Mongoloid
Mongoloid was formerly used to describe people with Down syndrome, but this use is now discouraged because it is considered offensive.
The term Mongoloid is most used in discussions of human prehistory and in the forensic analysis of human remains. The suffix -oid indicates "a similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". Mongoloid, therefore, may not automatically imply earlier terms such as Mongolian race or Asiatic - whatever the parameters for their definitions may be - and much less the nationality Mongolian.
As a form of classification, Mongoloid includes peoples of North Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, parts of Central Asia and South Asia, and, arguably by extension, people from Pacific Oceania, the Americas and Greenland. Some populations of Eastern Europe have Mongoloid ancestry as well. Some definitions do not include Native Americans.
Usage
Racial classification and even the existence of race is controversial. See (Race). The -oid racial terms are now often controversial in both technical and nontechnical contexts, and may be considered offensive by some.[1] Mongoloid is considered "an archaic term" by a modern anthropological textbook, The Human Species, copyrighted in 2003 (page 126). Nonetheless, Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid are still used regularly in scientific discussion.[2]
Mongoloid properly applies to physical traits and not to contemporary or historic definitions of racial or social groups. Some current terms for the latter are Asian, East Asian, Southeast Asian, and Oriental; however the range of Mongoloid does not correspond exactly to any one of these. While East and most Southeast Asians are physically Mongoloid, most South Asians are not.
Since people with the disability Down syndrome have some superficial Mongoloid facial features, the term "Mongoloid" was once also used as a synonym for "retarded." This usage, once neutral, is now considered offensive.
Geographic range
Mongoloid or Asiatic peoples may be the most spread out among all human populations since they have stretched almost completely around the earth's surface as either natives or as conquering migrants. They can be found as far "east" as Greenland, and yet also as far to the "west" as Kalmykia, the Crimea, and even Scandinavia, giving Asiatic peoples or their descendants a historical presence across the vast expanse of four continents.
Peoples in the Mongoloid race
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese are by far the most populous Mongoloid "group"; indeed, they are often said to be the largest single group of any race. However, they are really not a truly coherent, single ethnicity. The concept of a unified group of Han Chinese is more so a cultural anthropological concept rather than an biological anthropological one. Studies have shown that the North Chinese are closer to Northern Mongoloids such as Koreans and Japanese, while the South Chinese are closer to their immediate Southern counterparts like the Lao and Vietnamese.
Northern Mongoloids
The Northern Mongoloid peoples of North Asia and Central Asia, have relatively hairy bodies and facial features, as well as longer faces and somewhat long nosebridges that are considered to define the "prototype" Mongoloid physical type. Farther to the south and east of interior Asia, The Japanese, Ainu, and Koreans, to an extent the Han Chinese of the north and central-north interior, also continue to inherit these other prototypical physical features. Other Northern Mongoloids include many smaller groups in Central Asia and the Arctic regions such as the Buryats, Chukchis, Tuvans, Nivkhs, Yakuts, Inuit, Tibetans, and, Mongolians.
New World Mongoloids
Certain Native American or Aboriginal groups indigenous to the northwest coast (the Haida people of British Columbia) and far north (various Inuit and Innu groups of Alaska and Northern Canada) of North America- who often resemble the Japanese or Central Asians- are much closer to the Northern Mongoloid type than even Southeast Asians. However, Native Americans of the United States or of the tropical Americas had again adapted features like those of the Southeast Asians.
The Amerindians may be considered a separate division of the Mongoloids as well, the New World Mongoloids, which branched off of the Northern Mongoloids from Siberia and other parts of Northeast Asia and went their separate ways when they crossed over to North America and South America.
Turkic Mongoloids
In Central Asia, the Uzbeks, the Uighur, the Kyrgyz, and the Kazakhs show strong Turkic Mongoloid elements, which would make them the Western cousins of the Mongolians. However, among them, and especially among Uzbeks and Uyghurs in particular, one may notice a continuum of physical types that ranges from Mongoloid to Europoid Caucasoid. This tends to also be true among the modern Tatars (Bulgars) and Bashkirs. Historically, the Huns and the ancient Tatars have been considered to belong to the Mongoloid family. The Turkmen, while are still Central Asian Turkic-Mongoloids, have mixed heavily with Caucasoid neighbours to the west, and many of the even more westerly Turkic-speakers, such as those in Azerbaijan appear to have little or no visible Mongoloid ancestry, although many may have less visible Mongoloid features. Turks in Turkey have an amount of Mongoloid features that is related to the amount of actual Turkic ancestry present in the individuals considered. This is variable in Turkey due to the varied ancestry of most of the population. While many scholars explain the variablity of the physical characteristics of Turkic Mongoloids as the result of intermixing with Caucasoids, some propose that there may have at one point been a distinct Turkic Mongoloid group, with particular and distinct physical characteristics.
Southern Mongoloids
The typically shorter-nosed, less hairy, and more slender counterparts to their the south, starting with the Han Chinese of the eastern coast, are believed to be adapted to damper climates and mixed with Austronesian prototypes migrating to the Pacific Ocean.
The peoples of the majority of continental Southeast Asia (specifically, those who are located west of the Annamite Mountain range), Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are considered Mongoloid according to the four-race theory; however, they are genetically distinct from their neighbors to the north and may be considered a Southern Mongoloid race. In Southeast Asia, these Southern Mongoloids have assimilated, mixed in with, or replaced Australoids in some areas. Some Pacific Islanders or Polynesians may also be considered Mongoloids; however in this area of the world, Australoids and Mongoloids have hybridized considerably and the lines between the two "races" are blurred.
Although the Vietnamese (who are located and originate to the northeast of the Annamite Mountain Range) are geographically labelled as "Southeast Asians", their ethnic and cultural heritage ties them to their immediate northern neighbours, the Southern Chinese and other tribes within the proximity of South China.
Characteristic features
Epicanthal folds and oblique palpebral fissures that create almond-shaped eyes are common among most Mongoloid individuals, though their occurrence among Amerindians is almost absent, except for those in the North American west coast and far north. The presence of epicanthal folds is most common in people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent. The fold covers and appears to lower the inner corners of the eyes, creating the appearance of "slanted eyes." It is commonly known amongst Asians as "single eyelids", as opposed to "double eyelids". The occurrence of the epicanthic fold is believed to be an evolutionary defense against both the extreme cold as well as the extreme light that occurs in the Eurasian arctic and far north.
Most also exhibit the Mongolian spot from birth to about age four, though it may also be found at a much reduced frequency among European and African populations. The vast majority also have straight black hair, dark brown eyes, and relatively flat and broad faces. Dark brown hair and lighter brown or even grey eyes do occur, but less so. This is especially true among "Southern", or non-prototype Asians.
Less-rounded faces, slightly higher nose bridges, and greater facial and body hair may sometimes also occur. These characteristics have been seen in some mongoloids of the Korean peninsula, Japanese archipelago and those of North and Central Asia. Very thick, wavy hair is common in North China and in Korea; and the occurrence of grey eyes and even blue eyes has been seen among a few Central Asians and Mongolians. Such prototypical Mongoloid features seem to have originated among Asians who originate from drier, arid, or colder inland or northern regions. Whereas tropical and damper weather along the Pacific coast or in the proximity of the Equator seems to have contributed to "softer" or smoother physical features, and significantly less body and facial hair. The same might also be argued for Africans.
Genetic history
According to a modern anthropological textbook The Human Species (2003), there only exists "continous variation" of races and not "discrete units" but historically Mongoloid populations are considered to be a division of the Eurasian Supercluster, which comprises both Caucasoids (Western Eurasians) and Mongoloids (Eastern Eurasians). After the Mongoloids split from the Caucasoids, the Mongoloids themselves divided into the Northern (Northeast Asians) and Southern (Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders) Mongoloid groups. As mentioned above, the Native Americans are a group which branched off the Northern Mongoloid population before crossing into the New World.
These various divisions of humanity have interbred throughout history and pre-history, making racial classification a more generalized form of taxonomy than an absolute one. According to the above reference: "There has never been a clear consensus on the actual number (of races), though".
- The first modern East Asians ?: another look at Upper Cave 101, Liujiang and Minatogawa It may be that if ancestral East Asians are present that they remain unidentifiable. Is there anything particularly East Asian in the morphology of these fossils, and if not, does it necessarily follow that East Asian skeletal morphology has evolved only recently? Is it a possibility that migration across the Bering Straits went in two directions and the first morphological Mongoloids evolved in the Americas?