Essays on Race

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Races and racial composition of the population

 

What is race

Races are groups of people that have developed historically and are linked by a common origin that is reflected (transmitted) in common hereditary morphological and physiological traits that vary within certain limits.

Because group and individual variability do not coincide, human races are aggregates not of individuals but of populations, that is, territorial communities of people between whom marriages are contracted for many generations much more often than with individuals from other communities.

Human races are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, ie change in space and time, and at the same time have a certain, genetically determined, stability.

In all the main morphological, physiological and psychological characteristics, the similarities between all races are great, and the differences do not apply to the most important biological features of the structure and functioning of the human body. Quite viable and fruitful offspring are born from marriages between members of all races.

Concepts of the existence of higher and lower races and their origin from different species of higher monkeys are devoid of any basis. Data from anthropology, primatology, and paleontology suggest that all human races are descended from one or more related fossil hominid species (primate families).

Unlimited possibilities of mixing (interbreeding) of all races (interracial marriages), biological and socio-cultural value of mixed groups is a convincing proof of the species unity of mankind.

 

Formation of modern races

There are different points of view on this issue. Some anthropologists claim that they originated with the ancient people of Africa, Europe and Asia. Others believe that racial differentiation took place much later, after the appearance of the modern species in the Eastern Mediterranean and neighboring areas of southern Europe, northern and eastern Africa and western Asia.

It is probable that at the end of the Paleolithic people of modern species had two centers of racial formation:

– western – in northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia;

– eastern – in the east and southeast of Asia.

Later, various populations of people settled around the globe, mixed with each other and, adapting to natural and geographical conditions, disintegrated into modern races.

Many racial traits, originally formed by mutations, have acquired adaptive significance and, under the influence of natural selection, have become established and distributed in populations living in different geographical environments.

Characteristic features of Negroes and Australoids developed in South Asia and Africa in hot humid climates with intense sunlight, from the harmful effects of which could protect dark skin color, and possibly curly hair, which formed a kind of protective natural “hat” on his head.

In the tropics, thick lips and wide nostrils were obviously of adaptive value for enhanced evaporation of moisture through the mucous membrane.

 

Racial communities

Among the races of modern humans, which belong to one species of Homo Sapiens, first of all there are large divisions – the dominant races:

– Caucasian (Eurasian);

– Mongoloid (Asian-American);

– Negro-Australoid (equatorial).

 

Many researchers distinguish two independent equatorial races instead of a single equatorial race: the Negroid (African) and the Australoid (Oceanic).

The view of the existence of the four great races is the most reasonable. There are a number of transitional and mixed racial types in the contact zone of large races.

 

Transitional races are those that were formed in those distant times, which are now difficult to determine whether they are the result of mixing several races or retain traits that existed in large racial types before their dismemberment.

Mixed racial types were formed not only in antiquity, but also in the Middle Ages, as well as in modern and modern times in the process of hybridization.

Some researchers consider, for example, the Ethiopian race in East Africa to be transitional, while the typical races of mixed races and mulattoes of America.

Within large races there are smaller racial divisions. In their classification are: trunk, branch, local race, population group.

 

The great races of the world

The largest (in number) race is Caucasian – 46.4% of the world’s population (including transitional and mixed forms). Caucasians have straight or wavy soft hair shades from light to dark, they have light or dark skin, a large variety of iris (from dark to gray and blue), very developed tertiary hair (beard in men), insufficient or medium protrusion of the jaws, narrow nose, thin or medium-thick lips. Among the Caucasians there are branches – southern and northern.

 

The northern branch is characteristic of the countries of Northern Europe; southern – distributed in southern Europe and North America, Asia Minor and North India, it includes the Caucasian population of Latin America. Between the southern and northern branches is a wide band of transitional types, including the population of Central and partly Eastern Europe, Siberia and the Far East of Russia, as well as the Caucasian population of North America and Australia.

The Mongoloid (Asian-American) race, along with transitional and mixed forms, makes up more than 36% of the world’s population. Mongoloids are characterized by: yellow skin, black straight hair, underdeveloped tertiary hair; characteristic dark eyes with epicanthus (fold of the upper eyelid), narrow or medium-wide nose, cheekbones, very protruding.

 

Conclusions

Thus, races are large areal communities of people, distinguished by genetic kinship, which is outwardly manifested in a certain similarity of physical characteristics: skin color and iris, hair shape and color, height and others.

 

The beginning of the formation of races is the end of the Stone Age on the basis of the largest territorial populations. Obviously, there were two main primary centers of racial formation: the western (Euro-African) and the eastern (Asia-Pacific). Negroes and Caucasians were formed in the first center, and Australoids and Mongoloids in the second. Later, mixed racial populations emerged during the development of new lands.

In the population-genetic classification there are 25 local races, which are united in 5 branches, which make up 2 trunks.

 

The eastern American-Asian trunk has Americanoid (American) and Asian races.

The Western Euro-African trunk has Caucasian, Negroid, and Australoid trunks.

Among modern races, Caucasian (Eurasian), which is the largest in number (46.4% of the world’s population, including transitional and mixed forms). Caucasians have southern and northern branches.

The Mongoloid (Asian-American) race, together with the transitional and mixed forms, makes up more than 36% of the world’s population and is divided into two branches: Asian and American.

 

As for the Negro-Australoid (equatorial) race, many researchers distinguish two independent races instead of a single equatorial race: the Negroid (African), which accounts for 16.6% of the world’s population. as well as the Negro population of the United States, Central America, the Antilles, Brazil), and the Australoid (Oceanic) population – 0.3% of the world’s population (represented by Melanesians, Papuans of New Guinea and Aborigines of Australia).