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    Human Races
    Human Races
    Human Races
    Ebook216 pages4 hours

    Human Races

    By Prof. Stanley M. Garn

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    First published in 1961, this book provides a contemporary definition of race, the distinction between geographical, local and micro-races, as well as consideration of the major evolutionary mechanisms of race formation in man.

    Author Professor Stanley M. Garn was and remains a pivotal figure in the history of biological interpretations of race. He considered racial classification based on physical traits to be imprecise, and believed physical traits to be independent of each other, making classification by the assumption that a population shares certain traits incorrect. He also argued that racial classifications based on physical type seemingly elevated some physical traits to a racial status, but glossed over others, and concluded that racial classifications based on physical type can always be compartmentalized into smaller populations which share more physical traits in common.

    Thus, here in his book Human Races, he used three gradations of racial classification which were increasingly more specific in scope: geographical, local and micro.

    “Human Races is an attempt to describe what race is, and the mechanisms of racial differentiation in man. It will, I hope, help to dispel the antiquated notions of three “original” races, of the persistence of racial types, and of the role of undirected chance in bringing about racial differences. In their stead, I trust will emerge the contemporary picture of man’s genetic response to local selective factors, the constantly changing nature of the natural populations we call races.”—Author’s Preface
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMuriwai Books
    Release dateJun 28, 2017
    ISBN9781787204829
    Human Races
    Author

    Prof. Stanley M. Garn

    Stanley Marion Garn Ph.D. (October 27, 1922 - August 31, 2007) was a human biologist and educator. He was Professor of Anthropology at the College for Literature, Science and Arts and Professor of Nutrition at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He joined the University of Michigan in 1968. He produced a large body of work on many areas of human biology, beginning with human hair and eventually contributing research on determinants of coronary artery disease, somatotype, human races, dental development, skeletal development, nutrition, obesity and bone mineralization, among other subjects. In relation to his study on obesity, he studied over-nutrition and under-nutrition, human fat over the course of the human life cycle and the correlation between growth rate in infants and later fatness. He concluded that genetics forms a major component in determining a person’s tendency for obesity, but socioeconomic factors are also significant. Based on his study on age and cholesterol, he concluded that people between the ages of thirty and fifty have their serum cholesterol rise which contributes to an increase risk for coronary artery disease. In relation to bone, he studied skeletal development, bone mineral loss, odontogenesis and dysmorphogenesis. His hypothesis was that dietary differences contribute to bone loss among individuals. In terms of the history of biological interpretations of race, he modernized older classifications of race, attempting to bring the race concept into line with ideas in population biology. He died of complications from peripheral vascular disease in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2007.

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      Book preview

      Human Races - Prof. Stanley M. Garn

      This edition is published by Muriwai Books – www.pp-publishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – muriwaibooks@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

      © Muriwai Books 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      HUMAN RACES

      BY

      STANLEY M. GARN, PH.D.

      Chairman, Physical Growth Department, Fels Research Institute

      Professor of Anthropology, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

      PREFACE 4

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6

      I — THE NATURE OF RACE 7

      THE CONTEMPORARY APPROACH TO RACE 9

      OTHER NAMES FOR RACE 11

      THE STUDY OF RACE 12

      SUGGESTED READINGS 13

      II — GEOGRAPHICAL, LOCAL AND MICRO-RACES 14

      RACE, RACE AND RACE 14

      GEOGRAPHICAL RACES 15

      LOCAL RACES 17

      MICRO-RACES 19

      TAXONOMY AND RESEARCH ON RACE 20

      SUMMARY 21

      SUGGESTED READINGS 22

      III — RACE DIFFERENCES 23

      PIGMENTATION AND RACE 24

      THE HAIR 24

      WORLD DISTRIBUTION OF HAIR FORMS 25

      THE BONES 25

      THE DENTITION 26

      GROWTH AND RACE 27

      PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL DIFFERENCES 29

      THE HAPTOGLOBINS 30

      TASTE-BLINDNESS AND RACE 31

      RACE DIFFERENCES 33

      SUMMARY 35

      SUGGESTED READINGS 36

      IV — BLOOD GROUPS AND RACE 38

      THE ABO SYSTEM 38

      THE MNS-U SYSTEM 39

      U-NEGATIVE PHENOTYPE AND GENE FREQUENCIES 40

      RHESUS AND RACE 40

      DUFFY-AN AUSTRALASIAN GENE 41

      FREQUENCIES OF THE DUFFY-POSITIVE (Fya) GENE 41

      DIEGO, AN ASIATIC BLOOD GROUP 42

      SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL BLOOD GROUP SYSTEMS 43

      BLOOD GROUPS AND NATURAL SELECTION 44

      BLOOD GROUPS AND HUMAN TAXONOMY 45

      SUMMARY 47

      SUGGESTED READINGS 47

      V — NATURAL SELECTION AND RACE 49

      ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENCES 50

      PIGMENTATION AND NATURAL SELECTION 50

      BODY SIZE AND NATURAL SELECTION 51

      BODY-BUILD AND NATURAL SELECTION 54

      ADAPTATIONS TO EXTREME COLD 57

      ADAPTATIONS TO NIGHT COLD 57

      ADAPTATIONS TO HUMID HEAT 58

      ADAPTATIONS TO DESERT LIVING 60

      SOME RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSES TO HEAT AND COLD 60

      SUMMARY 61

      SUGGESTED READINGS 62

      VI — ABNORMAL HEMOGLOBINS, MALARIA AND RACE 64

      THALASSEMIA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN 64

      THE MECHANISM OF THALASSEMIA 64

      THE GENETICS OF THALASSEMIA 65

      THALASSEMIA AND MALARIA 66

      SICKLE-CELL DISEASE 66

      CULTURE, MALARIA AND THE SICKLE-CELL TRAIT 70

      CULTURE, MALARIA AND THALASSEMIA 70

      SUMMARY 71

      SUGGESTED READINGS 71

      VII — RACE AND DISEASE 73

      KURU: NATURAL SELECTION AND SORCERY 74

      FAMILIAL MEDITERRANEAN FEVER 76

      ORIGIN OF PATIENTS WITH FAMILIAL MEDITERRANEAN FEVER 77

      PRIMAQUINE DRUG SENSITIVITY 78

      DRUG SENSITIVITY IN WHITES AND NEGROES 78

      FAVISM: WHEN GENE MEETS BEAN 79

      OTHER DISEASES AND RACE 80

      THE ADAPTIVE NATURE OF HEREDITARY DISEASES 81

      SUMMARY 81

      SUGGESTED READINGS 81

      VIII — RACE AND GENETIC DRIFT 83

      SUMMARY 86

      SUGGESTED READINGS 86

      IX — RACE MIXTURE 88

      THE GENETICS OF RACE MIXTURE 88

      RACE MIXTURE VIEWED AS HARMFUL 90

      RACE MIXTURE AND HYBRID VIGOR 90

      BODY SIZE IN PROGENY OF ENDOGAMOUS AND EXOGAMOUS SWISS MATINGS 91

      STUDIES ON RACE MIXTURE 92

      HYBRIDIZATION, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 93

      SUMMARY 94

      SUGGESTED READINGS 94

      X — RACE, BEHAVIOR AND INTELLIGENCE 96

      RACE AND TEMPERAMENT 96

      CONVICTION RATES FOR SPECIFIED CRIMES 97

      RACE AND INTELLIGENCE 97

      SUMMARY 99

      SUGGESTED READINGS 99

      XI — A TAXONOMY FOR MAN 101

      A LIST OF GEOGRAPHICAL RACES 101

      A SELECTED LIST OF LOCAL RACES 109

      I. Representative Large Local Races (for location, see Fig. 26). 110

      II. Some Isolated Small Local Races 112

      III. Some Long-Isolated Marginal Local Races 113

      IV. Some Hybrid Populations of Known and Recent Origin 113

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 115

      PREFACE

      TEN YEARS ago Carleton Coon, Joseph Birdsell and the present author collaborated on a little book entitled Races: A Study of the Problems of Race Formation in Man. In it we eschewed the then traditional anthropometric measurements and morphological ratings, and compiled no formidable catalog of human racial groupings. We were interested in one central problem—how human races came to be.

      When we wrote Races, the mere mention of race was still uncomfortable to many, that soon after the tragic excesses of the Third Reich. But we were not concerned with notions of racial superiority or inferiority. We were writing about races in man, how they arose and how they changed, as they are changing still.

      Races was venturesome for its time, a time when the concept of a pure race was still tenable, and when scholars still wrote of fixed, static and unchanging races, incapable of genetic change. But the tempo of discovery soon passed us by. Critically investigated, using the new tools of biochemical genetics, human races proved capable of more rapid change than the most optimistic guess would have warranted. Directions of natural selection within race populations, a subject we had speculated about, proved most varied, and at the same time susceptible to exact measurement. With renewed interest in human raciation, problems of human differentiation have been newly tackled. The entire field of Geographical Medicine, a newcomer among the disciplines, has added vital meaning to the study of race.

      Human Races now is a very different book from what Races (1950) was. It is one man’s product, both Coon and Birdsell being busy with their own investigations and their own publications on race. At the same time, Human Races is the contribution of many investigators, the results of a most active decade of race-research. Some of these investigations have been reprinted in Readings on Race (1960), a companion source-volume to the present work, and therefore not recapitulated in detail here.

      Human Races is an attempt to describe what race is, and the mechanisms of racial differentiation in man. It will, I hope, help to dispel the antiquated notions of three original races, of the persistence of racial types, and of the role of undirected chance in bringing about racial differences. In their stead, I trust will emerge the contemporary picture of man’s genetic response to local selective factors, the constantly changing nature of the natural populations we call races.

      While a more complete listing of indebtedness is given later in this book, I would like to thank Lois Conklin (who has lived through three books with me), Laura Newell, who has drawn illustrations, located references and corrected errors, and Dr. Lester W. Sontag and the Fels Fund for both tangible and intangible support.

      STANLEY M. GARN

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      THE AUTHOR is indebted to Dr. Marvin Armstrong, Dr. Meinhard Robinow, and Dr. Henry Tomizawa for many helpful suggestions in preparing the present book. He is appreciative of permission of Dr. Anthony Allison, Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg and Dr. D. R. Roberts to reproduce several of their illustrations. The staff of the Antioch College Library, and particularly the librarian of the Fels Research Institute, were most helpful in completing the lists of suggested references and making photostats. Other illustrations not specifically drawn for Human Races are acknowledged as they occur.

      S. M. G.

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      1. The concept of race as type

      2. The concept of race as population

      3. A geographical race

      4. A local race

      5. Micro-races

      6. Percent of cases with Carabelli’s Cusp

      7. Three areas of racial differentiation

      8. Diagram of a urinary chromatogram

      9. The three haptoglobin phenotypes

      10. Percentage of non-tasters in different geographical areas

      11. Percentage of Diego (Dia) positives

      12. Relationship between mean body weight and mean annual temperature

      13 A & B. Extreme differences in body proportions

      14. Adaptation to moderate cold during sleep

      15. The mechanism of sickling

      16. The frequency of the sickle-cell trait in East Africa

      17. The Fore territory in eastern New Guinea where Kuru is common

      18. The mechanism of genetic drift

      19. Race mixture

      20. Mathematical analysis of race mixture

      21. Polar-projection map showing geographical races

      22. Melanesians of New Guinea

      23. Spiral-tuft form of the body hair in an American Colored individual

      24. Suture bones on the skull of a New York State Indian

      25. Bushmen, show tight spiral-tuft hair

      26. World map showing location of the thirty-two selected local races

      HUMAN RACES

      I — THE NATURE OF RACE

      NEARLY three hundred years ago, Carolus von Linnaeus, the great naturalist and taxonomist, set up his famous classification of living things. When he came to man, Linnaeus properly assigned man to the order Primates on the basis of numerous and fundamental biological similarities. To the genus that contained man, he gave the traditional Latin name Homo. And, having weighed the evidence for and against several species of man, von Linnaeus assigned all living forms of mankind to one species within the genus Homo, as Homo sapiens.

      Today, we know far more about man than Linnaeus did. We have recovered from the Pleistocene deposits of Java and China fossil species of Homo that are quite distinct from Homo sapiens. We have come to study many groups of living men quite unknown in Linnaeus’ time. Beyond the simple descriptions available to the Swedish taxonomist, we have precise anthropometric measurements, data on blood groups, the haptoglobins and many measures of biochemical functioning. Although there are some traits in which different human groupings show little overlapping, living mankind clearly constitutes a single polytypic species. Fossil non-sapiens hominids no longer exist, and we are all Homo sapiens, as assigned by Linnaeus.

      But, within this single species which now covers the habitable globe there are many discrete groupings, some so clear-cut as to be obvious to the least-trained observer, and others less easily distinguishable except after intensive study. These groupings, differing greatly in size and taxonomic status have commonly been lumped under the single term race. Thus, some so-called races are grossly distinct by all of the tests we now have and use, while other groups called races differ in smaller degree, in the averages of certain measurements, in the proportions of discrete traits, and in the frequencies of such biochemical differences as the several blood groups.

      In addition to races defined by zoologists, anthropologists and human geneticists, human

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