human races. Human evolution at the present stage

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 races of the first and second grade, (more:)? What unites people into a single humanity? What traits separate people by nationality?

Skin color in humans

Humanity as a biological species stood out a long time ago. Color of the skin the former of people it was unlikely to be very dark or very white, most likely some skin turned out to be somewhat whiter, others darker. The formation of races on Earth by skin color was influenced by the natural conditions in which certain groups found themselves.

Formation of races on earth

White and black people

For example, some people found themselves in the conditions of the tropical zone of the Earth. Here, the merciless rays of the sun can easily burn the bare skin of a person. We know from physics that black absorbs the rays of the sun more completely. And so black skin seems to be harmful.

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

Everyone knows that white man gets sunburn faster than a black man. In the equatorial steppes of Africa, people with dark skin color turned out to be more adapted to life, and Negroid tribes originated from them.

This is evidenced by the fact that not only in Africa, but also in all tropical regions of the planet, live black people. The original inhabitants of India are very dark-skinned people. In the tropical steppe regions of America, the people living here turned out to have 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 rainforests - the pygmies - have lighter skin than their neighbors, who are engaged in agriculture and are almost always under the sun.

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

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

But why did the skin of the white race turn out to be whiter than that of 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 should have white, transparent skin for the sun's rays in order to get as much ultraviolet light as possible.

Inhabitants of northern latitudes

Dark-skinned people constantly experienced vitamin starvation and turned out to be less hardy than white-skinned people.

Mongoloids

Third race - Mongoloids. Under the influence of what conditions its distinctive features were formed? 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. Special mention must be made of 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 temperature difference between winter and summer, day and night, and the steppes in these parts are covered with deserts.

Strong winds blow almost continuously and carry a huge amount of dust. In winter, there are sparkling tablecloths of endless snow. And today, travelers in the northern regions of our country put on glasses that protect against this brilliance. And if they are not found, they are paid with an eye disease.

An important distinguishing feature of the Mongoloids is the narrow slits of the eyes. And the second is a small skin fold that covers the inner corner of the eye. It also keeps dust out of the eyes.

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

But 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 in place. At one time, they even thought that Mongoloids who migrated here from Asia live in these parts of Africa. It was only later that this mistake was sorted out.

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 it happen? It is not easy to answer such a question. Anthropologists believe that division into large human races occurred not earlier than 200 thousand years ago and not later than 20 thousand.

And probably it was 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 then divided into white and yellow, and the equatorial, Negroid.

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

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

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

Criteria for division into races

But for what criteria compare race? Head shape, brain size, blood type? Scientists have not found any fundamental signs that would characterize any race for better or worse.

brain weight

Proved that brain weight different races are different. But it is also 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 no less brilliant Ivan Turgenev reached a huge weight - 2012 grams. It can be confidently said: between these two extremes are placed all the races of the Earth.

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 that of the Indians - 1514, the Bantu Negroes - 1422 grams, the French - 1473 grams. It is known that Neanderthals had a larger brain than modern humans.

It is unlikely that they, however, were smarter than you and me. And yet racists have remained on the globe. They are in the US and South Africa. True, they have no scientific data to confirm their theories.

Anthropologists - scientists who study humanity precisely from the standpoint of the characteristics of individuals and their groups - unanimously assert:

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 do not determine either mental abilities or any other qualities that could be considered decisive for the division of mankind 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 it would not make sense to develop it further. And anthropology is evolving. With its help, it was possible to look into the remotest past of mankind, to understand many previously mysterious moments.

It is anthropological research that allows one to penetrate into the depths of millennia, to the very first days of the appearance of man. Yes, and that long period of history, when people did not yet have writing at their disposal, is becoming 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, the traveler limited himself to describing them, then at present this is far from enough.

The anthropologist must now make numerous measurements, leaving nothing unattended - neither the palms of the hands, nor the soles of the feet, nor, of course, the shape of the skull. He takes blood and saliva, prints of feet and hands for analysis, and takes x-rays.

Blood type

All the data obtained are summed up, and special indices are derived from them that characterize a particular group of people. It turns out, and blood types- exactly those blood groups that are used in transfusions - can also characterize the race of people.

Blood type determines race

It has been established that people with the second blood group are the most in Europe and not at all in South Africa, China and Japan, there are almost no third group in America and Australia, 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 looking for the remains of ancient human cultures in America for many decades, 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 the analysis of 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 natives - the Indians.

And this happened in the area of ​​the Bering Strait, from where they moved relatively slowly south 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 accidentally did not have people with these groups.

The question arises: were there many of these discoverers in this case? Apparently, in order for this randomness to manifest itself, there were few of them. It was they who gave rise to all Indian tribes with an endless variety of their languages, customs, and beliefs.

And further. After this group set foot on the soil of Alaska, no one could follow them there. Otherwise, new groups of people would bring 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 Columbus 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 the second blood type among native South Americans. So, 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 - with the third and fourth groups ...

Probably everyone has read the famous book by Thor Heyerdahl "Journey to Kon-Tiki". This trip was conceived to prove that the ancestors of the inhabitants of Polynesia could come here not from Asia, but from South America.

This hypothesis was prompted by a certain commonality of cultures between Polynesians and South Americans. Heyerdahl understood that even with his magnificent journey he did not provide decisive evidence, but most of the readers of the book, intoxicated by the greatness of the scientific feat and the literary talent of the author, steadily believe in the rightness of the brave Norwegian.

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

Lesson Plan

1. What human races do you know?
2. What factors cause the evolutionary process?
3. What influences the formation of the gene pool of a population?

What are human races?

Human predecessors are Australopithecus;
- the most ancient people - progressive australopithecines, archanthropes (pithecanthropes, synanthropes, Heidelberg man, etc.);
- ancient people - paleoanthropes (Neanderthals);
- fossil people of the modern anatomical type - neoanthropes (Cro-Magnons).

The historical development of man was carried out under the influence of the same factors of biological evolution as the formation of other types of living organisms. However, a person is characterized by such a unique phenomenon for wildlife as an increasing influence on anthropogenesis of social factors (labor activity, social lifestyle, speech and thinking).

For a modern person, social and labor relations have become leading and determining.

As a result of social development Homo sapiens has acquired unconditional advantages among all living beings. But this does not mean that the emergence of the social sphere canceled the action of biological factors. The social sphere only changed their manifestation. Homo sapiens as a species is an integral part of the biosphere and a product of its evolution.

These are historically formed groupings (groups of populations) of people, characterized by the similarity of morphological and physiological features. Racial differences are the result of people's adaptation to certain conditions of existence, as well as the historical and socio-economic development of human society.

There are three large races: Caucasoid (Eurasian), Mongoloid (Asian-American) and Australo-Negroid (Equatorial).

Chapter 8

Fundamentals of ecology

After reading this chapter, you will learn:

What does ecology study and why does every person need to know its basics;
- what is the significance of environmental factors: abiatic, biotic and anthropogenic;
- what role do the environmental conditions and internal properties of the population group play in the processes of change in its size over time;
- about different types of interactions of organisms;
- about the features of competitive relations and factors that determine the outcome of competition;
- on the composition and basic properties of the ecosystem;
- about energy flows and the circulation of substances that ensure the functioning of systems, and about the role in these processes

Even in the middle of the XX century. the word ecology was known only to specialists, but now it has become very popular; most often it is used, speaking about the unfavorable state of the nature around us.

Sometimes this term is used in combination with words such as society, family, culture, health. Is ecology really such a vast science that it can cover most of the problems facing humanity?

Kamensky A. A., Kriksunov E. V., Pasechnik V. V. Biology Grade 10
Submitted by readers from the website

For about one million years from the beginning of the Quaternary period, during its glacial and interglacial epochs up to the post-glacial, modern era, ancient mankind settled more and more widely in the ecumene. The development of groups of mankind often took place in certain regions of the Earth, where the conditions of isolation and the characteristics of the natural environment were of great importance. The earliest humans evolved into Neanderthals, and Neanderthals evolved into Cro-Magnons.

Race - biological divisions of modern humanity (Homo sapiens), differing in common hereditary morphological features, associated with the unity of origin and a certain area of ​​\u200b\u200bdwelling.

One of the first creators of racial classification was a French scientist Francois Bernier, published in 1684 a work in which he used the term "race". Anthropologists distinguish four large races of the first order and a number of intermediate ones, numerically small, but also independent. In addition, in each race of the first order, the main divisions are distinguished -

Negroid race: Negroes, Negrillies, Bushmen and Hottentots.

Characteristic features of the Negroid:

Curly hair (black);

Dark brown leather;

Brown eyes;

Moderately protruding cheekbones;

Strongly protruding jaws;

Thick lips;

Wide nose.

Mixed and transitional forms between the Negroid and Caucasoid large races: the Ethiopian race, the transitional groups of the Western Courts, the mulattos, the "colored" African groups.

Caucasoid race: northern, transitional forms, southern.

Characteristic features of the Caucasian:

Wavy or straight soft hair of different shades;

Light or dark skin;

Brown, light gray and blue eyes;

Weakly protruding cheekbones and jaws;

Narrow nose with high bridge;

Thin or medium lips. Mixed forms between Caucasoid

the great race and the American branch of the Mongoloid great race: the American mestizos.

Mixed forms between the Caucasoid great race and the Asian branch of the Mongoloid great race: Central Asian groups, South Siberian race, Laponoids and Suburalian Fig. 3.2. Caucasoid type, mixed groups of Siberia.

small races, or races of the second order, possessing (with some variations) the main features of their large race.

The signs on the basis of which races of different orders are distinguished are diverse. The most obvious are the degree of development of the tertiary hairline (the primary hairline already exists on the body of the embryo in the uterine state, the secondary - hair on the head, eyebrows - is present in the newborn; tertiary - associated with puberty), as well as a beard and mustache, hair shape and eye (Fig. 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4).

A well-known role in racial diagnosis is played by pigmentation, that is, the color of the skin, hair and growth. However, according to the degree of pigment-;

Mongoloid race: American races, Asian branch of the Mongoloid races, continental Mongoloids, Arctic race (Eskimos and Paleo-Asians), Pacific (East Asian) races.

Characteristic features of the Mongoloid:

Straight, coarse and dark hair;

Weak development of tertiary hairline;

Yellowish skin tone;

Brown eyes;

Flattened face with prominent cheekbones;

Narrow nose, often with a low bridge of nose;

The presence of epicanthus (a fold at the inner corner of the eye).

Transitional groups between the Asiatic branch of the Mongoloid big race and the Australoid big race: South Asian race (Southern Mongoloids), Japanese, East Indonesian Fig. 3.3. Mongoloid group

Australoid race: Veddoids, Australians, Ainu, Papuans and Melanesians, Negritos. Characteristic features of the Australoid:

Dark coloration of the skin;

Brown eyes;

Wide nose;

Thick lips;

Wavy hair;

Strongly developed tertiary hairline.

Other racial types (mixed): Malagasy, Polynesian, Micronesian, Hawaiian.

There are significant differences in each race. For example, rather light-pigmented groups of the Negroid African population and very dark Caucasians, residents of southern Europe. Therefore, the division of mankind into whites, yellows and blacks, accepted in the literature, does not correspond to the actual data. The peculiarity of growth (short stature) is typical only for a few pygmy peoples of Asia and Africa. Among the more specific features used in racial diagnostics, blood types, some genetic features, papillary patterns on the fingers, the shape of the teeth, etc. can be named.

Racial signs were not only continuously fixed, but also leveled. Being increasingly different from one another due to differences in the geographical environment with which they were associated, and under the influence of labor, the development of culture and other special conditions, the races at the same time acquired more and more similarity with each other in the general features of modern man. At the same time, as a result of a qualitatively special path of development, the human races began to differ more and more sharply from the subspecies of wild animals.

The time of the formation of racial types is usually attributed to the era of the emergence of a modern human species, a neoanthrope, during which the biological stage of anthropogenesis was basically completed, which was expressed in the cessation of the overall action of natural selection. The social development of human societies began.

The formation of the main races, according to scientists, took place 40-16 thousand years before the present. However, the processes of racial genesis continued later, but not so much under the influence of natural selection, but under the influence of other factors;

The study of the bone remains of Neanderthals and fossils of modern humans in the Old World has led some scientists to believe that about 100 thousand years ago, two large racial groups emerged in the bowels of ancient mankind (Ya. Ya. Roginsky, 1941, 1956). Sometimes they talk about the formation of two circles of race formation: large and small (Fig. 3.5).

In a large circle of race formation, the first initial branch of the human trunk was formed - the southwestern one. It was divided into two large racial groups: Euro-Asian, or Caucasian, and equatorial, or Negroid-Australoid. Appearing 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, more than a million years ago man began to populate Southern Europe and Southwest Asia, the natural conditions of which differed significantly from the natural conditions of Africa. The appearance of man coincides with the beginning of the glaciation era, when mighty glaciers 2-3 km thick descended from the mountains to the plains and covered vast spaces, binding a huge mass of moisture. The ocean level dropped, the water surface was reduced, evaporation decreased. The climate everywhere became drier and colder. During the glaciation, ancient people left such harsh regions and migrated to places with a favorable climate. This contributed to their mixing (after all, before the beginning of the last glaciation, there were no characteristic racial differences yet).

The most significant difference between the two races in the process of their development in a large circle of racial formation was the color of the skin, as well as a number of other features.

In people negroid race: dark eye color, the predominance of dark skin pigmentation (with the exception of the Hottentots); dark coarse curly or wavy hair; poor development of the tertiary hairline, wide nose in the wings, thick lips, alveolar prognathism is common (strong protrusion of the front of the skull). Dark skin protects their body from harmful ultraviolet rays, curly hair creates an air gap that protects the head from overheating.

In people caucasian race: skin color varies from white to light brown, and eyes - from blue to black; hair is soft, straight or wavy; medium and strong development of tertiary hairline; significant profiling (protrusion) of the facial skeleton; narrow, strongly protruding nose; lips thin or medium. Northern Caucasians are characterized by light pigmentation of the skin and hair (blonds); among them there are albinos, almost devoid of pigmentation. Blue eyes predominate. Southern Caucasians are heavily pigmented, brunettes. Some groups of southern Caucasoids have a particularly sharp profiling of the face and a strong development of the hairline (assiroids). The eyes are usually dark. Large groups of Caucasians have intermediate pigmentation (brown, dark blond).

Natural selection determined the survival of narrow-faced (the minimum surface of the body surface unprotected by clothing), long-nosed (warming up the inhaled cold air), thin-lipped (preservation of internal heat), with a lush beard and mustache (they protect the face from the cold, according to polar explorers, better than a fur mask). A long winter weakened the body, especially for children, threatening rickets. The best cure for it is ultraviolet rays. Their excess causes a burn, Dark skin serves as protection against them. Light skin transmits ultraviolet rays, at a moderate dose they penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin, producing vitamin D, which is so necessary for the body - a panacea for rickets. Light hair on the head also does not retain ultraviolet rays, passing them to the skin. During the polar night, the northern lights, which emit the blue part of the spectrum, serve as an additional source of light. The dark iris of the eye absorbs this part of the spectrum, while the blue iris transmits it. Thus, in the Far North, a fair-haired, fair-skinned, blue-eyed race should have formed, which it is legitimate to call Nordic. To a greater or lesser extent, the features of this rice have been preserved by the peoples of Northern Europe.

Currently, the skin color is darker in the Negroid-Australoid! noah, races and those Caucasian races that were formed in the hotter southern countries. On the contrary, the territorial-northern Caucasoid racial groups gradually brightened. It is believed that at first there was a lightening of the skin, s @ 1, finally, of the hair.

In a small circle of formation in the North-East; Asia, to north and east of the Himalayan mountains formed mongolian race, which gave rise to several anthropological types. People of the Mongoloid race are characterized by yellowish; skin color, dark straight thicker hair, weak development of tertiary hairline, flattened facial skeleton with a protruding zygomatic part, alveolar prognathism, a peculiar structure of the eye, in which the lacrimal tubercle is covered by a fold (epicanthus), and other signs, in particular, the so-called spatulate incisors.

The features of this race were formed in the conditions of open steppe expanses, strong dust and snow storms. During the period) of the formation of the Mongoloids and their advancement across Eurasia 20-15 thousand years ago, the area of ​​​​glaciers increased, the level of the oceans dropped by 150 meters, the climate became even drier and colder. In a wide strip from the East European to the Great Chinese Plain, the rate of loess accumulation increased tenfold. The loess is a product of weathering, and its increase testifies to the raging loess storms. Natural selection led to the extinction of part of the population. - Those who had a narrow slit of the eyes survived, the epicanthus - a fold of the eyelid that protected the lacrimal tubercle of the eye from dust, a snub nose, straight coarse hair, a sparse beard and mustache that did not clog with dust. Skin with a yellowish tinge marked people against the background of yellow loess soils. Thus, populations with Mongoloid features were formed. Archaeological finds indicate that during the peak of glaciation, hunter settlements were located in groups among uninhabited spaces.

In the east of Eurasia, the Mongoloids through Beringia - the landmass that connected Siberia with North America - penetrated into Alaska, free from glaciers. Further, the path to the south is blocked by the giant Canadian ice sheet. At the beginning of the peak of glaciation, when the level of the World Ocean was dropping very quickly, a land corridor formed along the western edge of the shield, along which hunters penetrated the Great Plains of North America. The way to the south was blocked by the deserts of Mexico, and the natural conditions on the Great Plains turned out to be very favorable. Although there were loess storms here, which caused the extinction of mammoths, countless herds of bison and deer served as an excellent object of hunting. The Great Plains are literally littered with stone spearheads. The similarity of natural conditions on the Great Plains and in Central Asia led to the appearance of a number of similar features among the Indians: skin with a yellowish tint, coarse straight hair, and the absence of a beard and mustache. Less ferocious loess storms made it possible to preserve large aquiline noses and a wide slit in the eyes. Archaeological finds indicate that the Indians are morphologically similar to the ancient inhabitants of the Baikal region, who lived there before the peak of glaciation. Settling further and further south along the mainland, this group eventually transformed into an Indian, or American, small race, which scientists usually divide into several anthropological types.

All racial differences were formed as adaptations to the environment. Humans of all human races constitute one species. This is evidenced by their genetic unity - the same set of chromosomes, the same diseases, blood types, fertile offspring from interracial marriages.

As mankind settled and developed new ecological niches with different natural conditions, small races became isolated within large races, and intermediate (mixed) races arose at the boundaries of contacts between large races (Fig. 3.6).

Caucasoids Mongoloids Mixed types Negroids Australoids

Caucasians Mestizos Mulattos Negroids

Mongoloid Indians

Rice. 3.6. Distribution of races in the world (Start)

In the course of history there has been a constant mixing of races, as a result of which practically pure races do not exist, and all of them show certain signs of mixing. In addition, there were many intermediate anthropological types, combining different racial characteristics. According to all the main morphological, physiological, mental and mental properties, the races do not have any fundamental, qualitative differences and constitute a single biological species Homo sapiens.

This process has been especially intensive during the last 10-15 thousand years. From the same time that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, the process of mixing (or miscegenation) assumed enormous proportions. On the whole, the whole of mankind is more or less mixed; tens of millions of people are very difficult or simply impossible to classify even into any large race. Mixed marriages of Negroes - slaves from Africa and whites gave rise to mulattoes, Indians of the Mongoloids with white colonizers - mestizos, and Indians and Negroes - sambo. The main reason for the mixing of racial characteristics was the numerous migrations of the population (Fig. 3.7, 3.8).

However, near the borders of the ecumene, located in the marginal areas of human settlement, the factor of natural isolation played the greatest role. On Earth, peoples have survived that have pronounced complexes of racial characteristics; Such, for example, are the pygmies in the jungles of the Congo Basin in Africa; Indians in the equatorial forests of the Amazon; Lapps (Saami) in the Far North of Europe; Eskimos (Innuits) in the Far North of Asia and America; Indians in the Far South of South America; Australian Aborigines, Papuans of New Guinea; Bushmen in the South African Kalahari and Namib deserts.

Today, the geographical position of the modern races has become quite clearly established (see color incl. 7). Negroids live in most of the African continent and in the New World, where they were taken as slaves. The main areas of Mongoloid settlement are Siberia, Southeast, East and Central Asia, partially Central Asia, Polynesia and America. Caucasoids live in almost all parts of the world, but they are mainly settled in Pyrope. North, Central and South America, in a significant part of Western and Central Asia, in the northern regions of South Asia. Migrants from the Old and New Worlds make up a large part of the Caucasian population of Australia and New Zealand.

Representatives of the large Australoid (Oceanian) race are scattered (mostly in relatively small groups) over a vast territory from South Asia to Southeast and East Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Recognition of the fact of evolution at the end of the XIX century. meant the rejection of the Typological approach to species, since Darwinism emphasized

(Fig. 3.7. Mestizos from mixed marriages)

3.8. World migrations of the population in the XVII-first half of the XIX centuries.

and the fact of individual variability within species, and the constant transformation that each species undergoes. Until recently, however, the thinking of anthropologists was distinctly typological, textbooks of physical anthropology contained for the most part descriptions and names of human races. Some authors (“unifiers”) named only a dozen human races, while others (“crushers”) named a myriad of them.

The difficulty with using these categories is that there are too many contradictions between the different ways of dividing the human races. Are the Turks a white race, as evidenced by their appearance, or oil and belong to the Mongoloid tribes of Central Asia, which they (together with the Hungarians and Finns) have a linguistic

physical relationship? What to do with the Basques, who at first glance look like Spaniards, but whose language and culture are unlike any other in the world? Those who speak Hindi and Urdu in India create their own problem. Historically, they are a mixture of South Asian Dravidian natives, Central Asian Aryans (who are clearly Caucasian) and Persians. Should they be classified with the Europeans, whose languages ​​are derived from Sanskrit - Hindi and Urdu are very close to it, or should they be grouped with the inhabitants of South Asia because of their dark skin?

The attempt to compile more and more complex sets of characteristics of human types, which would correspond to the incredible diversity of people, eventually failed. Anthropologists no longer try to name and define races and subraces, because they understand that there are no pure human groups. The most striking feature of the general history of mankind is the incessant, small migration of the population and, consequently, the mixing of racial groups from different regions.

Most accepted classification of races proposed Ya. Ya. Roshch Ginsky and M. G. Levin(Figure 3.9).

Racial studies as a science in our country developed poorly, since the state artificially obscured the severity of the problem. However, during the years of pluralistic development of spiritual life, fascist and other extremely nationalist movements appeared in our country, which absorbed the ideological principles of racism. That is why a scientific analysis of these problems is now so necessary.

Is race a biological or social phenomenon?

Author of the book "Cultural Anthropology" K.F.Kottak He writes that the scientific study of race as a biological formation is very problematic, it raises many questions and bewilderment. Researchers experience great difficulty in applying biological concepts to groups of people in the question of which or sets of external features are most significant in determining their racial affiliation in different people. If we give priority to skin color, then the terms themselves do not accurately describe the color. The HRC of this classification, entire peoples remain outside it: Polynesians, peoples of South India, Australians, Bushmen to the south! Africa cannot be assigned to any of the three races named above.

Moreover, mixed marriages, and their number is increasing, modify the phenotypes of races, and in life the problem comes down first of all to determining the status of the baby. In American culture, a subject is racially determined at birth, but race is not based on biology or simple inheritance.

Rice. 3.9. Major racial groups

In the tradition of American culture, a child born of a mixed marriage of an African American and a “white” can be classified as “black”, while, according to the genotype, it should perhaps be classified as “white”. In the US, racial division is primarily a social grouping and has nothing to do with biological division. Other nations also have cultural norms that govern these relationships. For example, the Brazilian designation of someone's race can be expressed in one of 500 different terms. If we take the blood type as the basis for identifying a race, then the number of races may increase to a million. The conclusion from such a hypothesis will be the position that all races are biologically valuable for creating their own culture and possessing universal universals.

However, there are other anti-scientific theories. They affirm the biological inequality of races. Proponents of racism Ielat humanity into superior and inferior races. The latter are not capable of cultural development and are doomed to degeneration. In co-

According to their theory, the inequality of races is due to the origin of people from different ancestors: Caucasoid - from Cro-Magnons, and the rest - from Neanderthals. Representatives of different races differ in the level of mental development; not all of them are capable of cultural development. These fabrications are refuted by scientific data. The capacity of the cerebral part of the skull varies among people of the same race, without affecting mental abilities; All elements of culture are similar in people of different races, and the uneven pace of its development does not depend on biological characteristics, but on historical and social reasons.

Another anti-scientific direction - social Darwinism - transfers the action of biological laws (the struggle for existence and natural selection) to modern human society and denies the role of social factors in human evolution. The inequality of people in society, its stratification into classes co-j, tsial-Darwinism explains the biological inequality of people, and not social reasons.

The problem of race and intelligence also require separate consideration. Researchers believe that there are many groups in the world that have power and are socially dominant in societies that justify their privileges by declaring less | shinstva (racial, ethnic, social) inferior nd nature. Similar theories have been found to justify apartheid in South Africa, European colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States, the alleged superiority of the white race was affirmed by the segregation doctrine. Confidence in the biologically substantiated backwardness of Native Americans - Indians gave grounds for their extermination, resettlement on reservations.

Scientific judgments have also appeared, trying to explain. that misfortune and poverty are nothing but the result of inferior intellectual faculties. American explorer A. Jensen, interpreting the observation, during which it turned out that compared to "white" "black" Americans, on average, on testing, they show a lower level of intelligence, draws the following conclusion: "white" Americans are "smarter" than "blacks", "blacks" are hereditarily incapable of show the same level of intelligence as "whites". However, the same K. F. Kottak gives examples when measurements of IQ (intelligence index) among US Indians showed contrasting results; those who lived on reservations, in conditions of poverty and discrimination, showed an average IQ of 0.87, and Indians from more affluent areas with good schools for them 1.04. Today, in a number of states, such a study without the consent) of the test subjects is prosecuted by law.

It can be said that the original division of peoples into civilized and savage is already a thing of the past. Ethnographic data show that the abilities for cultural Evolution are equal in all races. Moreover, it has been proven that in any stratified society, differences in social groups in terms of economic, social, ethnic and racial parameters reflect inequality of opportunity to a greater extent than genetic structure. Therefore, differences in wealth, prestige and power between social classes are due to social relations, property.

The concept of "race" turned out to be completely vague, which prompted UNESCO to recommend using the term "ethnos" instead. And although the concept includes anthropological features, a common origin and a single language of a separate group of people, it is not identical to the concept of "race" in the biological sense - as a group of organisms that are geographically isolated and have acquired hereditary morphological and physiological differences. In addition, despite the genetic relationship, in some cases the differences among neighboring ethnic groups are so great that they cannot be explained without resorting to the biological concept of "race".

All humans living on planet earth currently belong to the same species - Homo sapiens. Within this species, scientists distinguish human races.

The human race is a historically formed group of people with common hereditary morphological features.

These features include: hair type and color, skin and eye color, shape of the nose, lips, eyelids, facial features, body type, etc. All of these features are hereditary.

A study of the fossil remains of Cro-Magnons showed that they had features characteristic of modern human races. For tens of thousands of years, the descendants of the Cro-Magnons lived in the most diverse geographical areas of the planet. This means that each human race has its own area of ​​origin and formation. Differences between human races are the result of natural selection in different habitats in the presence of geographical isolation. The long-term effect of environmental factors in places of permanent residence led to the gradual consolidation of a set of features characteristic of these groups of people. There are currently three major human races. They, in turn, are divided into small races (there are about thirty of them).

Representatives Caucasoid (Eurasian) race adapted to life in cold and humid climates. The distribution area of ​​​​the Caucasian race is Europe, North Africa, a small part of Asia and India, as well as North America and Australia. They are characterized by predominantly light or slightly dark skin. This race is characterized by straight or wavy hair, a narrow protruding nose and thin lips. On the face of men, hairline is expressed (in the form of mustaches and beards). The protruding narrow nose of Caucasians contributes to the warming of the inhaled air in cold climates.

People Negroid (Australian-Negroid) race are most represented in areas of the planet with a hot climate. They inhabit Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Adaptations to these climatic conditions are dark skin color, curly or wavy hair. For example, the curly hair on the head of the Negroid race forms a kind of air cushion. This feature of the hair arrangement protects the head from overheating. Representatives of the Negroid race are also characterized by a flat, slightly protruding nose, thick lips and dark eye color.

Mongoloid (Asian-American) race distributed in areas of the Earth with a harsh continental climate. Historically, this race inhabited almost all of Asia, as well as North and South America. Mongoloids are characterized by swarthy skin, straight hard dark hair. The face is flattened, with well-defined cheekbones, the nose and lips are of medium width, the hairline of the face is poorly developed. There is a skin fold in the inner corner of the eye - epicanthus. The narrow slit of the eyes and the epicanthus of the Mongoloids are adaptations to frequent dust storms. The formation of thick adipose subcutaneous tissue allows them to adapt to the low temperatures of cold continental winters.

The unity of the human races is confirmed by the absence of genetic isolation between them. This is expressed in the possibility of the appearance of fertile offspring in interracial marriages. Another proof of the unity of races is the presence of arched patterns on the fingers of all people and the same pattern of hair arrangement on the body.

Racism- a set of teachings about the physical and mental inequality of human races and the decisive influence of racial differences on the history and culture of society. The ideas of racism originated when the laws of evolution of living nature discovered by Charles Darwin began to be transferred to human society.

The main ideas of racism are the ideas about the initial division of people into higher and lower races due to their biological inequality. Moreover, representatives of higher races are the only creators of civilization and are called upon to dominate the lower ones. So racism seeks to justify social injustice in society and colonial policy.

Racist theory existed in practice in Nazi Germany. The Nazis considered their Aryan race to be the highest and by this they justified the physical destruction of a huge number of representatives of other races. In our country, as one of the most affected by the aggression of the fascist invaders, any adherence to the ideas of fascism is condemned and punished by law.

Racism has no scientific justification, since the biological equivalence of representatives of all races and their belonging to the same species has been proven. The differences in the level of development are the result of social factors.

Some scholars have suggested that the main driving force behind the evolution of human society is the struggle for existence. These views formed the basis of social Darwinism, a pseudoscientific trend according to which all social processes and phenomena (the emergence of states, wars, etc.) are subject to the laws of nature. Supporters of this doctrine consider the social inequality of people as a consequence of their biological inequality, which arose as a result of natural selection.

Features of human evolution at the present stage

In modern society, at first glance, there are no clear signs of further evolution of the species Homo sapiens. But this process continues. The decisive role at this stage is played by social factors, but the role of some biological factors of evolution has also been preserved.

Constantly arising under the influence of environmental factors mutations and their combinations change the genotypic composition of the human population. They enrich people's phenotypes with new traits and maintain their uniqueness. In turn, harmful and incompatible with life mutations are removed from the human population naturally. Pollution of the planet, primarily with chemical compounds, is the reason for the increase in the rate of mutagenesis and the accumulation of genetic load (harmful recessive mutations). This fact can somehow influence the evolution of man.

Formed about 50 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens has practically not undergone external changes to date. This is the result of action stabilizing natural selection in a relatively homogeneous human environment. One example of its manifestation was the increased survival rate of newborns with body weight within the average values ​​(3-4 kg). However, at the present stage, due to the development of medicine, the role of this form of selection has significantly decreased. Modern medical technologies allow nursing newborns with low body weight and enable premature babies to fully develop.

Leading role isolation in human evolution was traced at the stage of formation of human races. In modern society, thanks to the variety of means of transportation and the constant migration of people, the importance of isolation is almost negligible. The lack of genetic isolation between people is an important factor in enriching the gene pool of the planet's population.

In some relatively limited territories, such a factor as genetic drift. Currently, it manifests itself locally in connection with natural disasters. Natural disasters sometimes claim the lives of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people, as happened in early 2010 as a result of the earthquake in Haiti. This undoubtedly has an impact on the gene pool of human populations.

Therefore, the evolution of the species Homo sapiens currently only the mutation process is affected. The effect of natural selection and isolation is minimal.

All people living on planet Earth at the present time belong to the same species - Homo sapiens. Within this species, human races are distinguished. The signs of races were formed under the influence of environmental factors. Currently, there are three large human races: Caucasoid, Australo-Negroid and Mongoloid. At the present stage of the biological factors on the evolution of man in an unchanged form, only the mutation process acts. The role of natural selection and genetic drift has been significantly reduced, and isolation has practically lost its significance.

In modern humanity, there are three main races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. These are large groups of people who differ in some physical features, such as facial features, skin color, eyes and hair, hair shape.

Each race is characterized by the unity of origin and formation in a certain territory.

The Caucasian race includes the indigenous population of Europe, South Asia and North Africa. Caucasoids are characterized by a narrow face, a strongly protruding nose, and soft hair. The skin color of northern Caucasians is light, while that of southern Caucasians is predominantly swarthy.

The Mongoloid race includes the indigenous population of Central and East Asia, Indonesia, and Siberia. Mongoloids are distinguished by a large, flat, wide face, slit eyes, hard, straight hair, and dark skin color.

In the Negroid race, two branches are distinguished - African and Australian. The Negroid race is characterized by dark skin color, curly hair, dark eyes, a wide and flat nose.

Racial characteristics are hereditary, but at present they are not essential for human life. Apparently, in the distant past, racial traits were useful for their owners: the dark skin of blacks and curly hair, creating an air layer around the head, protected the body from the action of sunlight, the shape of the facial skeleton of the Mongoloids with a larger nasal cavity, perhaps, is useful for heating cold air before it enters the lungs. In terms of mental abilities, i.e., abilities for cognition, creative and labor activity in general, all races are the same. Differences in the level of culture are associated not with the biological characteristics of people of different races, but with the social conditions for the development of society.

The reactionary essence of racism. Initially, some scientists confused the level of social development with biological characteristics and tried to find transitional forms among modern peoples that connect humans with animals. These mistakes were used by the racists, who began to talk about the alleged inferiority of some races and peoples and the superiority of others in order to justify the merciless exploitation and direct destruction of many peoples as a result of colonization, the seizure of foreign lands and the outbreak of wars. When European and American capitalism tried to conquer the African and Asian peoples, the white race was declared the highest. Later, when the Nazi hordes marched across Europe, destroying the captured population in the death camps, the so-called Aryan race was declared the highest, to which the Nazis ranked the German peoples. Racism is a reactionary ideology and politics aimed at justifying the exploitation of man by man.

The failure of racism is proved by the real science of races - racial science. Racial science studies racial characteristics, the origin, formation and history of human races. The data obtained by racial science indicate that the differences between races are not sufficient to consider races as different biological species of people. Mixing of races - miscegenation - occurred constantly, as a result of which intermediate types arose at the boundaries of the ranges of representatives of different races, smoothing out the differences between races.

Will races disappear? One of the important conditions for the formation of races is isolation. In Asia, Africa and Europe, it still exists to some extent today. Meanwhile, newly settled regions, such as North and South America, can be compared to a cauldron in which all three racial groups are melted down. Although public opinion in many countries does not support interracial marriage, there is little doubt that racial interbreeding is inevitable and will sooner or later lead to the formation of a hybrid human population.