How appropriate are terms such as Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, Australoid, etc.?
These terms are rarely used in current anthropology. “Australoid,” when used, is unambiguous. “Negroid,” when used, is typically unambiguous since people take it to mean sub-Saharan African, but some people may classify numerous populations in East Africa as Negroid, too, which is problematic. Excluding skin color, East African populations with a non-Negroid facial features central tendency craniofacially cluster with Europeans before joining the sub-Saharan African or Negroid cluster.19) Similarly, genetic analyses of East African populations such as Somalis and Ethiopians reveals major affinities to both Euro-Mediterraneans and sub-Saharan Africans.20), 21), 22), 23), 24), 25), 26) See also the following principal components analysis of African populations and neighbor-joining dendograms from Cavalli-Sforza and others’ 1994 book on the history and geography of human genes: a) b) c) Therefore, numerous East African populations are not classifiable as Negroid or Caucasoid, and they cer
