Australoid

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Truganini, claimed to be the last full-blooded native Tasmanian, photographed c1870

Australoid is a broad racial sub-classification, no longer widely used by anthropologists, of Australasian peoples, most notably the Indigenous Australians. They were described as having dark skin with wavy hair, in the case of Aboriginal Australians, or hair ranging from straight to kinky in the case of Melanesian and Negrito groups. According to this racial classification model, Australoid peoples range from areas of Southeast Asia (particularly the Philippines, Malaysia and Melanesia). The Andamanese, aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, display similar phenotypes.

1 History of the theory
2 Modern arguments
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History of the theory

In the nineteenth century such groups were typically classified as Negroid, having initially been included by Blumenbach in his category "Ethiopian race", which was the basis for the later concept of the Negroid race. By the early twentieth century anthropometric studies led to the argument that they constituted a distinct racial group, which was labelled Australoid. This model is most associated with the anthropologist Carleton S. Coon. Mesolithic Southeast Asians were found to display similarities to modern and ancient Australians, from which fact it was concluded that Australoids represented a distinct lineage surviving from an ancient wave of human migrations. Descendents were supposed to have survived in geographically isolated locations, while on the mainland early Australoids were assimilated or displaced by Mongoloids. Isolated populations such as the Gondi tribes in northern India were thought to represent vestiges of earlier Australoid populations. It was also argued that the Dravidian inhabitants of Southern India may be related to Australoids.

In the mid-twentieth century an argument emerged that Australoids were linked to proto-Caucasoids. R. Ruggles Gates argued in 1960 that they are "best classified as archaic Caucasians".^[1]

However, as with other phenotypical classifications of humanity, the value of the term Australoid has been in part challenged by genetic studies which have identified significant differences between distinct peoples who have been placed together within the category. As a result most anthropogists have abandoned the system of racial classification of which this term is a part.

This map shows the racial classification scheme of
Carleton S. Coon [2].

	Caucasoid race
	Congoid race
	Capoid race
	Mongoloid race
	Australoid race

[edit] Modern arguments

Modern genetic studies of human migration out of Africa suggest that a population lineage stemming from an early out-migration may account for some commonality in the ancestry of groups who have been included in the Australoid category.

Skulls comparable to Australoid peoples have also been found in the Americas, leading to speculation that peoples with morphological similarities to modern Australoids may have been early occupants of the continent.^[2]^[3] These have been termed Pre-Siberian American Aborigines.

Australoid global population is only 4%, making them have the lowest population of all the traditional "races". ^[4]