The current appearance of humanity is the result of a complex historical development 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 result 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 man), 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 remained. 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 the complex physical features related to appearance man and his 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 influence environment.
Caucasian
Almost 45% of the world's population belongs to the Caucasian race. Geographical discoveries 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, South-East 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 Caucasian race consists of 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 formed from ancient populations within the borders 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. Mostly distributed 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.
Humanity is currently represented by one species Homo sapiens (A reasonable person). However, this species is not uniform. It is polymorphic and consists of three large and many small transitional races - biological groups distinguished by small morphological characteristics. These characteristics include: hair type and color, skin color, eyes, shape of the nose, lips, face and head, proportions of the body and limbs.
Races emerged as a result of the settlement and geographic isolation of the ancestors of modern people in different natural and climatic conditions. Racial characteristics are hereditary. They arose in the distant past under the direct influence of the environment and were adaptive in nature. The following large races are distinguished.
Negroid (Australo-Negroid or Equatorial) The race is characterized by dark skin color, curly and wavy hair, a wide and slightly protruding nose, thick lips and dark eyes. Before the era of colonization, this race was common in Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Caucasoid (Euro-Asian) The race is distinguished by light or dark skin, straight or wavy hair, good development of facial hair in men (beard and mustache), narrow protruding nose, thin lips. Representatives of this race are settled in Europe, North Africa, Western Asia and Northern India.
For Mongoloid (Asian-American) The race is characterized by dark or light skin, straight, often coarse hair, a flattened wide face with strongly prominent cheekbones, and average width of lips and nose. Initially, this race inhabited Southeast, North and Central Asia, North and South America.
Although the large races differ markedly from each other in their complex of external characteristics, they are interconnected by a number of intermediate types, imperceptibly transforming into one another.
The biological unity of human races is evidenced by: 1 – the absence of genetic isolation and unlimited possibilities of crossing with the formation of fertile offspring; 2 – equivalence of races in biological and psychological terms; 3 – the presence of transitional races between large races, combining the characteristics of two neighboring ones; 4 – localization of skin patterns such as arcs on the second finger (in apes – on the fifth); All representatives of the races have the same pattern of hair arrangement on the head and other morphophysiological characteristics.
Control questions:
What is the position of man in the animal world?
How is the origin of man from animals proven?
What biological factors contributed to human evolution?
What social factors contributed to the formation Homo sapiens?
What human races are currently distinguished?
What does the biological unity of races prove?
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Races began to form at the end of the Stone Age on the basis of the largest territorial populations. It is possible that there were two main primary centers of race formation: western (Euro-African) and eastern (Asian-Pacific). In the first center, Negroids and Caucasoids were formed, and in the second - Australoids and Mongoloids. Later, during the development of new lands, mixed racial populations arose. For example, in North and East Africa, as well as in the south of Western Asia, the mixing of Caucasoids with Negroids began very early, in Hindustan - Caucasians with Australoids, and partly with Mongoloids, in Oceania - Australoids with Mongoloids. Subsequently, after the discovery of America, Australia and Oceania by Europeans, new vast zones of interracial miscegenation arose. In particular, in America, the descendants of Indians mixed with European and African settlers.
History of human population development modern look occurs not only in the natural-geographical, but also in the socio-cultural environment. In this regard, the relationship between two types of intraspecific communities - reproductive (populations) and historical-genetic (races) - changes radically. So, human races are large areal communities of people, distinguished by genetic kinship, which is externally manifested in a certain similarity of physical characteristics: skin color and iris, shape and color of hair, height, etc.
Largest (by number) great race there is Caucasoid - 46.4% of the population (together with transitional and mixed forms). Caucasians have straight or wavy soft hair in shades from light to dark, they have light or dark skin, a large variety of colors in the iris (from dark to gray and blue), a very developed tertiary hair coat (beard in men), insufficient or average protrusion of the jaws , narrow nose, thin or medium-thick lips. Among the Caucasians, there are branches - southern and northern. The northern branch is typical for the countries of Northern Europe; southern - common in southern Europe and North America, Western Asia and Northern India, it also includes the Caucasian population Latin America. Between the southern and northern branches there is a wide band of transitional types, including the population of Central and partially of Eastern Europe, Siberia and Far East Russia, as well as the Caucasian population 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.
IN transitional forms The Mongoloid race includes a population that has significant Australoid characteristics: wavy hair, dark and olive skin from the Incas, a flat face, a wide nose. These are the Viet, Lao, Khmer, Malay, Javanese, Southern Chinese, Japanese and other peoples of Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Negroid (African) large race (16.6% of the world's population), as well as its transitional and mixed forms, are characterized by dark brown skin color, black curly hair, dark eyes, moderately high cheekbones, thick lips, wide nose, very developed prognathism. It includes the indigenous population of Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) - blacks, as well as the black population of Sen, Central America, the Antilles, and Brazil. A separate group The group consists of tropical forest tribes - the Negrills (Pygmies), as well as the South African Bushmen and Hottentots.
The Australoid (Oceanian) large race (0.3% of the world's population) is represented by Melanesians, Papuans of New Guinea and Australian Aborigines. Australoids are very close to Negroids and are characterized by dark skin color, wavy hair, and significant tertiary hair growth on the face and body in males. Among the Papuans and Melanesians of Oceania there are short tribes - the Negritos, living on the Malacca Peninsula and the Andaman Islands; Small tribes of the Vedam live in remote areas of India and the countries of Southeast Asia, and the Ainu live on the Japanese Islands.
Other racial types (mixed) - about 14 million people, include Polynesians, Micronesians, Hawaiians, Malagasy (mixing southern Mongoloids with Negroids and southern Caucasians - Arabs), mestizos (Caucasians with Mongoloids), mulattoes (Europeans with Negroes), Sambo (blacks with Indians).
The population of Europe belongs almost entirely to the Caucasoid race (about 17% of the region's population belongs to northern Caucasians, 32% to southern Caucasians and more than half to transitional and Central European forms).
In the territory 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% (Southern China, Indonesia, Indochina) Japanese type - 4.3%, over 10 million people are Australoids; on the Arabian Peninsula, part of the population has 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. The modern population of Africa is characterized by a large number of transitional forms (Ethiopians, Fulani - Negroids and Caucasians, Malagasy - Mongoloids, Negroids, Caucasians).
In America, the racial composition of the population is very diverse, which is due to the participation of representatives of three large races in its formation. Aborigines (Mongoloids: Indians, Aleuts, Eskimos) live compactly only in certain areas of the Mexican Highlands, in the Andes, in the interior of South America, in the Arctic regions (5.5%). Currently, the Caucasian race is widely represented - 51% (almost 9/10 of the population of the USA and Canada, over 1/4 of the population of Latin America). There are numerous mestizos in America - 23% (almost the entire population of Mexico, Central American countries, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay and other countries), fewer mulattoes - 13% (African Americans of the USA, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, peoples of the West Indies), there are groups sambo Negroids (7%) live in Brazil, the USA, and make up the main population of Haiti, Jamaica and other countries of the West Indies.
In Australia and New Zealand, representatives of the Caucasian race predominate (77% of the total population), Melanesians and Papuans make up 16.5%, Polynesians and Micronesians - 4.2%. The mixing of Oceanians with Caucasians, as well as immigrants from Asia, led to the formation of large mestizo groups in Polynesia, Micronesia, the Fiji Islands and New Caledonia.
The number of individual races is growing unevenly: over the last quarter century, the number of Negroids has increased by 2.3 times, mestizos and mulattoes of America - almost 2 times, southern Mongoloids - by 78%, Caucasians - by 48% (the northern branch - by only 19%, southern - by 72%).
Race is a group of people united on the basis of their mutual kinship, common origin and some external hereditary physical characteristics (skin and hair color, head shape, structure of the face as a whole and its parts - nose, lips, etc.). There are three main races of people: Caucasian (white), Mongoloid (yellow), Negroid (black).
The ancestors of all races lived 90-92 thousand years ago. Starting from this time, people began to settle in territories that differed sharply from each other in natural conditions.
According to scientists, in the process of the formation of modern man in Southeast Asia and neighboring North Africa, which are considered the ancestral homeland of man, two races arose - southwestern and northeastern. Subsequently, from the first came Caucasoids and Negroids, and from the second - Mongoloids.
The separation of the Caucasoid and Negroid races began approximately 40 thousand years ago.
Displacement of recessive genes to the outskirts of the population range
The outstanding geneticist N.I. Vavilov in 1927 discovered the law of the emergence of individuals with recessive traits beyond the center of origin of new forms of organisms. According to this law, in the center of the species' distribution area forms with dominant characteristics dominate, they are surrounded by heterozygous forms with recessive characters. The marginal part of the range is occupied by homozygous forms with recessive traits.
This law is closely related to the anthropological observations of N.I. Vavilov. In 1924, members of the expedition under his leadership witnessed amazing phenomenon in Kafiristan (Nuristan), located in Afghanistan at an altitude of 3500-4000 m. They found that most residents of the northern mountainous areas had blue eyes. According to the prevailing hypothesis at that time, since ancient times northern races were widespread here and these places were considered a center of culture. N.I. Vavilov noted the impossibility of confirming this hypothesis with the help of historical, ethnographic and linguistic evidence. In his opinion, the blue eyes of the Nuristans are a clear manifestation of the law of the entry of owners of recessive genes into the outlying part of the range. Later this law was convincingly confirmed. N. Cheboksarov on the example of the population of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The origin of the characteristics of the Caucasian race is explained by migration and isolation.
All of humanity can be divided into three large groups, or races: white (Caucasoid), yellow (Mongoloid), black (Negroid). Representatives of each race have their own distinctive, inherited features of body structure, hair shape, skin color, eye shape, skull shape, etc.
Representatives of the white race have light skin, protruding noses, people of the yellow race have cheekbones, a special shape of the eyelid, and yellow skin. Blacks, who belong to the Negroid race, have dark skin, wide noses, and curly hair.
Why are there such differences in the appearance of representatives of different races and why are each race characterized by certain characteristics? Scientists answer this as follows: human races were formed as a result of adaptation to different conditions of the geographical environment, and these conditions left their imprints on representatives of different races.
Negroid race (black)
Representatives of the Negroid race are distinguished by black or dark brown skin, black curly hair, a flattened wide nose and thick lips (Fig. 82).
Where black people live, there is an abundance of sun, it is hot - people's skin is more than enough irradiated by the sun's rays. And excessive radiation is harmful. And so the body of people in hot countries has adapted to excess sun over thousands of years: the skin has developed a pigment that blocks some of the sun's rays and, therefore, saves the skin from burns. Dark skin color is inherited. Coarse curly hair, which forms a kind of air cushion on the head, reliably protects a person from overheating.
Caucasian (White)
Representatives of the Caucasian race are characterized by fair skin, soft straight hair, a thick mustache and beard, a narrow nose and thin lips.
Representatives of the white race live in the northern regions, where the sun is a rare guest, and they really need the sun's rays. Their skin also produces pigment, but at the height of summer, when the body, thanks to the sun's rays, is replenished with the required amount of vitamin D. At this time, representatives of the white race become dark-skinned.
Mongoloid race (yellow)
People belonging to the Mongoloid race have dark or lighter skin, straight coarse hair, sparse or undeveloped mustache and beard, prominent cheekbones, lips and nose of medium thickness, almond-shaped eyes.
Where representatives of the yellow race live, there are frequent winds, even storms with dust and sand. And local residents tolerate such windy weather quite easily. Over the centuries they have adapted to strong winds. Mongoloids have narrow eyes, as if on purpose so that less sand and dust get into them, so that the wind does not irritate them, and they do not water. This trait is also inherited and is found among people of the Mongoloid race and in other geographical conditions. Material from the site
Among people there are those who believe that people with white skin belong to the superior races, and those with yellow and black skin belong to the inferior races. In their opinion, people with yellow and black skin are incapable of mental work and should only do physical work. These harmful ideas are still guiding racists in a number of third world countries. There, the work of blacks is paid lower than that of whites, and blacks are subjected to humiliation and insults. In civilized countries, all peoples have the same rights.
Research by N. N. Miklouho-Maclay on racial equality
Russian scientist Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay, in order to prove the complete inconsistency of the theory about the existence of “inferior” races incapable of mental development, settled on the island in 1871 New Guinea, where representatives of the black race - the Papuans - lived. He lived for fifteen months among the island-chan, became close to them, studied them
In the main and secondary features of appearance and internal structure people are very similar to each other. Therefore, with biological point From a perspective, most scientists view 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. To the number racial characteristics Negroids include: black, spirally curled or wavy hair; chocolate brown or even almost black (sometimes tan) skin; Brown eyes; a rather flat, slightly protruding nose with a low bridge and wide wings (some have a straight, narrower one); most have thick lips; very many 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. With the last group, the White Sea-Baltic has a lot common features: both of them make up the northern Caucasoid small race.
Darker-colored groups of southern Caucasians form the bulk of the population of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.
The Mongoloid, or Asian-American, large (yellow) race as a whole differs from the Negroid-Australoid and Caucasoid large races in the combination of racial characteristics characteristic of it. Thus, its most typical representatives have dark skin with yellowish tints; dark brown eyes; hair black, straight, tight; On the face, a beard and mustache, as a rule, do not develop; the body hair is very poorly developed; typical Mongoloids are characterized by a highly developed and peculiarly located fold of the upper eyelid, which covers internal corner eyes, thereby causing a somewhat oblique position of the palpebral fissure (this fold is called epicanthus); their face is rather flat; wide cheekbones; the chin and jaws protrude slightly; the nose is straight, but the bridge of the nose 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 were still something unified. 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 shape variations in racial characteristics are inextricably linked and lead to continuous, although usually little noticeable, modifications of the racial groups of humanity. The hereditary composition of the race, 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. Under species 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 big amount 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 one, 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 on the same level. high level 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.