"Breeds" of people

[Bonzo 2000]

Biologically speaking, can the different ethnic groups (caucasian, negro, mongol) be regarded as different "breeds" of human being, in the same way as there are different identified breeds of other animal, all with their own physical characteristics?  If so, how many  human breeds are there and what are they?

[Peter Pedant]

The short answer is no, Bonzo

The long answer is yes. (but it leads to difficulties)

In the Nineteenth century people were very hot on this topic and they divided humans usually into five. But then of course as with any set of objects, there is an attempt to order them, so that the set has a least and a greatest element. This is an OK thing to do in set theory or mathematically but pracitically speaking it leads to - da- da-!! racism. The idea that the Europeans were the highest form of Man certainly lead or fuelled the imperialist efforts of all the countires in europe to colonise Africa.

The study of Man in this way is called anthropology, and the fella who invented it was a professor of anatomy in South Africa called raymond dart. He described the Taung Child in 1923, and invented the fossil genus of australopithecus, and was a general all round good egg. His anatomy course in Witswatersrand was mainly physical and social anthropology....

are you all asleep yet?

[NoGood Boyo]

I'm not scientifically qualified to answer the main question, but I did find myself stimulated by a radio feature some time ago that posed the question: why do different blood types exist in humans? This seemed to go closer to giving the "yes" answer to the breeds question than anything I had seen or read before. You might like to follow this line of research and enquiry.

[punkmuppet]

As a sub question, what is a mongoloid exactly? I'm reading a book on forensics and it mentioned the ability to tell race from bone structure, and it gave 3 examples, Caucasian, negroid and mongoloid. I had never heard of a mongoloid before..

[Yai]

Punkmuppet - 'Mongoloids' is the name for people mostly from Asia. There are four groups - Negroid, Caucasoid, Australoid and Mongoloid.

[SuperPigeon]

I understand what you mean but I believe this will be true but isnt now. I believe that millions of years from now when the human race is in its next stage of evolution humans beings will develop into separate species.

For example: People from Africa may develop thinner skins so they can release excess heat easier. People from the Himalayars may develop hooves to cope with the tough terrain. e.t.c.