The current appearance of humanity is the result of a complex historical development of human groups and can be described by highlighting special biological types - human races. It is assumed that their formation began to occur 30-40 thousand years ago, as a result of the settlement of people in new geographical zones. According to the researchers, their first groups moved from the region of modern Madagascar to South Asia, then Australia, a little later to the Far East, Europe and America. This process gave rise to the original races from which all subsequent diversity of peoples arose. Within the framework of the article, it will be considered which main races are distinguished within the species Homo sapiens (reasonable man), their characteristics and features.

Race Meaning

To summarize the definitions of anthropologists, a race is a historically established set of people who have a common physical type (skin color, structure and hair color, skull shape, etc.), the origin of which is associated with a certain geographical area. At the present time the relation of race to area is not always sufficiently clear, but it definitely took place in the distant past.

The origin of the term "race" is not reliably defined, but there has been much debate in scientific circles over its use. In this regard, initially the term was ambiguous and conditional. There is an opinion that the word represents a modification of the Arabic lexeme ras - head or beginning. There is also every reason to believe that this term may be related to the Italian razza, which means "tribe". Interestingly, in the modern sense, this word is first found in the writings of the French traveler and philosopher Francois Bernier. In 1684 he gives one of the first classifications of the major human races.

races

Attempts to put together a picture classifying the human races were made by the ancient Egyptians. They identified four types of people according to their skin color: black, yellow, white, and red. And for a long time this division of mankind persisted. The Frenchman Francois Bernier tried to give a scientific classification of the main types of races in the 17th century. But more complete and constructed systems appeared only in the twentieth century.

It is known that there is no generally accepted classification, and all of them are rather conditional. But in the anthropological literature most often refer to Ya. Roginsky and M. Levin. They identified three large races, which in turn are divided into small ones: Caucasoid (Eurasian), Mongoloid and Negro-Australoid (Equatorial). When constructing this classification, scientists took into account morphological similarities, the geographical distribution of races and the time of their formation.

Race characteristics

The classical racial characteristic is determined by a complex of physical features related to the appearance of a person and his anatomy. The color and shape of the eyes, the shape of the nose and lips, the pigmentation of the skin and hair, the shape of the skull are the primary racial features. There are also minor features such as physique, height and proportions of the human body. But in view of the fact that they are very variable and depend on environmental conditions, they are not used in racial science. Racial traits are not interconnected by one or another biological dependence, therefore they form numerous combinations. But it is stable traits that make it possible to single out races of a large order (basic), while small races are distinguished on the basis of more variable indicators.

Thus, the main characteristic of a race includes morphological, anatomical and other features that are of a stable hereditary nature and are minimally subject to the influence of the environment.

Caucasian race

Almost 45% of the world's population are Caucasians. The geographical discoveries of America and Australia allowed her to settle around the world. However, its main core is concentrated within Europe, the African Mediterranean and southwestern Asia.

In the Caucasoid group, the following combination of signs is distinguished:

• clearly profiled face;
• pigmentation of hair, skin and eyes from the lightest to darkest shades;
• straight or wavy soft hair;
• medium or thin lips;
• narrow nose, strongly or moderately protruding from the plane of the face;
• poorly formed fold of the upper eyelid;
• developed hairline on the body;
• large hands and feet.

The composition of the Caucasoid race is distinguished by two large branches - northern and southern. The northern branch is represented by Scandinavians, Icelanders, Irish, British, Finns and others. South - Spaniards, Italians, southern French, Portuguese, Iranians, Azerbaijanis and others. All the differences between them are in the pigmentation of the eyes, skin and hair.

Mongoloid race

The formation of the Mongoloid group has not been fully explored. According to some assumptions, the nationality was formed in the central part of Asia, in the Gobi desert, which was distinguished by its harsh sharply continental climate. As a result, representatives of this race of people generally have strong immunity and good adaptation to cardinal changes in climatic conditions.

Signs of the Mongoloid race:

• brown or black eyes with a slanted and narrow slit;
• overhanging upper eyelids;
• moderately extended nose and lips of medium size;
• skin color from yellow to brown;
• straight coarse dark hair;
• strongly protruding cheekbones;
• poorly developed body hair.

The Mongoloid race is divided into two branches: northern Mongoloids (Kalmykia, Buryatia, Yakutia, Tuva) and southern peoples (Japan, residents of the Korean Peninsula, South China). Ethnic Mongols can act as prominent representatives of the Mongoloid group.

The equatorial (or Negro-Australoid) race is a large group of people that makes up 10% of humanity. It includes Negroid and Australoid groups, which mostly live in Oceania, Australia, the tropical zone of Africa and in the regions of South and Southeast Asia.

Most researchers consider the specific characteristics of a race as a result of the development of a population in a hot and humid climate:

• dark pigmentation of the skin, hair and eyes;
• coarse curly or wavy hair;
• the nose is wide, slightly protruding;
• thick lips with a significant mucous part;
• protruding lower face.

The race is distinctly divided into two trunks - eastern (Pacific, Australian and Asian groups) and western (African groups).

Minor races

The main races in which humanity has been successfully imprinted on all the continents of the earth, branching out into a complex mosaic of people - small races (or races of the second order). Anthropologists distinguish from 30 to 50 such groups. The Caucasoid race consists of the following types: White Sea-Baltic, Atlanto-Baltic, Middle Caucasoid, Balkan-Caucasian (Ponto-Zagros) and Indo-Mediterranean.

The Mongoloid group distinguishes: Far Eastern, South Asian, North Asian, Arctic and American types. It is worth noting that the last of them in some classifications tends to be considered as an independent large race. In today's Asia, the Far Eastern (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) and South Asian (Javanese, Probes, Malays) types are most prevalent.

The equatorial population is divided into six small groups: the African Negroids are represented by the Negro, Central African and Bushman races, the Oceanian Australoids are the Veddoid, Melanesian and Australian (in some classifications it is put forward as the main race).

mixed race

In addition to races of the second order, there are also mixed and transitional races. Presumably, they were formed from ancient populations within the boundaries of climatic zones, through contact between representatives of different races, or appeared during long-distance migrations, when it was necessary to adapt to new conditions.

Thus, there are Euro-Mongoloid, Euro-Negroid and Euro-Mongol-Negroid sub-races. For example, the Laponoid group has signs of three main races: prognathism, prominent cheekbones, soft hair, and others. The carriers of such characteristics are the Finno-Permian peoples. Or Ural which is represented by Caucasoid and Mongoloid populations. She is characterized by the following dark straight hair, moderate skin pigmentation, brown eyes, and medium hairline. Distributed mostly in Western Siberia.

• Until the 20th century, there were no representatives of the Negroid race in Russia. In the USSR, during the cooperation with developing countries, about 70 thousand blacks remained to live.
• Only one Caucasian race is capable of producing lactase throughout its life, which is involved in the absorption of milk. In the other major races, this ability is observed only in infancy.
• Genetic studies have determined that the fair-skinned inhabitants of the northern territories of Europe and Russia have about 47.5% of Mongolian genes and only 52.5% of European ones.
• A large number of people who self-identify as pure African Americans have European ancestry. In turn, Europeans can find Native Americans or Africans in their ancestors.
• The DNA of all the inhabitants of the planet, regardless of external differences (skin color, hair texture), is 99.9% the same, therefore, from the standpoint of genetic research, the existing concept of "race" loses its meaning.

In modern humanity, there are three main races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. These are large groups of people who differ in some physical features, such as facial features, skin color, eyes and hair, hair shape.

Each race is characterized by the unity of origin and formation in a certain territory.

The Caucasian race includes the indigenous population of Europe, South Asia and North Africa. Caucasoids are characterized by a narrow face, a strongly protruding nose, and soft hair. The skin color of northern Caucasians is light, while that of southern Caucasians is predominantly swarthy.

The Mongoloid race includes the indigenous population of Central and East Asia, Indonesia, and Siberia. Mongoloids are distinguished by a large, flat, wide face, slit eyes, hard, straight hair, and dark skin color.

In the Negroid race, two branches are distinguished - African and Australian. The Negroid race is characterized by dark skin color, curly hair, dark eyes, a wide and flat nose.

Racial characteristics are hereditary, but at present they are not essential for human life. Apparently, in the distant past, racial traits were useful for their owners: the dark skin of blacks and curly hair, creating an air layer around the head, protected the body from the action of sunlight, the shape of the facial skeleton of the Mongoloids with a more extensive nasal cavity, perhaps, is useful for heating cold air before it enters the lungs. In terms of mental abilities, i.e., abilities for cognition, creative and labor activity in general, all races are the same. Differences in the level of culture are associated not with the biological characteristics of people of different races, but with the social conditions for the development of society.

The reactionary essence of racism. Initially, some scientists confused the level of social development with biological characteristics and tried to find transitional forms among modern peoples that connect humans with animals. These mistakes were used by the racists, who began to talk about the alleged inferiority of some races and peoples and the superiority of others in order to justify the merciless exploitation and direct destruction of many peoples as a result of colonization, the seizure of foreign lands and the outbreak of wars. When European and American capitalism tried to conquer the African and Asian peoples, the white race was declared the highest. Later, when the Nazi hordes marched across Europe, destroying the captured population in the death camps, the so-called Aryan race was declared the highest, to which the Nazis ranked the German peoples. Racism is a reactionary ideology and politics aimed at justifying the exploitation of man by man.

The failure of racism is proved by the real science of races - racial science. Racial science studies racial characteristics, the origin, formation and history of human races. The data obtained by racial science indicate that the differences between races are not sufficient to consider races as different biological species of people. Mixing of races - miscegenation - occurred constantly, as a result of which intermediate types arose at the boundaries of the ranges of representatives of different races, smoothing out the differences between races.

Will races disappear? One of the important conditions for the formation of races is isolation. In Asia, Africa and Europe, it still exists to some extent today. Meanwhile, newly settled regions, such as North and South America, can be compared to a cauldron in which all three racial groups are melted down. Although public opinion in many countries does not support interracial marriages, there is little doubt that racial interbreeding is inevitable and will sooner or later lead to the formation of a hybrid human population.

Here some cruel left-liberal dudes tried to object to me regarding my last post (don't be lazy, go). The pathos of their speech was this: oh, to say that blacks are dumber than whites - this is racism! .. Such a reaction is not surprising: the left-liberal infection of American campuses is gradually penetrating bosses and our people. And they are affirmed in the tenets of left liberalism, one of which: colored, white, men and women - all are absolutely equal in their properties and qualities. Left liberalism generally confuses legal equality with actual.
But the fact that people of different sexes and different races are different is, in fact, visible to the naked eye. They have different skin colors, for example. Growth is different. The hormonal level... And the left-liberal filth agrees with this: "Yes, physically we are different. But with regards to psychological and cognitive abilities, there is no difference!" This dogma does not stand up to either theoretical or practical verification. In fact, cognitive abilities depend on "physics" - the structure of the brain (its fields, divisions, etc.), on hormonal levels, and other things, and all of the above is a consequence of genetics.
Well, in order to finally dispel the left-liberal haze, let's turn to science.

Dependence of intelligence on race

By Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario and Arthur Jensen of the University of California at Berkeley, Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability, a sixty-page work, will be published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Psychological Association, Psychology, Public Policy and Law.

According to the data collected by the authors of the study, there is a clear relationship between the level of intelligence of the subject and the color of his skin, according to a press release from the Charles Darwin Research Institute. The authors back up their claims with a body of statistics collected over the past 90 years, from World War I, when they first began mass testing of soldiers being drafted into the U.S. Army, to an even more impressive study of American office workers, military officers, and university students. (higher-education test takers) in 2001, when six million people were tested.

According to Mr. Rushton, even with the same levels of education of parents, the difference in intelligence levels between representatives of different races manifests itself already at the age of three, and, accordingly, it cannot be attributed to the inability to get a decent education and other limiting factors. In an attempt to determine the reason for this apparent differentiation, Rushton and Jensen divided their findings into ten categories.

1. Despite the fact that IQ tests were developed by whites and for whites, Asians demonstrate a higher level of intelligence than whites, regardless of where they live. The average IQ for Asians is about 106, for whites about 100, for blacks it ranges from 85 in the United States to 70 in sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Racial differences are most pronounced in tests that measure the so-called “general intelligence quotient” (there are tests that measure mathematical, verbal abilities and spatial intelligence). The difference in the level of intelligence of whites and blacks is more visible in tests like "Backward Digit Span" (you need to remember and pronounce in reverse sequential up to nine randomly given numbers) and weaker - tests "Forward Digit Span" (the same, but in direct sequence) .

3. "Gene-Environment Architecture" IQ is about the same for all races and mainly depends on heredity. After examining an unnamed number of twins of the Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian races, the researchers concluded that hereditary factors account for 50% of the weight in the formation of intelligence.

4. Magnetic resonance imaging studies show that the correlation between IQ and brain weight is approximately 0.4. The larger the brain, the more neurons and synapses it has, which increases the speed of information processing. By the time they reach maturity, the average brain size of Asians exceeds that of whites by one cubic centimeter. In turn, the white one overtakes the black one by five cubic centimeters.

5. The difference in intelligence levels persists in cases of interracial adoptions. If a white middle-class family adopts a black child, by the time he comes of age he will have, on average, a worse IQ than his parents. In the case of the adoption of an Asian child, the situation will be exactly the opposite.

6. The IQ level among blacks is associated with skin tone: the lighter the skin, the higher the IQ, on average. In South Africa, mestizos average an IQ of about 85, pure blacks about 70, and whites about 100.

7. The level of IQ always tends to the average value set for the representatives of this race. Parents who demonstrate a very high level of intelligence, as a rule, have enough middle-aged children in this sense. If black and white parents had an IQ of 115, their children would have an IQ of 85 and 100, respectively.

8. There is a clear relationship between race and the rate of maturation of an individual (this indicator includes the achievement of physical and sexual maturity, the development of personality and social skills, and even the time after which the baby began to crawl, run and dress independently). Here the situation looks like this: blacks mature faster, Asians later. White, as one would expect, treads somewhere in the middle.

9. Racial differentiation in terms of intelligence confirms the concept of the origin of mankind in Africa with its gradual expansion to the North. The more severe living conditions of the upper latitudes required our ancestors to have a higher ingenuity.

10. The arguments of critics of racial theory, who attribute racial differences to different levels of education and social environment, apparently cannot explain the statistical patterns that have accumulated over the past 90 years. The eradication of racial segregation and the policy of “affirmative action” (the so-called “positive discrimination”, which puts representatives of the once oppressed social and ethnic groups in a privileged position compared to the heirs of the former oppressors) have not yet had any effect.

Racial differences. Level of mental development

The main indicator that has been studied in psychology in the study of racial differences is intelligence or the level of mental development.

In the results that are obtained when testing intelligence in children and adolescents with different skin colors, one can identify the following trend: children belonging to the Mongoloid race cope best with tests, somewhat worse - to Caucasoid, much worse - to Negroid, and even worse - descendants American Indians. At one time there were attempts to explain such differences in terms of genetic differences between races. They proceeded from the fact that races are groups of people who have been geographically separated for a long time. Their isolation from each other could lead to genetic differences - affect the frequency of occurrence of genes in populations of different races. And the frequency of occurrence of genes may be the reason that causes differences in intelligence.

Are there really differences between different races, and if so, whether they are related to genetic differences, we will consider in this section of the text. First of all, it should be noted that the differences between the two races - Caucasoid and Negroid - have been studied most consistently. Research on other races is fragmentary and their data is not very reliable. Therefore, all the material presented here will concern the comparison of only two groups - the one that has white and the one that has black skin.

In the study of the level of intellectual development on representative samples (that is, on such samples in which all groups of the population are proportionally represented in the composition of the subjects), differences are always found between white and black people. These differences may vary within one standard deviation (i.e., they do not exceed 15 points on standard intelligence tests), but the general meaning of these differences does not change: whites always have, on average, higher intelligence than, on average, people with black skin.

Thus, to the first question posed at the beginning of this chapter - do people of different races differ in intelligence, we can immediately answer: there are differences among whites, indeed, compared with blacks, intelligence is, on average, higher .

In trying to understand the reasons for these differences, researchers have noticed that differences in intelligence of about one standard deviation often occur between privileged and disadvantaged populations, regardless of their race. So, for example, lower intelligence, in comparison with other groups of the population, is found among representatives of the untouchable caste in India.

A change in the official status of deprived (deprived of rights) groups does not immediately lead to a change in their position in society - to more prestigious activities, to an increase in the level of education, to a change in the attitude of others, etc. Because of this, they may continue to lag behind in intelligence from more prosperous populations for a long time. Indicative in this sense is the example of one of the Japanese minorities - Burakumi.

Burakumi have been pariahs in Japan for many centuries and could only do the most unprestigious and low-paid work. At the end of the XIX century. they were officially equalized in rights with the rest of the population, but the attitude of those around them changed little. Accordingly, the lag in the level of intelligence has also been preserved. However, when the Burakumi emigrate to the US, their children are no different in intelligence from other Japanese children. In the USA, Burakumi are not a stigmatized group (a group that has a seal of inferiority), others treat them the same way as other Japanese, and the result of this is the leveling of the level of intellectual development (Atkinson et. al., 1993).

Such data suggest that racial differences in intelligence may also be the result of social causes. These reasons may be different - the low socio-economic level of the black population, long-term restrictions on rights that still affect values, prejudices and prejudices of others, etc.

To test this assumption, studies were conducted in which groups of white and black subjects were equalized by a large number of indicators - by socioeconomic status, by family composition, by family relations, by parental values ​​(in particular, by parents' attitude to education). ). Racial differences in intelligence are not found in such cases (Mercer, 1971).

The determining role of developmental conditions for achieving one or another level of intelligence was obtained in the study of adopted children. Cases have been described in the psychological literature in which white parents of middle and high socioeconomic status adopted black children in their first months of life. By the time they entered school, the intelligence of these children was above average and significantly exceeded the intelligence of children from black families living in the same region (Scarr S., Weinberg R., 1976). This fact is an excellent demonstration that the color of the skin determines the level of development only insofar as it is associated with the socio-economic level of the families in which children grow up. When a child gets into favorable conditions for development, you increase his intelligence, regardless of what race he belongs to.

The same conclusions were reached by researchers who compared the intelligence of illegitimate children whose mothers were Germans and whose fathers were American soldiers (both white and black) who served in Germany after World War II. Both white and black children grew up in Germany, were brought up in approximately the same conditions and did not differ in terms of intelligence (Eyferth K., et al., 1960).

It is also indicative that as racial prejudices are eliminated, racial differences in intelligence also decrease. Black children are becoming more similar in their math and verbal abilities to white children. This trend has been traced over the past thirty years and is observed in children of different ages - from the first to the twelfth grade of school (Jones L.V., 1984).

The facts considered so far show that racial differences in intelligence are closely related to differences in the social conditions of development. The following example shows that social conditions can exert their influence not only directly, but also through other psychological characteristics.

When conducting one of the experiments in which intelligence was determined, two groups of subjects were recruited - white and black children. Both groups were split in half. One half of the children were told that if they answered correctly, they would be rewarded with a toy at the end of the experiment. The other half of the children (the control group) were not promised a reward. After taking an intelligence test, it turned out that black children who were promised a reward performed significantly better than black children who were not given anything for correct answers. The difference between these groups was 13 points. In white children, there were no differences between the two groups; the motivation for taking the test did not change, depending on whether they were given a reward for it or not.

The results of this test show that when motivation is needed, white children do better than black children. This motivation, on the one hand, is a consequence of the social conditions of development (in particular, the high value of education, which is much higher in families of white children than in families of black children). On the other hand, a low level of adaptation can reduce the level of intelligence: if a child is not interested in intellectual activities and he needs additional motivation in order to work at full strength, then, in all likelihood, he will not particularly strive for these intellectual activities, will not choose them voluntarily. And this, sooner or later, will affect the level of his intelligence.

Richard Lynn in his work "Racial Differences in Intelligence" analyzed the results of studies of representatives of various races, which he divided into eight groups: Europeans, Aborigines of Equatorial Africa, Bushmen, Aborigines of South Asia and North Africa, Aborigines of Southeast Asia, Australian Aborigines, Aborigines Pacific Islanders, East Asians, Arctic peoples, American Indians.

As a definition of the term intelligence, the author uses the definition proposed by L. Gottfredson: "Intelligence is a very general mental ability, which, among other things, includes the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not just book knowledge, a narrow academic skill, or the ability to take tests, but rather reflects a broader and deeper ability to make sense of one's surroundings - "grasping," "making sense" of things, or "understanding" what to do." In his study, the author relies on the results obtained using various methods for measuring IQ, such methods include the tests of Wechsler, Cattell, Eysenck, Raven, Amthauer and others.

The species Homo sapiens (modern man) appeared about 150,000 years ago, and about 100,000 years ago, groups of Homo sapiens began to migrate from equatorial Africa to other areas of the world and about 30,000 years ago colonized most of the globe.

According to R. Lynn, the differences in intelligence are due to the fact that each of the races over a long period of time developed in different climatic conditions. For example, the natives of central Australia have a better developed spatial memory than Europeans, according to Kearins, this is due to the fact that the natives had to navigate in the desert, which had few landmarks on the ground. Those of the races that lived in the immediate vicinity of the glacier, as a result of extreme conditions and selection, were forced to find different ways for their survival. The variety of available races has arisen as a result of four biological effects:

• 1 The founder effect is that when a population splits and one of the groups migrates to a new location, the group that migrates will not be genetically identical to the group that remains in the same place. Therefore, these two populations will differ genetically;
• 2 The effect of genetic drift is that the frequencies of genes change over time to some extent randomly, and this leads to differences between populations. The drift continues, and over time leads to an increase in the differences between races;
• 3 The effect of mutations is that new alleles (alleles - alternative forms of genes) appear in populations at random, and if they are favorable for survival and reproduction, they will gradually spread in the population. A favorable new allele may appear as a result of a mutation in one race, but not in others;
• 4 The effect of adaptation is that after the migration of a population to a new habitat, some alleles that were not favorable in the old habitat become favorable. Individuals with favorable alleles will produce more viable offspring in the new habitat, so their alleles will be selected and gradually spread through the population.

Due to the fact that for a long time the races lived apart, their distinctive features were fixed and reproduced in each new generation. However, both in the distant past and now, cases of hybridization (children from marriages of representatives of different races) are not uncommon, as a result of which the level of intelligence in such people is equal to an intermediate value between the race of the father and the race of the mother.

For a long time, scientists have paid great attention to the influence of the environment on the level of intelligence, but according to the results of research, we can say that the environmental influence is not significant. However, malnutrition and iron deficiency can reduce a person's intelligence by several points, while Africans living in the UK, on ​​the contrary, increase their intelligence by an average of 7-8 points. All studies conducted over the past 80 years allow us to talk about the constancy and numerical proportions in the difference in intelligence indicators among representatives of different races, including studies with separated twins adopted by representatives of different races.

Since the early years of the twentieth century, the validity of intelligence tests has been tested by the degree to which their scores correlate with educational attainment. Numerous studies have found that the correlation of IQ with educational achievement is in the order of 0.6 to 0.7, so there is no doubt about the validity of the methods used. Another method of establishing the validity of intelligence tests is to study the relationship of test scores with per capita income and economic growth. The correlation between IQ and GDP and GNP is 0.62, hence the level of intelligence makes a significant contribution to national wealth (approximately 40% of income). At first glance, the correlation of per capita income and IQ is not as strong as the correlation of income and possession of natural resources, but it is nations with a high IQ that are able to produce complex goods and services (computers, mobile phones, cars, airplanes, pharmaceuticals, etc.). e.) highly valued in international markets, which ensures a high average per capita income, which creates favorable conditions for the development of intelligence in the next generations.

According to the data given in the book, the average IQ of the inhabitants of our country (Russians) is 97 points. These results were obtained in studies conducted from 1960 to 1994 among schoolchildren.

According to the author himself, his work is intended for the widest range of readers, especially since similar works have not been carried out in our country, and the very question of the difference in the intelligence of representatives of different races was under an unspoken ban.

Summing up the results of various studies described here, we can confidently say that social influences are extremely important for the formation of racial differences in intelligence. The opposite hypothesis - about the biological determinism of racial differences in the level of intelligence - has no reliable evidence to date.

If racial differences in intelligence are influenced precisely by genetic differences between races, then we can expect that the number of white ancestors should affect the level of intelligence of representatives of the Negroid race. The more white ancestors there were (the more "white" genes), the higher the intelligence should be. When checking this pre. the result was negative: the level of intelligence did not depend on the number of white ancestors (S. Scarr et al., 1977, cit. no Atkinson et al., 1993).

Nevertheless, it is possible that the biological prerequisites of racial differences still have an impact on intelligence, but this influence is manifested not in level indicators, but in the ratio of different types of abilities. Some experimental data support this.

When comparing the success of different tests by white and black children from families with an average socioeconomic status, it turned out that children belonging to different races are successful in different types of activities (Sitkei E. G., Meyers C. E., 1969). White children performed particularly well on verbal tasks and were more successful at describing and remembering pictures, while black children outperformed white children in spatial problem solving, memory capacity, and perceptual speed (see Figure 22).

At the beginning of this section, two questions were asked - are there racial differences in the level of intelligence and, if so, what is their nature. Summarizing the material that was presented here, we can say the following. First, there are racial differences in the level of intelligence. Secondly, differences in the level of intelligence are due to social causes. Third, racial differences in intelligence scores tend to decrease as societies overcome racial barriers.

List of used literature

• 1 Richard Lynn. Racial differences in intelligence. Evolutionary analysis. / Per. from English. Rumyantsev D.O. - M.: Profit Style, 2010. - 304 p.
• 2 Egorova M.S., Psychology of individual differences. - M.: Planet of children, 1997. - 328s
• 3 Druzhinin V.N. Psychology of general abilities - St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Peter", 1999. - 368 p.

The genetic basis of skin pigmentation also has a very important race-delimiting function. V. A. Spitsyn writes in this regard: “It is known that a thick layer of melanin in dark-skinned races, preventing ultraviolet rays from penetrating into the deeper layers of the skin, creates the basis for rickets. This explains the presence of a compensatory mechanism, which is expressed in the fact that people living in the tropics have abundant secretions of sebaceous glands, much larger than those of Europeans.

In Caucasians, the frequency of the gene (Gc) should not exceed 10%, while in blacks it exceeds 30%. It is the frequency of this gene that is associated with the characteristic Negro smell ...

The most important conclusion of V. A. Spitsyn is as follows: “There is no data on the relationship between climatic and geographical factors and the distribution of Gm factors.” This suggests that racial traits are non-adaptive in nature, the environment does not have any influence on them at all. The color of eyes, hair, skin, etc., is not the result of a person's adaptation to the appropriate environmental conditions, but rather genetic ornaments that nature distributed to different races, based on the natural principle "to each his own."

The latter conclusion is in excellent agreement with both direct observations (for more than 400 years of the history of African-American blacks, there are still no known cases of their whitening due to climate change; the white descendants of Dutch settlers, the Boers of South Africa, have not turned black either), and with the theory of lithospheric catastrophes , which is discussed below. It should also be noted that the average annual temperature and the number of sunny days per year change the same as you move away from the equator, regardless of whether the North or the South Pole, however, black individuals live mainly in Africa, and not at all wherever the sun shines and warms just as much. bright and strong. The Negroids did not form either in Central or South America, or in the overwhelming part of Asia, and, moreover, in parts of Europe equidistant from the equator. If we talk about the southern tip of Africa, originally also inhabited by blacks, then even more so on no continent of the northern hemisphere of the Earth, we will not find natural Negroids in the corresponding climatic zones. This allows us to reject once and for all the hypothesis of the "blackening" of the Negroid race due to exposure to sunlight as unscientific.

V. A. Spitsyn also emphasizes: “Each of the largest races has a characteristic gene complex of gammaglobulins and alkaline phosphatase of the placenta, peculiar only to it alone.”

In general, serology, that is, the science of blood groups, reliably presents us with a number of racial diagnostic markers: it has been proven, for example, that the polygenic hereditary factors of serum proteins are specifically distributed at the level of large races. Encyclopedia "Peoples of Russia" (M., 1994) fixes: "According to the systems of immunoglobulins that provide a protective reaction against various diseases and transferrins that ensure the normal circulation of iron ions in the blood stream, large human races are clearly distinguished."

So, people of different races and nationalities differ in protein structures, the biochemical composition of the immune system and the electromagnetic properties of blood. No less rigorous and reliable information about the race of a person is also provided by the biochemical composition of earwax.

In their joint work The Teaching of Human Heredity (1936), E. Baur, O. Fischer and F. Lenz stated: “Racial differences mainly depend on differences in internal secretion. The constitution of the body, intellectual and mental characteristics and other racial characteristics are determined by them. Today, without denying the significance of internal secretion for racial diagnosis, scientists prefer to talk about the correlation of markers. This thesis can be illustrated by a quote from the article by M. G. Abdushelishvili and V. P. Volkov-Dubrovin “On the correlation of racial and morphophysiological characteristics” (Problems of Anthropology. Issue 52, 1976): “There is a known relationship between skin color and some physiological characteristics. The fairest ones have slowed blood flow and the highest mineral saturation of bone tissue, while the darkest skinned ones have significantly lower skeletal mineralization and faster blood flow.

The development of the biochemical theme has already led us pages above to the data on the invariable difference between races presented by science. genetics interpreting the problem of heredity. It was in the field of this science (within the framework of the so-called "mitochondrial" theory) that an attempt was made at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century to refute the obvious: racial differences between people. They tried to convince us that white, yellow, black - all people consist of one building material, and therefore they are a single whole. Simply, they tried to hide the forest behind the trees. These conjectures were immediately seized upon by supporters of the theory of monogenism, who tried to impose on the public consciousness the idea of ​​​​our common foremother - “black Eve”, from which (in the bowels of Central Africa), supposedly, all of humanity in general originated. After that, some of the descendants of this Eve migrated to the North, where everyone turned white without exception, and others - to the East, where they also turned yellow and numb.

As will be irrefutably seen from what follows, the results of conscientious genetic research lead to completely different conclusions.

The outstanding Soviet biologist I. I. Shmalgauzen, in his program book “Cybernetic Questions of Biology” (Moscow, 1968), brilliantly developed the postulates of racial theory directed against vulgar Lamarckism: “The hereditary code is protected by the nuclear membrane and the regulatory mechanisms of the cell and the whole organism as a whole from the direct influence of external factors. Inheritance of traits acquired during the life of an individual is virtually impossible, since this “acquisition” concerns only the transformation of information in a given individual and dies with it. The hereditary material was not affected by this transformation and remained unchanged. At the same time, it is emphasized that mutations, the role of which geneticists are so fond of discussing, are in fact of a random nature, in addition, there is no freedom of mutations, because they are possible only within certain boundaries set by hereditary racial traits ...

Thus, it turns out that it is not the removal of racial characteristics in the process of evolution that is an adaptive factor, but, on the contrary, their strengthening and consolidation. In the process of evolution, racial traits are a kind of adaptive toolkit, "evolutionary equipment", without which the biological development of a race is not possible. Racial traits are, both physically and mentally, the genetic “knots of strength” on which the entire structure of a person rests. Without them, degeneration and decay are inevitable.

The 1st international conference "Race: myth or reality?", held in Moscow from October 7 to 9, 1998 under the auspices of the Russian branch of the European Anthropological Association and with the support of numerous international and domestic specialized scientific institutions, provided a platform for geneticists .

In a collective study entitled "A new DNA marker as a racial diagnostic feature", the material for obtaining a new genetic marker CAcf685 on the 19th chromosome is analyzed, on the basis of which the value of the genetic distance Gst between Caucasoids and Mongoloids (in this case, the Chukchi) is estimated as sixfold. This marker is recognized as valuable in racial diagnostic terms.

The keynote speech of one of the best Russian geneticists Yu. G. Rychkov "Genetic foundations of the stability and variability of races" was devoted to the same topic. His report was a summary of many years of theoretical and practical research. In it, he said that despite the fact that human genetics has been at odds with anthropology for the past 35 years, nevertheless, molecular genetics is discovering more and more "so-called DNA markers that can be considered markers of racial differences."

The report of the well-known molecular biologist V. A. Spitsyn “The effectiveness of different categories of genetic markers in differentiating large anthropological communities” was devoted to the analysis of these new racial diagnostic markers.

S. A. Limborskaya, O. P. Balanovsky, S. D. Nurbaev in the collective work “Molecular genetic polymorphism in the study of population: the genogeography of Eastern Europe” speak of the great success achieved recently in deciphering the DNA of the human genome. “In the course of this work, a large number of highly polymorphic DNA markers suitable for population genetic studies were discovered. By studying living populations with the help of these markers, it is possible to obtain information about their genetic history and, in some cases, to date - with varying probability - important events related to the origin of man, his races, and human settlement on a global scale. The results of the analysis of the racially complex region of Eastern Europe indicate the high resolution of DNA markers in the analysis of the gene pool.”

Based on the results of the named conference, a program document “The Problem of Race in Russian Physical Anthropology” (M., 2002) was published, which may well be considered as the official position of Russian anthropological science. So, in particular, E. V. Balanovskaya indicated in her report, included in the general version, the following: “The objective classification of individual genotypes by DNA markers almost completely corresponds to racial classification.” It was also supported by G. L. Hit, in turn, pointing out that each of the major racial groups of humanity has a unique combination of certain frequencies of key features inherent only to it. E. 3. Godina emphasized: "The main racial differences are largely formed already in the prenatal period."

The title of the book by A.F. Nazarova and S.M. Altukhov "Genetic portrait of the peoples of the world" (M., 1999) also speaks for itself, because it gives a detailed description of the frequencies of genes in all major and even many relict populations of mankind. And the leading domestic anthropologists A. A. Zubov and N. I. Khaldeeva in their joint article from the collection with the characteristic title “Race and racism. History and Modernity" (M., 1991) give the following conclusion: "It means "type", i.e., the characteristic sum of genetic and morphophysiological features that mark certain groups within a species, is a very real phenomenon, and therefore, deserving of research."

Not only Russian geneticists stand on the positions of racial distinction: it is the famous “Table of Genetic and Linguistic Distances between Nations” by the American geneticist L. Cavalli-Sforza that finally illustrates the objectivity of differences between biotypes. And his colleague J. Neal states that at present any individual can be attributed to one or another well-studied large ethnic community with an accuracy of 87%.

In a word, under the influence of new discoveries, as well as as a result of strict scientific criticism of the so-called. "mitochondrial" genetic theory, half a century of confrontation between "population geneticists" on the one hand and anthropologists and racologists on the other ends today. The existence of the great primordial races is no longer seriously disputed. After 130 years, in the course of intense research work of hundreds of scientists and fierce discussions of supporters and opponents of racology, the scientific community has finally matured, fully armed with arguments, to a simple conclusion made by I. I. Mechnikov back in 1878: “The differences between large human groups, peoples and races are so large and obvious that I even consider it superfluous to dwell on it.

Patterns on the skin are visible, but invisible to the naked eye when meeting a person. It takes effort to see them. As for the genes and blood molecules or earwax, they cannot be seen at all without an electron microscope. But in the human body there are signs that are easily noticeable to anyone: the shape of the head and body, facial features, the color of the skin, eyes, hair, etc. They testify, first of all, to the race of a person. And, of course, they have been studied since the earliest days of racial science.

Skull, brain, face and more

IMPORTANCE of turtle science data - craniology- is absolutely indisputable. Another of the most recognized authorities of the Italian anthropological school, Giuseppe Sergi, in the monograph “Types and Varieties of the Human Race” (1900) wrote: “The skull is most important for classification. One skull can distinguish between ethnic elements that make up mixed groups. Primary classification is possible even according to one stable feature. The most stable brain and facial parts of the skull. From the most ancient times to our time, no new forms of skulls have appeared.

The classical school of anthropology by J. F. Blumenbach (1752–1840) found that it is the development of the brain that determines the formation of the human skull, but not vice versa. Its representative S. T. Sommering (1755-1830) wrote: "It must be assumed that nature forms the cranial bones so that they can adapt to the brain, but not vice versa." Much later, the famous Soviet geneticist N. P. Dubinin in the book “What is a person?” (M., 1983) outlined a similar set of ideas: “The human brain has genetically determined properties. For the normal development of the brain, a normal genetic program is needed. It has been proven that 5/6 of the human brain is formed after birth. Anthropological collection "Problems of the evolutionary morphology of man and his races" (M., 1986) does not leave any ambiguity in this matter: V.P. : "In the pair" brain - cranium "the brain was the leader". Therefore, it is so important to know and correctly interpret the racial differences of the skull in the dynamics of their age development.

Let's dwell on the most noticeable and relevant of them, and these are, first of all, the cranial sutures. Due to the extreme importance of the specificity of the overgrowing of the skull sutures in representatives of different races, as well as the clarity and indisputability of this racial diagnostic feature in the study of sociocultural processes, Professor V.N. Zvyagin even suggested using a special name - suturology- the science of the study of patterns of cranial sutures.

And that's what this science reveals.

Russian craniologist D. N. Anuchin (the Institute of Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences bears his name) in his work “On some anomalies of the human skull and mainly on their distribution by race” (M., 1880) dwelled in detail on pterion- a small area of ​​​​the surface of the skull, on each of the sides of which, in the temporal fossa, four bones converge: frontal, parietal, temporal and main. This area is a good racial diagnostic marker, because different types of its anomalies in terms of frequency in large human races have a difference of 4–8 times. A prominent German anthropologist of the same time, Georg Buschan, confirmed all the conclusions of D. N. Anuchin regarding the racial delimiting function of the pterion site. He pointed out: “Pterion is a zone of connection of the temporal, frontal, parietal and sphenoid (basic) bones. Usually, the upper edge of the large wing of the sphenoid bone reaches the anterior-lower edge of the parietal bone, separating the temporal bone from the frontal; the seams present here then form a figure in the genus of the letter "H". But occasionally it happens that a process extends forward from the anterior edge of the temporal bone, connecting with a suture to the frontal bone. In higher races, this process is very rare. Among Europeans in 1.6%, among Mongols and Malays in 3.7%, among lower races, on the contrary, it is relatively frequent, so among the black race up to 13%, among Australians up to 15.6%, among Papuans up to 8.6% . This attitude suggests that the connection of the temporal bone with the frontal by means of a process should be considered as a lower (pithecoid) formation, and this is all the more so since we meet it constantly in the gorilla, chimpanzee and most other monkeys.

Eugen Fischer also wrote: “Sometimes there is a connective bone between these four bones that form the region of the pterion. In the lower races, the frontal bone and the temporal bone come into contact much more frequently than in the higher races. We observe this, for example, in Europeans - 1.5% of cases, in Mongols - in 3.8%, in Australians - in 9%, in blacks - in 11.8%, in gibbons - in 13.7%, in orangutans - 33.6%, chimpanzees - 77%, gorillas - 100%. Undoubtedly, the presence of the frontotemporal suture depends to a large extent on the relative size of the brain. The more the brain expands the skull, the more the frontal and temporal bones will diverge, the less often they will be able to connect into a seam.

The next, even more important marker, according to Anuchin, is metopism(a seam formed at the junction of the two halves of the frontal bone). Avdeev states the importance of this indicator as follows: “This frontal suture overgrows in most newborn babies, but in some individuals it persists for life. It is precisely this anomaly of the skull that is an excellent racial diagnostic and, as a result, sociocultural marker. It is the frontal lobes of the brain, which are responsible for the highest manifestations of the human psyche and intellect, that in some individuals during the initial phase of growth exert increased pressure on the corresponding sections of the frontal bone, pushing them apart, which, in turn, causes the appearance of a frontal suture called metopism. According to Anuchin's observations, metopic, that is, with a frontal suture, skulls have a capacity of 3-5% more than ordinary ones.

Further, analyzing the frequency of occurrence of metopism in different races and peoples, he draws the following conclusion: “The table of observational results shows that the frontal suture is much more common among Europeans than among other races. While for the various series of European skulls the percentage of metopism is found to vary from 16 to 5, the series of skulls of the lower races in most cases only 3.5-0.6 percent. A certain correlation seems to exist between the inclination towards metopism and the intelligence of a race. We see, for example, that in many races the more intelligent tribes represent a greater percentage of metopic sutures. Among the highest representatives of the Mongolian and white races, it is expressed in a figure at least 8-9 times greater than among the Australians and Negroes.

Subsequently, on the basis of statistical data, a generalization was made, according to which individuals with a preserved frontal suture have larger brain mass, and this increase is not only absolute, but also relative, that is, not associated with an increase in body size. Preservation of the frontal suture, in turn, affected the higher level of mental and intellectual abilities of these individuals.

Of particular importance for the development of the question of metopism works of Russian scientists. An article by V. V. Maslovsky, published in the Russian Anthropological Journal for 1926, volume 15, no. 1-2, bears the special title "On Metopism". In it, the author, developing the ideas of Anuchin, writes: “Thus, the phenomenon of preserving the frontal suture in a person can be viewed as a phenomenon associated with the improvement of his organization. Such a dissection of the skull into paired frontal bones is a favorable factor both for the contents of the skull and for itself. The growth of the latter in various directions occurs due to the presence of sutures "... Finally, such a luminary of anthropology as V.V. Bunak in the article "On the crests on the skull of primates" (Russian Anthropological Journal, volume 12: book 3-4, 1922) wrote: " An abnormal frontal suture in humans is observed more often in cultural races, which is associated with an increase in the brain and its increasing pressure on the frontal bone "...

Among foreign scientists involved in the anomalies of the skull in the context of racial systematics, it is necessary to highlight the following names: Georges Papillot (1863-?), Georg Bouchand (1863-1942), Marciano Limson (1893-?), Wenzel Leopold Gruber (1814-1890), Johann Ranke ( 1836-1916), Hermann Welker (1822-1897), Josef Girtl (1811-1894), Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910). The famous Swedish anthropologist and anatomist, Professor of Stockholm University Wilhelm Lehe in his book “Man, His Origin and Evolutionary Development” (M., 1913), summing up numerous studies in different countries in the field of anomalies of the sutures of the skull, gave such a clear and detailed summary: “ ... That the preservation of the frontal suture is indeed usually a criterion of mental superiority must follow from the fact that skulls with this feature are more common among civilized peoples than among savages. In this regard, I want to mention that so far no great ape skull has been described with a preserved frontal suture. Georg Bushan in his famous book The Science of Man (Moscow, 1911) emphasized: “Metopism is the property of the higher races. Metopic skulls have a greater weight, a more complex structure of the sutures, and a longer non-overgrowth of the sutures. The lower races give a smaller percentage of such skulls than the higher, the so-called cultured peoples.

Another master of classical German anthropology, who specialized precisely in the field of comparative morphology, Eugen Fischer, in his fundamental textbook Anthropology (1923) pointed out: “Racial differences in the frequency of metopism are associated with different brain capacities. We meet it, for example, among the Germans - 12.5% ​​of cases, on the skulls found in Pompeii - in 10.5%, among the ancient Egyptians - in 7%, among Negroes - in 1% of cases.

The Spanish scientist Juan Comas, in his dissertation “On the study of metopism” (1942), testified in exactly the same spirit: “Anuchin was one of the first to put forward a hypothesis about a direct connection between metopism and intelligence, that is, the trait is more common in higher races and, therefore, its can be considered a feature of progressive evolution, indicating the tendency of an organism to modify its usual type of skull.

The well-known German anthropologist Karl Vogt, in his book Man and His Place in Nature (St. Petersburg, 1866), summarizing the data of contemporary science, stated: the anterior sutures, frontal and coronal, like in a monkey, fuse very early, much earlier than the posterior ones, while in the white man the order of fusion of the sutures is completely reversed. If so, then there is no particular boldness in suggesting that in the brain of a Negro there may be the same simian course of development that is proved in his skull.

Another well-known German anthropologist Robert Wiedersheim later confirmed this point of view, emphasizing in his book “The structure of man from a comparative anatomical point of view” (M., 1900): “Graziola showed that the seams in higher races disappear in a different sequence than in lower . In the latter, like in monkeys, the process always begins in front, from the frontal region of the skull, that is, on the border of the frontal and parietal bones, and from here it goes back. Needless to say, this is reflected in the early formation of the anterior lobes of the brain, which in the higher (white) races, where the fronto-parietal suture is obliterated after the occipital-parietal suture, can develop even further. This must be put in connection with the mental difference of the tribes.

Complete the topic of cranial sutures- the subject of suturology - we can quote from the monograph “A New Theory of the Origin of Man and His Degeneration” (Warsaw, 1907) by the largest Russian racologist V.A. capable of learning and as intelligent as a white man. But as soon as the fatal period of manhood sets in, then, together with the fusion of the cranial sutures and protrusion of the jaws, the same process is observed in them as in monkeys: the individual becomes incapable of development. The critical period, when the brain begins to decline, occurs much earlier in the Negro than in the white, and this is evidenced by the earlier fusion of the sutures of the skull in the Negro.

But the story about cranial sutures will be incomplete if we do not once again emphasize the importance of this parameter as a racial diagnostic feature. The book by A. G. Kozintsev “Ethnic cranioscopy. Racial variability of the sutures of the skull of modern man” (Leningrad, 1988). Unlike liberal biased anthropologists, who are only busy with “erasing” and “removing” racial features, A. G. Kozintsev sees the goal of his work in the exact opposite: “The polymorphism of some features allows you to change the traditional course of research, rebuilding, and even creating morphological schemes with a special calculation for increasing the effectiveness of race differentiation and, in some cases, for reducing the role of other factors, in particular age.

Analyzing the results of practical research, the author of the monograph states that the frequency of the race-delimiting feature in the bones occipital-mastoid suture for Caucasians it averages 6.4%, and for Mongoloids - 16.6%. Based on morphologically close occipital index (OI) racial differences are even more pronounced. So, for Caucasoids, the frequency of this feature is 8.4%, and for Mongoloids - 48.5%. The occipital index of the second order (ZI II) also effectively helps to distinguish between races: 2.8% for Caucasians and 13.4% for Mongoloids. “When considering the values ​​of the occipital index (SI) and (SI II), one gets the impression that the trait “works” only at the level of large races. No regularities in the distribution of frequencies within the Caucasoid and Mongoloid complexes can be identified.”

A. G. Kozintsev writes further: “We have analyzed about 30 signs related to the sutures of the skull, and identified six main, most valuable. Caucasoid and Mongoloid races, as we remember, differ in all the main features. For a total quantitative assessment of these differences, the author of the book introduces a special Mongoloid-Caucasoid index (MEI). In Caucasoid populations, it ranges from 13 to 39, and in Mongoloids from 54 to 82.5.

Representatives of the Nordic race are also easily distinguished from other Caucasians with the help of North European Index (NEI). "The value of both indicators (MEI) and (SEI) in northern Europeans is higher than in southern ones." The clear and reasoned conclusion given by A. G. Kozintsev in the book leaves no room for misunderstandings and speculations. “Racial indexes are a simple but effective means of analysis. Five features - the occipital index, the sphenomaxillary suture, the posterior zygomatic suture, the complexity index of the infraorbital pattern, and the index of the transverse palatal suture - serve primarily to distinguish between Caucasoids and Mongoloids. Combinations of features have greater delimiting power than individual features. The Mongoloid-Caucasoid Index (MEI) and the First Principal Component (GC I) are extremely effective in separating Mongoloids and Caucasoids. Differentiation within the Caucasoid race can be traced with the help of the Northern European Index (NEI) and the second main component (II GC).

Beyond the seams, in the structure of the human skull is noticeable many other racial diagnostic markers with a good discriminant effect. The prominent German anthropologist Robert Wiedersheim wrote in this regard: The nasal bones, which usually remain separate, sometimes fuse into one bone., and this is much more common in the lower races than in the higher ones. Since such fusion is normal for monkeys, we probably have one of the atavistic phenomena in it in humans. In chimpanzees, it occurs already in the second year of life.

Let us briefly point out other parameters of the skull that are essential for the differentiation and diagnosis of races.

Infraorbital Pattern Complexity Index (ISPU) possesses the greatest separation power. For Caucasoids, it is 38.0, and for Mongoloids - 57.9. And this is natural, because the eyes of different races have different mounting equipment. This feature also "works" at the level of large races. Peoples, nations, ethnic groups and tribes are indeed the result of a later historical process, but the gigantic abyss of irreducible racial differences testifies in favor of the prehistoric, namely, the biological nature of their origin.

A.P. Pestryakov in the article “Differentiation of the large Mongoloid race according to the data of the generalized total dimensions of the cranium” (in: Historical dynamics of racial and ethnic differentiation of the population of Asia. - M., 1987) wittily notes that the size of the brain is a “biological birthmark on the body of a race." Further, the author develops his idea: “It is necessary to stipulate the well-known scientific fact that there is a so-called "brain rubicon", i.e., the minimum, but sufficiently large, necessary volume of the brain, starting from which its carrier - a person - can function as a social being. The average group size of the cranium can be an important parameter in the study of the racial history of mankind ”... A.P. Pestryakov, on the basis of material completely different from that of other authors, comes to the same conclusion that according to the size of the cranial capsule Caucasoids vary least of all and Mongoloids are most polymorphic, which indicates their "possible racial heterogeneity." The scatter of signs in the latter is 2–2.5 times greater than in Caucasians, while in Negroids and American Indians it is 1.5–2 times greater than in the Caucasian race. From which we can make a legitimate conclusion that of all the large races - Caucasians - the most homogeneous. "We are studying generalized quantitative characteristics of the cranium are more stable over time than most descriptive racial-morphological characters. From this statement of the author of the article follows the conclusion that racial characteristics, especially as important as the size of the brain, are indeed a “birthmark” that cannot be washed off in the process of historical development, as science charlatans want. “The proposed parameters can serve as good anthropological markers in the study of ethnogenetic processes. An analysis of the values ​​of generalized parameters in craniological series allows us to distinguish racial filiation, as well as inclusions that are foreign from a craniological point of view.”

In this regard, any racial parameters of the skull in general, of which there are many, are of particular interest.

For example, in an article on racial craniology: "World distribution occipito-parietal index» Yu. D. Benevolenskaya compares the average value of this indicator for the main races:

Caucasians - 91.6

Mongoloids - 96.6

Caucasians - 0.738

Mongoloids - 0.581

Negroids have 0.706.

There is a common, unsupported opinion that Caucasoids are anthropologically closer to Mongoloids than to Negroids, but this indicator clearly shows the depth of the difference between the first and second - 27%.

"The Caucasoid series show less dispersion than the Mongoloid series and a closer intergroup relationship with the vertical-longitudinal index." In general, this suggests that Mongoloids are less racially homogeneous than Caucasians.

In the collection "Historical dynamics of racial and ethnic differentiation of the population of Asia" (M., 1987) Yu. D. Benevolenskaya in the article "Racial differentiation in Asia (according to the structure of the frontal skull)" based on a study fronto-sagittal index(LSI) also speaks of "the greatest consolidation of Caucasians compared to other races."

Finally, in the collection “Problems of the evolutionary morphology of man and his races” (M., 1986), the same Benevolenskaya in the article “Racial variations in the signs of the cranial vault” in addition to this writes: “Since the races are not similar, they are of different quality in the type and scale of intra-racial race-forming processes, racial diagnostics according to LSI looks peculiar in each case. Thus, Caucasoids are the most consolidated race, and this is probably why (LSI) the fronto-sagittal index does not give clear racial distinctions within Caucasoids. The LSI reveals the greatest differences within the Mongoloid race.

Among the more modern collective works, the collection “The Unity and Diversity of the Human Race” (M., 1997) should be noted. In it, Yu. D. Benevolenskaya, one of the recognized leading experts in the field of craniology, develops to the logical limit the original concept of the original existence of two extreme variants of facial morphology in mankind. “The results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that there are two main racial components. Caucasoid type reveals features trapezoidal morphotype, eastern - rectangular. The idea of ​​the existence of these morphotypes finds a biological justification for one of the factors of polymorphism in human populations. Moreover, both of these morphotypes reflect the evolutionary stages in the development of races. Turning to the structure of morphotypes, we see that the rectangular morphotype is most characteristic of the features of the initial phase of growth, the trapezoid - the final phase.

This concept of morphotypes is easily linked with the theory of the non-adaptive size of the brain by V.P. Alekseev and, depending on the size of the cranium, set by the brain in the process of “growth phases”, it makes it possible to speak scientifically of “higher” and “lower” races. Moreover, the idea of ​​these morphotypes "finds a biological justification" in that one of them belongs to the initial, that is, the lower phase of growth, and the other to the final, that is, the higher phase.

Benevolenskaya continues: “These “building elements”, that is, two morphotypes as the fundamental basis of diversity, do not dissipate without a trace in the new phase of human differentiation at the level of formed races, but are traced in their basis.” This means that the higher have always been and will be higher, and the lower - lower: "The hypothesis of dimorphism can be formulated as a phenomenon of parallelism of races." That is, according to the author, the difference in types indicates the mutual independence of their origin.

Another author of the collection "Problems of the evolutionary morphology of man and his races" Yu. K. Chistov in the article "Racial differences in median-sagittal contour human skull" on the basis of another morphological parameter draws a similar conclusion: "The Caucasoid series differ the least in terms of the sum of the linear characteristics of the contour of the skull, and the equatorial groups most of all." He, in the monograph “Differentiation of human races according to the structure of the median-sagittal contour of the skull” (M., 1983) indicates: “The results of the studies obtained allow us to speak with sufficient confidence about the presence of certain differences in the shape of the sagittal contour of the human cranium in the “northern” and “ southern" populations of modern man. The intraracial values ​​of this indicator differ significantly from the interracial ones, i.e., representatives of contrasting racial types differ from each other both in terms of the sum of degree and linear characteristics of the median-sagittal contour. One of the most interesting conclusions is the statement of the fact that modern craniological series differ just as much in the magnitudes of the degree and linear characteristics of the frontal part of the contour, as in the pattern of the occipital region.

It was all taken together that science knows today about the human skull that allowed T. V. Tomashevich at the 1st international conference "Race: myth or reality?" name your report “It is better to consider the differences of races as real”.

In fact, we have nothing to add to this extremely delicate and politically correct statement.

Meanwhile, the skull is important for a person not in itself, but insofar as it is the receptacle and repository of the highest organ of spiritual activity - the brain. And here it is appropriate to talk about those differences in the structure and functions of this organ, due to all the above differences in the structure of the skull.

In the most general form, these differences are expressed in the data neurophysiology and psychiatry.

In the works of such scientists as F. Tiedemann (1781–1861), P. Graziole (1815–1865), K. Vogt (1817–1895), W. Waldeyer (1836–1921), G. Retzius (1842–1919) , J. G. F. Kolbrugge (1865-?), C. Giacomini (1840–1898), A. Ecker (1818–1887), A. Weisbach (1836–1914), G. Schwalbe (1844–1916), D. N. Zernov (1843–1917), a conscious and purposeful study of the specifics and forms of the structure of the brain of various human races begins, unshakably establishing their initial deep difference.

Founder phrenology F. J. Gall (1758–1828) identified 27 main zones - organs (as he called them) of localization of higher mental functions, the degree of development of which determines the main mental and cultural differences between individuals, tribes and entire races. He wrote: “It is also known that peoples with large brains rise above peoples with small brains to such an extent that they conquer and oppress them as they like. The Indian brain is much smaller than the European brain, and everyone knows how a few thousand Europeans conquered and now keep millions of Hindus in bondage. In the same way, the brain of the American native is smaller than the brain of the European, and the same thing happened to America as it happened to India.”

Relentlessly testing his hypotheses in practice, Gall calculated that the capacity of the skull in the white race is from 75 to 109 cubic inches, while in the Mongoloid race it extends from 69 to 93 inches. According to the volume, the weight of the brain of different races also changes. In the future, similar observations were covered by all major races and peoples. Volume and weight of the brain have become a recognized racial marker.

In addition to significant differences in the weight of the brain and its parts in representatives of large human races and even individual nationalities, differences in convolution organization.

One of the first to study racial differences in the structure of the brain was the well-known Russian anthropologist D. N. Zernov. His work with the characteristic title "Convolutions of the brain, as a tribal trait" was published as early as 1873, and in 1877 he already published a fundamental monograph "Individual types of cerebral convolutions in humans."

Another Russian scientist A. S. Arkin in his article “On racial features in the structure of the human cerebral hemispheres” (Journal of neuropathology and psychiatry named after S. S. Korsakov, book 3-4, 1909) derived such new racial signs: “Middle frontal the sulcus is a sulcus, which, to a greater extent than other sulci of the brain, is subject to changes and has different outlines in representatives of different races. In addition, based on a huge foreign material, Arkin throughout the article talks about "brains rich in convolutions, which, as you know, are considered to be more perfectly arranged." The conclusion in Arkin's work is simple and convincing: "Racial differences in the structure of the brain have favorite furrows and convolutions, where they appear more often and in relief."

Arkin's fundamental discovery can be considered the conclusion that "the most characteristic racial differences are noted in the area association centers". These centers have a relatively later development compared to other parts of the brain. They also easily read the external morphological differences in the structure of the brain in representatives of the "higher" and "lower" races.

His contemporary and compatriot R. L. Veinberg in the article "On the Teaching of the Shape of the Human Brain" (Russian Anthropological Journal, 1902, N4) revealed racial differences in the structure of the Roland and Sylvius furrows. The eminent German anthropologist Karl Vogt also wrote in this connection: "The Sylvian fissure of the Negro has a more vertical direction, and so does the Roland fissure."

The greatest French anthropologist Paul Topinard in his fundamental book Anthropology (1879) emphasized: “The convolutions are thicker, wider and less complex in the lower races. The nerves of the Negroes, and especially the nerves of the base of the brain, are thicker; the substance of their brain is not as white as that of Europeans.

Possessing a thicker bone of the skull, as the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote about, representatives of the Negroid race therefore naturally have a lower threshold of pain sensitivity. Karl Vogt was the first to discover that impact strength of brain substance in blacks exceeds this figure in white Caucasians. "The substance of the brain of a Negro is incomparably denser and harder than that of a white man," Vogt declared. This neurophysiological fact was pointed out as early as the second half of the 19th century by boxing associations, refusing to compete with black athletes on the grounds that they were less sensitive to pain than whites.

Jean-Joseph Virey developed in the same direction our ideas about the specificity of the Negro brain: “In Negroes, the gray matter of the brain has a darker color. But the main thing is that blacks have much more than Europeans, developed peripheral nervous system, and the central one, on the contrary, is smaller. It seems that the brain of the Negroes has partially gone into the nerves, as if animal life developed at the expense of mental life.

What is summary result all the differences described above in the structure of the skull and the brain located in it? It manifests itself in objective figures obtained by neurophysiology, psychiatry and psychology.

If Caucasians have an average IQ (intelligence indicator) of 100, then Negroids have no more than 70, and Mongoloids (but not all: Chinese, Japanese) have 102. These are the same differences in reaction speed. Canadian professor J. Philip Rushton writes in this connection, in the sensational study Evolution and Behavior of Races: “Larger heads (containing more developed brains) are in direct correlation with intelligence. Large heads tend to shine with their intellect. This correlation is also true for different racial groups. At the age of seven, African children are 16% larger than European children, but their brain perimeter is 8% smaller ... Blacks have an average of 480 million fewer neurons in their heads than whites. With a small brain in a large body, they are less intellectually gifted, because most of the Negro brain is occupied with vital functions, and not with conscious thoughts.

It is truly no secret that there is a direct and significant connection not only between the structure of the skull and the brain (where the brain, we recall, is the main shaping agent), but also the brain, skull and face. And in the face, thus, the main psychological features of its carrier, the properties of his mind and character are imprinted. On this basis such science builds its conclusions as physiognomy, founded by the Swiss thinker I.-K. Lavater.

Here again we are dealing with racial differences. Professor I. A. Sikorsky in his monograph “General Psychology with Physiognomy” (Kyiv, 1904) stated in this connection: “The black race belongs to the least gifted on the globe. In the structure of the body of its representatives, there are noticeably more points of contact with the class of monkeys than in other races. The capacity of the skull and the weight of the brain of blacks is less than in other races, and, accordingly, spiritual abilities are less developed. The Negroes never constituted a large state and did not play a leading or prominent role in history, although they were in remote times much more widespread numerically and territorially than later. The weakest side of the black individual and the black race is the mind: one can always see in portraits weak contraction of the superior orbital muscle, and even this muscle in Negroes is anatomically much less developed than in whites, meanwhile it is the true difference between man and animals, constituting a special human muscle.

Modern studies of the human face and its individual components (eyes, ears, teeth, etc.) have greatly contributed to the establishment of reliable racial diagnostic markers. The famous Soviet anthropologist M. I. Uryson in his work “The relationship of the main morphological features of the human skull in the process of anthropogenesis” (M., 1964) wrote: “Based on the consideration of the skull as a total skeletal structure, it can be assumed that the progressive development of the brain exerted its influence not only on the formation of the brain box, but also through its change to the restructuring of the facial section. We are talking, therefore, about the mutual influence of the braincase and the facial part of the skull, as well as the factors that cause their change in the process of evolution of the skull.

Today, in the arsenal of modern science there is such an accurate and impartial method of racial diagnostics as anthropological photography. The work of N. N. Tsvetkova “Anthropological photography as a source for research on ethnic photography” (M., 1976) serves as a clear and convincing illustration of this. In it, she writes: “As a result of the analysis of photometric features, it was revealed that almost all angular dimensions of the face have good group delimiting properties. They have an intergroup range of more than two standards.” This means that the value of objective racial differences in the structure of the face among representatives of different races consistently exceeds the measurement error.

In general, the racial geometry of the face is as follows. Caucasoids, according to photometry, have the most direct profile along the upper facial angle, and the latter (83–87°) is always greater than the midfacial angle (81°), a relatively small angle of protrusion of the nose to the horizontal (57–63°), a very strong protrusion of the nose to the line profile (21–27°) and a straight upper lip (85–91°).

Mongoloids are distinguished by a tendency to mesognathism in the upper facial angle and the angle of protrusion of the upper lip (72–82°). Their upper facial angle (82–87°) is always less than the mid-facial angle (83–88°). The angle of protrusion of the nose to the horizontal is the largest (65–72°) among all the studied groups.

Negroids are prognathous (that is, they have a sharply protruding lower jaw) along the upper (73–77 °) and midfacial (76–80 °) angles and the angle of protrusion of the upper lip.

This again means that the racial and ethnic type is an objective reality and can be accurately measured not only in general, but also in individual parts of the portrait.

In the modern collection of works "Problems of the evolutionary morphology of man and his races" (Moscow, 1986), the topic under discussion is taken to a qualitatively new level. So in the article "Prospects for the use of near stereophotogrammetry in anthropology", created by a team of authors: L. P. Vinnikov, I. G. Indichenko, I. M. Zolotareva, A. A. Zubov, G. V. Lebedinskaya - it is said that that high-quality color photography allows you to identify all the nuances of pigmentation of the eyes, skin, hair, as well as determine the interpupillary distances and protrusion of the eyeball. In this connection, the authors of this development believe that the method they propose: "... opens up broad prospects for an extremely detailed study of the surface of a person's face and can be used with great success in ethnic anthropology."

So, it is quite obvious that the racial proportions of the "features" and the whole head as a whole, perceived in the process of anthropo-aesthetic evaluation, is a real fact.

One of the classics of the German anthropological school, Baron Egon von Eickstedt, in his basic monograph "Racology and the Racial History of Humanity" (1937-1943) linked the features of the morphology of the face of various races with the evolution of their development:

“In relation to the comparative morphology of the soft parts, two main phenomena should be mentioned that are of evolutionary significance. This is, firstly, the presence of Jacobson's organ, a short rudimentary passage with a blind end in the anterior lower part of the nasal septum, which performs a special functional task in lower species. Further, the lateral parts of the posterior cartilage are of interest, which in progressive Caucasoids branch towards the end, and in primitive races, like the Melanesians, form a continuous wide plate. This is an intermediate form leading to the great apes.

The square muscle in primitive, especially dark-skinned races is also much more compact than in Caucasians, in which individual parts of the fibers have developed so much that French anatomists generally consider them to be separate muscles. Small transverse tissues of the nasal muscle usually strongly correlate with the general nature of the skin covering of the soft parts. Therefore, their thickness usually also corresponds to a stronger descent and more fleshiness of the wings of the nose, sometimes even, as is often found in Jews and pseudo-Jewish types in New Guinea, a greater thickness of the folds of the eyelids and lower lip. In Negroes and Paleo-Mongoloids, few tissues can be completely lost in spongy connective tissue. This massiveness gives rise to deep grooves at the wings of the nose, which on flat faces run in an almost continuous line from the corner of the eye through the wing of the nose to the lower jaw.

If we draw a general evolutionary picture of what the muscles of the nasal region show, then the same is even more clearly expressed here as in the region of the orbits: the higher the forms, the greater the differentiation of the muscles. Lips are a characteristic feature of both an individual and a racial face, they say a lot about the mental type of a person. The region of the mouth is the most expressive and indicative in terms of racial physiognomy.

If we also take into account the areas of the orbits, nose and cheeks, then the general direction of the evolutionary development of the muscles of the human face becomes clear. In all cases, the higher the evolutionary stage, the higher the possibilities of muscle mass differentiation. There are only different forms of expression of one basic tendency. Thus, we can see and unravel the secrets and relationships of the origin of species and its constructive paths using a specific example.

We can judge the intermediate stages of human evolution by the atavistic modern forms of primitive races. In them, the entire muscular mass of the middle part of the face is thicker and less differentiated. In general, non-differentiation should be considered a sign of primitiveness. Massive and repeatedly intertwined muscular connections are still characteristic of the Mongoloids.

Although thickening of the lips is especially characteristic of Negroids, it is more or less common in other races, for example, among the Eastern Veddoids. Very thick lips in the southern Chinese, relatively narrow in the primitive Austroloids, very narrow in the North American Indians. A disproportionately thick lower lip may be a hereditary trait of an entire people, as, for example, among the Jews.

A childish mouth with indistinct contours, like that of European children, is found in infantile primitive races. The contour of the upper lip and crescent-shaped mouth opening is typical of Western Veddoids, especially women.

On the Nordic profile, the lips do not protrude, while in the southern races they protrude. The latter phenomenon is often associated with a subsidence of the contour of the profile, a concave snout typical of Negroes.

An unsurpassed storehouse of information on questions of racial physiognomy is also the book "The Language of the Human Face" (1938) by a prominent German anatomist and physician F. Lange, not to mention the aforementioned Lavater.

We will not dwell on the most obvious differences in the racial appearance of the various inhabitants of the Earth. Parts of the face- skin color, hair, shape and color of eyes, nose, hair, lips, ears, teeth, facial contours are the most significant in the ethno-racial characteristics of the perceived appearance. According to these indicators, even a five-year-old child at first glance will distinguish a Negroid from a Mongoloid and a Caucasoid.

Let us quote only briefly two specialists in regard to the racial structure of the eyes and hair.

J.-J. Virey: “Some animals have a third eyelid. In humans, it is rudimentary, but in Europeans it is much less pronounced than in Negroes, who in this respect are close to orangutans. The distance between the European and the Negro is small compared to the abyss that separates man from the great apes. However, the physical forms of the Negroes are to some extent intermediate between European and ape.

N. A. Dubova: “If among representatives of the Mongoloid race, epicanthus, one of its most characteristic features, occurs in 20-100% of cases, then among Caucasians this figure varies from 0 to 10% of cases. Straight hair is common among both Mongoloids, American Indians, and Caucasians, but they never occur among classical Negroids. Australoids, including Veddoids, are characterized by broad and narrow wavy hair. What distinguishes Mongoloids and American Indians from Caucasians is the considerable stiffness of straight hair (a trait that almost never occurs in Caucasians).

The human skeleton, especially in the pelvis in women(because it is the female pelvis that forms the hereditary shape of the skull of each race) also makes it possible to detect permanent racial differences. Well-known Western anthropologists P. Broca, P. Topinar and S. T. Sommering compared the pelvis of the "lower" races with the pelvis of monkeys. Franz Pruner-Bey, due to the clarity and accuracy of the feature, generally proposed abandoning the classification of races according to the structure of the skull and switching to a classification of races according to the shape of the pelvis. The branch of anthropology concerned with the study of racial differences in the pelvis is called pelvimetry. Racial differences are quantified using Turner input pointer.

Of the Russian classical works on this topic, one can name the works of M. I. Lutokhin “Historical Review of the Literature on Racial Differences in the Pelvis” (M., 1899) or V. A. Moshkov “The New Theory of the Origin of Man and His Degeneration” (Warsaw, 1907) . The well-known Russian ethnographer and anthropologist O. V. Milchevsky in his essay “The Foundations of the Science of Anthropoethnology” (M., 1868) emphasized in the same connection: “The forms of the pelvis in relation to various tribes were studied quite thoroughly by Weber. With a more elongated shape, more vertical and higher iliac bones, a narrower and higher sacrum, the pelvis of the Hottentot, or booty, closely approaches the pelvis of animals ... Professor Weber even divides people into 4 classes, looking at the different shapes of their pelvises, oval (Europeans), round (Indians), quadrangular (Mongols), wedge-shaped (among black races).

This section of physical anthropology later received a thorough scientific development. Racial pelvimetry reached its highest peak in the works of Egon von Eickstedt, as he pointed out in particular: “Racial differences in the size of the pelvis are significant and are not explained only by the size of the body, but are due to racial variations in heredity. So the basins of the Veddoids, Negritos and Paleo-Mongoloids (in Japan), both absolutely and relatively, are smaller than those of Europeans. The Negro pelvises are distinguished by their small size, narrowness and height, while in Europeans the lateral and anterior edges of the ilium diverge widely. The transverse-oval shape prevails in Caucasians, round in Negroids. The Chinese have different shapes, but in the southern brachycephals, the transverse oval shape predominates. Among the racial differences is the tilt of the pelvis. The Japanese have a small one.

Quite a few other fragments of the skeleton (for example, tibia, etc.) also have persistent racial differences both in form and, as domestic science has found out, in content (biochemical). So, in the collection under the characteristic title "Ethnography, anthropology and related disciplines: correlation of subject and method" (M., 1989) we will find a bright and convincing article by M. V. Kozlovskaya "Experience in studying the epoch-making dynamics of variability of some physiological characteristics", in on the basis of biochemical processes, an unambiguous confirmation of the hypothesis of the initial existence of two morphotypes and the parallelism of races is given. The author of the article analyzes such an important biochemical factor for human anthropology as mineralization of bone tissues of the skeleton, which is also a racial trait, rigidly genetically determined. M. V. Kozlovskaya confirms: “A high level of mineralization is not functionally necessary, but is reproduced by genetically determined mechanisms. The concentration of microelements in bone tissue is a complex of various indicative features.

There are also other signs racial differences, no less vivid and unchanged, although not always visible to the naked eye. Today, despite ideological and political slingshots, they are recognized and taken into account not only by fundamental science (racology, anthropology), but also by applied sciences directly related to the life of the human masses, for example, medicine. Thus, the title of AI Kozlov's report "Accounting for racial characteristics in preventive cardiology" speaks for itself, because it indicates a deep understanding of the practical daily significance of racial differences. Patients of different races are arranged differently, they suffer from the same disease in different ways, they need to be treated differently: to understand this means saving many lives.

It would be possible to delve into all the subtleties and nuances of racial differences again and again, but it seems that what has been said is more than enough to repeat, following the modern Russian researcher G. A. Aksyanova: “The polymorphism of those physical features of modern humanity that are called racial, exists regardless of the positive or negative attitude to the term "race" itself. The historical intertwining of this scientific term from the field of biological systematics with negative social manifestations does not change its biological essence when applied to a person. Racial differentiation in human morphology is an objective reality.

Notes:

Back in 1922, the Russian scientist V. G. Shtefko in the article “Biological reactions and their significance in the systematics of monkeys and humans” (Russian Anthropological Journal, volume 12, book 1–2, 1922) made a significant conclusion: “Considerations expressed on based on experimental data, lead us to an extremely important and highly interesting conclusion. The cultural races of mankind, such as the Europeans, have a more complex structure of the protein molecule than the lower races. Thus, from a biological, or rather, biochemical point of view, they are more complexly organized than the latter.

Avdeev V. B. Decree. Op., p. 289–290.

The report by N. A. Dubova (in the collection “The Problem of Race in Russian Physical Anthropology” - M., 2002) emphasizes: “Until now, there is not a single (!) Fact when very dark skin pigmentation, characteristic of equatorial groups, was would be noted for individuals whose ancestors were not born on the African, Australian or South Asian continents. Likewise, no light-skinned, light-eyed population has appeared in Africa or South Asia without an influx of migrants who had such signs.

As A. de Benois put it, population geneticists, creating their virtual, artificial populations, fell into an "optical illusion", denying the reality of racial differences visible to the naked eye. In Russian, this is called not to see the forest for the trees.