How many races are there in the human race?
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∙ 7y ago
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One. The "human race" refers to the species homo sapiens, otherwise known as humans. Although we all come in different shapes, colors, and sizes; we are all of the same race/species.
Officially, there are currently five races: Congoid, Capoid, Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Australoid.
Congoids are most of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Nigerians and Congolese.
Capoids are a small group of people in
South Africa.
Mongoloid is the race encompassing East Asians (ex. Chinese, Japanese, Tibetans), South East Asians (ex. Thai, Malays. Vietnamese, Indonesians), Arctic people (ex. Native Alaskans, Inuits, Aleuts, Samoyed), most Polynesians (ex. Hawaiians) and arguably Native Americans*.
Caucasoid encompasses Europeans (what most people have come to know as "white people"), most South Asians (ex. Indians, Pakistanis), Arabs and Afghans.
Australoid encompasses Melanesians, Aborigines of Australia, Negritos of South
East Asia and Veddoids.
*This is debatable, as Native Americans are classified as their own race in several studies.
The 19th century theories of racial superiority held that there are two main racial groups: the Xanthochroi (light skinned peopled sometimes called Nordic, Caucasian, or Aryan) and the Melanchroi (the darker skinned peoples including African, Asian and Australian natives), with the Mediterranean peoples representing a mixture of the two.
This view of the human race fell from favor in the aftermath of
World War 2.
More recent studies of population genetics suggest that racial distinctions identified by genetics can produce a large number of "races" but no "pure" races. In other words, everyone has genetics from more than one racial group, however those racial groups may be defined.