Races of man / by Sonia Cole.

  • Sonia Mary Cole
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Races of man / by Sonia Cole. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Definition of Race The living races of the world are all members of one species, Homo sapiens, though there were probably at least one other genus and several species of man in the past. A species is defined as a group of actually or potentially interbreeding populations which, under natural conditions, does not interbreed with other species. Man is a polytypic species, that is one consisting of several sub-species and races. These different races arose through the isolation of groups by geographic or social barriers which prevented interbreeding with other groups. In the animal kingdom, the terms sub-species and race are often synonymous ; or more often a race is a category lower than a sub-species. But in anthropology—the study of man—the term 'race' is often used very loosely. To qualify as a sub-species, at least 75% of the individuals of a group must be taxonomically different from those of another group with which it is compared; this is known as the '75 per cent rule'. If we were to attempt to classify man according to this rule—which in fact is not done—we should be left with three sub-species: the Caucasoids (Whites or Europeans), the Mongoloids (Asians) and the Negroids (Blacks or Africans). Anthropologists often call these the primary or major stocks of mankind. There are also survivors of an ancient 'archaic White' or Palaeo- Asiatic stock which was probably widespread before the Caucasoids and the Mongo loids became differentiated. Survivors of this stock are grouped in the Australoid division of mankind, which includes the Australian aborigines. In addition, there are several secondary or composite stocks which, if they had remained isolated, would have become distinct sub-species: these are the American Indians and the Polynesians. The archaic White stock probably played a considerable part in the composition of the American Indians and the Polynesians 5 the first, however, are mainly Mongoloid, while the latter have less Mongoloid admixture. Within these major groups of mankind there are a number of races and sub- races. A few of these have sometimes been called 'primary' for the sake of con venience—though obviously no true primary races still exist—while most are the result of admixture of 'primary' races and are known as 'composite'. An example 9
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