Human races, their origin and unity. The origin of man, the driving forces of anthropogenesis. Human races, their origin and unity Human evolution unity of the origin of human races

RACES OF HUMAN, THEIR ORIGIN AND UNITY.

The purpose of the lesson:

educational: Show the unity of the origin of the races; give concepts: race, racial science, racism.

Developing: Continue the formation of the ability to work with additional literature, encyclopedic literature.

Educational: education in students of racial tolerance.

During the classes.

Org. moment.

Learning new material:

Introduction:

Bonfire, crackling branches
Disturbed my secret memory, -
It was lit in the caves by the ancestors
At the mountain-stone foothills.
How hard it is to be him, "the one"
At the human dawn
On not cozy and mysterious
An undeveloped planet.
Maybe there was every genius
(mediocrity hardly survived)
With such undying wonder
They opened the earth for us.

“The place of man in the system of the organic world.

Kingdom -
Type of -
Subtype -
Class -
Squad -
Family -
Genus -
View -

1. The unity of the origin of races. Homo sapiens appeared 40-50 thousand years ago. Human evolution got out of the leading control of biological factors and acquired a social character. All modern humanity belongs to the same species. The unity of mankind follows from the essence of origin, the similarity of the structure and fertility of the offspring.

Crossword "Race".

The unity of the origin of races follows from the common characteristic features of man. It:

46 chromosomes

same blood types

interbreeding and producing fertile offspring

the structure of the foot, hands -

level of brain development

the structure of the skull (the ratio of the facial and brain sections)

one biological species (Homo sapiens).

All questions related to the origin and evolution of man, the formation of races, are studied by science anthropology.

Anthropology - scienceabout the origin and evolution of man, the formation of human races.

One of the branches of anthropology is - racial science.

Racial scienceThe science that studies the human races.

Races- these are historically established groups of people, distinguished by scientists on the basis of their kinship, unity of origin, which is manifested in appearance.

When it comes to races, they always emphasize their connection with the place where they are common. Already primitive man gazed intently into the faces of fellow tribesmen and tried to capture their features. As the geographical outlook of mankind expanded, more and more images and descriptions of representatives of different peoples appeared. Gradually, ideas about external differences between people living on our planet accumulated.

2. Systematics of races. There are a number of race classifications. The first of these was adopted at the end of the 17th century. Modern classifications differ in the number of distinguished human types, the principles of their division into groups and names. Russian anthropologists fairly consistently identify three major groups. These are large races, or races of the first order: Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid. 30-40 years ago people already lived in all parts of the world. It was this period, according to scientists, that races began to take shape. Separate groups of people, being in very different natural conditions, acquired differences in appearance. According to scientists, many racial traits arose by chance in the early stages of human development. Some of them helped people adapt to environmental conditions and, in the course of natural selection, were fixed in the genes and began to be passed on from generation to generation. It can be assumed that the features of the Negroids were formed under the influence of a hot, humid climate and strong solar radiation. It is known that Negroids can be under the scorching rays of the sun without a headdress and almost without clothes. They are protected from the harmful rays of the sun by dark skin, black curly hair, structural features of the nose (wide, large nostrils), thickened lips. Fair-skinned, fair-haired and light-eyed Caucasians tolerate the sun's rays much worse, especially red-haired and albinos suffer from them, since melanin does not form in their skin.

The Mongoloids, which formed in the steppes and semi-deserts of Central Asia with a sharply continental dry climate and large daily temperature fluctuations, strong winds and dust storms, played the role of adaptation epicanthus - skin fold, in the inner corner of the eye and a developed fold of the upper eyelid, protecting from wind and dust.

3. Anthropology and racial science are the sciences that study human races.

Systematics of races.

"Characterization of Human Races"

one). Negroid race.

The hallmarks of the Negroid race are curly black hair, dark brown skin and brown eyes. Also, Negroids are characterized by a very wide, but slightly protruding nose, very thick lips, large teeth, sparse facial and body hair.

2). Caucasian race.

People belonging to the Caucasian race are most often light-skinned, they have straight, sometimes wavy hair of different shades, rather light eyes - light brown, yellow, green, gray or blue. Sometimes there are black-haired, dark-haired, dark-eyed representatives, especially in the south. They are characterized by wide open eyes, a thin eyelid without folds. A thin straight nose, sometimes with a hump, thin or medium thick lips, a thick beard and mustache, and a strong hairline on the chest. Caucasoids originally formed in Southwest Asia, North Africa and Europe. Europe is the focus of the most typical, classic Caucasians. These are Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Persians, Georgians, Russians, Finns, in the south - Uzbeks, Tajiks, Palestinians and many others. Caucasoids can be divided into two main groups: southern - with dark skin, mostly with dark eyes and hair, and northern - with fair skin, gray eyes, straight blond hair, straight nose and thin lips. This branch includes the indigenous population of England, Ireland, Iceland, the Scandinavian countries, Finland, the Eastern Baltic and the northern regions of the European part of Russia. The Central European branch of Caucasians includes the population of Northern France, partly Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and the center of the European part of Russia. The inhabitants of the east of this region have a Mongoloid admixture - a flattened face, a swollen upper eyelid, a slight high cheekbones (among Russians and even Germans), but in the west it is not. The Southern Caucasian is slightly shorter, with black hair, black eyes, olive skin, and puffy lips. This branch includes the population of Spain, Portugal, southern Italy, southern France, Albania, Greece, the Balkan countries, Romania, the countries of the Caucasus, Egypt, the Arab countries of Western Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

3). Mongoloid race.

The structure of the face of the Mongoloids is very peculiar. Their hair is straight, black, thick and coarse. Mongoloids have wide faces with strongly protruding cheekbones, flat noses, black or dark brown eyes, and dark skin. Men have sparse mustaches and beards on their faces. The structure of the eyes of the Mongoloids is especially unusual: they are narrow, because. representatives of the race live in the steppe, and there are strong winds. The epicanthus is located in the inner corner of the eye. This race predominated in Asia, but in the process of migration, its representatives settled throughout the globe. Scientists distinguish 5 groups of Mongoloids: North Asian, South Asian, Arctic, Far Eastern, American. The North Asian group is distinguished by rather fair skin, dark blond, soft hair and not very dark eyes. This group includes Buryats, Yakuts, Altaians and other peoples of Siberia. The South Asian group is characterized by short stature, fragile build. The Arctic group - Chukchi, Aleuts, Eskimos - is represented by the inhabitants of the Arctic. They have large faces, coarse hair, epicanthus. However, the nose protrudes quite a lot, the face is not so flat. Representatives of the Far Eastern group live in Korea, Japan, China. Among the Eastern Mongoloids, a Tibetan subgroup stands out. Relatively dark skin, some weakening of the Mongoloid features bring them closer to the Arctic Mongoloids. American Indians are characterized by a protruding nose, a non-flat face, coarse straight black hair, and yellowish skin. Distributed in North and South America.

4. Racism.

one). History of racism.

Racism is an anti-scientific and anti-humanistic ideology and social practice based on the notions of the physical and psychological inequality of the human races. Racists ignore the main features of the biological and physiological structure of a person (functions of the brain, nervous system, psychological organization), which are similar in all races, and put external hereditary characteristics (skin color, head structure) in the first place. All varieties of racism are characterized by false misanthropic ideas about the primordial division of people into higher and lower races, of which the former are allegedly the only creators of civilization, called to dominate the latter, on the contrary, are not capable of creating and even assimilating a high culture and are doomed to be objects of exploitation. Theorists of racism put forward a position on the dependence of a person's mental qualities on the shape of the skull, skin color and language family. There is such a thing as socialist Darwinism. After the advent of Darwin's theories, many racists suggested that there are different species among people, which means that among them there is the highest species. Considering that since the struggle for existence is the law of nature, and, therefore, it cannot be negative, the racists also argued that the destruction of representatives of the lower races is not at all a crime.

III. Fixing:

generate match:

Determine which race of the Earth corresponds to the signs listed below (make a match)

Light or dark skin.

They inhabit Central and South Africa.

Protruding cheekbones.

Black curly hair.

Yellowish or reddish skin.

The most numerous race.

Narrow slit eyes.

Thick lips and wide nose.

Wavy blonde hair.

They inhabit Europe and Australia.

They inhabit Oceania.

A) Caucasian
B) Mongoloid;
B) equatorial;
D) australoid.

Conclusion:

Kohl is destined to breathe
We are the same air
let's all
Let's unite forever.
let's
Let's save our souls
Then we are on earth
And we will save ourselves.

The main features by which the races differ from each other are: the shape of the hair on the head; the nature and degree of development of hair on the face (beard, mustache) and on the body (tertiary hair in men is much more pronounced than in women); hair, skin and eye color; the shape of the upper eyelid, nose and lips; body length, or height. The most important racial trait is also pigmentation. In the skin, the pigment (melanin) lies in the surface layer, the epidermis. In the deeper layer of the skin, the dermis, pigment is usually absent in adults. If it is still present, then the skin acquires a bluish tint, since melanin shines through a thin layer of the epidermis. This phenomenon is more often observed in children in the region of the sacrum. It was first observed among the Mongols, so it was called "Mongolian spots". For skin color, translucence of blood through the walls of the smallest vessels (capillaries) is essential. Such translucence gives the skin a pink color and is characteristic of fair-skinned people.

Main morphological features of races

Representatives Negroid races have dark skin color, dark eye color, dark curly hair.

At Mongoloid races yellow skin color, hard straight dark hair, dark eyes, narrow slit eyes, the so-called Mongoloid eyelid.

Representatives Caucasian races have light skin of various shades, soft hair, various shades of light blond or dark blond, eye color from hazel to blue.

Despite the difference, the representatives of these races have a lot of common features: the same number of chromosomes - 46, the same level of brain development, brain volume. The most important sign is that in marriages between representatives of different races, the children born from these marriages are healthy and full. This suggests that humans are a single species, regardless of race (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Man as a single species ()

Geneticists have calculated that the genetic difference between representatives of different races is only about 8%, while the genetic differences between the closest neighbors in cities and villages range from 20 to 40%. Therefore, a stranger can be genetically closer than a neighbor living nearby.

The data of physiologists suggest that Caucasoids are closer to Negroids in terms of blood groups, and closer to Mongoloids in terms of the composition of immunoglobulin in the blood. This tells us that the biochemical composition of human blood, its genetic characteristics developed much earlier than the division of a single species into different races. The influence of natural conditions on the development of human races is undeniable. Initially, in ancient mankind, it was probably stronger, but in the process of the formation of modern stories it was weaker, although it is still quite clear in some signs, for example, in the pigmentation of the skin. The influence of the entire complex set of conditions of life, obviously, was of the utmost importance for the emergence, formation, weakening and even disappearance of racial characteristics.

An example would be skin color; the ancestor of man, most likely, had a dark skin color, this is due to the place of its origin - Africa. Due to the fact that in Africa there is very strong solar radiation, dark skin served as protection for a person. When it settled in the northern regions, where solar activity is much less, another problem arose - without sunlight, vitamin D is not formed in the inner layers of the skin. Without it, rickets develops and infant mortality increases, therefore, in the evolutionary process, people with light skin color gained an advantage .

All differences between races are associated with the habitats of ancient man, so the short stature of the Eskimos, their thickened subcutaneous fatty tissue speaks of the cold climate in which they live, and the widely developed chest of the representatives of the Negroid race living in the mountains is adapted to rarefied air .

In all races, most of the genes are represented by the same alleles; the only difference is the relationship in which these alleles participate in the gene pool. The number of genes that distinguish one race from another is small, and they determine only external features: skin color, eye color, nose shape, and so on, that is, they have the same hereditary potential, which means single origin.

Bibliography

1. Mamontov S.G., Zakharov V.B., Agafonova I.B., Sonin N.I. Biology. General patterns. - Bustard, 2009.
2. Ponomareva I.N., Kornilova O.A., Chernova N.M. Fundamentals of General Biology. Grade 9: A textbook for students in grade 9 educational institutions / Ed. prof. I.N. Ponomareva. - 2nd ed., revised. - M.: Ventana-Graf, 2005.
3. Pasechnik V.V., Kamensky A.A., Kriksunov E.A. Biology. An Introduction to General Biology and Ecology: A 9th Grade Textbook, 3rd ed., stereotype. - M.: Bustard, 2002.

1. sbio.info().
2. Reftrend.ru ().
3. Festival.1september.ru ().

Homework

1. What are the main races distinguished by science?
2. Name the main morphological features of the races.
3. How did living conditions influence the formation of racial characteristics?

Lecture: “Human races. Criticism of racism. Criticism of the provisions of social Darwinism"

The unity of the origin of races.

Homo sapiens appeared 40-50 thousand years ago. Human evolution got out of the leading control of biological factors and acquired a social character. All modern humanity belongs to the same species. The unity of mankind follows from the essence of origin, the similarity of the structure and fertility of the offspring.

The unity of the origin of races follows from the common characteristic features of man. It:

• 46 chromosomes
• same blood types
• interbreeding and producing fertile offspring
• the structure of the foot, hands -
• level of brain development
• the structure of the skull (the ratio of the facial and brain sections)
• one biological species (Homo sapiens).

All questions related to the origin and evolution of man, the formation of races, are studied by science anthropology. One of the branches of anthropology is - racial science The science that studies the human races. Races- these are historically established groups of people, distinguished by scientists on the basis of their kinship, unity of origin, which is manifested in appearance. When it comes to races, they always emphasize their connection with the place where they are common. Already primitive man gazed intently into the faces of fellow tribesmen and tried to capture their features. As the geographical outlook of mankind expanded, more and more images and descriptions of representatives of different peoples appeared. Gradually, ideas about external differences between people living on our planet accumulated.

Systematics of races.

There are a number of race classifications. The first of these was adopted at the end of the 17th century. Modern classifications differ in the number of distinguished human types, the principles of their division into groups and names. Russian anthropologists fairly consistently identify three major groups. These are large races, or races of the first order: Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid. 30-40 years ago people already lived in all parts of the world. It was this period, according to scientists, that races began to take shape. Separate groups of people, being in very different natural conditions, acquired differences in appearance. According to scientists, many racial traits arose by chance in the early stages of human development. Some of them helped people adapt to environmental conditions and, in the course of natural selection, were fixed in the genes and began to be passed on from generation to generation. It can be assumed that the features of the Negroids were formed under the influence of a hot, humid climate and strong solar radiation. It is known that Negroids can be under the scorching rays of the sun without a headdress and almost without clothes. They are protected from the harmful rays of the sun by dark skin, black curly hair, structural features of the nose (wide, large nostrils), thickened lips. Fair-skinned, fair-haired and light-eyed Caucasians tolerate the sun's rays much worse, especially red-haired and albinos suffer from them, since melanin does not form in their skin. The Mongoloids, which formed in the steppes and semi-deserts of Central Asia with a sharply continental dry climate and large daily temperature fluctuations, strong winds and dust storms, played the role of adaptation epicanthus - skin fold, in the inner corner of the eye and a developed fold of the upper eyelid, protecting from wind and dust.

Anthropology and racial science are the sciences that study human races.

one). Negroid race.

The hallmarks of the Negroid race are curly black hair, dark brown skin and brown eyes. Also, Negroids are characterized by a very wide, but slightly protruding nose, very thick lips, large teeth, sparse facial and body hair.

2). Caucasian race.

People belonging to the Caucasian race are most often light-skinned, they have straight, sometimes wavy hair of different shades, rather light eyes - light brown, yellow, green, gray or blue. Sometimes there are black-haired, dark-haired, dark-eyed representatives, especially in the south. They are characterized by wide open eyes, a thin eyelid without folds. A thin straight nose, sometimes with a hump, thin or medium thick lips, a thick beard and mustache, and a strong hairline on the chest. Caucasoids originally formed in Southwest Asia, North Africa and Europe. Europe is the focus of the most typical, classic Caucasians. These are Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Persians, Georgians, Russians, Finns, in the south - Uzbeks, Tajiks, Palestinians and many others. Caucasoids can be divided into two main groups: southern - with dark skin, mostly with dark eyes and hair, and northern - with fair skin, gray eyes, straight blond hair, straight nose and thin lips. This branch includes the indigenous population of England, Ireland, Iceland, the Scandinavian countries, Finland, the Eastern Baltic and the northern regions of the European part of Russia. The Central European branch of Caucasians includes the population of Northern France, partly Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and the center of the European part of Russia. The inhabitants of the east of this region have a Mongoloid admixture - a flattened face, a swollen upper eyelid, a slight high cheekbones (among Russians and even Germans), but in the west it is not. The Southern Caucasian is slightly shorter, with black hair, black eyes, olive skin, and puffy lips. This branch includes the population of Spain, Portugal, southern Italy, southern France, Albania, Greece, the Balkan countries, Romania, the countries of the Caucasus, Egypt, the Arab countries of Western Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

3). Mongoloid race.

The structure of the face of the Mongoloids is very peculiar. Their hair is straight, black, thick and coarse. Mongoloids have wide faces with strongly protruding cheekbones, flat noses, black or dark brown eyes, and dark skin. Men have sparse mustaches and beards on their faces. The structure of the eyes of the Mongoloids is especially unusual: they are narrow, because. representatives of the race live in the steppe, and there are strong winds. The epicanthus is located in the inner corner of the eye. This race predominated in Asia, but in the process of migration, its representatives settled throughout the globe. Scientists distinguish 5 groups of Mongoloids: North Asian, South Asian, Arctic, Far Eastern, American. The North Asian group is distinguished by rather fair skin, dark blond, soft hair and not very dark eyes. This group includes Buryats, Yakuts, Altaians and other peoples of Siberia. The South Asian group is characterized by short stature, fragile build. The Arctic group - Chukchi, Aleuts, Eskimos - is represented by the inhabitants of the Arctic. They have large faces, coarse hair, epicanthus. However, the nose protrudes quite a lot, the face is not so flat. Representatives of the Far Eastern group live in Korea, Japan, China. Among the Eastern Mongoloids, a Tibetan subgroup stands out. Relatively dark skin, some weakening of the Mongoloid features bring them closer to the Arctic Mongoloids. American Indians are characterized by a protruding nose, a non-flat face, coarse straight black hair, and yellowish skin. Distributed in North and South America.

It is important to emphasize that races arose after man separated from the animal world, therefore it is impossible to establish significant differences between races in consciousness, thinking, physiological and anatomical features, speech, and labor activity.

The reasons for the formation of races are variability, heredity, the struggle for existence, natural selection and isolation.

Racial characteristics are hereditary, but at present they are not essential for human life. As society and production developed, most of the racial traits lost their adaptive significance. For a modern person, it is not the color of the skin or hair that is decisive, but the ability to develop their intellectual qualities.

Unity and fullness of races.

In terms of intellectual and mental abilities, the races do not differ. Because this is determined by socio-economic factors. There is no genetic isolation between races. At present, there is only one kind of man on earth - Homo sapiens.

The main leading features of modern man are:

the structure of the brain

the structure of the reproductive system

They are common regardless of race.

In the composition of any human race, one can find more typical and less typical representatives of it. Since absolutely identical people in the human population do not exist, the assertion of the so-called "pure races" has no basis. Under equal conditions, representatives of any race are able to achieve the same success. Even Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay proved that there are no fundamental differences in the structure of the brain of the Papuans of New Guinea, Australian Aborigines and Europeans.

Although not everyone thinks so!

Racism

Racism - this is the belief that some people are superior to others because they belong to a particular race, each of which has certain traits of character and behavior. There is a selection by some signs of people belonging to the "superior race" and humiliating or aggressive behavior towards representatives of the so-called "inferior races" (an anti-scientific doctrine of races, the basis of which is the assertion of the physical and mental inferiority of the "inferior" and superiority " higher" races).

Racism is an anti-scientific and anti-humanistic ideology and social practice based on the notions of the physical and psychological inequality of human races (an anti-scientific doctrine of races, the basis of which is the assertion of the physical and mental inferiority of the "lower" and the superiority of the "higher" races). Racists ignore the main features of the biological and physiological structure of a person (functions of the brain, nervous system, psychological organization), which are similar in all races, and put external hereditary characteristics (skin color, head structure) in the first place. All varieties of racism are characterized by false misanthropic ideas about the primordial division of people into superior and inferior races, of which the former are supposedly the only creators of civilization, called to dominate the latter, on the contrary, are not capable of creating and even assimilating a high culture and are doomed to be objects of exploitation. Theorists of racism put forward a position on the dependence of a person's mental qualities on the shape of the skull, skin color and language family.

Modern racists argue that all races and cultures should live separately from each other in their "historical territories", that they should not mix, so as not to lose their identity and originality. The founder of racism, Count de Gobineau, tried to highlight the evolution of man as a struggle between superior and inferior races. He owns the idea of ​​a fictional "Aryan" race, which was actively supported by Adolf Hitler.

Failure of racism

Factual materials, the accumulation of modern social and natural sciences (anthropology, ethnography, racial studies, etc.), studying races and peoples, have shown the complete failure of racism. They found evidence of a common origin of people of different races, i.e. All humans are descended from one common ancestor. The diagram that we considered at the beginning of the lesson is also proof of the common origin of people. The economic and cultural successes of other socialist states, whose populations belong to different races, also testify against racism. Racism is an inhuman, illegal form of expressing one's dominance over another person. It can be an offensive word ... and the death of an innocent person. Let's think, what are the consequences of racism? On a separate example, this may be the infliction of bodily harm, the death of a person. If you think globally, then these are mass fights on the streets, the formation of separate gangs, sects, parties. Ultimately, all this can lead to national conflicts and to a world war, as a result of which everyone will suffer! So let's think, do we need it?

The conclusions are clear: it is necessary to cultivate national tolerance, moral qualities, to condemn those who allow themselves to humiliate, harm another, no matter what race and nationality he belongs to.

The problem of the origin of human races, their history has long interested people. Ordinary inhabitants were curious how such a difference in individuals living in different parts of the world could be explained. 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's define these units. Under the races of the species Homo Sapiens, it is customary to understand relatively isolated groups - its systematic divisions. Their representatives differ in a certain set of external signs, as well as in their habitat. Races are relatively stable over time, although in the context of globalization and the accompanying migration of the population, their characteristics may undergo certain changes. The origin and biology of the human races are such that genetically each of them has certain autosomal components. This has been confirmed by scientific research.

Human races: their relationship 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 However, the list is not exhausted by them. In addition to them, there are also the so-called mixed races, in which there are signs of several main ones. They usually have several autosomal components characteristic of the main races.

The Caucasoid 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. Its representatives have straight or wavy hair, light or dark eyes. The incision of the eyes is horizontal, the hairline is often moderate. The nose protrudes noticeably, 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 - the epicanthus. Presumably, she helped protect the eyes of the steppes from dust. Skin color - from dark to light. Black hair, coarse, 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 lush curly hair, the darkest skin color among all major races, containing a large amount of the pigment eumelanin. It is assumed that these signs were formed to protect the equatorial region from the scorching sun. The noses of Negroids are most often wide and somewhat flattened. The lower part of the face is protruding.

All races, like all mankind, according to research, originate 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 ones, the so-called small races are distinguished. They are shown in the diagram below. Small races (they are also intermediate), or, as they are also called, anthropological types, have a number of similar features. On the diagram you can also see intermediate races that combine the features of several main ones: Ural, South Siberian, Ethiopian, South Indian, Polynesian and Ainu.

Time of origin of races

Scientists believe that races arose relatively recently. According to one theory, at first, about 80 thousand years ago, the Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid branches separated. Later, after about 40 thousand years, the latter broke up into Caucasoid and Mongoloid. Their final differentiation into (small races) and the distribution of the latter occurred later, already in the Neolithic era. Scientists who have studied the origin of man and human races at different times believe that their formation continued after settlement. 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 the origin of man and human races, how their settlement took place. Therefore, below we will consider two theories concerning this problem: monocentric and polycentric.

Monocentric theory

According to it, races appeared in the process of the settlement of people from the area of ​​​​their origin. At the same time, neoanthropes were likely to interbreed with paleanthropes (Neanderthals) in the process of crowding out the latter. This process is quite late, it took place 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, according to the definition, represent a continuous succession of populations (species) replacing each other, each of which is a descendant of the previous one and at the same time an ancestor of the next unit. The polycentric theory says that the intermediate races had distinctive features already in antiquity. These groups were formed on the border of the settlement of the main ones and continued to exist parallel to them.

Intermediate theories

They allow the divergence of phyletic groups at different stages of human evolution - paleoanthropes, neoanthropes. One such theory, according to which the equatorial and Mongoloid-Caucasoid branches formed first, was briefly described above.

Modern settlement

As for the settlement of representatives of large and small races, it changes significantly with 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 original territories. The same can be said about the small Australian race. Its representatives in Australia are significantly inferior in number not only to Caucasians, but also to numerous migrants and their descendants belonging to the Mongoloid races (mainly the Far East).

Caucasoids, with the beginning of the Age of Discoveries (mid-15th century), began to actively explore and populate new territories, and are currently found in all parts of the globe, on all continents. Representatives of all anthropological groups of the Caucasoid race are found on the territory of modern Europe, but the Central European type is still in the lead. In general, the racial composition of modern Europe, as a result of migrations and interracial marriages, as well as in the USA, is extremely colorful and diverse.

The Mongoloids are still in the lead in the countries of Asia, the equatorial race - in Africa, New Guinea, Melanesia.

Race changes over time

Naturally, the minor races could undergo certain changes over time. At the same time, the question of how much their stability was affected by isolation remains open. So, for example, the appearance of the Australians who lived separately has not changed much 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 the study of Egyptian mummies, as well as surviving 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 the representatives of the nation are the descendants of the ancient Sevenist peoples who lived in this territory before the spread of the equatorial race.

However, some were 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 the archaeologically confirmed penetration of the Mongoloids into the areas inhabited by Caucasians, as early as the VII-VI centuries. BC.

In our time, thanks to globalization and intensive migration, there is an active miscegenation, 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 are born with various combinations of signs, including those that were previously extremely rare. For example, the combination of light eye color and dark skin is no longer a rarity in the islands of Cape Verde.

In general, this process is positive, because thanks to it, various racial groups acquire useful dominant traits that were not previously characteristic of them, and avoid the accumulation of recessive ones, which entails various genetic disorders and diseases.

Instead of a conclusion

The article briefly talked about the human races, their origin. The unity and commonality of all representatives of Homo Sapiens have been confirmed by many years of research.

Obviously, the differences in the level of development of certain groups of people are caused primarily by the peculiarities of the conditions of their existence. Therefore, the 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 placed in equal conditions due to migration, this point of view was confirmed.

The path of development of all mankind was the same - through labor, through the organization and development of society. When people reached a certain adaptability to straight gait and labor activity, the evolution of their physical make-up slowed down and was reduced to the evolution of minor secondary signs. For this reason, one species of man currently lives on Earth. The unity of the structure in all people of the brain, foot, hand, i.e., the leading signs determined by the human path of development, as well as easy interbreeding and fertility of offspring, indicates belonging to the same species.

Mankind forms several groups, long ago called races. The European peoples belong to the Caucasoid race. Some peoples of Asia and America belong to the Mongoloid race (Mongols, Buryats, Chinese, etc.). Most African peoples are of the Negroid race. All races are on the same biological level. The differences between them lie in the peculiarities of the color of the skin, hair, eyes, etc. Such differences once arose among different groups of people who lived in various natural conditions. For example, dark pigmentation of the skin could have arisen as a protective adaptation of the body against the bright rays of the sun in African countries. With the development of social relations, the isolation of human races and the morphological difference between them is reduced as a result of mixed marriages.

The so-called racial theory has become widespread in bourgeois countries. Its essence lies in the assertion that the human races are allegedly unequal: some are superior, others are inferior. Racists believe that the reason for the economic and cultural backwardness of some peoples lies in their "racial biological inferiority."

Racists do not recognize the unity of the origin of races. In their opinion, the Caucasoid race descended from the Neanderthal, the Mongoloid from Sinanthropus, and the Negroid originates from Australopithecus; meanwhile, it is well known that the Neanderthal was distributed throughout the Old World.

The false theory of the division of races into "superior" and "inferior" aims to justify imperialist wars, colonial policies and racial discrimination.

Not racial differences, but the colonial policy of the imperialist countries, the oppression of some peoples by others—this is the reason for the backwardness of some peoples in economic and cultural terms. The best proof of this position is the flourishing of the economy and culture of all nationalities (over 100) in the USSR after the Great October Socialist Revolution.

The liberation of many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America from colonial dependence and oppression, which has taken place in recent years, shows how quickly the peoples of these countries are advancing along the path of civilization and the development of their economies.