It is most likely that the ancient races of the Earth before the beginning of time, in the modern sense of the term, appeared only after the last glaciation ended, and the Neolithic era began due to the appearance of the first agricultural cultures. Such cultures were able in a short time (on the scale of history) to greatly increase their population, due to which they ensured dominance over a wide territory for their set of racial attributes.
Upper Paleolithic
Many researchers claim that there are no races in the Upper Paleolithic, calling it the "Upper Paleolithic polymorphism" of the human race. Anthropologist Drobyshevsky Stanislav believes that the whole point is not that the racial attributes of the people of the Upper Paleolithic were not fully formed (or were not fully differentiated). This is because none of the Upper Paleolithic groups was able to achieve any advantage over other groups for a long period.
Thus, there was rather a low uniformity of not fully formed (or not fullydifferentiated) of the human race, but rather its high polymorphism (mosaic). From this polymorphism of the most ancient races on earth, modern types of races later emerged.
Before this happened, small populations of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who usually lived under conditions of some or even complete isolation from each other, using automatic processes of genetics, accumulated so many local features that of them there is no clear outline of any racial group that would have definite attributes.
Formation of the ancient races
Today, researchers deny the opportunistic nature of a large number of racial attributes. Those populations that were their carriers were simply lucky in terms of evolution. In turn, this made it possible to consolidate and spread a random set of attributes.
There is a possibility that an important role in such a process was played by the manifestation of the original cultures of agriculture, which managed to greatly increase their population in a relatively short period of time, while pushing back groups that were carriers of other ancient racial types of people closer to the borders range.
Roughly in this way, the races that are commonly called large were formed. At the same time, beyond the boundaries of the habitats of the most ancient race of people who were engaged in agriculture, a similar "zeroing" of racial characteristics based on the predominance of the number of carriersthere were no defined types.
As a consequence of this was the preservation of a wide variety of racial attributes among American Indians, Australian Aborigines, Khoisanoid South Africans, Melanesians and other groups. It should be noted here that such groups are not even an example of "protomorphic" (or "stagnant") in terms of the evolution of groups compared to "great races".
On the contrary, in groups with a high population that lived in anthropogenic landscapes, the variability of attributes dropped sharply, showing a tendency to conservation of these attributes, which was only disturbed by the so-called cross breeding at the edges of habitats.
Biological evolution here to a large extent changed to development from the technical and social sides, while not stopping at all. At the same time, smaller populations, which were isolated from each other, while feeling the strongest influence of natural selection on them, were more flexible, which made it possible to quickly accumulate traits, both adaptive and completely random and neutral in relation to evolution. At the same time, such attributes were noticeable in appearance.
More about signs
Thus, the massive physique, which is commonly called robustness, among Australian indigenous people is a relatively recent acquisition of evolution, which, accordingly, is a consequence of attempts to adapt to difficult living conditions, and not at all a consequence of their archaism (or "protomorphism").
At the same time, archaeological data of relatively recent historical time demonstrate that the trend towards increasing massiveness in the most ancient race of aborigines was successfully replaced in the direction of fragility of physique (gracefulness). This happened, most likely, due to social progress or a change in living conditions to easier ones.
At the same time, European Australians find absolutely no biological signs of adaptation to the environment in which they live, even in the future. This happened because they surrounded themselves with a highly developed technosphere, so to speak, second nature, which provides an opportunity for existence in the conditions of Australia to a person who is poorly adapted to these conditions.
The role of adaptability
In terms of evolution, European Australians are even more archaic (or "protomorphic") in relation to the native inhabitants of the continent, who relatively recently in the scale of history received a whole range of useful features in terms of evolution.
In this case, it is not necessary to elevate the role of technology to the absolute. In our time, there are observations that allow us to monitor the impact of natural selection on a group of modern people who took part in the study of the Far North in the second half of the 19th century.
During the life of one generation of people, almost all the settlers who did not adapt to the difficult living conditions in the Far North returned to their habitat. At a time when left in heavyconditions, only those who had an adaptive type to such conditions, that is, certain features of physique, as well as metabolism, which allowed him to adapt to extreme cold indicators.
The interesting fact here is that these same traits of successful explorers have been found in the local indigenous population as well. If these conquerors of the North had bred outside their group and were subjected to the harsh influence of natural selection, as was usually observed during migration among ancient people, then this group would have a stable set of attributes for adaptation to extremely low temperatures after several generations.
Which race is ancient
The population genetics of our time is capable of making the assumption that the currently existing races do not fully deplete all the morphological and historical diversity of modern man. And also that the most ancient one either disappeared without a trace, or its signs were blurred later during assimilation with other races.
On the question of which race is the most ancient, the ethnologist V. Napolskikh suggested that one of these before the beginning of time was the Paleoural race. At the moment, the signs of her stay on the planet are blurred between the Mongoloids from the west and the Caucasoid Ural-Siberian race. At the same time, its attributes are not characteristic of either Mongoloids or Caucasoids in general.
Upper Paleolithic types
Stanislav Drobyshevsky (scientist-anthropologist) makes indications that the humanthe Upper Paleolithic morphological diversity was probably much more pronounced than today, and that it is impossible to make an accurate diagnosis of the human skulls of those times using the modern classification of races. Belonging to a specific time period or geographical location is also not expressed.
In particular, Drobyshevsky, based on finds in Europe, gives a description of the following ancient races of people on earth or morphological types that are distinguished by different authors. Some of them were identified on the basis of a single skull:
- Solutrean;
- Brunn-Przhedmostskiy;
- Aurignacian;
- Oberkassel;
- Brunnese;
- Barma Grande;
- chancelade;
- Cro-Magnon;
- Grimaldian.
It is noted that at the same time in the Middle East there was a succession of Inatufians and pre-Natufians, who differed in features of proto-Caucasians, sometimes with an admixture of Negroids. Although the Natufians are different from the Afalui Tafor alt groups of North Africa.
Among the finds in East Africa, the types of Negroid (much more massive compared to modern), Ethiopian, and also Bushmen were noticeably distinguished.
Skulls of the Upper Paleolithic from the territories of Indonesia, China and Southeast Asia often do not contain Mongoloid features, while there is a noticeable relationship with the equatorials of the east. They are generally classified as "Australo-Melanesian type" or "Proto-Australoids".
A huge number of regional finds are not described with technologymodern classification of races, while containing features of the Mongoloids from the south, as well as the Ainu, Australoids, Jomon (or Emon), classical Indians and other groups.
Mixing different populations
When grouped in the form of populations that have different features that distinguish them from others, the most important role is played by isolation in the geographical area. This isolation was determined by the ancient races on earth, as a rule, by gigantic distances and a small number of people in the group.
The result of the migration of such groups or an increase in the number of people in them was the contact of populations and, as a result, the physical mixing of different races or, as it is called, miscegenation. Due to this miscegenation, anthropologically mixed types arose, that is, small races. These include Polynesian, South Siberian and others.
All the most common human races are capable of producing large joint offspring. Even those populations that were the most isolated (Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians) did not have enough centuries of isolation before becoming biologically incompatible with other groups.
Consequences of miscegenation
The result of miscegenation has generally been people with a mixed set of racial attributes. In areas of dense habitat contact, the result is entire mixed races that share similar attributes at the population level.
Thus, the result of mixing the Caucasoid and the Negroid races are mulattoes, and the Mongoloid andCaucasoid - mestizos. In our time, most of the people who inhabit the planet are mestizos to one degree or another. An example is the people of South and Central America.
At the same time, a certain stability of racial affiliations in such mestizo groups makes it possible to look at them as independent small races that are in their formation period.
A large number of studies have already been conducted, which have demonstrated the fact that there are no physically harmful consequences for the offspring of mixing two races. And all because their origin was a relatively recent event. In addition, they were in constant contact in various historical periods.
The Decline of Ancient Civilizations
The Mayan civilization that existed in antiquity originated about four thousand years ago in the area where Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are now located. Since 900 AD, the Mayan population began to plummet, and the cities of this civilization began to empty, and no one knows exactly why.
However, today there are several versions that are considered the main ones, why such a progressive civilization as the Maya, who created their own calendar and writing, who mastered such sciences as mathematics, architecture and astronomy, disappeared so rapidly.
Possible causes of the disaster
One of the hypotheses says that the prolonged period of drought that overtook Central America around 900 AD was the very reason for the disappearance of a magnificent civilization. The theory wasfounded after studying sediment samples from one of the oldest lakes in Mexico. The conclusions were made by specialists from the University of Florida and Cambridge.
Specialists from Russia agree that it was nature that destroyed the Mayan civilization from within its state system. They believe that the people, because of the long drought, rebelled against the priests who held ruling positions, because the latter still failed to "call" rain. Experts believe that because of this, civilization withered away in just a few decades.
There is also a theory that the frequent earthquakes caused the death of the Maya. Another theory of the fall of the Maya says that the cause of the collapse was the wars that became more frequent during that ill-fated period, as well as the instability of domestic politics.
Caribbean drought
In their attempt to find out the reason for the extinction of the oldest races of the world in the Caribbean, researchers conducted a deep inspection of sediment deposits at the bottom of a lake called Chichankanab, which is located in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula.
In the first place, the specialists had the task of studying the isotopic composition of water. This is because during drought, water molecules are connected to the crystal structure of rocks.
A researcher named Nick Evans explains that heavier isotopes evaporate more slowly. For this reason, their high percentage in the composition of sediments suggests that during the period studied by scientists, this land was dominated by drought.
It turned outthat around 900 AD, precipitation was less than normal for a year. During periods of greater drought, these figures reached 70%, despite the fact that the relative humidity of the air was several percent lower than our time.
