Mongoloid Race

Mongoloid Race

Mongoloid /ˈmɒŋ.ɡə.lɔɪd/ refers to populations that share certain phenotypic traits such as epicanthic fold and shovel-shaped incisors and other physical traits common in most of Asia (including Central Asia, South Asia, North Asia, etc.), the Arctic, the Americas and most of the Pacific Islands. In terms of population, they are the most dominant race - more than one third of human race.

The word is formed by the base word "Mongol" and the suffix "-oid" which means "resembling," so therefore the term literally means "resembling Mongols." It was introduced by early ethnology primarily to describe various central and east Asian populations, one of the proposed three major races of humanity. Although some forensic anthropologists and other scientists continue to use the term in some contexts (for instance in criminal justice in order to serve the medicolegal community that still operates on archaic racial concepts), outside of those contexts the term mongoloid is now considered derogatory by most anthropologists due to its association with disputed typological models of racial classification. Asian proponents of the same or similar concept have used the term East Asian race to refer to people of East Asian descent that only include people from Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, which makes up only a section of the Asian people.