Major races of people. Major human races

human race

Race- a system of human populations characterized by similarity in a complex of certain hereditary biological traits. The traits that characterize different races often appear as a result of adaptation to different environmental conditions that has taken place over many generations.

Racial science, in addition to these problems, also studies the classification of races, the history of their formation and such factors of their occurrence as selective processes, isolation, mixing and migration, the influence of climatic conditions and the general geographical environment on racial characteristics.

Racial science was especially widespread in National Socialist Germany, Fascist Italy and other Western European countries, as well as earlier in the USA (Ku Klux Klan), where it served as a justification for institutionalized racism, chauvinism and anti-Semitism.

Sometimes racial science is confused with ethnic anthropology - the latter, strictly speaking, refers only to the study of the racial composition of individual ethnic groups, i.e. tribes, peoples, nations, and the origin of these communities.

In that part of racial research that is aimed at studying ethnogenesis, anthropology conducts research in conjunction with linguistics, history, and archeology. In studying the driving forces of race formation, anthropology comes into close contact with genetics, physiology, zoogeography, climatology, and the general theory of speciation. The study of races in anthropology is important for solving many problems. It is important for resolving the issue of the ancestral home of modern humans, using anthropological material as a historical source, highlighting the problems of systematics, mainly small systematic units, understanding the patterns of population genetics, clarifying some issues of medical geography.

Racial studies studies the geographical variations in the physical type of people, without taking into account linguistic and cultural isolation. And ethnic anthropology studies what racial variants and anthropological types are inherent in a given ethnic group, people. For example, to establish into which groups the indigenous population of the Volga-Kama region is divided, to identify their generalized portraits, average height, pigmentation level is the task of a racial scientist. And to recreate the appearance and trace the possible genetic connections of the Khazars is the task of an ethnic anthropologist.

Modern division into races

There are many opinions on how many races can be distinguished within the species Homo sapiens.

Studies of classical anthropology show that there are two trunks - eastern and western, equally distributing the six races of humanity. The division into three races - "white", "yellow" and "black" - is an outdated position. For all their outward dissimilarity, the races of one trunk are connected by a greater commonality of genes and ranges than neighboring races. According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, there are about 30 human races (racial-anthropological types), united in three groups of races, which are called "great races". However, in non-scientific literature, the term “race” is still applied to large races, and the races themselves are called “subraces”, “subgroups”, etc. It is worth noting that the races themselves (small races) are divided into subraces, and there is no consensus regarding the belonging of certain sub-races to certain races (minor races). In addition, different anthropological schools use different names for the same races.

Western stem

Caucasoids

The natural range of Caucasoids is Europe to the Urals, North Africa, Southwest Asia and Hindustan. Includes Nordic, Mediterranean, Falian, Alpine, East Baltic, Dinaric and other subgroups. It differs from other races primarily in the strong profiling of the face. The rest of the features vary widely.

negroids

Natural range - Central, West and East Africa. Characteristic differences are curly hair, dark skin, dilated nostrils, thick lips, etc. There is an eastern subgroup (Nilotic type, tall, narrowly built) and a western subgroup (Negro type, round-headed, medium height). A group of pygmies (Negrillian type) stands apart.

pygmies

Pygmies compared to a man of average height

The natural range of the pygmies is the western part of Central Africa. Height from 144 to 150 cm for adult males, skin is light brown, hair is curly, dark, lips are relatively thin, large torso, arms and legs are short, this physical type can be classified as a special race. The possible number of pygmies can range from 40 to 200 thousand people.

Capoids, Bushmen

Caucasoid (Eurasian) races

Northern forms Atlanto-Baltic White Sea-Baltic Transitional (intermediate) forms Alpine Central European Eastern European Southern forms Mediterranean Indo-Afghan Balkan-Caucasian Western Asian (Armenoid) Pamir-Fergana Mongoloid (Asiatic-American) races

Asian branch of Mongoloid races Continental Mongoloids North Asian Central Asian Arctic race Pacific Mongoloids American races

Australoid (Oceanian) races

Veddoids Australians Ainu Papuans and Melanesians Negritos Negroid (African) races

Negros Negrilli (Pygmies) Bushmen and Hottentots Mixed forms between Caucasoids and the Asian branch of the Mongoloids

Central Asian groups South Siberian race Uralic race and Sub-Ural type Laponoids and sub-Lapanoid type Mixed groups of Siberia Mixed forms between Caucasoids and the American branch of the Mongoloids

American mestizo Mixed forms between the Caucasoid and Australoid big races

South Indian race Mixed forms between the Caucasoid and Negroid major races

Ethiopian race Mixed groups of Western Sudan Mixed groups of Eastern Sudan Mulattos South African "colored" Mixed forms between the Asian branch of the Mongoloids and the Australoids

South Asian (Malay) race Japanese East Indonesian group Other mixed racial forms

Malagasy Polynesians and Micronesians Hawaiians and Pitcairns

Idaltu

Idaltu (lat. Homo sapiens idaltu) is one of the most ancient races of modern people. The Idaltu inhabited the territory of Ethiopia. The approximate age of the found person Idaltu is 160 thousand years.

see also

Notes

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The population of our planet today exceeds 7 billion people. This figure is increasing every day.

Population of the Earth

Scientists have determined that in just a decade, the number of people on Earth will increase by 1 billion people. However, such dynamics of the demographic picture was not always so high.

A few centuries ago, the number of people increased slowly. People died from adverse weather conditions and diseases at an early age, since the development of science and technology was at a low level.

To date, the largest countries in terms of population are Japan, China and India. The population of these three countries becomes half of the world's population.

The smallest number of people live in countries whose territory covers equatorial forests, tundra and taiga zones, as well as mountain ranges. The bulk of the world's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere (about 90%).

Races

All mankind is divided into races. Races are organized groups of people who are united by common external features - body structure, face shape, skin color, hair structure.

Such external signs were formed as a result of the adaptation of human physiology to environmental conditions. There are three major races: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid.

The most numerous is the Caucasoid race, it includes about 45% of the world's population. Caucasoids inhabit the territory of Europe, part of Asia, South and North America and Australia.

The second largest is the Mongoloid race. The Mongoloid race includes people living in Asia, as well as the natives of North America - the Indians.

The Negroid race ranks third in terms of numbers. Representatives of this race live in Africa. After the slaveholding period, representatives of the Negroid race remained to live in South and North America.

peoples

Large races are formed by representatives of many peoples. Most of the world's population belongs to the 20 major nations, their number exceeds 50 million people.

Peoples are communities of people who lived in the same territory for long historical periods and are united by cultural heritage.

There are about 1500 peoples in the modern world. The geography of their settlement is the most diverse. Some of them are settled all over the planet, some are around within the limits of the settlement.

A great contribution to the description of human races was made by the Soviet scientist Valery Pavlovich Alekseev (1929-1991). In principle, we are now guided precisely by his calculations in this interesting anthropological issue. So what is race?

This is a relatively stable biological characteristic of the human species. Combines their general appearance and psychophysical features. At the same time, it is important to understand that this unity does not in any way affect the form of the hostel and the ways of living together. General signs are purely external, anatomical, but they cannot be used to judge the intellect of people, their ability to work, live, engage in science, art and other mental activities. That is, representatives of different races are absolutely identical in their mental development. They also have exactly the same rights, and, consequently, duties.

The ancestors of modern man are the Cro-Magnons. It is assumed that their first representatives appeared on Earth 300 thousand years ago in Southeast Africa. As the millennia passed, our distant ancestors spread throughout the world. They lived in different climatic conditions, and therefore acquired strictly specific biological characteristics. A single habitat gave rise to a common culture. And within this culture ethnic groups were formed. For example, the Roman ethnic group, the Greek ethnic group, the Carthaginian ethnic group and others.

Human races are divided into Caucasians, Negroids, Mongoloids, Australoids, Americanoids. There are also sub-races or minor races. Their representatives have their own specific biological traits that other people do not have.

1 - Negroid, 2 - Caucasoid, 3 - Mongoloid, 4 - Australoid, 5 - Americanoid

Caucasians - white race

The first Caucasians appeared in Southern Europe and North Africa. From there they spread throughout the European continent, came to Central, Central Asia and Northern Tibet. They crossed the Hindu Kush and ended up in India. Here they settled the entire northern part of Hindustan. They also mastered the Arabian Peninsula and the northern regions of Africa. In the 16th century, they crossed the Atlantic and populated almost all of North America and most of South America. Then it was the turn of Australia and South Africa.

Negroids - black race

Negroids or Negroes are considered the indigenous inhabitants of the tropical zone. This explanation is based on melanin, which gives the skin its black color. It protects the skin from the burns of the scorching tropical sun. No doubt, it prevents burns. But what clothes do people wear on a hot sunny day - white or black? Of course white, because it reflects the sun's rays well. Therefore, in extreme heat, having black skin is unprofitable, especially with high insolation. From this we can assume that the Negroes appeared in those climatic conditions where cloudiness prevailed.

Indeed, the oldest finds of Grimaldi (Negroids), belonging to the Upper Paleolithic, were discovered on the territory of Southern France (Nice) in the Grimaldi cave. In the Upper Paleolithic, this whole area was inhabited by people with black skin, woolly hair and large lips. They were tall, slender, long-legged hunters of large herbivores. But how did they end up in Africa? Just like the Europeans came to America, that is, they moved there, pushing the indigenous population.

Interestingly, South Africa was inhabited by Negroids - Bantu Negroes (the classic Negroes we know) in the 1st century BC. e. That is, the pioneers were contemporaries of Julius Caesar. It was at this time that they settled in the forests of the Congo, the savannahs of East Africa, reached the southern regions of the Zambezi River and ended up on the banks of the muddy Limpopo River.

And who did these black-skinned European conquerors supplant? After all, someone lived before them on these lands. This is a special southern race, which is conditionally called " Khoisan".

Khoisan race

It includes Hottentots and Bushmen. They differ from blacks in brown skin and Mongoloid features. They have a different throat. They do not pronounce words on the exhale, like all of us, but on the inhale. They are considered the remnants of some ancient race that inhabited the Southern Hemisphere for a very long time. There are very few of these people left, and in the ethnic sense, they do not represent anything integral.

Bushmen- quiet and calm hunters. They were pushed out by Bichuani Negroes into the Kalahari Desert. That's where they live, forgetting their ancient and rich culture. They have art, but it is in a rudimentary state, since life in the desert is very difficult and you have to think not about art, but about how to get food.

Hottentots(the Dutch name of the tribes), who lived in the Cape Province (South Africa), became famous for being real robbers. They stole cattle. They quickly became friends with the Dutch and became their guides, translators and farm workers. When the British captured the Cape Colony, the Hottentots made friends with them. They live on these lands to this day.

australoids

Australoids are also called Australians. How they got to the lands of Australia is unknown. But they were there a long time ago. It was a huge number of small tribes with different customs, rituals and culture. They did not like each other and practically did not communicate.

Australoids are not similar to Caucasoids, Negroids and Mongoloids. They only look like themselves. Their skin is very dark, almost black. The hair is wavy, the shoulders are wide, and the reaction is extremely fast. Relatives of these people live in South India on the Deccan Plateau. Maybe from there they sailed to Australia, and also settled all the islands nearby.

Mongoloids - yellow race

Mongoloids are the most numerous. They are divided into a large number of sub-races or small races. There are Siberian Mongoloids, North Chinese, South Chinese, Malay, Tibetan. What they have in common is a narrow slit of the eyes. The hair is straight, black and coarse. The eyes are dark. The skin is swarthy, has a slight yellowish tint. The face is broad and flattened, the cheekbones protrude.

americanoids

Americanoids populate America from the tundra to Tierra del Fuego. Eskimos do not belong to this race. They are alien people. The hair of the Americanoids is black and straight, the skin is swarthy. The eyes are black and narrower than those of Caucasians. These people have a huge number of languages. Among them, it is even impossible to make any classification. There are many dead languages ​​now, as their speakers have died out and the languages ​​have been written down.

Pygmies and Caucasians

pygmies

Pygmies belong to the Negroid race. They live in the forests of equatorial Africa. Notable for their small stature. They have it 1.45-1.5 meters. The skin is brown, the lips are relatively thin, and the hair is dark and curly. Living conditions are poor, hence the small growth, which is the result of a small amount of vitamins and proteins necessary for the body for normal development. Currently, short stature has become a genetic heredity. Therefore, even if the pygmy babies are heavily fed, they will not become tall.

Thus, we have considered the main human races that exist on Earth. But it should be noted that race has never been of decisive importance for the formation of culture. It is also noteworthy that over the past 15 thousand years, no new biological types of people have appeared, and the old ones have not disappeared. Everything is still stable. The only thing is that there is a mixing of people of different biological types. There are mestizos, mulattos, sambo. But these are not biological and anthropological, but social factors determined by the achievements of civilization..

On planet Earth, there is a huge variety of nationalities, which are characterized by a certain religion, traditions, cultural values. Races are a broader concept, uniting people according to morphological characteristics. They were formed as a result of evolution and socio-historical development of the population. The racial affiliation of a person has always been of interest, anthropology studies its origin, formation, signs.

concept

The etymology of the word "race" appeared from the middle of the 19th century as a result of borrowing from the French language "race", the German language "rasse". The further fate of the word is unknown. However, there is a version that the concept comes from the Latin word "generatio", which means "the ability to give birth."

A race is such a system of human populations, which is characterized by similarity in hereditary biological characteristics (external phenotype), which were formed in a certain geographical area.

Morphological features that allow dividing the population into groups include:

  • growth;
  • body type;
  • the structure of the skull, face;
  • skin color, eyes, hair, their structure.

Do not confuse the concepts of nationality, nation and race. The latter may include representatives of different nationalities and cultures.

The significance of races lies in the formation of adaptive features in the population that facilitate existence in a certain territory. The study of groups of people with identical morphological features is carried out by the section of anthropology - racial studies. Science considers the definition, classification, how they appeared, the factors of development and the formation of racial characteristics.

What are the races: the main types and resettlement

Until the 20th century, the number of races in the world was 4, depending on the characteristic features. Large groups united representatives of humanity, while differences in appearance often became the reason why strife and conflicts occurred between peoples.

The main races of people that are on earth, taking into account the territory of settlement, are shown in the table:

There are no Negroids outside the African continent. Australoids are located within a certain range. The percentage of races on earth was distributed according to the following indicators:

  • Asian population - 57%;
  • Europeans (without Russia) - 21%;
  • Americans - 14%;
  • Africans - 8%;
  • Australians - 0.3%.

There are no inhabitants in Antarctica.

Modern classification

After the 20th century, the following classification became widespread, which includes 3 racial types. This phenomenon is due to the unification of the Negroid and Australoid groups into mixed races.

Allocate modern varieties of races:

  • large (European, mixture of Asian and Negroid, equatorial race - Australo-Negroid);
  • small (different types that were formed from other races).

The racial division includes 2 trunks: western and eastern.

  • Caucasians;
  • negroids;
  • capoids.

The eastern stem includes Americanoids, Australoids and Mongoloids. According to anthropological characteristics, Indians belong to the Americanoid race.

There is no generally accepted classification of separation according to various characteristics, which is considered direct evidence of the continuity of biological processes of variability.

Signs of human races

Racial features include many characteristics of the human structure, which are formed under the influence of the hereditary factor and the influence of the environment. Biology studies the external signs of the human appearance.

Races have been of interest to specialists since ancient times. Their distinctive features, description, pictures, help to understand the race of a particular person.

Caucasoid

Representatives of white people are characterized by a light or swarthy skin tone. The hair is straight or wavy from light to dark in color. In men, hair grows on the face. The shape of the nose is narrow and protruding, the lips are thin. belong to this race.

There are sub-races of the Caucasoid race:

  • southern Caucasian;
  • northern european.

The first type is characterized by dark, and the second - light hair, eyes and skin.

The appearance of a classical European is personified by the Falian race. The Falids are a variety of the Cro-Magnid race, which has undergone Nordic influence. The second name of this subtype is northern Cro-Magnid. They differ from the Nordids by a low and wide face, a low-set bridge of the nose, a pronounced red skin tone, a steep forehead, a short neck and a massive body.

Falids are common in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, the western part of the Baltic states. In Russia, falids are rare.

australoid

Australoids include the Veddoids, Polynesians, Ainu, Australians, and Melanisians.

There are several features of the Australoid race:

  • The skull is elongated in relation to other parts of the body - dolichocephaly.
  • The eyes are set wide apart, the incision is wide with a dark or black iris.
  • A wide nose with a pronounced flat bridge of the nose.
  • Body hair is developed.
  • Dark coarse hair, sometimes blond due to a genetic mutation. Hair may be slightly curly or curly.
  • Average height, sometimes above average.
  • Lean and lean physique.

It is difficult to recognize a representative of the Australoid race due to the mixing of different nations.

Mongoloid

Mongoloid people have special features that allow them to adapt to difficult climatic conditions: sands and winds in the desert, snow drifts.

The characteristics of the Mongoloid appearance include a number of features:

  • Oblique cut of the eyes.
  • On the inner corner of the eye there is an epicanthus - a fold of skin.
  • Light, dark brown iris.
  • Short-headedness (a feature of the structure of the skull).
  • Thickened, strongly protruding ridges above the eyebrow.
  • Weak hair on the face and body.
  • Dark straight hair with a rigid structure.
  • A narrow nose with a low nose bridge.
  • Narrow lips.
  • Yellow or swarthy skin.

A distinguishing feature is a small growth.

Yellow-skinned Mongoloids predominate in numbers among the population.

Negroid

The fourth group is characterized by a list of features:

  • Blue-black coloring of the skin due to the increased content of the pigment - melanin.
  • The eyes are large in shape with a wide slit, black or dark brown.
  • Rigid, curly black hair.
  • Short stature.
  • Long hands.
  • Flat, wide nose.
  • Lips are thick.
  • The jaw protrudes forward.
  • Ears are large.

On the face, the hairline is not developed, the beard and mustache are weakly expressed.

Origin

For a long period of time, people with white skin were considered representatives of the superior race. On the basis of this, military conflicts were unleashed in the struggle for the first race on earth. Entire peoples were mercilessly exterminated for the right to dominate the planet.

Note some interesting facts about the origin of races. The German anthropologist F. Blumenbach considered the most beautiful representatives of the Georgians. There is a special term "Caucasian race", which is considered the most numerous.

Mixing of blood of representatives of different groups is common. For example, mulatto is a term for a mixture of an Asian and a European. A mixture of a Negroid and a Mongoloid race is defined by Sambo, and a Caucasoid and a Mongoloid is a mestizo.

Of interest is the question of which race the Indians belong to - they were formed from the Australoid group.

Rasens are one of the well-known varieties of the Great Race. In world history, her descendants were called Tyrrhenians.

The appearance of the Rasen is characterized by a number of features:

  • Brown eyes;
  • dark blond or dark brown hair;
  • short stature.

Most often, racens have 2 blood types. The representatives of this race are characterized by steadfastness, strong spirit and rage, which contributed to a high level of military readiness.

They act as an East Slavic ethnic group. In terms of numbers, this is the most numerous people on the planet. According to Wikipedia, there are a total of 133 million representatives of Russian nationality.

Racism

Deciphering racism: "Discrimination against people on the basis of ethnic origin, skin color, culture, citizenship, religion and mother tongue."

The term refers to reactionary ideology and politics, which is aimed at the justified exploitation of people.

Racism flourished in the middle of the 19th century in America and England, Germany and France. It was this that served as ideological support for the slave trade, the seizure of land by colonies in Oceania, Australia, Asia, Africa, and America.

Racists adhere to the ideology that there is a certain relationship between mental, intellectual, social qualities and physical structure. Higher and lower races were distinguished.

Adherents of the racist ideology believed that initially pure races arose, and later a mixture of peoples formed new ones. Children appeared with combined features of appearance.

It is believed that the mestizo is different from its blood parents:

  • attractive appearance;
  • poor adaptation to the conditions of existence;
  • predisposition to genetic diseases;
  • low reproductive function, blocking further mixing of blood;
  • possible homosexual preferences.

The problem of incest is a crisis of self-identification: during military conflicts, it is difficult to determine a person to one citizenship and nationality.

Crossbreeding is constantly observed and as a result, transitional types appear at the boundaries of the ranges, smoothing out the differences.

The mixing of races from the point of view of science is considered as the species unity of people, their relationship and fertility of offspring. However, the problem is the possible disappearance of a small people or a small branch of a large race.

Racism is contrary to the ideals of any human society. It is a global problem for humanity.

For about one million years from the beginning of the Quaternary period, during its glacial and interglacial epochs up to the post-glacial, modern era, ancient mankind settled more and more widely in the ecumene. The development of groups of mankind often took place in certain regions of the Earth, where the conditions of isolation and the characteristics of the natural environment were of great importance. The earliest humans evolved into Neanderthals, and Neanderthals evolved into Cro-Magnons.

Race - biological divisions of modern humanity (Homo sapiens), differing in common hereditary morphological features, associated with the unity of origin and a certain area of ​​\u200b\u200bdwelling.

One of the first creators of racial classification was a French scientist Francois Bernier, published in 1684 a work in which he used the term "race". Anthropologists distinguish four large races of the first order and a number of intermediate ones, numerically small, but also independent. In addition, in each race of the first order, the main divisions are distinguished -

Negroid race: Negroes, Negrillies, Bushmen and Hottentots.

Characteristic features of the Negroid:

Curly hair (black);

Dark brown leather;

Brown eyes;

Moderately protruding cheekbones;

Strongly protruding jaws;

Thick lips;

Wide nose.

Mixed and transitional forms between the Negroid and Caucasoid large races: the Ethiopian race, the transitional groups of the Western Courts, the mulattos, the "colored" African groups.

Caucasoid race: northern, transitional forms, southern.

Characteristic features of the Caucasian:

Wavy or straight soft hair of different shades;

Light or dark skin;

Brown, light gray and blue eyes;

Weakly protruding cheekbones and jaws;

Narrow nose with high bridge;

Thin or medium lips. Mixed forms between Caucasoid

the great race and the American branch of the Mongoloid great race: the American mestizos.

Mixed forms between the Caucasoid great race and the Asian branch of the Mongoloid great race: Central Asian groups, South Siberian race, Laponoids and Suburalian Fig. 3.2. Caucasoid type, mixed groups of Siberia.

small races, or races of the second order, possessing (with some variations) the main features of their large race.

The signs on the basis of which races of different orders are distinguished are diverse. The most obvious are the degree of development of the tertiary hairline (the primary hairline already exists on the body of the embryo in the uterine state, the secondary - hair on the head, eyebrows - is present in the newborn; tertiary - associated with puberty), as well as a beard and mustache, hair shape and eye (Fig. 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4).


A well-known role in racial diagnosis is played by pigmentation, that is, the color of the skin, hair and growth. However, according to the degree of pigment-;

Mongoloid race: American races, Asian branch of the Mongoloid races, continental Mongoloids, Arctic race (Eskimos and Paleo-Asians), Pacific (East Asian) races.

Characteristic features of the Mongoloid:

Straight, coarse and dark hair;

Weak development of tertiary hairline;

Yellowish skin tone;

Brown eyes;

Flattened face with prominent cheekbones;

Narrow nose, often with a low bridge of nose;

The presence of epicanthus (a fold at the inner corner of the eye).

Transitional groups between the Asian branch of the Mongoloid big race and the Australoid big race: South Asian race (Southern Mongoloids), Japanese, East Indonesian Fig. 3.3. Mongoloid group

Australoid race: Veddoids, Australians, Ainu, Papuans and Melanesians, Negritos. Characteristic features of the Australoid:

Dark coloration of the skin;

Brown eyes;

Wide nose;

Thick lips;

Wavy hair;

Strongly developed tertiary hairline.

Other racial types (mixed): Malagasy, Polynesian, Micronesian, Hawaiian.

There are significant differences in each race. For example, rather light-pigmented groups of the Negroid African population and very dark Caucasians, residents of southern Europe. Therefore, the division of mankind into whites, yellows and blacks, accepted in the literature, does not correspond to the actual data. The peculiarity of growth (short stature) is typical only for a few pygmy peoples of Asia and Africa. Among the more specific features used in racial diagnostics, blood types, some genetic features, papillary patterns on the fingers, the shape of the teeth, etc. can be named.

Racial signs were not only continuously fixed, but also leveled. Being increasingly different from one another due to differences in the geographical environment with which they were associated, and under the influence of labor, the development of culture and other special conditions, the races at the same time acquired more and more similarity with each other in the general features of modern man. At the same time, as a result of a qualitatively special path of development, the human races began to differ more and more sharply from the subspecies of wild animals.

The time of the formation of racial types is usually attributed to the era of the emergence of a modern human species, a neoanthrope, during which the biological stage of anthropogenesis was basically completed, which was expressed in the cessation of the overall action of natural selection. The social development of human societies began.

The formation of the main races, according to scientists, took place 40-16 thousand years before the present. However, the processes of racial genesis continued later, but not so much under the influence of natural selection, but under the influence of other factors;

The study of the bone remains of Neanderthals and fossils of modern humans in the Old World has led some scientists to believe that about 100 thousand years ago, two large racial groups emerged in the bowels of ancient mankind (Ya. Ya. Roginsky, 1941, 1956). Sometimes they talk about the formation of two circles of race formation: large and small (Fig. 3.5).

In a large circle of race formation, the first initial branch of the human trunk was formed - the southwestern one. It was divided into two large racial groups: Euro-Asian, or Caucasian, and equatorial, or Negroid-Australoid. Appearing 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, more than a million years ago man began to populate Southern Europe and Southwest Asia, the natural conditions of which differed significantly from the natural conditions of Africa. The appearance of man coincides with the beginning of the epoch of glaciation, when mighty glaciers 2-3 km thick descended from the mountains to the plains and covered vast spaces, binding a huge mass of moisture. The ocean level dropped, the water surface was reduced, evaporation decreased. The climate everywhere became drier and colder. During the glaciation, ancient people left such harsh regions and migrated to places with a favorable climate. This contributed to their mixing (after all, before the beginning of the last glaciation, there were no characteristic racial differences yet).

The most significant difference between the two races in the process of their development in a large circle of racial formation was the color of the skin, as well as a number of other features.

In people negroid race: dark eye color, the predominance of dark skin pigmentation (with the exception of the Hottentots); dark coarse curly or wavy hair; poor development of the tertiary hairline, wide nose in the wings, thick lips, alveolar prognathism is common (strong protrusion of the front of the skull). Dark skin protects their body from harmful ultraviolet rays, curly hair creates an air gap that protects the head from overheating.

In people caucasian race: skin color varies from white to light brown, and eyes - from blue to black; hair is soft, straight or wavy; medium and strong development of tertiary hairline; significant profiling (protrusion) of the facial skeleton; narrow, strongly protruding nose; lips thin or medium. Northern Caucasians are characterized by light pigmentation of the skin and hair (blonds); among them there are albinos, almost devoid of pigmentation. Blue eyes predominate. Southern Caucasians are heavily pigmented, brunettes. Some groups of southern Caucasoids have a particularly sharp profiling of the face and a strong development of the hairline (assiroids). The eyes are usually dark. Large groups of Caucasians have intermediate pigmentation (brown, dark blond).

Natural selection determined the survival of narrow-faced (the minimum surface of the body surface unprotected by clothing), long-nosed (warming up the inhaled cold air), thin-lipped (preservation of internal heat), with a lush beard and mustache (they protect the face from the cold, according to polar explorers, better than a fur mask). A long winter weakened the body, especially for children, threatening rickets. The best cure for it is ultraviolet rays. Their excess causes a burn, Dark skin serves as protection against them. Light skin transmits ultraviolet rays, at a moderate dose they penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin, producing vitamin D, which is so necessary for the body - a panacea for rickets. Light hair on the head also does not retain ultraviolet rays, passing them to the skin. During the polar night, the northern lights, which emit the blue part of the spectrum, serve as an additional source of light. The dark iris of the eye absorbs this part of the spectrum, while the blue iris transmits it. Thus, in the Far North, a fair-haired, fair-skinned, blue-eyed race should have formed, which it is legitimate to call Nordic. To a greater or lesser extent, the features of this rice have been preserved by the peoples of Northern Europe.

Currently, the skin color is darker in the Negroid-Australoid! noah, races and those Caucasian races that were formed in the hotter southern countries. On the contrary, the territorial-northern Caucasoid racial groups gradually brightened. It is believed that at first there was a lightening of the skin, s @ 1, finally, of the hair.

In a small circle of formation in the North-East; Asia, to north and east of the Himalayan mountains formed mongolian race, which gave rise to several anthropological types. People of the Mongoloid race are characterized by yellowish; skin color, dark, straight, thicker hair, poor development of the tertiary hairline, flattened facial skeleton with a protruding zygomatic part, alveolar prognathism, a peculiar structure of the eye, in which the lacrimal tubercle is covered by a fold (epicanthus), and other signs, in particular, the so-called spatulate incisors.

The features of this race were formed in the conditions of open steppe expanses, strong dust and snow storms. During the period) of the formation of the Mongoloids and their advancement across Eurasia 20-15 thousand years ago, the area of ​​​​glaciers increased, the level of the oceans dropped by 150 meters, the climate became even drier and colder. In a wide strip from the East European to the Great Chinese Plain, the rate of loess accumulation increased tenfold. The loess is a product of weathering, and its increase testifies to the raging loess storms. Natural selection led to the extinction of part of the population. - Those who had a narrow slit of the eyes survived, the epicanthus - a fold of the eyelid that protected the lacrimal tubercle of the eye from dust, a snub nose, straight coarse hair, a sparse beard and mustache that did not clog with dust. Skin with a yellowish tinge marked people against the background of yellow loess soils. Thus, populations with Mongoloid features were formed. Archaeological finds indicate that during the peak of glaciation, hunter settlements were located in groups among uninhabited spaces.

In the east of Eurasia, the Mongoloids through Beringia - the landmass that connected Siberia with North America - penetrated into Alaska, free from glaciers. Further, the path to the south is blocked by the giant Canadian ice sheet. At the beginning of the peak of glaciation, when the level of the World Ocean was dropping very quickly, a land corridor formed along the western edge of the shield, along which hunters penetrated the Great Plains of North America. The way to the south was blocked by the deserts of Mexico, and the natural conditions on the Great Plains turned out to be very favorable. Although there were loess storms here, which caused the extinction of mammoths, countless herds of bison and deer served as an excellent object of hunting. The Great Plains are literally littered with stone spearheads. The similarity of natural conditions on the Great Plains and in Central Asia led to the appearance of a number of similar features among the Indians: skin with a yellowish tint, coarse straight hair, and the absence of a beard and mustache. Less ferocious loess storms made it possible to preserve large aquiline noses and a wide slit in the eyes. Archaeological finds indicate that the Indians are morphologically similar to the ancient inhabitants of the Baikal region, who lived there before the peak of glaciation. Settling further and further south along the mainland, this group eventually transformed into an Indian, or American, small race, which scientists usually divide into several anthropological types.

All racial differences were formed as adaptations to the environment. Humans of all human races constitute one species. This is evidenced by their genetic unity - the same set of chromosomes, the same diseases, blood types, fertile offspring from interracial marriages.

As mankind settled and developed new ecological niches with different natural conditions, small races became isolated within large races, and intermediate (mixed) races arose at the boundaries of contacts between large races (Fig. 3.6).

Caucasoids Mongoloids Mixed types Negroids Australoids

Caucasians Mestizos Mulattos Negroids

Mongoloid Indians

Rice. 3.6. Distribution of races in the world (Start)

In the course of history there has been a constant mixing of races, as a result of which practically pure races do not exist, and all of them show certain signs of mixing. In addition, there were many intermediate anthropological types, combining different racial characteristics. According to all the main morphological, physiological, mental and mental properties, the races do not have any fundamental, qualitative differences and constitute a single biological species Homo sapiens.

This process has been especially intensive during the last 10-15 thousand years. From the same time that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, the process of mixing (or miscegenation) assumed enormous proportions. On the whole, the whole of mankind is more or less mixed; tens of millions of people are very difficult or simply impossible to classify even into any large race. Mixed marriages of Negroes - slaves from Africa and whites gave rise to mulattoes, Indians of the Mongoloids with white colonizers - mestizos, and Indians and Negroes - sambo. The main reason for the mixing of racial characteristics was the numerous migrations of the population (Fig. 3.7, 3.8).

However, near the borders of the ecumene, located in the marginal areas of human settlement, the factor of natural isolation played the greatest role. On Earth, peoples have survived that have pronounced complexes of racial characteristics; Such, for example, are the pygmies in the jungles of the Congo Basin in Africa; Indians in the equatorial forests of the Amazon; Lapps (Saami) in the Far North of Europe; Eskimos (Innuits) in the Far North of Asia and America; Indians in the Far South of South America; Australian Aborigines, Papuans of New Guinea; Bushmen in the South African Kalahari and Namib deserts.

Today, the geographical position of the modern races has become quite clearly established (see color incl. 7). Negroids live in most of the African continent and in the New World, where they were taken as slaves. The main areas of Mongoloid settlement are Siberia, Southeast, East and Central Asia, partially Central Asia, Polynesia and America. Caucasoids live in almost all parts of the world, but they are mainly settled in Pyrope. North, Central and South America, in a significant part of Western and Central Asia, in the northern regions of South Asia. Migrants from the Old and New Worlds make up a large part of the Caucasian population of Australia and New Zealand.

Representatives of the large Australoid (Oceanian) race are scattered (mostly in relatively small groups) over a vast territory from South Asia to Southeast and East Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Recognition of the fact of evolution at the end of the XIX century. meant the rejection of the Typological approach to species, since Darwinism emphasized

(Fig. 3.7. Mestizos from mixed marriages)

3.8. World migrations of the population in the XVII-first half of the XIX centuries.

and the fact of individual variability within species, and the constant transformation that each species undergoes. However, until recently anthropologists' thinking was distinctly typological, textbooks of physical anthropology contained for the most part descriptions and names of human races. Some authors (“unifiers”) named only a dozen human races, while others (“crushers”) named a myriad of them.

The difficulty with using these categories is that there are too many contradictions between the different ways of dividing the human races. Are the Turks a white race, as evidenced by their appearance, or oil and belong to the Mongoloid tribes of Central Asia, which they (together with the Hungarians and Finns) have a linguistic

physical relationship? What to do with the Basques, who at first glance look like Spaniards, but whose language and culture are unlike any other in the world? Those who speak Hindi and Urdu in India create their own problem. Historically, they are a mixture of South Asian Dravidian natives, Central Asian Aryans (who are clearly Caucasian) and Persians. Should they be classified in the same group with the Europeans, whose languages ​​are derived from Sanskrit - Hindi and Urdu are very close to it, or should they be grouped with the inhabitants of South Asia because of their dark skin?

The attempt to compile more and more complex sets of characteristics of human types, which would correspond to the incredible diversity of people, eventually failed. Anthropologists no longer try to name and define races and subraces, because they understand that there are no pure human groups. The most striking feature of the general history of mankind is the incessant, small migration of the population and, consequently, the mixing of racial groups from different regions.

Most accepted classification of races proposed Ya. Ya. Roshch Ginsky and M. G. Levin(Figure 3.9).

Racial studies as a science in our country developed poorly, since the state artificially obscured the severity of the problem. However, during the years of pluralistic development of spiritual life, fascist and other extremely nationalist movements appeared in our country, which absorbed the ideological principles of racism. That is why a scientific analysis of these problems is now so necessary.

Is race a biological or social phenomenon?

Author of the book "Cultural Anthropology" K.F.Kottak He writes that the scientific study of race as a biological formation is very problematic, it raises many questions and bewilderment. Researchers experience great difficulty in applying biological concepts to groups of people in the question of which or sets of external features are most significant in determining their racial affiliation in different people. If we give priority to skin color, then the terms themselves do not accurately describe the color. The HRC of this classification, entire peoples remain outside it: Polynesians, peoples of South India, Australians, Bushmen to the south! Africa cannot be assigned to any of the three races named above.

Moreover, mixed marriages, and their number is increasing, modify the phenotypes of races, and in life the problem comes down first of all to determining the status of the baby. In American culture, a subject is racially determined at birth, but race is not based on biology or simple inheritance.

Rice. 3.9. Major racial groups

In the traditions of American culture, a child born of a mixed marriage of an African American and a "white" child can be classified as "black", while, according to the genotype, it should probably be classified as "white". In the US, racial division is primarily a social grouping and has nothing to do with biological division. Other nations also have cultural norms that govern these relationships. For example, the Brazilian designation of someone's race can be expressed in one of 500 different terms. If we take the blood type as the basis for identifying a race, then the number of races may increase to a million. The conclusion from such a hypothesis will be the position that all races are biologically valuable for creating their own culture and possessing universal universals.

However, there are other anti-scientific theories. They affirm the biological inequality of races. Proponents of racism Ielat humanity into superior and inferior races. The latter are not capable of cultural development and are doomed to degeneration. In co-

According to their theory, the inequality of races is due to the origin of people from different ancestors: Caucasoid - from Cro-Magnons, and the rest - from Neanderthals. Representatives of different races differ in the level of mental development; not all of them are capable of cultural development. These fabrications are refuted by scientific evidence. The capacity of the cerebral part of the skull varies among people of the same race, without affecting mental abilities; All elements of culture are similar in people of different races, and the uneven pace of its development does not depend on biological characteristics, but on historical and social reasons.

Another anti-scientific direction - social Darwinism - transfers the action of biological laws (the struggle for existence and natural selection) to modern human society and denies the role of social factors in human evolution. The inequality of people in society, its stratification into classes co-j, tsial-Darwinism explains the biological inequality of people, and not social reasons.

The problem of race and intelligence also require separate consideration. Researchers believe that there are many groups in the world that have power and are socially dominant in societies that justify their privileges by declaring less | shinstva (racial, ethnic, social) inferior nd nature. Similar theories have been found to justify apartheid in South Africa, European colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States, the alleged superiority of the white race was affirmed by the segregation doctrine. Confidence in the biologically substantiated backwardness of the Native Americans - Indians gave grounds for their extermination, resettlement on reservations.

Scientific judgments have also appeared, trying to explain. that misfortune and poverty are nothing but the result of inferior intellectual faculties. American explorer A. Jensen, interpreting the observation, during which it turned out that compared to "white" "black" Americans, on average, on testing, they show a lower level of intelligence, draws the following conclusion: "white" Americans are "smarter" than "blacks", "blacks" are hereditarily incapable of show the same level of intelligence as "whites". However, the same K. F. Kottak gives examples when measurements of IQ (intelligence index) among US Indians showed contrasting results; those who lived on reservations, in conditions of poverty and discrimination, showed an average IQ of 0.87, and Indians from more affluent areas with good schools for them 1.04. Today, in a number of states, such a study without the consent) of the test subjects is prosecuted by law.

It can be said that the original division of peoples into civilized and savage is already a thing of the past. Ethnographic data show that the abilities for cultural Evolution are equal in all races. Moreover, it has been proven that in any stratified society, differences in social groups in terms of economic, social, ethnic and racial parameters reflect inequality of opportunity to a greater extent than genetic structure. Therefore, differences in wealth, prestige and power between social classes are due to social relations, property.

The concept of "race" turned out to be completely vague, which prompted UNESCO to recommend using the term "ethnos" instead. And although the concept includes anthropological features, a common origin and a single language of a separate group of people, it is not identical to the concept of "race" in the biological sense - as a group of organisms that are geographically isolated and have acquired hereditary morphological and physiological differences. In addition, despite the genetic relationship, in some cases the differences among neighboring ethnic groups are so great that they cannot be explained without resorting to the biological concept of "race".

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