Racial studies. Lecture number 9. Mongoloids
Anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky on transitional variants, characteristics and variability of representatives of the Mongoloid race / Course "Racial Studies": 10 lectures by anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky on the racial variability of mankind

How did the transitional variants of the Mongoloid race come about? What features are most characteristic of its representatives? Which race of Mongoloids is the most numerous? Candidate of Biological Sciences Stanislav Drobyshevsky talks about this. Also in

Stanislav Drobyshevsky- Candidate of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, scientific editor of the Anthropogenesis.ru portal. Course "Racial Studies" - 10 lectures by anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky about the racial variability of mankind.

Mongoloids - Stanislav Drobyshevsky

- The Mongoloid race - it is also called the Asian race - is a race, on the one hand, with a huge area, about half of Asia, a lot of all sorts of islands, with a huge number. As everyone knows, there are more than a billion Chinese alone. On the other hand, it is surprisingly monotonous - from north to south and from west to east. Among all the so-called great races, it is probably one of the most homogeneous.

That does not exclude, of course, the existence of some options. Moreover, the Mongoloid race, since it comes into contact with other races along the edges, has transitional variants. Transitional groups between Caucasians and Mongoloids make up as many as two races. This is the Ural race - representatives living in the Volga region, in the Urals, in the Trans-Urals, in Western Siberia, Khanty and Mansi are often called such super exemplary representatives. Naturally, they are not the only ones included there, because Uralic, or Uraloid, features are found among the Tatars, the Chuvash, the Mordovians, the Mari, the Kets in Western Siberia, and many others.

The Ural race is averaged between Mongoloids and Caucasians. From a Caucasoid point of view, they may appear to be Mongoloids, but from a Mongoloid point of view, they will appear to be Caucasoid. This is expressed in the shape and color of the hair, and in the shape of the eyes, and in anything else. True, there is a big question: did the Ural race arise here due to isolation or due to a mixture of Mongoloids and Caucasoids? Most likely, both factors mattered.

To the south live representatives of the South Siberian race. It also includes representatives of many peoples, but the two main peoples are considered typical representatives - these are the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz.

Regarding the origin of the South Siberian race, more is probably known than about the origin of any other race, since they were nomads, not so long ago they formed there in the form of the South Siberian race, this region is well studied archaeologically and paleoanthropologically. Therefore, the addition of the South Siberian race - as a mixture of Caucasians who lived here earlier, in the Bronze Age, with the Mongoloids, who began to come here from the early Iron Age, somewhere by the 16th century all these movements ended - is described and studied very well. There are also transitions between the Mongoloids and the equatorials in Southeast Asia, but there is a problem in scientific terms, because these transitions are practically not described by anyone.

Mongoloids are characterized by a whole set of rather striking features. Their skin color is fairly light on a global scale, some northerners are very light, but, say, in Indonesia, they have rather dark skin tones, although equatorial ones are never reached.

Almost all Mongoloids have the same hair - straight and black. And not just straight lines. They are still so-called tight.

The diameter of the hair is large, which differs from the straight hair of, say, northern Caucasians, whose hair is also straight, but soft, thin.

This sign in the Mongoloids is extremely uniform, and any variants are practically the same type. Although there are options. For example, in some groups of Yakuts and Evenks, up to 40% have blond hair, sometimes they are very blond. Some believe that this is the influence of an admixture of Russians, but most likely this is their own, native state, because they lived in isolation, and in isolation such signs often appear on their own. In the very south of the Mongoloid settlement, strongly wavy, even almost curly hair due to mixing with the equatorials is sometimes found - for example, in the Philippines this is far from uncommon.

The most characteristic feature of the Mongoloids is a small slit in the eyes and the presence of an epicanthus. The epicanthus is a fold in the inner corner of the eye that covers the lacrimal tubercle, and in most Mongoloid groups, the frequency of this epicanthus is from 98 to 100%. It is a little smaller in the very south - say, in the same Indonesia, in the Philippines. Due to mixing with the equatorials, the frequency of epicanthus may decrease there.

It is characteristic that the epicanthus is present not only in the Mongoloids. Regardless, it seems to have originated among the Bushmen in South Africa, among the South African race, and the epicanthus occurs naturally among the Indians in America, but they are related to the Mongoloids in any way, and is found among the Caucasoids. 50% of Caucasian children also have epicanthus. But in Caucasians, by the age of three or four, it usually disappears if it was at birth, while in Mongoloids it remains for life. Although it must be said that in Mongoloids in old age, the frequency of epicanthus decreases.

A typical feature of the Mongoloids is the reduced growth of the beard and mustache. The minimum in the world, less than theirs, no. Some people - men, of course - practically never grow a beard or mustache in their entire lives. What is the reason for the biased perception of this sign by the Mongoloids themselves: for them, such a beard, as now, let's say, I have, will be a sign of incredible old age. What I personally encountered a couple of times when the Mongoloids perceived me as a very old person. The Chinese, for example. It is not for nothing that they depict, say, Confucius all the time with a long beard. But if you look closely, it is long, but it still goes along the very bottom edge of the face, because it’s almost impossible for them to imagine that a beard can be at least the same as I have now, because they don’t have it.

Also, a flattened face is very characteristic of the Mongoloids: in the horizontal plane, the face is extremely flat. Although sometimes it is exaggerated in descriptions, exaggerated, nevertheless, the fact is that there are individual individuals whose nose will not touch the pencil if it is placed on the cheekbones. It turns out that the face is not only flat - it is actually pressed inward. These, of course, are some extreme options, they are very rare, but the fact is that this never happens in other races, and the flattening of the face is large.

But the shape and size of the face of the Mongoloids are very variable, as well as the shape of the nose. It often seems to the inhabitants of Russia that the Mongoloids must have some kind of small, concave nose, but this idea is drawn from communication with our Mongoloids - northern, Siberian. And more southern ones can have completely different nose shapes. The lips of the Mongoloids may be different. As a rule, thicker than Caucasians, but thinner than Equatorials. Something more or less average.

Mongoloids are very monotonous in fact, but nevertheless, variants can be distinguished. In the south, the southern Mongoloid race, or the South Asian race, which is the same. There is the term "Malay", some other, but they are less used. This race is the most equatorial. They have the darkest skin among the Mongoloids, the most protruding jaws - up to developed prognathism.

In some groups, the lips reach equatorial values: very thick, wide, unfolded.

In the Philippines, in Southeast Asia, in some places there may be wavy, almost curly hair, and so on and so forth.

Obviously, this is the result of mixing with the equatorials. Although not so ancient, because paleoanthropology shows that the Mongoloids appeared here about 2-3 thousand years ago. Before that, a completely different, proto-Australoid, Melanesian - they call it differently - but in fact the eastern equatorial population lived here.

In terms of numbers, most of the Mongoloids belong to the East Asian race. This is a large part of China, except for the very north and the very south, Korea and Japan. Considering that there are a billion people in China - minus the very north and the very south, but still the same billion remains. Representatives of this East Asian, Far Eastern race, as it is called in another way, have an intermediate state between the southern and northern Mongoloids. Their skin is rather light, but still darker than in the north, but lighter than in the south. They have a narrow but tall face. In the south, the face is small, in principle, but here it is narrow, high, but also flattened. What is characteristic - the nose is most often convex. The Chinese, for example, according to statistics, have 60% convex nasal bridges. The Japanese also have about that, I won’t name the exact figure, but about the same. The nose is usually rather narrow. The Japanese are especially distinguished by the narrowness of the nose.

Within this Far Eastern, or East Asian, race, types are sometimes distinguished, variants: the Japanese type, the Korean type, several types in China. But there is not so much data, because, for example, they studied mainly Koreans living in Kazakhstan. Strange as it may seem, practically no one has studied Koreans in Korea anthropologically.

Further north live representatives of the North Asian race, which is divided into two types. This is Central Asian: Mongols, Buryats, partially Yakuts - they are the largest among the Mongoloids, the most massive, with a large flat face, with a very large frequency of epicanthus. And the second option is the Baikal race, or East Siberian, as Bunak, for example, called it. These are, for example, Evenks. Not only Evenki, there are many peoples in Siberia, and the majority also belong there. They are slightly smaller than the Central Asian race, and differ from all other Mongoloids by a relatively large frequency of blond hair and light eyes, sometimes even blue eyes. At the same time, their face shape is maximally Mongoloid, that is, the flattest face, the most concave back of the nose and the largest face sizes - their face is both very high and very wide.

This is an example of the fact that race is a conditional concept. Let's say that the Evenks are the most Mongoloid in face shape, and minimally Mongoloid in eye and hair color. This suggests that the concept of "Mongoloid" is our construct, which was created for convenience, but there is no need to try to cram real people into it. In fact, real people are primary, and ideas are secondary.

It is easy to see that in countries with a hot climate, the skin color of people is noticeably darker than in countries with a cold one. Also, closer to the equator, the width of the nose, the thickness of the lips, and the forward protrusion of the face increase. This distribution of features is explained as follows.

In deep antiquity, probably in the Upper Paleolithic, biological adaptation to environmental conditions was of great importance. Man was not yet so technically armed as to effectively protect himself from the action of the elements. Under such conditions, skin color, for example, played a vital role in heat transfer. The dark pigment of the skin absorbs much more ultraviolet light, protecting the body from the danger of cancer. Although dark skin heats up more from the sun's rays, more efficient work of the skin glands saves from overheating. The skin temperature of a Negroid under the same conditions is less than that of a European or Asian. Fair skin is more susceptible to UV radiation. This can be useful in the northern hemisphere, since under conditions of relatively low insolation - solar illumination - there is a problem of rickets - lack of D. Thus, in the northern latitudes, an increase in skin sensitivity to ultraviolet saves children from rickets. The curly hair and the elongated high shape of the head of the equatorial groups of the population have an adaptive value. Curly hair creates an air cushion on the head, and air is one of the best heat insulators. In addition, the hair of a Negro contains more air bubbles than the hair of a Mongoloid or Caucasian. The elongated narrow and high head of the equatorial groups has a smaller upper area with the same volume as the low wide head of the northern peoples. This saves her from excessive overheating in the sun.

The large width of the mouth and the significant width of the mucosa of the lips of Negroids are useful in hot climates, as they increase the surface for evaporation of moisture, cooling the body. A flattened wide nose has a similar meaning. At the same time, the small size of the nasal cavity does not allow the air to heat up additionally during inhalation.

The high long nose of Caucasians and northern Mongoloids has the opposite meaning. The air passing through the long nasal passage has time to heat up and enters the lungs warm. The orthognathism of the northern races - the shortness of the face - increases the bending of the nasal passage and protects the nasopharynx from hypothermia.

The width of the palpebral fissure differs markedly in representatives of different races. The narrow section of the eyes of the Mongoloids, Bushmen and Tuareg protects the eyeball from dust, wind and too bright sun in open spaces. At the same time, the eye of the Mongoloids is significantly distinguished by a large amount of subcutaneous tissue, designed to retain heat.

A more exotic example of the adaptive significance of racial traits is the steatopygia of the Bushmen, Hottentots, and Andamanese. Fat deposits on the buttocks and thighs serve as a reserve of nutrients in conditions of their sharp lack. Thanks to the sculptures of the Upper Paleolithic, we know that steatopygia was common in Europe about 25-20 thousand years ago, during the formation of racial complexes

Classical racial characteristics include physical features - the color and shape of the eyes, lips, nose, hair, skin color, the structure of the face as a whole, the shape of the head.

MONGOLOID, or Asian-American, a large race, which is sometimes called “yellow” in outdated terminology, covers about 50% of the total population of the globe, that is, 1.3 billion. Of this number, almost half are Chinese - about 600 million people. The main mass of representatives of the "yellow" race occupies vast expanses of Asia, especially its northern, eastern, central and southeastern regions. The Mongoloid race also spread to Oceania and the mainland of America. Very many Mongoloid groups are part of the population of the USSR, mainly its Asian part, where their characteristic representatives are the Yakuts, Buryats, Tungus (Evenks), Chukchi, Tuvans, Altaians, Gilyaks (Nivkhs), Aleuts, Asian Eskimos and many others. In the European part of the USSR, Mongoloid anthropological types are included in the Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvashs and some other peoples. For a large Mongoloid race, the following features are characteristic: the skin is light or swarthy, with a yellowish or yellowish-brown tint; the hair on the head of almost everyone is straight and hard (tight), usually black; beard and mustache, as a rule, develop late and poorly; hair of the tertiary cover on the body is almost absent. Among representatives of many anthropological types of this race, especially among the northern Mongoloids, the face is large, medium protrudes forward (mesognathism); in connection with the growth and protrusion of the cheekbones to the sides, it is significantly flattened; the eyes are brown, their incision is medium in most, but narrow in many, and the outer corner of the palpebral fissure is often higher than the inner; the fold of the upper eyelid is highly developed, in very many it almost reaches the eyelashes, passes to the lower eyelid and completely or partially covers the inner corner of the eye, capturing the lacrimal tubercle: a special fold is formed here - the epicanthus; the nose is of medium width, protrudes slightly, usually with a low nose bridge (among the Indians it protrudes strongly, the bridge of the nose is high, among the Eskimos it is very low); the position of the nostrils in most is average; lips thin or medium thickness, upper procheilic; the chin protrusion is moderately developed; the head of very many is mesocephalic. The Mongoloid big race is divided into three small races. The first of them is the northern Mongoloid, or Asian continental; the second is the southern Mongoloid, or Asiatic-Pacific; the third is American (Indian). Representatives of the northern Mongoloid, or, as it is also called, the Central Asian, small race are, for example, the Buryats and Mongols. These are rather typical Mongoloids, which, however, are distinguished by somewhat weakened features, since their skin color, hair and eyes are lighter, their hair is not always tight; but the beard hardly grows, the lips are thin, the face is large and flat. In southeast Asia, the southern Mongoloid race predominates, the majority of whose representatives - Malays, Javanese, Probes - have darker skin; the face is narrower and lower; lips of medium thickness going thick; wide nose; epicanthus is less common than in northern Mongoloids; the beard develops, although not much; some have wavy hair on their heads; growth is somewhat lower than that of the northern Mongoloids, and significantly lower than that of the Chinese. The third Mongoloid race - American (Indian) - reveals a transitional character, as it has more weakly expressed Mongoloid features and at the same time some features that bring it closer to the Caucasoid type. The hair of the Indians is usually straight and tight, black in color; beard, mustache, tertiary body hair develop poorly; the skin is yellowish-brown, the eyes are dark, brown; many people have wide faces. According to these features, the Indians are similar to typical Mongoloids. However, according to the crease of the upper eyelid (which, although it is strongly developed, it usually does not form an epicanthus), according to a strongly protruding nose, often with a convex back, according to the average or high height of the bridge of the nose, and also according to the general type of face, the Indians resemble Caucasoids. Some tribes have wavy hair on their heads.

As it always happens, according to popular wisdom, the name thief always shouts the loudest: Stop the thief!" The same can be said about those "figures" who came up with the myth that the Russians are a mixture of different peoples, including Mongoloids.

However, genetic and anthropological studies just say the opposite: it is the Russians with their R1A1 haplogroup that are the most pure-blooded Caucasians, along with other Slavs and East Germans (who are, in fact, Germanized Slavs). But even the West Germans (with the exception of the native Bavarians) retained much more Caucasoid genes than the same Anglo-Saxons, who, in fact, are representatives of a hybrid race that has absorbed, in addition to Caucasoid, also genes of archanthropes.

And that is why they hate the Slavs, but especially the Russians, already at the genetic level. From this one can understand why the Anglo-Saxons throughout their history, openly or secretly, but always intrigued against Russia and Russia, pushing other European and even Asian peoples to attack our country. Hatred of the Russians, aggressiveness and the desire for world domination at any cost - this is all the result of the presence of the animal genes of the archanthropes. They also force Anglo-Saxon politicians to lie and actively use "double standards", especially in relation to Russians and Russia.

And the fear that their genetic inferiority will be revealed to the whole world has forced them for centuries to come up with all sorts of fables about Russians and Russia-Rus, one of which is precisely the myth of the mixed origin of the Russian people and its "Mongoloid" nature. By the way, just with the help of this myth, the Anglo-Saxon special services "brainwashed" the Ukrainians after 1991, frightening them with a new "invasion of the Mongoloid Russia-Horde."

But how are things really? Yes, everything is exactly the opposite! For example, here are some interesting studies mentioned by the traveler, biologist, anthropologist G. Sidorov in his book "Behind the Seven Seals":

“I turned over a few pages, and I came across N.N. Cheboksarov’s monograph “Mongoloid elements in the population of central Europe.” I was surprised by the number of people the scientist studied. There were not many, not few, but as many as 8500 people.

“Well, this Cheboksarov did the job! I involuntarily admired. - How many years did he work?

And I wanted to find the conclusions made by scientists. When I found them, I could not believe my eyes: N.N. Cheboksarov, referring to the data of his work, argued that the main sign of Mongoloidity - the epicanthus in Russians in a developed form is almost never found. Out of 8500 examined, he met his barely noticeable rudiments in only 12 people! In Germany, an undeveloped epicanthus is noticeable in 8% of citizens. Estonians, Latvians, Germans, French, even Western Ukrainians consider us Russians to be semi-Asians.

They write scientific articles that we, Russians, arose from a mixture of Finns, the Ural Ugric peoples and the ancient inferior Caucasoid tribes who left Europe for the east. Not only that, since the 6th century, we were periodically pressed by the Huns, then the Avars, later the Pechenegs, Polovtsy and, finally, the Mongols. But data from anthropological research suggests that We Russians are more Caucasian than Germans! What does it mean? The Germans have 2% more Mongoloid features than we do. Where could the Mongoloids come from in Western Europe? Are these the descendants of the mysterious Tungros? Hybrid tribes mixed with the European Pithecanthropus? I didn't find any other solution.

“If so, then much of the behavior of Western Europeans becomes clear. It turns out that over time, the genetic animal complex has spread throughout Western Europe. As a result of this phenomenon, the population of the central part of Germany and Austria has become more Mongoloid than we Russians! Okay, I reasoned. - All this concerns the descendants of Pithecanthropes. But in Europe there were also dumb people - Neanderthals. “Nemethy” means those who cannot speak, that is, dumb. From them came the word Germans. But the Germans did not possess Mongoloidity. It is a pity that N. Cheboksarov did not conduct research along the line of the Germans. Otherwise, the conclusions could be even more interesting.

I flipped through a few more pages of the collection and came across an article by Kozhevnikov called "Rusology". It spoke about the results of the anthropological expedition of 1955-1959 by V. Bunak. The scientist examined one hundred groups of Great Russians. In his work, Bunak revealed the maximum and minimum limits of deviations and came to the conclusion that they are minimal for the Russian people. Various groups of Russians, despite the enormous distance from each other, were practically a homogeneous ethnic group!

“How could it be? I wondered. - Has the ancient Arian gene pool really not changed for thousands of years of isolation of Russian clans from each other? He had to become different by itself, under the influence of various living conditions, not to mention the factor of genetic mixing with other ethnic groups. But for some reason it didn't. Why? Is our stellar nature really so powerful, as Yaroslava says, that even millennia of isolation cannot change it?

And the Balts, the French, the Anglo-Saxons, even the Poles, brothers in blood, consider us half-Tatars ... Here you have half-Mongols-half-Tatars! Why do you, gentlemen, Westerners, consider us "God make me laugh"? Well, is it not because you yourself represent in your majority a hybrid race? V. Bunak did not draw such a conclusion, but noted that the anthropological spread of changes among Russians is two times less than among the Germans, French, British and other peoples of Europe.

It turns out that we, Russians, are pure-blooded Caucasians on a racial basis, and, moreover, extremely homogeneous. Western Europeans are completely different. They have twice as many Mongoloid and other signs as we do, but the latter are sure that they represent the standard of the Caucasoid race, and we are Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians - a mixture of Mongoloids, Finno-Ugric peoples and inferior hybrid Slavs. It's the other way around! As it should be in our upside down world!

...Thinking about what came to mind, I found an article by V.E. Deryabin about the method of statistical intergroup analysis of anthropological data.

- "Consideration of a mixed set of features" - I read a long promising headline.

After flipping through the article, I took up its study. There was nothing new in Deryabin's work. The scientist, just like his predecessors, now having applied mathematical analysis, came to the conclusion about the anthropological unity of the Russian ethnos. Moreover, according to his research, we Russians are lighter than the rest of the peoples of Europe. There are 25-30% more blondes among us than in Germany, Denmark or Sweden ... From what I read, I was thrown into a fever.

“It turns out that the “blond beasts” are not Germans at all, but we, Eastern Slavs! The German blondes are, for the most part, the Germanized descendants of the Western Slavs and the inhabitants of the Baltic Rus region of the Rus.

No other conclusion came to my mind. After thinking a little, I took up the study of the article "Craniology of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus in connection with the problems of their origin."

This work was written by the outstanding Soviet anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, the same one that Uncle Yosha mentioned more than once. Therefore, I read it with special attention. Conclusion from V.P. Alekseev was the same: the Russian ethnic group is more homogeneous than any Western one. In addition, referring to the works of his colleagues, Alekseev came to the conclusion that in the Russian ethnos, despite its homogeneity, ancient tribal differences can be traced. For example, Belarusians descend from the Radimichi and Dregovichi, the right-bank Ukrainians from the Drevlyans. The same is true with other groups of the Russian population.

Chernigovians are a copy of their ancestors - northerners, Smolensk and Pskovians - Krivichi, Novgorodians and Pomors are very similar to medieval Slovenes. According to Alekseev, the Russian ethnos is the oldest layer of the purely Nordic population in Europe. Despite the tribal differences barely visible by specialists, it is holistic and surprisingly homogeneous. The scientist did not answer the question of how this could happen in his work.

Having thoroughly studied the article by V.P. Alekseev, I briefly looked in the Russian anthropological journal No. 3 and Krasnov's article, the scientist wrote it in 1902. He surveyed ten Russian provinces. The scientist carried out his work at military recruiting stations. And what is the conclusion: the same. Russians are mostly blond, gray-eyed Caucasians. Blonds among them in the south are 20% and above. In the north, from 50 to 70%.

After leafing through the articles of several more anthropologists, I opened the odontological study of A.A. Zubov. Zubov published his work in 1970, during the heyday of Soviet science. To the surprise of the researcher, among all the groups of the Russian ethnos he studied, he did not find spoon-shaped Mongoloid teeth in more than one person. According to A.A. Zubov, the Mongoloids in the entire history of the Russian people have never mixed with it.

Zubov was the first of the Soviet scientists to question the fact of the Mongol-Tatar yoke. In his opinion, there were never Mongols and Mongoloid Turks in Russia, and those who are considered to be Mongol-Tatars were not at all. I looked at the work of other researchers. They all stated the same thing. For a few minutes I stopped at the conclusions of geneticists. In their opinion, the Russian ethnos is more than 90% homogeneous and belongs to the Caucasoid Nordic race. Hybrids in it amounted to 8-9% of the strength, there are practically no Mongoloids at all.

“Here you are, half-Huns, half-Avars, half-Khazars, half-Pechenegs, half-Polovtsy, half-Mongols! I thought as I went to my bedroom. - Everything is like from Krylov's fable, when they put a label on the lion's tail that he was a donkey. For the last thousand years, the time of labels has reigned on earth. The labels are imposed on the peoples by the degenerate Western civilization. The whole world understands this, but nothing can be done about it. And if someone begins to intensively fight this disaster, then crusades were organized against him in the Middle Ages. In our time, they are both bombed and conquered.”

.. In recent decades, Russian and foreign scientists have carried out genetic studies that have fully confirmed that it is Russians (together with Belarusians and eastern Ukrainians) who are the most purebred carriers of the haplogroupR1A1 and therefore studies and conclusionsV. Bunak N. Cheboksarova, V. Deryabin, V. Alekseev, A. Zubov were fully confirmed.

Three characteristic "areas" of human habitation with the greatest admixture of non-Caucasian genes have now been identified, which quite clearly coincided with some traditional "foci" of Russophobia: Western Ukraine (with adjacent territories of Poland), Bavaria and England. Thus, characteristic conclusions can also be drawn in relation to our "liberoids" who hate everything Russian, scold the Russian people and work for the enemies of our state. It is quite obvious that the mystery of the manifestation of the disease of admiration for the West should be sought in the same bestial genes of the archanthropes.

The most ancient stages in the history of the anthropological composition of the population of East Asia, inseparable from the history of its economy and culture, have already been covered in the previous chapter.

As we have seen, the mainland of East Asia during the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic period was mainly inhabited by people belonging to the Mongoloid great race. Mongoloid features stand out clearly on Late Paleolithic skulls from Shandingtung, Ziyang, and Liujiang.

Origin of the Mongoloid great race

Comparing these, still very scarce, paleoanthropological materials with data on the racial composition of the population of East Asia in later historical periods (up to the present day), one can put forward a hypothesis about the formation of one of the largest races of mankind - the Mongoloid - in the arid zone of the Central and East Asian steppes. and semi-deserts. Also noteworthy is the hypothesis of S. A. Semenov about the development of some characteristic Mongoloid features, such as a narrow, oblique palpebral fissure, a highly developed fold of the upper eyelid, an epicanthus covering the lacrimal tubercle, as protective adaptations to the peculiar harsh climatic conditions of Central Asia, with a pronounced ultraviolet radiation from the sun, huge seasonal and daily temperature fluctuations, strong winds that raise whirlwinds of fine sandy-loess dust that irritates and clogs the eyes.

Pacific and Continental Mongoloids

In the period of the late Paleolithic and the Mesolithic that replaced it, the Mongoloids, apparently, were not completely homogeneous. Skulls from Shandingtung, Ziyang, and Liujiang have some features characteristic of the Pacific (southeastern) branch of the Mongoloids, various types of which in all subsequent historical epochs were widespread among the populations of China, Korea, and Japan, as well as Indochina and Indonesia. Pacific racial features of these skulls are a significant height of the braincase (136-150 mm), alveolar prognathism, and some tendency to broad nose.

The second main branch of the Mongoloid large race - the continental, or northwestern - is represented in the east of Asia in the era under consideration only by skulls from the Chzhalaynor region. The height of these skulls is small, according to the cranial index they are mesocranial, their face is very flat, absolutely wide and high, the nasal bones protrude slightly. All these features bring the Zhalainor skulls closer to the continental-Mongoloid types of later periods, which are widespread in Central and North Asia. It seems very likely that during the period of transition from the ancient Stone Age to the new one, in the east of the Asian continent, the initial differentiation of the Mongoloids took place. Their Pacific (southeastern) variants were concentrated at that time mainly south of the Mongolian llato, while the continental (northwestern) variants were concentrated mainly west of the Khingan and the edge of the Mongolian plateau in Central Asia.

East Asian and South Asian type groups

For the history of the anthropological composition of the population of East Asia, the question of the southern border of the area of ​​formation of the Pacific Mongoloids is of great importance. Unfortunately, due to the lack of paleoanthropological materials, this issue cannot be fully resolved at present. Of great interest for its resolution are the skulls from Lujiang in Guangxi and Tampong (in Upper Laos), which, with a general Mongoloid appearance, are distinguished by alveolar prognathism, a very wide nose, and some other features characteristic of the Negro-Australoid (equatorial) large race. It is possible that these skulls belong to one of the earliest representatives of that group of racial types, which both morphologically and geographically represents the transition from the Pacific Mongoloids to the eastern (Asiatic-Oceanian) Negro-Australoids, who probably constituted the oldest population of all Indochina, and partly, perhaps, and South China. In Soviet anthropological literature, this group was called South Asian, or South Mongoloid.

Close ties and transitions between both groups of Pacific Mongoloids apparently persisted much later. The ancient skulls from the Neolithic sites mentioned in the previous chapter, described by D. Black, reveal many characteristic features of the East Asian group of types with a general Mongoloid appearance: a significant height of the skull (137 mm), a large height of the face (75 mm) with its relatively small width (131 mm ), relative narrow nose (47), etc.

On the other hand, another Neolithic group of skulls from the sites of the Shaanxi province is distinguished by a combination of general Mongoloid features (flattened face, slightly protruding nasal bones, high, rounded eye sockets, etc.) with southern Mongoloid features (noticeable alveolar prognathism and broad nose). It is difficult to say whether in this case we are dealing with an incomplete differentiation of the Pacific Mongoloids or with the presence of racial types of southern origin in the Shenxi series.

North Chinese racial type

The Neolithic skeletons belonging to the North Chinese tribes that created the Yangshao culture not only possess all the distinctive features of the Pacific Mongoloids, but also reveal a specific combination of features characteristic of the racial type, which in Soviet anthropological literature was called North Chinese. On skulls of this type, the common features of the southeastern branch of the Mongoloids: a significant height of the braincase, a relatively small zygomatic diameter, a tendency to alveolar prognathism, etc. - are combined with mesocrania (cranial index 78-79) and a very high face (upper height 75 -77 mm). The height of the ancient representatives of the North Chinese type reached, according to the measurement of long bones, 169-170 cm (for adult men). In addition to the skeletons associated with the Yangshao culture, the skeletons from the burials of the Shang-Yin period and from the burial grounds of the 5th-2nd centuries belong to the type under consideration. BC e. from the territory of the eastern regions of Inner Mongolia (the former province of Zhehe).

All features of the North Chinese type are also characteristic of the modern population of North China, which has such general Mongoloid features as tight and straight hair, poor development of tertiary hairline on the face and body, yellowish skin color, brown eyes, flattened face, strongly protruding cheekbones, developed fold of the upper eyelid, often the presence of an epicanthus, a low nose bridge, etc., are combined with height above average (166-169 cm for adult men), mesocephaly (average head index 78-80), a very tall and relatively narrow face (morphological height 131 -136 mm, zygomatic diameter 140-143 mm), pronounced narrow nose (nasal index to live 60-62). The main distribution area of ​​the North Chinese type is currently the provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu. This type also predominates among the Chinese of Xinjiang and some regions of Sichuan and Yunnan.

Other types of East Asian group

The North Chinese type is not the only geographical variant of the East Asian group of Pacific Mongoloids. Among the Chinese of Manchuria - mainly the descendants of settlers of the 19th-early 20th centuries, as well as among the Manchus, Sibo, Daurs and Koreans, another variant of the same group is widespread - the Korean-Manchu type, which in most respects is close to the North Chinese, but differs somewhat from it. shorter stature (162-165 cm), brachycephaly (cephalic index 83-85), an absolutely wider face (143-145 mm), probably a greater development of tertiary hairline. In its origin, the Korean-Manchurian type is closely related to the North Chinese type, in the process of brachycephalization of which it probably developed. The initial forms of this process could be mesobrachycranic Neolithic skulls from Ungi in the far north of Korea (explored by the Japanese anthropologist Imamura).

A certain role in the formation of the Korean-Manchurian type could also be played by the mixing of the relatively short-headed northeastern (Tungbei) variants of the Pacific Mongoloids with the continental (Siberian) types of the same large race, especially with the peculiar "Amur-Sakhalin" type identified by M. G. Levin among the Amur and Sakhalin Nivkhs (Gilyaks). Such a mixture can explain the increase in the tertiary hairline observed in the Korean-Manchu type compared to the North Chinese type, a certain tendency to depigmentation of the iris, and an increase in the width of the face. With anthropological data, it is interesting to compare the latest views of many Soviet and foreign linguists on the relationship of the Korean language with the Altaic (in particular, with the Tungus-Manchu), as well as the participation in the ethnogenesis of both Koreans and Manchus of ancient Paleo-Asian tribes, in terms of language and economic and cultural features close, probably to the Nivkhs. one

The question of the reasons for the predominance of the Korean-Manchurian type among the Chinese of the northeast is very interesting. Mixing with the Manchus probably played a certain role here, but it was hardly decisive, since the Manchus in Manchuria had long been inferior in number to the Chinese settlers from Shandong, Hebei and other provinces of Northern China. Of greater importance, presumably, was the process of brachycephalization (shortening and widening of the head), which proceeded in northeast China - as elsewhere in areas of late colonization and intense racial miscegenation - more rapidly than in other parts of the country. Finally, one should also take into account the custom, widespread among the local Chinese, of placing a plank under the back of the head of babies, which causes a noticeable decrease in the longitudinal and increase in the transverse dimensions of the skull.

Among the Nanais of the Amur region and Manchuria, known there under the name "hezhe", another type of the East Asian group is outlined - the Amur - mesocephalic, but more massive and broad-faced compared to the North Chinese. It is possible that this type was formed as a result of a mixture of Pacific and continental Mongoloids. Noteworthy, however, is another explanation of the "intermediate" features of the Korean-Manchurian and Amur types. Manchuria and the Amur region could have been a transitional zone between the areas of formation of the Pacific and continental Mongoloids since ancient historical periods; Here, to this day, slightly, sharply differentiated types have been preserved, combining the features of both branches of the Asiatic large race.

Similar relationships can also be traced at the opposite end of the area of ​​distribution of racial types of the East Asian group, where, according to old descriptive and partly craniological data, among the Tibetans and related peoples of the Chamdo (Kam) district and western Sichuan (the territory of the former province of Sikan), a special one stands out - East Tibetan (Kamsky ) a type that differs from the Northern Chinese in greater massiveness, a lower skull height and a greater width of the face, as well as a less pronounced Mongoloid features of the eye area and nose (epicanthus, fold of the upper eyelid, low nose bridge). These features bring the East Tibetan type closer to the northern (continental) Mongoloids and at the same time give it an "Americanoid" (similar to the American Indians) appearance. Perhaps here we are dealing with the preservation of some ancient morphological features that were once characteristic of all Mongoloids.

Southern Mongoloids in East Asia

South of the Huaiyang and Qinling mountains, in the Yangtze basin and still further south in the Xijiang basin, as well as in the Tsangpo valley in southern Tibet, the racial types of the East Asian group are gradually replaced by other anthropological variants of the Pacific Mongoloids. This change, when moving from north to south of China, can be observed both among the Chinese and among various national minorities who speak the languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family. Comparing among themselves the natives of Northern, Central and Southern China, it is easy to see that with the general Mongoloidity, many characteristic features of the Asian big race, as it were, somewhat weaken in the meridional direction. So, the percentage of straight and tight hair decreases, the growth of the beard increases somewhat, the cheekbones protrude weaker, the fold of the upper eyelid is less pronounced, the epicanthus is less common. This “softening” of Mongoloidity is combined with a noticeable darkening of the skin, a large amount of wavy hair, a decrease in the height of the face, an increase in the width

nose (and a corresponding increase in the nasal index), a tendency: to alveolar prognathism, a large development of the outer mucous membrane of the lips (frequent appearance of thick and even swollen lips).

The Chinese themselves are well distinguished by physical characteristics of people from the northern, middle and southern provinces of the country. The contrast is especially great between the relatively fair-skinned, almost always straight-haired, tall-faced and narrow-nosed natives of the Yellow River basin, on the one hand, and the much darker-skinned, often wavy-haired, short-faced and broad-nosed Fujian, Guangdong and Guaneans, on the other hand. A transitional position between the two is occupied by the Chinese of the provinces located in the Yangtze (Changjiang) basin or adjacent to them (Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, and partly also Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan). The geographical variability of the total body length (height) is also very distinct in China: in the north it is 166-169 cm in adult men, as we have already seen, in the central provinces - 163-166 cm, in the south - 160-163 cm. this variability of the main racial features, the Chinese anthropologist Liu Xian proposes, along with the Huanghe (Northern Chinese) type, to single out two more territorial types among the Chinese - Changjiang (Middle Chinese) and Zhujiang (Southern Chinese).

It is obvious that the general direction of intergroup differences between the northern, middle, and southern Chinese completely coincides with the above-described differences between the East Asian and South Asian groups of Pacific Mongoloids. Comparing anthropological materials with data already known to us on the ethnic history of East Asia, there is no doubt that the Chinese, during their centuries-old advance to the south, which continued throughout almost their entire history, absorbed a significant number of South Asian racial elements that prevailed among the San Miao and Yue tribes. , who were the ancestors of the modern Miao and Yao, Zhuang Tung, Tibeto-Burman, and partly, perhaps, the Indonesians.

This understanding of the history of the racial composition of the population of South China is supported by the latest data on the ethnic anthropology of the national minorities of the PRC, collected by Chinese and Soviet researchers. These data clearly show that the majority of the Zhuangdong peoples, as well as the Miao, Yao and some groups of Tibeto-Burmans (southern Lizu, Jingpo) and Mon-Khmers (Kawa, Benlong), in comparison with the neighboring Chinese, show a greater expression of all of the above southern Mongoloid features. . These features appear with maximum brightness, apparently, among the Hainanese Li and Miao, examined by the author of this chapter in the spring of 1958. With a general Mongoloid appearance, the national minorities of Hainan are distinguished by small stature (158-161 cm for adult men), relatively dark skin of olive- yellowish shades, gracile structure, small absolute dimensions of the skull and face, mesocephaly (cephalic index 78-80), relatively wide nose (nasal index 87-90 when measuring the height of the nose from the nose), alveolar prognathism, thickened lips.

The peoples of the Mongoloid race have a rich hysterical past of the formation of the phenotype. In addition to an amazing versatile culture, representatives of the Mongoloid type have a peculiar appearance. Researchers of paleontological sites note the fact that the formation of a group of race signs had characteristic features. This type includes representatives not only of the Eurasian continent, but also the peoples of North America.

Historical formation of phenotypic traits

The first finds of the remains of the first representatives of the Mongoloid race were found by researchers of paleontological caves in East Asia. The common characteristic features of the structure of the bones of the skull made it possible to assume a single origin of the people.
These signs include:
narrow, oblique palpebral fissure;
strongly overhanging fold of the upper eyelid;
pronounced epicanthus;
the position of the frontal lobe in relation to the nasal septum;
inexpressive bone of the protrusion of the chin;
a peculiar landing of the skull on the bones of the cervical vertebrae.
The Mongoloid type is deeply entrenched in the gene pool of a large number of peoples of Southeast Asia and some peoples of North America. Which gives the right to assume the existence of a single center for the formation of a race.
Since these signs did not exhaust themselves during the historical formation of the descendants of the first Asians, we can conclude that the phenotype is stable. It is for this reason that the Mongoloid type was ranked among the main initial genetic branches of the formation of various nationalities.

Character traits

Assessing the entire path of evolution of the Mongoloid representatives, the main characteristic features can be distinguished:
stocky physique;
stable bone skeleton;
direct landing of the head in relation to the back;
peculiar arrangement of facial bones;
depressed nose;
not prominent bones of the chin;
epicanthus;
overhanging upper eyelid;
skin tone from ivory to yellow-brown;
straight coarse hair;
the main hair color is black and dark brown;
the most characteristic eye color is dark, black.

These peoples include:
Aztecs;
the Ryukyuans;
Uzbeks;
Kazakhs;
the Japanese;
Tibetans;
Thais;
Burmese;
Koreans;
Malays;
Finno-Tatars;
Tajiks of Turkestan;
native americans.

The peoples bearing these signs geographically lived in territories with an unfavorable harsh climate. Which influenced the development of such spring indicators of the race. It is believed that some representatives were formed under the influence of mixing several lines of the gene pool. The indigenous peoples of the Americas cause the most heated debate about their belonging to the Mongoloids.

The emergence of the concept of "Mongoloid"

The concept of "Mongoloid" was proposed by anthropologist researcher Christoph Meiners to be included in the classification of the "binary racial scheme". The scientist took the name itself from the name of the country of Mongolia, in which the first remains of a prehistoric man with characteristic features were discovered.

The next significant event in the formation of the concept of nationalities was made by Arthur de Gobineau. According to his research, theories were put forward for the area of ​​formation of signs located from the coast of the Ganges to the middle borders of Asia of the Amur River Delta. He relied on the analysis of the collected data on paleontological finds.

Thus, modern concepts of the emergence and formation of characteristic phenotypic traits were fixed by the middle of the 19th century.