Races of man / by Sonia Cole.

  • Cole, Sonia, 1918-1982.
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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    ments from both living populations and from skeletons have been collected from all over the world since the 18th century. Such data have been tabulated, analysed and interpreted. Statistics then show whether variations in populations are of racial significance. One great advantage in using measurements is that they can be made on ancient bones as well as on living subjects and are therefore useful in tracing racial origins. Surface features such as skin colour and hair form, on the other hand, can be observed only on living people, except in rare cases when bodies have been preserved by mummification. Further, since they are purely metrical, measure ments are not subject to observational uncertainties5 providing they are accurate and are taken from agreed points, they must be purely objective. In the case of records of skin and hair colour made before the use of reflectometers, the visual judgement of the observer was involved and this subjective element lessened the value of such observations. Most racial classifications have been founded on skeletal and surface features which together make up the phenotype or outward appearance of the individual. Until the science of genetics was developed early in the present century, physical anthropologists had no choice but to rely entirely on such characters in differen tiating between races. Attempts have also been made to classify races according to the genotype, or genetic constitution of the individual; so far it has been possible to do this only for the major stocks and for a few races and sub-races with particular characteristics, but much progress in this direction may be expected in the future. One of the main disadvantages in classification according to the phenotype is that the method of inheritance of most characters is not understood. Surface features are probably more strictly controlled by heredity than body shape and size, but both are influenced to a certain extent by environment, particularly by climate and diet. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between per manent characters determined by heredity and therefore racially significant, and those which are temporary as the result of particular short-term environ mental conditions. If such conditions persist over a long period, however, they will be reflected in the character of the race as a whole through the action of natural selection (p. 27). As far as the three major stocks are concerned, there is generally little diffi culty in placing individuals as Caucasoid, Mongoloid or Negroid on the basis of a few very obvious features such as skin colour, hair form and so on. In order to