Man represents one species, but why are we all so different? The whole blame is the various subspecies, that is, the race. How many of them exist and what are mixed races of people, let's try to figure it out further.
Race concept
The human race is a group of people who have a number of similar characteristics that are inherited. The concept of race gave an impetus to the movement of racism, which is based on confidence in the genetic difference between the representatives of the races, the mental and physical superiority of some races over others.
Research in the 20th century has shown that it is impossible to genetically differentiate them. Most differences appear externally, and their diversity can be explained by the characteristics of the habitat. For example, white skin promotes better absorption of vitamin D, and it appeared as a result of a lack of daylight.
Recently, scientists have more often supported the opinion that this term is irrelevant. Man is a complex creature, its formation is influenced not only by climatic and geographical factors, which largely determine the concept of race, but also cultural, social and political. The latter contributed to the emergence of mixed and transitional races, further eroding all boundaries.
Big races
Despite the general vagueness of the concept, scientists are still trying to figure out why we are all so different. There are many classification concepts. They all agree that humans are a single biological species of Homo sapiens, which is represented by various subspecies or populations.
Differentiation options range from two separate races to fifteen, not to mention the many subraces. Most often in the scientific literature they talk about the existence of three or four large races, which include small ones. So, according to external signs, the Caucasian type, Mongoloid, Negroid, and Australoid type are distinguished.
Caucasians are divided into northern - with blond hair and skin, gray or blue eyes, and southern - with dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes. The Mongoloid race is characterized by a narrow section of the eyes, prominent cheekbones, stiff straight hair, and vegetation on the body is insignificant.
The Australoid race has long been considered Negroid, but it turned out that they have differences. According to signs, the Vedoid and Melanesian races are much closer to her. Australoids and Negroids have dark skin, a wide nose, and dark eye color. Although some Australoids may have fair skin. They differ from Negroids with a plentiful hairline, as well as less wavy hair.
Small and mixed races
Large races are too general a generalization, for differences between people are more subtle. Therefore, each of them is divided into several anthropological types, or into small races. They emit a huge amount. For example, the Negroid race includes the Negro, Koysai, Ethiopian, and Pygmy types.
The classification of anthropological types is greatly complicated by the relations between representatives of different races. In this regard, the main and mixed races are distinguished. The latter are often called contact. Often, historical and political processes, such as migration, conquest, resettlement, contribute to their appearance.
About 30% of the population is contact type. Their phenotype (external signs) reflects the features of several races simultaneously. These include transitional races, mixed in the distant past and entrenched in the features of individual peoples, for example, the South Indian, South Siberian, and Ural races.
The term “mixed races” more often means populations of people that have arisen as a result of recent (from the 16th century) contacts of large races. These include mestizos, sambo, mulattos.
Mestizo
In anthropology, mestizos are all descendants of marriages of people of different races, regardless of which ones. The process itself is called crossbreeding. History knows many cases when representatives of mixed races were discriminated against, humiliated and even exterminated in the course of Nazi politics in Germany, apartheid in South Africa and other movements.
In many countries, the mestizos are also called the descendants of specific races. In America they are children of Indians and Caucasians, in this sense the term came to us. They are mainly distributed in South and North America.
The number of mestizos in Canada, in the narrow sense of the term, is 500-700 thousand people. Active mixing of blood took place here during the colonization, mainly European men came into contact with Native American women. Separated, the mestizos formed a separate ethnic group that speaks the mythic language (a complex mixture of French and Cree).
Mulattos
Descendants of Negroids and Caucasians are mulattos. Their skin is light black, which conveys the name of the term. The name first appeared around the sixteenth century, coming into Spanish or Portuguese from Arabic. The word muvalladh used to be called pureblood Arabs.
In Africa, mulattoes live mainly in Namibia, South Africa. A fairly large number of them live in the Caribbean and Latin America. In Brazil, they make up almost 40% of the total population, in Cuba - more than half. A significant number live in the Dominican Republic - more than 75% of the population.
Mixed races used to have other names, depending on the generation and proportion of negroid genetic material. If the Caucasian blood was negroid as ¼ (the mulatto in the second generation), then the person was called a quarteron. The 1/8 ratio was called octon, 7/8 - marabou, 3/4 - griff.
Sambo
A genetic mixture of Negroids and Indians is called Sambo. In Spanish, the term sounds like "zambo." Like other mixed races, the term periodically changed its meaning. Previously, the name sambo meant marriages between representatives of the black race and mulattos.
Sambo first appeared in South America. The Indians represented the indigenous population of the mainland, and Negroes were brought in as slaves to work on sugarcane plantations. Slaves were brought from the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 19th. About 3 million people were transported from Africa during this period.