Human races. Characteristics of a Negroid

Striving to explain origin of human races goes back to ancient times. In particular, the ancient Greeks called the cause of the emergence of the black race Phaeton, the son of the sun god Helios, who flew too close to the ground in his father’s chariot and burned white people. The Bible traced the origin of human races to the skin color of the sons of Noah, whose offspring were people with different characteristics.

The first attempts to scientifically substantiate raceogenesis date back to the 17th-18th centuries. The first to propose their classifications were the French physician Francois Bernier in 1684 and the Swedish scientist Karl Linnaeus in 1746, who identified four races of people. Linnaeus based his classification on psychosomatic signs in addition to physiological ones.

The first who began to use skull parameters in the classification of races was the German scientist Johann Blumenbach, who in the 70s of the 18th century identified five races: Caucasian, Mongolian, American, African and Malay. He also relied on the then prevailing ideas about the greater beauty and mental development of the white race compared to others.

In the 19th century, many more complex and ramified classifications appeared; researchers began to distinguish small races within large ones, most often focusing on cultural and language features. In this series are, for example, the classification of J. Virey, who divided the white and black races into their constituent tribes, or the classifications of J. Saint-Hilaire and T. Huxley, who identified four or five main and many minor races that constitute them.

In the 20th century, two main approaches to characterizing races and their classification dominated: typological and population. With the typological approach, the definition of race was carried out on the basis of stereotypes that were believed to be inherent to the entire race. It was believed that the races had some absolute differences. These differences were identified based on the descriptions of individual individuals. Among the typological classifications is the classification of I.E. Deniker, who was guided exclusively by biological characteristics and based his classification on hair type and eye color, thereby dividing humanity into six main groups, within which races were distinguished.

With the development of population genetics, the typological approach has shown its inconsistency. IN to a greater extent The population approach is scientifically based, considering not individual individuals, but groups of their populations. Classifications using this approach are based not on stereotypes, but on genetic traits. At the same time, many transitional races are distinguished, between which there are no absolute differences.

Basic hypotheses of the origin of races

There are several main hypotheses of the origin of human races: polycentrism (polyphyly), dicentrism and monocentrism (monophyly).

The polycentrism hypothesis, one of the creators of which was the German anthropologist Franz Weidenreich, suggests the existence of four centers of origin of races: in East Asia(the center of origin of the Mongoloids), in South-East Asia(Australoids), Sub-Saharan Africa (Negroids) and Europe (Caucasoids).

This hypothesis was criticized and rejected as erroneous, since science does not know cases of the formation of one species of animals in different centers, but with the same evolutionary path.

The dicentrism hypothesis, advanced in the 1950s and 60s, offered two approaches to explaining the origins of races. According to the first, the center of formation of Caucasoids and Negroids was in Western Asia, and the center of formation of Mongoloids and Australoids was in Southeast Asia. From these centers, Caucasoids began to settle throughout Europe, Negroids - along the tropical belt, and Mongoloids initially settled in Asia, after which some of them went to the American continent. The second approach of the dicentrism hypothesis places the Caucasoid, Negroid and Australoid races in one trunk of raceogenesis, and the Mongoloid and Americanoid races in another.

Just like the polycentrism hypothesis, the dicentrism hypothesis was rejected by the scientific community for similar reasons.

The monocentrism hypothesis is based on the recognition of the same mental and physical level all races and their origin from one common ancestor in one fairly extended place. Supporters of monocentrism attribute the region of race formation to the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia, from where human ancestors began to settle into other regions, gradually forming many smaller racial groups.

Stages of the origin of human races

Genetic studies date human exodus modern type from Africa 80-85 thousand years ago, and archaeological research confirms that already 40-45 thousand years ago people living outside Africa had certain racial differences. The formation of the first prerequisites for the formation of races, therefore, should have occurred in the period 80-40 thousand years ago.

V.P. Alekseev in 1985 identified four main stages in the origin of human races. He attributed the first stage to the time of formation modern man, that is, 200 thousand years ago. According to Alekseev, at the first stage, the formation of primary foci of race formation took place and two main trunks of race formation were formed: the western, which includes Caucasoids, Negroids and Australoids, and the eastern, which includes Mongoloids and Americanoids. At the second stage (15-20 thousand years ago), secondary centers of race formation emerged, and the formation of evolutionary branches began within the western and eastern racial trunks. Alekseev attributed the third stage to the period 10-12 thousand years ago, when the formation of local races began in tertiary centers of race formation. At the fourth stage (3-4 thousand years BC), the differentiation of races began to deepen and came to its modern state.

Factors of origin of human races

Natural selection had the greatest influence on the formation of human races. During the formation of races, such characteristics were fixed in populations that made it possible to better adapt to the conditions of the population’s habitat. For example, skin color affects the synthesis of vitamin D, which regulates calcium balance: the more melanin it contains, the more difficult it is for sunlight, which stimulates the production of vitamin D, to penetrate deep into the body. Thus, to get enough of the vitamin and have a normal balance of calcium in the body, people with lighter skin need to be further from the equator than people with dark skin.

Differences in facial features and body type among representatives different races also due to natural selection. It is generally accepted that the elongated nose of Caucasians evolved as a means of preventing hypothermia in the lungs. The flat nose of Negroids, on the contrary, contributes to better cooling of the air entering the lungs.

Other factors influencing the formation of human races are genetic drift, as well as isolation and mixing of populations. Thanks to genetic drift, the genetic structure of populations changes, which entails a slow change in the appearance of people.

Isolation of populations contributes to changes in the genetic composition within them. During isolation, the characteristics characteristic of the population at the beginning of isolation begin to be reproduced, as a result of which, over time, the differences in its appearance from the appearance of other populations will increase. This happened, for example, with the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, who developed separately from the rest of humanity for 20 thousand years.

The mixing of populations leads to an increase in the diversity of their genotypes, as a result of which a new race is formed. Nowadays, with the growth of the planet's population, the intensification of globalization processes, and the migration of people, the process of mixing of representatives of different races is also intensifying. The percentage of mixed marriages is increasing, and, according to many researchers, in the future this may lead to the formation of a single human race.

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

Each race is characterized by unity of origin and formation on 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 color skin, curly hair, dark eyes, 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 sun rays, a Mongoloid facial skeleton shape with a larger nasal cavity, may have been useful in warming cold air before it entered the lungs. By mental abilities, i.e., cognitive abilities, creative 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 for the races to be considered different. biological species of people. Mixing of races - miscegenation - occurred constantly, as a result of which intermediate types arose on 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 Many countries do not support interracial marriage, there is little doubt that mixing of races is inevitable, and sooner or later will lead to the formation of a hybrid population of people.

The current appearance of humanity is the result of the complex historical development of human groups and can be described by identifying special biological types - human races. It is assumed that their formation began to occur 30-40 thousand years ago, as a consequence of the settlement of people in new geographical areas. According to researchers, their first groups moved from the area of ​​modern Madagascar to South Asia, then Australia, and a little later to Far East, to Europe and America. This process gave rise to the original races from which all subsequent diversity of peoples arose. The article will consider what main races are distinguished within the species Homo sapiens (reasonable humans), their characteristics and features.

The meaning of race

To summarize the definitions of anthropologists, a race is a historically established set of people who have a common physical type (skin color, hair structure and color, skull shape, etc.), the origin of which is associated with a specific geographical area. Nowadays the relation between race and area is not always clearly visible, but it certainly existed in the distant past.

The origins of the term "race" are uncertain, but there has been much debate in scientific circles over its use. In this regard, initially the term was ambiguous and conditional. There is an opinion that the word represents a modification of the Arabic lexeme ras - head or beginning. There is also every reason to believe that this term may be related to the Italian razza, which means "tribe". It's interesting that in modern meaning given word first found in the works of the French traveler and philosopher Francois Bernier. In 1684 he gives one of the first classifications of the main human races.

races

Attempts to put together a picture that classifies human races, were undertaken by the ancient Egyptians. They identified four types of people according to their skin color: black, yellow, white and red. AND for a long time This division of humanity remained. The Frenchman Francois Bernier tried to give a scientific classification of the main types of races in the 17th century. But more complete and constructed systems appeared only in the twentieth century.

It is known that there is no generally accepted classification, and they are all quite arbitrary. But in the anthropological literature they most often refer to Y. Roginsky and M. Levin. They identified three large races, which in turn are divided into small ones: Caucasian (Eurasian), Mongoloid and Negro-Australoid (equatorial). When constructing this classification, scientists took into account the morphological similarity, geographical distribution of races and the time of their formation.

Characteristics of race

Classic racial characteristics are determined by a complex of physical characteristics related to appearance man and his anatomy. The color and shape of the eyes, the shape of the nose and lips, the pigmentation of skin and hair, and the shape of the skull are the primary racial characteristics. There are also secondary characteristics such as physique, height and proportions human body. But due to the fact that they are very changeable and depend on environmental conditions, they are not used in racial studies. Racial characteristics are not interconnected by one or another biological dependence, therefore they form numerous combinations. But it is precisely stable traits that make it possible to distinguish races of a large order (main), while small races are distinguished on the basis of more variable indicators.

Thus, the main characteristics of a race include morphological, anatomical and other characteristics that have a stable hereditary nature and are minimally subject to influence environment.

Caucasian

Almost 45% of the population globe belong to the Caucasian race. Geographical discoveries America and Australia allowed it to spread throughout the world. However, its main core is concentrated within Europe, the African Mediterranean and southwest Asia.

In the Caucasian group, the following combination of characteristics is distinguished:

• clearly profiled face;
• pigmentation of hair, skin and eyes from the lightest to darkest shades;
• straight or wavy soft hair;
• medium or thin lips;
• narrow nose, strongly or moderately protruding from the plane of the face;
• the fold of the upper eyelid is poorly formed;
• developed hair on the body;
• large hands and feet.

The composition of the Caucasoid race is divided into two large branches - northern and southern. The northern branch is represented by Scandinavians, Icelanders, Irish, English, Finns and others. South - Spaniards, Italians, southern French, Portuguese, Iranians, Azerbaijanis and others. All the differences between them lie in the pigmentation of the eyes, skin and hair.

Mongoloid race

The formation of the Mongoloid group has not been fully studied. According to some assumptions, the nation was formed in the central part of Asia, in the Gobi Desert, which was distinguished by its harsh continental climate. As a result, representatives of this race of people generally have strong immunity and good adaptation to dramatic changes in climatic conditions.

Signs of the Mongoloid race:

• brown or black eyes with a slanting and narrow cut;
• drooping upper eyelids;
• moderately widened nose and lips average size;
• skin color from yellow to brown;
• straight hard dark hair;
• strongly prominent cheekbones;
• poorly developed hair on the body.

The Mongoloid race is divided into two branches: northern Mongoloids (Kalmykia, Buryatia, Yakutia, Tuva) and southern peoples (Japan, inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula, South China). Ethnic Mongols can act as prominent representatives of the Mongoloid group.

The Equatorial (or Negro-Australoid) race is a large group of people that makes up 10% of humanity. It includes Negroid and Australoid groups, which mostly live in Oceania, Australia, tropical zone Africa and in the regions of South and Southeast Asia.

Most researchers consider the specific characteristics of a race as a result of the development of a population in hot and humid climate:

• dark pigmentation skin, hair and eyes;
• hard curly or Wavy hair;
• the nose is wide, slightly protruding;
• thick lips with a significant mucous part;
• prominent lower face.

The race is clearly divided into two trunks - the eastern (Pacific, Australian and Asian groups) and the western (African groups).

Minor races

The main races in which humanity has successfully imprinted itself on all continents of the earth, branching into a complex mosaic of people - small races (or races of the second order). Anthropologists identify from 30 to 50 such groups. The Caucasoid race consists of the following types: White Sea-Baltic, Atlanto-Baltic, Central European, Balkan-Caucasian (Pontozagros) and Indo-Mediterranean.

The Mongoloid group distinguishes: Far Eastern, South Asian, North Asian, Arctic and American types. It is worth noting that some classifications tend to consider the last of them as an independent large race. In today's Asia, the most dominant are the Far Eastern (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) and South Asian (Javanese, Sunda, Malay) types.

The equatorial population is divided into six small groups: African Negroids are represented by the Negro, Central African and Bushman races, Oceanic Australoids - Veddoid, Melanesian and Australian (in some classifications it is put forward as the main race).

Mixed Races

In addition to second-order races, there are also mixed and transitional races. Presumably they formed from ancient populations within the borders climatic zones, through contact between representatives of different races, or appeared during long-distance migrations, when it was necessary to adapt to new conditions.

Thus, there are Euro-Mongoloid, Euro-Negroid and Euro-Mongol-Negroid subraces. For example, the laponoid group has characteristics of three main races: prognathism, prominent cheekbones, soft hair and others. The bearers of such characteristics are the Finno-Permian peoples. Or the Ural, which is represented by Caucasian and Mongoloid populations. She is characterized by the following dark straight hair, moderate skin pigmentation, Brown eyes, moderately defined hairline. Mostly distributed in Western Siberia.

• Until the 20th century, representatives of the Negroid race were not found in Russia. During the period of cooperation with developing countries, about 70 thousand blacks remained living in the USSR.
• Only one Caucasian Capable of producing lactase throughout its life, which is involved in the absorption of milk. In other major races, this ability is observed only in infancy.
• Genetic studies have determined that fair-skinned residents northern territories Europe and Russia have about 47.5% Mongolian genes and only 52.5% European ones.
• A large number of people who identify as pure African Americans have European ancestors. In turn, Europeans can discover Native Americans or Africans in their ancestors.
• The DNA of all inhabitants of the planet, regardless of external differences (skin color, hair texture), is 99.9% identical, therefore, from the standpoint of genetic research existing concept"race" loses its meaning.

Among the variety of characteristics inherent in representatives different nations, scientists are looking for traits typical of large groups population of the Earth. One of the first scientific classifications population was proposed by C. Linnaeus. He identified four main groups of people, who are characterized by similarities in skin color, facial features, hair type, and the like. His contemporary Jean-Louis Buffon called them races (Arabic races - beginning, origin). Today, scientists define races not only by the similarity of hereditary features of appearance, but also by the origin of a particular group of people from a certain region of the Earth.

How many races are there on our planet??

Disputes around this issue have continued since the times of C. Linnaeus and J.-L. Buffon. Most of the scientists in modern humanity There are four large races - Eurasian (Caucasoid), Equatorial (Negroid), Asian-American (Mongoloid), Australoid.

Origin of races

Let's remember: the view Homo sapiens originated in Africa, from where about 100 thousand years ago its gradual spread throughout Europe and Asia began. People moved into new territories, found places suitable for living, and settled in them. Millennia passed, and separate groups people reached the northeastern border of Asia. In those days, there was no Bering Strait yet, so a land “bridge” connected Asia and America. Nim and got into North America people from Asia. Over time, moving south, they reached South America.

The settlement continued for tens of thousands of years. Scientists believe that during migration, racial characteristics were fixed, which distinguish the inhabitants of different regions of the planet. Some of these signs must be adaptive in nature. So, the residents of the hot place have a shock of curly hair equatorial belt creates an air layer, protects the vessels of the head from overheating, and the dark pigment in the skin adapts to high solar radiation. A wide nose and large lips contribute to increased evaporation of moisture and, accordingly, cooling of the body.

Light skin Caucasians can also be regarded as adaptation to climate. In the body of light-skinned people, vitamin D is synthesized in conditions of low solar radiation. The narrow eye shape of representatives of the Asian-American race protects the eyes from sand during steppe storms.

Thanks to the settlement of people, isolation and mixing became factors in the consolidation of racial characteristics. In primitive society, people united in small isolated communities, where the possibilities of marriage were limited. Therefore, the predominance of one or another racial characteristic often depended on random circumstances. In a small closed community, any hereditary trait can disappear if the person who has this trait leaves no descendants. On the other hand, manifestations of a certain trait can become widespread, since due to the limited number of marriages it is not replaced by other traits. Because of this, for example, the number of dark-haired residents or, conversely, fair-haired ones may increase.

Reasons for the isolation of human communities

The reason for the isolation of human communities There may be geographical barriers (mountains, rivers, oceans). Distance from the main migration routes also leads to isolation. On such a “lost island” people live in isolation, their appearance retains the features of their distant ancestors. For example, the Scandinavians “preserved” physical features that were formed thousands of years ago: blonde hair, high growth etc. Mixing of races also occurred over many millennia. People born from marriages between representatives of different races are called mestizos. Thus, the colonization of America resulted in many marriages between Indians (representatives of the Mongoloid race) and Europeans. Mestizo people make up about half of the population of modern Mexico. Typically, most racial characteristics in mestizos are weaker compared to the extreme manifestations of these traits: the skin of Mexican mestizos is lighter than that of the Mayans and darker than that of Europeans.

The emergence of races

Until now, historians are haunted by the question of the origin of races. According to archaeological data, “homo sapiens” appeared about 40 thousand years ago, but even then there were differences between groups of people: the shape of the lower jaw, etc. It is quite difficult for modern scientists to classify them, since they are in no way connected with real racial characteristics, but still the fact of their presence takes place. It is believed that anthropological changes were associated with the territory on which the development and formation of a certain group of people took place, its climate and some other characteristics.

Classification of races

Human races are groups of people united by characteristic biological characteristics. They should not be confused with biological species - these individuals cannot have common offspring. For example, the extinct Neanderthals and our Cro-Magnon ancestors were different types and, therefore, their mixing could not occur. It has now been proven that all races of man in modern world belong to the same species. That is why there are many subraces (small races) that came from the merger of the main, “big” ones. Until now, scientists cannot agree among themselves which human races are considered the main ones. From three to thirty options are offered. Among the first are Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid. The Australoid race is a separate line. In Africa there are Bushmen and Pygmies, in America - Americanoid (Indians), in Japan - Kuril (Ainu) and in the north of Eurasia - Laponoid (Sami, Lapps).

Factors in the formation of races

The main factor in the emergence of any race of man is a natural moment. For example, melanin, the pigment responsible for skin color, is present in the cells of representatives of all humanity (with the exception of albinos, but this is a genetic disorder). A connection can be made between skin color and geographical characteristics, namely, solar illumination, decreasing from the equator to the poles. The human body, among others, needs vitamin D, which is synthesized in an amount depending on intake ultraviolet rays. There are much more of them closer to the equator, so the process of vitamin D intake occurs faster. In order for this element to reach the northern people in the required quantity, a long process of evolution has led to the fact that the closer to the poles, the lighter the skin of the local population, the less melanin in their body, and the more sunlight they receive. In exactly the same way, a parallel can be drawn with the sinuses of the nose - the protruding Caucasian nose is designed to warm cold air, and the epicanthus in Mongoloids (the fold near the eye) is to protect the organ of vision from dust storms and steppe winds.

Current situation

The process of changing old races and the emergence of new races is continuous. When studying history, we operate over decades, hundreds and thousands of years, so we see a clear picture of the entire transformation of each human race. And even after just a few centuries, everything can change dramatically. As a result of mixing, ecology, and lifestyle, groups of people will acquire new characteristics, and historians’ debates regarding the classification of races will not lose relevance.