What are the names of the human races?
Quick Answer
Despite disagreement and controversy surrounding attempts to categorize humans by race, an early system based on geographic origin and physical characteristics names Caucasoids, Negroids, Mongoloids and Australoids as the four major races of humans. Sub-groups exist within each group, although the distinction between classifications is often difficult to determine due to intermingling and migration. There are also cultural sensitivities, stirred by studies that attempt to link racial categories with traits such as intelligence, physical ability or social behavior.
Continue ReadingFull Answer
The Caucasoid race originates from the Eurasian area of the Caucasus, and includes various Aryan Indo-European, Semitic Arab and Hebrew, and North African sub-groups based on geographic location and language. These people have pale to light brown skin, blond to black hair, narrow nasal ridges and prominent eyes.
Negroids originate from the equatorial regions of Africa and India and include Pygmy, Sudantic and Bantu sub-groups. They typically have darkly pigmented brown to black skin, coarse black hair and wide nasal ridges, lips and brows.
Mongoloids include Asian and Native American groups divided into Neo-Mongoloid Eskimo, Chinese and other pale-skinned sub-groups adapted to cold environments, and Paleo-Mongoloid Native American, Polynesian, Filipino, and Southeast Asian sub-groups with darker skin colors adapted to tropical environments. They typically have straight black hair, small almond-shaped eyes and lean muscular frames. This group include Dravidians of the Indian subcontinent sometimes treated as a separate group.
Australoids include subgroups more properly classified as Negroid subgroups according to ethnologists, such as the aboriginal and southern Pacific and Asian groups with dark skin and coarse hair.
Learn more about AnthropologyRelated Questions
-
Q:
What race are Hispanic people?
A: Hispanic people can be of any race, since the term "Hispanic" is most often used as a catch-all category for people who come from Spanish-speaking countrie... Full Answer >Filed Under: -
Q:
Where can you find a giant human skeleton?
A: At least one giant human skeleton can be found at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, England. Another giant skeleton can be f... Full Answer >Filed Under: -
Q:
How long have humans been on earth?
A: Modern humans have existed for roughly 200,000 years. The species to which humans belong, Homo sapiens, is the only species of human alive today. However, ... Full Answer >Filed Under: -
Q:
When did humans first appear on Earth?
A: There is evidence to suggest that archaic humans, of which modern humans are descended, were present as long as 195,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia, ... Full Answer >Filed Under:
