DISTRIBUTION OF THE CAUCASIAN OR
WHITE DIVISION OF MANKIND
Original Home.—North Africa between Sahara and the Mediterranean.
Early Expansion.—To Europe, the Eurasian Steppes between the Carpathians and the Pamir, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran, or Persia, India, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Polynesia.
Later Expansions.—The Caucasian race has now spread, through colonization, over the whole world, but its proper region is Europe, western Asia, and the northern strip of Africa Nine-tenths of the people of Europe belong to the Caucasian family, the other tenth consisting of the Turks, the Magyars (in Hungary), the Finns, the Laplanders, and the tribe called Samoieds in the extreme northeast of European [276] Russia. In Asia, the Caucasians include the Arabs, the Persians, the Afghans, and the Hindus. In Africa, the Caucasians are spread over the whole north, from the Mediterranean to the south of the Sahara Desert, and to the farthest border of Abyssinia as well as to the greater portion of South Africa. In North and South America three-fourths of the people are now Caucasian. In Australia and New Zealand the Caucasian colonists have almost extinguished the native races.
Religion.—The Caucasian race now supports various forms of Christianity in Europe, America, and their Colonies; Buddhism in India; Mohammedanism in Central Asia, Siberia, Turkey, Arabia, North Africa, Irania, India, Malaysia. Originally nature-worship was more pronounced than the cult of ancestor-worship. The Egyptians did not worship but embalmed the dead. The chief gods of the Semites were those of the sun and moon; and those of the Aryans were Dyaus, Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Saturn, etc., all personified elements of the upper regions which later became the basis of extensive systems of mythology. Later these forces were symbolized in wood or stone, which led to idolatry—that is, the worship of the image itself, which still persists among the uneducated in some parts of Christendom. The belief in magic, demons, witchcraft, omens, ghosts and allied superstitions was also very prevalent.
Out of the general polytheism were slowly evolved various shades of monotheism, whence arose the historical religions of the West, such as Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism, while crass polytheism persisted in the East—Brahmanism in India, degraded forms of Buddhism in Ceylon and elsewhere. Intermediate between monotheism and polytheism was the Persian religion, which refers light and all good to Ormuzd and his host of angels, night and all evil to Ahriman and his host of demons. Although already denounced by Isaiah, whose Jehovah is the one source of all things, this twofold principle no doubt found its way into the early Christian teachings.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE MONGOLIC
OR YELLOW DIVISION
Original Domain.—Probably the Tibetan tableland.
Early Expansion.—Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, Mesopotamia (?). The earlier Mongolians were extremely migratory, but the more settled tribes developed into the later Japanese, Chinese. Burmese, Siamese, and other peoples in the southeast and east of Asia; and the native tribes of the Siberian plains. The wandering tribes developed into the Turks, Magyars (Hungarians), Finns, Laplanders, and Samoeids, of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America.
Religion.—Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note of Mongolian religions. The worship of spirits extended both to the disembodied human soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent form) and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people earth, air, water, the celestial and underground regions. Although nominal Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live in terror of malevolent spirits, and the Annamese scrupulously observe “Roast-pig Day,” as they call their All-Souls Day, by littering the graves of the dead with scraps of victuals. Among the Siberians this spirit-cult takes the form of Shamanism, in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is the “paid medium” of communication between his dupes and the invisible good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the official Lamaism; the Eastern Siberians are Bear-worshipers; and the Polynesians have deified both the living and dead members of their dynasties.