Man In The Modern World

MAN IN THE MODERN WORLD
the result can best be ascribed to the vivifying effects of mixture and
culture-contact. Indeed, where the Nordic type is most prevalent, in
Scandinavia, there is no evidence of any ancient civilization having
been attained at all comparable to that of the Near East, North Africa,
India, China, the Mediterranean, or the Aegean. In more modern
times the greatest achievements of civilization have occurred in regions
of the greatest mixtures of types—Italy, France, Britain, and Ger-
many, to mention only four nations. In all countries of " mixed races "
it is rare to find pure Nordic types. The great bulk of the population
will contain hereditary elements derived from many original sources.
In the highly complex populations of Britain or Germany the pure
Nordic type, if it ever existed, is quite irrecoverable, for the popula-
tion as a whole is an inextricable mixture. The Nordic type may be
held up as an object of policy or propaganda, but this ideal is genetic-
ally quite unattainable, and will not affect the biological realities of
the situation.
Furthermore, when we look into the facts of history, we find it far
from true that men of pure or even approximately Nordic type have
been the great leaders of thought or action. The great explorers of
Britain displayed initiative, but hardly one of them was physically of
Nordic type: the majority of the most celebrated Germans, including
Goethe, Beethoven, and Kant, were medium or round-headed, not
long-headed as the Nordic type should be. Napoleon, Shakespeare,
Einstein, Galileo—a dozen great names spring to mind which in them-
selves should be enough to disperse the Nordic myth. The word myth
is used advisedly, since this belief frequently plays a semi-religious
role, as basis for a creed of passionate racialism.
"Race-mixture" is Beneficial
From what has been said, it will be clear that "race-mixture" has
in the past been beneficial. The British contain strong Nordic and
Eurasiatic elements, with a definite admixture of Mediterranean
types. In the Germans there is a very large Eurasiatic element which
includes the Slavonic, while hereditary elements from the Mongoloid
peoples have crept in via Russia. Jews entered Germany in the first
Christian centuries—long before many of the German tribes had
emerged from what is now Russia—and it is quite possible that every
man who to-day calls himself a German had some Jewish ancestors.
In France the population is largely Alpine, especially in the centre,
but there is a strong Nordic admixture in the north and a prevailing
Mediterranean element in the south. The Jews are of mixed origin,
and have steadily been growing more mixed. America is proverbially
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