Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 30. (Budapest, 1964)

Dr. T. Tóth: The Principal Questions of Anthropological Taxonomy

etical criteria were frequently misunderstood mainly by those scholars who were not familiar with anthropology. In my opinion this is due to the circumstance that researchers who studied the theoretical or systematic problems of biology or especially of zoology and in certain instances a few dilettantes such as Gobineau and Lapouge incorporated the results of the auxiliary sciences in their studies without considering, recognizing or accepting the independently existing or causally related facts. It should be noted that independent of the results of anthropological studies the mentioned unity of mankind has been a phylogenetic reality since the formation of Homo sapiens and the recognition of the actual question depended only on the willingness of the various researchers to take the proper stand. The scantiness of the data undoubtedly had a significant role in this. Because the systématisation of flora and fauna preceded anthropology the possibility of the schematic use of their concepts on mankind is implied. In reality it must first first be noted that not every term in the systematization of zoology is employable in anthropological classification and secondly that for anthropology the connotation of those which may be borrowed from zoology is different. The zoological concept of species undoubtedly provided a sufficient starting point for studying anthropological classification. Several noted biologists, systematists (Mayr, 1942; Mayr— Linsley — Usinger, 1953; Cain, 1954; Timofejev—Ressovskij, 1958) agree that species is a population group which is isolated by reproduction from similar groups with which they can potentially interbreed, i. e., produce fertile offspring. According to this definition it is undoubtable that mankind has biological unity since it is only isolated by reproduction from those taxonomic groups on a lower developmental stage of the biological world. The single species is divided into threefour great races which are fully able to interbreed. In the course of human history this has been proved many times. Contrary to the relatively significant effect of geographical and social isolation, the anthropological composition of the ethnic groups of Eurasia became modified as the result of hybridization during the various archeological periods. Here we should mention the first large-scale intermixing