The problem of the origin of human races, their history has long been of interest to people. Ordinary people were curious how to explain such a difference in the appearance of individuals living in different parts of the world. Scientists, of course, tried to find a scientific explanation for this fact. The most popular hypotheses of the origin of human races will be discussed in this article.
What are races
First, let us define these units. By races of the species Homo sapiens, it is customary to mean relatively isolated groups - its systematic divisions. Their representatives are distinguished by a certain set of external characteristics, as well as their habitat. Races are relatively stable over time, although in the context of globalization and the accompanying population migration, their characteristics can undergo certain changes. The origin and biology of human races are such that, genetically, each of them has certain autosomal components. This is confirmed by scientific research.
Human races: their kinship and origin. Main races
They are well known to everyone: they are Caucasoid, Negroid (Negro-Australoid, Equatorial) and Mongoloid. These are the so-called large, or main races. However, the list is not limited to them. In addition to them, there are so-called mixed races, in which there are signs of several basic ones. Autosomal components characteristic of the main races, they usually have several.
The Caucasian race is characterized by relatively fair skin compared to the other two. However, for people living in the Middle East and Southern Europe, it is quite dark. Her representatives have straight or wavy hair, light or dark eyes. The section of the eyes is horizontal, the hairline is more often moderate. The nose is prominent, the forehead is straight or slightly sloping.
The Mongoloids have an oblique section of the eyes, the upper eyelid is noticeably developed. The inner corner of the eyes is covered with a characteristic fold - an epicanthus. Presumably, she helped protect the eyes of the steppe from dust. Skin color - from dark to light. Hair is black, stiff, straight. The nose protrudes slightly and the face looks flatter than that of Caucasians. The hairline of the Mongoloids is poorly developed.
Representatives of the Negroid race have fluffy curly hair, the darkest skin color among all the main races containing a large amount of eumelanin pigment. It is assumed that these signs were formed to protect the equatorial region from the scorching sun. Negroid noses are often wide and slightly flattened. The lower part of the face is protruding.
All races, like all mankind, come from studies, from the first man - great-Adam, who lived on the territory of the African continent 180-200 thousand years ago. The kinship and unity of the origin of the human races is thus obvious to scientists.
Intermediate races
Within the framework of the main distinguish the so-called small races. They are presented in the diagram below. Small races (they are also intermediate), or, as they are also called, anthropological types, have a number of similar features. You can also see intermediate races on the diagram, combining the features of several main races: the Ural, South Siberian, Ethiopian, South Indian, Polynesian and Ainu.
Race time
Scientists believe that races arose relatively recently. According to one theory, at first, about 80 thousand years ago, the negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid branches were divided. Later, after about 40 thousand years, the latter broke up into Caucasoid and Mongoloid. Their final differentiation into anthropological types (minor races) and the distribution of the latter occurred later, already in the Neolithic era. Scientists who at different times investigated the origin of man and the human races believe that their formation continued after resettlement. Thus, the characteristic features of the inhabitants of the Australian mainland, belonging to the large equatorial race, formed much later. Researchers believe that at the time of settlement they had racially neutral characteristics.
There is no consensus on what the origin of man and the human races is, how their resettlement took place. Therefore, below we consider two theories regarding this problem: monocentric and polycentric.
Monocentric Theory
According to her, races appeared in the process of resettlement of people from the area of their origin. At the same time, neoanthropes crossed with paleanthropes (Neanderthals) in the process of crowding out the latter. This process is rather late, it happened about 35-30 thousand years ago.
Polycentric theory
According to this theory of the origin of human races, human evolution occurred in parallel, in several so-called phyletic lines. They, by definition, are a continuous series of successive populations (species), each of which is a descendant of the previous and at the same time ancestor of the next unit. The polycentric theory says that the intermediate races had distinctive features already in antiquity. These groups formed at the border of the main settlements and continued to exist parallel to them.
Intermediate Theories
They allow the difference between phyletic groups at different stages of the evolution of mankind - paleoanthropes, neoanthropes. One of these theories, according to which the equatorial and Mongoloid-Caucasoid branches first formed, was briefly described above.
Modern resettlement
As for the resettlement of representatives of large and small races, it varies significantly over time. So, the Indians - representatives of the American branch of the Mongoloid race, which some scientists even singled out as a separate, fourth ("red"), are now in the minority in their ancestral territories. The same can be said of the small Australian race. Its representatives in Australia are significantly inferior in numbers not only to the Caucasians, but also to the numerous migrants and their descendants belonging to the Mongoloid races (mainly the Far East).
The Caucasians, with the beginning of the Age of Great Discoveries (mid-15th century), began to actively explore and populate new territories, and are now found in all parts of the globe, on all continents. Representatives of all anthropological groups of the Caucasian race are found on the territory of modern Europe, but the Central European type is still the leader. In general, the racial composition of modern Europe due to migrations and interracial marriages, as well as in the USA, is extremely variegated and diverse.
The Mongoloids still lead in Asian countries, the equatorial race in Africa, New Guinea, and Melanesia.
Race changes over time
Naturally, small races could undergo certain changes over time. At the same time, the question of how much isolation influenced their stability remains open. So, for example, the appearance of the Aussies living apart was practically unchanged over several tens of millennia.
At the same time, the absence of significant changes is also characteristic of the Ethiopian and Far Eastern races. For at least five thousand years the appearance of the inhabitants of Egypt has remained constant. Discussions about the racial origin of its inhabitants have been going on for many years. Supporters of the "black theory" are based on a study of Egyptian mummies, as well as preserved works of art, which showed that the inhabitants of ancient Egypt had pronounced external signs of the equatorial race.
Supporters of the “white theory” are based on the appearance of modern Egyptians and believe that representatives of the nation are descendants of the ancient Semitic peoples who lived on this territory before the spread of the equatorial race.
However, some mixed races formed much later. So, for example, the final formation of the South Siberian race took place in the XIV-XVI centuries, despite the Tatar-Mongol invasion and archaeologically confirmed penetration of the Mongoloids in the areas inhabited by Caucasians, back in the VII-VI centuries. BC.
In our time, thanks to globalization and intensive migration, there is an active crossbreeding, mixing both within the main races and between them. So, for example, in Singapore the number of such marriages today is more than 20%. As a result of mixing, people appear who have various combinations of signs, including those that were previously extremely rare. For example, a combination of light eye color and dark skin is no longer a rarity on the Cape Verde Islands.
In general, this process is positive, since thanks to it, various racial groups acquire useful dominant features that were previously not characteristic of them and avoid the accumulation of recessive ones, which entail various genetic disorders and diseases.
Instead of a conclusion
The article briefly talked about the human races, their origin. The unity and community of all representatives of Homo Sapiens is confirmed by many years of research.
Obviously, differences in the level of development of certain groups of people are caused primarily by the peculiarities of the conditions of their existence. Therefore, racial theory so popular in the past in Western countries is morally obsolete. The intellectual and other abilities of representatives of different races are not affected by their origin, appearance and skin color. And thanks to globalization, when people of different races were put on an equal footing due to relocation, this point of view was confirmed.