- Negroids are mainly divided into two types-African Negro (Ulotrichi Africani designated by Haddon) and Oceanic Negro (Ulotrichi Orientalis designated by Haddon).
- The physical characters are: Dark brown to black skin colour with woolly or frizzly and black hair, sparse body hair, dolichocephalic head with protruding occiput region, broad and flat nose, nasal root and bridge usually low and broad, facial prognathism often marked and round forehead with small eye-brow ridges, chin is rounded and receding dark brown to black eyes, short and wide ears with rolled helix, little or no lobe, thick and everted lips and varying stature.
1. African Negro African Negro is further classified into five sub-divisions:
- True Negro
- Nilotic Negro or Nilotes
- Bantu-speaking Negroes or ‘Bantu’,
- Bushman-Hottentot and
- Negrillo.
a) True Negro
True Negro is distributed in West Africa and in Guinea coast.
The physical characteristics are: Dark brown or black skin colour with woolly and black hair, dolichocephalic head, platyrrhine nose and prognathous face often with a bulging forehead. Their eyes are dark brown to black with thick everted lips and tall stature with an average height of 173 cm. Their body is well-built with short legs and long-arms.
The typical Forest Negroes show slightly different physical characters from that of True Negroes. Forest Negroes live in a region extending from the Senegal River in the West to Sudan, Uganda and Northern Rhodesia.
Their physical characters are: Dark brown to black skin colour often woolly and black hair and dolichocephalic head, broad platyrrhine nose with low nasal root and flat nasal bridge retreating forehead, marked facial prognathism, prominent chin and cheek bones, dark brown to black eyes with everted lips. Their stature is shorter than True Negroes and average height is about 165 cm. The face and body are very rough.
b) Nilotic Negro or Nilotes
Nilotic Negroes have different features from the True Negroes due to admixture of Mediterranean element since some prehistoric Mediterranean people moved into Nilotic regions resulting in Nilotic Negroes of NorthEastern Africa. Besides, Nilotes as the Shilluk, the Dinka, the Kavirondo and others show certain Hamitic or Ethiopian elements. They are concentrated in the regions of Upper Nile Valley and Eastern Sudan.
Their physical characters are :Very dark to bluish black skin colour, woolly and black hair, dolichocephalic head and cephalic index is 71-74. They have platyrrhine nose form with low nasal bridge and nasal root, broad and short face with less facial prognathism. Their forehead is retreating and chin better developed than Forest Negroes. They have dark brown eyes with lips thick and everted but little lesser than in those of True Negroes. Stature is very tall with an average height of 178 cm that pose to having long and slim figure.
c) Banta-Speaking Negroid or ‘Bantu’
Bantus are essentially Negroes among whom an infiltration of Hamitic, Negrito and Bushman-Hottentot elements is reflected. Large number of Bantu-speaking peoples of Central and Southern Africa has been included in this group; wide ranges of variation in physical characters have been noticed within the group.
The physical characters are: Dark chocolate varying from yellowish-brown to black skin colour, woolly or frizzly and black hair, dolichocephalic head, but mesocephalic is not unusual. Nose is narrow and more prominent than in the true Negroes. Facial prognathism is marked. Mesocephalic group possesses less marked prognathism with more flat forehead. Eye colour is dark brown. Stature is medium or above average while the mesocephalic group is shorter.
d) Bushman-Hottentot
The Bushman and the Hottentot are more or less same people in terms of physical characters. But, culturally they are different from each other. Hottentots are known as the Khoi Khoi and the Bushmen, the Khuai or San. The Bushmen mainly confined to the Kalahari Desert, though previously they occupied a greater part of Africa. The Hottentots are distributed in South-West Africa.
The physical features are: Light to brownish yellow skin colour in Bushmen and light reddish-yellow in Hottentot. Hair is pepper-corn, i.e., short and shows a tendency towards coil, simple coils to spiral knots are found on head: bare spaces are present between them, hair is black in colour. The hair on body and face is sparse or absent. Head is dolichocephalic and high in the Bushmen whereas it is mesocephalic and low in the Hottentots. Parietal bosses are more marked and occiput is less protruding in the Bushmen than in the Hottentots. Nose is platyrrhine with very broad and flat nasal root, low and broad nasal bridge and concave nasal profile. Lips are thick, short, square and orthogonathous in the Bushmen. It is more elongated, triangular and somewhat prognathous in the Hottentots. The chin is small and the cheek bone is very prominent. Bulbous forehead shows little developed eye-brow ridges. Eye is narrow and slant and colour is dark brown to black. Ears are frequently lobeless. Hottentots are taller than the Bushmen. Average height of Bushmen and Hottentots are 145 cm and 160 cm respectively. Their hands and feet are small. Steatopygia (immense deposit of fat in the buttock) is more pronounced in the Hottentot women than in the Bush women.
e) Negrillo (African pygmy)
The Negrillo type has been represented by the groups like Akka, Batwa, BamBute, etc., who live in Equatorial forests of Congo region.
Their physical characters are: Yellowish light brown to reddish brown, rarely very dark skin colour, short, woolly or pepper corn and dark rusty brown head hair, yellowish body hair, hair under armpits is brown and black on pubis. Head is mesocephalic, nose is very broad and flat. The nasal wings are very broad and high. Face is prognathic with weak and narrow chin outlined with dark brown eyes. Lips are full but not everted. Very short stature; average height is 136 cm. Their arms are long and the legs are short with short trunk. Steatopygia is rarely present in women.
These pygmies are distributed in the Congo region of Equatorial Africa, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Andaman Islands, Philippines, New Guinea, etc. In reference to the geographical position, there are three sub-sections: African pygmy or Negrillo, Oceanic pygmy and Asiatic pygmy. Oceanic pygmy and Asiatic pygmy are generally grouped as Negrito.
2. Oceanic Negro
These types of people are mainly concentrated in New Guinea and neighbouring Islands.
Their physical characters are: Medium to dark brown skin colour with frizzly hair, rarely curly, dark brown to black in colour. The hair on body and face is scanty. Head is usually dolichocephalic, but sometimes it is brachycephalic. Nose is platyrrhine make out to be high and broad nasal bridge with depressed nasal root. Face is less prognathous with small prominent eye-brow ridges. Eye colour is dark brown or black outlined by medium thick lips. Stature is usually short, averaging less than 165 cm.
These divisions of Negroids are further divided into two sub-divisions namely the Negritos, both Asiatic and Oceanic, Papuans and Melanesians.
Andamanese, Semang and Aeta have been grouped as the Asiatic pygmy and the Tapiro is considered as the Oceanic pygmy.
Asiatic pygmy: They are mainly Andamanese from Andaman Islands.
Their physical features are: Bronze to sooty black skin colour, woolly and black hair with reddish tinge. The hair on body and face is scanty or absent. Asiatic pygmies are denoted by small head, brachycephalic with a cephalic index of 83. Nose is straight, sunken at the root. Face is broad at the molar region but the jaws are not projecting. Their eye colour is dark brown, lips are full but not everted and short stature (148 cm).
Semang: These people live in Central region of the Malay Peninsuala and in East Sumatra.
Their physical characters are: Dark chocolate brown skin colour, woolly and black hair with reddish tinge. The hair on body and face is scanty. They areembodied with mesocephalic head and cephalic index of 79. Their nose is short, flattened and very broad. Face is round and the upper jaw is slightly projecting. Eye colour is dark brown or black outlined with thin lips. Stature is short and average height is 152 cm having sturdy body-built.
Aeta: These people live in the Philippine Islands.
The physical characters are: Sooty brown skin colour that possess frizzly, dark brown or black hair. Abundant hair is present on body and face. Head form is brachycephalic with a cephalic index of 82. Their nose is very short, broad and flat with round or oval face. Eye colour is dark brown or black and moderately thick lips. Stature is short with an average height of 146 cm.
Oceanic pygmy: Tapiro: These people are the inhabitants of New Guinea.
Their physical characters are : Yellowish brown skin colour consisting of woolly and black hair on head, abundant hair on body and face. They possess mesocephalic head with a cephalic index of 79.5. Nose is short, straight and medium. Face outlined as average with dark brown eye colour, deep and convex upper lip. They have short stature with muscular body.
E. A. Hooton has distinguished two varieties among the Negrito viz., the Infantile Negro and the Adultiform Negro. Some anthropologists suggest a genetic interrelationship among the pygmies of different areas. But recent studies point out that pygmy is not a race. Several environmental factors are responsible for the formation of this physical type. Therefore, the concept of a particular race or a common stock is invalid with reference to the pygmies.
Papuans: These people are distributed in New Guinea and other Islands of Melanesia.
The physical characters are: Dark chocolate brown or sooty brown skin colour, frizzly hair with dark brown colour. The body hair, especially facial hair is abundant while the colour often ranges from dark brown to reddish brown. Head is typical dolichocephalic with broad nose showing depressed root with convex profile and thick tip. Face is outlined as prognathic and shows a high and narrow retreating forehead. It often possesses heavy and continuous eye-brow ridges. Eye colour is dark brown with thin lips. They have often medium stature with average height of 168 cm.
Melanesians: Melanesians live in the coastal plains of New Guinea and the neighbouring Islands in Fiji, Admiralty Island, New Caledonia, etc.
Their physical characters are: Dark chocolate, sometimes copper-colour or very dark skin colour with black and frizzly hair, but sometimes it is curly or even wavy. The hair on body and face is scanty. Head form is dolichocephalic but mesocephalic and brachycephalic are also found. The cephalic index varies between 67 and 85. They have platyrrhine nose with deeply depressed and straight or concave profile nasal root and nose tip is thick. Face projects to be average and rounded forehead, wider and longer than the Papuan. But the eyebrow ridges are less developed in comparison to Papuans. Eye colour is dark brown or black usually not outlined by thick lips with short or medium stature.
The American Negroes
Slavery was practiced in United States throughout the first half of the 19th century AD resulting in inter breeding of the people with different ethnic groups such as African Negroes, American Indians and the Caucasoid for a long time. This resulted in admixture of two distinct groups-the North American Caucasoid and the American Negroes. . .
The North American Caucasoid group has the traits of European Caucasoid races, while some from the American Indians and the Negroes are also found in them while, the American Negroes are more complex. They include traits of Forest Negro, Caucasoid and American Indian.
The physical features of American Negroes are: Lighter skin colour from olive to dark brown, hair is woolly and colour is usually black or dark brown. Due to admixture of Caucasoid and American Indian elements hair has become longer. Their head is dolichocephalic. In comparison to Forest Negroes, nose is higher and narrower at the root and the bridge. Face is longer than the Forest Negroes with little or no prognathism. Eye colour is light brown or dark brown outlined with medium or thick lips. Stature is variable although taller in comparison to the Negroes of West Africa. Many people consider Australoid as the fourth major race. Let us view its characters and distribution.