Race is a historically established human population that is distinguished by certain biological characteristics that appear externally: eye shape, skin color, hair structure, and so on. Traditionally, humanity is divided into three main races: Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid.
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Racial groups of people formed in a certain territory, acquiring their characteristics in the process of adaptation to environmental conditions. There are several divisions into races. According to the simplest classification, people with black curly hair, dark skin, brown eyes, thickened lips and a wide nose are called Negroids. Mongoloids have straight dark hair, a yellowish tint of skin, a narrow section of the eyes, strongly prominent cheekbones and a narrow nose. Caucasoids can have straight or wavy hair, fair skin and a different eye color. According to the extended classification, several more groups are distinguished, for example, Australoids or Amerindes (the indigenous population of America). It is believed that up to 15 racial groups can be distinguished within the species Homo sapiens.
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The concept of "race" differs from the biological term "species" in that it does not have obstacles to creating offspring. Therefore, now in the conditions of mixing peoples, there is a slow erasing of differences and the formation of transitional forms. Mixed races are mestizos (the result of the combination of Caucasoid and Mongoloid), mulattos (Negroid and Caucasoid) and Sambo (Mongoloid and Negroid). For example, today almost all African-Americans are mulattos.
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The section of anthropology that studies the division of humanity into races is called racial studies. The tasks of this science include studying the history of formation, classification, and factors of influence (climate, mixing, migration) on races. Their results are of great importance for solving the problems of the human ancestral home, population genetics, systematics and medical geography.
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Races exist not only inside the human species, but also some animals, for example, in wolves or crows. Breeds of domestic animals cannot be called racial groups, since they are of artificial origin.
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Division into races led to the formation of serious conflicts and clashes. In the last decade, a trend has begun to develop in American and West European anthropology, whose proponents argue that races do not exist and the differences are no more than far-fetched. This opinion is a kind of reaction to the long reign of racist perceptions in the United States and discrimination against African Americans.
