Negroid

Negroid is a term used to describe one of the groups of craniofacial anthropometry, a view now mostly regarded as an over-simplification of the spectrum of human diversity. The concept's existence is based on the now disputed typological method of racial classification. Negroids are the most genetically diverse of the historically defined races, including both the world's tallest ethnic group (African Tutsis) and the world's shortest ethnic group (African pygmies).

Terminology

Negroid is a collective term, whilst the terms Negro and Negress refer to Male and Female negroids, respectively. Negress, however, is seldom used.

Definitions

• The Oxford English Dictionary defines negroid as an adjective relating to the division of humankind represented by the indigenous peoples of central and southern Africa. ..The term Negroid is associated with outdated notions of racial types; it is potentially offensive and best avoided.

• The Collins English Dictionary defines negroid as denoting, relating to, or belonging to one of the major racial groups of mankind, characterised by brown-black skin, crisp or woolly hair, a broad flat nose, and full lips.

A craniofacial category

Forensic anthropologists study the human skeleton in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are more or less skeletonized. A forensic anthropologist can also assist in the identification of deceased individuals whose remains are decomposed or otherwise unrecognizable. The adjective "forensic" refers to the application of this subfield of science to a court of law. Craniofacial anthropometry of a person's remains can help determine what the person looked like when alive. Also, due to the requirements of the U.S. judicial system, U.S. forensic practitioners are sometimes asked to classify remains into one of the U.S. socially-enforced endogamous groups: Black, White, or East Asian. In legal practice, these are sometimes termed, respectively, "Negroid", "Caucasoid", and "Mongoloid", or even the older "Caucasian", "Negro", and "Oriental." Nowadays, the terms "Black", "White", and "East Asian" are the more common usage.

"Caucasoids" are generalized to have the lowest degree of projection of the alveolar ridge bones which contain the teeth, a notable size prominence of the cranium and forehead region, and a projection of the midfacial region. "Negroid" traits are generalized to include more rounded eye sockets; broader, more rounded nasal cavity; a forward-slanting facial profile (prognathism); and a dolichocephalic skull (proportionally longer from front to back).

Herausforderungen

Although it is categorization of a skull is clear given arbitrary parameters, it will not locate the owners geographic ancestry concretely all the time. While one's perception of an individual's race can be affected by cultural aspects, the "race" of his skull is less ambiguous. As Dr. Stan Rhine put it, "...it is clear that race does mean different things to different people. In the context of forensic anthropology, the term race is unambiguous." Although their craniofacial race based on skull indeces is unambiguous, it will not pin point their geographic origins accurately all the time due to variation in skulls within a geographic region. While this method produces useful results for the population of the United States, it is likely that it would not be reliable for populations from other countries. This is due to the fact that the United States has traditionally had groups whose ancestry came from geographically distant locations, and which have generally remained endogamous in this country, for social reasons. As more immigrants from in between regions and as Americans become more racially mixed, such craniofacial identification is problematic.

Classification by craniofacial anthropometry does not necessarily coincide with genetic ancestry or social self-identification. For example, about one-third of so-called "White" Americans have detectable African DNA markers. And about five percent of so-called "Black" Americans have no detectable "Negroid" traits at all, neither craniofacial nor in their DNA. In short, given three Americans, one who self-identifies and is socially accepted as U.S. White, another one who self-identifies and is socially accepted as U.S. Black, and one who self-identifies and is socially accepted as U.S. Hispanic, and given that they have precisely the same Afro-European mix of ancestries (one "mulatto" grandparent), there is quite literally no objective test that will identify their U.S. endogamous group membership without an interview. In practice, the application of such forensic criteria ultimately comes down to whether the skull "looks Negroid", "Caucasoid", or "Mongoloid" in the eye of each U.S. forensic practitioner.