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Above, the discovered diversity of Asia's people, from Nordisk familjebok (1904) (A Swedish Encyclopedia)
For two centuries, western culture referred to Asia as though
it were one place, one culture, one race. Africa is often viewed in a similar fashion as if it were just a place and not larger and more diverse than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe, combined. |
'Race' was the way we differentiated between 'us and them' when I was a kid. That colonial era perspective is now obsolete.[a] Science has disproved racial explanations for physical and behavioral traits.[b][c][d][e][f]
"By the 1970s, it had become clear that (1) most human differences are cultural; (2) what is not cultural is principally polymorphic – that is to say, found in diverse groups of people at different frequencies; (3) what is not cultural or polymorphic is principally clinal – that is to say, gradually variable over geography; and (4) what's left – the component of human diversity that is not cultural, polymorphic, or clinal – is inconsequential. Genetics has undermined the fundamental assumptions of racial taxonomy." `Marks
The consensus among anthropologists and geneticists is that race – as largely discrete, geographically distinct gene pools – does not exist.
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Asiatiska folk
2. Kamtsjadal. (Itelmens or
Kamchadal)
3. Aino. (Ainu people)
4. Giljakiska. (Nivkh people or
Gilyak)
5. Samojed. (Samoyedic peoples)
6. Ostjak. (Ostyak peoples)
7. Tatar. (Tatars)
8. Kirgis. (Kyrgyz people)
9. Burjät. (Buryats)
10. Kalmuckiska. (Kalmyk people)
11. Tungus. (Tungusic peoples)
12. Golder. (Nanai people,
formerly known as Golds or Samagir)
13, 14. Japan och japanska. (Japanese people or Yamato people)
15. Korean. (Koreans)
16. Lao. (Lao people)
17. Kines. (Chinese people)
18. Negrito. (Negrito peoples)
19. Bataviska. (Betawi people, named after Batavia, Dutch East Indies)
20. Javan. (Javanese people)
21. Sundanska. (Sundanese people)
22. Bata (Sumatra). (Batak people)
23. Dajak (Borneo). (Dayak people)
24. Inföding på Celebes. (Indigenous people of Sulawesi or
Celebes)
25. Georgiska. (Georgian people)
26. Tsjerkess. (Adyghe people or Circassians)
27. Kabardin. (Kabarday or Kabardin people)
28. Arab. (Arab people)
29. Jude. (Jews)
30. Vedda (på Ceylon). (Vedda people)
31. Singales. (Sinhalese people)
32. Indier. (Indian people)
33. Perser. (Persian people)
34. Belutsjer. (Baloch people)
35.
Kosack. (Cossacks) |
Race?
Presumed in early thought to have defined 'different origins' than 'us', race marked a valuative dividing line between populations, much of which persists today despite a lack of supporting evidence. Modern anthropologists acknowledge that all of humanity is descended from a single genetic origin.
If we still need to somehow visually categorize ourselves for the purpose of personal elevation and valuation, I think we should note the extraordinary coolness of large-eared people. Like myself, for example.