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 faster sunburn than black. In the equatorial steppes of Africa, people with dark skin 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. Yes, and in Africa, the indigenous inhabitants of the rainforests - pygmies - have lighter skin than their neighbors involved in agriculture and almost always under the sun.
Indigenous people of Africa. 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 from temperate and northern latitudes should have white, transparent for sun rays skin to get as much UV 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. Important distinguishing feature Mongoloids - 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.
Mongoloid race. 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.
Human brain. 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 define mental abilities, nor 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, but 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 for analysis, prints of the feet and hands, and takes x-rays.
Blood type
All the data obtained are summarized, 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 blood groups among the Indians. 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 South America there were also no people with the second blood group, as among the first settlers of the North - with the third and fourth groups ... Probably everyone 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 ... And yet, almost everything that is told here is still a hypothesis. There are scientists who do not believe that racial characteristics have an adaptive value to environmental conditions: there are scientists who believe that the settlement of America could have been carried out sequentially, in numerous waves, and in the process of generational change, certain blood factors were forced out. There is not enough evidence to support either hypothesis. But the hypotheses are either replaced by others, or receive new and new confirmations and become harmonious theories that explain the formation of races on Earth. The problem of the origin of human races, their history has long interested people. Ordinary inhabitants were curious about how such a difference in individuals living in different parts Sveta. 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. It's confirmed 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 eumelanin pigment. 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. Bottom part faces - speaker.
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. So, characteristics 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 the ancestor of the next unit. The polycentric theory states that the intermediate races had 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 ancient egypt had expressed external signs 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 Tatar-Mongol invasion and the archaeologically confirmed penetration of Mongoloids into areas inhabited by Caucasians, as early as the 7th-6th 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, so popular in the past in Western countries racial theory is 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.
We have already mentioned that certain racial characteristics, especially those by which the main races are distinguished, have, or at least had in the past, an adaptive (adaptive) character. It is very likely that in the early stages of its historical development people modern look they still adapted, like all other living organisms, to the natural geographical conditions of their existence bodily, i.e. gradually developed morphological and physiological features, to some extent useful in specific natural conditions life of different populations.
How did this adaptation take place, what was the mechanism for the development of adaptive traits that are useful in a given natural environment? Indeed, in the light of the data of modern genetics, we are well aware that the traits acquired by living beings during their individual life, as a rule, are not inherited by offspring, and, therefore, the morpho-physiological adaptation of any population to its natural geographic environment does not in itself can be fixed in a number of subsequent generations. This does not mean, however, that the hereditary properties of living beings are independent of environment. On the contrary, external factors - physical, chemical and biological, especially those causing sharp and sudden changes in living conditions, have a strong effect on all cells of the body (including sex cells), causing mutations in them.
In essence, such mutations occur in the cells of any living being, including humans, throughout his entire individual life. If we keep in mind not ontogenesis (the development of each individual), but phylogeny (the history of the species), then it will appear to us as a continuous chain of mutations. Many mutations are harmful, and, therefore, their carriers in natural conditions have little chance of survival, let alone reproduction. But from time to time there are mutations that are indifferent or even beneficial to the organism under given conditions. If the living conditions of a population change dramatically, for example, as a result of migration to another climatic zone, then the number of mutants with increased chances of survival naturally increases.
The survival of various mutants in plants and animals is regulated by natural selection. As Charles Darwin showed, organisms that are most adapted to life in their natural environment have the greatest chance not only to survive, but also to leave healthy and prolific offspring, through which their useful adaptive traits will be fixed in subsequent generations and over time become more and more more frequent, and then dominant in the population. It is very likely that among our ancestors, who already belonged to modern humans, natural selection still retained a certain significance until the late pores of the ancient Stone Age, or the Paleolithic (approximately 40-16 thousand years BC). It was in the Late Paleolithic era, when our ancestors intensively settled across the continents, developing new vast spaces in the north of Eurasia, in America and Australia, that many racial features characteristic of the equatorial, Caucasoid and Mongoloid races were formed in the process of selecting useful mutants.
It can be assumed that the characteristic racial features of the ancient Negroid and Australoid populations developed in Africa and South Asia under conditions of a hot and humid climate and increased insolation (solar illumination). Many features of the equatorial races could have had an adaptive value under these conditions. Intensely pigmented skin with a large amount of melanin was well protected from the too strong chemical action of the sun, especially ultraviolet rays. Black hair and brown eyes, genetically and physiologically associated with dark skin, probably had a similar meaning. According to some anthropologists, strongly curly hair could also serve as protection from the sun's rays, forming a sort of natural impenetrable hat on the head. Negroids and Australoids, even today, can work without harm to health with almost no clothes and headgear under the direct scorching rays of the tropical sun.
It is quite possible that some features of the structure of the nose, characteristic of the equatorial races, could also have an adaptive value. These features include transversely arranged, widely
nasal openings open for free circulation of air and the absolutely large width of the nose associated with them, often equal to its height. These features provided access to the heated air of the tropics to the mucous membrane of the nasal region and contributed to increased evaporation of moisture, which is so necessary in a hot climate. The strong development of the mucous membrane of the lips in most Negroids and Australoids probably played the same role. All of these features probably appeared as random mutations in ancient times. II later became widespread only in those climatic conditions where they turned out to be most useful.
Of the racial traits characteristic of Caucasians, depigmentation of the skin, hair and iris of the eyes could be subjected to the action of natural selection in the early stages of human history. Predominantly recessive mutations of the genes that determine these traits had the greatest chance of survival and normal reproduction in the north of Europe, where a cool or even cold, humid climate with significant cloudiness and, consequently, reduced insolation prevailed during the ice age and post-glacial time. Light-skinned, fair-haired and light-eyed northern Caucasians, and at present much worse than representatives of other races, tolerate direct exposure to sunlight. Extremely depigmented red-haired people, in most cases fair-skinned and light-eyed, suffer especially from increased insolation. These people almost do not sunbathe, that is, their skin does not form an additional pigment, melanin, which protects against the harmful effects of the sun. Among the northern continental Mongoloids of Siberia, there is also some tendency to depigmentation of the hair, eyes, and especially the skin. So, for example, the Tungus peoples of Siberia (Evenks, Evens, etc.) are much more fair-skinned compared to the Mongols, or even more so the Chinese. Some groups of Evenks and Evens have mixed and even light eyes, as well as blond and reddish hair.
N. P. Neverova with co-authors noted that gynox syndrome in the indigenous population of the Arctic leads to a cylindrical structure of the chest and a low concentration of ascorbic acid as a result of increased consumption with increased redox processes in a cold climate. In people who first came to the Arctic, there is an increase in the tone of the respiratory muscles, an increase in the speed of blood flow, an increase in the content of hemoglobin and oxygen capacity of the blood. X. Erickson, studying the Eskimos of Cape Barray and Americans living in the same conditions, found higher rates of oxygen uptake in Eskimos (324 ml/min.) than in European Americans (299 ml/min.). T. I. Alekseeva, analyzing the geographical distribution of cholesterol in the blood serum, found a general trend of its increase in the northern regions of the ecumene:
Canadian Eskimos - from 139.2 to 176.4 mg%, Eskimos of Alaska - from 202.8 to 214.4 mg%, Eskimos of the Chukchi Peninsula and Chukchi - from 184.4 to 202.1 mg%, among the Saami of the Kola Peninsula - 202.2 mg%, among the Forest Nenets - 131.4 mg%. Highly high level cholesterol is a reflection of the high fat content in the diet. Eskimos have no atherosclerosis. In Caucasoid populations, with a high content of fat in the diet and cholesterol in the blood, the percentage of atherosclerosis is also high. In Arctic populations, high blood cholesterol levels serve to provide higher energy processes in the body. A group of physiologists led by A.P. Milovanov (Institute of Human Morphology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences) discovered and described stable pulmonary hypertension in residents of the extreme northeast of the USSR (Magadan region) and the European North (Nenets autonomous region). An increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary circle from 18.3 to 60.4 mm Hg. Art. noted already in the first 3-12 months. after moving to the North, accompanied by a violation of adaptation. So, healthy men begin to complain of shortness of breath during physical exertion. In the next 10 years, there is a decrease in pressure to 47.6 mm Hg. Art. (European North). The decline is accompanied by an improvement respiratory function.. The native inhabitants of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, both Russians and Nenets, also have pulmonary hypertension, reaching 43.9 mm Hg. Art. without any complaints. Particularly high blood pressure (42.2 mm Hg) was found among Nenets reindeer herders who perform a large amount of physical work. This suggests the adaptive significance of pulmonary hypertension. The cause of hypertension is the difficulty in exhaling caused by a combination of cold and wind. The primary reaction is a spasm of the small bronchi, which contributes to the warming and humidification of the inhaled air, but at the same time leads to a decrease in the volume of pulmonary ventilation. This causes spasm of arterioles, causing an increase in pulmonary arterial pressure. With long-term residence in the North, hypertension is maintained due to the growth of the medial membrane of the arterioles. Mehan Ts., investigating thermoregulation among the Eskimos and Indians of Alaska in comparison with blacks and whites, found a higher temperature of the fingers during the entire period of cooling. K. Andersen determined that the Lapps had a higher temperature of the legs and greater metabolic stability in cold conditions than the Europeans of Norway. Thus, the natives of the North have adaptive-genetic mechanisms that determine gas exchange and thermoregulation.
If the Australoid races probably formed in the tropics of Southeast Asia, the Negroid races in the same climatic zone of Africa, and the Caucasoid races in the temperate Mediterranean climate zone, of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, then the area of formation of the Mongoloid races should most likely be sought in the semi-deserts and steppes of Central Asia, where, at least since the end of the ice age, a sharply continental dry climate has dominated with large daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations, strong winds, often passing into real dust storms, during which huge masses of dry sand, loess, clay and even small stones were transferred, irritating and blinding the eyes. The works of the Soviet archaeologist S. A. Semenov and some other scientists showed that the narrow incision of the palpebral fissure of the Mongoloids, due to the strong development of the fold of the upper eyelid and epicanthus, served as protection against harmful effect listed natural agents. AT Central Asia and Eastern Siberia, the Mongoloids today tolerate the sharply continental climate better and less often get sick with conjunctivitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes) compared to Caucasoid immigrants.
While attaching a certain importance to natural selection in the early stages of race formation among people of the modern species, we must at the same time remember that as the productive forces of society developed, technological progress and the creation of an artificial cultural environment in the process of collective labor, our ancestors needed less and less bodily adaptation to the surrounding natural geographic conditions of life. The morpho-physiological adaptation of the people themselves was gradually replaced by an active purposeful adaptation of the natural environment to the ever-increasing economic and cultural needs of human society. Declining role natural selection began in the era of the primitive communal system, probably during the transition from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) 16-12 thousand lots before our time.
A good illustration of these general provisions is the history of the formation of the races of the indigenous population of Australia and America, the settlement of which by people of the modern species began, as we already know, at the end of the Paleolithic and continued, probably, during the periods of the Mesolithic and partly the Neolithic (New Stone Age). The main racial features of the Australians were formed, presumably, during the life of their ancestors in Southeast Asia, from where they penetrated through Indonesia to the Australian continent, retaining or only slightly changing their characteristic features that arose in the tropical zone. However, during the development of the equatorial populations of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, a peculiar South African, or Bushman, race developed, combining the main features of Negroids with some Mongoloid features (yellowish skin tone, a highly developed fold of the upper eyelid, epp-canthus, low nose bridge, etc.). It is possible that here, in climatic conditions close to those of Central Asia, independent “beneficial” mutations arose, picked up by natural selection.
America, as we have seen, was settled at about the same time as Australia, mainly by the ancient Mongoloids from Northeast Asia, who had not yet formed many of the characteristic features of the face (narrow eye slit, epicanthus, low nose bridge, etc. ). When people mastered the various climatic zones of America, adaptation, apparently, no longer played a significant role, since there were no such sharp racial differences as in Eurasia and Africa. Nevertheless, the fact that some groups of Indians of California and the tropical zone of South America (especially the Sirionos of Brazil and Bolivia), as well as the Fuegians, often have a combination of such "equatorial" features as dark skin, narrowly wavy or even curly hair, broad nose, thickened lips, etc. It is quite possible that here, too, at one time there was an increased concentration of mutants similar to the equatorial adaptive mutants of Africa and South Asia.
The action of natural selection on the formation in the Late Paleolithic of the ancient equatorial, Caucasoid and Mongoloid races is far from exhausting the complex processes of racegenesis. Above, when reviewing various serological, odontological, dermatoglyphic and other areal signs, we saw that, according to some of them, humanity can be divided into two large groups of populations - western and eastern. African Negroids and Caucasians belong to the first, Mongoloids (including American Indians) to the second. The Australoids of Southeast Asia and Oceania occupy a transitional position between these groups; in most adaptive racial traits of pigmentation, hair shape, nose structure, lips, etc., they show similarities with African Negroids, which gives some anthropologists the right to combine both into one equatorial, or Negro-Australoid, large race. However, in many features of teeth, blood, finger patterns and other neutral (maladaptive) features, Australoids differ from Negroids and approach Mongoloids. With the accumulation of new data on the geographical distribution of such features, the hypothesis of the initial division of mankind into two halves - western and eastern - becomes more and more substantiated. The first group of populations can also be called Euro-African, or Mediterranean-Atlantic, and the second - Asian-Oceanian, or Pacific.
Thus, the relationship of the Australoids with the Negroids turns out to be no greater than with the main groups of races, and the designation "equatorial races" acquires not a genetic, but only a descriptive-geographical character. At the same time, as we have seen, the belonging of all modern and fossil humans, starting from the Late Paleolithic period, to one species of Homo sapiens is beyond doubt. The process of sapientation, i.e., the formation of people of the modern species, must have preceded racial formation, which does not exclude the involvement in this process of the descendants of ancient pre-sapient human populations. The hypothesis of the existence of several foci of sapientation (polycentrism), defended by some foreign and Soviet anthropologists (for example, F. Weidenreich, K. S. Kuhn, V. P. Alekseev, and others), in the light of the latest paleoanthropological materials, is doubtful. N. N. Cheboksarov writes in the book “Ethnic Anthropology of China” that “not only China, but also East Asia as a whole could not be the “ancestral home” of the human family (hominids), since there are no bone remains of anthropoid apes (anthropoids) in this region ) that could be their ancestors. The latest archaeological and paleoanthropological materials suggest that the ancestors of the most ancient people (archanthropes), represented by the Sinanthropes from Lantian, Zhoukoudian and Yuanmou, as well as the Pithecanthropes of Indonesia, came to these countries at the beginning of the Pleistocene from the west, most likely from East Africa, where many Soviet and foreign scientists are looking after Charles Darwin for the ancestral home of hominids. The species Homo sapiens, which has developed under the influence of natural selection as an adaptive system, like all other plant and animal species, is unique; it arose in the same focus and in the same era, on the basis of a single, albeit widely dispersed, macropopulation with a common gene pool and a complex internal structure. The initial areal differences between the western and eastern populations of Homo sapiens began to take shape, probably, only at the dawn of the Late Paleolithic and concerned mainly neutral odontological, dermatoglyphic, serological, and other signs of a discrete nature. In the formation of these differences, a large role was played by genetic-automatic processes, which were stimulated by the temporary, but rather long-term isolation of individual initially small groups of neoanthropes moving in the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic from the western regions of the ecumene to the east. The Australoid and Mongoloid races that developed later (not earlier than the end of the Late Paleolithic) inherited many of these areal differences from their ancestors and in turn passed them on to their descendants, in whom they have been preserved, at least in part, to the present day. V.P. Alekseev believes that “the appearance modern man happened in two places. The first of them is Western Asia, possibly with adjacent regions; the second - the interfluve of the Huang He and the Yangtze with adjacent areas. In Western Asia, the ancestors of the Caucasoids and Negroids were formed, in China the ancestors of the Mongoloids. However, the hypothesis of the formation of Homo sapiens in two independent foci based on different subspecies of archanthropes and paleoanthropes is in conflict with the general patterns of evolution of the organic world established by Charles Darwin under the influence of natural selection and is not consistent with irrefutable data on the species unity of all ancient modern human populations. Many foreign and most Soviet scientists (J. No-meshkeri, T. Liptak, P. Boev, P. Vlakhovich, Ya. Ya. Roginsky, V. I. Vernadsky, M. G. Levin, N. N. Cheboksarov, V P. Yakimov, M. I. Uryson, A. A. Zubov, Yu. G. Rychkov, V. M. Kharitonov and others) stand on the positions of monocentrism - a single center for the formation of modern people. Sapientation, which probably began at the turn of the Middle and Late Paleolithic in the Eastern Mediterranean, captured areas of South-West and South Asia and further more and more new territories as rapidly breeding mobile sapient populations settled and mixed with different groups of ancient people (Neanderthals), which, as a result of this process, were saturated with sapiens genes and were involved in the general course of the formation of modern people and their distribution from the eastern shores mediterranean sea northwest to Europe, south to Africa and east to the depths of the Asian continent up to the coast Pacific Ocean. It can be assumed that the majority of Neanderthal populations, including their specialized forms, were involved in the process of sapientation to one degree or another. Only some marginal (marginal) groups of Neanderthals (for example, the Rhodesians in Africa or the Ngandongs in Java) could die out and not take part in this process. In the process of this resettlement, already in the Late Paleolithic, under the influence of a temporary, rather long-term isolation, a division of mankind, united by origin, into western and eastern halves arose, and somewhat later, the formation of four main groups of human races began: Australoid, Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid.
Since the 17th century, science has put forward a number of classifications of human races. Today their number reaches 15. However, all classifications are based on three racial pillars or three large races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid with many subspecies and branches. Some anthropologists add to them the Australoid and Americanoid races.
Racial trunks
According to the data of molecular biology and genetics, the division of mankind into races occurred about 80 thousand years ago.
At first, two trunks stood out: Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid, and 40-45 thousand years ago there was a differentiation of proto-Caucasoids and proto-Mongoloids.
Scientists believe that the origins of the origin of races originate in the Paleolithic era, although the process of modification en masse humanity only from the Neolithic: it is in this era that the Caucasoid type crystallizes.
The process of formation of races continued with the migration of primitive people from continent to continent. Thus, anthropological data show that the ancestors of the Indians who moved to the American continent from Asia were not yet established Mongoloids, and the first inhabitants of Australia were racially "neutral" neoanthropes.
What does genetics say?
Today, questions of the origin of races are for the most part the prerogative of two sciences - anthropology and genetics. The first, based on human bone remains, reveals the diversity of anthropological forms, and the second tries to understand the relationship between the totality of racial traits and the corresponding set of genes.
However, there is no agreement among geneticists. Some adhere to the theory of uniformity of the entire human gene pool, others argue that each race has a unique combination of genes. However, recent studies more likely indicate the correctness of the latter.
The study of haplotypes confirmed the relationship between racial traits and genetic characteristics.
It has been proven that certain haplogroups are always associated with specific races, and other races cannot obtain them except through the process of racial mixing.
In particular, Stanford University professor Luca Cavalli-Sforza, based on the analysis of the "genetic maps" of European settlement, pointed out significant similarities in the DNA of the Basques and the Cro-Magnon. The Basques managed to preserve their genetic uniqueness largely due to the fact that they lived on the periphery of migration waves and practically did not undergo miscegenation.
Two hypotheses
Modern science relies on two hypotheses of the origin of human races - polycentric and monocentric.
According to the theory of polycentrism, humanity is the result of a long and independent evolution of several phyletic lines.
Thus, the Caucasoid race was formed in Western Eurasia, the Negroid race in Africa, and the Mongoloid race in Central and East Asia.
Polycentrism involves the crossing of representatives of protoras at the borders of their ranges, which led to the appearance of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (mixing of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or Ethiopian (mixing of Caucasoid and Negroid races).
From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one region of the globe in the process of settling neoanthropes, who subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.
The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came from Southeast Africa. However, the Soviet scientist Yakov Roginsky expanded the concept of monocentrism, suggesting that the habitat of the ancestors Homo sapiens went beyond the African continent.
Recent research by scientists from the Australian national university in Canberra and completely questioned the theory of a common African ancestor of man.
So, DNA tests of an ancient fossilized skeleton, which is about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that the Australian aborigine has nothing to do with the African hominid.
The theory of multi-regional origin of races, according to Australian scientists, is much closer to the truth.
An Unexpected Ancestor
If we agree with the version that the common ancestor of at least the population of Eurasia came from Africa, then the question arises about its anthropometric characteristics. Was he similar to the current inhabitants of the African continent, or did he have neutral racial characteristics?
Some researchers believe that African kind of Homo was closer to the Mongoloids. This is indicated by a number of archaic features inherent in the Mongoloid race, in particular, the structure of the teeth, which are more characteristic of the Neanderthal and Homo erectus.
It is very important that the population of the Mongoloid type has a high adaptability to various habitats: from equatorial forests to the arctic tundra. But representatives of the Negroid race are largely dependent on increased solar activity.
For example, in high latitudes, children of the Negroid race have a lack of vitamin D, which provokes a number of diseases, primarily rickets.
Therefore, a number of researchers doubt that our ancestors, similar to modern Africans, could have successfully migrated around the globe.
northern ancestral home
Recently, more and more researchers have stated that the Caucasian race has little in common with primitive man African plains and argue that these populations developed independently of each other.
Thus, the American anthropologist J. Clark believes that when the representatives of the "black race" in the process of migration reached Southern Europe and Western Asia, they encountered a more developed "white race" there.
Researcher Boris Kutsenko hypothesizes that at the origins of modern humanity there were two racial trunks: Euro-American and Negroid-Mongoloid. According to him, the Negroid race comes from the forms of Homo erectus, and the Mongoloid race from Sinanthropus.
Kutsenko considers the regions of the Northern Arctic Ocean. Based on the data of oceanology and paleoanthropology, he suggests that the global climate changes that occurred at the border of the Pleistocene and Holocene destroyed the ancient continent - Hyperborea. Part of the population from the territories that had gone under water migrated to Europe, and then to Asia and North America, the researcher concludes.
As evidence of the relationship between Caucasians and North American Indians, Kutsenko refers to the craniological indicators and characteristics of the blood groups of these races, which "almost completely coincide."
fixture
The phenotypes of modern people living in different parts of the planet are the result of a long evolution. Many racial traits have obvious adaptive value. For example, dark skin pigmentation protects people living in the equatorial belt from excessive exposure. ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their bodies increase the ratio of body surface to its volume, thereby facilitating thermoregulation in hot conditions.
In contrast to the inhabitants of low latitudes, the population of the northern regions of the planet, as a result of evolution, acquired a predominantly light skin and hair color, which allowed them to receive more sunlight and satisfy the body's need for vitamin D.
In the same way, the protruding "Caucasian nose" evolved to warm the cold air, and the epicanthus of the Mongoloids was formed as a protection of the eyes from dust storms and steppe winds.
sexual selection
For ancient man it was important not to allow representatives of other ethnic groups into their range. This was a significant factor in the formation of racial characteristics, thanks to which our ancestors adapted to specific environmental conditions. Sexual selection played a large role in this.
In each ethnic group, focused on certain racial characteristics, their own ideas about beauty were fixed. Whoever these signs were more pronounced - he had more chances to pass them on by inheritance.
While the tribesmen, who did not fit the standards of beauty, were practically deprived of the opportunity to influence the offspring.
For example, from the point of view of biology, the Scandinavian peoples have recessive traits - skin, hair and light-colored eyes - which, thanks to sexual selection that lasted for millennia, formed into a stable form adaptive to the conditions of the north.