The term Africoid is defined in a number of ways. It can be a term used to refer to black, African peoples the world over. It is often used as an alternative to the more limited Negroid, which confines itself to the classic phenotype of equatorial Africans, which includes dolicocephalism, broad facial features, woolly hair and maxillary and/or alveolar prognathism. A second use of the term is to denote a local African population with widely ranging physical characteristics, as opposed to incorporating this population into older racial categories like Negroid, Caucasoid or Mediterranean. A typical example would be the peoples of the Nile Valley. A Kenyan man As applied to Black people, Black can be a political, racial, ethnic, societal or cultural classification. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... Skull of the classic Niggeroid phenotype, exhibiting a pronounced dolichocephalism and both maxillary and alveolar prognathisms Niggeroid is an obsolete term once used in physical anthropology to delineate everyone indigenous to sub-Saharan and West Africa and portions of North Africa. ... Individuals in the mollusk species Donax variabilis show diverse coloration and patterning in their phenotypes. ... World map showing the equator in red The Equator is an imaginary circle drawn around a planet (or other astronomical object) at a distance halfway between the poles. ... The cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum breadth of the head to its maximum length, sometimes multiplied by 100 for convenience. ... The word prognathism derives from Greek pro (forward) and ganathos (jaw). ...

An inclusive term

A broader term, Africoid is used to describe or refer to black peoples traditionally known as Negroes. It is also used to refer to other peoples, however, who often as well have been referred to as black (and also sometimes Negroid), but whom some anthropologists also have termed Caucasoid, Capoid, Australoid (also known as Veddoid when applied to Southeast Asians), or Sudroid, because they are non-Africans or because they exhibit certain faciocranial characteristics, chief among them limited or nonexistent prognathism (in the case of blacks whom some have termed "Caucasoid"), a brachycephalic cranium (in the case of Capoid blacks), or hair which is relatively straight and finer in texture (in the case of, again, some "Caucasoid", Sudroid, Veddoid, and Australoid blacks). The concept is somewhat based on the work of Senegalese scholar Cheik Anta Diop, ^[1] and writers like Chancelor Williams.^[2] // Negro means black in the Spanish and Portuguese, being derived from the Latin word niger of the same meaning. ... Typical Caucasoid skull Caucasoid is a racial classification usually used as part of a phenotypal system, also including other classifications such as Australoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and sometimes others such as Capoid. ... Main article: Khoisan One of the five macro-racial groups often recognized by physical anthropologists (along with Negroids, Australoids, Caucasoids and Mongoloids). ... Australoid is a broad racial sub-classification of Australasian peoples having generally dark skin and hair which can be curly, straight, or kinky, defined by the anthropologist Carleton S. Coon. ... The Wanniyala-Aetto, or forest beings, perhaps more commonly known as Veddas or Veddahs (transliteration of වැද්දා in Sinhalese, IPA væððɑː) are an indigenous people of Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum breadth of the head to its maximum length (i. ...

Proponents of the term point to groups like some Egyptians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and Nubians who exhibit a wide range of characteristics that cannot be pigeonholed into certain "classic" Negroid traits, while themselves vary among their compatriates south of the Sahara. Such variations it is held, are indigenous to the group and do not depend on invasions from outside Caucasoid peoples as alleged under the old Dynastic Race Theory, or newer biological studies. Indeed, such variations, in fact, often occur within nuclear family groups. It has been argued that such phenotypical variations are inherent to Africoid peoples, much as there are broad variations in physical stature and body proportions between the Pygmies of the Congo, who generally reach a height of 4.5 feet, and of the Tutsi of East Africa, whose average height is 6.5 feet and who are described as gracile, or gracefully slender. Similarly, other black African peoples commonly considered Negroid, such as the Senegalese also may lack alveolar prognathism. The Nubians are an ethnic group in Egypt and Sudan. ... The Dynastic Race Theory was the earliest thesis to attempt to explain how predynastic Egypt developed into the Pharonic monarchy. ... Member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 59 in. ... The Tutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu. ...  Eastern Africa (UN subregion)  East African Community  Central African Federation (defunct)  geographic, including above East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easternmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. ...

Additionally, other indigenous, black African peoples exhibit other physical characteristics beyond the scope of the classic Negroid phenotype, including relatively narrow nasal indices in the case of many often very dark-skinned, black peoples of the Nile region and the African Horn and epicanthic eyefolds in the case of the Khoisan, who over time have ranged across the length and breadth of the African continent. The Nile (Arabic: ‎, translit: , Ancient Egyptian iteru) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river—though not the most voluminous—on Earth. ... Nations of the Horn of Africa. ... The distribution of the Khoi-San language family can be seen in this map of African language families. ...

Afrocentrists have observed that Caucasoid is applied inconsistently and challenge as eurocentric and inappropriate the use of a term which contains a European geographic referrent to refer to indigenous, black Africans. Further, they argue that the term is misleading and that, as a result, it erroneously has been conflated by some to mean non-black or even white — despite the fact that so-called Caucasoid indigenous African blacks range from brown to blue-black in skin tone. This is also the case with some "Caucasoid" peoples of the Indian subcontinent, whom some Afrocentrists regard as Africoid, as well.^[3] Afrocentrism is an academic, historical approach to the study of world history introduced by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante. ... Satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia (see note) This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia. ...

Afrocentrists contend that affixing the Caucasoid label to African peoples runs counter to phenotypical naming conventions, which historically have associated peoples with their geographic points of origin. They, therefore, have been the chief proponents and users of the term Africoid as a more accurate, inclusive and all-encompassing term for the indigenous black peoples of the African continent and the African diaspora.^[4] The African diaspora or Afro diaspora is the diaspora created by the movements and culture of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the Americas, (including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America) Europe and Asia . ...

Analysis of Afrocentric claims

Bias in previous scholarship

Afrocentrics argue that scholarship on peoples in Africa, and Northeast Africa in particular, shows a pattern of bias, and claim that this pattern shows the need for better terminology in describing African populations. In addition it is claimed that the wide variations found in the Northeast Africa are part and parcel of indigenous populations, and that the definition of "African" cannot be confined to a region south of the Sahara (Diop, Cheikh Anta, The African Origin of Civilization). ^[5] In relation to Northeast populations like the Egyptians, Afrocentrists like Diop allege that (a) selective or extreme definitions are associated with determining the class "Negroid" and (b) broad, expansive definitions of the term "Caucasoid" are used to incorporate all other evidence not fitting the extreme stereotype. Some mainstream scholars generally concur with a number of Diop's observations, while critical of other Afrocentric theories of Eygptian inspired cross-continent cultural unity.^[6] A review of the scholarly literature as regards allegations of bias reveals a number of patterns:

Population variability

Modern re-analyses of previous studies shows a clear tendency to sometimes minimize variability within certain northeast African populations.^[7], As far as Negroid elements, ^[8]this takes the form of establishing a baseline determination for a "true negro" (generally a sub-Saharan type) and anything not closely matching this extreme type is disregarded or incorporated into a Caucasoid cluster. However the same selective classification scheme is not applied to groups traditionally categorized as Caucasoid. Writers such as Carelton Coons report "Mediterranean" remains that seem to have "Negroid" traits but do not mention the opposite, nor do such scholars apply the same selective definition approach with populations of the Levant, Maghreb or those further north. Scholars for example have generally made no similar attempt to define a "true white." ^[9]

Lumping of population data under Mediterranean clusters

Re-analyses of scholarship also show a tendency to sometimes lump certain types of data, such as skeletical remains under broad clusters or categories such as Mediterranean. Numerous studies of Egyptian crania have been undertaken, with many showing a range of types, and workers often describing substantial Negroid remains. Often this type has been lumped into a Caucasoid cluster, typically using the term "Mediterranean." A majority of these studies show the strong influence of Sudanic and Saharan elements in the predynastic populations and yet classification systems often incorporate them into the Mediterranean grouping.

"Analyses of Egyptian crania are numerous. Vercoutter (1978) notes that ancient Egyptian crania have frequently all been “lumped (implicitly or explicitly) as Mediterranean, although Negroid remains are recorded in substantial numbers by many workers.. The majority of the work describes a Negroid element, especially in the southern population and sometimes as predominating in the predynastic period (Falkenburger, 1947).. ^[10]

Use of racial categories in modern DNA studies

Some reseachers hold that older racial categories and stereotypical definitions are still in use, plugged with data not from older style cranium measurements, but modern DNA studies. Controversial categories like Extra-European Caucasoid to incorporate various North African peoples like the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and others, for example, have drawn criticism from some scholars along these lines. ^[11] Other DNA studies in turn throw doubt on "classical" racial categories. The nuclear DNA work of researcher Ann Bowcock (1991, 1994) for example, suggests that such primary groupings as Europeans may be flawed, and that such peoples arose as a consequence of admixture between certain already differentiated African and Asian ancestral stocks. Under this approach to the DNA data, Caucasians are thus not a primary grouping as in the classical categories, but a secondary type or race, due to their supposedly hybrid origins.^[12][13]

Anthropologists such as Lieberman and Jackson (1995), also find numerous methodological and conceptual problems with using DNA sequencing methods such as cladistics to support concepts of race. The hold for example that: "the molecular and biochemical proponents of this model explicitly use racial categories in their initial grouping of samples "For example, the large and highly diverse macroethnic groups of East Indians, North Africans, and Europeans are presumptively grouped as Caucasians prior to the analysis of their DNA variation. This limits and skews interpretations, obscures other lineage relationships, deemphasizes the impact of more immediate clinal environmental factors on genomic diversity, and can cloud our understanding of the true patterns of affinity." Anthropologists like Liberman and jackson maintain that "however significant the empirical research, these studies use the term race in conceptually sloppy ways. They suggest that the authors of these studies find support for racial distinctions only because they began assuming the validity of race. For empirical reasons we prefer to place emphasis on clinal variation, which recognizes the existence of adaptive human hereditary variation and simultaneously stresses that such variation is not found in packages that can be labeled races. Indeed, recent research reports evidence for smooth, clinal genetic variation even in regions previously considered racially homogeneous, with the apparent gaps turning out to be artifacts of sampling techniques (Serre & Pääbo 2004). These scientists do not dispute the importance of cladistic research, only its retention of the word race, when reference to populations and clinal gradations are more than adequate to describe the results." (Leiberman and Jackson 1995 "Race and Three Models of Human Origins" in American Anthropologist 97(2) 231-242)^[14]

Whatever the approach used, modern DNA studies have in many ways undermined traditional racial categories in favor of a population variant/gradient or continuum approach. This includes not only the various models that allocate peoples like Ethiopians to "Caucasoid" groupings, but Afrocentric conceptions of a single black type as well. A term describing non-European Caucasoids from North Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent and their descendants in other parts of the world. ...

Africoid as a term incorporating Oceanic, Indic and Australoid peoples

While some Afrocentrists insist on the primacy of phenotypes in describing a broad cultural-genetic set of black peoples stretching from Africa to Australia, modern DNA and serological (blood)analysis places populations like Australian Aborigines, Dravidians of India and dark-skinned Pacific/Indian Ocean peoples closer to the populations of mainland East Asia than the stereotypical sub-Saharan Negroid phenotype. ^[15]

Scholarly use of the term Africoid descriptive of local populations

Some mainstream scholars advocate a non-racial terminology more directly based on the local variability of the population data, and its changes over time, holding that this allows for a wide range of types and variation, and that continued use of racial definitions and concepts are problematic:

"Much of the previous work focused on “racial” analysis. The concept of race is problematic, and (‘racial” terms have been inconsistently defined and used in African historiography as noted recently (MacGaffey, 1966; Sanders, 1969; Vercoutter, 1978).. There is little demarcation between the predynastics and tropical series and even the early southern dynastic series. Definite trends are discernible in the analyses. This broadly shared "southern" metric pattern, along with the other mentioned characteristics to a greater or lesser degree, might be better described by the term Africoid, by definition connoting a tropical African microclade, microadaptation, and patristic affinity, thereby avoiding the nonevolutionary term "Negroid" and allowing for variation both real and conceptual."^[16]

See also

• Australoid
• Capoid
• Caucasoid
• Negroid
• Veddoid

Australoid is a broad racial sub-classification of Australasian peoples having generally dark skin and hair which can be curly, straight, or kinky, defined by the anthropologist Carleton S. Coon. ... Main article: Khoisan One of the five macro-racial groups often recognized by physical anthropologists (along with Negroids, Australoids, Caucasoids and Mongoloids). ... Typical Caucasoid skull Caucasoid is a racial classification usually used as part of a phenotypal system, also including other classifications such as Australoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and sometimes others such as Capoid. ... Skull of the classic Niggeroid phenotype, exhibiting a pronounced dolichocephalism and both maxillary and alveolar prognathisms Niggeroid is an obsolete term once used in physical anthropology to delineate everyone indigenous to sub-Saharan and West Africa and portions of North Africa. ... The Wanniyala-Aetto, or forest beings, perhaps more commonly known as Veddas or Veddahs (transliteration of වැද්දා in Sinhalese, IPA væððɑː) are an indigenous people of Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. ...

References

1. ^ Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, (Lawrence Hill Books: 1974)
2. ^ Chancellor Williams, The Destruction of Black Civilization, (Third World Press: new ed. 1987)
3. ^ Diop, op. cit.; Williams op. cit.
4. ^ Diop, op. cit.; Williams op. cit.
5. ^ Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, (Lawrence Hill Books: 1974)
6. ^ Lefkowitz, Mary, Not Out of Africa, (Basic Books: 1997)
7. ^ Keita, S. O. Y, "A brief review of studies and comments on ancient Egyptian biological relationships," Journal International Journal of Anthropology, Springer: Netherlands, ISSN 0393-9383, Issue Volume 10, Numbers 2-3 / April, 1995 , Pages 107-123
8. ^ [http://www.search.com/reference/Badarian Strouhal, E., 1971, ‘Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt’, Journal of African History, 12: 1-9)
9. ^ Keita, op. cit.
10. ^ S.O.Y. KEITA, "Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa", AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 83:35-48 (1990)
11. ^ Rick Kitties, and S. O. Y. Keita, "Interpreting African Genetic Diversity", African Archaeological Review, Vol. 16, No. 2,1999, p. 1-5
12. ^ Bowcock AM, Kidd JR, Mountain JL, Hebert JM, Carotenuto L, Kidd KK, Cavalli-Sforza LL "Drift, admixture, and selection in human evolution: a study with DNA polymorphisms." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1991; 88: 3: 839-43:
13. ^ A. M. Bowcock, High resolution of human evolutionary trees with polymorphic microsatellites, 1994, Nature, 368: pp.455-457
14. ^ Leiberman and Jackson 1995 "Race and Three Models of Human Origins" in American Anthropologist 97(2) 231-242
15. ^ The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence, S. O. Y. Keita, Rick A. Kittles, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 534-544
16. ^ Keita, "Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa", op. cit.