Customer Reviews

The Origin of Races

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This is an excellent examination of the origin
of the races, physical differences between the
races, and the development of the various
races.

Political correctness has greatly inhibited a
full and complete public discussion of this
topic. Too much intellectual and academic
freedom has been given up in the name of
political correctness.

Obviously, the publisher is afraid to re-publish
this book, for fear of offending someone, that
is why it is currently out of print

Good reading. Probably presents valid anthropological ideas. We should never close our eyes to his type of scientific analysis in the name of "political correctness", while ignoring the possibility that he just might be right! For a country that prides itself on open-mindedness and free speech, we can be the most censored people on earth!

The first 100 pages read like Social Anthropology. The next 250 pages deal with animal anatomy and evolution. If you are not a student of Anatomy, you'll need to consult an encyclopedia 5 times per page in order to keep up. The last 400 pages deal with actual topic - the origin of races and you'll still need to keep the encyclopedia handy through that one. The glossary helps but sometimes you want more information. I learned so much from this book but only because I already knew which parts were discreditted by Genetics and which parts were still valid. For example:

Coon's theory as he expounds it in this book was that Caucasoids, Mongoloids, Negroids and Australoids and their phenotypes evolved from Homo Erectus populations living in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. He was wrong about that. Coon also hints that Negroids and Australoids may have developed the least from their Erectus ancestors than Mongoloids and Caucasoids.

Genetics has shown us that Humans evolved in Africa two million years ago, they entered Europe and branched into Caucasoids one hundred and twenty thousand years ago and branched into Mongoloids fourty thousand years ago in Asia. Nevertheless, it is possible to divide Humans into `races` under the same designations Coon used, (only today we call these 'human populations'). Cavalli-Sforza Genetic map of Human populations identifies Caucasoids, Mongoloids, Negroids and Australoids.

Most of the other observations on evolution and anatomy made by Coon in this book are still valid and are remarkably well thought out in spite of the fact that all the man had to work with were bones and carbon-dating. However, Coon underestimated the influence of Genetic Drift and he writes it off completely before page 60. He wisely discounted the relevance of blood-groups to `race.` Coon also came out against designating the many European phenotypes as `races` like he had in 1939 in `Races of Europe`.

Mr. Highduke is not correct in several of his assertions below.One of Professor Coon's statements is that as different groups spread out over the globe, they interbred with existing populations already living there. Some of the European types of people have (partial) Neanderthal ancestry; this is based on facts, not guesswork. many hybrid skeletons have been found in the Near East where Neanderthal and Sapiens people lived side by side. In 2003, a hybrid skeleton was found in Spain. A few

physical anthropologists ignore or avoid these findings and minimize them, mostly due to political agendas or beliefs. Science is always in danger of being tainted by political propaganda ideologues. In addition, the dwarfed Homo erectus skeletons found recently who lived up to 15,000 years ago show us that the picture is complex.

Professor Coon states that race predates the rise of Homo sapiens. Read this on page viii: "The possibility that races can be older than species had to be explored. I soon found, by reading and through conversations with...biologists, that what I had thought was a revolutionary concept was so common an event in nature that others rarely bothered to mention it; to wit, that a species which is divided into geographical races can evolve into a daughter species while retaining the same geographical races." If this book was about dog types or varieties, it would not be thought of as controversial.

Do not be afraid to face the truth for what it is.

Learn to develop a free mind uncluttered by political propaganda. The Bible was right--the truth shall make you free.

The truth is sometimes hard to come by, but it is out there.

Today we are bombarded,from schools to academia,from TV to politics,and last but not the least,by activities of different "Friends of Mankind" that are unanimous in their proclamation of Racial Diversity as myth,esspecialy with regard to Racial Diferences of moral,intelectual and behavioral nature.There are many titles devoted to racistic propaganda, but Coon's book was criticised because of its theory of differential branching of mankind and primitivness of particular races.All arguments against are false,because:main process in Biological World is branching,and once it starts to operate within species,it caries distinct population into creation of two or more non-interbreeding species.In the phase of racial differencies amoung modern Humans,although they are mutualy fertile,there is great deal of anatomical,biochemical,biophysical differencies as result of adaptation between interbreeding groups to the task set for them in process of survival and adaptation to always dynamic microecological milleau,thus producing set of biologic synergisms which are expressable as different levels in sociobiological performance amoung diverse Racial groups.This is something deducable almost on the speculative level,but it has been proven by series of empirical commparative observations.Primittivness of Australoids is today widely accepted among cientific community,and theory that some living populations have interbreeded with some of earlier Hominids seems more plausable because main trends in Human evolution during upper paleolithic are relatively well known,and some living Races show primitive evolutionary features,what is implicative of survival of hybrids because of combination of those features that are relevant for darwinistic survival.The fact that this book was very widely quoted within paleoanthropological circles in former communist countries-rigidly antirasistic ones-is best proof that it contains no falsification or speculations intented to spread false impression about certain living populations.This is classic among anthropologic literature,that must be investigated if ones ultimate goal is scientific comprehension of Racial reality.

Mr. Highduke is not correct in many of his assertions in the

review below. One of Professor Coon's statements is that

as different groups spread out over the globe, they interbred

with existing populations already living there. Some of the European types of people have (partial) Neanderthal ancestry;

this is based on facts, not guesswork. There have been many hybrid skeletons found in the Near East--and in 2003, a hybrid skeleton was found in Spain. Some physical anthropologists

ignore or avoid these facts, mostly due to their political agendas or beliefs. Science is always in danger of being tainted by politics and by propaganda (mind control) ideologues.

In addition, the dwarfed Homo erectus skeletons found recently

who lived up to about 15,000 years ago show us that the picture is much more complex than the popular press would have us

believe.

Professor Coon states that race predates rise of Homo sapiens. Read this on page viii:"The possibility that races can be older than species had to be explored. I soon found, by reading and through conversations with...biologists, that what I had thought was a revolutionary concept was so common an event in nature that others rarely bothered to mention it; to wit, that a species which is divided into geographical races can evolve into a daughter species while retaining the same geographical races." If this book was about dog varieties, types,

etc., it would not be controversial. Do not be afraid to face

the truth for what it is. Learn to develop a free mind uncluttered by political propaganda, as complex or as simple as the truth may be. I found that the Bible was correct when it asserted that the truth shall make you free. The truth is sometimes hard to come by, though, isn't it?

An excellent examination of the origin of the races, physical differences between the races, and the development of the various

races. Political correctness has greatly inhibited a full and complete public discussion of this topic. Too much intellectual and academic freedom has been given up in the name of political correctness.

Physical anthropologists ignore or avoid these findings and minimize them, mostly due to political agendas or beliefs. Science is always in danger of being tainted by political propaganda ideologues. In addition, the dwarfed Homo erectus skeletons found recently who lived up to 15,000 years ago show us that the picture is complex. Professor Coon states that race predates the rise of Homo sapiens. The possibility that races can be older than species had to be explored. I soon found, by reading and through conversations with...biologists, that what I had thought was a revolutionary concept was so common an event in nature that others rarely bothered to mention it; to wit, that a species which is divided into geographical races can evolve into a daughter species while retaining the same geographical races.

Europe is run by people who are not real Europeans.Their purpose is to exterminate our European race. So they invited multimillion hordes of afro-asiatics. So they botch various "theories" about equality of races.It is not so important how races evolved. It is important that races are extremely differant mentally and physically.It is obvious without any "scientific" researching. Europe belongs to Europeans and nobody has any right to occupy and exterminate us.Please,read the book "The death of the West" by P.Buchanan.

When the book was first published in 1962 it was hailed as a classic - scholarly, full of tables, skull measurements, "facts" about geology, climate, biology etc. Alas, the knowledge about evolution at the time was pseudoscientific, and Coon's theories of polygenesis and the advanced stage on the evolutionary time scale of the "Caucasian" and Chinese "races" and the "primitiveness" of the Africans and Australoids have been disproved. Advances in genetics, including DNA sequencing, geology, climatology and other "hard" sciences have shown that modern man, i.e. homo sapiens sapiens, originated in Africa and migrated to the other parts of the world, where they evolved into the different "races," which actually have more variation within than in comparison with other races. And the "Neandertal Man" was actually not a man but a different species. But don't get me wrong. If you're interested in how scholars thought in the past and in the history of racism, this book is very instructive. After at least eight printings (as of 1971), it's finally out-of-print! If Amazon can get it for you it should be an interesting collector's item. Ruben P. Mendez, Riverdale, New York City, USA