The People and Where They Live
Without people there would be no history. There are about 2,000,000,000 people on the earth today. Nobody ever took a census of all of them, but we know that their distribution over the earth's surface is far from even. China, Japan, and India, for instance, have very many people in proportion to their area, while the great deserts, jungles, and icy wastes are almost uninhabited.
Though no two people are exactly alike, there are great groups whose physical characteristics are similar. We call them races. Students do not all agree as to the origin of these races or the best way to classify them. The easiest method is by color.
The white or Caucasian race has been the most active in human development. Its original home was in northern Africa, western Asia, and Europe. Later it spread to the New World.
The white race itself is subdivided into many smaller groups. one such distinction is on the basis of gorups related in language. The Hamitic peoples include the ancient inhabitants of northern Africa--Libyans and Egyptians. The Semitic peoples live din western Asia and embraced the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs. The Indo-European, sometimes called Aryan, peoples include the Hindus, Greeke, Romans, Germans, English, Slavs, and other related peoples. (213 words)
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