Written by: Richard McCulloch
http://www.racialcompact.com/racesofhumanity.html
Its rich diversity resulted from its global distribution, which caused the different populations of humanity to be geographically separated and thus reproductively isolated.
Reproductive isolation enabled divergence -- the process of divergent evolution -- to occur, causing the isolated populations to evolve in different directions, developing their own distinct ensembles of genetic traits and characteristics.
Divergent evolution is the process by which new life forms are created by the division and separation of life into different branches. Human evolution has seen its share of divergent branching. The generic name commonly used to refer to the genetically different populations, branches or divisions of humanity -- that share both a common biological ancestry and an ensemble of unique, genetically transmitted traits and characteristics which distinguish them from other populations -- is "race." But in the human species, as in any species enjoying a great degree of variety, the constant branching and dividing that characterizes the process of divergent evolution has created many different levels of branches and divisions, each of which possesses genetic traits which distinguish it from other branches or divisions at the same level.
For purposes of taxonomic accuracy each of these levels should have its own specific name and definition.
The first or highest level is called the species, and it is simply and objectively defined as including all those populations which are capable of interbreeding with each other and producing fully fertile offspring, and which do in fact interbreed under conditions of close and extensive contact. The term race is commonly used to refer to a branch or division of the species possessing genetically transmitted physical traits which distinguish it from other branches or divisions of the same level.
Adding to this definition, it will here also be defined as including only those persons who are capable of reproduction with each other without the loss or significant diminishment or alteration of the racially-distinctive genetic traits of either parent stock. The genetically transmitted traits which distinguish a race from other divisions at the same level (i.e., other races) should not be diminished or lost by reproduction within the race. If racially-distinctive traits are lost or diminished by within-group reproduction then the population group is at a level of division too broad and inclusive to be accurately defined as a race. If it is too narrow to be defined as a species, as it does not include all those populations capable of interbreeding, then it is at a level between race and species, which will here be referred to as a subspecies.
The great diversity existing in the human species today is the product of 150,000 or more years of divergent evolution.
Many of the specific details of that evolution are still not perfectly known or understood.
The account given here is primarily based on the work of Stephen Oppenheimer as detailed in his book Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World (2004) which was also the basis for a Discovery Channel documentary titled The Real Eve.
The closest living relative of humanity, the still-existing species most closely related to Homo sapiens, is the Chimpanzee, whose ancestral line separated and branched from the line leading to humans about 5.5 million years ago.
Even after 5.5 million years of divergent evolution humans and chimpanzees still have over 98% of their genes in common, with only a 1.23% (Time, October 9, 2006) to 1.6% difference in their genome.
The genus Homo originated in east Africa about two million years ago, and from then until about 250,000 years ago a number of Homo species migrated out of east Africa into Eurasia, from Homo ergaster and Homo erectus to Homo antecessor (750,000 years ago) and Homo heidelbergensis (600,000-250,000 years ago; believed to be the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in western Eurasia) where they developed into a variety of regional "archaic" human populations.
The genetic evidence from mitochondrial DNA and the male Y chromosome indicates that the modern human species (Homo sapiens) evolved from the Homo population that remained in sub-Saharan Africa, where it began diverging into different populations after a "bottleneck" caused by severe climate conditions that greatly reduced its numbers about 160,000 years ago.
The reduced population that emerged from this bottleneck was modern human, specifically Homo sapiens idaltu, found in Ethiopia and dated to 154,000 to 160,000 years ago.
The location of this emergence was probably in east Africa, most likely in or near the Great Rift valley of Kenya.
The first modern human dispersal saw some populations heading west into the tropical forest of the Congo basin and Nigeria where they evolved into the Congoid subspecies, others remaining in east Africa where they evolved into the Capoid or Khoisanid subspecies, and others moving north into Ethiopia, where they became the progenitors of the population that eventually migrated out of Africa and populated the rest of the world, evolving into the Australoid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid subspecies.
By 130,000 years ago there were perhaps 10,000 modern humans living in different populations in different regions of Africa.
About 120,000 years ago one of these modern human populations that had expanded up the Nile valley crossed the Sinai peninsula out of Africa into the Levant (the coast of what is now Israel, Lebanon and Syria) in Asia but got no further,
and by 90,000 years ago its members had either returned to Africa or died out.
About 85,000 years ago another of these modern human populations in what is now Djibouti, probably numbering no more than a few hundred people, crossed the southern entrance of the Red Sea (the Bab el Mandeb) from Africa to what is now Yemen in Asia in a beachcombing trek that took them along the coastline of the Arabian Sea.
The descendants of this population gradually expanded and dispersed, with the initial expansion being along the southern coast of Asia before eventually moving inland and replacing the regional archaic populations.
The where and when of these early human migrations was largely determined by geography, especially changes in climate and sea level.
The first main split or division in the expansion occurred on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf, with some groups continuing to move east while others remained in southern Iran between the Zagros Mountains and the sea.
The second main branching or division probably occurred in southeast Asia, with one group continuing to move eastward, reaching China by 68,000 years ago, and another group remaining in the region from Burma to Thailand where it evolved into a proto-Australoid population and then expanded south through Malaysia and Indonesia, reaching New Guinea by 77,000 years ago and Australia by 65,000 years ago.
The eruption, or explosion, of the Toba super-volcano in northern Sumatra circa 74,000 years ago, the largest such explosion in the last two million years, perhaps 100 times larger than the Krakatoa event off southern Sumatra in 1883, covered the entire Indian sub-continent in several meters of ash, probably destroying almost all life, including the early human population in the area.
The populations to the east and south of the eruption were spared its catastrophic effects, but the population in southern Iran, and to a lesser extent the population in east Africa, probably suffered severe effects, reducing their populations enough to put them through another genetic bottleneck.
The population in west Africa, protected by mountains to the east, was not as seriously effected.
Within a few thousand years India was repopulated from the east by proto-Australoids and later from the west by Caucasoids.
By 50,000 years ago the population that had remained in southern Iran, recovered from the Toba bottleneck, had evolved into proto-Caucasoids and began to expand -- to the east into Pakistan and the Indus valley, and to the north up the Tigris-Euphrates valley to the Levant by 45,000 years ago.
From the Levant they expanded north into Anatolia, eventually entering Europe through the Balkans and spreading the Aurignacian culture across southern Europe by 43,000 years ago.
Another Caucasoid group expanded north to the steppes of Central Asia and later moved westward into Europe with the Gravettian culture about 33,500 years ago.
Shortly after this another Caucasoid group expanded from the Levant across North Africa.
In this same time frame the population in Indochina and southern China had evolved into proto-Mongoloids and expanded northwards into the steppes of Siberia, branching into southern and northern Mongoloid groups.
Some northern Mongoloids migrated northeast to Berengia, a vast land between Siberia and Alaska that is now underwater, from where they subsequently moved south into the Americas.
By 30,000 years ago the divergent evolutionary branching or dividing of the human species had produced five main lines or subspecies which are still extant --
the Congoid of West Africa;
the Capoid of East and South Africa (later replaced in East Africa by the Congoid);
the Australoid of India, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia;
the Mongoloid of East Asia (later expanding to the southwest into Burma, Malaya and Indonesia, largely replacing the indigenous Australoids) and the Caucasoid of Europe, North Africa and West Asia (partly replacing the Mongoloids in the Americas after A.D. 1492 and the Australoids in Australia after A.D. 1788).
These subspecies branched or divided in turn into separate races, and these races branched in their turn into subraces, as part of the continuing process of divergent evolution.
Beginning about 20,000 years ago, when the global human population was perhaps a million, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) pushed the population of northern Europe south to refuge areas in southern France, northern Spain, the Balkans and Ukraine,
while the now fully-developed northern Mongoloid population in Siberia was also forced south to southern China and Indochina.
Both populations were greatly reduced in number during this period.
When the Last Glacial Maximum began to recede about 15,000 years ago (13,000 B.C.) the survivors of these populations expanded northward again from their refuge areas, with Scandinavia being occupied by humans for the first time about 10,000 years ago, by which time the global human population had risen to about 10 million.
Agriculture and the Neolithic period also began about 10,000 years ago in both the Middle East and China.
The genetic ancestry of the native European population as a whole is about 80% from the original Upper Paleolithic inhabitants who survived the 5,000 years of the Last Glacial Maximum in southern refuge areas and then re-expanded and repopulated the central and northern regions of the continent,
and 20% from the Neolithic farmers who expanded from Anatolia(current Turkey) into Europe starting about 8,000 years ago, with the latter element concentrated primarily in the Mediterranean lands of southern Europe,
indicating that the initial spread of agriculture into central and northern Europe was a process of cultural diffusion rather than a movement of people.
The different races are often popularly defined and named (often inaccurately) by skin color, but as this system is based on only one genetic phenotypic difference, when hundreds are involved, it tends to distort the reality of race and racial differences.
In the system of racial classification outlined below the names assigned to the various subspecies and races are, with a few exceptions, based on geographical regions where they are the native type.
A. Khoid (Hottentot) race
B. Sanid (Bushmen) race
A. Central Congoid race (Geographic center and origin in the Congo river basin)
1. Palaecongoid subrace (the Congo river basin: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Angola)
2. Sudanid subrace (western Africa: Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea)
3. Nilotid subrace (southern Sudan; the ancient Nubians were of this subrace)
4. Kafrid or Bantid subrace (east and south Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Natal)
B. Bambutid race (African Pygmies)
C. Aethiopid race (Ethiopia, Somalia; hybridized with Caucasoids)
A. Mediterranid race
1. West Mediterranean or Iberid subrace (Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, and coastal areas of Morocco and Tunisia; the Atlanto-Mediterranean peoples who expanded over much of the Atlantic coastal regions of Europe during the Mesolithic period were a branch of this subrace)
2. East Mediterranean or Pontid subrace (Black Sea coast of Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria; Aegean coasts of Greece and Turkey)
3. Dinaricized Mediterraneans (Residual mixed types resulting from the blending of Mediterranids with Dinarics, Alpines or Armenids; not a unified type, has much regional variation; predominant element [over 60%] in Sicily and southern Italy, principal element in Turkey [35%], important element in western Syria, Lebanon and central Italy, common in northern Italy. The ancient Cappadocian Mediterranean subrace of Anatolia was dinaricized during the Bronze Age [second millennium B.C.] and is a major contributor to this type in modern Turkey.)
4. South Mediterranean or Saharid subrace (predominant in Algeria and Libya, important in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt)
5. Orientalid or Arabid subrace (predominant in Arabia, major element from Egypt to Syria, primary in northern Sudan, important in Iraq, predominant element among the Oriental Jews)
B. Dinaric race (predominant in western Balkans [Dinaric Mountains] and northern Italy, important in the Czech Republic, eastern and southern Switzerland, western Austria and eastern Ukraine. Its distribution in Europe, and that of its derived Dinaricized Mediterranean type, may be associated with the expansion of the Neolithic Anatolian farmers beginning circa 6,500 B.C.)
C. Alpine race (predominant element in Luxembourg, primary in Bavaria and Bohemia, important in France, Hungary, eastern and southern Switzerland)
D. Ladogan race (named after Lake Ladoga; indigenous to Russia; includes Lappish subrace of arctic Europe)
E. Nordish or Northern European race (various subraces in the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium; predominant element in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and the Baltic States; majority in Austria and Russia; minority in France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; outlined in detail in The Nordish Race)
F. Armenid race (predominant element in Armenia, common in Syria, Lebanon and northern Iraq, primary element among the Ashkenazic Jews)
G. Turanid race (partially hybridized with Mongoloids; predominant element in Kazakhstan.; common in Hungary and Turkey)
H. Irano-Afghan race (predominant in Iran and Afghanistan, primary element in Iraq, common [25%] in Turkey)
I. Indic or Nordindid race (Pakistan and northern India)
J. Dravidic race (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [Ceylon]; ancient stabilized Indic-Veddoid [Australoid] blend)
A. Veddoid race (remnant Australoid population in central and southern India)
B. Negritos (remnants in Malaysia and the Philippines)
C. Melanesian race (New Guinea, Papua, Solomon Islands)
D. Australian-Tasmanian race (Australian Aborigines)
A. Northeast Asian or Northern Mogoloid race (various subraces in China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan)
B. Southeast Asian or Southern Mongoloid race (various subraces in southwest China, Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar [Burma], Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the last four partly hybridized with Australoids)
C. Micronesian-Polynesian race (predominantly Southern Mongoloid partly hybridized with Australoids)
D. Ainuid race (remnants of aboriginal population in northern Japan)
E. Tungid race (Mongolia and Siberia, Eskimos)
F. Amerindian race (American Indians; various subraces)
Dominant or predominant = over 60% majority
Majority or major = 50-60% majority
Principal or primary = 25-49% plurality; less than a majority, but most numerous racial type
Important = 25-49% minority; not most numerous racial type
Common = 5-25% minority
Minor = less than 5% minority
The diverse races of the human species outlined above all have their own geographical territory that has historically been exclusively their own, which may be referred to as their racial homeland, and is closely identified with the race that inhabits it.
Between most of these exclusive homelands are clinal zones -- areas of contact between different racial territories.
These racial borderlands are frequently areas of interracial contact and intermixture where adjacent races merge into one another, creating racially mixed or hybridized populations of intermediate type called racial clines.
The Dravidic race of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, created by the intermixture of the local Caucasoid (Indic or Nordindid) and Australoid (Veddoid) populations, and the Aethiopid race of Ethiopia and Somalia, created by the intermixture of the local Caucasoid (Mediterranid) and Congoid races, are two very ancient racial clines which have stabilized into distinct races of intermediate type.
Racial clines of more recent formation, where the racial blends are not yet stabilized, include the populations of many Latin American and Caribbean countries, which were created over the last 500 years by the intermixture of various Caucasoid (mostly Mediterranid), Congoid and Amerindian elements.
The population of Mexico, for example, is about 5% Caucasoid, 30% Amerindian and 65% Mestizo, the Spanish term for persons of mixed Amerindian-Caucasoid ancestry. (The same term is used in the Philippines for persons of mixed Filipino-Caucasoid ancestry.)
The multiracialization of the populations of North America and, more recently, Europe, has begun to transform them into racial clines.
As discussed in other essays on this site, this process of racial transformation will eventually cause the effective extinction or nonexistence of the European racial types in the affected areas unless adequate preservationist measures are taken to prevent it.
Return to Racial Compact main page ........................................................................................
http://www.theosophical.ca/ClassicPurity.htm
by KO HSUAN
The Racial Compact by KO HSUAN
The above articles re-compiled by: Frank K. Park
-----------------------------------------The Supreme TAO is formless, yet It produces and nurtures all things. The Supreme TAO has no desires, yet by Its power the Sun and Moon revolve in their orbits. The Supreme TAO is nameless, yet It supports all things eternally. I do not know its name but for title call It "TAO". TAO manifests both the pure and the turbid, both as movement and stillness. The Universe is Pure, our World is turbid. The Universe moves, our World is still. The light is pure, the dark is turbid. The masculine is active, the feminine is passive. Manifesting in Its Radical Essence, TAO flows even to the last of things, bringing forward The Universe and our World and all that belongs to them. The pure is the cause of the turbid, and movement is the cause of stillness. When people attain the power to transcend that which changes, abiding in purity and stillness, The Universe and our World are united in them. The Inner Spirit of people loves purity, but the mind of people is often rebellious. The mind of people loves stillness, but the desires of people draw them into activity. When a person is constantly able to govern their desires, their mind becomes spontaneously still. When the mind is unclouded, the Inner Spirit is seen to be pure. Then, with certainty the desires will cease to come forward and the poisons will be eliminated and dissolved. The reason people do not possess the ability to achieve this is because their minds are not clear and their desires are unrestrained. Those who have the power to transcend their desires, looking within and contemplating mind, realizes that in mind, mind is not; looking without contemplating form, they realize that in form, form is not; looking at things still more remote and contemplating matter, they realize that in matter, matter is not. When they have clearly thought about these three they perceive only a void, and when they contemplate the void, they realize that the void is also void and has become nothingness. The void having vanished into nothingness, they realize that the nothingness of nothing is also nothing, and when the nethermost nothingness is reached, there is truly to be found a deep and unchanging stillness. In this profound stillness how can desires come forward? When desires can no longer come forward, there is essential and unchanging stillness. Truth is essentially unchanging. All things in The Universe and in our world are in essence unchanging. The unfolding of a person's mind leads them to this unchanging truth. In unchanging Stillness, unchanging Purity and Rest are found.
Those who attain Purity and Stillness enter into the Immutable TAO. Having entered the Immutable TAO they are named Possessor of TAO. Although they are named Possessor of TAO they know they do not possess it. Only when they can transmute all living things can they be truly named Possessor of TAO. Those who are able to understand this can lead others to Sacred TAO.
.... Supra ....