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

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

altogether 3000 native Greeks and those from Trapezund and Gruziya. Here it is interesting to note that 17 features selected from the 50 studied ones: head length, nasal breadth, height of the upper lip and the configurations of the nostrils, type of head hair, chest hair, beard, colour of eyes and hair, lip eversion and also the orbital breadth had the most temporal and spatial permanence. On the other hand the breadth of the head and cheekbones, height, and the general profile of the nose, the relation of the tip of the nose and the nasal base prove to have the most variability. These important ethnic-anthropological features are significant only in determining smaller systematic units (local types characteristic of relatively small geographical areas). Thus they do not modify the taxonomy of the great human races. This also applies to the epochal feature variability noted on the paleoanthropological finds from all periods. According to it the various morphometric data (cephalic index, facial height, facial breadth, facial profile angle and nasal spine angle) show an increasing or reducing tendency. During more recent years this was also proved by the studies by Abduselisvili in 1960. I would like to add that isolation and pecularities of diet and soil are noted (Pulianos, 1960) among the chief factors of brachycephalization, one of the most universal phenomenon in paleoanthropological research. It must be re-emphasized that in regard to the listed examples the recognition or consideration of the epochal transformation of anthropological features is very important in the analysis of certain special questions, but it does not have any significance for the biological unity and social equality of human groups. At the same time we must remember that the epochal transformation of certain anthropological features is a biological (morphological) microevolutionary process which takes place during the social history of humanity. Bearing all these in mind I accept the definition that human races are biological (anthropological) groups which arose in the course of social history, capable of breeding fertile offspring, possessing an area of characterization identical inheritable morphological and pigmentary features and common ancestors.