Racial differences have been and continue to be the cause of different studies, as well as conflict and discrimination. A tolerant society tries to pretend that racial differences do not exist; the constitutions of countries state that all people are equal...

However, there are races and people are different. Of course, not at all in the way that supporters of the “superior” and “lower” races want, but differences do exist.

Some research by geneticists and anthropologists these days is discovering new facts that, thanks to the study of the emergence of human races, allow us to take a different look at some stages of our history.

Racial trunks

Since the 17th century, science has put forward whole line 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.

According to molecular biology and genetics, the division of humanity into races occurred about 80 thousand years ago.

First, two trunks emerged: Negroid and Caucasoid-Mongoloid, and 40-45 thousand years ago, differentiation of proto-Caucasoids and proto-Mongoloids occurred.

Scientists believe that the origins of races originate in the Paleolithic era, although the massive process of modification swept humanity only from the Neolithic: it was during this era that the Caucasoid type crystallized.

The process of race formation continued during 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 fully formed Mongoloids, and the first inhabitants of Australia were “racially neutral” neoanthropes.

What does genetics say?

Today, questions of the origin of races are largely 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 connections between a set of racial characteristics 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 rather indicate that the latter are right.

The study of haplotypes confirmed the connection between racial characteristics 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 an analysis of “genetic maps” of European settlement, pointed out significant similarities in the DNA of the Basques and 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 were practically not subject to crossbreeding.

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 lineages.

Thus, the Caucasoid race 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 proto-races at the borders of their areas, which led to the emergence of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or the Ethiopian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Negroid races).

From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one area of ​​the globe in the process of settlement of neoanthropes, which subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.

The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came out of 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 they completely questioned the theory of the common African ancestor of humans.

Thus, DNA tests on an ancient fossilized skeleton, about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that the Australian aborigine has no relation to the African hominid.

The theory of multiregional 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 the African species 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 Neanderthals and Homo erectus.

It is very important that the Mongoloid-type population is highly adaptable 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 experience 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 throughout to the globe.

Northern ancestral home

IN Lately More and more researchers are stating 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 representatives of the “black race” in the process of migration reached Southern Europe and Western Asia, they encountered there the more developed “white race”.

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 forms of Homo erectus, and the Mongoloid race comes from Sinanthropus.

Kutsenko considers the regions of the Arctic Ocean to be the birthplace of the Euro-American trunk. Based on data from oceanology and paleoanthropology, he suggests that global climate changes that occurred at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary destroyed the ancient continent of Hyperborea. Part of the population from the territories that went 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 craniological indicators and characteristics of the blood groups of these races, which “almost completely coincide.”

Device

Phenotypes modern people living in different parts of the planet, this is the result of long evolution. Many racial characteristics have obvious adaptive significance. For example, dark skin pigmentation protects people living in the equatorial belt from excessive exposure ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their body 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 predominantly light color skin and hair, allowing them to receive more sunlight and meet the body's need for vitamin D.

In the same way, the protruding “Caucasian nose” evolved to warm the cold air, and the epicanthus among the Mongoloids was formed as a protection for the eyes from dust storms and steppe winds.

Sexual selection

Humanity is currently represented by one species Homo sapiens (A reasonable person). However, this species is not uniform. It is polymorphic and consists of three large and many small transitional races - biological groups distinguished by small morphological characteristics. These characteristics include: hair type and color, skin color, eyes, shape of the nose, lips, face and head, proportions of the body and limbs.

Races emerged as a result of the settlement and geographic isolation of the ancestors of modern people in different natural and climatic conditions. Racial characteristics are hereditary. They arose in the distant past under the direct influence of the environment and were adaptive in nature. The following large races are distinguished.

Negroid (Australo-Negroid or Equatorial) The race is characterized by dark skin color, curly and wavy hair, a wide and slightly protruding nose, thick lips and dark eyes. Before the era of colonization, this race was common in Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Caucasoid (Euro-Asian) The race is distinguished by light or dark skin, straight or wavy hair, good development of facial hair in men (beard and mustache), narrow protruding nose, thin lips. Representatives of this race are settled in Europe, North Africa, Western Asia and Northern India.

For Mongoloid (Asian-American) The race is characterized by dark or light skin, straight, often coarse hair, flattened wide face with strongly prominent cheekbones, average width of lips and nose. Initially, this race inhabited Southeast, North and Central Asia, North and South America.

Although the large races differ markedly from each other in their complex of external characteristics, they are interconnected by a number of intermediate types that imperceptibly transform into one another.

The biological unity of human races is evidenced by: 1 – the absence of genetic isolation and unlimited possibilities of crossing with the formation of fertile offspring; 2 – equivalence of races in biological and psychological terms; 3 – the presence of transitional races between large races, combining the characteristics of two neighboring ones; 4 – localization of skin patterns such as arcs on the second finger (in apes – on the fifth); All representatives of the races have the same pattern of hair arrangement on the head and other morphophysiological characteristics.

Control questions:

What is the position of man in the animal world?

How is the origin of man from animals proven?

What biological factors contributed to human evolution?

What social factors contributed to the formation Homo sapiens?

What human races are currently distinguished?

What does the biological unity of races prove?

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The population of our planet is so diverse that one can only be surprised. What kind of nationalities and nationalities can you meet! Everyone has their own faith, customs, traditions, and orders. Its own beautiful and extraordinary culture. However, all these differences are formed only by people themselves in the process of social historical development. What lies behind the differences that appear externally? After all, we are all very different:

• dark-skinned;
• yellow-skinned;
• white;
• With different colors eye;
• different heights and so on.

Obviously, the reasons are purely biological, independent of people themselves and formed over thousands of years of evolution. This is how modern human races were formed, which explain the visual diversity of human morphology theoretically. Let's take a closer look at what this term is, what its essence and meaning are.

The concept of "race of people"

What is race? This is not a nation, not a people, not a culture. These concepts should not be confused. After all, representatives of different nationalities and cultures can freely belong to the same race. Therefore, the definition can be given as given by the science of biology.

Human races are a set of external morphological characteristics, that is, those that are the phenotype of a representative. They were formed under the influence of external conditions, the influence of a complex of biotic and abiotic factors, and were fixed in the genotype during evolutionary processes. Thus, the characteristics that underlie the division of people into races include:

• height;
• skin and eye color;
• hair structure and shape;
• hair growth of the skin;
• structural features of the face and its parts.

All those signs of Homo sapiens like biological species, which lead to the formation of a person’s external appearance, but do not in any way affect his personal, spiritual and social qualities and manifestations, as well as the level of self-development and self-education.

People of different races have completely identical biological springboards for the development of certain abilities. Their general karyotype is the same:

• women - 46 chromosomes, that is, 23 XX pairs;
• men - 46 chromosomes, 22 pairs XX, 23 pairs - XY.

This means that all representatives of Homo sapiens are one and the same, among them there are no more or less developed, superior to others, or higher. From a scientific point of view, everyone is equal.

The species of human races, formed over approximately 80 thousand years, have adaptive significance. It has been proven that each of them was formed with the aim of providing a person with the opportunity for a normal existence in a given habitat and facilitating adaptation to climatic, relief and other conditions. There is a classification showing which races of Homo sapiens existed before, and which ones exist today.

Classification of races

She's not alone. The thing is that until the 20th century it was customary to distinguish 4 races of people. These were the following varieties:

• Caucasian;
• Australoid;
• Negroid;
• Mongoloid.

For each, detailed characteristic features were described by which any individual of the human species could be identified. However, later a classification became widespread that included only 3 human races. This became possible due to the unification of the Australoid and Negroid groups into one.

That's why modern views human races are as follows.

1. Large: Caucasoid (European), Mongoloid (Asian-American), Equatorial (Australian-Negroid).
2. Small: many different branches that formed from one of the large races.

Each of them is characterized by its own characteristics, signs, external manifestations in the appearance of people. All of them are considered by anthropologists, and the science itself that studies this issue is biology. Human races have interested people since ancient times. After all, completely contrasting external features often became the cause of racial strife and conflict.

Genetic research recent years allow us to speak again about the division of the equatorial group into two. Let's consider all 4 races of people who stood out earlier and became relevant again recently. Let us note the signs and features.

Australoid race

Typical representatives of this group include the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, Melanesia, Southeast Asia, and India. The name of this race is also Australo-Veddoid or Australo-Melanesian. All synonyms make it clear which small races are included in this group. They are as follows:

• Australoids;
• Veddoids;
• Melanesians.

In general, the characteristics of each group presented do not vary too much among themselves. There are several main features that characterize all small races of people of the Australoid group.

1. Dolichocephaly is an elongated shape of the skull in relation to the proportions of the rest of the body.
2. Deep-set eyes, wide slits. The color of the iris is predominantly dark, sometimes almost black.
3. The nose is wide, with a pronounced flat bridge.
4. The hair on the body is very well developed.
5. The hair on the head is dark in color (sometimes among Australians there are natural blondes, which was the result of a natural genetic mutation of the species that once took hold). Their structure is rigid, they can be curly or slightly curly.
6. People are of average height, often above average.
7. The physique is thin and elongated.

Within the Australoid group, people of different races differ from each other, sometimes quite strongly. So, a native Australian may be tall, blond, of a dense build, with straight hair and light brown eyes. At the same time, a native of Melanesia will be a thin, short, dark-skinned representative with curly black hair and almost black eyes.

Therefore, the general characteristics described above for the entire race are only an averaged version of their combined analysis. Naturally, crossbreeding also occurs - the mixing of different groups as a result of natural crossing of species. That is why it is sometimes very difficult to identify a specific representative and attribute him to one or another small or large race.

Negroid race

The people who make up this group are the settlers of the following areas:

• Eastern, Central and Southern Africa;
• part of Brazil;
• some peoples of the USA;
• representatives of the West Indies.

In general, such races of people as Australoids and Negroids used to be united in the equatorial group. However, research in the 21st century has proven the inconsistency of this order. After all, the differences in the manifested characteristics between the designated races are too great. And some similar features are explained very simply. After all, the habitats of these individuals are very similar in terms of living conditions, and therefore the adaptations in appearance are also similar.

So, the following signs are characteristic of representatives of the Negroid race.

1. Very dark, sometimes bluish-black, skin color, as it is especially rich in melanin content.
2. Wide eye shape. They are large, dark brown, almost black.
3. The hair is dark, curly, and coarse.
4. Height varies, often low.
5. The limbs are very long, especially the arms.
6. The nose is wide and flat, the lips are very thick and fleshy.
7. The jaw lacks a chin protrusion and protrudes forward.
8. The ears are large.
9. Facial hair is poorly developed, and there is no beard or mustache.

Negroids are easy to distinguish from others by their external appearance. Below are the different races of people. The photo reflects how clearly Negroids differ from Europeans and Mongoloids.

Mongoloid race

Representatives of this group are characterized by special features, which allow them to adapt to rather difficult external conditions: desert sands and winds, blinding snow drifts, etc.

Mongoloids are the indigenous people of Asia and much of America. Their characteristic signs are as follows.

1. Narrow or oblique eye shape.
2. The presence of an epicanthus - a specialized skin fold aimed at covering internal corner eyes.
3. The color of the iris is from light to dark brown.
4. distinguished by brachycephaly (short head).
5. The superciliary ridges are thickened and strongly protruding.
6. Sharp, high cheekbones are well defined.
7. Facial hair is poorly developed.
8. The hair on the head is coarse, dark in color, and has a straight structure.
9. The nose is not wide, the bridge is located low.
10. Lips different thicknesses, often narrow.
11. Skin color varies among different representatives from yellow to dark, there are also light-skinned people.

It should be noted that another characteristic feature is short stature, both in men and women. It is the Mongoloid group that predominates in numbers when comparing the main races of people. They populated almost all climatographic zones of the Earth. Close to them quantitative characteristics there are Caucasians, whom we will consider below.

Caucasian

First of all, let’s designate the predominant habitats of people from this group. This:

• Europe.
• North Africa.
• Western Asia.

Thus, the representatives unite two main parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Since living conditions were also very different, the general characteristics are again an average option after analyzing all the indicators. Thus, the following appearance features can be distinguished.

1. Mesocephaly - medium-headedness in the structure of the skull.
2. Horizontal eye shape, lack of pronounced brow ridges.
3. A protruding narrow nose.
4. Lips of varying thickness, usually medium in size.
5. Soft curly or straight hair. There are blondes, brunettes, and brown-haired people.
6. Eye color ranges from light blue to brown.
7. Skin color also varies from pale, white to dark.
8. The hairline is very well developed, especially on the chest and face of men.
9. The jaws are orthognathic, that is, slightly pushed forward.

In general, a European is easy to distinguish from others. Appearance allows you to do this almost without error, even without using additional genetic data.

If you look at all the races of people, the photos of whose representatives are located below, the difference becomes obvious. However, sometimes the characteristics are mixed so deeply that identifying an individual becomes almost impossible. He is able to relate to two races at once. This is further aggravated by intraspecific mutation, which leads to the appearance of new characteristics.

For example, albinos-negroids are special case the appearance of blondes in the Negroid race. A genetic mutation that disrupts the integrity of racial characteristics in a given group.

Origin of the races of man

Where did such a variety of signs of people’s appearance come from? There are two main hypotheses that explain the origin of human races. This:

• monocentrism;
• polycentrism.

However, none of them has yet become an officially accepted theory. According to the monocentric point of view, initially, about 80 thousand years ago, all people lived in the same territory, and therefore their appearance was approximately the same. However, over time, growing numbers led to a wider spread of people. As a result, some groups found themselves in difficult climatographic conditions.

This led to the development and consolidation at the genetic level of some morphological adaptations that help in survival. For example, dark skin and curly hair provide thermoregulation and a cooling effect for the head and body in Negroids. And the narrow shape of the eyes protects them from sand and dust, as well as from being blinded by white snow among Mongoloids. The developed hair of Europeans is a unique way of thermal insulation in harsh winter conditions.

Another hypothesis is called polycentrism. She says that different types Human races descended from several ancestral groups that were unequally distributed around the globe. That is, there were initially several foci from which the development and consolidation of racial characteristics began. Again influenced by climatographic conditions.

That is, the process of evolution proceeded linearly, simultaneously affecting aspects of life on different continents. This is how the formation took place modern types people from several phylogenetic lineages. However, it is not possible to say for certain about the validity of this or that hypothesis, since there is no evidence of a biological and genetic nature, or at the molecular level.

Modern classification

The races of people, according to current scientists, have the following classification. There are two trunks, and each of them has three large races and many small ones. It looks something like this.

1. Western trunk. Includes three races:

• Caucasians;
• capoids;
• Negroids.

The main groups of Caucasians: Nordic, Alpine, Dinaric, Mediterranean, Falsky, East Baltic and others.

Small races of capoids: Bushmen and Khoisan. They inhabit South Africa. In terms of the fold above the eyelid, they are similar to the Mongoloids, but in other characteristics they differ sharply from them. The skin is not elastic, which is why all representatives are characterized by the appearance of early wrinkles.

Groups of Negroids: pygmies, nilots, blacks. They're all settlers different parts Africa, therefore their appearance is similar. Very dark eyes, the same skin and hair. Thick lips and lack of chin protuberance.

2. Eastern trunk. Includes the following large races:

• Australoids;
• Americanoids;
• Mongoloids.

Mongoloids are divided into two groups - northern and southern. These are the indigenous inhabitants of the Gobi Desert, which left its mark on the appearance of these people.

Americanoids - the population of Northern and South America. They are very tall and often have an epicanthus, especially in children. However, the eyes are not as narrow as those of the Mongoloids. They combine the characteristics of several races.

Australoids consist of several groups:

• Melanesians;
• Veddoids;
• Ainians;
• Polynesians;
• Australians.

Their characteristic features were discussed above.

Minor races

This concept is a rather highly specialized term that allows you to identify any person to any race. After all, each large one is divided into many small ones, and they are already compiled on the basis of not only small external distinctive features, but also include data from genetic studies, clinical tests, and facts of molecular biology.

Therefore, small races are what make it possible to more accurately reflect the position of each specific individual in the system of the organic world, and specifically, within the species Homo sapiens sapiens. What specific groups exist was discussed above.

Racism

As we have found out, there are different races of people. Their signs can be very polar. This is what gave rise to the theory of racism. It says that one race is superior to another, since it consists of more highly organized and perfect beings. At one time, this led to the emergence of slaves and their white masters.

However, from a scientific point of view, this theory is completely absurd and untenable. The genetic predisposition to the development of certain skills and abilities is the same among all peoples. Proof that all races are biologically equal is the possibility of free interbreeding between them while maintaining the health and vitality of the offspring.

The population of our planet today exceeds 7 billion people. This figure is increasing every day.

World population

Scientists have determined that in just a decade, the number of people on Earth will increase by 1 billion people. However, this dynamic demographic picture was not always so high.

Until a few centuries ago, the human population grew slowly. People died from unfavorable weather conditions and diseases in early age, since the development of science and technology was at a low level.

Today, the largest countries in terms of population are Japan, China and India. The population of these three countries becomes half of the total world population.

The smallest number of people live in countries whose territory covers equatorial forests, tundra and taiga zones, as well as mountain ranges. The bulk of the planet's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere (about 90%).

Races

All humanity is divided into races. Races are organized groups of people who are united by common external characteristics - body structure, face shape, skin color, hair structure.

Such external signs formed as a result of adaptation of human physiology to conditions external environment. There are three major races: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid.

The most numerous is the Caucasian race, accounting for about 45% of the planet's population. Caucasians inhabit the territory of Europe, part of Asia, South and North America and Australia.

The second largest race is the Mongoloid race. The Mongoloid race includes people living in Asia, as well as aborigines North America- Indians.

The Negroid race ranks third in number. Representatives of this race live in Africa. After the slave period, representatives of the Negroid race remained to live in South and North America.

Peoples

Large races are formed by representatives of many nations. Most of the world's population belongs to 20 large nations, their number exceeds 50 million people.

Nations are communities of people who lived in the same territory over long historical periods and are united by cultural heritage.

IN modern world There are about 1500 peoples. The geography of their settlement is very diverse. Some of them are spread all over the planet, some live within a populated area.

Lesson Plan

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

What are the human races?

Human predecessors are Australopithecines;
- the most ancient people - progressive Australopithecus, Archanthropus (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man, etc.);
- ancient people - paleoanthropes (Neanderthals);
- fossil people of modern anatomical type - neoanthropes (Cro-Magnons).

The historical development of man was carried out under the influence of the same factors biological evolution, as the formation of other types of living organisms. However, humans are characterized by such a unique phenomenon for living nature as the increasing influence on anthropogenesis of social factors (labor activity, public image life, speech and thinking).

For modern man, social-labor relations have become leading and determining.

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

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

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

Chapter 8

Basics of ecology

After studying this chapter, you will learn:

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

Back in the middle of the 20th century. the word ecology was known only to specialists, but nowadays it has become very popular; it is most often used when talking about the unfavorable state of the nature around us.

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

Kamensky A. A., Kriksunov E. V., Pasechnik V. V. Biology 10th grade
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