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This article is about the Mongoloid race. For the song by Devo, see Mongoloid (song). For the genetic disorder, see Down's Syndrome.
  Carleton S. Coon in his 1939 The Races of Europe classified the populations of Central Asia and of the Eurasian Arctic as Caucasian rather than Mongoloid (see also Turanid). The term "Mongoloid" (or Oriental, also Mongolic[1]) is an historical racial category used to describe people of East Asia and Southeast Asian origin. Its use originated from a variation of the word "Mongol", a people who were considered one of its main proto-populations. The term is potentially offensive[2], and in any case controversial (along with the similar terms "Caucasoid", "Negroid", etc.) in light of more recent theories of human population genetics that have largely discredited the idea of biological "races".
[edit] Populations includedThe term comes from the Mongol people of East Asia, who invaded much of Eurasia during the 13th century, establishing the Mongol Empire. The first usage of the term "Mongolian race" was by Christoph Meiners in a "binary racial scheme" of "two races" with the Caucasian whose racial purity was exemplified by the "venerated... ancient Germans" with some Europeans being impure "dirty whites" and "Mongolians" who consisted of everyone else.[3] The term "Mongolian" was borrowed from Meiners by Johann Blumenbach to describe "second [race], [which] includes that part of Asia beyond the Ganges and below the river Amoor [Amur], which looks toward the south, together with the islands and the greater part of these countries which is now called Australian." [4] In 1861, Isid Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire added the "Australian" as a "secondary race" (subrace) of the "principal race" of "Mongolian"[5] In the nineteenth century Georges Cuvier used the term "Mongolian" again as a racial classification, but additionally included American Indians under the term.[6] Arthur de Gobineau defined the extent of the "Mongolian" race, "by the yellow the Altaic, Mongol, Finnish and Tartar branches."[7]"[8] Later, Thomas Huxley used the term "Mongoloid" and included American Indians as well as Arctic Native Americans.[9] Other nomenclatures were proposed, such as "Mesochroi" (middle color),[10] but "Mongoloid" was widely adopted. In the 20th century, Carleton S. Coon used the term and included Pacific Islanders.[11] In 1983, Futuyma claimed that the inclusion of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders under the Mongoloid race was not recognized by "many anthropologists" who consider them "distinct races".[12] For example, in 1984, Roger J. Lederer Professor of Biological Sciences[13] separately listed the "Mongoloid" race from Pacific islanders and American Indians when he enumerated the "geographical variants of the same species known as races... we recognize several races Eskimos, American Indians, Mongoloid... Polynesian"[14]. [edit] SubracesBhavan identifies Northeast India Mongoloids to be a subrace called the "Paleo-Mongoloid", being the "dominant element in the tribes living in Assam and the Indo-Burmese frontiers... Sikkim, Mizoram, Bhutan, Nepal... [and] Tibetan mongoloids"[15] In 1900, Joseph Deniker said, the "Mongol race admits two varieties or subraces: Tunguse or Northern Mongolian... and Southern Mongolian"[5] The people of East Asia are called "Northern Mongoloids".[16] Archaeologist Peter Bellwood claims that the "vast majority" of people in Southeast Asia, the region he calls the "clinal Mongoloid-Australoid zone", are "Southern Mongoloids" but have a "high degree" of Australoid admixture. [17] Ainus are considered Southern Mongoloids even though they live in East Asia.[16] Sinodonty and Sundadonty are dentition patterns that correspond to the Northern Mongoloid vs. Southern Mongoloid distinction. [edit] History of the conceptIn 1865, Thomas Huxley presented the views of polygenesists of which Huxley was not as "some imagine their assumed species of mankind were created where we find them... the Mongolians from the Orangs."[18] In 1897, WEB DuBois, sociologist and historian, said, "[t]he final word of science, so far, is that we have at least two perhaps three, great families of human beings -- the whites and Negroes, possibly the yellow race [he calls this "Mongolian" later][19]. The other races have arisen from the intermingling of the blood of these two." [19] Later, there was a "change in his anthropological view", where he postulated "Negroids and Mongoloids are primary, with Caucasoids listed as a type between these, possibly formed by their union, with bleached skin and intermediate hair."[19] In 1972, Carleton Coon claimed, "[f]rom a hyborean [sic] group there evolved, in northern Asia, the ancestral strain of the entire specialized mongoloid family."[20] In 1962, Coon believed that the Mongoloid "subspecies" existed "during most of the Pleistocene, from 500,000 to 10,000 years ago".[21] According to Coon, the Mongoloid race had not completed its "invasions and expansions" into Southeast Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands until "[t]oward the end of the Pleistocene"[21] By this time Coon hypothesis that the Mongoloid race had become "sapien".[21] Milford Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari characterize "his [Carleton Coon's] contention [as being] that the Mongoloid race crossed the "sapiens threshold" first and thereby evolved the furthest".[22] M.K Bhasin's review article (referencing Mourant 1983) suggests that "The Caucasoids and the Mongoloids almost certainly became differentiated from one another somewhere in Asia" and that "Another differentiation, which probably took place in Asia, is that of the Australoids, perhaps from a common type before the separation of the Mongoloids." [23] Dr. T. Tirado claims that "many experts" consider American Indians and East Asians to be descended from a "Proto-Mongoloid" population which existed as late as 12,000 years ago.[24] See also: Models of migration to the New World Futuyma believes the Mongoloid race "diverged 41,000 years ago" from a Mongoloid and Caucasoid group which diverged from Negroids "110,000 years ago".[12] Peter Brown (1999) evaluates three sites with early East Asian modern human skeletal remains (Liujiang, Liuzhou, Guangxi, China; Shandingdong Man of (but not Peking Man) Zhoukoudian's Upper Cave; and Minatogawa in Okinawa) dated to between 10,175 to 33,200 years ago, and finds lack of support for the conventional designation of skeletons from this period as "Proto-Mongoloid"; this would make Neolithic sites 5500 to 7000 years ago (e.g. Banpo) the oldest known Mongoloid remains in East Asia, younger than some in the Americas. He concludes that the origin of the Mongoloid phenotype remains unknown, and could even lie in the New World.[25] A 2006 study of linkage disequilibrium finds that northern populations in East Asia started to expand in number between 34 and 22 thousand years ago, before the last glacial maximum at 21–18 KYA, while southern populations started to expand between 18 and 12 KYA, but then grew faster, and suggests that the northern populations expanded earlier because they could exploit the abundant megafauna of the ‘‘Mammoth Steppe,’’ while the southern populations could increase in number only when a warmer and more stable climate led to more plentiful plant resources such as tubers.[26] [edit] Features Forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkenson says Mongoloids feature "absent browridges".[27] Skulls belonging to Asians and American Indians exhibit very forward-projecting malar bones and comparatively flat faces, more circular orbits than other groups, and a moderate nasal aperture with a slightly pointed lower margin.[28] Moreover, Mongoloid skulls are the most gracile in the human family. It is believed that the Mongoloid skull type is a very recent evolutionary development.[29] "The Mongoloid skull has proceeded further than in any other people."[30] "The Mongoloid skull, whether Chinese or Japanese, has been rather more neotenized than the Caucasoid or European."[30] "The female skull, it will be noted, is more pedomorphic in all human populations than the male skull." [30] "Mongoloid races are explained in terms of being the most extreme pedomorphic humans."[31] "The intuition that advanced human development was pedomorphic rather than recapitulationary and accelerated was disturbing to many Eurocentric nineteenth century anthropologists."[32] "If juvenilization was the characteristic for advanced status, then it was clear that the Mongoloid races were more deeply fetalized in most respects and thus capable of the greatest development." [32] "[R]elatively large-headed [is the] mongoloid".[33] "An interesting hypothesis put forward by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould many years ago was that the package of the Mongoloid anatomical changes could be explained by the phenomenon of neoteny, whereby an infantile or childlike body form is preserved in adult life.[34] Neoteny in hominids is still one of the simplest explanations of how we developed a disproportionately large brain so rapidly over the past few million years.[34] The relatively large brain and the forward rotation of the skull on the spinal column, and body hair loss, both characteristic of humans, are found in foetal chimps.[34] Gould suggested a mild intensification of neoteny in Mongoloids, in whom it has been given the name pedomorphy.[34] Such a mechanism is likely to involve only a few controller genes and could therefore happen over a relatively short evolutionary period.[34] It would also explain how the counterintuitive retrousse [turned up at the end] nose and relative loss of facial hair got into the package."[34] "[D]ecrease unnecessary muscle bulk, less tooth mass, thinner bones and smaller physical size;"[34] this follows the selective adaptive model of Mongoloid evolution.""[34] In Ashley Montagu's list of "[n]eotenous structural traits in which Mongoloids... differ from Caucasoids", Montagu lists "Larger brain, larger braincase, broader skull, broader face, flat roof of the nose, inner eye fold, more protuberant eyes, lack of brow ridges, greater delicacy of bones, shallow mandibular fossa, small mastoid processes, stocky build, persistence of thymus gland into adult life, persistence of juvenile form of zygomatic muscle, persistence of juvenile form of superior lip muscle, later eruption of full dentition (except second and third molars), less hairy, fewer sweat glands, fewer hairs per square centimeter [and] long torso"[30] "Mongoloid subjects were found to have approximately 20% higher bone density at the angle of mandible than Caucasoid subjects."[35] The Mongolian spot is found frequently in East Asians and Turks. It is also extremely prevalent among East Africans, Polynesians, and Native Americans. [edit] Proto-MongoloidsThe physical features of the "Proto-Mongoloid" were characterized as, "a straight-haired type, medium in complexion, jaw protrusion, nose-breadth, and inclining probably to round-headedness".[36] Kanzō Umehara considers the Ainu and Ryukyuans to have "preserved their proto-Mongoloid traits".[37] [edit] CriticismGeneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza claims that there is a genetic division between East and Southeast Asians.[38] In a like manner, Zhou Jixu agrees that there is a physical difference between these two populations.[39] Other geneticists have found evidence for three separate populations, carrying distinct sets of non-recombining Y chromosome lineages, within the traditional Mongoloid category: North Asians, Han Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Japanese.[40] The complexity of genetic data have led to doubt about the usefulness of the concept of a Mongoloid race itself, since distinctive East Asian features may represent separate lineages and arise from environmental adaptations or retention of common proto-Eurasian ancestral characteristics.[41] The concept originated with a now disputed typological method of racial classification,[42][43]. All the -oid racial terms (e.g. Mongoloid, Caucasoid, Negroid, etc.) are now often controversial in both technical and non-technical contexts and may sometimes give offense no matter how they are used.[44] This is especially true of "Mongoloid" because it has also been used as a synonym for persons with Down Syndrome, and in English as a generic insult meaning "idiot".[45] A shortened version of the term, "mong" or "mongo", is also used in the United Kingdom, mainly Scotland. These insults have become common and the majority who use them will have no idea of their racist connotations or connection to the word "mongol". Contrary to popular beliefs, Mongoloid refers to diverse ethnical groups, and not of a homogeneous group. Since people with Down syndrome may have epicanthic folds, the condition was widely called "Mongol" or "Mongoloid Idiocy"[46] John Langdon Down, for whom the syndrome was named, claimed in his book Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots (1866), that the Mongol-like features represented an evolutionary degeneration when manifested in Caucasoids. The use of the term "Mongoloid" for racial purposes has therefore acquired negative connotations because of the connection with Down syndrome. [edit] See also[edit] References
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