Melanesian race

In traditional morphological classifications, the Melanesian race is either directly included in the large Negro-Australoid (equatorial) race (which is noted, in particular, in the studies of J. Ya. Roginsky and M. G. Levin ), or is included in one of its two branches (in specifically, in the labeling Debets Melanesian race with negritosskoy , Veddoid , Australian , Tasmanian and Ainu form oceanic racial branch Australoid Negro race, African counterposed branch with Sudan , Nilotic , negrillsko and other small races Africa ) ^{[7] [8] [9]} . Also, in the traditional classifications, the Melanesian race is considered as a small race in the composition of the large Negroid race , it forms the East Equatorial racial branch, opposed to the West Equatorial (with the Negro and Central African minor races ) ^{[1] [6]} . In the so-called population-genetic classification, the Melanesian race is a local race in the australoid racial branch of the western Euro-African racial trunk. Together with the Melanesian, this branch includes the Andaman , Negro mainland , Negro Filipino , Australian, Tasmanian, Polynesian and Ainu (Kuril) races ^[10] . In the classification of VV Bunak, the Melanesian race, together with the Tasmanian, Negro and Papuan races, is included in the oceanic branch of the tropical racial trunk ^{[11] [12]} .

The main area of ​​the Melanesian race is the islands of Southeast Asia and Western Oceania , primarily the islands of Melanesia and the largest of these islands is New Guinea . The name "Melanesia", meaning "black islands", arose because of the color of the skin of the inhabitants of this region ^[2] . Also, representatives of the Melanesian race are found in several regions of Indonesia , Indochina , Australia and Micronesia ^[3] . Melanesians and Papuans , as well as indigenous Tasmanians extinct in the 19th century, are attributed to the Melanesian race. In addition, an admixture of the Melanesian race is noted among many ethnic groups living both on the islands and on the mainland of Southeast Asia, including among the South Luccan peoples and among some Khmer groups ^[1] . In addition to them, some populations of Micronesians and Australian aborigines (in the northern regions of Queensland and on the islands of Tiwi ) have a similar appearance with melanesoids ^[2] .

Like representatives of the rest of the equatorial races, melanesoids are characterized by a dark color of the skin, hair and iris . They also have curly hair, but not as much as African Negroids. In contrast, the tertiary hairline on both the face and body of melanesoids is more developed, unlike African blacks. The also more developed among the representatives of the Melanesian race (the eyes are deeply set under the superciliary arches, the section of the eyes is very large). The profile of the face is more pronounced - the face is very prognostic , protrudes forward in both vertical and horizontal planes. The nose of melanesoids is somewhat narrower and often has a convex back (in the populations as a whole, the shape of the nose varies from strongly projecting forward to very wide with a flattened nose). In addition, characteristics such as medium or short stature are included in the characteristics of the Melanesian race; elongated gracile physique ; full lips , as well as a long and narrow skull , absolutely and relatively high (the Melanesian race is considered one of the most dolichocephalic and high-arch populations of humanity) ^{[1] [13]} .

Many anthropological features of melanesoids, including the dark color of the skin, eyes and hair, dolichokephaly, prognathism and thick lips, are similar to the features of African blacks. The degree of similarity is so strong that sometimes in appearance the individual representatives of the Melanesian and Negroid races do not differ from each other. Nevertheless, if we take the population of melanesoids as a whole, then they have a number of anthropological features that are absent in African blacks - these are the lesser curly hair (and sometimes wavy hair) mentioned above, strongly developed superciliary arches, relatively narrow face , narrower the nose (sometimes strongly protruding with a convex back and a lowered tip), a relatively strong growth of a mustache, beard and body hair, low growth ^{[2] [13]} .

Some of the Melanesian anthropological features, such as, for example, curly hair, most likely developed a second time, since in children under the age of five the hair remains wavy, and in some melanesoids, wavy hair can persist throughout life. Adaptive characters associated with adaptation to the tropical climate, such as skin color, nose width, and lip thickness, could also be primordial among representatives of the Melanesian race ^[14] .

In the composition of the Melanesian race stands out a wide variety of anthropological variants, or types . Often these options are not fully described or even unexplored. Most likely, a large number of not always numerous melanesian groups and populations anthropologically different from each other formed due to their long isolation in the absence of a continuous settlement territory for melanesoids ^[15] .

One of the most isolated variants of the Melanesian race - the Negro anthropological type (Negrito) - differs from the rest of the Melanesoids in low growth (less than 150 cm) and pronounced brachycephaly . Representatives of this anthropological type, partly similar to the pygmies of Africa, most often live in isolated groups in tropical forests on the mainland or on small islands in Indochina , Indonesia and Melanesia . The negritos include ^{[1] [16]} :

• Andaman - inhabitants of the Andaman Islands ^[17] ;
• semangans inhabiting the interior of the Malacca Peninsula ^[18] ;
• aeta and a number of other peoples living in the interior of some islands in the Philippines ^[19] ;
• Australian Aboriginal people of North Queensland (Barrines) ^[20] and Aboriginal people of the North Australian islands of Bathurst and Melville ;
• tapiro (kapauku) and some other peoples of New Guinea ^[21] ;
• saoh peoples from southern Cambodia ;
• mine from South Laos ;
• Moken from the islands off the coast of Burma ;
• mani from Thailand and a number of other peoples and ethnic groups.

For all negritos, in addition to extremely low growth, typical medium thicknesses of the lips; not very wide nose; very dark pigmentation of the skin, eyes and hair; lack of prognathism, as well as in contrast to the taller Melanesian groups, poorly developed eyebrows, not very deep-set eyes and rarely observed bulge of the nose. In general, each of the Negro groups is quite peculiar, for example, the Andamans have steatopygium , tapiro is characterized by the distribution of strongly curly hair, the aeta has the distribution of wavy hair, the semanga has a very weak growth of mustache and beard, on the contrary, the aeta has facial hair growth strong, etc. Given these features, G. F. Debets divided Negritos into several anthropological types - Andaman, Malacca and Filipino ^{[9] [16] [22]} . In a number of classifications, the Andaman, Negrito Malacca, and Negrito Filipino racial types can be considered as local minor races, or all blacks as a whole can be considered as one local race ^[10] . According to recent genetic studies, there are significant differences between populations of Negro from different habitats. So, for example, the ethnic community of the mamanwa from the aeta group showed a “ Denisovskaya ” admixture, while the onge , one of the Andaman peoples, and the jaehai from the semanga group had much less or no impurity. This fact may indicate that the divergence of these groups of negro occurred in the Upper Paleolithic , when the Melanesian race probably had not yet begun to form. Consequently, certain groups of black people could arise in different regions of Southeast Asia independently of each other ^[23] .

As a relic of the Melanesian race, Tasmanian aborigines , exterminated by the British in the 19th century, were characterized by dark skin with a reddish tint, a low skull with a highly developed brow relief, a very low face, black curly hair, a very wide and short nose with a flat nose, and other symptoms ^{[22] [24]} . In a number of classifications, for example, in G. F. Debets, the Tasmanian racial type can be considered as an independent small race ^{[7] [9] [10]} .

According to a number of peculiarities, the Melanesian and Papuan anthropological types are also distinguished among melanesoids ^[1] . Actually, the Melanesian type in its classical form is distributed on the Solomon Islands . It is characterized by averaged indicators of general Melanesian anthropological signs: the average development of the superciliary arches, weak prognathism, moderately curly hair, etc. Some groups of the Melanesian type are distinguished by independently formed very light hair pigmentation ^{[2] [15]} . The Papuan type differs from the Melanesian type in lower growth and the often convex form of the nasal dorsum ^{[1] [25]} . In addition, the Papuan type is characterized by fine-wavy or curly hair, moderate growth of body hair, a narrow face and some other signs ^[26] .

A special New Caledonian type stands out among the natives of New Caledonia . According to certain features, the New Caledonians come closer to the natives of Australia and Tasmania - they have an extremely wide nose with a flattened nose, a wide mouth with thick lips and a highly developed brow relief ^[2] . At the same time, the New Caledonians are characterized by the highest growth in comparison with other types of the Melanesian race ^[27] .

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  Representative of one of the peoples of Papua - New Guinea ( Goroka )

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  Truganini - the last of the indigenous Tasmania

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  Representative of the Semanga People ( Malaysia )

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  Indigenous people of the Andaman Islands ( large Andaman )

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  Aeta woman ( Philippines )

A number of mixed and transitional groups and populations are found on the periphery of the Melanesian area. A significant number of them are observed in eastern Indonesia — intermediate populations in this region were formed as a result of crossbreeding of the Papuans with the peoples of the Mongoloid race ^[28] . In addition, representatives of the Melanesian race had a certain influence on the formation of anthropological features of the indigenous population of Fiji , as well as some islands of Micronesia and Outer Polynesia . The anthropological type of inhabitants of these territories is often defined as intermediate between the Melanesian and Polynesian races ^{[15] [29]} . The Melanesian substrate is also traced in Polynesia east of Fiji; it is found, in particular, in representatives of the Tonga-Samoan Polynesian type ^{[30] [31]} .

• Alekseeva T. I. (ed.), Bogatenkov D. V. , Drobyshevsky S. V. Anthropology: Educational-methodical complex [Electronic textbook] . - M .: Institute for Distant Education of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia , 2004. - 459 p. (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
• Brook S.I. , Cheboksarov N.N. Human Races // Peoples of the World: Historical and Ethnographic Handbook / Editorial: S. A. Arutyunov , S. I. Brook , T. A. Zhdanko , A. N. Kozhanovsky , L. E. Kubbel , V. M. Makarevich , A. I. Pershits , V. V. Pimenov , P. I. Puchkov , N. E. Rudensky , V. A. Tishkov ; ch. ed. Yu. V. Bromley ; Scientific Ed. Council of the Soviet Encyclopedia publishing house, USSR Academy of Sciences ; Institute of Ethnography N.N. Miklouho-Maclay . - M .: “ Soviet Encyclopedia ”, 1988.

• Drobyshevsky S.V. The missing link. The natural habitat of the East Equatorial (Australian-Melanesian) race. Melanesian race (neopr.) . Antropogenez.ru (2017). Archived on November 20, 2017. (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
• Melanesian race (neopr.) . Physical Anthropology. Illustrated Dictionary . EdwART (2011). Archived December 26, 2017. (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
• Drobyshevsky S.V. The missing link. Features of the Melanesian race (Neopr.) . Antropogenez.ru (2017). Archived on June 16, 2013. (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
• Drobyshevsky S.V. The missing link. Are the Papuans very different from the Melanesians? (unspecified) . Antropogenez.ru (2017). Archived on November 20, 2017. (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
• Drobyshevsky S.V. The missing link. About the Negro and Melanesian races (neopr.) . Antropogenez.ru (2017). Archived January 24, 2016. (Retrieved April 28, 2018)
• Melanesian race (neopr.) . Physical Anthropology. Illustrated Dictionary . EdwART (2011). Archived on April 28, 2018. (Retrieved April 28, 2018)
• Melaneside (neopr.) . Physical Anthropology. Illustrated Dictionary . EdwART (2011). Archived on April 28, 2018. (Retrieved April 28, 2018)
•   Melanesoids and Veddoids - Stanislav Drobyshevsky (Post-Science) (Retrieved February 28, 2018)
•   Negrito - Stanislav Drobyshevsky (PostNauka) (Retrieved February 28, 2018)