People of different races. Races of people (photo). Modern races of people on the planet and their origin

There is a huge variety of nationalities on planet Earth, which are characterized by a certain religion, traditions, and cultural values. A broader concept is races, which unite people according to morphological characteristics. They were formed as a result of the evolution and socio-historical development of the population. Human race has always been of interest; anthropology studies its origin, formation, and characteristics.

Concept

The etymology of the word “race” appeared from the middle of the 19th century as a result of borrowing from French"race" German language"rasse". The further fate of the word is unknown. However, there is a version that the concept comes from the Latin word “generatio”, which means “ability to be born”.

Race is a system of human populations that is characterized by similarity in hereditary biological characteristics (external phenotype) that were formed in a certain geographical area.

Morphological characteristics that allow dividing the population into groups include:

• height;
• physique;
• structure of the skull, face;
• color of skin, eyes, hair, their structure.

The concepts of nationality, nation and race should not be confused. The latter may include representatives of different nationalities and cultures.

The importance of races lies in the formation of adaptive characteristics in the population that facilitate existence in a certain territory. The study of groups of people with identical morphological characteristics is carried out by the branch of anthropology - racial studies. Science examines the definition, classification, how they appeared, the factors of development and formation of racial characteristics.

What races are there: main types and distribution

Until the 20th century, the number of races that existed in the world was 4, depending on their characteristic features. Large groups united representatives of humanity, while differences in appearance often became the reason why strife and conflicts occurred between peoples.

The main races of people that exist on earth, taking into account the territory of settlement, are shown in the table:

There are no Negroids outside the African continent. Australoids are located within a specific range. Percentage Races on earth were distributed according to the following indicators:

• Asian population – 57%;
• Europeans (without Russia) – 21%;
• Americans - 14%;
• Africans – 8%;
• Australians – 0.3%.

There are no inhabitants in Antarctica.

Modern classification

After the 20th century, the following classification became widespread, which includes 3 racial types. This phenomenon is due to the unification of the Negroid and Australoid groups into mixed races.

Highlight modern varieties race:

• large (European, a mixture of Asian and Negroid, equatorial race - Australian-Negroid);
• small (different types that were formed from other races).

The racial division includes 2 trunks: western and eastern.

• Caucasians;
• Negroids;
• capoids.

The eastern trunk includes Americanoids, Australoids and Mongoloids. According to anthropological characteristics, Indians belong to the Americanoid race.

There is no generally accepted classification of division according to various characteristics, which is considered direct evidence of the continuity of biological processes of variability.

Signs of human races

Racial characteristics include many characteristics of a person’s structure that are formed under the influence of hereditary factors and influence environment. External signs of the human appearance are studied by biology.

Races have interested specialists since ancient times. Their distinctive features, descriptions, pictures help to understand the race of a particular person.

Caucasoid

White people are characterized by a light or dark skin tone. Hair is straight or wavy from light to dark. Men grow facial hair. The shape of the nose is narrow, protruding, the lips are thin. This race includes.

There are subraces of the Caucasian race:

• southern Caucasian;
• Northern Caucasoid.

The first type is characterized by dark, and the second - light hair, eyes and skin.

The face of the classical European is personified by the Phalian race. The Phalids are a species of the Cromanid race that has undergone Nordic influence. The second name of this subtype is northern cromanid. They differ from Nordids by having a low and wide face, a low-set bridge of the nose, a pronounced red skin tone, a steep forehead, a short neck and a massive body.

Falides are common in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, and the western Baltic. In Russia, falids are rare.

Australoid

Australoids include Veddoids, Polynesians, Ainu, Australians and Melanesians.

There are several features of the Australoid race:

• An elongated skull in relation to other parts of the body is dolichocephaly.
• The eyes are set wide apart, with a wide slit with a dark or black iris.
• Wide nose with a pronounced flat bridge.
• Body hair is developed.
• Dark, coarse hair, sometimes blond due to a genetic mutation. Hair may be slightly curly or kinky.
• Average height, sometimes above average.
• Thin and elongated physique.

It is difficult to recognize a representative of the Australoid race due to the mixture of different nations.

Mongoloid

Mongoloid people have special features that allow them to adapt to complex situations. climatic conditions: sands and winds in the desert, snow drifts.

The characteristics of Mongoloid appearance include a number of features:

• Oblique eye shape.
• At the inner corner of the eye there is an epicanthus - a fold of skin.
• Light, dark brown iris.
• Short head (feature of the skull structure).
• Thickened, strongly protruding ridges above the eyebrow.
• Weak facial and body hair.
• Dark straight hair with a hard texture.
• A narrow nose with a low-set bridge.
• Narrow lips.
• Yellow or dark skin.

The distinguishing feature is small growth.

Yellow-skinned Mongoloids predominate in numbers among the population.

Negroid

The fourth group is characterized by a list of features:

• The blue-black color of the skin is due to the increased content of the pigment - melanin.
• The eyes are large in shape with a wide slits and are black or dark brown.
• Coarse, curly black hair.
• Short stature.
• Long arms.
• Flat, wide nose.
• The lips are thick.
• The jaw protrudes forward.
• Large ears.

The facial hair is not developed, the beard and mustache are weakly expressed.

Origin

For a long period of time, people with white skin were considered representatives of the superior race. On this basis, military conflicts broke out in the struggle for the first race on earth. Entire peoples were mercilessly exterminated for the right to dominate the planet.

Some people note interesting facts about the origin of races. The German anthropologist F. Blumenbach considered the Georgians to be the most beautiful representatives. There is a special term “Caucasian race”, which is considered the most numerous.

Mixing of blood between representatives is common different groups. For example, mulatto is a term that refers to a mixture of Asian and European. A mixture of Negroid and Mongoloid races is defined as Sambo, and a Caucasian and Mongoloid race is defined as mestizo.

Of interest is the question of what race the Indians belong to - they were formed from the Australoid group.

Rasen are one of the known varieties of the Great Race. In world history, her descendants were called Tyrrhenians.

The appearance of Rasen is characterized by a number of features:

• brown eyes;
• dark brown or dark brown hair;
• short stature.

Most often, Rasen have blood type 2. Representatives of this race are characterized by steadfastness, strong spirit and rage, which contributed to a high level of military readiness.

They act as an East Slavic ethnic group. In terms of numbers, they are the most numerous people on the planet. According to Wikipedia, there are 133 million representatives of Russian nationality.

Racism

Racism Defined: “Discrimination against people based on their ethnic origin, color, culture, nationality, religion, or mother tongue.”

The term refers to reactionary ideology and policies that are aimed at the justified exploitation of people.

The heyday of racism occurred in the mid-19th century in America and England, Germany and France. This is what served as ideological support for the slave trade and the seizure of land by colonies in Oceania, Australia, Asia, Africa, and America.

Racists adhere to the ideology that there is a certain connection between mental, intellectual, social qualities and physical structure. Higher and lower races were distinguished.

Adherents of racist ideology believed that initially pure races arose, and later the mixing of peoples formed new ones. Children appeared with combined features appearance.

It is believed that a mestizo is different from its blood parents:

• attractive appearance;
• poor adaptation to living conditions;
• predisposition to genetic diseases;
• low reproductive function, blocking further mixing of blood;
• possible homosexual preferences.

The problem of incest is a crisis of self-identification: during military conflicts, it is difficult to identify an individual with one citizenship and nationality.

Crossbreeding is observed constantly and, as a result, transitional types, smoothing out differences.

From the point of view of science, mixing of races is considered as the species unity of people, their kinship and the fertility of offspring. However, the problem is the possible disappearance of a small people or a small branch of a large race.

Racism is contrary to the ideals of any human society. He performs global problem humanity.

Human race

Race- a system of human populations characterized by similarity in a set of certain hereditary biological characteristics. Traits that characterize different races often arise as a result of adaptation to different environmental conditions over many generations.

Racial studies, in addition to the above-mentioned problems, also studies the classification of races, the history of their formation and such factors of their occurrence as selective processes, isolation, mixing and migration, the influence of climatic conditions and the general geographical environment on racial characteristics.

Racial studies became especially widespread in National Socialist Germany, fascist Italy and other Western European countries, as well as earlier in the United States (Ku Klux Klan), where it served as a justification for institutionalized racism, chauvinism and anti-Semitism.

Sometimes racial studies are confused with ethnic anthropology - the latter refers, strictly speaking, only to the study racial composition individual ethnic groups, i.e. tribes, peoples, nations, and the origin of these communities.

In that part of racial research that is aimed at studying ethnogenesis, anthropology conducts research together with linguistics, history, and archeology. When studying the driving forces of race formation, anthropology comes into close contact with genetics, physiology, zoogeography, climatology, and the general theory of speciation. The study of race in anthropology has implications for many problems. It is important for resolving the question of the ancestral home of man modern look, the use of anthropological material as a historical source, coverage of problems of systematics, mainly small systematic units, knowledge of the patterns of population genetics, clarification of some issues of medical geography.

Racial studies studies geographical variations in the physical type of people, without taking into account linguistic and cultural isolation. And ethnic anthropology studies what racial variants and anthropological types are inherent in a given ethnic group, people. For example, to establish into which groups the indigenous population of the Volga-Kama region is divided, to identify their general portraits, average height, level of pigmentation - this is the task of a racial scientist. And to recreate the appearance and trace possible genetic connections of the Khazars is the task of an ethnic anthropologist.

Modern division into races

There are many opinions about how many races can be distinguished within the species Homo sapiens.

Studies of classical anthropology show that there are two trunks - eastern and western, equally distributing the six races of humanity. The division into three races - “white”, “yellow” and “black” - is an outdated position. Despite all their external dissimilarity, the races of the same trunk are connected by a greater commonality of genes and habitats than neighboring races. According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, there are about 30 human races (racial-anthropological types), united in three groups of races, which are called “large races”. However, in non-scientific literature the term “race” is still applied to large races, and the races themselves are called “subraces”, “subgroups”, etc. It is worth noting that the races themselves (small races) are divided into subraces, and there is no consensus regarding the belonging of certain subraces to certain races (small races). In addition, different anthropological schools use different names for the same races.

Western trunk

Caucasians

The natural range of Caucasoids is Europe to the Urals, North Africa, Southwest Asia and Hindustan. Includes Nordic, Mediterranean, Phalic, Alpine, East Baltic, Dinaric and other subgroups. It differs from other races primarily in its strong facial profile. Other signs vary widely.

Negroids

Natural range - Central, Western and Eastern Africa. Characteristic differences are curly hair, dark skin, widened nostrils, thick lips, etc. There is an eastern subgroup (Nilotic type, tall, narrowly built) and a western subgroup (Negro type, round-headed, medium height). The group of pygmies (Negrill type) stands apart.

Pygmies

Pygmies compared to a person of average height

The natural range of pygmies is the western part of Central Africa. Height from 144 to 150 cm for adult males, light brown skin, curly, dark hair, relatively thin lips, large body, short arms and legs, this physical type can be classified as a special race. The possible number of pygmies can range from 40 to 200 thousand people.

Kapoids, Bushmen

Caucasoid (Eurasian) races

Northern forms Atlanto-Baltic White Sea-Baltic Transitional (intermediate) forms Alpine Central European Eastern European Southern forms Mediterranean Indo-Afghan Balkan-Caucasian Near Asian (Armenoid) Pamir-Fergana Mongoloid (Asian-American) races

Asian branch of Mongoloid races Continental Mongoloids North Asian Central Asian Arctic race Pacific Mongoloids American races

Australoid (Oceanian) races

Veddoids Australians Ainu Papuans and Melanesians Negritos Negroid (African) races

Negroes Negrilli (Pygmies) Bushmen and Hottentots Mixed forms between Caucasians and the Asian branch of the Mongoloids

Central Asian groups South Siberian race Ural race and subural type Laponoids and sublapanoid type Mixed groups of Siberia Mixed forms between Caucasoids and the American branch of Mongoloids

American mestizos Mixed forms between the Caucasoid and Australoid major races

South Indian race Mixed forms between the Caucasoid and Negroid major races

Ethiopian race Mixed groups of Western Sudan Mixed groups of Eastern Sudan Mulattoes South African "coloreds" Mixed forms between the Asian branch of Mongoloids and Australoids

South Asian (Malay) race Japanese East Indonesian group Other mixed race forms

Malagasy Polynesians and Micronesians Hawaiians and Pitcairns

Idaltu

Idaltu (lat. Homo sapiens idaltu) - one of the most ancient races of people of the modern species. The Idaltu inhabited the territory of Ethiopia. The approximate age of the found Idaltu man is 160 thousand years.

See also

Notes

Links

Since the 17th century, science has put forward a whole series 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 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 the races begin 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 cross-breeding.

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 of Homo sapiens extended beyond the African continent.

Recent research by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra has completely cast doubt on the theory of a 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 comes 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 Mongoloid race, in particular, the structure of 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 across the globe.

Northern ancestral home

IN lately More and more researchers are claiming that the Caucasian race has little in common with the primitive man of the 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 of modern people living in different parts planets, 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 to ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their body increase the ratio of body surface to 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

For ancient man it was important not to allow representatives of other ethnic groups into their area. This was a significant factor that contributed to the formation of racial characteristics, thanks to which our ancestors adapted to specific environmental conditions. Sexual selection played a big role in this.

Each ethnic group, focused on certain racial characteristics, consolidated its own ideas of beauty. Those who had these signs more clearly expressed had a greater chance of passing them on to inheritance.

While fellow tribesmen who did not meet the standards of beauty were practically deprived of the opportunity to influence their offspring.

For example, the Scandinavian peoples, from a biological point of view, have recessive characteristics - light-colored skin, hair and eyes - which, thanks to sexual selection that lasted for millennia, were formed into a stable form adaptive to the conditions of the north.

For more than a century, various expeditions of anthropologists have been working in various parts of the globe, studying the diversity of humankind. Tribes have been studied in the most inaccessible areas (in tropical forests, deserts, highlands, islands), and as a result, modern humanity has been studied in morphological and physiological terms, perhaps better than any other biological species. Research has revealed the exceptional diversity of physical and genotypic characteristics of human populations and their fine adaptation to living conditions. Research has also shown that although modern humanity belongs to one single species Homo sapiens, this type is polymorphic , since it forms several different intraspecific groups, which have long been called races.

Race(fr. race- “genus”, “breed”, “tribe”) is a historically established intraspecific grouping consisting of populations Homo sapiens, characterized by similarities in morphophysiological and mental properties. Each race is distinguished by a set of hereditarily determined characteristics. Among them: skin color, eyes, hair, features of the skull and soft parts of the face, body size, height, etc.

External features of the structure of the human body were the main criteria for dividing humanity into races.

Modern humanity is divided into three main races: Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian.

Negroid race characterized dark color skin, curly, spirally twisted hair (on the head and body), a wide and slightly protruding nose, thick lips. The Negroid race includes the blacks of West Africa, Bushmen, Pygmy Negritos, Hottentots, Melanesians and aborigines of Australia. There are two large branches of the Negroid race - African and Australian. Groups of the Australian branch are characterized, in contrast to the African branch, by wavy hair type.

Mongoloid race characterized by dark or light skin, straight and fairly coarse hair, a flattened face shape, prominent cheekbones, protruding lips, a narrow palpebral fissure, a strong development of the upper eyelid fold and the presence of an epicanthus, or “Mongolian fold.”

Epicanthus - a fold of skin in the area of ​​the corner of a person’s eye, covering the lacrimal tubercle; It is especially strongly developed in children and women and occurs more often in women than in men.

The Mongoloid group includes all the indigenous populations of Asia (with the exception of India) and America. The Americanoids are distinguished as a special branch in the Mongoloid race, i.e. indigenous people of America (from northern Eskimos to Tierra del Fuego Indians). They differ from Asian Mongoloids in two features - significant protrusion of the nose and the absence of epicanthus, which brings them closer to Caucasians.

Caucasian characterized by light or dark skin, straight or wavy soft hair, a narrow protruding nose, light (blue) eye color, thin lips, a narrow and wide head. Caucasians inhabit Europe, the Caucasus, southwestern Asia, northern Africa, India and are part of the population of America.

Within each race distinguish small races , or subracess (anthropological types) . For example, the Caucasian group includes the Atlanto-Baltic, Indo-Mediterranean, Central European, Balkan-Caucasian and White Sea-Baltic. Within the Mongoloid - North Asian, Arctic, Far Eastern, South Asian and American. There are also several subraces within the Negroid race. According to the concept, which does not take into account origin, large races are divided into 22 small ones, some of which are transitional.

The very existence of transitional races testifies to the dynamism of racial characteristics. Transitional small races combine not only morphological characteristics, but also the genetic characteristics of large ones. Social factors and environmental features have determined the differences between races and their subraces in connection with human settlement around the globe.

Racial characteristics are hereditary, but at present they do not have significant significance for human life. Therefore, now representatives of different races often live in the same territory. But in the distant past, when the influence of social factors was still small, of course, many of the characteristics characteristic of a particular race were an adaptation to certain physical, geographical and climatic conditions of the external environment and were developed under the influence of natural selection.

N For example, the dark coloring of the skin and hair of the inhabitants of the equatorial regions of the Earth arose as protection from the burning effect of ultraviolet rays of the sun. The blacks of Africa have developed a high, elongated cranium, which is heated less than a round and low one. Curly hair, which creates an air layer around the head, has developed as protection against overheating when exposed to hot temperatures. sun rays; thick lips, a wide nose, and elongated body proportions with low weight emerged as ways to increase body surface area, useful for thermoregulation (heat loss) in hot climates. The type with wider body proportions relative to volume developed in climate conditions with significant negative temperatures. The flat face of the Mongoloids with a slightly protruding nose turned out to be useful in conditions of a sharply continental climate and strong winds; moreover, the smooth, streamlined surface is less susceptible to frostbite.

Many morphological characteristics of races serve as evidence that in race formation natural environment, its abiotic and biotic factors had a great influence. Like the entire living world, in man during the period of his formation, external conditions caused variability and the appearance of various adaptive properties, and natural selection preserved the most successful adaptation options. Adaptive properties of the race were manifested not only in appearance, but also in human physiology, for example, in the composition of the blood, the characteristics of fat deposition, and the activity of metabolic processes.

These differences arose in connection with the settlement of people in new habitats. It is believed that Homo sapiens formed off the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and in northeastern Africa. From these areas, the first Cro-Magnons settled in Southern Europe, throughout South and East Asia up to Australia. Through the northeastern tip of Asia they came to America - first to the west of North America, from where they descended to South America.

Foci of race formation and ways of dispersal of races: 1 - the ancestral home of man and resettlement from it; 2—center of disorganization and dispersal of Australoids; 3 - center of race formation and settlement of Caucasians; 4—center of race formation and settlement of Negroids; 5 - center of race formation and settlement of Mongoloids; 6.7 - centers of race formation and settlement of Americanoids

Races began to form during the process of human settlement of different territories of the Earth about 40-70 thousand years ago, i.e., even at the stage of the early Cro-Magnon man. At that time, many racial characteristics had great adaptive significance and were fixed by natural selection in a certain geographical environment. However, with the development of social relations (communication, speech, joint hunting, etc.), the intensification of the action of social factors, the influence of the environment, as well as the pressure of natural selection, ceased to be a shaping force for humans. Despite the emergence of numerous racial differences in morphological and physiological characteristics, reproductive isolation between human races did not occur. There are also no differences between races in intellectual potential and mental abilities.

Active movement around the planet and the resulting joint settlements of many people in the same territories have shown that the isolation of human races, their morphological, physiological and mental differences as a result of mixed marriages is reduced and even lost. This serves as convincing confirmation of the unity of the species Homo sapiens and proof of the biological equivalence of all human races. Racial differences concern only the characteristics of morphology and physiology, but they are variations of the single heredity of man as a species.

Despite the diversity of races modern man, they are all representatives of one single species. The presence of fertile marriages between people of different races confirms their genetic non-isolation, which indicates the integrity of the species. Unity of the species Homo sapiens ensured by a common origin, an unlimited ability to interbreed between people of different races and ethnic groups, as well as the same level of their general physical and mental development.

All human races are at the same biological level of development.

Dr. Don Batten and Dr. Karl Wieland

What are "races"?

How did they arise different colors skin?

Is it true that black skin is the result of Noah's curse?

According to the Bible, all people living on Earth descended from Noah, his wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law (and even earlier from Adam and Eve - Genesis 1-11). However, today there are groups of people called “races” living on Earth, whose external characteristics vary significantly. Many view this state of affairs as a reason to doubt the truth of biblical history. It is believed that these groups could only have arisen through separate evolution over tens of thousands of years.

The Bible tells us how the descendants of Noah, who spoke the same language and kept together, disobeyed the Divine command « fill the earth» (Genesis 9:1; 11:4). God confused their languages, after which the people divided into groups and were scattered throughout the Earth (Genesis 11:8-9). Modern methods geneticists show how variations could have evolved in just a few generations after humans separated external signs(for example, skin color). There is compelling evidence that the different groups of people we see in the modern world weren't isolated from each other over vast periods of time.

In fact, on Earth "there is only one race"- a race of people, or the human race. The Bible teaches that God « from one blood... produced the entire human race" (Acts 17:26). The Holy Scripture distinguishes people by tribes and nations, and not by skin color or other features of appearance. Moreover, it is quite obvious that there are groups of people who have common characteristics (for example, the notorious skin color) that distinguish them from other groups. We prefer to call them "groups of people" rather than "races" to avoid evolutionary associations. Representatives of any nations can interbreed freely and produce fertile offspring. This proves that the biological differences between the “races” are very small.

In fact, the differences in DNA composition are extremely small. If you take any two people from any corner of the Earth, then the differences in their DNA will normally be 0.2%. Moreover, the so-called “racial characteristics” will amount to only 6% of this difference (that is, only 0.012%); everything else is within the range of “intra-racial” variations.

“This genetic unity means, for example, that a white American who is noticeably different from a black American in phenotype may be closer in tissue composition to him than another black American.”

Fig. 1 Caucasian and Mongoloid eyes differ in the amount of fatty layer around the eye, as well as the ligament, which disappears in most non-Asian infants by six months of age.

Anthropologists divide humanity into several main racial groups: Caucasoid (or “white”), Mongoloid (including the Chinese, Eskimos and American Indians), Negroid (black Africans) and Australoid (Australian Aborigines). Almost all evolutionists these days accept that different groups of people couldn't have different origins - that is, they could not evolve from different types animals. Thus, proponents of evolution agree with creationists that all groups of peoples descended from a single original population of the Earth. Of course, evolutionists believe that groups such as the Australian Aborigines and the Chinese were separated from the rest by tens of thousands of years.

Most people believe that such significant external differences could develop only for a very long time. One of the reasons for this misconception is this: many believe that external differences are inherited from distant ancestors who acquired unique genetic properties that others did not have. This assumption is understandable, but essentially incorrect.

Consider, for example, the issue of skin color. It is easy to assume that if different groups of people have yellow, red, black, white or brown skin, then there are different skin pigments. But since different chemicals imply a different genetic code in the gene pool of each group, a serious question arises: how could such differences develop in a relatively short period of human history?

In fact, we all have only one skin “dye” - melanin. This is a dark brown pigment produced in each of us in special skin cells. If a person does not have melanin (as in albinos - people with a mutational defect that prevents melanin from being produced), then their skin color is very white or slightly pinkish. The cells of “white” Europeans produce little melanin, while those of black-skinned Africans produce a lot; and in between, as is easy to understand, all shades of yellow and brown.

Thus, the only significant factor determining skin color is the amount of melanin produced. In general, no matter what property of a group of people we consider, it will, in fact, be simply a variant comparable to others inherent in other peoples. For example, the Asian eye shape differs from the European one, in particular, in a small ligament that slightly pulls the eyelid down (see Figure 1). All newborns have this ligament, but after six months of age it remains, as a rule, only in Asians. Occasionally, the ligament is preserved in Europeans, giving their eyes an Asian almond-shaped shape, and vice versa, in some Asians it is lost, making their eyes Caucasian.

What is the role of melanin? It protects the skin from ultraviolet rays of the sun. A person with a small amount of melanin under the strong influence of solar activity is more predisposed to sunburn and skin cancer. Conversely, if you have too much melanin in your cells and you live in a country where there is not enough sun, your body will have a harder time producing the required amount of vitamin D (which is produced in the skin when exposed to sunlight). A lack of this vitamin can cause bone diseases (for example, rickets) and some types of cancer. Scientists have also discovered that ultraviolet rays destroy folates (salts folic acid) – vitamins necessary to strengthen the spine. Melanin helps conserve folate, so people with dark skin are better suited to living in areas with high levels of ultraviolet rays (tropics or high altitudes).

A person is born with a genetically determined ability produce melanin in a certain amount, and this ability is activated in response to sunlight– a tan appears on the skin. But how could such different skin colors arise in a short time? If a representative of a black group of people marries a “white” person, the skin of their descendants ( mulattoes) will be a “medium brown” color. It has long been known that mulatto marriages produce children with a wide variety of skin colors - from completely black to completely white.

Awareness of this fact gives us the key to solving our problem as a whole. But first we need to become familiar with the basic laws of heredity.

Heredity

Each of us carries information about our own body - as detailed as a drawing of a building. This “drawing” determines not only that you are a person and not a head of cabbage, but also what color your eyes are, what the shape of your nose is, and so on. At the moment the sperm and egg merge into a zygote, it already contains all information about a person’s future structure (excluding such unpredictable factors as, say, sports or diet).

Much of this information is encoded in DNA. DNA is the most effective information storage system, many times superior to any sophisticated computer technology. The information recorded here is copied (and recombined) through the process of reproduction from generation to generation. The term "gene" means a piece of this information containing instructions for the production of, for example, just one enzyme.

For example, there is a gene that carries instructions for the production of hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. blood cells. If this gene is damaged by mutation (a copying error during reproduction), the instructions will be incorrect - and we, in best case scenario, we get defective hemoglobin. (Such mistakes can lead to diseases such as sickle cell anemia.) Genes are always paired; Therefore, in the case of hemoglobin, we have two sets of codes (instructions) for its reproduction: one from the mother, the second from the father. The zygote (fertilized egg) receives half of the information from the father's sperm and the other half from the mother's egg.

This device is very useful. If a person inherits a damaged gene from one parent (and this dooms his cells to produce, say, abnormal hemoglobin), then the gene received from the other parent will be normal, and this will give the body the ability to produce normal protein. In the genome of each person there are hundreds of errors inherited from one of the parents, which do not appear, since each of them is “hidden” by the activity of another - a normal gene (see the booklet “Cain’s Wife - Who is She?”).

Skin color

We know that skin color is determined by more than one pair of genes. For simplicity, we assume that there are only two such (paired) genes, and they are located on the chromosomes in places A and B. One form of the gene, M, “gives the order” to produce a lot of melanin; another, m, – little melanin. According to location A, there can be paired combinations of MAMA, MAmA and mAmA, which give the skin cells a signal to produce a lot, not very much or little melanin.

Similarly, according to the location of B, there may be combinations of MVMV, MVmB and mBmB, also giving a signal to produce a lot, not very much or little melanin. Thus, people with very dark skin color may have a combination of genes such as MAMAMMV (see Figure 2). Since both sperm and eggs of such people can contain only MAMB genes (after all, only one gene from positions A and B can enter a sperm or egg), their children will be born only with the same set of genes as their parents.

Consequently, all these children will have very dark skin color. In the same way, fair-skinned people with the mAmAmBmB gene combination can only have children with the same gene combination. What combinations can appear in the offspring of mulattoes with dark skin with a combination of MAMAMBmB genes - who are, for example, children from the marriage of people with the MAMAMBMB and mAmAmBmB genes (see Figure 3)? Let's turn to a special scheme - the “Punnet lattice” (see Figure 4). On the left are the genetic combinations possible for a sperm, on the top - for an egg. We select one of the possible combinations for the sperm and consider, going along the line, what results from its combination with each of the possible combinations in the egg.

Each intersection of a row and a column records the combination of genes of the offspring when a given egg is fertilized by a given sperm. For example, when a sperm with the MAmB genes and an egg mAMB fuse, the child will have the MAmAMBmB genotype, like his parents. Overall, the diagram shows that such a marriage can produce children with five levels of melanin content (shades of skin color). If we take into account not two, but three pairs of genes responsible for melanin, we will see that the offspring can have seven levels of its content.

If people with the MAMAMVMV genotype - “completely” black (that is, without genes that reduce melanin levels and lighten the skin at all) marry among themselves and move to places where their children cannot meet lighter-skinned people, then all of them the descendants will also be black - a pure “black line” will be obtained. Likewise, if "white" people (mAmAmBmB) marry only people of the same skin color and live in isolation without dating darker-skinned people, they will end up with a pure "white line" - they will lose the genes needed to produce large amounts of melanin, which provides dark skin color.

Thus, two dark-skinned people can not only produce children of any skin color, but also give rise to different groups of people with a stable skin tone. But how did groups of people with the same dark shade appear? This again is easy to explain. If people with the MAMAmBmB and mАmAMBMB genotypes do not enter into mixed marriages, they will produce only dark-skinned offspring. (You can check this conclusion yourself by constructing a Punnett lattice.) If a representative of any of these lines enters into a mixed marriage, the process will go backwards. For short term the offspring of such a marriage will display a full range of skin tones, often within the same family.

If all the people on Earth now freely intermarry, and then for some reason split into groups living separately, then a whole host of new combinations could arise: almond-shaped eyes with black skin, blue eyes and black curly eyes short hair, and so on. Of course, we must remember that genes behave in much more complex ways than in our simplified explanation. Sometimes certain genes are linked. But this does not change the essence. Even today, within one group of people one can see traits usually associated with another group.

Figure 3. Multicolored twins born to mulatto parents are an example of genetic variations in skin color.

For example, you can meet a European with a wide, flat nose, or a Chinese with very pale skin or a completely European eye shape. Most scientists today agree that for modern humanity the term “race” has practically no biological meaning. And this is a serious argument against the theory of the isolated development of groups of peoples over long periods of time.

What really happened?

We can recreate true story groups of people using:

1. information given to us by the Creator Himself in the Book of Genesis;
2. the scientific information stated above;
3. some considerations about environmental influences.

God created the first man, Adam, who became the progenitor of all people. 1656 years after the Creation, the Great Flood destroyed all of humanity, with the exception of Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives. The flood radically changed their habitat. The Lord confirmed His commandment to the survivors: to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1). Several centuries later, people decided to disobey God and united to build a huge city and the Tower of Babel - a symbol of rebellion and paganism. From the eleventh chapter of the book of Genesis we know that up to this point people spoke a single language. God disgraced disobedience by confusing the languages ​​of men so that men could not act together against God. The confusion of languages ​​forced them to scatter throughout the Earth, which was the intention of the Creator. Thus, all "groups of people" arose simultaneously, with the confusion of languages ​​during the construction of the Tower of Babel. Noah and his family were probably dark-skinned—they had the genes for both black and white).

This average color is the most universal: it is dark enough to protect against skin cancer, and at the same time light enough to provide the body with vitamin D. Since Adam and Eve had all the factors that determine skin color, they probably also had dark-skinned, brown-eyed, with black or brown hair. In fact, most of the modern world's population has dark skin.

After the Flood and before the construction of Babylon, there was a single language and a single cultural group on Earth. Therefore, there were no obstacles to marriages within this group. This factor stabilized the skin color of the population, cutting off extremes. Of course, from time to time people were born with very light or very dark skin, but they intermarried freely with the rest, and thus the “average color” remained unchanged. The same applies to other characteristics, not just skin color. In circumstances where free interbreeding is possible, obvious external differences do not appear.

For them to manifest themselves, it is necessary to divide the population into isolated groups, eliminating the possibility of crossing between them. This is true for both animal and human populations, as any biologist knows well.

Consequences of Babylon

This is exactly what happened after the Babylonian Pandemonium. When God made people speak different languages, insurmountable barriers arose between them. Now they did not dare to marry those whose language they did not understand. Moreover, groups of people united by a common language had difficulty communicating and, of course, did not trust those who spoke other languages. They were forced to move away from each other and settled in different places. So it came true God's commandment: “Fill the earth.”

It is doubtful that each of the newly formed small groups contained people of the same wide range of skin colors as the original one. Carriers of dark skin genes could predominate in one group, and lighter skin in another. The same applies to other external signs: the shape of the nose, the shape of the eyes, and so on. And since now all marriages took place within one language group, each such trait no longer tended to the average, as it was before. As people moved away from Babylon, they had to deal with new and unusual climatic conditions.

As an example, consider a group heading to cold regions where the sun shines weaker and less often. Black people there lacked vitamin D, so they got sick more often and had fewer children. Consequently, over time, light-skinned people began to predominate in this group. If several different groups headed north, and members of one of them lacked the genes that provide light skin, that group was doomed to extinction. Natural selection operates on the basis already existing signs, but does not form new ones. Researchers found that, which in our days have already been recognized as full-fledged representatives of the human race, suffered from rickets, which indicates a deficiency of vitamin D in the bones. In fact, it is the signs of rickets, plus evolutionary prejudices, for a long time forced to classify Neanderthals as “ape-men.”

Apparently, this was a group of dark-skinned people who found themselves in a natural environment that was unfavorable for them - because of the set of genes which they initially had. Let us note again that so-called natural selection does not create new skin color, but only selects from already existing combinations. Conversely, a group of fair-skinned people stranded in a hot, sunny region would likely suffer from skin cancer. Thus, in hot climates, dark-skinned people had a better chance of survival. So we see that environmental influences can

(a) influence the genetic balance within one group and

(b) even cause the extinction of entire groups.

This is why we currently see a correspondence between the most common physical characteristics of the population and the environment (e.g. northern peoples with pale skin, dark-skinned inhabitants of the equator, and so on).

But this doesn't always happen. The Inuit (Eskimos) have brown skin, although they live where there is little sun. It can be assumed that initially their genotype was something like MAMAmBmB, and therefore their offspring could not be lighter or darker. The Inuit eat mainly fish, which contains a lot of vitamin D. And vice versa, among the indigenous people South America Living near the equator, the skin is not black at all. These examples once again confirm that natural selection does not create new information - if the genetic pool does not allow you to change skin color, natural selection is not able to do this. African pygmies are inhabitants of hot regions, but they are very rarely exposed to the open sun, because they live in shady jungles. And yet their skin is black.

The Pygmies provide a prime example of another factor influencing human racial history: discrimination. People who deviate from the “norm” (for example, a very light-skinned person among blacks) are traditionally treated with hostility. It is difficult for such a person to find a spouse. This state of affairs leads to the disappearance of light skin genes in black people in hot countries and dark skin genes in light skinned people in cold countries. This was the tendency of groups to "purify".

In some cases, consanguineous marriages in a small group can cause the re-emergence of almost extinct characteristics that were "suppressed" by ordinary marriages. There is a tribe in Africa all of whose members have severely deformed feet; this trait appeared in them as a result of consanguineous marriages. If people with hereditary short stature were discriminated against, they were forced to seek refuge in the wilderness and marry only among themselves. Thus, over time, the “race” of pygmies was formed. The fact that the Pygmy tribes, according to observations, do not have their own language, but speak the dialects of neighboring tribes, is strong evidence in favor of this hypothesis. Certain genetic characteristics could prompt groups of people to consciously (or semi-consciously) choose where to settle.

For example, people genetically predisposed to denser subcutaneous fat layers were likely to leave regions that were too hot.

Shared memory

The biblical story of the emergence of man is supported not only by biological and genetic evidence. Since all humanity descended from the family of Noah relatively recently, it would be strange if in stories and legends different nations there were no references to the Flood, although they were somewhat distorted during oral transmission from generation to generation.

And indeed: in the folklore of most civilizations there is a description of the Flood that destroyed the world. Often these legends contain remarkable “coincidences” with the true biblical history: eight people saved in a boat, a rainbow, a bird sent in search of dry land, and so on.

So what's the result?

The Babylonian dispersion fragmented a single group of people, within which free interbreeding took place, into smaller, isolated groups. This led to the appearance in the resulting groups of special combinations of genes responsible for different physical characteristics.

The dispersion itself must, in a short time, have brought about the appearance of certain differences between some of these groups, commonly called "races." An additional role was played by the selection pressure of the environment, which contributed to the recombination of existing genes to achieve exactly those physical characteristics that were required in the data natural conditions. But there was and could not be any evolution of genes “from simple to complex”, because the entire set of genes existed. The dominant properties of different groups of people arose as a result of recombinations of an already existing set of created genes, taking into account minor degenerative changes as a result of mutations (random changes that can be inherited).

Originally created genetic information was either combined or degraded, but never increased.

What did false teachings about the origin of races lead to?

All tribes and peoples are descendants of Noah!

The Bible makes it clear that any "newly discovered" tribe certainly goes back to Noah. Therefore, at the very beginning of the tribe's culture, there was a) knowledge of God and b) possession of technology advanced enough to build a vessel the size of an ocean liner. From the first chapter of Romans we can conclude that main reason the loss of this knowledge (see Appendix 2) - the conscious renunciation of the ancestors of these people from serving the living God. Therefore, in helping the so-called “backward” peoples, the Gospel must come first, not secular education and technical assistance. In fact, the folklore and beliefs of most “primitive” tribes preserve memories of their ancestors turning away from the living Creator God. Dan Richardson of Child of Peace has shown in his book that a missionary approach that is not blinded by evolutionary prejudices and seeks to restore the lost connection has in many cases brought abundant and blessed fruit. Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile man who rejected his Creator with God, is the only Truth that can bring true freedom to people of any culture, of any color (John 8:32; 14:6).

Appendix 1

Is it true that black skin is the result of Ham's curse?

Black (or rather dark brown) skin is just a special combination of hereditary factors. These factors (but not their combination!) were originally present in Adam and Eve. There are no instructions anywhere in the Bible that black skin color is the result of a curse that fell on Ham and his descendants. Moreover, the curse did not apply to Ham himself, but to his son Canaan (Genesis 9:18,25; 10:6). The main thing is that we know that the descendants of Canaan had dark skin (Genesis 10:15-19), not black.

False teachings about Ham and his descendants have been used to justify slavery and other unbiblical racist practices. African peoples are traditionally believed to be descended from the Hamites, as the Cushites (Cush - son of Ham: Genesis 10:6) are believed to have lived in what is now Ethiopia. The Book of Genesis suggests that the dispersion of people across the Earth occurred while maintaining family ties, and it is possible that the descendants of Ham were, on average, somewhat darker than, for example, the family of Japheth. However, everything could have been completely different. Rahab (Rahab), mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, belonged to the Canaanites, descendants of Canaan. Being from the clan of Ham, she married an Israeli - and God approved of this union. Therefore, it didn't matter what "race" she belonged to - all that mattered was that she believed in the true God.

The Moabite Ruth is also mentioned in the genealogy of Christ. She confessed her faith in God even before her marriage to Boaz (Ruth 1:16). God warns us against only one type of marriage: God's children with unbelievers.

Appendix 2

Stone Age people?

Archaeological finds indicate that once upon a time there were people on Earth who lived in caves and used simple stone tools. Such people live on Earth to this day. We know that the entire population of the earth came from Noah and his family. Judging by the book of Genesis, even before the Flood, people had developed technology that made it possible to make musical instruments, study agriculture, forge metal tools, build cities, and even build huge ships like the Ark. After the Babylonian Pandemonium, groups of people - due to mutual hostility caused by the confusion of languages ​​- quickly scattered across the earth in search of refuge.

In some cases, stone tools could be used temporarily until people equipped their homes and found deposits of the metals necessary to make the usual tools. There were other situations when a group of immigrants initially, even before Babylon, did not deal with metal.

Ask members of any modern family: if they had to start life from scratch, how many of them would be able to find an ore deposit, mine it and smelt the metal? It is clear that the Babylonian dispersion was followed by technological and cultural decline. Harsh environmental conditions may also have played a role. The technology and culture of the Australian Aborigines is quite consistent with their way of life and the needs of survival in arid areas.

Let us at least recall the aerodynamic principles, knowledge of which is necessary to create various types boomerangs (some of them return, others do not). Sometimes we see clear but difficult to explain evidence of decline. For example, when Europeans arrived in Tasmania, the technology of the Aboriginal people there was the most primitive imaginable. They didn't study fishing, did not make or wear clothes. However, archaeological excavations have shown that the cultural and technological level of previous generations of aborigines was incomparably higher.

Archaeologist Rhys Jones claims that in the distant past they were able to sew complex clothing from skins. This is in stark contrast to the situation in the early 1800s, when Aboriginal people simply threw skins over their shoulders. There is evidence that in the past they caught fish and ate it, but stopped doing this long before the arrival of Europeans. From all this we can conclude that technical progress is not natural: sometimes accumulated knowledge and skills disappear without a trace. Followers of animist cults live in constant fear of evil spirits. Many basic and healthy things - washing or eating well - are taboo among them. This once again confirms the truth that the loss of knowledge of God the Creator leads to degradation (Romans 1:18-32).

Here's the Good News

Creation Ministries International is committed to glorifying and honoring God the Creator and affirming the truth that the Bible tells the true story of the origins of the world and man. Part of this story is the bad news of Adam's violation of God's command. This brought death, suffering and separation from God into the world. These results are known to everyone. All of Adam's descendants are afflicted with sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:7) and share in Adam's disobedience (sin). They can no longer be in the presence of the Holy God and are doomed to separation from Him. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that all “shall suffer the punishment of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). But there is good news: God did not remain indifferent to our misfortune. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16).

Jesus Christ, the Creator, being sinless, took upon Himself the guilt for the sins of all mankind and their consequences - death and separation from God. He died on the cross, but on the third day he rose again, having conquered death. And now everyone who sincerely believes in Him, repents of their sins and relies not on themselves, but on Christ, can return to God and remain in eternal communion with their Creator. “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18). Marvelous is our Savior and wonderful is salvation in Christ, our Creator!

Links and notes

1. Based on variations in mitochondrial DNA, attempts have been made to prove that all modern people descend from a single foremother (who lived in a small population approximately 70 to 800 thousand years ago). Recent discoveries in the rate of mutation of mitochondrial DNA have sharply shortened this period to the time frame specified by the Bible. See Lowe, L., and Scherer, S., 1997. Mitochondrial Eye: the plot thickens. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 12 (11):422-423; Wieland, C.,1998. A shrinking date for Eve. CEN Technical Journal, 12(1): 1-3. creationontheweb.com/eve