Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/153

Rh found in large numbers the Mediterranean race. Thus it is evident how difficult it would be to trace the peculiar features of French culture to peculiar ethnic characteristics. In similar fashion in Germany the Nordic race is most prevalent in the north, while the Alpine race becomes predominant in the south. Such movements as the Pan-Germanic movement and the Pan-Slavic movement are frequently regarded as having a peculiar ethnic significance, but, for example, in the countries which constitute Pan-Slavism, namely, Russia and certain of the Balkan countries, all of the European ethnic types are represented, and also a considerable intermixture of Asiatic blood. The Jews present a similar example of this error. Most of the Jews themselves, as well as most non-Jews, regard the Jewish people as a distinct ethnic type. But ethnological research has shown that there is a great deal of variation between the Jews in different countries, so that it is evident that through intermixture the Jews have lost ethnic unity. The peculiar features of their culture are due to their history and social status rather than to these ethnic characteristics. So far as such movements as Pan-Germanism, Pan-Slavism, Zionism, etc., try to preserve characteristic cultures, they may be of great value. But when they give currency to mistaken ideas of ethnic unity they may do a great deal of harm.

Such mistaken ideas of racial identity have frequently furnished the basis for a national self-consciousness which has led to an assumption of superiority over and hostility towards other races. A realization of the fact that the cultural status of a people is frequently due mainly to its environment and circumstances rather than to its ethnic characteristics would ameliorate these hostile relations. Furthermore, these facts suggest the possibility of a uniformity of culture the world over, which possibility we shall discuss later in this article.

Let us now consider the second question proposed, namely, with regard to the possibility of a final racial amalgamation. This is, of course, largely a question of the feasibility of crossing between the principal ethnic types. There are three of these types, namely, the white or Caucasian, the yellow or Mongolian, and the black or Negro. We have already discussed how antipathies may arise between ethnic types. We have seen these antipathies may arise from cultural differences such as different esthetic ideas. Thus where antipathy is based upon difference in skin color or facial features it is largely, but not entirely, an esthetic matter. Where an antipathy is based upon such a thing as difference in odor it may seem to be innate in its origin and therefore permanent. But even such an antipathy may be partly or largely the result of a difference of taste and therefore due to cultural differences. In fact, it is very difficult to determine whether any antipathy is innate and therefore an insuperable barrier between races. If there is no such innate antipathy, with uniformity of culture all antipathies should disappear.