Given a variable stock spreading over diverse territory, we expect to
find it splitting up into varieties which may become steadied into races
or incipient species. Thus we have races of hive-bees, "Italians,"
"Punics," and so forth; and thus there arose races of men. Certain types
suited certain areas, and periods of in-breeding tended to make the
distinctive peculiarities of each incipient race well-defined and
stable. When the original peculiarities, say, of negro and Mongol,
Australian and Caucasian, arose as brusque variations or "mutations,"
then they would have great staying power from generation to generation.
They would not be readily swamped by intercrossing or averaged off.
Peculiarities and changes of climate and surroundings, not to speak of
other change-producing factors, would provoke new departures from age to
age, and so fresh racial ventures were made. Moreover, the occurrence
of out-breeding when two races met, in peace or in war, would certainly
serve to induce fresh starts. Very important in the evolution of human
races must have been the alternating occurrence of periods of
in-breeding (endogamy), tending to stability and sameness, and periods
of out-breeding (exogamy), tending to changefulness and diversity.
Thus we may distinguish several more or less clearly defined primitive
races of mankind--notably the African, the Australian, the Mongolian,
and the Caucasian. The woolly-haired African race includes the negroes
and the very primitive bushmen. The wavy-to curly-haired Australian race
includes the Jungle Tribes of the Deccan, the Vedda of Ceylon, the
Jungle Folk or Semang, and the natives of unsettled parts of
Australia--all sometimes slumped together as "Pre-Dravidians." The
straight-haired Mongols include those of Tibet, Indo-China, China, and
Formosa, those of many oceanic islands, and of the north from Japan to
Lapland. The Caucasians include Mediterraneans, Semites, Nordics,
Afghans, Alpines, and many more.
There are very few corners of knowledge more difficult than that of the
Races of Men, the chief reason being that there has been so much
movement and migration in the course of the ages. One physical type has
mingled with another, inducing strange amalgams and novelties. If we
start with what might be called "zoological" races or strains differing,
for instance, in their hair (woolly-haired Africans, straight-haired
Mongols, curly-or wavy-haired Pre-Dravidians and Caucasians), we find
these replaced by _peoples_ who are mixtures of various races, "brethren
by civilisation more than by blood." As Professor Flinders Petrie has
said, the only meaning the term "race" now can have is that of a group
of human beings whose type has been unified by their rate of
assimilation exceeding the rate of change produced by the infiltration
of foreign elements. It is probable, however, that the progress of
precise anthropology will make it possible to distinguish the various
racial "strains" that make up any people. For the human sense of race
is so strong that it convinces us of reality even when scientific
definition is impossible. It was this the British sailor expressed in
his answer to the question "What is a Dago?" "Dagoes," he replied, "is
anything wot isn't our sort of chaps."
[Illustration: RESTORATION BY A. FORESTIER OF THE RHODESIAN MAN WHOSE
SKULL WAS DISCOVERED IN 1921
Attention may be drawn to the beetling eyebrow ridges, the projecting
upper lip, the large eye-sockets, the well-poised head, the strong
shoulders.
The squatting figure is crushing seeds with a stone, and a crusher is
lying on the rock to his right.]
[Illustration: RESTORATION BY A. FORESTIER OF THE RHODESIAN MAN WHOSE
SKULL WAS DISCOVERED IN 1921
The figure in the foreground, holding a staff, shows the erect attitude
and the straight legs. His left hand holds a flint implement.
On the left, behind the sitting figure, is seen the entrance to the
cave. This new Rhodesian cave-man may be regarded as a southern
representative of a Neanderthal race, or as an extinct type intermediate
between the Neanderthal Men and the Modern Man type.]