The Human Race

Chapter 3

Overview of Man

Evolution of Man

Human Ancestry

Race and Ethnicity

The Human Race

Peopling of the World

Classification of Human Beings

Social Implications of Racism

Emergence of Civilization and Civilized Man

Philosophical Anthropology which is the study of nature and condition of man give us an overview of man as a-

Cultural Being
Man is a product of Culture from which he makes out of his perception and experiences in the environment.

Social Being
Man is gregarious animal.

Rational Being
Man is a rational animal.

Spiritual Being
Man is a union of body and soul.

Moral Being
Man has a sense of goodness able to distinguish right from wrong.

Natural Being
Man is a product of nature.

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 Human evolution is the evolutionary process leading up to the appearance of modern humans.

Evolution of Man

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

French Naturalist Was first to give cohesive theory of evolution. He explained in his Philosophie Zoologique (Zoological Philosophy) that environmental changes cause changes in the needs of organisms which in turn cause changes in behavior leading to greater or lesser use or disuse of their organs and body structure which cause it to change its characteristics which are then inherited by succeeding generation.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Laid the foundations on the subject of evolution of species. In 1859, he published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and explained here the evolution of species. Dr. Leon C. Megginson paraphrase what Darwin pointed on his book. -It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt to changing environment in which it finds itself.

 Evolution is a natural process of biological changes occurring in a population across successive generations. Population refers to the total number of species living in a way a particular geographic area. Genes are responsible for the encoded transmission of biological characteristics and potentials.

 The concept of specie may be viewed in several ways, three of which may apply:
Morphological Species Concept
Members of a species are individuals that appear anatomically similar to one another. The concept was a classical basis since Carl Linnaeus published his book Systema Naturae, laid the foundation for modern taxonomy.

Biological Species Concept

Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. The concept was introduced by Professor Ernest Mayr.

Phylogenetic Species Concept

Specie is the smallest diagnosable cluster of individual organisms within which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent. The Concept was introduced by American biologist, Professor Joel Cracraft.

Mutation
It is a spontaneous or induced change or alteration in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence in a cell which is the hereditary material encoded with genetic instructions that is also responsible for variations in species.

Genetic Drift
A change in he gene pool tending to affect a small isolated population which occurs by chance whereby certain genetic traits are either lost or become widespread.

Gene Flow
Migrating species interbreed with a population and thus adding their genes to the gene pool of the new population.

Natural Selection
The environment subject species to the survival of the fittest and those fit enable them to continue passing their proven gene traits to the next generation that makes them suitably adapted to the same environment.

Speciation or Cladogenesis
Splitting of a lineage into two. Single species branch out into new species. It occurs when the population is geographically isolated that the two separate populations no longer interbreed so that gene flow is interrupted and restricted leading to consequential genetic effects.

Phyletic Change or Anagenesis

Evolution occurring within a lineage whereby genetic mutations may subsequently cause the entire replacement of ancestral species.

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 Homo is the genus modern humans and the first group that came out of Africa to other parts of the world. Genus name is derived from the Latin word humanus (human).

Human Ancestry

 The species that evolved under the genus are:

Homo habilis
Specie with a brain comprised of a Brocas area which is associated by Speech. Was also the first to make stone tools. Specie name means Handy Man. Lived about 2.4 t o1.4 million years ago scavenging for food.

Homo rudolfnesis
Specie characterized by a longer face and larger molar and premolar teeth and having a larger braincase compared to habilis. The specie lived about 1.9 to 1.8 million years ago.

Homo erectus
They were the first known hunters with improvised tools such as stone axes and knives. Were the first known to produce and control fire. Specie name means Upright Man with body proportions of modern humans. Lived about 1.89 million to 143 years ago adapted to hot climates and mostly spread in Africa and Asia.

Homo heidelbergenesis
They were the first early human species to live in colder climates, to hunt large animals and first to construct shelters. Specie with large brow ridge and short and wide bodies the lived about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago in Europe and Africa.

Homo floresiensis
Specie nicknamed Hobbit due to their small stature with a height of more or less 3 feet. Lived 95,000 to 17,000 years ago in the island of Flores, Indonesia along with other dwarfed animal species.

Homo sapiens
Has two sub-species. First, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and second, Homo sapiens sapiens. The specie name means Wise Man. Appeared 200,000 years ago. This where the present human race belongs.

 The two sub-species of Homo sapiens:

Homo sapiens neandethalensis

Sub-specie with short yet stocky in body built adapted to winter climates. The Sub-specie is also known as Neanderthal Man. Closest relatives of modern humans. Were first t o practice burial of their dead Lived about 200,000 to 28,000 years ago hunting and gathering food and sewing clothes from animal skin using bone needles.

Homo sapiens sapiens

They were first to produce art in cave paintings and crafting decorated tools and accessories. Sub-specie also known as CroMagnon Lived in the last Ice age of Europe from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago.

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 Concept of Race and ethnicity

Race refers to genetic variation among humans groups that characterizes their common biological traits along with supposedly correlated other traits. Ethnicity refer to cultural differences among groups of people bounded by certain cultural and historical commonalities that establish their unique identity.

Race and ethnicity

Ethnic minorities are those ethnic groups that constitute a small fraction of the population so that their presence and extent of influence in mainstream society is less dominant. There are two perspective with regards to human race: 1. Monogenism. The belief that all humans are part of the same species, with morphological variations emerging out of an initial uniformity. It is also the belief that all human beings descended from a common pair of ancestors (Adam and eve) from a single place of origin (Garden of Eden). 2. Polygenism. The belief that human races come from different lineages with separate places of origin.
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Kingdom: Animalia (Animals)

Phylum: Chordata
(Chordates)

Subphylum: Vertebrata
(Vertebrates)

Class: Mammalia
(Mammals)

Order: Primates

Family: Hominoidae (hominids)

Genus: Homo

Species: sapiens

Classification of Human Species

 The first comprehensive and modern attempt to classify humans into distinct races was made by the 17th century French physician Franois Bernier in his 1884 book Nouvelle division de la terre par les diffrents espces ou races qui lhabitent (New division of Earth by the different species or races which inhabit it). Bernier distinguished four races base on regional groupings 1.European, North African, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Native American. 2.East Asian, Southeast Asian and Cultural race. 3.Sub-Saharan African race. 4.Lapp race.

 Carolus Linnaeus in his 1725 Systema Naturae (System of Nature) subdivided the human species into four varieties base on complexion of skins of people on each continent of the world.
White people from Europe Red people from the America Dark people from Asian Black People from Africa

Homo sapiens Eoropeus albescens

Homo sapiens Americanus rubenscens

Homo sapiens Asiaticus focus

Homo sapiens Africanus negreus

 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who laid the foundations of physical anthropology base his classification of human races on comparative anatomy of the human skull.
He divided the human race into five racial groups:

Caucasian (White race)

Mongolian (Yellow Race)

Malay (Brown race)

Ethiopian (Black race)

American (Red race)

 Thomas Huxley published in1870 his book On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind wherein four main types ( no interracial mixing) of human species and their geographical distribution were made:

Australoid

Negroid

Xanthochroic

Mongoloid

The Origins of Races published in 1962 by Carleton S. Coon divided the humanity into five races: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Caucasoid (Europe, West Asia and North Africa) Congoid (East Asia, Oceania, the Artic and the Americas) Capoid (Sub-Saharan Africa) Mongoloid (Southern Africa) Australoid (Australia and Melanesia)

 The problem with being categorized according to race and/or ethnicity is stereotyping, segregation, racial discrimination and hatred.

Social Implications of Racism

Joseph Arthur de Gobineau expressed his theory that racial composition could explain the fate of civilization in his Essai sur lingalit des races humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). He claimed that the white race with particular reference to the Aryan race is the master race, the builder of societies and rise to greatness. He also stressed the importance of maintaining the purity of race to avoid the disintegration of society.

 Late nineteenth century western colonizers were driven by their held interpretations of the White Mans burden, a poem with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands. published by Rudyard Kipling.

The title of the poem was meant as a catch phrase referring to the American colonizers warning them of the burden or heavy costs of the enterprise of empire building in the Philippines.

 Filipino National Hero, Jose Rizal when he visited the United States in 1888 noted the racial discrimination existing at the time when he mentioned the prejudicial treatment of Chinese passengers upon arrival of their ship in San Francisco and those who have the resemblance of appearance were also looked at.

 Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by law in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The segregation laws included:
Marked facilities and areas that could only be used by non-whites who were also segregated when inside the public transportation such as in a bus. Land zoning for non-whites. Prohibition of most social contacts and interaction between races. Selective non-white participation in government.

 Two main theories or models may be presented that could explain how modern humans ended up in different parts of the world 1. Out-of-Africa Model 2. Multi-regional Model.

Peopling of the world

Out-of-Africa Model
Modern humans evolved in linear progression from Africa and made their way out of the continent spreading to other parts of the world displacing and replacing earlier Homo Sapiens This was developed by Christopher Stringer and Peter Andrews.

Multi-Regional Model
The human evolution was diverse and simultaneous in different regional parts of the world The model was first described by Franz Weidenreich.

 Professor Alan Thorne challenged the Out-of-Africa model and pointed out to the evidence from his discovery in 1974 of Homo sapiens nicknamed Mungo Man near Lake Mungo in Australia.

 On the other hand, new research in human genetic diversity reaffirms support for the Out-of-Africa model. An unprecedented large-scale research was undertaken comparing 650,000 genetic markers in nearly a thousand individuals from 51 populations world wide. The following findings were revealed:

1. The Further from Africa, the lesser the variation. This is indicative of migratory patterns as small groups of people separate; the only bring with them a sample of the parent populations genetic diversity 2. Present-day human populations are closely related. About 90 percent of the genetic variation occurs within population rather than between populations.

 The term civilization is etymologically derived from the latin word civitas which translate to city. A civilization at least resembling a city may be taken as a permanent settlement of people having an organized way of life through its established social institution.

Emergence of Civilization and Civilized Man

 The emergence of civilization began at the point in time when people permanently settled down and sustained themselves by planting crops and domesticating plants and animals.
These people found settlements along rivers because rivers make ideal locations for following reasons: Fertile Soil Provisions Transport system Trading Channel Sanitation

 Society is geographical territory wherein people interact and share a culture. A civilized man is one who is raised by civilization with his fellow men and has acquired its social and cultural settings.