (Genesis 11:8-9). Modern methods geneticists show how variations could have evolved in just a few generations after humans separated external signs(for example, skin color). There is compelling evidence that the different groups of people we see in the modern world were not isolated from each other over vast periods of time.
In fact, on Earth "there is only one race"- a race of people, or the human race. The Bible teaches that God « from one blood... produced the entire human race" (Acts 17:26). The Holy Scripture distinguishes people by tribes and nations, and not by skin color or other features of appearance. At the same time, it is quite obvious that there are groups of people who have general signs(such as the notorious skin color) that distinguish them from other groups. We prefer to call them "groups of people" rather than "races" to avoid evolutionary associations. Representatives of any nations can interbreed freely and produce fertile offspring. This proves that the biological differences between the “races” are very small.
In fact, the differences in DNA composition are extremely small. If you take any two people from any corner of the Earth, then the differences in their DNA will normally be 0.2%. At the same time, the so-called “ racial characteristics» will amount to only 6% of this difference (that is, only 0.012%); everything else is within the range of “intra-racial” variations.
“This genetic unity means, for example, that a white American who is noticeably different from a black American in phenotype may be closer in tissue composition to him than another black American.”
Fig. 1 Caucasian and Mongoloid eyes differ in the amount of fat layer around the eye, as well as the ligament, which disappears in most non-Asian infants by six months of age.
Anthropologists divide humanity into several main racial groups: Caucasoid (or “white”), Mongoloid (including the Chinese, Eskimos and American Indians), Negroid (black Africans) and Australoid (Australian Aborigines). Almost all evolutionists these days accept that different groups of people could not have had different origins- that is, they could not have evolved from different species of animals. Thus, proponents of evolution agree with creationists that all groups of peoples descended from a single original population of the Earth. Of course, evolutionists believe that groups such as the Australian Aborigines and the Chinese were separated from the rest by tens of thousands of years.
Most people believe that such significant external differences could develop only for a very long time. One of the reasons for this misconception is this: many believe that external differences are inherited from distant ancestors who acquired unique genetic properties, which the others did not have. This assumption is understandable, but essentially incorrect.
Consider, for example, the issue of skin color. It is easy to assume that if different groups of people have yellow, red, black, white or brown skin, then there are different skin pigments. But since different chemicals imply different genetic code in the gene pool of each group, a serious question arises: how could such differences be formed in a relatively short period human history?
In fact, we all have only one skin “dye” - melanin. This is a dark brown pigment produced in each of us in special skin cells. If a person does not have melanin (as in albinos - people with a mutational defect that prevents melanin from being produced), then their skin color is very white or slightly pinkish. The cells of “white” Europeans produce little melanin, while those of black-skinned Africans produce a lot; and in between, as is easy to understand, all shades of yellow and brown.
Thus, the only significant factor determining skin color is the amount of melanin produced. In general, no matter what property of a group of people we consider, it will, in fact, be simply a variant comparable to others inherent in other peoples. For example, the Asian eye shape differs from the European one, in particular, in a small ligament that slightly pulls the eyelid down (see Figure 1). All newborns have this ligament, but after six months of age it remains, as a rule, only in Asians. Occasionally, the ligament is preserved in Europeans, giving their eyes an Asian almond-shaped shape, and vice versa, in some Asians it is lost, making their eyes Caucasoid.
What is the role of melanin? It protects the skin from ultraviolet sun rays. A person with a small amount of melanin under strong influence solar activity, are more prone to sunburn and skin cancer. And vice versa: if there is an excess of melanin in your cells, and you live in a country where there is not enough sun, it will be more difficult for your body to produce required amount vitamin D (which is produced in the skin when exposed to sunlight). A lack of this vitamin can cause bone diseases (for example, rickets) and some types of cancer. Scientists have also discovered that ultraviolet rays destroy folates (folic acid salts), vitamins necessary for strengthening the spine. Melanin helps conserve folate, so people with dark skin are better suited to living in areas with high levels of ultraviolet rays (tropics or high altitudes).
A person is born with a genetically determined ability produce melanin in a certain amount, and this ability is activated in response to sunlight - a tan appears on the skin. But how could such different skin colors arise over time? short term? If a representative of a black group of people marries a “white” person, the skin of their descendants ( mulattoes) will be "medium brown" in color. It has long been known that mulatto marriages produce children with a wide variety of skin colors - from completely black to completely white.
Awareness of this fact gives us the key to solving our problem as a whole. But first we need to become familiar with the basic laws of heredity.
Heredity
Each of us carries information about our own body - as detailed as a drawing of a building. This “drawing” determines not only that you are a person and not a head of cabbage, but also what color your eyes are, what the shape of your nose is, and so on. At the moment the sperm and egg merge into a zygote, it already contains all information about the future structure of a person (excluding such unpredictable factors as, say, exercise or diet).
Much of this information is encoded in DNA. DNA is the most effective information storage system, many times superior to any complex Computer techologies. The information recorded here is copied (and recombined) through the process of reproduction from generation to generation. The term "gene" means a piece of this information containing instructions for the production of, for example, just one enzyme.
For example, there is a gene that carries instructions for the production of hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. If this gene is damaged by mutation (a copying error during reproduction), the instructions will be incorrect - and, at best, we will get defective hemoglobin. (Such mistakes can lead to diseases such as sickle cell anemia.) Genes are always paired; Therefore, in the case of hemoglobin, we have two sets of codes (instructions) for its reproduction: one from the mother, the second from the father. The zygote (fertilized egg) receives half of the information from the father's sperm and the other half from the mother's egg.
This device is very useful. If a person inherits a damaged gene from one parent (and this dooms his cells to produce, say, abnormal hemoglobin), then the gene received from the other parent will be normal, and this will give the body the ability to produce normal protein. In the genome of each person there are hundreds of errors inherited from one of the parents, which do not appear, since each of them is “hidden” by the activity of another - a normal gene (see the booklet “Cain’s Wife - Who is She?”).
Color of the skin
We know that skin color is determined by more than one pair of genes. For simplicity, we assume that there are only two such (paired) genes, and they are located on the chromosomes in places A and B. One form of the gene, M, “gives the order” to produce a lot of melanin; another, m, – little melanin. According to location A, there can be paired combinations of MAMA, MAmA and mAmA, which give the skin cells a signal to produce a lot, not very much or little melanin.
Similarly, according to the location of B, there may be combinations of MVMV, MVmB and mBmB, also giving a signal to produce a lot, not very much or little melanin. Thus, people with very dark skin color may have a combination of genes such as MAMAMMV (see Figure 2). Since both sperm and eggs of such people can contain only MAMB genes (after all, only one gene from positions A and B can enter a sperm or egg), their children will be born only with the same set of genes as their parents.
Consequently, all these children will have very dark skin color. In the same way, light-skinned people with the mAmAmBmB gene combination can only have children with the same gene combination. What combinations can appear in the offspring of mulattoes with dark skin with a combination of MAMAMBmB genes - who are, for example, children from the marriage of people with the MAMAMBMB and mAmAmBmB genes (see Figure 3)? Let's turn to a special scheme - the “Punnet lattice” (see Figure 4). On the left are the genetic combinations possible for a sperm, on the top - for an egg. Choose one of possible combinations for the sperm and consider, going along the line, what results from its combination with each of the possible combinations in the egg.
Each intersection of a row and a column records the combination of genes of the offspring when a given egg is fertilized by a given sperm. For example, when a sperm with the MAmB genes and an egg mAMB fuse, the child will have the MAmAMBmB genotype, like his parents. Overall, the diagram shows that such a marriage can produce children with five levels of melanin content (shades of skin color). If we take into account not two, but three pairs of genes responsible for melanin, we will see that the offspring can have seven levels of its content.
If people with the MAMAMVMV genotype - “completely” black (that is, without genes that reduce melanin levels and lighten the skin at all) marry among themselves and move to places where their children cannot meet lighter-skinned people, then all of them the descendants will also be black - a pure “black line” will be obtained. Likewise, if "white" people (mAmAmBmB) marry only people of the same skin color and live in isolation without dating darker-skinned people, they will end up with a pure "white line" - they will lose the genes needed to produce large amounts of melanin, which provides dark skin color.
Thus, two dark-skinned people can not only produce children of any skin color, but also give rise to different groups of people with a stable skin tone. But how did groups of people with the same dark shade appear? This again is easy to explain. If people with the MAMAmBmB and mАmAMBMB genotypes do not enter into mixed marriages, they will produce only dark-skinned offspring. (You can check this conclusion yourself by constructing a Punnett lattice.) If a representative of one of these lines enters into a mixed marriage, the process will go backwards. In a short period of time, the offspring of such a marriage will demonstrate a full range of skin tones, often within the same family.
If all the people on Earth now freely intermarry, and then for some reason split into groups living separately, then a whole host of new combinations could arise: almond-shaped eyes with black skin, blue eyes and black curly short hair, and so on. Of course, we must remember that genes behave in much more complex ways than in our simplified explanation. Sometimes certain genes are linked. But this does not change the essence. Even today, within one group of people one can see traits usually associated with another group.
Figure 3. Multicolored twins born to mulatto parents are an example of genetic variations in skin color.
For example, you can meet a European with a wide, flat nose, or a Chinese with very pale skin or a completely European eye shape. Most scientists today agree that for modern humanity the term “race” has virtually no biological meaning. And this is a serious argument against the theory of the isolated development of groups of peoples over long periods of time.
What really happened?
We can recreate true story groups of people using:
- information given to us by the Creator Himself in the Book of Genesis;
- the scientific information stated above;
- some considerations about environmental influences.
God created the first man, Adam, who became the progenitor of all people. 1656 years after the Creation, the Great Flood destroyed all of humanity, with the exception of Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives. The flood radically changed their habitat. The Lord confirmed His commandment to the survivors: to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1). Several centuries later, people decided to disobey God and united to build a huge city and Tower of Babel- a symbol of rebellion and paganism. From the eleventh chapter of the book of Genesis we know that up to this point people spoke a single language. God disgraced disobedience by confusing the languages of men so that men could not act together against God. The confusion of languages forced them to scatter throughout the Earth, which was the intention of the Creator. Thus, all "groups of people" arose simultaneously, with the confusion of languages during the construction of the Tower of Babel. Noah and his family were probably dark-skinned—they had the genes for both black and white).
This average color is the most universal: it is dark enough to protect against skin cancer, and at the same time light enough to provide the body with vitamin D. Since Adam and Eve had all the factors that determine skin color, they probably also had dark-skinned, brown-eyed, with black or brown hair. In fact, most of The modern population of the Earth has dark skin.
After the Flood and before the construction of Babylon, there existed on Earth common language and a single cultural group. Therefore, there were no obstacles to marriages within this group. This factor stabilized the skin color of the population, cutting off extremes. Of course, from time to time people were born with very light or very dark skin, but they intermarried freely with the rest, and thus the “average color” remained unchanged. The same applies to other characteristics, not just skin color. In circumstances that allow for free interbreeding, obvious external differences do not appear.
For them to manifest themselves, it is necessary to divide the population into isolated groups, eliminating the possibility of crossing between them. This is true for both animal and human populations, as any biologist knows well.
Consequences of Babylon
This is exactly what happened after the Babylonian Pandemonium. When God made people speak different languages, insurmountable barriers arose between them. Now they did not dare to marry those whose language they did not understand. Moreover, groups of people united common language, had difficulty communicating and, of course, did not trust those who spoke other languages. They were forced to move away from each other and settled in different places. This is how God’s commandment was fulfilled: “Fill the earth.”
It is doubtful whether each of the newly formed small groups contained people of the same wide range skin colors, like the original one. Carriers of dark skin genes could predominate in one group, and lighter skin in another. The same applies to other external signs: the shape of the nose, the shape of the eyes, and so on. And since now all marriages took place within one language group, each such trait no longer tended to the average, as it was before. As people moved away from Babylon, they had to deal with new and unusual climatic conditions.
As an example, consider a group heading to cold regions where the sun shines weaker and less often. Black people there lacked vitamin D, so they got sick more often and had fewer children. Consequently, over time, light-skinned people began to predominate in this group. If several different groups headed north, and members of one of them lacked the genes that provide light skin, that group was doomed to extinction. Natural selection operates on the basis already existing signs, but does not form new ones. Researchers found that, which in our days have already been recognized as full-fledged representatives of the human race, suffered from rickets, which indicates a deficiency of vitamin D in the bones. In fact, it is the signs of rickets, plus evolutionary prejudices, for a long time forced to classify Neanderthals as “ape-men.”
Apparently, this was a group of dark-skinned people who found themselves in a natural environment that was unfavorable for them - due to the set of genes which they initially had. Note again that the so-called natural selection does not create new color skin, but only takes from already existing combinations. Conversely, a group of fair-skinned people stranded in a hot, sunny region would likely suffer from skin cancer. Thus, in hot climates, dark-skinned people had a better chance of survival. So we see that environmental influences can
(a) influence the genetic balance within one group and
(b) even cause the extinction of entire groups.
This is why we are currently seeing compliance with the most common physical qualities population environment (for example, northern peoples with pale skin, dark-skinned inhabitants of the equator, and so on).
But this doesn't always happen. The Inuit (Eskimos) have brown skin, although they live where there is little sun. It can be assumed that initially their genotype was something like MAMAmBmB, and therefore their offspring could not be lighter or darker. The Inuit eat mainly fish, which contains a lot of vitamin D. Conversely, the indigenous people of South America living near the equator do not have black skin at all. These examples once again confirm that natural selection does not create new information - if the genetic pool does not allow you to change skin color, natural selection is not able to do this. African pygmies are inhabitants of hot regions, but they very rarely visit open sun because they live in the shady jungle. And yet their skin is black.
The Pygmies provide a prime example of another factor influencing human racial history: discrimination. People who deviate from the “norm” (for example, a very light-skinned person among blacks) are traditionally treated with hostility. It is difficult for such a person to find a spouse. This state of affairs leads to the disappearance of light skin genes in black people in hot countries and dark skin genes in light skinned people in cold countries. This was the tendency of groups to "purify".
In some cases, consanguineous marriages in a small group can cause the re-emergence of almost extinct characteristics that were "suppressed" by ordinary marriages. There is a tribe in Africa all of whose members have severely deformed feet; this trait appeared in them as a result of consanguineous marriages. If people with hereditary short stature were discriminated against, they were forced to seek refuge in the wilderness and marry only among themselves. Thus, over time, the “race” of pygmies was formed. The fact that the pygmy tribes, according to observations, do not have own language, and speak the dialects of neighboring tribes, is strong evidence in favor of this hypothesis. Certain genetic characteristics could prompt groups of people to consciously (or semi-consciously) choose where to settle.
For example, people genetically predisposed to denser subcutaneous fat layers were likely to leave regions that were too hot.
Common memory
The biblical story of the emergence of man is supported not only by biological and genetic evidence. Since all of humanity descended from the family of Noah relatively recently, it would be strange if the tales and legends of different peoples did not contain references to the Great Flood, even if somewhat distorted during oral transmission from generation to generation.
And indeed: in the folklore of most civilizations there is a description of the Flood that destroyed the world. Often these legends contain remarkable “coincidences” with the true biblical history: eight people saved in a boat, a rainbow, a bird sent in search of dry land, and so on.
So what's the result?
The Babylonian dispersion fragmented a single group of people, within which free interbreeding took place, into smaller, isolated groups. This led to the appearance in the resulting groups of special combinations of genes responsible for different physical characteristics.
The dispersion itself must, in a short time, have brought about the appearance of certain differences between some of these groups, commonly called "races." An additional role was played by the selective influence of the environment, which contributed to the recombination of existing genes to achieve exactly those physical characteristics that were required in given natural conditions. But there was and could not be any evolution of genes “from simple to complex,” because the entire set of genes existed. The dominant properties of different groups of people arose as a result of recombinations of an already existing set of created genes, taking into account minor degenerative changes as a result of mutations (random changes that can be inherited).
Originally created genetic information either combined or degraded, but never increased.
What did false teachings about the origin of races lead to?
All tribes and peoples are descendants of Noah!
The Bible makes it clear that any "newly discovered" tribe certainly goes back to Noah. Therefore, at the very beginning of the tribe's culture, there was a) knowledge of God and b) possession of technology advanced enough to build a vessel the size of an ocean liner. From the first chapter of Romans we can conclude that main reason the loss of this knowledge (see Appendix 2) - the conscious renunciation of the ancestors of these people from serving the living God. Therefore, in helping the so-called “backward” peoples, the Gospel must come first, not secular education and technical assistance. In fact, the folklore and beliefs of most “primitive” tribes preserve memories of their ancestors turning away from the living Creator God. Dan Richardson of Child of Peace has shown in his book that a missionary approach that is not blinded by evolutionary prejudices and seeks to restore the lost connection has in many cases brought abundant and blessed fruit. Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile man who rejected his Creator with God, is the only Truth that can bring true freedom to people of any culture, of any color (John 8:32; 14:6).
Annex 1
Is it true that black skin is the result of Ham's curse?
Black (or rather dark brown) skin is just a special combination of hereditary factors. These factors (but not their combination!) were originally present in Adam and Eve. There are no instructions anywhere in the Bible that black skin color is the result of a curse that fell on Ham and his descendants. Moreover, the curse did not apply to Ham himself, but to his son Canaan (Genesis 9:18,25; 10:6). The main thing is that we know that the descendants of Canaan had dark skin (Genesis 10:15-19), not black.
False teachings about Ham and his descendants have been used to justify slavery and other unbiblical racist practices. African peoples are traditionally believed to be descended from the Hamites, as the Cushites (Cush - son of Ham: Genesis 10:6) are believed to have lived in what is now Ethiopia. The Book of Genesis suggests that the dispersion of people across the Earth occurred while maintaining family ties, and it is possible that the descendants of Ham were, on average, somewhat darker than, for example, the family of Japheth. However, everything could have been completely different. Rahab (Rahab), mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, belonged to the Canaanites, descendants of Canaan. Being from the clan of Ham, she married an Israeli - and God approved of this union. Therefore, it didn't matter what "race" she belonged to - all that mattered was that she believed in the true God.
The Moabite Ruth is also mentioned in the genealogy of Christ. She confessed her faith in God even before her marriage to Boaz (Ruth 1:16). God warns us against only one type of marriage: God's children with unbelievers.
Appendix 2
Stone Age people?
Archaeological finds indicate that once upon a time there were people on Earth who lived in caves and used simple stone tools. Such people live on Earth to this day. We know that the entire population of the earth came from Noah and his family. Judging by the book of Genesis, even before Flood people had advanced technology that allowed them to make musical instruments, engage in agriculture, forge metal tools, build cities and even build such huge ships as the Ark. After the Babylonian Pandemonium, groups of people - due to mutual hostility caused by the confusion of languages - quickly scattered across the earth in search of refuge.
In some cases, stone tools could be used temporarily until people equipped their homes and found deposits of the metals necessary to make the usual tools. There were other situations when a group of immigrants initially, even before Babylon, did not deal with metal.
Ask members of any modern family: if they had to start life from scratch, how many of them would be able to find an ore deposit, mine it and smelt the metal? It is clear that the Babylonian dispersion was followed by technological and cultural decline. Harsh environmental conditions may also have played a role. The technology and culture of the Australian Aborigines is quite consistent with their way of life and the needs of survival in arid areas.
Let us at least recall the aerodynamic principles, knowledge of which is necessary to create various types of boomerangs (some of them return, others do not). Sometimes we see clear but difficult to explain evidence of decline. For example, when Europeans arrived in Tasmania, the technology of the Aboriginal people there was the most primitive imaginable. They did not fish, make or wear clothes. However archaeological excavations showed that the cultural and technological level of previous generations of aborigines was incomparably higher.
Archaeologist Rhys Jones claims that in the distant past they were able to sew elaborate clothing from skins. This is in stark contrast to the situation in the early 1800s, when Aboriginal people simply threw skins over their shoulders. There is evidence that in the past they caught fish and ate it, but stopped doing this long before the arrival of Europeans. From all this we can conclude that technical progress is not natural: sometimes accumulated knowledge and skills disappear without a trace. Followers of animist cults live in constant fear of evil spirits. Many basic and healthy things - washing or eating well - are taboo among them. This once again confirms the truth that the loss of knowledge of God the Creator leads to degradation (Romans 1:18-32).
Here's the Good News
Creation Ministries International is committed to glorifying and honoring God the Creator and affirming the truth that the Bible tells the true story of the origins of the world and man. Part of this story is the bad news of Adam's violation of God's command. This brought death, suffering and separation from God into the world. These results are known to everyone. All of Adam's descendants are afflicted with sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:7) and share in Adam's disobedience (sin). They can no longer be in the presence of the Holy God and are doomed to separation from Him. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that all “shall suffer the punishment of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). But there is good news: God did not remain indifferent to our misfortune. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16).
Jesus Christ, the Creator, being sinless, took upon Himself the guilt for the sins of all mankind and their consequences - death and separation from God. He died on the cross, but on the third day he rose again, having conquered death. And now everyone who sincerely believes in Him, repents of their sins and relies not on themselves, but on Christ, can return to God and remain in eternal communion with their Creator. “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18). Marvelous is our Savior and wonderful is salvation in Christ, our Creator!
Links and notes
- Based on variations in mitochondrial DNA, attempts have been made to prove that all modern humans are descended from a single foremother (who lived in a small population approximately 70 to 800 thousand years ago). Recent discoveries in the rate of mutation of mitochondrial DNA have sharply shortened this period to the time frame specified by the Bible. See Lowe, L., and Scherer, S., 1997. Mitochondrial Eye: the plot thickens. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 12 (11):422-423; Wieland, C.,1998. A shrinking date for Eve. CEN Technical Journal, 12(1): 1-3. creationontheweb.com/eve
Formation of races on Earth, is a question that remains open, even for modern science. Where, how, why did races arise? Is there a division into first and second class races (more details:)? What brings people together united humanity? What traits separate people by nationality?
Skin color in people
Humanity as a biological species emerged quite a long time ago. Color of the skin the first of people It was unlikely that he was very dark or very white; most likely, some had slightly whiter skin, others - darker. The formation of races on Earth based on skin color was influenced by the natural conditions in which certain groups found themselves.
Formation of races on Earth
White and dark skinned people
For example, some people found themselves in the tropical zone of the Earth. Here, the merciless rays of the sun can easily burn a person’s naked skin. From physics we know: black color absorbs the rays of the sun more completely. And that’s why black skin seems to be harmful.
But it turns out that only ultraviolet rays burn and can burn the skin. Pigment coloring becomes like a shield protecting human skin.
Everyone knows that white man gets faster sunburn than a black man. In the equatorial steppes of Africa, people with dark skin turned out to be more adapted to life, and Negroid tribes descended from them.
This is evidenced by the fact that not only in Africa, but also in all tropical regions of the planet, people live dark-skinned people. The first inhabitants of India are very dark-skinned people. In the tropical steppe regions of America, the people living here had darker skin than their neighbors who lived in and hid from the direct rays of the sun in the shade of trees.
And in Africa, the indigenous inhabitants of the tropical forests - the pygmies - have lighter skin than their neighbors who are engaged in agriculture and are almost always exposed to the sun.
The Negroid race, in addition to skin color, has many other features formed during the development process, and due to the need to adapt to tropical living conditions. For example, curly black hair protects the head well from overheating by direct rays of the sun. Narrow elongated skulls are also one of the adaptations against overheating.
The Papuans from New Guinea have the same skull shape (more details:) as well as the Malanesians (more details:). Features such as skull shape and skin color helped all these peoples in the struggle for existence.
But why did the white race have whiter skin than primitive people? The reason is the same ultraviolet rays, under the influence of which human body vitamin B is synthesized.
People of moderate and northern latitudes, must have white skin that is transparent to sunlight in order to receive as much ultraviolet radiation as possible.
Residents of northern latitudes People with dark skin constantly experienced vitamin starvation and were less resilient than white-skinned people.
Mongoloids
Third race - Mongoloids. Under the influence of what conditions were its distinctive features formed? Their skin color, apparently, has been preserved from their most distant ancestors; it is well adapted to the harsh conditions of the North and the hot sun.
And here are the eyes. We need to say something special about them.
It is believed that the Mongoloids first appeared in areas of Asia located far from all oceans; continental climate here is characterized by a sharp difference in temperatures between winter and summer, day and night, and the steppes in these parts are layered with deserts.
Strong winds blow almost continuously and carry huge amounts of dust. In winter there are sparkling tablecloths of endless snow. And today, travelers to the northern regions of our country wear glasses that protect them from this glare. And if they are not there, they are paid with eye disease.
Important distinguishing feature Mongoloids - narrow slits of the eyes. And the second is a small fold of skin covering the inner corner of the eye. It also protects your eyes from dust.
This fold of skin is commonly called the Mongolian fold. From here, from Asia, people with prominent cheekbones and narrow slits of eyes dispersed throughout Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and Africa.
Well, is there another place on Earth with a similar climate? Yes, I have. These are some areas of South Africa. They are inhabited by Bushmen and Hottentots - peoples belonging to the Negroid race. However, the Bushmen here usually have dark yellow skin, narrow eyes and a Mongolian fold. At one time they even thought that Mongoloids lived in these parts of Africa, having moved here from Asia. Only later did we figure out this mistake.
Division into large human races
So influenced purely natural conditions The main races of the Earth were formed - white, black, yellow. When did it happen? On similar question not easy to answer. Anthropologists believe that division into large human races occurred no earlier than 200 thousand years ago and no later than 20 thousand.
And it was probably a long process that took 180-200 thousand years. How it happened - new riddle. Some scientists believe that at first humanity was divided into two races - the European, which later divided into white and yellow, and the equatorial, Negroid.
Others, on the contrary, believe that first the Mongoloid race separated from the common tree of humanity, and then the Euro-African race was divided into whites and blacks. Well, anthropologists divide large human races into small ones.
This division is unstable total number small races varies in the classifications given by different scientists. But there are, of course, dozens of small races.
Of course, races differ from each other not only in skin color and eye shape. Modern anthropologists have found a large number of such differences.
Criteria for dividing into races
But for what reasons? criteria compare race? By head shape, brain size, blood type? There are no fundamental characteristics that would characterize any race for the better or the worst side, scientists did not find.
Brain weight
It has been proven that brain weight varies among different races. But it is different for different people belonging to the same nationality. So, for example, the brain brilliant writer Anatole France weighed only 1077 grams, and his brain was no less the brilliant Ivan Turgenev reached a huge weight - 2012 grams. We can confidently say: between these two extremes all the races of the Earth are located.
The fact that the weight of the brain does not characterize the mental superiority of the race is also indicated by the figures: the average weight of the brain of an Englishman is 1456 grams, and of Indians - 1514, of Bantu blacks - 1422 grams, of the French - 1473 grams. It is known that Neanderthals had greater brain weight than modern humans.
It is unlikely that they were smarter than you and me, however. And yet there are still racists on the globe. They are in both the USA and Republic of South Africa. True, they do not have any scientific data to confirm their theories.
Anthropologists - scientists who study humanity precisely from the perspective of the characteristics of individual people and their groups - unanimously state:
All people on Earth, regardless of their nationality and race, are equal. This does not mean that racial and national characteristics do not exist, they do exist. But they don't define either mental abilities, nor any other qualities that could be considered decisive for the division of humanity into higher and lower races.
We can say that this conclusion is the most important of the conclusions of anthropology. But this is not the only achievement of science, otherwise there would be no point in developing it further. And anthropology is developing. With its help, it was possible to look into the most distant past of humanity and understand many previously mysterious moments.
It is anthropological research that allows us to penetrate into the depths of thousands of years, to the very first days of the appearance of man. And that long period of history when people did not yet have writing at their disposal becomes clearer thanks to anthropological research.
And of course, the methods of anthropological research have expanded incomparably. If just a hundred years ago, having met a new unknown people, a traveler limited himself to describing them, then at present this is far from enough.
The anthropologist must now make numerous measurements, leaving nothing unattended - not the palms of the hands, not the soles of the feet, not, of course, the shape of the skull. He takes blood and saliva, prints of feet and palms for analysis, and takes X-rays.
Blood type
All received data are summarized, and from them special indices are derived that characterize a particular group of people. It turns out that blood types- precisely those blood groups that are used for transfusions - can also characterize the race of people.
Blood type determines race It has been established that there are most people with the second blood group in Europe and none at all in South Africa, China and Japan, there are almost no third group in America and Australia, and less than 10 percent of Russians have the fourth blood group. By the way, the study of blood groups made it possible to make many important and interesting discoveries.
Well, for example, the settlement of America. It is known that archaeologists, who have been searching for the remains of ancient human cultures in America, they had to state that people appeared here relatively late - only a few tens of thousands of years ago.
Relatively recently, these conclusions were confirmed by analyzing the ashes of ancient fires, bones, and the remains of wooden structures. It turned out that the figure of 20-30 thousand years quite accurately determines the period that has passed since the days of the first discovery of America by its aborigines - the Indians.
And this happened in the Bering Strait region, from where they moved relatively slowly south all the way to Tierra del Fuego.
The fact that among the indigenous population of America there are no people with the third and fourth blood groups indicates that the first settlers of the giant continent did not accidentally have people with these groups.
The question arises: were there many of these discoverers in this case? Apparently, for this accident to manifest itself, there were few of them. They gave rise to all the Indian tribes with the endless variety of their languages, customs, and beliefs.
And further. After this group set foot on Alaskan soil, no one could follow them there. Otherwise, new groups of people would have brought with them one of the important blood factors, the absence of which determines the absence of the third and fourth groups among the Indians
blood.
But the descendants of the first Columbuses reached the Isthmus of Panama. And although in those days there was no canal separating the continents, this isthmus was difficult to overcome for people: tropical swamps, diseases, wild animals, poisonous reptiles and insects made it possible for another, equally small group of people to overcome it.
Proof? Absence of a second blood group among native South Americans. This means that the accident repeated itself: among the first settlers of South America there were also no people with the second blood group, as among the first settlers of North America there were no people with the third and fourth groups...
Probably everyone has read famous book Thor Heyerdahl's Journey to Kon-Tiki. This journey was intended to prove that the ancestors of the inhabitants of Polynesia could have arrived here not from Asia, but from South America.
This hypothesis was prompted by a certain commonality between the cultures of the Polynesians and South Americans. Heyerdahl understood that he had not provided decisive proof with his magnificent journey, but the majority of readers of the book, intoxicated by the greatness of the scientific feat and literary talent the author, steadily believe in the rightness of the brave Norwegian.
And yet, apparently, Polynesians are descendants of Asians, not South Americans. The decisive factor, again, was the composition of the blood. We remember that South Americans do not have a second blood type, but among Polynesians there are many people with this blood type. You are inclined to believe that the Americans did not take part in the settlement of Polynesia...
Racial differences have been and continue to be the cause of different studies, as well as conflict and discrimination. A tolerant society tries to pretend that racial differences do not exist; the constitutions of countries state that all people are equal...
However, there are races and people are different. Of course, not at all in the way that supporters of the “superior” and “lower” races want, but differences do exist.
Some research by geneticists and anthropologists these days is discovering new facts that, 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 molecular biology and genetics, the division of humanity into races occurred about 80 thousand years ago.
First, two trunks emerged: Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid, and 40-45 thousand years ago, differentiation of proto-Caucasoids and proto-Mongoloids occurred.
Scientists believe that the origins of races originate in the Paleolithic era, although the massive process of modification swept humanity only from the Neolithic: it was during this era that the Caucasoid type crystallized.
The process of race formation continued during 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 fully formed Mongoloids, and the first inhabitants of Australia were “racially neutral” neoanthropes.
What does genetics say?
Today, questions of the origin of races are largely the prerogative of two sciences - anthropology and genetics. The first, based on human bone remains, reveals the diversity of anthropological forms, and the second tries to understand the connections between a set of racial characteristics 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 rather indicate that the latter are right.
The study of haplotypes confirmed the connection between racial characteristics 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, Professor Stanford University Luca Cavalli-Sforza, based on an analysis of “genetic maps” of European settlement, pointed out significant similarities in the DNA of the Basques and 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 were practically not subject to crossbreeding.
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 lineages.
Thus, the Caucasian race was formed in Western Eurasia, Negroid - in Africa, and Mongoloid - in Central and East Asia.
Polycentrism involves the crossing of representatives of proto-races at the borders of their areas, which led to the emergence of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or the Ethiopian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Negroid races).
From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one area globe in the process of settlement of neoanthropes, which subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.
The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came out of Southeast Africa. However, the Soviet scientist Yakov Roginsky expanded the concept of monocentrism, suggesting that the habitat of the ancestors of Homo sapiens extended beyond the African continent.
Recent research by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra has completely cast doubt on the theory of a common African ancestor of humans.
Thus, DNA tests on an ancient fossilized skeleton, about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that Australian Aboriginal has no relation to the African hominid.
The theory of multiregional 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 Eurasian population 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 of 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 Neanderthals and Homo erectus.
It is very important that the Mongoloid-type population is highly adaptable 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 experience 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 across the globe.
Northern ancestral home
Recently, more and more researchers have stated that the Caucasian 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 there the more developed “white race”.
Researcher Boris Kutsenko hypothesizes that at the origins of modern humanity there were two racial trunks: Euro-American and Negroid-Mongoloid. According to him, Negroid race comes from forms of Homo erectus, and Mongoloid - from Sinanthropus.
Kutsenko considers the regions of the Northern region to be the birthplace of the Euro-American trunk. Arctic Ocean. Based on data from oceanology and paleoanthropology, he suggests that global climate changes that occurred at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary destroyed the ancient continent of Hyperborea. Part of the population from the territories that went 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 craniological indicators and characteristics of the blood groups of these races, which “almost completely coincide.”
Device
The phenotypes of modern people living in different parts of the planet are the result of long evolution. Many racial characteristics have obvious adaptive significance. For example, dark skin pigmentation protects people living equatorial belt from excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their body 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 predominantly light skin and hair color, which allowed them to receive more sunlight and meet the body's needs for vitamin D.
In the same way, the protruding “Caucasian nose” evolved to warm the cold air, and the epicanthus among the Mongoloids was formed as a protection for the eyes from dust storms and steppe winds.
Sexual selection