Beginning to 8000 b.c.  (Page 4/4)

The origins and differentiation factors in the races of man continue to raise unsolved questions and continual new concepts. Certain features, such as skin color, which we superficially tend to use to categorize racial groups may be simply environmentally adaptive traits correlated with climatic conditions. Skin color varies, even within each race, with the latitude of the habitat. The Mongoloid peoples of Southeast Asia are much darker than those of northern China; Caucasoids of southern India and southern Arabia are quite black; central American Indians are darker than those farther north. Similarly, fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair are climatic adaptations by natural selection to a cloudy, dimly lit northern environment, where every bit of Vitamin D from sunlight is needed and must not be filtered out by melanin in the skin, if the individual is to survive.

There are traits, however, which are non-adaptive and are known as "race markers".Among these are [1] distinctive teeth (shovel-shaped incisors occur with 80% frequency among Mongoloids and American Indians) and [2]hair form, with coarse, straight hair of large diameter in Mongoloids and American Indians, small diameter hair in Causasoids and flat cross-section hair producing the "woolly" appearance in Africans and Melanesians.

In addition only the Caucasoid and the Australian aborigine has much body hair and premature balding. Of course the final differentiation is to be found in blood group traits and factors which we shall examine a little later in more detail. The greatest differences in these blood-groups and traits lie not between races as such, but between the people living east and west of the great Asian mountain-desert barrier. Thus it has been suggested that the earliest division of Homo sapiens was a differentiation into Eastern and Western races. Certainly as the precursor of modern man spread across Africa and then Eurasia, not only his body changed, but his method of doing things, his tool kit and his food supply.(Ref. 215 , 130 )

We come now to the question of the origins and divisions of the present-day races of man and as might be anticipated, there is no complete uniformity of thought on this subject. There is probably no point in discussing any concepts at this time that are not based on blood gene studies. A classification developed by William C. Boyd (Ref. 16 ) is as follows:

• European group

  Overall this group has the highest incidence of the Rh negative gene and a relatively high R', with no Fy, V or "Diego". It can be further subdivided.

  • Early european (hypothetical).

    Today this is represented by the Basques and possibly the Berbers. This group has the highest percentage of Rh negative in the world along with high R' and A2 and no B,

  • Lapps.

    These people are not Mongoloids but are Europeans, having developed their distinctive race in situ . This class has the highest frequency of N, is very high in A2, moderately high in Fya and a very low B.

  • Northwest europeans.

    (We assume that Boyd means Scandinavians, northern Germans, French, English, etc.). These are next to the Lapps in highest A2 frequency, a high Rh negative gene distribution (next to the Basques), a fairly high A, normal MN frequencies and low B1.

  • Eastern and central europeans.

    (We assume this would include southern Germans and most of the Slavs). In these there is higher M than in (c) above and a lower Rh negative. B is higher.

  • Mediterraneans.

    (Includes southern Europe, the Middle East, and much of north Africa.) This group has a higher B and a lower Rh negative than the northwest Europeans but they have a greater Ro [cDe], suggesting some relationship with Africans. (North Africans and Egyptians are predominant in this group.)

• African race

  Africans have a very high Ro, a high V and frequencies of Fy above 0.8. R1 is low, but the frequency of P factor is the highest known. Some have high sickle-cell gene levels.

• Asian race

  Asians have high Al and B, with little A2. There is a low percentage of Rh negative and the predominant Rh gene is R . S is relative rare. M is high in southern Asia while it is normal in northern Asia.

• Indo-dravidian race

  This is a somewhat varied group lying somewhere between the Europeans and the Asiatics and may eventually have to be subdivided. They have the highest B of anyplace in the world and M is higher than in Europe. The Rh negative factor is less than in Europe and although A2 is present it accounts for less of the A than in the European group. Incidentally these studies show definitely that Gypsies are of Indian origin.

• American indian race

  Due to genetic drift, B blood is almost completely absent in American Indians, although very common today in East Asia. (Ref. 215 ) Eskimos are placed in this group although some definitely possess B, which does not come from any European mixture. In the Indian the Rh negative gene is completely absent, R is low but R2 is the highest in the world. In some American Indians there is a substantial "Diego" factor (Dia) which is nearly or completely absent in Europeans. The factors in this group will be seen to be very close to that of the Polynesians, as shown below. (Ref. also 95 )
  Boyd cautions that the Pacific Group about to be described under (6), (7) and (8) need more investigation. In general all of these have a high M and a low N factor.

• Indonesian race

  In general A and B are both fairly high, although not in Sumatra, and A2 is absent. S is present and they have only four Rh genes [1, 2, 6 and z] with R predominating.

• Melanesian race (micronesia is similar)

  A2 is absent as in (6) but A and B are higher. The frequency of JKa is high while K and Lua are absent and M is low.

• Polynesian

  Al is high but B is almost negligible. M is high while S is present and mostly attached to N. They have only three Rh genes - Rl, R2 and Ro with the latter low. K and Lua are missing. Heyerdahl (Ref. 95 ) points out that with the essentially absent B and the high M, these Polynesians can have no relationship to the Melanesians or Micronesians).

• Australian (aboriginal)

  These primitive people have a high Al, a low M and no B. They also have no S, thus varying from the Indonesians above. While Rh negative is absent, RZ has its highest known frequency here.

Another classification of race occurs in the very recent publication of Hugh Thomas (Ref. 213 ) although it is based on Coon's differentiation of 1968. Coon felt that each of the racial groups to be listed developed from entirely separate stems on the primate tree.

• Caucasoids

  , including Europeans, White Americans, Middle-Eastern whites, Arabs,Jews, Persians, east Indians and the Ainus.

• Mongoloids

  , including Chinese, most East Asiatics, Polynesians, Eskimos, American Indians and Indonesians.

• Congoloids

  , including blacks of both Africa and America and pygmies.

• Australoids

  , the Australian aborigines and some tribes of India and the negritos of southern Asia.

• Capoids

  , the San (Bushmen) and Hottentots.

Robin Hallett (Ref. 83 ) of the University of Michigan, an authority of African history, would classify number 3 and 5 above somewhat differently, distinguishing three separate non-Caucasoid, non-Mongoloid races in Africa. There are (a) Negroid, (b) Bushmanoid (the Capoids of Thomas and Coon), described as short with yellowish brown color, thin lips, flat noses and high cheek-bones, and (c) Pygmoid, people who are very short, with yellow-brown skin color and downy body hair, living in the equatorial rain forests. Hallet says that at the time of Christ the Bushmanoids were the dominant type in central, east and South Africa. Today they are represented only by the people of the Kalahari desert. The Hottentots, which were a subgroup, have disappeared. The true Negroids, of course, are characterized by dark brown skin, broad noses, thick lips and kinky hair, originally living in the savannah to the north and west of the equatorial forests.

In the next portion of this chapter we shall examine some of the prehistoric features mentioned in the early paragraphs more in detail and from the standpoint of the various geographical areas.

In the geographical areas inhabited chiefly by the Caucasians it will clarify matters some to further differentiate this race according to some of the older classifications. H.G. Wells (Ref. 229 ) described three main subdivisions of the white race - the northern "blonds" (Nordic), the Mediterranean and north African "dark whites" and a somewhat disputed intermediate Alpine, brachycephalic race. McEvedy (Ref. 136 ) says the important subdivisions are Semites (Arabian peninsula), Hamites (Africa north and east of the Sahara), Indo-Europeans and Finns

Forward to 8000 to 5000 B.C.

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