Races are groups of people of different species. Mixed Races

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 of 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 scientists distinguish four large races as part of modern humanity - 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 of people reached the northeastern border of Asia. In those days, there was no Bering Strait yet, so a land “bridge” connected Asia and America. This is how immigrants from Asia came to North America. 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, by which residents differ different regions planets. Some of these signs must be adaptive in nature. Thus, a mop of curly hair among residents of the hot equatorial zone creates an air layer, protects the vessels of the head from overheating, and the dark pigment in the skin adapts to high temperatures. 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 marriage opportunities 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: blond hair, tall height, and the like. 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.

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.

Racial trunks

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 the races begin 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 cross-breeding.

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 throughout to 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 modern people living in different parts of the planet, 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 of the northern regions of the planet, as a result of evolution, acquired predominantly light skin and hair color, which allowed them to receive more sunlight and satisfy 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 to 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.

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 arise as a result of adaptation to different environmental conditions 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 the driving forces of race formation, anthropology comes into close contact with genetics, physiology, zoogeography, climatology, and the general theory of speciation. The study of race in anthropology has implications for many problems. It is important for solving the question of the ancestral home of modern humans, using anthropological material as a historical source, illuminating problems of systematics, mainly small systematic units, understanding the laws of population genetics, and 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 the indigenous population of the Volga-Kama region is divided, 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 of the Khazars is 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

The natural range of pygmies is the western part of 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 the tropical zone of the 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 sunburned faster than a black person. 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 inhabitants of the tropical forests - the pygmies - have lighter skin than their neighbors who are engaged in agriculture and are almost always exposed to 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 temperate and northern latitudes must have white skin that is transparent to sunlight in order to receive as much ultraviolet radiation as possible.

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, apparently, has been preserved from their most distant ancestors; it is well adapted to the harsh conditions of the North and 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; The 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 interspersed 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 them from this glare. And if they are not there, they are paid with eye disease.

An important distinguishing feature of Mongoloids is the 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

So influenced 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 long process, which 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 total number 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 found any fundamental signs that would characterize any races for better or worse.

Brain weight

It has been proven that brain weight varies among different races. But it is different also 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 the weight of the brain does not characterize the mental superiority of the race is also indicated by the figures: the average weight of 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 racial and national characteristics do not exist, they do exist. But they do not determine either mental abilities or 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 only 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.

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 searched for many decades for the remains of the most ancient human cultures in America, 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 pioneers in this case? Apparently, for this accident to manifest itself, there were few of them. They gave rise to everything Indian tribes with the endless variety of their languages, customs, 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 of South America there were also no people with the second blood group, as among the first settlers of North America there were no people 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...

The population of our planet is so diverse that one can only be surprised. What kind of nationalities and nationalities can you meet! Everyone has their own faith, customs, traditions, and orders. Its own beautiful and extraordinary culture. However, all these differences are formed only by people themselves in the process of social historical development. What lies behind the differences that appear externally? After all, we are all very different:

• dark-skinned;
• yellow-skinned;
• white;
• With different colors eye;
• different heights and so on.

Obviously, the reasons are purely biological, independent of people themselves and formed over thousands of years of evolution. This is how modern human races were formed, which explain the visual diversity of human morphology theoretically. Let's take a closer look at what this term is, what its essence and meaning are.

The concept of "race of people"

What is race? This is not a nation, not a people, not a culture. These concepts should not be confused. After all, representatives of different nationalities and cultures can freely belong to the same race. Therefore, the definition can be given as given by the science of biology.

Human races are a set of external morphological characteristics, that is, those that are the phenotype of a representative. They were formed under the influence of external conditions, the influence of a complex of biotic and abiotic factors, and were fixed in the genotype during evolutionary processes. Thus, the characteristics that underlie the division of people into races include:

• height;
• skin and eye color;
• hair structure and shape;
• hair growth of the skin;
• structural features of the face and its parts.

All those signs of Homo sapiens as a biological species that lead to the formation of a person’s external appearance, but do not in any way affect his personal, spiritual and social qualities and manifestations, as well as the level of self-development and self-education.

People of different races have completely identical biological springboards for the development of certain abilities. Their general karyotype is the same:

• women - 46 chromosomes, that is, 23 XX pairs;
• men - 46 chromosomes, 22 pairs XX, 23 pairs - XY.

This means that all representatives of Homo sapiens are one and the same, among them there are no more or less developed, superior to others, or higher. From a scientific point of view, everyone is equal.

The species of human races, formed over approximately 80 thousand years, have adaptive significance. It has been proven that each of them was formed with the aim of providing a person with the opportunity for a normal existence in a given habitat and facilitating adaptation to climatic, relief and other conditions. There is a classification showing which races of Homo sapiens existed before, and which ones exist today.

Classification of races

She's not alone. The thing is that until the 20th century it was customary to distinguish 4 races of people. These were the following varieties:

• Caucasian;
• Australoid;
• Negroid;
• Mongoloid.

For each, detailed characteristic features were described by which any individual could be identified human species. However, later a classification became widespread that included only 3 human races. This became possible due to the unification of the Australoid and Negroid groups into one.

That's why modern views human races are as follows.

1. Large: Caucasoid (European), Mongoloid (Asian-American), Equatorial (Australian-Negroid).
2. Small: many different branches that formed from one of the large races.

Each of them is characterized by its own characteristics, signs, external manifestations in the appearance of people. All of them are considered by specialist anthropologists, and the science itself, which studies this question- this is biology. Human races have interested people since ancient times. After all, completely contrasting external features often became the cause of racial strife and conflict.

Genetic research recent years allow us to speak again about the division of the equatorial group into two. Let's consider all 4 races of people who stood out earlier and became relevant again recently. Let us note the signs and features.

Australoid race

Typical representatives of this group include the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, Melanesia, Southeast Asia, and India. The name of this race is also Australo-Veddoid or Australo-Melanesian. All synonyms make it clear which small races are included in this group. They are as follows:

• Australoids;
• Veddoids;
• Melanesians.

In general, the characteristics of each group presented do not vary too much among themselves. There are several main features that characterize all small races of people of the Australoid group.

1. Dolichocephaly is an elongated shape of the skull in relation to the proportions of the rest of the body.
2. Deep-set eyes, wide slits. The color of the iris is predominantly dark, sometimes almost black.
3. The nose is wide, with a pronounced flat bridge.
4. The hair on the body is very well developed.
5. The hair on the head is dark in color (sometimes among Australians there are natural blondes, which was the result of a natural genetic mutation of the species that once took hold). Their structure is rigid, they can be curly or slightly curly.
6. People are of average height, often above average.
7. The physique is thin and elongated.

Within the Australoid group, people of different races differ from each other, sometimes quite strongly. Thus, a native of Australia may be tall, blond, of a dense build, with straight hair and light brown eyes. At the same time, a native of Melanesia will be a thin, short, dark-skinned representative with curly black hair and almost black eyes.

Therefore, the general characteristics described above for the entire race are only an averaged version of their combined analysis. Naturally, crossbreeding also occurs - the mixing of different groups as a result of natural crossing of species. That is why it is sometimes very difficult to identify a specific representative and attribute him to one or another small or large race.

Negroid race

The people who make up this group are the settlers of the following areas:

• Eastern, Central and Southern Africa;
• part of Brazil;
• some peoples of the USA;
• representatives of the West Indies.

In general, such races of people as Australoids and Negroids used to be united in the equatorial group. However, research in the 21st century has proven the inconsistency of this order. After all, the differences in the manifested characteristics between the designated races are too great. And some similar features are explained very simply. After all, the habitats of these individuals are very similar in terms of living conditions, therefore the adaptations in appearance are also similar.

So, the following signs are characteristic of representatives of the Negroid race.

1. Very dark, sometimes bluish-black, skin color, as it is especially rich in melanin content.
2. Wide eye shape. They are large, dark brown, almost black.
3. The hair is dark, curly, and coarse.
4. Height varies, often low.
5. The limbs are very long, especially the arms.
6. The nose is wide and flat, the lips are very thick and fleshy.
7. The jaw lacks a chin protrusion and protrudes forward.
8. The ears are large.
9. Facial hair is poorly developed, and there is no beard or mustache.

Negroids are easy to distinguish from others by their external appearance. Below are the different races of people. The photo reflects how clearly Negroids differ from Europeans and Mongoloids.

Mongoloid race

Representatives of this group are characterized by special features that allow them to adapt to rather difficult external conditions: desert sands and winds, blinding snow drifts, etc.

Mongoloids are the indigenous people of Asia and much of America. Their characteristic signs are as follows.

1. Narrow or oblique eye shape.
2. The presence of an epicanthus - a specialized skin fold aimed at covering internal corner eyes.
3. The color of the iris is from light to dark brown.
4. distinguished by brachycephaly (short head).
5. The superciliary ridges are thickened and strongly protruding.
6. Sharp, high cheekbones are well defined.
7. Facial hair is poorly developed.
8. The hair on the head is coarse, dark in color, and has a straight structure.
9. The nose is not wide, the bridge is located low.
10. Lips of different thicknesses, often narrow.
11. Skin color varies among different representatives from yellow to dark, and there are also light-skinned people.

It should be noted that another characteristic feature is short stature, both in men and women. It is the Mongoloid group that predominates in numbers when comparing the main races of people. They populated almost all climatographic zones of the Earth. Close to them in terms of quantitative characteristics are Caucasians, whom we will consider below.

Caucasian

First of all, let’s designate the predominant habitats of people from this group. This:

• Europe.
• North Africa.
• Western Asia.

Thus, the representatives unite two main parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Since living conditions were also very different, the general characteristics are again an average option after analyzing all the indicators. Thus, the following appearance features can be distinguished.

1. Mesocephaly - medium-headedness in the structure of the skull.
2. Horizontal eye shape, lack of pronounced brow ridges.
3. A protruding narrow nose.
4. Lips of varying thickness, usually medium in size.
5. Soft curly or straight hair. There are blondes, brunettes, and brown-haired people.
6. Eye color ranges from light blue to brown.
7. Skin color also varies from pale, white to dark.
8. The hairline is very well developed, especially on the chest and face of men.
9. The jaws are orthognathic, that is, slightly pushed forward.

In general, a European is easy to distinguish from others. Appearance allows you to do this almost without error, even without using additional genetic data.

If you look at all the races of people, the photos of whose representatives are located below, the difference becomes obvious. However, sometimes the characteristics are mixed so deeply that identifying an individual becomes almost impossible. He is able to relate to two races at once. This is further aggravated by intraspecific mutation, which leads to the appearance of new characteristics.

For example, albinos Negroids are a special case of the appearance of blondes in the Negroid race. A genetic mutation that disrupts the integrity of racial characteristics in a given group.

Origin of the races of man

Where did such a variety of signs of people’s appearance come from? There are two main hypotheses that explain the origin of human races. This:

• monocentrism;
• polycentrism.

However, none of them has yet become an officially accepted theory. According to the monocentric point of view, initially, about 80 thousand years ago, all people lived in the same territory, and therefore their appearance was approximately the same. However, over time, growing numbers led to a wider spread of people. As a result, some groups found themselves in difficult climatographic conditions.

This led to the development and consolidation at the genetic level of some morphological adaptations that help in survival. For example, dark skin and curly hair provide thermoregulation and a cooling effect for the head and body in Negroids. And the narrow shape of the eyes protects them from sand and dust, as well as from being blinded by white snow among Mongoloids. The developed hair of Europeans is a unique way of thermal insulation in harsh winter conditions.

Another hypothesis is called polycentrism. She says that different types of human races descended from several ancestral groups that were unequally distributed around the globe. That is, there were initially several foci from which the development and consolidation of racial characteristics began. Again influenced by climatographic conditions.

That is, the process of evolution proceeded linearly, simultaneously affecting aspects of life on different continents. This is how the formation took place modern types people from several phylogenetic lineages. However, it is not possible to say for sure about the validity of this or that hypothesis, since there is no evidence of a biological and genetic nature, or at the molecular level.

Modern classification

The races of people, according to current scientists, have the following classification. There are two trunks, and each of them has three large races and many small ones. It looks something like this.

1. Western trunk. Includes three races:

• Caucasians;
• capoids;
• Negroids.

The main groups of Caucasians: Nordic, Alpine, Dinaric, Mediterranean, Falian, East Baltic and others.

Small races of capoids: Bushmen and Khoisan. They inhabit South Africa. In terms of the fold above the eyelid, they are similar to the Mongoloids, but in other characteristics they differ sharply from them. The skin is not elastic, which is why all representatives are characterized by the appearance of early wrinkles.

Groups of Negroids: pygmies, nilots, blacks. They're all settlers different parts Africa, therefore their appearance is similar. Very dark eyes, same skin and hair. Thick lips and lack of chin protuberance.

2. Eastern trunk. Includes the following large races:

• Australoids;
• Americanoids;
• Mongoloids.

Mongoloids are divided into two groups - northern and southern. These are the indigenous inhabitants of the Gobi Desert, which left its mark on the appearance of these people.

Americanoids are the population of North and South America. They are very tall and often have an epicanthus, especially in children. However, the eyes are not as narrow as those of the Mongoloids. They combine the characteristics of several races.

Australoids consist of several groups:

• Melanesians;
• Veddoids;
• Ainians;
• Polynesians;
• Australians.

Their characteristic features were discussed above.

Minor races

This concept is a rather highly specialized term that allows you to identify any person to any race. After all, each large one is divided into many small ones, and they are compiled on the basis of not only small external distinctive features, but also include data from genetic studies, clinical tests, and facts of molecular biology.

Therefore, small races are what allows a more accurate reflection of the position of each specific individual in the system organic world, and specifically, within the species Homo sapiens sapiens. What specific groups exist was discussed above.

Racism

As we have found out, there are different races of people. Their signs can be very polar. This is what gave rise to the theory of racism. It says that one race is superior to another, since it consists of more highly organized and perfect beings. At one time, this led to the emergence of slaves and their white masters.

However, from a scientific point of view, this theory is completely absurd and untenable. The genetic predisposition to the development of certain skills and abilities is the same among all peoples. Proof that all races are biologically equal is the possibility of free interbreeding between them while maintaining the health and vitality of the offspring.