Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/375

Rh environmental conditions and to the influence of general ideas and movements of thought. Whatever variations have appeared in the physical and psychical types among the various peoples are due to differences in the mixtures of the original strains of blood, with the accompanying differences in the contributions of hereditary mental predispositions received by the respective peoples, plus subsequent adaptations to environmental conditions. But behind all the differences lies a common kinship of blood and of tradition, which has operated to produce the unit we call western European culture; and this racial kinship is the principal reason why it is not difficult for one group of western Europeans to adopt without revolutionizing it the culture of another group. Furthermore, as a powerful factor assisting in the formation and growth of this western European culture, and aiding constantly in keeping it homogeneous, is the fact that the several strains of blood, particularly in the higher levels of society where most of the productive thinking is done, are incessantly mixing, and there are being interchanged incessantly, through heredity, the mental predispositions peculiar to the groups thus crossing. The people of western Europe and the white portion of American population, for the most part, are a sort of "blend" of similar racial stocks, presenting similar though not identical biological characteristics; and the varieties of this "blend," expressed in such terms as "English," "Dutch," and so forth, are due to differences in the numerical relationships of the contributing stocks forming these peoples. So, too, western European culture is a sort of "blend" of cultures, and the varieties of this "blend" parallel the varieties in the physical characteristics of the various peoples.

The same statements apply to any other group of people presenting a special, characteristic type of culture. The Chinese are an example; they differ among themselves in certain respects; they are a "blend" of races and their present culture is a "blend" of cultures. Yet Chinese culture is definite, peculiar and recognizable, and it is essentially Mongolian, just as our culture is essentially European. Behind the differences among the various groups in China lie their common Mongolian blood and their common store of traditions, the influences of which have moulded them into what they are to-day. Exactly the same statements apply to the Negroes. They have, physically and mentally, definite and easily recognizable characteristics, indicative of a common origin different from our own, and expressed in a similarity of Negro cultures throughout the world.

The fact of race as a physical and mental phenomenon is evident to every one. The peoples of the world differ, and often differ fundamentally; and these differences are ineradicable as long as the strain of blood remains unimpaired. On the physical side, this principle has long been an axiom. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" asks Jeremiah. We can not, do what we will with environment, change to any