Modern GeographyNewbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Science
Modern Geography
Newbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Geography
Of the three races, Mediterranean man seems to be perfectly adapted to a
dry region, with deficient pasture, naturally clothed with a
drought-resisting type of forest. As he prospered he spread beyond his
own region, with the result that he reached a region markedly different
in climate and vegetation from his own, to which his adaptation was
never very perfect. Where, as in Ireland and western Great Britain, the
conditions permitted the natural growth of some of the Mediterranean
plants, there his hold was fairly firm, elsewhere it must always have
been loose and uncertain.
Into a Europe thus peopled, with probably large vacant spaces, came a
pastoral type of man from Asia, certainly a transporter, if not an
originator, of a higher culture, best fitted for a region of pasture
land, but better fitted than Mediterranean man to withstand cold. He
filled the spaces which Mediterranean man could not fill, and pressed
him hard in many places. Ultimately the forest region of Europe evolved
its own type, perhaps from some aberrant strain of Mediterranean man,
and this type, perfectly fitted to the forest regions, conquered the
north and west, driving Alpine man up to the hills, and largely
displacing Mediterranean man except where distinctively Mediterranean
influences prevailed.
To the east, as the European forest dies away into the steppes of Asia,
Nordic man can no longer compete successfully with Alpine man, and
diminishes in numbers and in strength.
Thus while in Germany the tendency is for the tall, fair longheads of
the north to dominate the short, darker broadheads of the south, further
to the east this same broad-headed race, under the banner of Panslavism,
strives, not unsuccessfully, to dominate the longheads of Finland and
elsewhere.
Thus below and beneath the warfare of race is the contrast of physical
conditions, which have produced the various types of man, no less than
of plants and animals, and from which man cannot fully emancipate
himself.
The New World was first colonised by Mediterranean man, but later all
the European races contributed their part to its peopling. When we add a
strong negro element in the southern United States, a remnant of the
original Indian population, and an infusion of eastern races, it is
obvious that the mingling of blood which has apparently produced good
results in Europe, is being carried out on a much more elaborate scale
across the Atlantic.
One other point may be touched upon. We have shown that the nations of
Europe are not races in the pure sense. But, at the same time, it may be
noted that in the western nations one or other of the two chief races
tends to predominate at the expense of the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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