Sop said: "Deepak said:''BEcause at the end of the last ICE age people were separated by insurmountable regions -- Negroids were separated from Caucasoids by the SAhara''

Sopdet responds: What about the Sahara during the Neolithic period when it was once more lush than today? From all studies I have read most of the Sahara up to drying around 3200-2500 B.C. was mostly negriod.

People that are still negriod live in the Saharan Oasis like the Haratin. Any comments on this?

Deepak responds: The division of 'races' is a lot more recent -- Afroids, Caucasoids and Mongoloids are not separate species. Furthermore, the Afroid branch is a misnomer as Ethiopians, San (Bushmen) differ from West African Negroids quite substantially.

The Negroid groups in W Africa did not move out until well into the common era, and when they did, they moved into the South and east as Bantu tribes.

The Ethiopians always had contact with their relatives in Egypt and tenuous contact with the Caucasoid regions in the Middle East and India.

The negroid tribes in the SAhara are comparatively recent migrants to that desert land.