What human races exist. Features of human evolution at the present stage

Human race

Race- a system of human populations characterized by similarity in a set of certain hereditary biological characteristics. Traits that characterize different races often appear as a result of adaptation to different conditions environment over many generations.

Racial studies, in addition to the above-mentioned 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 studies became especially widespread in National Socialist Germany, fascist Italy and other Western European countries, as well as earlier in the United States (Ku Klux Klan), where it served as a justification for institutionalized racism, chauvinism and anti-Semitism.

Sometimes racial studies are confused with ethnic anthropology - the latter refers, strictly speaking, 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 together with linguistics, history, and archeology. When studying driving forces In the development of race formation, anthropology comes into close contact with genetics, physiology, zoogeography, climatology, and the general theory of speciation. The study of race in anthropology has implications for many problems. It is important for resolving the question of the ancestral home of man modern look, the use of anthropological material as historical source, covering problems of systematics, mainly small systematic units, understanding the patterns of population genetics, clarifying some issues of medical geography.

Racial studies studies 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 it is divided indigenous people Volga-Kama region, to identify their general portraits, average height, level of pigmentation - this is the task of a racial scientist. And to recreate the appearance and trace possible genetic connections Khazars are the task of an ethnic anthropologist.

Modern division into races

There are many opinions about 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. Despite all their external dissimilarity, the races of the same trunk are connected by a greater commonality of genes and habitats 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 “large 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 subraces to certain races (small races). In addition, different anthropological schools use different names for the same races.

Western trunk

Caucasians

The natural range of Caucasoids is Europe to the Urals, North Africa, Southwest Asia and Hindustan. Includes Nordic, Mediterranean, Phalic, Alpine, East Baltic, Dinaric and other subgroups. It differs from other races primarily in its strong facial profile. Other signs vary widely.

Negroids

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

Pygmies

Pygmies compared to a person of average height

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

Kapoids, 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 Near Asian (Armenoid) Pamir-Fergana Mongoloid (Asian-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

Negroes Negrilli (Pygmies) Bushmen and Hottentots Mixed forms between Caucasians and the Asian branch of the Mongoloids

Central Asian groups South Siberian race Ural race and subural type Laponoids and sublapanoid type Mixed groups of Siberia Mixed forms between Caucasoids and the American branch of Mongoloids

American mestizos Mixed forms between the Caucasoid and Australoid major 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 Mulattoes South African "coloreds" Mixed forms between the Asian branch of Mongoloids and Australoids

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

Malagasy Polynesians and Micronesians Hawaiians and Pitcairns

Idaltu

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

See also

Notes

Links

Formation of races on Earth, is a question that remains open, even for modern science. Where, how, why did races arise? Is there a division into first and second class races (more details:)? What unites people into one humanity? What traits separate people by nationality?

Skin color in people

Humanity as a biological species emerged quite a long time ago. Skin color the first people It was unlikely that he was very dark or very white; most likely, some had slightly whiter skin, others - darker. The formation of races on Earth based on skin color was influenced by the natural conditions in which certain groups found themselves.

Formation of races on Earth

White and dark skinned people

For example, some people found themselves in conditions tropical zone Earth. Here, the merciless rays of the sun can easily burn a person’s naked skin. From physics we know: black color absorbs the sun's rays more completely. And that’s why black skin seems to be harmful.

But it turns out that only ultraviolet rays burn and can burn the skin. Pigment coloring becomes like a shield protecting human skin.

Everyone knows that white man gets faster sunburn than a black man. In the equatorial steppes of Africa, people with dark color skins, from which the Negroid tribes originated.

This is evidenced by the fact that not only in Africa, but also in all tropical regions of the planet, people live dark-skinned people. The first inhabitants of India are very dark-skinned people. In the tropical steppe regions of America, the people living here had darker skin than their neighbors who lived in and hid from the direct rays of the sun in the shade of trees.

And in Africa the indigenous people tropical forests- pygmies - have lighter skin than their neighbors who practice agriculture and almost always under the sun.


The Negroid race, in addition to skin color, has many other features formed during the development process, and due to the need to adapt to tropical living conditions. For example, curly black hair protects the head well from overheating by direct rays of the sun. Narrow elongated skulls are also one of the adaptations against overheating.

The Papuans from New Guinea have the same skull shape (more details:) as well as the Malanesians (more details:). Features such as skull shape and skin color helped all these peoples in the struggle for existence.

But why did the white race have whiter skin than primitive people? The reason is the same ultraviolet rays, under the influence of which vitamin B is synthesized in the human body.

People of moderate and northern latitudes, must have a white, transparent sun rays skin in order to receive as much ultraviolet radiation as possible.


Residents of northern latitudes

People with dark skin constantly experienced vitamin starvation and were less resilient than white-skinned people.

Mongoloids

Third race - Mongoloids. Under the influence of what conditions were its distinctive features formed? Their skin color has apparently been preserved from their most distant ancestors; it is well adapted to harsh conditions North and to the hot sun.

And here are the eyes. We need to say something special about them.
It is believed that the Mongoloids first appeared in areas of Asia located far from all oceans; continental climate here is characterized by a sharp difference in temperatures between winter and summer, day and night, and the steppes in these parts are layered with deserts.

Strong winds blow almost continuously and carry huge amounts of dust. In winter there are sparkling tablecloths of endless snow. And today, travelers to the northern regions of our country wear glasses that protect against this glare. And if they are not there, they are paid with eye disease.

Important distinguishing feature Mongoloids - narrow slits of the eyes. And the second is a small fold of skin covering the inner corner of the eye. It also protects your eyes from dust.


This fold of skin is commonly called the Mongolian fold. From here, from Asia, people with prominent cheekbones and narrow slits of eyes dispersed throughout Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and Africa.

Well, is there another place on Earth with a similar climate? Yes, I have. These are some areas of South Africa. They are inhabited by Bushmen and Hottentots - peoples belonging to the Negroid race. However, the Bushmen here usually have dark yellow skin, narrow eyes and a Mongolian fold. At one time they even thought that Mongoloids lived in these parts of Africa, having moved here from Asia. Only later did we figure out this mistake.

Division into large human races

Thus, under the influence of purely natural conditions, the main races of the Earth were formed - white, black, yellow. When did this happen? A question like this is not easy to answer. Anthropologists believe that division into large human races occurred no earlier than 200 thousand years ago and no later than 20 thousand.

And it was probably a long process that took 180-200 thousand years. How this happened is a new mystery. Some scientists believe that at first humanity was divided into two races - the European, which later divided into white and yellow, and the equatorial, Negroid.

Others, on the contrary, believe that first the Mongoloid race separated from the common tree of humanity, and then the Euro-African race was divided into whites and blacks. Well, anthropologists divide large human races into small ones.

This division is unstable; the total number of small races varies in the classifications given by different scientists. But there are, of course, dozens of small races.

Of course, races differ from each other not only in skin color and eye shape. Modern anthropologists have found large number such differences.

Criteria for dividing into races

But for what reasons? criteria compare race? By head shape, brain size, blood type? Scientists have not discovered any fundamental signs that would characterize any races for better or worse.

Brain weight

It has been proven that brain weight at different races different. But it is different for different people belonging to the same nationality. So, for example, the brain of the brilliant writer Anatole France weighed only 1077 grams, and the brain of the no less brilliant Ivan Turgenev reached a huge weight - 2012 grams. We can confidently say: between these two extremes all the races of the Earth are located.


The fact that brain weight does not characterize the mental superiority of a race is also indicated by the following figures: average weight the brain of an Englishman is 1456 grams, and of Indians - 1514, of Bantu blacks - 1422 grams, of the French - 1473 grams. It is known that Neanderthals had greater brain weight than modern humans.

It is unlikely that they were smarter than you and me, however. And yet there are still racists on the globe. They are in both the USA and South Africa. True, they do not have any scientific data to confirm their theories.

Anthropologists - scientists who study humanity precisely from the perspective of the characteristics of individual people and their groups - unanimously state:

All people on Earth, regardless of their nationality and race, are equal. This does not mean that there are no racial and national characteristics, they are. But they don't define either mental abilities, nor any other qualities that could be considered decisive for the division of humanity into higher and lower races.

We can say that this conclusion is the most important of the conclusions of anthropology. But this is not the only achievement of science, otherwise there would be no point in developing it further. And anthropology is developing. With its help, it was possible to look into the most distant past of humanity and understand many previously mysterious moments.

It is anthropological research that allows us to penetrate into the depths of thousands of years, to the very first days of the appearance of man. And that long period of history when people did not yet have writing at their disposal becomes clearer thanks to anthropological research.

And of course, the methods of anthropological research have expanded incomparably. If just a hundred years ago, having met a new unknown people, a traveler limited himself to describing them, then at present this is far from enough.

The anthropologist must now make numerous measurements, leaving nothing unattended - not the palms of the hands, not the soles of the feet, not, of course, the shape of the skull. He takes blood and saliva, prints of feet and palms for analysis, and takes x-rays.

Blood group

All received data are summarized, and from them special indices are derived that characterize a particular group of people. It turns out that blood types- precisely those blood groups that are used for transfusions - can also characterize the race of people.


Blood type determines race

It has been established that there are most people with the second blood group in Europe and none at all in South Africa, China and Japan, there are almost no third group in America and Australia, and less than 10 percent of Russians have the fourth blood group. By the way, the study of blood groups made it possible to make many important and interesting discoveries.

Well, for example, the settlement of America. It is known that archaeologists, who have been searching for the remains of ancient human cultures in America, they had to state that people appeared here relatively late - only a few tens of thousands of years ago.

Relatively recently, these conclusions were confirmed by analyzing the ashes of ancient fires, bones, and the remains of wooden structures. It turned out that the figure of 20-30 thousand years quite accurately determines the period that has passed since the days of the first discovery of America by its aborigines - the Indians.

And this happened in the Bering Strait area, from where they moved relatively slowly south all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

The fact that among the indigenous population of America there are no people with the third and fourth blood groups indicates that the first settlers of the giant continent did not accidentally have people with these groups.

The question arises: were there many of these discoverers in this case? Apparently, for this accident to manifest itself, there were few of them. They gave rise to all the Indian tribes with the endless variety of their languages, customs, and beliefs.

And one more thing. After this group set foot on Alaskan soil, no one could follow them there. Otherwise, new groups of people would have brought with them one of the important blood factors, the absence of which determines the absence of the third and fourth groups among the Indians
blood.

But the descendants of the first Columbuses reached the Isthmus of Panama. And although in those days there was no canal separating the continents, this isthmus was difficult to overcome for people: tropical swamps, diseases, wild animals, poisonous reptiles and insects made it possible for another, equally small group of people to overcome it.

Proof? Absence of a second blood group among native South Americans. This means that the accident repeated itself: among the first settlers South America there were also no people with the second blood group, as among the first settlers of the North - with the third and fourth groups...

Probably everyone has read the famous book by Thor Heyerdahl “Journey to Kon-Tiki”. This journey was intended to prove that the ancestors of the inhabitants of Polynesia could have arrived here not from Asia, but from South America.

This hypothesis was prompted by some similarities in the cultures of the Polynesians and South Americans. Heyerdahl understood that with his magnificent journey he did not provide decisive proof, but most readers of the book, intoxicated by the greatness of the scientific feat and the literary talent of the author, steadily believe that the brave Norwegian was right.

And yet, apparently, Polynesians are descendants of Asians, not South Americans. The decisive factor, again, was the composition of the blood. We remember that South Americans do not have a second blood type, but among Polynesians there are many people with this blood type. You are inclined to believe that the Americans did not take part in the settlement of Polynesia...

In the main and minor features of external appearance and internal structure, people are very similar to each other. Therefore, with biological point From a perspective, most scientists view humanity as one species of “homo sapiens.”

Humanity, which now lives on almost all land, even in Antarctica, is not homogeneous in its composition. It is divided into groups that have long been called races, and this term has become established in anthropology.

The human race is a biological group of people similar, but not homologous, to the subspecies group of zoological taxonomy. Each race is characterized by a unity of origin; it arose and was formed in a certain initial territory, or area. Races are characterized by one or another set of bodily characteristics related primarily to appearance man, to his morphology and anatomy.

The main racial characteristics are the following: the shape of the hair on the head; the nature and degree of development of hair on the face (beard, mustache) and on the body; hair, skin and eye color; shape of the upper eyelid, nose and lips; head and face shape; body length, or height.

Human races are the subject of special study in anthropology. According to many Soviet anthropologists, modern humanity consists of three large races, which are in turn subdivided into small races. These latter again consist of groups of anthropological types; the latter represent the basic units of racial taxonomy (Cheboksarov, 1951).

Within any human race you can find more typical and less typical representatives. In the same way, races are more characteristic, more clearly expressed and differ relatively little from other races. Some races are intermediate in nature.

The large Negroid-Australoid (black) race is generally characterized by a certain combination of characteristics that are found in the most pronounced expression among Sudanese blacks and distinguish it from the Caucasoid or Mongoloid large races. Racial characteristics of Negroids include: black, spirally curled or wavy hair; chocolate brown or even almost black (sometimes tan) skin; brown eyes; a rather flat, slightly protruding nose with a low bridge and wide wings (some have a straight, narrower one); most have thick lips; very many long head; moderately developed chin; protruding teeth of the upper and lower jaws (jaw prognathism).

Based on their geographical distribution, the Negroid-Australoid race is also called equatorial, or African-Australian. It naturally breaks down into two small races: 1) Western, or African, otherwise Negroid, and 2) Eastern, or Oceanian, otherwise Australoid.

Representatives of the large Euro-Asian, or Caucasoid, race (white) are generally characterized by a different combination of characteristics: pinkishness of the skin, due to translucent blood vessels; Some have lighter skin color, others darker; many have light hair and eyes; wavy or straight hair, moderate to heavy development of body and facial hair; lips of medium thickness; the nose is rather narrow and strongly protruding from the plane of the face; high nose bridge; poorly developed fold of the upper eyelid; slightly protruding jaws and upper face, moderately or strongly protruding chin; usually a small width of the face.

Within the large Caucasian race (white), three small races are distinguished by hair and eye color: the more pronounced northern (light-colored) and southern (dark-colored), as well as the less pronounced Central European (with intermediate coloring). A significant part of Russians belong to the so-called White Sea-Baltic group of types of the northern small race. They are characterized by light brown or blond hair, blue or gray eyes, and very fair skin. At the same time, their nose often has a concave back, and the bridge of the nose is not very high and has a different shape than that of the northwestern Caucasian types, namely the Atlanto-Baltic group, whose representatives are found mainly in the population of the countries Northern Europe. The White Sea-Baltic group has many common features with the last group: both of them constitute the northern Caucasoid small race.

Darker-colored groups of southern Caucasians form the bulk of the population of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.
The Mongoloid, or Asian-American, large (yellow) race as a whole differs from the Negroid-Australoid and Caucasoid large races in the combination of racial characteristics characteristic of it. Thus, its most typical representatives have dark skin with yellowish tints; dark brown eyes; hair black, straight, tight; On the face, a beard and mustache, as a rule, do not develop; the body hair is very poorly developed; typical Mongoloids are characterized by a highly developed and peculiarly located fold of the upper eyelid, which covers the inner corner of the eye, thereby causing a somewhat oblique position of the palpebral fissure (this fold is called the epicanthus); their face is rather flat; wide cheekbones; the chin and jaws protrude slightly; the nose is straight, but the bridge is low; lips are moderately developed; Most are of average or below average height.

This combination of characteristics is more common, for example, among the northern Chinese, who are typical Mongoloids, but taller. In other Mongoloid groups one can find less or thicker lips, less tight hair, and shorter stature among them. A special place occupied by the American Indians, because some characteristics seem to bring them closer to the great Caucasian race.
There are also groups of types of mixed origin in humanity. The so-called Lapland-Urals include the Lapps, or Sami, with their yellowish skin but soft dark hair. By their physical characteristics, these inhabitants of the far north of Europe connect the Caucasoid and Mongoloid races.

There are also groups that at the same time have great similarities with two other, more sharply different races, and the similarities are explained not so much by mixing as by ancient family ties. Such, for example, is the Ethiopian group of types, connecting the Negroid and Caucasian races: it has the character of a transitional race. This appears to be a very ancient group. The combination of the characteristics of two large races in it clearly indicates very distant times when these two races still represented something single. Many inhabitants of Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, belong to the Ethiopian race.

In total, humanity falls into about twenty-five to thirty groups of types. At the same time, it represents unity, since among the races there are intermediate (transitional) or mixed groups of anthropological types.

It is characteristic of most human races and type groups that each of them occupies a certain common territory, on which this part of humanity historically arose and developed.
But due to historical conditions, it has happened more than once that one or another part of the representatives of a given race moved to neighboring or even very distant countries. In some cases, some races completely lost contact with their original territory, or a significant part of them were subjected to physical extermination.

As we have seen, representatives of one or another race are characterized by approximately the same combination of hereditary bodily characteristics related to the external appearance of a person. However, it has been established that these racial characteristics change during an individual's life and in the course of evolution.

Representatives of each human race, due to their common origin, are somewhat closer related to each other than to representatives of other human races.
Racial groups are characterized by strong individual variability, and the boundaries between different races are usually blurred. So. Some races are connected with other races through imperceptible transitions. In some cases, it is very difficult to establish the racial composition of the population of a particular country or population group.

The determination of racial characteristics and their individual variability is made on the basis of techniques developed in anthropology and with the help of special tools. As a rule, hundreds and even thousands of representatives of the racial group of humanity being studied are subjected to measurements and examination. Such techniques make it possible to judge with sufficient accuracy the racial composition of a particular people, the degree of purity or mixedness of a racial type, but do not provide an absolute opportunity to classify some people as one or another race. This depends either on the fact that the racial type in a given individual is not clearly expressed, or due to the fact that this person is the result of mixing.

Racial characteristics in some cases vary noticeably even throughout a person’s life. Sometimes over a period of not very long time the characteristics of racial divisions change. Thus, in many groups of humanity over the past hundreds of years the shape of the head has changed. The leading progressive American anthropologist Franz Boas established that the shape of the skull changes within racial groups even over a much shorter period, for example, when moving from one part of the world to another, as happened among immigrants from Europe to America.

Individual and general shape variations in racial characteristics are inextricably linked and lead to continuous, although usually little noticeable, modifications of the racial groups of humanity. The hereditary composition of the race, although quite stable, is nevertheless subject to constant change. We have so far talked more about racial differences than about similarities between races. However, let us recall that the differences between races appear quite clearly only when a set of characteristics is taken. If we consider racial characteristics separately, then only very few of them can serve as more or less reliable evidence of an individual’s belonging to a particular race. In this regard, perhaps the most striking feature is spirally curled, or, in other words, kinky (finely curly) hair, so characteristic of typical blacks.

In very many cases it is completely impossible to determine. what race should a person be classified as? So, for example, a nose with a rather high back, a bridge of medium height and medium-wide wings can be found in some groups of all three major races, as well as other racial characteristics. And this is regardless of whether that person came from a biracial marriage or not.

The fact that racial characteristics are intertwined serves as one of the proofs that the races have a common origin and are blood related to one another.
Racial differences are usually secondary or even tertiary features in the structure of the human body. Some of the racial characteristics, such as skin color, are largely related to the adaptability of the human body to the environment. natural environment. Such features developed during the historical development of mankind, but they have already lost their biological significance to a large extent. In this sense, human races are not at all similar to subspecies groups of animals.

In wild animals, racial differences arise and develop as a result of the adaptation of their body to the natural environment in the process of natural selection, in the struggle between variability and heredity. Subspecies of wild animals as a result of long or rapid biological evolution can and do turn into species. Subspecies features are vital for wild animals and have an adaptive nature.

Breeds of domestic animals are formed under the influence of artificial selection: the most useful or beautiful individuals are taken into the tribe. The breeding of new breeds is carried out on the basis of the teachings of I.V. Michurin, often in a very short time, over just a few generations, especially in combination with proper feeding.
Artificial selection did not play any role in the formation of modern human races, and natural selection had a secondary importance, which it has long lost. It is obvious that the process of origin and development of human races differs sharply from the paths of origin of breeds of domestic animals, not to mention cultivated plants.

The first foundations of a scientific understanding of the origin of human races from a biological point of view were laid by Charles Darwin. He specially studied the human races and established the certainty of their very close similarity to each other in many basic characteristics, as well as their blood, very close relationship. But this, according to Darwin, clearly indicates their origin from one common trunk, and not from different ancestors. All further development of science confirmed his conclusions, which form the basis for monogenism. Thus, the doctrine of the origin of man from different monkeys, i.e. polygenism, turns out to be untenable and, consequently, racism is deprived of one of its main supports (Ya. Ya. Roginsky, M. G. Levin, 1955).

What are the main characteristics of the “homo sapiens” species, which are characteristic of all modern human races without exception? The main, primary features should be recognized as a very large and highly developed brain with a very a large number convolutions and grooves on the surface of its hemispheres and human hand, which, according to Engels, is an organ and a product of labor. The structure of the leg is also characteristic, especially the foot with a longitudinal arch, adapted to support the human body when standing and moving.

Important features of the type of modern man include the following: a spinal column with four curves, of which the lumbar one, which developed in connection with upright walking, is especially characteristic; the skull with its rather smooth outer surface, with a highly developed cerebral and poorly developed facial regions, with high frontal and parietal areas of the cerebral region; highly developed gluteal muscles, as well as the muscles of the thigh and lower leg; poor development of body hair with a complete absence of tufts of tactile hair, or vibrissae, in the eyebrows, mustache and beard.

Possessing the totality of the listed characteristics, all modern human races stand at an equally high level of development of physical organization. Although in different races these basic species characteristics are not developed in exactly the same way - some are stronger, others are weaker, but these differences are very small: all races completely have features like modern humans, and not one of them is Neanderthaloid. Of all the human races, there is not one that is biologically superior to any other race.

Modern human races have equally lost many of the ape-like features that Neanderthals had and have acquired the progressive features of “Homo sapiens.” Therefore, none of the modern human races can be considered more ape-like or more primitive than the others.

Adherents of the false doctrine of superior and inferior races claim that blacks are more like monkeys than Europeans. But from a scientific point of view this is completely false. Blacks have spirally curled hair, thick lips, a straight or convex forehead, no tertiary hair on the body and face, and very long legs relative to the body. And these signs indicate that it is blacks who differ more sharply from chimpanzees. than Europeans. But the latter, in turn, differ more sharply from monkeys with their very light skin color and other features.

Humanity is a mosaic of races and peoples that inhabit our globe. A representative of each race and each people has a number of differences in comparison with representatives of other population systems.

However, all people, despite their racial and ethnic background, are an integral part of a single whole - earthly humanity.

The concept of “race”, division into races

Race is a system of a population of people who have similar biological characteristics that were formed under the influence of the natural conditions of the territory of their origin. Race is the result of the adaptation of the human body to the natural conditions in which it had to live.

The formation of races took place over many millennia. According to anthropologists, at the moment There are three main races on the planet, including more than ten anthropological types.

Representatives of each race are connected by common areas and genes, which provoke the emergence of physiological differences from representatives of other races.

Caucasian race: signs and settlement

The Caucasoid or Eurasian race is the largest race in the world. Characteristic features of the appearance of a person belonging to the Caucasian race are an oval face, straight or wavy soft hair, wide eyes, and average thickness of lips.

The color of eyes, hair and skin varies depending on the region of the population, but always has light shades. Representatives of the Caucasian race evenly populate the entire planet.

The final settlement across the continents occurred after the end of the century of geographical discoveries. Very often, people of the Caucasian race tried to prove their dominant position over representatives of other races.

Negroid race: signs, origin and settlement

The Negroid race is one of the three big races. Characteristic features People belonging to the Negroid race have elongated limbs, dark, melanin-rich skin, a wide flat nose, large eyes, and curly hair.

Modern scientists believe that the first Negroid man arose around the 40th century BC. in the territory of modern Egypt. The main region of settlement of representatives of the Negroid race is South Africa. Over the past centuries, people of the Negroid race have settled significantly in the West Indies, Brazil, France and the United States.

Unfortunately, representatives of the Negroid race have been oppressed by “white” people for many centuries. They faced such anti-democratic phenomena as slavery and discrimination.

Mongoloid race: signs and settlement

The Mongoloid race is one of the largest world races. The characteristic features of this race are: dark skin color, narrow eye shape, short stature, thin lips.

Representatives Mongoloid race They mainly inhabit the territory of Asia, Indonesia, and the islands of Oceania. IN lately The number of people of this race begins to increase in all countries of the world, which is caused by an intensifying wave of migration.

Peoples inhabiting the earth

A people is a certain group of people who have a common number of historical characteristics - culture, language, religion, territory. Traditionally stable common feature a people is its language. However, nowadays there are common cases when various peoples speak the same language.

For example, the Irish and Scots speak English, although they do not apply to the British. Today there are several tens of thousands of peoples in the world, which are systematized into 22 families of peoples. Many peoples that existed before disappeared at this point or were assimilated with other peoples.

There are four human races (some scientists insist on three): Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid and Australoid. How does division occur? Each race has hereditary characteristics unique to it. Such signs include the color of skin, eyes and hair, the shape and size of such parts of the face as eyes, nose, lips. In addition to external obvious distinctive features any race of a person, there are a number of characteristics creative potential, abilities for one or another labor activity and even the structural features of the human brain.

Speaking about the four large groups, one cannot help but say that they are all divided into small subraces, which are formed from various nationalities and nationalities. No one has been arguing about the species unity of man for a long time; the best proof of this same unity is our life, in which representatives of different races get married, and in these races viable children are born.

The origin of races, or rather their formation, begins thirty to forty thousand years ago, when people began to populate new geographical areas. A person adapted to live in certain conditions, and the development of certain racial characteristics depended on this. identified these signs. At the same time, all human races retained common species characteristics that characterize Homo sapiens. Evolutionary development, or rather its level, is the same among representatives of different races. Therefore, all statements about the superiority of any nation over others have no basis. The concepts of “race”, “nation”, “nationality” cannot be mixed and confused, since representatives of different races speaking the same language can live on the territory of one state.

Caucasian race: inhabiting Asia, North Africa. Northern Caucasians are fair-skinned, while southerners are dark-skinned. Narrow face, strongly protruding nose, soft hair.

Mongoloid race: the center and eastern part of Asia, Indonesia and the expanses of Siberia. Dark skin with a yellowish tint, straight, coarse hair, a wide, flat face and a special eye shape.

Negroid race: most of the population of Africa. The skin is dark in color, dark brown eyes, black hair is thick, coarse, curly, large lips, and the nose is wide and flat.

Australoid race. Some scientists distinguish it as a branch of the Negroid race. India, Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania (ancient black population). Strongly developed brow ridges, the pigmentation of which is weakened. Some Australoids from western Australia and southern India are naturally blond in their youth, which is due to the mutation process that once took hold.

The characteristics of each race of man are hereditary. And their development was determined primarily by the need and usefulness of a particular trait for a representative of a certain race. So, the vast one warms cold air faster and easier before it enters the Mongoloid’s lungs. And for a representative of the Negroid race, dark color was very important skin and the presence of thick curly hair, which formed an air layer that reduced the effect of sunlight on the body.

For many years, the white race was considered superior, since it was beneficial for Europeans and Americans conquering the peoples of Asia and Africa. They started wars and seized foreign lands, mercilessly exploited, and sometimes simply destroyed entire nations.

Today in America, for example, they look less and less at racial differences, there is a mixing of races, which sooner or later will certainly lead to the emergence of a hybrid population.



Related articles