Races of people map. Human race

Racial differences have been and continue to be the cause of different studies, as well as conflict and discrimination. A tolerant society tries to pretend that racial differences do not exist; the constitutions of countries state that all people are equal...

However, there are races and people are different. Of course, not at all in the way that supporters of the “superior” and “lower” races want, but differences do exist.

Some research by geneticists and anthropologists these days is discovering new facts that, thanks to the study of the emergence of human races, allow us to take a different look at some stages of our history.

Racial trunks

Since the 17th century, science has put forward a number of classifications of human races. Today their number reaches 15. However, all classifications are based on three racial pillars, or three large races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid with many subspecies and branches. Some anthropologists add to them the Australoid and Americanoid races.

According to molecular biology and genetics, the division of humanity into races occurred about 80 thousand years ago.

First, two trunks emerged: Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid, and 40-45 thousand years ago, differentiation of proto-Caucasoids and proto-Mongoloids occurred.

Scientists believe that the origins of races originate in the Paleolithic era, although the massive process of modification swept humanity only from the Neolithic: it was during this era that the Caucasoid type crystallized.

The process of race formation continued during the migration of primitive people from continent to continent. Thus, anthropological data show that the ancestors of the Indians, who moved to the American continent from Asia, were not yet fully formed Mongoloids, and the first inhabitants of Australia were “racially neutral” neoanthropes.

What does genetics say?

Today, questions of the origin of races are largely the prerogative of two sciences - anthropology and genetics. The first, based on human bone remains, reveals the diversity of anthropological forms, and the second tries to understand the connections between a set of racial characteristics and the corresponding set of genes.

However, there is no agreement among geneticists. Some adhere to the theory of uniformity of the entire human gene pool, others argue that each race has a unique combination of genes. However, recent studies rather indicate that the latter are right.

The study of haplotypes confirmed the connection between racial characteristics and genetic characteristics.

It has been proven that certain haplogroups are always associated with specific races, and other races cannot obtain them except through the process of racial mixing.

In particular, Stanford University professor Luca Cavalli-Sforza, based on an analysis of “genetic maps” of European settlement, pointed out significant similarities in the DNA of the Basques and Cro-Magnon. The Basques managed to preserve their genetic uniqueness largely due to the fact that they lived on the periphery of migration waves and were practically not subject to crossbreeding.

Two hypotheses

Modern science relies on two hypotheses of the origin of human races - polycentric and monocentric.

According to the theory of polycentrism, humanity is the result of a long and independent evolution of several phyletic lineages.

Thus, the Caucasoid race formed in Western Eurasia, the Negroid race in Africa, and the Mongoloid race in Central and East Asia.

Polycentrism involves the crossing of representatives of proto-races at the borders of their areas, which led to the emergence of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or the Ethiopian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Negroid races).

From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one area of ​​the globe in the process of settlement of neoanthropes, which subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.

The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came out of Southeast Africa. However, the Soviet scientist Yakov Roginsky expanded the concept of monocentrism, suggesting that the habitat of the ancestors of Homo sapiens extended beyond the African continent.

Recent research by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra has completely cast doubt on the theory of a common African ancestor of humans.

Thus, DNA tests on an ancient fossilized skeleton, about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that the Australian aborigine has no relation to the African hominid.

The theory of multiregional origin of races, according to Australian scientists, is much closer to the truth.

An unexpected ancestor

If we agree with the version that the common ancestor of at least the population of Eurasia came from Africa, then the question arises about its anthropometric characteristics. Was he similar to the current inhabitants of the African continent or did he have neutral racial characteristics?

Some researchers believe that the African species of Homo was closer to the Mongoloids. This is indicated by a number of archaic features inherent in the Mongoloid race, in particular, the structure of the teeth, which are more characteristic of Neanderthals and Homo erectus.

It is very important that the Mongoloid-type population is highly adaptable to various habitats: from equatorial forests to the Arctic tundra. But representatives of the Negroid race are largely dependent on increased solar activity.

For example, in high latitudes, children of the Negroid race experience a lack of vitamin D, which provokes a number of diseases, primarily rickets.

Therefore, a number of researchers doubt that our ancestors, similar to modern Africans, could have successfully migrated across the globe.

Northern ancestral home

Recently, more and more researchers have stated that the Caucasian race has little in common with the primitive man of the African plains and argue that these populations developed independently of each other.

Thus, the American anthropologist J. Clark believes that when representatives of the “black race” in the process of migration reached Southern Europe and Western Asia, they encountered there the more developed “white race”.

Researcher Boris Kutsenko hypothesizes that at the origins of modern humanity there were two racial trunks: Euro-American and Negroid-Mongoloid. According to him, the Negroid race comes from forms of Homo erectus, and the Mongoloid race comes from Sinanthropus.

Kutsenko considers the regions of the Arctic Ocean to be the birthplace of the Euro-American trunk. Based on data from oceanology and paleoanthropology, he suggests that global climate changes that occurred at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary destroyed the ancient continent of Hyperborea. Part of the population from the territories that went under water migrated to Europe, and then to Asia and North America, the researcher concludes.

As evidence of the relationship between Caucasians and North American Indians, Kutsenko refers to craniological indicators and characteristics of the blood groups of these races, which “almost completely coincide.”

Device

Phenotypes of modern people living in different parts planets, this is the result of long evolution. Many racial characteristics have obvious adaptive significance. For example, dark skin pigmentation protects people living in the equatorial belt from excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their body increase the ratio of body surface to its volume, thereby facilitating thermoregulation in hot conditions.

In contrast to the inhabitants of low latitudes, the population northern regions planets, as a result of evolution, acquired predominantly light skin and hair color, which allowed them to receive more sunlight and meet the body's needs for vitamin D.

In the same way, the protruding “Caucasian nose” evolved to warm the cold air, and the epicanthus among the Mongoloids was formed as a protection for the eyes from dust storms and steppe winds.

Sexual selection

For ancient people it was important not to allow representatives of other ethnic groups into their habitat. This was a significant factor that contributed to the formation of racial characteristics, thanks to which our ancestors adapted to specific environmental conditions. Sexual selection played a big role in this.

Each ethnic group, focused on certain racial characteristics, consolidated its own ideas of beauty. Those who had these signs more clearly expressed had a greater chance of passing them on by inheritance.

While fellow tribesmen who did not meet the standards of beauty were practically deprived of the opportunity to influence their offspring.

For example, the Scandinavian peoples, from a biological point of view, have recessive characteristics - light-colored skin, hair and eyes - which, thanks to sexual selection that lasted for millennia, were formed into a stable form adaptive to the conditions of the north.

For approximately one million years from the beginning of the Quaternary period, during its glacial and interglacial eras until the post-glacial, modern era, ancient humanity settled more and more widely in the ecumene. The development of human groups often took place in separate areas of the Earth, where great importance had conditions of isolation and features of the natural environment. 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 a unity of origin and a specific area of ​​habitat.

One of the first creators of racial classification was a French scientist Francois Bernier, who published a work in 1684 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 there are main divisions -

Negroid race: Negroes, Negrillies, Bushmen and Hottentots.

Characteristic features of a Negroid:

Curly hair (black);

Dark brown skin;

Brown eyes;

Moderately prominent cheekbones;

Strongly protruding jaws;

Thick lips;

Wide nose.

Mixed and transitional forms between the Negroid and Caucasoid large races: the Ethiopian race, transitional groups of the Western Sudami, mulattoes, “colored” African groups.

Caucasoid race: northern, transitional forms, southern.

Characteristic features of a 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 a high bridge;

Thin or medium thickness lips. Mixed forms between Caucasoid

big race and the American branch of the Mongoloid big race: 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. Caucasian type, mixed groups of Siberia.

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

The characteristics on the basis of which races of different orders are distinguished are diverse. The most obvious are the degree of development of tertiary hairline (primary hairline already exists on the body of the fetus in the utero state, secondary hairline - hair on the head, eyebrows - is present in a 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).

Pigmentation, that is, the color of skin, hair and height, plays a prominent role in racial diagnosis. However, according to the degree of pigment-;

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

Characteristic features of the Mongoloid:

Straight, coarse and dark hair;

Poor development of tertiary hairline;

Yellowish skin tone;

Brown eyes;

Flattened face with prominent cheekbones;

Narrow nose, often with a low bridge;

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

Transitional groups between the Asian branch of the Mongoloid great race and the Australoid great 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 skin color;

Brown eyes;

Wide nose;

Thick lips;

Wavy hair;

Tertiary hair cover is highly developed.

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

tions in each race there are significant differences. For example, fairly light-pigmented groups of the Negroid African population and very dark Caucasians, residents of southern Europe. Therefore, the division of humanity into white, yellow and black, accepted in literature, does not correspond to factual data. The peculiarity of growth (short stature) is characteristic only of a few pygmy peoples of Asia and Africa. Among the more special characteristics used in racial diagnosis, blood groups, some genetic characteristics, papillary patterns on the fingers, the shape of teeth, etc. can be named.

Racial characteristics were not only continuously reinforced, but also leveled out. Increasingly different from one another due to differences in the geographical environment with which they were associated, and under the influence of labor, cultural development and other special conditions, the races at the same time acquired more and more similarities among themselves in general terms modern man. At the same time, as a result of a qualitatively special path of development, human races began to differ more and more sharply from subspecies of wild animals.

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

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

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

In the large circle of race formation, the first initial branch of the human trunk was formed - the southwestern one. It divided into two large racial groups: European-Asian, or Caucasian, And equatorial, or Negroid-Australoid. Having appeared 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, more than a million years ago humans began to populate Southern Europe and South-West Asia, the natural conditions of which were significantly different from the natural conditions of Africa. The appearance of man coincides with the beginning of the glaciation era, 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 sea level dropped, the water surface decreased, and 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 start of the last glaciation there were no characteristic racial differences).

The most significant difference between the two races in the process of their development in a large circle of race formation turned out to be skin color, as well as a number of other characteristics.

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

In people Caucasian: 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 are thin or medium. Northern Caucasians are characterized by light pigmentation of skin and hair (blond); Among them there are albinoses, almost devoid of pigmentation. Blue eyes predominate. Southern Caucasians are highly pigmented and brunette. Some groups of southern Caucasians have a particularly sharp facial profile and strong hair development (Assyroids). The eyes are usually dark. Large groups of Caucasians have intermediate pigmentation (brown-haired, dark brown).

Natural selection determined the survival of narrow-faced people (minimum body surface area unprotected by clothing), long-nosed people (warming up the inhaled cold air), thin-lipped people (preserving internal heat), and 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 children’s, threatening rickets. The best medicine from it - ultraviolet rays. Their excess causes burns, dark skin serves as protection against them. Light skin allows ultraviolet rays to pass through; with 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. Blonde hair on the head also does not block ultraviolet rays, allowing them to reach the skin. During the polar night, an additional source of light is the northern lights, emitting the blue part of the spectrum. The dark iris of the eye absorbs this part of the spectrum, while the blue one transmits it. Thus, in the Far North, a fair-haired, light-skinned, blue-eyed race should have formed, which could rightfully be called Nordic. To a greater or lesser extent, the features of this rice were preserved by the peoples of Northern Europe.

Currently, the skin color is darker in Negroid-Australoids! noah, race and among those Caucasian races that were formed in the hotter southern countries. On the contrary, the territorial-northern Caucasian racial groups gradually became lighter. It is believed that first there was a lightening of the skin, then finally the hair.

In the small k r y g e r a s o f f o m a t i o n s in the North-East; Asia, To north and east of the Himalayan mountains formed mongoloid race, which gave rise to several anthropological types. People of the Mongoloid race are characterized by a yellowish color; skin color, dark, straight, thin hair, poor development of tertiary hair, a 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 spade-shaped incisors.

The characteristics 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 movement 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. Loess is a product of weathering, and its increase indicates raging loess storms. Natural selection caused the extinction of part of the population. Those who survived had a narrow eye shape, an epicanthus - the 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 become clogged with dust. Skin with a yellowish tint marked people against the background of yellow loess soils. This is how 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 - a landmass that connected Siberia with North America - penetrated into glacier-free Alaska. 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 dropped very quickly, a land corridor formed along the western edge of the shield along which hunters penetrated into the Great Plains North America. The path 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 hunting object. The Great Plains are literally littered with stone spear points. 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, lack of a beard and mustache. Less ferocious loess storms made it possible to preserve large aquiline noses and wide 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. Spreading further and further south across the mainland, this group over time transformed into the Indian, or American, small race, which scientists usually divide into several anthropological types.

All racial differences were formed as adaptations to environment. People 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 humanity spreads and develops new ecological niches with different natural conditions within large races, small races became isolated, and at the borders of contacts between large races, intermediate (mixed) races arose (Fig. 3.6).

Caucasoids Mongoloids Mixed types Negroids Australoids

Caucasians Mestizos Mulattoes Negroids

Mongoloid Indians

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

In the course of history, there has been constant mixing of races, as a result of which practically pure races do not exist, and they all show certain signs of mixedness. In addition, many intermediate anthropological types emerged, combining different racial characteristics. In all basic 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 occurred especially intensively over the past 10-15 thousand years. Since the time that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, the process of mixing (or crossbreeding) has assumed enormous proportions. In general, all humanity is more or less mixed in character; tens of millions of people are very difficult or simply impossible to classify even as some large race. Mixed marriages of Negroes - slaves from Africa and whites gave rise to mulattoes, an Indian in the Mongoloids with white colonizers - mestizos, and the Indians and blacks - sambo. The main reason for the mixing of racial characteristics was numerous population migrations (Fig. 3.7, 3.8).

However, at the borders of the ecumene, located in the outlying areas of human settlement, the factor of natural isolation played the greatest role. There are peoples preserved on Earth that have clearly defined complexes of racial characteristics; Such are, for example, the pygmies in the jungles of the Congo Basin in Africa; Indians in the equatorial forests of the Amazon; Lapps (Sami) in the Far North of Europe; Eskimos (Inuit) 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 modern races has been quite clearly established (see color incl. 7). Negroids live throughout most of the African continent and in the New World, where they were taken as slaves. The main areas of settlement of the Mongoloids 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 large parts of Western and Central Asia, in the northern regions of South Asia. Migrants from the Old and New Worlds make up the majority 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 19th century. meant a rejection of the Typological approach to species, since Darwinism emphasized

(Fig. 3.7. Metis from mixed marriages)

3.8. World population migrations in the 17th – first half of the 19th centuries.

and the fact of individual variability within species, and the constant transformation which each species undergoes. However, until recently, the thinking of anthropologists was clearly typological; physical anthropology textbooks contained mostly descriptions and names of human races. Some authors (“unifiers”) named only a dozen human races, while others (“splitters”) named a myriad of them.

The difficulty with using these categories is that between different ways There are too many contradictions between 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, with which they (together with the Hungarians and Finns) have linguistic

stic relationship? What to do with the Basques, who at first glance look Spanish, 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 aborigines, Central Asian Aryans (who are clearly Caucasians), and Persians. Should they be grouped with Europeans, whose languages ​​originate from Sanskrit - to which Hindi and Urdu are very close - or should they be grouped with South Asians because of their dark skin?

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

The most recognized classification of races is proposed Ya. Ya. Roschginsky 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, over the years of pluralistic development of spiritual life, fascist and other extreme nationalist movements have appeared that have absorbed the ideological principles of racism. That is why scientific analysis of these problems is so necessary now.

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 and raises many questions and bewilderments. Researchers have great difficulty applying biological concepts to groups of people in the question of which sets of external traits are most significant in determining their racial identity in different people. If you give priority to skin color, then the terms themselves do not accurately describe color. In this classification, entire peoples remain outside it: Polynesians, peoples of South India, Australians, Bushmen to the south! Africans cannot be classified into any of the three above-mentioned races.

Moreover, mixed marriages, and their number is increasing, modify the phenotypes of races, and in life the problem comes down primarily to determining the status of the baby. In American culture, a subject acquires racial definition 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 from a mixed marriage between an African-American and a “white” person can be classified as “black”, whereas according to his genotype he 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 for someone's racial identity can be expressed in one of 500 different terms. If we take blood group 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 proposition that all races are biologically capable of creating their own culture and possessing universal universals.

However, there are other anti-scientific theories. They assert the biological inequality of races. Supporters of racism classify humanity into superior and inferior races. The latter are incapable of cultural development and are doomed to degeneration. In co-

According to their theory, racial inequality 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 their level of mental development; not all of them are capable of cultural development. These fabrications are refuted by scientific data. The capacity of the brain part of the skull varies among people of the same race, without affecting mental abilities; All elements of culture are similar among people of different races, and the uneven pace of its development depends not 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 times. human society and denies the role of social factors in human evolution. The inequality of people in society, its stratification into classes co-j cial Darwinism explains by the biological inequality of people, and not by 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-| minorities (racial, ethnic, social) inferior nd nature. Similar theories were recognized to justify apartheid in South Africa and European colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States, the supposed superiority of the white race was asserted through the segregationist doctrine. Confidence in the biologically justified backwardness of the Native Americans - Indians gave grounds for their extermination and relocation to reservations.

Scientific judgments also appeared, trying to explain. that misfortune and poverty are nothing more than a consequence of inferior intellectual abilities. American explorer A. Jensen, interpreting the observation, during which it turned out that, in comparison with “whites”, “black” Americans show on average a lower level of intelligence in testing, makes the following conclusion: “white” Americans are “smarter” than “blacks”, “blacks” are hereditarily incapable show the same level of intelligence as “whites”. However the same K. F. Kottak gives examples when IQ (intelligence index) measurements 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 wealthier areas with good schools for them 1.04. Today, in a number of states, such research without the consent of those tested is punishable by law.

We can say that the original division of peoples into civilized and savage is already a thing of the past. Ethnographic data suggests that all races have equal abilities for cultural evolution. Moreover, it has been proven that in any stratified society, differences between social groups along economic, social, ethnic and racial parameters reflect inequality of opportunity to a greater extent than genetic makeup. Therefore, differences in wealth, prestige and power between social classes are determined by social relations and property.

The concept of “race” turned out to be completely undefined, which prompted UNESCO to recommend using the term “ethnicity” instead. And although the concept includes anthropological characteristics, 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 have isolated themselves geographically and acquired hereditary morphological and physiological differences. In addition, despite genetic relatedness, 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.”

Humanity is currently represented by one species Homo sapiens (A reasonable person). However, this species is not uniform. It is polymorphic and consists of three large and many small transitional races - biological groups distinguished by small morphological characteristics. These characteristics include: hair type and color, skin color, eyes, shape of the nose, lips, face and head, proportions of the body and limbs.

Races emerged as a result of the settlement and geographic isolation of the ancestors of modern people in different natural and climatic conditions. Racial characteristics are hereditary. They arose in the distant past under the direct influence of the environment and were adaptive in nature. The following large races are distinguished.

Negroid (Australo-Negroid or Equatorial) The race is characterized by dark skin color, curly and wavy hair, a wide and slightly protruding nose, thick lips and dark eyes. Before the era of colonization, this race was common in Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Caucasoid (Euro-Asian) The race is distinguished by light or dark skin, straight or wavy hair, good development of facial hair in men (beard and mustache), narrow protruding nose, thin lips. Representatives of this race are settled in Europe, North Africa, Western Asia and Northern India.

For Mongoloid (Asian-American) The race is characterized by dark or light skin, straight, often coarse hair, a flattened wide face with strongly prominent cheekbones, and average width of lips and nose. Initially, this race inhabited Southeast, North and Central Asia, North and South America.

Although the large races differ markedly from each other in their complex of external characteristics, they are interconnected by a number of intermediate types that imperceptibly transform into one another.

The biological unity of human races is evidenced by: 1 – the absence of genetic isolation and unlimited possibilities of crossing with the formation of fertile offspring; 2 – equivalence of races in biological and psychological terms; 3 – the presence of transitional races between large races, combining the characteristics of two neighboring ones; 4 – localization of skin patterns such as arcs on the second finger (in apes – on the fifth); All representatives of the races have the same pattern of hair arrangement on the head and other morphophysiological characteristics.

Control questions:

What is the position of man in the animal world?

How is the origin of man from animals proven?

What biological factors contributed to human evolution?

Which social factors contributed to the formation Homo sapiens?

What human races are currently distinguished?

What does the biological unity of races prove?

Literature

Abdurakhmanov G.M., Lopatin I.K., Ismailov Sh.I. Fundamentals of zoology and zoogeography. – M., Academa, 2001.

Averintsev S.V. Small workshop on invertebrate zoology. – M., “Soviet Science”, 1947.

Akimushkin I. Animal world. – M., “Young Guard”, 1975 (multi-volume).

Akimushkin I. Animal world. – Birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles. – M., “Thought”, 1989.

Aksenova M. Encyclopedia. Biology. – M., Avanta plus, 2002.

Balan P.G. Serebryakov V.V. Zoology. – K., 1997.

Beklemishev V.N. Fundamentals of comparative anatomy of invertebrates. - M., “Science”, 1964.

Biological encyclopedic dictionary. – M., “Soviet Encyclopedia”, 1986.

Birkun A.A., Krivokhizhin S.V. Beasts of the Black Sea. – Simferopol: Tavria, 1996.

Willi K., Dethier V. Biology (Biological principles and processes). - publishing house "Mir", M., 1975.

Vtorov P.P., Drozdov N.N. Key to birds of the USSR fauna. – M., “Enlightenment”, 1980.

Derim-Oglu E.N., Leonov E.A. Educational field practice in vertebrate zoology: Proc. manual for students of biology. specialist. ped. Inst. – M., “Enlightenment”, 1979.

Dogel V.A. Zoology of invertebrates. – M., Higher School, 1975

Life of animals. /ed. V.E. Sokolova, Yu.I. Polyansky and others/ - M., “Enlightenment”, 7 vols., 1985 -1987.

Zgurovskaya L. Crimea. Stories about plants and animals. – Simferopol, “Business Inform”, 1996.

Zlotin A.Z. Insects serve humans. – K., Naukova Dumka, 1986.

Konstantinov V.M., Naumov S.P., Shatalova S.P. Zoology of vertebrates. – M., Academa, 2000.

Kornev A.P. Zoology. – K.: Radyanska school, 2000.

Cornelio M.P. School atlas-identifier of butterflies: Book. for students. M., "Enlightenment", 1986.

Kostin Yu.V., Dulitsky A.I. Birds and animals of Crimea. – Simferopol: Tavria, 1978.

Kochetova N.I., Akimushkina M.I., Dykhnov V.N. Rare invertebrate animals - M., Agropromizdat, 1986.

Kryukova I.V., Luks Yu.A., Privalova A.A., Kostin Yu.V., Dulitsky A.I., Maltsev I.V., Kostin S.Yu. Rare plants and animals of Crimea. Directory. – Simferopol: Tavria, 1988.

Levushkin S.I., Shilov I.A. General zoology. - M.: Higher School, 1994.

Naumov S.P. Zoology of vertebrates. – M., “Enlightenment”, 1965.

Podgorodetsky P.D. Crimea: Nature. Ref. ed. – Simferopol: Tavria, 1988.

Traytak D.I. Biology. - M.: Education, 1996.

Frank St. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fishes / ed. Moiseeva P.A., Meshkova A.N. / Artia Publishing House, Prague, 1989.

Chervona book of Ukraine. Creature's world. /ed. MM. Shcherbakova / - K., “Ukr..encyclopedia named after.. M.P. Bazhana”, 1994.

Hi all! For those who are interested in what human races are, I’ll tell you now, and I’ll also tell you how the most basic of them differ.

– large historically established groups of people; division of the species Homo sapiens - homo sapiens, represented by modern humanity.

The concept is based lies the biological, primarily physical, similarity of people and the common territory they inhabit.
Race is characterized by a complex of hereditary physical characteristics; these characteristics include: eye color, hair, skin, height, body proportions, facial features, etc.

Since most of these characteristics can change in humans, and mixing between races has been occurring for a long time, it is rare that a particular individual possesses the entire set of typical racial characteristics.

Big races.

There are many classifications of human races. Most often, three main or large races are distinguished: Mongoloid (Asian-American), equatorial (Negro-Australoid) and Caucasoid (Eurasian, Caucasian).

Among representatives of the Mongoloid race skin color varies from dark to light (mainly among North Asian groups), hair is usually dark, often straight and coarse, the nose is usually small, the eye shape is oblique, the folds of the upper eyelids are significantly developed, and in addition, there is a fold covering the inner corner eyes, not very developed hair.

Among representatives of the equatorial race dark skin pigmentation, eyes and hair that is broadly wavy or curly. The nose is predominantly wide, with the lower part of the face protruding forward.

In representatives of the Caucasian race skin color is light (with variations from very light, mostly in the North, to dark, even brown skin). Hair is curly or straight, eyes are horizontal. Strongly developed or moderate hair on the chest and face in men. The nose is noticeably prominent, with a straight or slightly sloping forehead.

Small races.

Large races are divided into small, or anthropological types. Within the Caucasian race there are White Sea-Baltic, Atlanto-Baltic, Balkan-Caucasian, Central European and Indo-Mediterranean minor races.

Nowadays, virtually all of the land is inhabited by Europeans, but by the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries (mid-15th century), their main area included Middle and Western Africa, India, and North Africa.

All minor races are represented in modern Europe. But the Central European version is larger in number (Germans, Austrians, Slovaks, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians). In general, the population of Europe is very mixed, especially in cities, due to relocations, influx of migration from other regions of the Earth and cross-breeding.

Typically, among the Mongoloid race, the South Asian, Far Eastern, Arctic, North Asian and American minor races are distinguished. At the same time, the American is sometimes viewed as a larger race.

All climatic and geographical zones were inhabited by Mongoloids. A wide variety of anthropological types characterizes modern Asia, but various Caucasoid and Mongoloid groups predominate in numbers.

The Far Eastern and South Asian small races are the most common among the Mongoloids. Among Europeans - Indo-Mediterranean. The indigenous population of America is a minority in comparison with the various European anthropological types and population groups of representatives of all three great races.

The Negro-Australoid, or equatorial race includes three minor races of African Negroids(Negroid or Negro, Negril and Bushman) and the same number of oceanic australoids(Australian or Australoid race, which in some classifications is distinguished as an independent large race, also Melanesian and Vedoid).

The range of the equatorial race is not continuous: it covers most Africa, Melanesia, Australia, partly Indonesia and New Guinea. The Negro small race numerically predominates in Africa, and in the south and north of the continent the Caucasian population has a significant proportion.

The indigenous population of Australia is a minority relative to emigrants from India and Europe, as well as quite numerous representatives of the Far Eastern race. The South Asian race is predominant in Indonesia.

At the level with the above-mentioned races, there are also races that arose as a result of long-term mixing of the population of individual regions, for example, the Ural and Lapanoid races, which possess both the features of the Mongoloids and Caucasians, or the Ethiopian race - intermediate between the Caucasoid and Equatorial races.

Thus, now you can figure out by facial features which race this person belongs to🙂

In modern humanity there are three main races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. This large groups people who differ in certain physical characteristics, such as facial features, skin, eye and hair color, and hair shape.

Each race is characterized by a unity of origin and formation in a certain territory.

Belongs to the Caucasian race indigenous people Europe, South Asia and North Africa. Caucasians are characterized by a narrow face, a strongly protruding nose, and soft hair. The skin color of northern Caucasians is light, while that of southern Caucasians is predominantly dark.

The Mongoloid race includes the indigenous population of Central and East Asia, Indonesia, and Siberia. Mongoloids are distinguished by a large, flat, wide face, eye shape, coarse straight hair, and dark skin color.

There are two branches of the Negroid race - African and Australian. The Negroid race is characterized by dark skin color, curly hair, dark eyes, a wide and flat nose.

Racial characteristics are hereditary, but at present they do not have significant significance for human life. Apparently, in the distant past, racial characteristics were useful for their owners: the dark skin of blacks and curly hair, creating an air layer around the head, protected the body from the effects of sunlight; the shape of the facial skeleton of the Mongoloids with a more extensive nasal cavity may be useful for warming cold air before it enters the lungs. According to mental abilities, i.e. abilities for cognition, creativity and in general labor activity, all races are the same. Differences in the level of culture are not related to biological features people of different races, but with the social conditions of the development of society.

The reactionary essence of racism. Initially, some scientists confused the level social development with biological characteristics and tried to find transitional forms among modern peoples that connect humans with animals. These mistakes were used by racists who began to talk about the alleged inferiority of some races and peoples and the superiority of others in order to justify the merciless exploitation and direct destruction of many peoples as a result of colonization, the seizure of foreign lands and the outbreak of wars. When European and American capitalism tried to conquer the African and Asian peoples, the white race was declared superior. Later, when Hitler’s hordes marched across Europe, destroying the captured population in death camps, the so-called Aryan race, to which the Nazis included the German peoples, was declared superior. Racism is a reactionary ideology and policy aimed at justifying the exploitation of man by man.

The inconsistency of racism has been proven by the real science of race - racial studies. Racial studies studies the racial characteristics, origin, formation and history of human races. Evidence from race studies suggests that the differences between races are not sufficient to qualify the races as distinct biological species of humans. Mixing of races - miscegenation - occurred constantly, as a result of which intermediate types arose at the borders of the ranges of representatives of different races, smoothing out the differences between races.

Will races disappear? One of the important conditions for the formation of races is isolation. In Asia, Africa and Europe it still exists to some extent today. Meanwhile, recently settled regions such as Northern and South America, can be compared to a cauldron in which all three racial groups are melted. Although public opinion in many countries does not support interracial marriage, there is little doubt that miscegenation is inevitable and will sooner or later lead to the formation of a hybrid population of people.