The Negro | Page 5

being appeared with hair and cranial
measurement intermediate between the primitive Negro and Mongolian.
All these three types of men intermingled their blood freely and
developed variations according to climate and environment.
Other and older theories and legends of the origin and spread of
mankind are of interest now only because so many human beings have
believed them in the past. The biblical story of Shem, Ham, and
Japheth retains the interest of a primitive myth with its measure of

allegorical truth,[3] but has, of course, no historic basis.
The older "Aryan" theory assumed the migration into Europe of one
dominant Asiatic race of civilized conquerors, to whose blood and
influence all modern culture was due. To this "white" race Semitic Asia,
a large part of black Africa, and all Europe was supposed to belong.
This "Aryan" theory has been practically abandoned in the light of
recent research, and it seems probable now that from the primitive
Negroid stock evolved in Asia the Semites either by local variation or
intermingling with other stocks; later there developed the
Mediterranean race, with Negroid characteristics, and the modern
Negroes. The blue-eyed, light-haired Germanic people may have arisen
as a modern variation of the mixed peoples produced by the mingling
of Asiatic and African elements. The last word on this development has
not yet been said, and there is still much to learn and explain; but it is
certainly proved to-day beyond doubt that the so-called Hamites of
Africa, the brown and black curly and frizzly-haired inhabitants of
North and East Africa, are not "white" men if we draw the line between
white and black in any logical way.
The primitive Negroid race of men developed in Asia wandered
eastward as well as westward. They entered on the one hand Burmah
and the South Sea Islands, and on the other hand they came through
Mesopotamia and gave curly hair and a Negroid type to Jew, Syrian,
and Assyrian. Ancient statues of Indian divinities show the Negro type
with black face and close-curled hair, and early Babylonian culture was
Negroid. In Arabia the Negroes may have divided, and one stream
perhaps wandered into Europe by way of Syria. Traces of these
Negroes are manifest not only in skeletons, but in the brunette type of
all South Europe. The other branch proceeded to Egypt and tropical
Africa. Another, but perhaps less probable, theory is that ancient
Negroes may have entered Africa from Europe, since the most ancient
skulls of Algeria are Negroid.
The primitive African was not an extreme type. One may judge from
modern pygmy and Bushmen that his color was reddish or yellow, and
his skull was sometimes round like the Mongolian. He entered Africa
not less than fifty thousand years ago and settled eventually in the
broad region between Lake Chad and the Great Lakes and remained
there long stretches of years.

After a lapse of perhaps thirty thousand years there entered Africa a
further migration of Asiatic people, Negroid in many characteristics,
but lighter and straighter haired than the primitive Negroes. From this
Mediterranean race was developed the modern inhabitants of the shores
of the Mediterranean in Europe, Asia, and Africa and, by mingling with
the primitive Negroes, the ancient Egyptians and modern Negroid races
of Africa.
As we near historic times the migrations of men became more frequent
from Asia and from Europe, and in Africa came movements and
minglings which give to the whole of Africa a distinct mulatto
character. The primitive Negro stock was "mulatto" in the sense of
being not widely differentiated from the dark, original Australoid stock.
As the earlier yellow Negro developed in the African tropics to the
bigger, blacker type, he was continually mingling his blood with
similar types developed in temperate climes to sallower color and
straighter hair.
We find therefore, in Africa to-day, every degree of development in
Negroid stocks and every degree of intermingling of these
developments, both among African peoples and between Africans,
Europeans, and Asiatics. The mistake is continually made of
considering these types as transitions between absolute Caucasians and
absolute Negroes. No such absolute type ever existed on either side.
Both were slowly differentiated from a common ancestry and
continually remingled their blood while the differentiating was
progressing. From prehistoric times down to to-day Africa is, in this
sense, primarily the land of the mulatto. So, too, was earlier Europe and
Asia; only in these countries the mulatto was early bleached by the
climate, while in Africa he was darkened.
It is not easy to summarize the history of these dark African peoples,
because so little is known and so much is still in dispute. Yet, by
avoiding the real controversies and being unafraid of mere questions of
definition, we may trace a great human movement with considerable
definiteness.
Three main