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, relating primarily to the external appearance of a person, 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 large 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. Racial characteristics of 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 have a long head; moderately developed chin; protruding dental part of the upper and lower jaws (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, moderate to heavy development of 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.
Within the large Caucasoid race (white), three small races are distinguished by hair and eye color: 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. The White Sea-Baltic group has many common features with the last group: both of them constitute 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 very characterized by a highly developed and peculiarly located fold of the upper eyelid, which covers the inner corner of the eye, thereby causing a somewhat oblique position of the palpebral fissure (this fold is called the 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. The American Indians occupy a special place, because some characteristics seem to bring them closer to the greater 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 similarity is explained not so much by mixing as by ancient family ties. Such, for example, is the Ethiopian group of types, connecting the Negroid and Caucasian 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 general 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 are usually blurred. So. Some races are connected with other races through imperceptible transitions. In some cases, it is very difficult to establish the racial composition of the population of a particular country or population group.
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 of a given individual is not clearly expressed, or due to the fact that the given person is the result of a mixture.
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 forms of variability of 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, although 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, a bridge of medium height and medium-wide wings can be found 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 the races have a 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 the historical development of mankind, but they have already lost their biological significance to a large extent. 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 rapid 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 did not play any role in the formation of modern human races, and natural selection had a secondary importance, which it has long lost. 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.
The first foundations of a scientific understanding of the origin of human races from a biological point of view were laid 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 large number of convolutions and grooves on the surface of its hemispheres and the 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 thigh and calf muscles; poor development of body hair with a complete absence of tufts of tactile hair, or vibrissae, in the eyebrows, mustache and beard.
Possessing the totality of the listed characteristics, all modern human races stand at an equally high level of development of physical organization. Although in different races these basic species characteristics are not developed in exactly the same way - 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. But from a scientific point of view 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.
Instructions
The Caucasoid race (less commonly called Eurasian or Caucasoid) is distributed in Europe, Western and partly Central Asia, North Africa, northern and central India. Later, Caucasians settled in both Americas, Australia and South Africa.
Today, about 40 percent of the world's population belongs to the Caucasian race. Caucasians have an orthognathic face and hair is usually soft, wavy or straight. The size of the eyes is not a classifying feature, but the brow ridges are quite large. Anthropologists also note a high bridge of the nose, a large nose, small or medium lips, and fairly rapid growth of a beard and mustache. It is noteworthy that the color of hair, skin and eyes is not an indicator of race. The shade can be either light (among northerners) or quite dark (among southerners). The Caucasian race includes Abkhazians, Austrians, Arabs, English, Jews, Spaniards, Germans, Poles, Russians, Tatars, Turks, Croats and about 80 other peoples.
Representatives of the Negroid race settled in Central, East and West Africa. Negroids have curly thick hair, thick lips and a flat nose, wide nostrils, dark skin color, elongated arms and legs. Mustaches and beards grow quite poorly. Eye color - , but the shade depends on genetics. The facial angle is acute, since there is no mental protuberance on the lower jaw. In the last century, Negroids and Australoids were classified as a common equatorial race, but later researchers were able to prove that despite the external similarity and similar conditions of existence, the differences between these races are still significant. One of the opponents of racism, Elizabeth Martinez, proposed calling representatives of the Negroid race Congoids, based on geographic distribution (by analogy with other races), but the term never took root.
"Pygmy" is translated from Greek as "a man the size of a fist." Pygmies or Negrillies are short Negroids. The first mention of pygmies dates back to the third millennium BC. In the 16th-17th centuries, explorers of West Africa called such people “Matimba”. Pygmies were finally identified as a race in the 19th century thanks to the work of the German researcher Georg Schweinfurt and the Russian scientist V.V. Junker. Adult males of the pygmy race usually do not grow above one and a half meters. All representatives of the race are characterized by light brown skin color, curly dark hair, and thin lips. The number of pygmies has not yet been established. According to various sources, from 40,000 to 280,000 people live on the planet. Pygmies belong to underdeveloped peoples. They still live in huts built from dried grass and sticks, hunt (with bows and arrows) and gather, and do not use stone tools.
The Kapoids ("Bushmen" and "Khoisan race") live in South Africa. They are short people with yellow-brown skin and almost childlike features throughout their lives. Characteristic features of the race include coarse curled hair, early-onset wrinkles and the so-called “Hottentot apron” (a saggy fold of skin above the pubis). Bushmen have noticeable fat deposits on the buttocks and curvature of the lumbar spine (lordosis).
Initially, representatives of the race inhabited the territory that is now called Mongolia. The appearance of the Mongoloids testifies to the centuries-old need to survive in desert conditions. Mongoloids have narrow eyes with an additional fold at the inner corner of the eye (epicanthus). This helps protect your eyesight and dust. Representatives of the race are distinguished by thick, black, straight hair. Mongoloids are usually divided into two groups: southern (dark-skinned, short, with a small face and high forehead) and northern (tall, light-skinned, with large features and a low skull vault). Anthropologists believe that this race appeared no more than 12,000 years ago.
Representatives of the Americanoid race settled in North and South America. They have black hair and a nose like an eagle's beak. The eyes are usually black, the slit is larger than that of Mongoloids, but smaller than that of Caucasians. Americanoids are usually tall.
Australoids are often referred to as the Austral race. This is a very ancient race, whose representatives lived in the Kuril Islands, Hawaii, Hindustan and Tasmania. Australoids are divided into Ainu, Melanesian, Polynesian, Veddoid and Australian groups. Indigenous Australians have brown but fairly light skin, a large nose, massive brow ridges, and strong jaws. The hair of this race is long and wavy, and tends to become very coarse from the sun's rays. Melanesians often have spiral hair.
Lesson Plan
1. What human races do you know?
2. What factors cause the evolutionary process?
3. What influences the formation of the gene pool of a population?
What are the human races?
Human predecessors are Australopithecines;
- the most ancient people - progressive Australopithecus, Archanthropus (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man, etc.);
- ancient people - paleoanthropes (Neanderthals);
- fossil people of modern anatomical type - neoanthropes (Cro-Magnons).
The historical development of man was carried out under the influence of the same factors of biological evolution as the formation of other species of living organisms. However, humans are characterized by such a unique phenomenon for living nature as the increasing influence on anthropogenesis of social factors (work activity, social lifestyle, speech and thinking).
For modern man, social-labor relations have become leading and determining.
As a result of social development, Homo sapiens acquired unconditional advantages among all living beings. But this does not mean that the emergence of the social sphere abolished the action of biological factors. The social sphere has only changed their manifestation. Homo sapiens as a species is an integral part of the biosphere and a product of its evolution.
These are historically established groupings (groups of populations) of people, characterized by similar morphological and physiological traits. Racial differences are the result of people's adaptation to certain conditions of existence, as well as the historical and socio-economic development of human society.
There are three large races: Caucasoid (Eurasian), Mongoloid (Asian-American) and Austral-Negroid (Equatorial).
Chapter 8
Basics of ecology
After studying this chapter, you will learn:
What does ecology study and why does every person need to know its basics;
- what is the importance of environmental factors: abiatic, biotic and anthropogenic;
- what role do environmental conditions and internal properties of a population group play in the processes of changes in its numbers over time;
- about different types of interactions between organisms;
- about the features of competitive relations and the factors that determine the outcome of competition;
- about the composition and basic properties of the ecosystem;
- about energy flows and the circulation of substances that ensure the functioning of systems, and about the role in these processes
Back in the middle of the 20th century. the word ecology was known only to specialists, but nowadays it has become very popular; it is most often used when talking about the unfavorable state of the nature around us.
Sometimes this term is used in combination with words such as society, family, culture, health. Is ecology really such a broad science that it can cover most of the problems facing humanity?
Kamensky A. A., Kriksunov E. V., Pasechnik V. V. Biology 10th grade
Submitted by readers from the website
Human races are historically established biological divisions of the species “Homo sapiens” (Homo sapiens) in human evolution. They differ in complexes of hereditarily transmitted and gradually changing morphological, biochemical and other features. The modern geographic areas of distribution, or areas, occupied by races make it possible to outline the territories in which the races were formed. Due to the social nature of man, races are qualitatively different from subspecies of wild and domestic animals.
If for wild animals the term “geographical races” can be applied, then in relation to humans it has largely lost its meaning, since the connection of human races with their original areas is disrupted by numerous migrations of masses of people, as a result of which a mixture of very different races and peoples and new human associations were formed.
Most anthropologists divide humanity into three large races: Negroid-Australoid (“black”), Caucasoid (“white”) and Mongoloid (“yellow”). Using geographical terms, the first race is called the equatorial, or African-Australian, the second, the European-Asian, and the third, the Asian-American race. The following branches of large races are distinguished: African and Oceanian; northern and southern; Asian and American (G. F. Debets). The Earth's population now amounts to over 3 billion 300 million people (data for 1965). Of these, the first race accounts for approximately 10%, the second - 50%, and the third - 40%. This is, of course, a rough summary, since there are hundreds of millions of racially mixed individuals, numerous minor races and mixed (intermediate) racial groups, including those of ancient origin (for example, Ethiopians). Large, or primary, races occupying vast territories are not completely homogeneous. They are divided according to physical (corporal) characteristics into branches, into 10-20 small races, and those into anthropological types.
Modern races, their origin and taxonomy are studied by ethnic anthropology (racial studies). Groups of the population are subjected to research for examination and quantitative determination of so-called racial characteristics, followed by processing of mass data using the methods of variation statistics (see). For this, anthropologists use scales of skin color and iris, hair color and shape, eyelid shape, nose and lips, as well as anthropometric instruments: compasses, goniometer, etc. (see Anthropometry). Hematological, biochemical and other examinations are also carried out.
Belonging to one or another racial division is determined in men 20-60 years old based on a set of genetically stable and fairly characteristic signs of physical structure.
Further descriptive features of the racial complex: the presence of a beard and mustache, the coarseness of the head hair, the degree of development of the upper eyelid and its fold - the epicanthus, the tilt of the forehead, the shape of the head, the development of the brow ridges, the shape of the face, the growth of body hair, the type of build (see Habitus) and body proportions (see Constitution).
Skull shape options: 1 - dolichocranial ellipsoid; 2 and 3 - brachycranial (2 - round, or spheroid, 3 - wedge-shaped, or sphenoid); 4 - mesocranial pentagonal, or pentagonoid.
A unified anthropometric examination on a living person, as well as on the skeleton, mostly on the skull (Fig.), makes it possible to clarify somatoscopic observations and make a more correct comparison of the racial composition of tribes, peoples, individual populations (see) and isolates. Racial characteristics vary and are subject to sexual, age, geographic and evolutionary variability.
The racial composition of humanity is very complex, which largely depends on the mixed nature of the population of many countries in connection with ancient migrations and modern mass migrations. Therefore, in the land area inhabited by humanity, contact and intermediate racial groups are found, formed from the interpenetration of two or three or more complexes of racial characteristics during the crossbreeding of anthropological types.
The process of racial miscegenation increased greatly during the era of capitalist expansion after the discovery of America. As a result, for example, Mexicans are half mixed race between Indians and Europeans.
A noticeable increase in interracial mixing is observed in the USSR and other socialist countries. This is the result of the elimination of all kinds of racial barriers on the basis of correct scientifically based national and international policies.
Races are biologically equivalent and blood related. The basis for this conclusion is the doctrine of monogenism developed by Charles Darwin, i.e., the origin of man from one species of ancient bipedal apes, and not from several (the concept of polygenism). Monogenism is confirmed by the anatomical similarity of all races, which could not, as Charles Darwin emphasized, arise through convergence, or convergence of characteristics, of different ancestral species. The species of monkeys that served as the ancestor of humans probably lived in South Asia, from where the earliest people settled throughout the Earth. Ancient people, the so-called Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), gave rise to “homo sapiens”. But modern races did not arise from Neanderthals, but were formed anew under the influence of a combination of natural (including biological) and social factors.
The formation of races (raceogenesis) is closely related to anthropogenesis; both processes are the result of historical development. Modern man arose over a vast territory, approximately from the Mediterranean to Hindustan or somewhat larger. From here, Mongoloids could have formed in the northeast direction, Caucasoids in the northwest, and Negroids and Australoids in the south. However, the problem of the ancestral home of modern man is still far from being completely resolved.
In more ancient eras, when people settled on Earth, their groups inevitably found themselves in conditions of geographic and, consequently, social isolation, which contributed to their racial differentiation in the process of interaction of factors of variability (q.v.), heredity (q.v.) and selection. With an increase in the number of isolates, new settlement occurred and contacts with neighboring groups arose, causing crossbreeding. Natural selection also played a certain role in the formation of races, the influence of which noticeably weakened as the social environment developed. In this regard, the characteristics of modern races are of secondary importance. Aesthetic, or sexual, selection also played some role in the formation of races; sometimes racial characteristics could acquire the meaning of identifying characteristics for representatives of one or another local racial group.
As the human population grew, both the specific importance and the direction of action of individual factors of raceogenesis changed, but the role of social influences increased. If for the primary races miscegenation was a differentiating factor (when miscegenated groups again found themselves in conditions of isolation), now miscegenation levels out racial differences. Currently, about half of humanity is the result of crossbreeding. Racial differences, which naturally arose over many millennia, must and will, as K. Marx pointed out, be eliminated by historical development. But racial characteristics will continue to manifest themselves for a long time in certain combinations, mainly in individuals. Crossbreeding often leads to the emergence of new positive features of physical makeup and intellectual development.
The race of the patient must be taken into account when evaluating some medical examination data. This applies mainly to the peculiarities of the color of the integument. The skin color characteristic of a representative of the “black” or “yellow” race will turn out to be a symptom of Addison’s disease or icterus in a “white” one; A doctor will evaluate a purple tint of lip color and bluish nails in a Caucasian as cyanosis, and in a Negro as a racial feature. On the other hand, color changes due to “bronze disease,” jaundice, and cardiorespiratory failure, which are distinct in Caucasians, can be difficult to detect in representatives of the Mongoloid or Negroid-Australoid race. Corrections for racial characteristics are of much less practical importance and may be less frequently required when assessing physique, height, skull shape, etc. As for the alleged predisposition of a given race to a particular disease, increased susceptibility to infection, etc., these features, as a rule, do not have a “racial” character, but are associated with social, cultural, everyday and other living conditions, the proximity of natural foci of infection, the degree of acclimatization during relocation, etc.
The current appearance of humanity is the result of the complex historical development of human groups and can be described by identifying special biological types - human races. It is assumed that their formation began to occur 30-40 thousand years ago, as a consequence of the settlement of people in new geographical areas. According to researchers, their first groups moved from the area of modern Madagascar to South Asia, then Australia, and a little later to the Far East, Europe and America. This process gave rise to the original races from which all subsequent diversity of peoples arose. The article will consider what main races are distinguished within the species Homo sapiens (reasonable humans), their characteristics and features.
The meaning of race
To summarize the definitions of anthropologists, a race is a historically established set of people who have a common physical type (skin color, hair structure and color, skull shape, etc.), the origin of which is associated with a specific geographical area. At present, the relationship between race and area is not always clearly visible, but it certainly existed in the distant past.
The origins of the term "race" are uncertain, but there has been much debate in scientific circles over its use. In this regard, initially the term was ambiguous and conditional. There is an opinion that the word represents a modification of the Arabic lexeme ras - head or beginning. There is also good reason to believe that the term may be related to the Italian razza, which means "tribe". It is interesting that in its modern meaning this word is first found in the works of the French traveler and philosopher Francois Bernier. In 1684 he gives one of the first classifications of the main human races.
races
Attempts to put together a picture classifying human races were made by the ancient Egyptians. They identified four types of people according to their skin color: black, yellow, white and red. And for a long time this division of humanity persisted. The Frenchman Francois Bernier tried to give a scientific classification of the main types of races in the 17th century. But more complete and constructed systems appeared only in the twentieth century.
It is known that there is no generally accepted classification, and they are all quite arbitrary. But in the anthropological literature they most often refer to Y. Roginsky and M. Levin. They identified three large races, which in turn are divided into small ones: Caucasian (Eurasian), Mongoloid and Negro-Australoid (equatorial). When constructing this classification, scientists took into account the morphological similarity, geographical distribution of races and the time of their formation.
Characteristics of race
Classic racial characteristics are determined by a complex of physical characteristics related to a person’s appearance and anatomy. The color and shape of the eyes, the shape of the nose and lips, the pigmentation of skin and hair, and the shape of the skull are the primary racial characteristics. There are also secondary features such as physique, height and proportions of the human body. But due to the fact that they are very changeable and depend on environmental conditions, they are not used in racial studies. Racial characteristics are not interconnected by one or another biological dependence, therefore they form numerous combinations. But it is precisely stable traits that make it possible to distinguish races of a large order (main), while small races are distinguished on the basis of more variable indicators.
Thus, the main characteristics of a race include morphological, anatomical and other characteristics that have a stable hereditary nature and are minimally subject to environmental influences.
Caucasian
Almost 45% of the world's population belongs to the Caucasian race. The geographical discoveries of America and Australia allowed it to spread throughout the world. However, its main core is concentrated within Europe, the African Mediterranean and southwest Asia.
In the Caucasian group, the following combination of characteristics is distinguished:
- clearly profiled face;
- pigmentation of hair, skin and eyes from the lightest to darkest shades;
- straight or wavy soft hair;
- medium or thin lips;
- narrow nose, strongly or moderately protruding from the plane of the face;
- the fold of the upper eyelid is poorly formed;
- developed hair on the body;
- large hands and feet.
The composition of the Caucasoid race is divided into two large branches - northern and southern. The northern branch is represented by Scandinavians, Icelanders, Irish, English, Finns and others. South - Spaniards, Italians, southern French, Portuguese, Iranians, Azerbaijanis and others. All the differences between them lie in the pigmentation of the eyes, skin and hair.
Mongoloid race
The formation of the Mongoloid group has not been fully studied. According to some assumptions, the nation was formed in the central part of Asia, in the Gobi Desert, which was distinguished by its harsh, sharply continental climate. As a result, representatives of this race of people generally have strong immunity and good adaptation to dramatic changes in climatic conditions.
Signs of the Mongoloid race:
- brown or black eyes with a slanting and narrow cut;
- drooping upper eyelids;
- moderately widened nose and lips of medium size;
- skin color from yellow to brown;
- straight, coarse dark hair;
- strongly prominent cheekbones;
- poorly developed hair on the body.
The Mongoloid race is divided into two branches: northern Mongoloids (Kalmykia, Buryatia, Yakutia, Tuva) and southern peoples (Japan, inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula, South China). Ethnic Mongols can act as prominent representatives of the Mongoloid group.
The Equatorial (or Negro-Australoid) race is a large group of people that makes up 10% of humanity. It includes Negroid and Australoid groups, which mostly live in Oceania, Australia, tropical Africa and the regions of South and Southeast Asia.
Most researchers consider the specific characteristics of a race as the result of the development of a population in a hot and humid climate:
- dark pigmentation of the skin, hair and eyes;
- coarse, curly or wavy hair;
- the nose is wide, slightly protruding;
- thick lips with a significant mucous part;
- prominent lower face.
The race is clearly divided into two trunks - the eastern (Pacific, Australian and Asian groups) and the western (African groups).
Minor races
The main races in which humanity has successfully imprinted itself on all continents of the earth, branching into a complex mosaic of people - small races (or races of the second order). Anthropologists identify from 30 to 50 such groups. The Caucasoid race consists of the following types: White Sea-Baltic, Atlanto-Baltic, Central European, Balkan-Caucasian (Pontozagros) and Indo-Mediterranean.
The Mongoloid group distinguishes: Far Eastern, South Asian, North Asian, Arctic and American types. It is worth noting that some classifications tend to consider the last of them as an independent large race. In today's Asia, the most dominant are the Far Eastern (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) and South Asian (Javanese, Sunda, Malay) types.
The equatorial population is divided into six small groups: African Negroids are represented by the Negro, Central African and Bushman races, Oceanic Australoids - Veddoid, Melanesian and Australian (in some classifications it is put forward as the main race).
Mixed Races
In addition to second-order races, there are also mixed and transitional races. Presumably they were formed from ancient populations within the boundaries of climatic zones, through contact between representatives of different races, or appeared during long-distance migrations, when it was necessary to adapt to new conditions.
Thus, there are Euro-Mongoloid, Euro-Negroid and Euro-Mongol-Negroid subraces. For example, the laponoid group has characteristics of three main races: prognathism, prominent cheekbones, soft hair and others. The bearers of such characteristics are the Finno-Permian peoples. Or the Ural, which is represented by Caucasian and Mongoloid populations. She is characterized by the following dark straight hair, moderate skin pigmentation, brown eyes, and medium hair. Distributed mostly in Western Siberia.
- Until the 20th century, representatives of the Negroid race were not found in Russia. During the period of cooperation with developing countries, about 70 thousand blacks remained living in the USSR.
- Only one Caucasian race is capable of producing lactase throughout its life, which is involved in the digestion of milk. In other major races, this ability is observed only in infancy.
- Genetic studies have determined that fair-skinned residents of the northern territories of Europe and Russia have about 47.5% of Mongolian genes and only 52.5% of European ones.
- A large number of people who identify as pure African Americans have European ancestors. In turn, Europeans can discover Native Americans or Africans in their ancestors.
- The DNA of all inhabitants of the planet, regardless of external differences (skin color, hair texture), is 99.9% the same, therefore, from the standpoint of genetic research, the existing concept of “race” loses its meaning.